Top products from r/battleofstalingrad

Welcome to Stalingrad, comrade. You've stepped into an very mature and difficult game. Luckily the community is very helpful, but not so much on the reddit forums. The game is DX9, which in layman's terms means that it's very CPU dependent game. You have an AMD CPU which the game is not optimized for; hence your fps issues. You can still try to adjust some settings to get better FPS though:
 
My recommendation:
Go to Options->
Camera->
uncheck cinematic view (will get rid of motion blur)
 
Go to Options->
Graphics->
Attempt to keep your resolution at 1080p (Don't go higher, as you won't be able to see targets at distance as well because they're smaller on your screen)
Uncheck SSO
Uncheck HDR
Distant Landscape Detail x1 (Experiment here as it'll allow you to see ground targets farther way, but also gives a hit to FPS at lower altitudes.)
Vync OFF (Unless you have screen tearing)
FPS Limiter NONE (Unless you have screen tearing)
 
This should help you with your FPS issues, ^^hopefully.
 
 
_____
 
If you'd like to fly together with others, join the official teamspeak for BoS. That info is here: http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/4802-official-teamspeak-server-bos-mp-now/
 
I also recommend you read Chuck's aircraft guide to help you get familiar with the planes:
https://drive.google.com/a/poteetisd.org/file/d/0B-uSpZROuEd3WV9zRFRwMDJVWGc/view
 
You can also watch Requiem's Air Combat Tutorials here:
https://www.youtube.com/c/TheAirCombatTutorialLibrary?gvnc=1
 
And since you're just starting out (I'm assuming you've never flown before because you just purchased this game, so take the below advice with as much salt as necessary), I recommend the more user friendly German planes... Having said that, the Russians need many more pilots, and I feel it's more rewarding to shoot down a German plane in the less friendly Russian planes. I personally fly the Lagg3, and IL2 the most. Either choice, German or Russian, be prepared to be shot down a lot before you make a "kill". The game is rewarding when you make it home alive after a successful sortie, not how great your KDR is.
 
As you increase in skill, you should join the flight nights. They are missions created by the community. They're much harder to fly because you have to stick with your wingmen, there's no map icons (or icons period), and you're given a task by your commander to complete for the week. You also only have one virtual life (for the week), and a limited number of planes. The cool thing about the Flight Nights is your success or failure determines how the next week's mission will go. Additionally, there are no AI planes, even though you're flying coop with your mates. The enemy planes are other players of various skill levels just like you and me. If I were to compare the Flight Nights with something, it would be similar to poker night with you and your buds, but virtually... and with planes.
Here's Friday Night Bomber Flights:
http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/23544-friday-night-bomber-flight-topic-temporal/
And Saturday Night Bomber Flights:
http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/20918-saturday-night-bombers-flight /
 
 
Good luck out there comrade!
Sketch
 
 
__
 
If you're interested in the history of the Eastern Front here are some reading suggestions -
Various Planes of the Eastern Front:
http://kplanes.tumblr.com/post/141672701850/k-planes-episode-96-barbarossa?is_related_post=1
 
The Yak's History:
http://kplanes.tumblr.com/post/108267224620/k-planes-episode-15-yakkity-yak?is_related_post=1
 
Various counts of the Eastern Front in English:
http://iremember.ru/en/
 
Kolyadin Victor Ivanovich:
http://iremember.ru/en/memoirs/airmen/kolyadin-victor-ivanovich/
 
Red Star Against Swastika (a great book!)
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Star-Against-Swastika-Eastern/dp/1853676497

Buy Nice or Buy Twice

BUT if your not sure this is a hobby you'll be into for the next ten years, IDK, I used a hotas x (40 dollars) for a long time with this and DCS and warthunder, I had to use joy2key though for IL2 to create modifier buttons, i did this so I could use my 1 hat for 4 different functions. DCS has this ability in game with their control setup.

Before you get any sticks or whatever, get TrackIR if you don't already have a head tracking setup, VR is also another option, but some people find it lacking currently with the lowered graphically fidelity or you may just get sick from it. Track IR is cheaper then VR by ALOT also.

You can get Natural Points TrackIR (get it with the LED Pro Clip, the hat clip is good but your hat brim will cut off your reflectors alot if you look around too far, with the LED you never loose tracking)

there's also cheaper tracking solutions that use ps3 eye cams and freeware software, checkout Delan Clip or Track Hat

If you know your going to be sticking around, go for the good stuff.

