EDITORIAL NOTES "This simulator was in development for more than 3 years. It was the serious and hard work of aviation engineers, designers, programmers and real pilots - the staff of 1C:Maddox Games. We were in constant contact with the players community during the development period and tried to implement as many player's suggestions as possible to try to satisfy all user groups. The work is now finally complete. We would like to express our thanks to the thousands of players who helped and supported us during those years. We are also very grateful to all the pilots that were involved in the long tests of the flight models. Finally, we would like to say many thanks to our beta testers, who helped us to eliminate any bugs." Oleg Maddox, Lead Designer of IL-2 Sturmovik. "I was a pilot at the 'Bundeswehr' and had the opportunity to fly a rebuilt variant of the ME-109. After testing IL-2 for many hours I have to say that a new generation of flight simulators is born. IL-2 has the best flight models that I have ever seen in a flight simulator. It is not only the best, it is very close to the real thing. Also the graphics and the damage model are amazing...with IL-2 you feel like you are flying in a real WWII surrounding. I say such words about a flight Simulator for the first time, IL-2 is really fantastic." Andreas Preusse, Pilot, Germany. "It has been an honour for me to be involved in testing this product. I am one of the few people in the world who realises the amount of effort and dedication that went into this sim - and I'm nevertheless amazed by the results. I think a combination of the IL-2 team's engineering knowledge, real-world flying experience, passion for history and most of all complete devotion to perfection have created something more than a sum of all the parts. IL-2 takes flight simulators to a whole new level. It's the first sim that I enjoy flying more than real planes." Ilya Shevchenko, Private Pilot, USA. "For me, IL-2 is a very impressive flight simulator. It brings the feeling of aerial combat very close to real life, as opposed to other sims I've played. It is almost frightening how real the graphics and the flight models are. I also admire how one can now experience everything in front of the computer, from air combat to bomber escort. I almost feel like I'm an active fighter pilot with the German Luftwaffe again. For me, IL-2 represents the most realistic flight simulator ever made, mostly because of the German fighters and the feeling of air combat." Georg Adam, Lieutenant in the German Luftwaffe, WWII. "Every WWII computer flight simulator I've seen or flown has been more game than simulator. Il-2 is the first one that looks, feels and sounds like the real thing.I've never seen a flight simulator that made you feel like you were really a ground attack/fighter pilot till I flew IL-2. Now when my Grandsons ask what I did in WWII I'll just sit them down in front of the computer and let them see for themselves." LT. Chuck Walters. P-47 pilot E.T.O 1943/44 1 1 GENERAL FEATURES: 1. Fly 31 types of Russian, German and American aircraft. See them in different camouflage and paint schemes for different times of the year. 2. Fly as pilot or rear gunner. 3. Choose between realistic and simple flight models with many adjustments to various realism settings. 4. See 40 other types of aircraft engaged in large-scale air battles (with camouflage paint schemes changing from summer to winter). 5. Engage in air-to-air and air-to-ground battles. 6. Destroy any ground object, such as buildings, bridges, airfields, etc. 7. Play quick missions using full mission parameter settings. 8. Play different types of single missions. 9. Play campaign missions and track your career (with ranks and awards). 10.Fight against intelligent AI opponents. 11.Play two different multiplayer modes: dog-fighting or cooperative missions across a LAN or the Internet with dedicated servers for online play. 12.Multiplay: up to 32 players in dogfight and 16 players in cooperative missions. Use custom paint schemes, squadron nose art, numbering on wings and national markings for each single plane. 13.Record a flight track of your flights and edit these tracks. Then play and enjoy your track files or send them to others (the Internet sim community can use these to confirm their online wins/kills). 14.Use network and Internet voice communications for multiplayer sessions. 15.Build new missions and scenarios with an easy-to-use mission builder. Create missions for single or multiplayer sessions. 16.Play new scenarios designed by other players. 17.Use new plane sets and new scenarios from free and/or commercial add-ons, designed by original developers after the release of the sim. 18.See aircraft and ground unit graphics of an exceptionally high quality. 19.See massive air and ground battles between German and Russian airplanes and tanks. 20.See realistic dynamic damage modeling. 21.See realistic 3D environments, including terrain, sky, unique clouds and weather conditions. 22.See realistic smoke, explosions, fire and other special effects. 23.Hear absorbing radio exchanges. 24.Compatible with a wide variety of 3D sound cards or drivers (Aureal 3D 3.0 or EAX 1.0, EAX 2.0). CONTENTS EDITORIAL NOTES GENERAL FEATURES INSTALLATION HARDWARE SETTINGS TUTORIAL BEFORE YOU START PILOT ROSTER CONTROLS VIEW OBJECTS PLAY TRACK TRAINING SINGLE PLAYER PILOT CAREER QUICK MISSION BUILDER MULTIPLAY FULL MISSION BUILDER GAME GLOSSARY List of Reference and Recommended Literature CREDITS SPECIAL THANKS TECHNICAL SUPPORT 1 3 4 4 14 40 41 42 43 44 45 45 46 63 65 70 81 83 84 86 87 2 3 Minimum system requirements: PII 400, 128 Mb RAM, 3D Accelerator. Recommended system: PIII 600 or faster, 256 Mb RAM, 32-bit 3D accelerator with 32 Mb RAM or higher. Overall quality will depend directly on the user's processor speed and 3D graphics accelerator. VIDEO 1. Driver - Driver and video mode setup. These settings are similar to the internal Il-2 Video Modes dialog. See the corresponding section concerning in-game menus below for a description. 2 INSTALLATION 1. Insert the IL-2 CD in your CD-ROM drive. The Autorun menu should start automatically. If you disabled Autorun for your CD-ROM, you may need to run the Install procedure manually (using the Windows Explorer) from the CD. 2. Left-click the "Install" button on the displayed Autorun menu. 3. Follow the installation program's instructions to complete the setup. In case of any problems, the installation will stop and notify you of the nature of the matter. You can also remove (uninstall) the game from your hard drive either from the Autorun menu, or by clicking the Start button, and selecting Programs / Ubi Soft / IL-2 Sturmovik / Uninstall. 