Graphic Settings
The screenshot below shows my latest graphic settings of IL-2. Note that I went more or less for fidelity and not ideal spotting settings. Goal is to make the game look nice.
These settings were used when I was/ or am flying on a 2D screen: Since Feb 2024 I migrated to VR. See the corresponding section for that (WIP).
Biggest Performance drains are:
MSAA
Preset (High, Ultra are demanding) (Mainly affects Textures and effects)
Shadows (SSAO!)
Camera Settings and fast Zooming
My camera settings aren’t that special. But make sure you disable the cinematic mode. That one comes with a nasty motion blur. Makes spotting difficult, doesn’t look that nice and probably costs performance. Another interesting setting is Smoothness, which is smoothing out your camera movement. Very nice to get a more stable experience. Might cause some nausea for some individuals. Movement inertia will result in a delay when the zoom button is pressed. The zoom speed will ramp up instead of being at full speed form the get go.
Note that “FOV change speed” is the slider you want to adjust to manipulate the speed of zoom.
However, the setting only applies to the “zoom in” Assignment within “Pilot head control”
“Pilot head: zoom” is an axis setting. Hence the speed of zoom is dictated by how fast you actually move the physical axis. if you bind it to a key, which IL-2 allows you do to, you get one predetermined zoom speed.
Controls
I have have created a PDF file with my – not so current – control layout. Needs a rework at some point. But the philosophy still holds true