SvAF

...news bit reads (here)

The patch is ready! What we have today is a DX10-only alpha. DX9 support is specifically removed.

>>>>>>>If you are running DX9, do not apply the patch!<<<<<<

The main purpose of the alpha is to find and squash any remaining or new bugs, especially crash bugs. The most common of the infamous launcher crashes have been fixed, but a few very hard to catch bugs remain. On average, a full day of flying causes about 0.8 crashes, and our internal testing has not yet provided the crash logs needed to zero in on the issue.

...reads as follow

We're very glad to announce that the beta patch is largely done. It's going into wide internal testing today, which will last through the weekend and probably a couple of days more. After we make sure nothing is amiss, we'll make the beta patch available to everyone

We're ready to release details on some of the improvements you'll see in the patch. Here we go:

Performance
We've performed a huge amount of work improving both average and minimum FPS in the game. Most recommended-spec machine will see a roughly double average FPS and a significant reduction in the micro-freezes that had previously plagued the game. Their frequency, duration, and

... reads as follows...

Good day gentlemen!

Most of us are busy preparing the beta version of the upcoming patch. We did make a whole lot of FPS benchmarking, and the great news is, it’s all in line with the previously announced numbers. The performance increase is very significant.

Unfortunately we could not do any benchmarks on the famous Black Death track. We know everyone’s been asking about it. The track however is currently broken due to changes in other unrelated parts of the code. We probably won’t get the old version to run anymore and have to make a new Black Death to go with the new patch.

So here is is:

Hello everyone,

First of all, let’s talk about the upcoming patch.

We haven’t talked about our flight model for some time. We haven’t been idle however. Not only are we fine-tuning plane performance, we’re making some very deep changes to the underlying core of our physics code.

We are completely rewriting collision and landing gear, while also making other elements of the flight model more complete and precise. Control surface behavior and reaction has been significantly improved. Refined transverse velocity calculations in relation to aircraft performance.

So... today's update was a short one with a little bit on everything we want to know.

About the upcoming patch for Clod, with main focus a new graphics engine which seems to increase performance drastically, this little tidbit showed up on Russian sukhoi forum by luthier (in google english though ;) ):

So we try very hard to make it more habitable, believable landscape. With the patch, the main task - graphics - is almost ready, but, as always, for three days on this part of it, two on the other, five on this one. The problems were only with decals yes yes sprite transparencies, until we solve as collect, verify until - well, not next week for sure.

Then we finally got our hands on Clod airplane templates for those who wants to make skins.

Maddox Games seems to have taken up Friday Updates, partly for the work of fixing Cliffs of Dover and partly for the upcoming title that we guess is Battle of Moscow or similar.

First the results from a benchmark with the new graphics engine and then Luthier answers questions from the community:

Benchmarks on the BETA version of the new graphics. Testing FPS on the first British campaign mission. Max details. Old graphics – 74 FPS average. New graphics – 134 FPS average. i7-870, 4Gb RAM, GeForce GTX 570.

1. Will the new graphics engine have improved SLI/Crossfire performance? SLI currently gives minimal frames per second increase for many players and can introduce stutters.