3 HARDWARE SETTINGS Once the installation is complete, the Setup program starts automatically. The program enables you to select the correct settings for your video driver, video card, sound and input devices. In order to do this, you need to know at least the basic hardware types of the devices installed on your PC. 2. Video - Video driver adjustment. Used to adjust the game for correct operation with the appropriate driver. OpenGL/DirectX settings are defined separately. It is recommended that the latest video card drivers be installed. If you should have any problems, check your driver settings in Windows. These can be found in Control Panel/Display Properties/Advanced. If the game locks up or if the screen refreshes very slowly, check that other 3D applications or games (OpenGL/DirectX) start up and function properly. We advise against overclocking your video card or processor, or using non-standard settings for them. Otherwise, uninterrupted game functioning is not guaranteed! Settings ­ Drop-down menu for video card selection and setup. Special options in the Settings menu for detailed video driver adjustment. Safe - operating mode with minimum demand on the driver (the lowest quality and speed). Default - operating mode with average demand on the driver. Custom - detailed adjustment (at your own risk). 4 5 Texture quality - Texture resolution (see below). Texture mipmap filter - Quality of texture filtering. Texture Compression - Saves on memory considerably (the highest quality is obtained with S3TC). Detailed land textures - Use highresolution textures for landscapes (large amount of video memory and texture compression required). Use Alpha / Use Index - Use additional texture formats. Polygon Stipple - Emulate shadow transparency in the absence of a Stencil Buffer. Dither - Controls dither mode for 16-bit modes. Use Clamped Sprite - Cuts down the number of polygons on sprite objects and effects. Draw Land by Triangles - Displays landscapes with simple triangles. Use Vertex Arrays - Reproduces geometry via vertex arrays. Disable API Extensions - Forbids the use of video driver extensions. Multitexture - For multitextures. Combine - Improved texture combining. Secondary Color - Used for fog and lighting. Texture Anisotropic Extensions - enables anisotropic texture filtering. Texture Compress ARB Extension - enables S3TC compression. 3. Video Modes - Choosing video modes Driver - Choosing between DirectX8/OpenGL drivers. Choose the driver that best suits your video card in terms of rendering speed and quality. Resolution - Choosing the screen resolution and color depth. Low resolution, e.g. 800x600x16 is recommended for earlier video cards, 1024x768x32 and higher should only be used on newer cards. This setting has the greatest effect on quality and frame rate. Windowed/Full Screen - Switches the main game display between windowed or full screen mode. Only full-screen mode is currently recommended. Attempt Stencil Buffer - Utilize stencil buffer. The Stencil Buffer is used to switch over to translucent shadows, etc. It mostly works in 32-bit modes. It usually produces a dramatic drop in the frame rate on a number of older video cards.Recommended for GF3. Apply - Apply new settings and return to the previous menu. Back - Return to the previous menu. 4. Video Settings ­ Graphic Settings. This dialog box is used to define quality and efficiency. The result of the settings depends on the video settings in the IL2 Setup (i.e., maximum quality is achieved with maximum video settings and when your video card supports a maximum number of options). Simple ­ Move to simplified settings Very Low/Low/Medium/ High/ Excellent Settings ­ Choose between overall quality: minimum to maximum. Apply ­ Apply new settings. Back ­ Return to previous menu. Custom ­ Go to detailed settings. Texture Quality ­ Texture resolution. Influences the amount of memory taken up by textures and the game in general. You can also use texture compression to reduce the memory used. Visibility Distance ­ Visibility distance for objects. Objects Lighting ­ Quality of object lighting. Objects Detail ­ Detail of object geometry. Landscape Lighting ­ Landscape lighting and shadows from objects. Landscape Detail ­ Landscape detail (forest/trees/terrain/geometry). Cloud Detail ­ Cloud visualization distance (their complete shutoff can be blocked in network play). 6 6 7 SOUND SETUP Once the installation is completed, a separate IL2Setup configuration program will start up. You can also use this program for a more detailed adjustment of hardware settings (at your own risk). The easiest way to adjust the sound is to choose from existing configurations. Please choose your sound card from the list. If it does not figure in the list, follow the instructions below: If your card supports 3D sound hardware acceleration or you are unsure about it, choose Minimal or Maximal settings. If your card does not support 3D sound hardware acceleration or you experience sound-related problems, choose No hardware acceleration in accordance with the OS you are using. If you want to adjust all the settings yourself, choose Custom settings. The options in this dialog box reuse those in the game's sound menu (see below) with the exception of: Disable hardware voice manager - select this option if you have an accelerated sound card and the sound occasionally fades away and disappears. Disable streams - select this option if there are gaps in the sound. However, you will not be able to use the network telephone or listen to music. Disable statics - select this option if the sound effects are out of sync with the image. Audio input - devices used for the input of signals from the network telephone mike. DirectX required. "None" switches the telephone off. Enable full duplex - this option should be selected. MAIN IN-GAME SETTINGS Adjusted in the Sound Setup->Audio menu. This menu is used to adjust the main sound settings. "Sound engine" switch If you have a sound card based on Aureal Vortex chips, use Aureal3D. In all other cases, use DirectX. To switch off the sound, use Disable sound. Caution! If you have switched on the A3D mode and your card uses a c ...