Get the Virpil VPC T-50cm grip and base with the desk mount. Not only will your shoulders thank you in the long run by being in a more natural position, you can use this as a center stick or side stick setup, they have a desktop version (Warbird BRD) coming out next month that is similiar to VKBs gunfighter which is a desktop or you have to mount it yourself

Video of Virpil MongoosT-50 Grip and Base/Gimbal with VKB Rudders and Warthog Throttle:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG4ifXUSPFk
https://imgur.com/67Kcavt
https://imgur.com/S05zjtM
https://virpil.com/images/blog/announcements/mt50cm/VPCMT-50CM_01.jpg

For Pedals, VKB T-Flights are great and accurate but no toe brakes (a real pain in the ass for german ww2 planes, but in IL2 bos you can treat them like russian planes anyway with differential breaking for the most part, i use the brake lever for braking in Il-2)


also can recommend MFG Crosswinds(these are more like real rudder pedals and feature toe brakes)
http://mfg.simundza.com/products

for a throttle, well the only "nice" throttle is the warthogs but thats about 10 years old now, but still pretty good, i hear some of the wiring can got loose and break off though a couple of years after use

Wait for Virpils throttle (comes out next month) which also mount to the desk mounts (the warthog does aswell with a plate adaptor they sell)
https://virpil.com/images/2018/02/06/MT-50Final_01.jpg

or you could thrustmasters new cheaper throttle
https://www.amazon.com/Thrustmaster-TWCS-Throttle-Controller-2960754/dp/B01L28LVUG

Have you looked at IL-2 Cliffs of Dover? That was the previous title that had a pretty messed up development. I think people run that fairly well on 560's or 660's and it has a pretty good online community from what I've read. There's a talented modding team (Team Fusion) developing a lot of optimisations to the game code (it was horrible on release) while slowly adding new content. It's a $6 download on Amazon and you can then download the free community patches/updates to the game. http://www.amazon.com/IL-2-Sturmovik-Cliffs-Dover-PC/dp/B004L5SJ4Y

The place to ask with regards to your specs would be the ATAG forum: http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/forum.php

Unfortunately though, in order to enjoy flight sims seriously you'll need both a better GPU and CPU, but probably more important is the CPU first. You could check for the bottleneck yourself by graphing your GPU's performance using GPU-Z and check CPU load using CPUID HWMonitor.

Also, Rise of Flight from the same developers is now free and Battle of Stalingrad/Moscow is using a "newer" (says the devs, but that's mostly with regards to the physics modelling of the modern aircraft, not the graphics) version of their Digital Nature engine. Fortunately that sim has a lot more graphics options customizable to see what kind of performance you might get in the future although 'some' say that the two sims are no longer comparable for performance tests. At the moment, Battle of Stalingrad only has preset graphics fidelity (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) and checkboxes for SSAO and HDR.

When you're ready to upgrade, definitely jump on the official BoS forums and get advice for hardware. Generally you want a high clockspeed and at least quad-core (or dual core multi-threaded) and a x60 or x70 Nvidia GPU or equivalent but it's probably best to see if we get any optomisations in the near future and then you can decide what kind of performance you want in-game or in whatever else you play.

One change I have noticed but it's possible it was always there is motion blur when turning your head in the game. Maybe this is the big fps-killer as of late? I'm not sure it can be disabled since we don't have customisable graphics options at the moment.

if you're flying DCS and BoS, I would suggest getting a HOTAS yes. The Logitech Extreme 3d Pro is somewhat a HOTAS and is very good but the Thrustmaster ones you listed are better but if you can afford this one, it'll be the right fit.


TrackIR is very much recommended but it's pricey. I suggest you try out flying first without it and see if you'd really want one. Using trackhats in your stick to look around is cumbersome after I had a TrackIR myself.

Thanks for the response, very helpful!

I've built some gaming pcs before, but I am a bit concerned about how demanding IL-2 is on a pc. Do you know if it's more demanding on CPU than GPU for example? I'm also pretty confident that this is the monitor he'll be using:

https://www.amazon.ca/LG-29UC88-B-UltraWide-Curved-Monitor/dp/B01DMPK6DU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519052338&sr=8-1&keywords=lg+29uc88-b&dpID=41fWzabG69L&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

I actually do have a HOTAS setup. I could totally seeing using the hat switch for piloting as you can just snap to positions to look around, however would you also use it for being a rear gunner where smooth and precise movements are needed?

As for a webcam I have a Logitech Pro C920, which after a little research looks like it's supported by the software you mentioned. I'll be sure to look into it as I know how convenient Track IR is for any flight sim.

Thanks for your response!

I would personally go for at least some sort of joystick. Expert servers won't allow mouse aim and it really helps to have something to control the plane that is more natural than a mouse-joystick.

After spending a fair chunk of money on different cheap joysticks I settled on this one http://www.amazon.com/Mad-Catz-V-1-Stick-PC/dp/B001MGNWDI It lasted me 2 years and still going strong. You won't get too many buttons with it, but the XY/twist axis are fairly accurate and not too noisy.

Opentrack allows you to set up your smartphone with gyro as a trackIR replacement. It won't give you translation, but there are a few tutorials on how to set it up so that you are still "looking over your shoulder" if you want to check your 6. Personally I prefer mouse look even in fighters.

> That airframe is so underrated. Or undernoticed. Dunno how to express that.

I think it has a bit to do with the Cold War. Only recently can people even find literature by Soviet pilots that are not written in Russian. And even then they are few and far between.

I just recently finished this book and can highly recommend it. It is apolitical despite the title and very humbly written by the pilot. But a unique perspective and something that gave me a whole new appreciation for the IL-2.