Dev blog #188

Hello everybody,

Today we have a small surprise for you. But we aren't its authors: it was made by an enthusiast from the Netherlands, Neeraj =BlackHellHound1= Bindraban. Neeraj turned out to be the biggest enthusiast among the Soviet WWII aircraft skin artists since he was the first to finish the entire path of re-texturing an aircraft in 4K. Not only he remade the skins in 4K, he also made many corrections to the base textures of the IL-2 mod. 1943. He started his work as early as June 2017 and finished it only now, since it was a lot of work to redraw all this in 4K to achieve the new level of detail:

All panel lines, hatches, rivets, etc. in 4K detail

Dirt and wear layer

Texture alpha channel that governs matte effect, reflections and glint

Bump texture that visualizes small surface details

Bump texture alpha channel that governs the damage visualization

Damage texture that shows bullet holes, raptures and other visible surface damage

15 existing and new paint schemes

Here are some screenshots showing the new look from the IL-2 mod. 1943 cockpit:

... new damage look:

... and new skins that you'll get together with a ton of other improvements and additions in the update 3.001:

Neeraj became a trailblazer in converting the entire set of aircraft textures and skins to 4K resolution and encountered difficulties all the pioneers face. He managed to overcome all these difficulties and hopefully other enthusiasts will follow, helping to take the visual clarity of various aircraft to the new level.