Hello everyone!

At the end of November 2024, there was a game exhibition called RED Expo in Moscow, where the producers of 1C Game Studios talked about their projects, and Daniel Tuseyev talked in detail about the differences between the Korea project and the previous versions of the sim. Our sim IL-2 Great Battles was awarded as the best continuously supported game! At the Expo, Great Battles was playable in a VR booth created in cooperation with VIRPIL Controls, which provided two cockpits and control devices. In this update, we are publishing content from the Producer’s Report.

Today we would like to tell you about evolution and progress. The flight simulator genre, in which 1C Game Studios started as a company, is characterized by the fact that it utilizes unique technologies and approaches. Each flight simulator is a unique game and graphics engine with a long history, and our new project is no exception. Since 2006 we have been developing our own unique technologies for graphics and the game world, which already had two generations of its realization on the market — Rise of Flight 2009 and IL-2 Great Battles 2014. And now it’s time for a new generation of our engine and a new flight simulator created on its basis: "Korea. IL2 Series".

Let’s get to the main point, to the differences and innovations brought by the new engine and the new game. Let’s start with the game.

IL-2 Great Battles is dedicated to the events of World War II. It was the era when piston engines ruled the skies and had reached their peak by the mid-40s. We have succeeded in recreating this fascinating context very well, and it will be even more difficult for us to surpass ourselves.

We had no choice but to combine the creation of a new generation of game engines with the creation of a game dedicated to a new jet age in aviation history. Speed, power, the beginning of the atomic age — this is the context in which our new project is created.

Speaking of the game, it is necessary to mention such a component of it as user experience. In IL-2 Great Battles we were extremely focused on the functionality of the user interface, and we achieved a lot of success — many people noted the simplicity and ease of use of the game. At the time, our interface was probably the simplest and most user-friendly in the genre.

Since then, our studio has expanded significantly, and we’ve had some exciting new opportunities to develop new areas of user experience that are new to us. In "Korea", we took full advantage of the opportunity to promote not only utilitarian functionality but also the immersiveness of the interface. The game’s main menu is designed to visually immerse you in the spirit of the era even before you enter the cockpit of an aircraft.

The main menu as a whole is an additional game mode — the Museum — where the player can see descriptions and features of the recreated aircraft and vehicles, try out the aircraft in flight, and study their instrumentation. The style of the maps in the museum archive also aims to convey the spirit of the 1950s.

Immersion is not only about visual authenticity and atmosphere — it is also a way for any history enthusiast to immerse themselves in the game world without spending a lot of money on additional equipment. In "Korea" we are implementing support for gamepads without losing the quality of the physical model of the aircraft and its systems. Someone may say that this is impossible, but we manage it by implementing special flight stabilization systems, "assistants", which help to control the aircraft without dumbing down the flight model and physics. We also created a special "circular" menu for controlling aircraft equipment, and the design of the entire graphical interface allows you to navigate not only with the mouse and keyboard but also with the gamepad.

A development leap awaits our central game mode — Career. In Great Battles, it was "Pilot Career", where the player focused mainly on the pilot character, his achievements, and combat experience, even if he commanded a squadron. In Korea, the player will be in full control of an air regiment (or squadron), allocating available resources and personnel, and requesting new ones as needed.

As a unit commander, the player will be able to independently determine the day’s missions within the general orders of higher command.

Simulators have always stood on two pillars — physics and graphics. We have already talked about the development of physics in our Dev Brief videos #9, #10, and #14. Today we will look at the main changes in graphics.

The most important change is the transition to Physically Based Rendering — the display of object materials based on the physical model of light reflection. It was a forced step because, within the framework of the previous shading technology in Great Battles, we reached the practical limit of possible visual quality. Only the qualitative transition to the new shading and modeling technology allowed us to make a leap not only in visual quality but also in the realism of the game.

The development of graphics cards, the use of a new graphics API, and many other improvements to the graphics engine have all allowed us to push the limits of acceptable model detail. This is especially true for cockpit models, as this is what the player sees most of the time, so they should be as detailed as possible.

Of course, the increase in detail and quality of the models has affected all objects in the game. This can be seen by comparing the models of ground vehicles in Great Battles and in the Korea project — the screenshots speak for themselves and no further comment is needed here.

It’s time to improve the landscape visualization. New shading, new approaches to texturing, buildings, vegetation, new lighting model — all together it gives a new look. Airfields are receiving a completely new, much more realistic visual representation.

The genre of flight simulators has always been on the cutting edge of graphics technology — in some aspects competing with the best graphics engines in the world. For this reason, we have chosen the difficult path of a full transition to DirectX 12. It’s difficult to list all the advantages that such a transition has given us, so as an example, let’s compare a couple of landscapes. In the first comparison, you can see a new system of reflections in the water, as well as water transparency (partial visibility underwater), which in general gives a new, much more realistic visualization of the water’s surface. You can also see the atmosphere and atmospheric phenomena, now realized based on physical raytracing methods.

The second comparison compares the landscape of mountainous terrain in Great Battles and in the Korea project. Again, you can see the effect of the new water surface reflections, in this case dramatically enhancing the natural look of the mountain rivers. You can also see the new visualization of the forest area, where ray tracing technology is used to illuminate the volume of the crowns. The physical model of the atmosphere visualizes the haze very realistically, making the perspective very natural.

The genre of flight simulators has a long tradition of the most flexible system of game cameras, when the player has the opportunity to inspect any part of the game world and any object in it; consequently, much has been done to increase the visual quality of the image near the ground.

To demonstrate this again, let’s compare screenshots of similar views from Great Battles and Korea. As you can see, there is not a single element where the Korea project has not made significant improvements to the quality of the image. 3D tracks and crossings, grass, trees, buildings, poles, machine effects — you can see the progress in every element.

As part of the same task, the visualization of bombing results has been fundamentally improved. You can see that the Korea project has developed and used three-dimensional crater technology that follows the landscape and can form pits below the surface and mounds of ejected soil above. At the same time, they physically interact with other objects.

Finally, here’s a short video of a MiG-15bis in flight, as well as screenshots from today’s dev blog in full 4K glory.

Today’s story will also be released as a Dev Brief video. Thanks for your interest!