Team Fusion progress end of 2024

[TF_Soto]

TFS progress

Important information

Thank you for your patience and continued support of TFS and the Cliffs of Dover series. As has been announced, TFS and Fulqrum have decided to delay the release window for Fortresses and Focke-Wulfs – Dieppe.

There were several reasons for this.
- Significant bugs originating in the original Maddox game software caused a major bottleneck with our VR implementation. Most have recently been overcome and we work diligently to fix any remaining issues.
- Keeping TrueSKY up to date has proved more time consuming for our programmers than originally anticipated.
- We also acknowledge that some of our 3D team completed additional work with a competitor in the flight sim industry. Our workflow was affected but we have been able to recruit new members who have made a positive impact.

We realise we have an opportunity to capitalise on the market. Once again, the IL-2 Cliff of Dover series is the main European theatre combat flight sim in development. We believe we are uniquely placed to offer large-scale aerial battles, highly detailed clickable cockpits with engine management, and historical scenarios. We look forward to completing our project and offering it to the public.

The notion that no work has been done this year is mistaken. We can summarise our goals and progress below and in the attached video.

Major Goals

- Complete the long-awaited Visual Update/VR Implementation.
- Complete the Fortresses and Focke-Wulfs - Dieppe DLC.
- We also plan to transform our approach to communication. We have a public Discord ready to launch to encourage positive public engagement and to provide better updates about our progress.

Aircraft for TF 6.0

Active in production:

- Typhoon Mk IA/IB (complete and in game).
- Fw 190A-1/A-2/A-3 (externals complete awaiting import, cockpit WIP).
- B-17E (external complete awaiting import, cockpits WIP).
- Morane MS.406 AI (externals complete, awaiting import).
- P-51A (externals and cockpit WIP, two modelers working simultaneously).
- Spitfire Mk IX (externals have begun).
- Ju 88A and C (externals and cockpit have begun).
- Spitfire Mk Vc (adaptation of Spitfire Vb is WIP).
- Swordfish Mk I AI (externals WIP).

Awaiting assignment:
- Beaufighter Mk VI (minor changes to existing Mk I required with additional ordinance)
- Bf 109 G-2 (adapting from F-4, cockpit and external)
- Bf110F series (adapting from C model, cockpit and external)
- Wellington III (adapting from Wellington I, cockpit and external)

Aircraft for TF 6.5
- Lancaster B.I (3D model, external textures, cockpit WIP).

Ships and Vehicles

The below are in advanced stages of modelling:
- Artillery.
- Landing craft.
- Destroyers.
- Cruisers.
- Battlecruisers.

Environment

- The new 4K Dieppe map is progressing well. Landmarks, fortifications, and gun batteries are now emplaced along the coast of England and France. Currently, airfields are being brought up to their 1942 state, road placement is being updated, and new landmarks continue to be created.
- New Speedtree 8.42 vegetation systems successfully integrated. Shader work has been implemented at various distances, lighting conditions, weather, etc. Currently we are about to begin work on the new grass and small objects integration.
- New TrueSKY cloud and weather system upgrade progressing well. Multiple bugs originating with the Simul software has been fixed in consultation with their software engineers. Multiplayer synchronisation of clouds and the integration with the mission editor has also been fixed. Issues with particle rendering synchronisation are ongoing.
- Sunset/sunrise aspect improvements.
- Reflexion cube map also improved.

Technologies/programming/coding

- VR - small breakthrough. Bugs from the original game which caused crashes have been identified and fixed in our stripped down version. In the latest beta version, we have accumulated 41 hours of gameplay among all testers, with no crashes and smooth gameplay. The next stage is the re-introduction of the new visual elements one by one with testing at each stage to identify and eliminate any bugs which appear.
- A crash reporting tool system has been created for the closed VR Beta and in preparation for a public testing build.
- Mirrors refresh rate fixed and unpixellated, awaiting implementation.
- Flight and damage modelling underway for the new and updated types.

Singleplayer updates

- The Dieppe raid minute by minute is completed and awaiting implementation of new aircraft. 300+ missions crafted with high detail that recreate the entire Dieppe raid from 0445 to 2030 hrs, made to be accessible to all players with a tiered system of PC requirements – historical, medium, low, and VR.
- Single player campaigns new and updated. A B-17 campaign is complete and awaits the implementation of its namesake. New single missions based on the Battle of Britain and Battle of France are also in production. Additionally, existing campaigns are being brought up to date to work with the new map.
- Unternehmen Zerberus/Channel Dash missions to be assigned.

Sounds and Music

- New Dieppe music is completed and ready to be listened to on repeat!
- New aircraft sounds WIP.

AI Behaviour Improvements

- Improvements to player command of AI to be assigned.
- Improvements to AI return to base and threat reaction behaviours to be assigned.


​Message from Buzzsaw:

Hello to the Community

Team Fusion continues to make progress on our Visual Update/VR implementation, as well as our new TF 6.0 DLC, FORTRESSES AND FOCKE-WULFS – DIEPPE.  👍

Unfortunately although we did have every intention in meeting our hoped for release date...  due to circumstances beyond our control, the DLC will not be released in 2024.

The reason… a loss of critical team members. Primarily to competitors who can provide compensation in a more timely manner… unlike Team Fusion, these competitors have access to direct funding and can pay salaries up front, Team Fusion’s license does not allow that… we can only provide revenue share after publication. 

We have also lost members to simple attrition… TF members who find real life demands in the form of work pressures or family demands preclude them continuing their work. The good news is we have recruited multiple very talented new members into the team to replace those we lost, and these new members are now integrated and working on tasks.  However, it does take time to learn our complex 3D modeling systems and/or how to work with the CLIFFS source code and these new members have required some time to come up to speed... beginning with smaller tasks and learning.

As mentioned, we are continuing to make steady progress, obviously not at the pace we had hoped for, but we are still confident we will complete both the Visual Update/VR and TF 6.0. We will release updates and information on our progress as soon as we have material to present. At this point we will not announce a release date for either the VU/VR or TF 6.0, sufficient to say we will get them into the community’s hands as soon as possible. For those who might wonder… although we have looked carefully and in detail at the idea of an “Early Access” release, i.e. a release with incomplete content, this is not possible under the terms of our license.  Neither is the option of crowd-funding..

Thanks to all for your patience… Team Fusion remains committed to our work and the development of the CLIFFS game engine and new content.  👋

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