2026 Roadmap
Part 1
[p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/4471395/6392f8d23786e720b3ae9affc6cd13caa4e94113.png"][/img][/p][p]Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, let’s review what we will be working on. Please note that some items will not be released until after 2026.[/p][p]Dynamic Campaign. Much of the remaining work involves AI aircraft improvements on both a strategic and tactical level. This ranges from logical construction of strike packages based on the target, available resources, and enemy defenses, to more tactical concerns, such as understanding package attack timelines, responses to air and ground-based defenses, and actions to take due to losses and a changing mission environment.[/p][p][/p][p]Closely tied to this is the design, implementation of both a post-early access Dynamic Campaign Creation tools to devise your own campaigns, but also the client-side user interface that will allow players to select and view fragmentation tasks from the Air Tasking Order (ATO), set strategic objectives manually or automatically, view the strategic disposition of forces and resources, and configure your flight and DTC.[/p][p][/p][p]The ground combat element of the Dynamic Campaign is also undergoing extensive AI development which includes ground force interactions in attack and defense, the correct use of artillery within large formations, inclusion of the morale system that factors the level of losses that could initiate a retreat or rout.
[/p][p]In conjunction with the development, internal testing is ongoing at various scales with different ground and air force compositions across all DCS maps. From small-scale confrontations along borders with aviation support, to full-scale conflicts utilizing all available forces, both the strategic and tactical AI and interface are in deep development and testing. [/p][p][/p][p]This effort has been underway for approximately five years, and substantial progress has been made. Despite taking much longer than we ever expected we are meeting our expectations and raising the bar from our initial design specification.
[/p][p]Vulkan and Multithreading Improvements. Vulkan API work is very much in late stage development and will permit us to take advantage of technologies such as frame generation and later versions of DLSS and FSR. Moving to the Vulkan API will also allow DCS to operate on more than just Windows PCs.[/p][p][/p][p]While we’re actively developing the Vulkan backend, we’re also expanding ray tracing support. By 2026, we plan to first roll out ray tracing in cockpits and then gradually extend it across all of DCS. Completing the transition to Vulkan not only unlocks modern rendering technologies but it also gives us the flexibility to implement aggressive optimizations for terrain, 3D models, and visual effects.
[/p][p]Additionally, we’re investing in manual VRAM management and granular resource streaming. This ensures that DCS stays within strict memory limits without relying on OS-enforced GPU resource evictions. As a result, we will have fewer stutters and lag spikes (even in large-scale missions or on systems with limited VRAM) alongside dynamic visual quality adjustments tailored to your hardware.[/p][p][/p][p]All in all, 2026 is shaping up to be an exciting year for cutting-edge graphics features and major performance upgrades.
[/p][p]Regarding multi-threading, this effort is now complete for the graphics side, but there are more simulation side tasks to complete. However, some of these specific engineers are currently also assisting with improved logistics, AI, improved ground unit behaviour, and other tasks. They will return to the simulation side of multi-threading once some of these more pressing matters based on community feedback are addressed.
[/p][p]Improved Weather. This important aspect of DCS still requires work specifically to towering clouds, more realistic turbulence, and weather fx. Due to substantial changes in how we render graphics, we could not advance these features in 2025. However, once staff is available to return to these tasks, we will update you on all progress made.
[/p][p]Improved Explosions and Visual Effects. We are currently working on substantially improving the variety and realism of all our types of explosions including airburst effects, napalm, fragmentation effects and damage types. We will be rolling out new fx on an ongoing basis throughout 2026 and beyond.
[/p][p]New Terrain Navmesh. New navmesh technology that was developed for the Dynamic Campaign will provide AI improved ground unit pathfinding, even in dense object populated areas. This will allow us to address long standing issues of pathfinding in urban areas. This new navmesh can be generated dynamically and work within the DCS engine to build a mesh for the chosen area, or for whole map, depending on performance considerations. It is currently in the final testing phase.
[/p][p]New Air Traffic Control and Other Radio Communications. A highly requested feature has been a much more realistic, easy-to-use, and more realistic sounding radio system. Aside from the recent Petrovich and George interfaces, much of the DCS radio environment has relied on outdated nested windows, simplified radio dialogs and options, and human-recorded voice over lines that can be difficult to amend. We have developed a new design of the radio interface for all radio participants. This includes ATC, AWACS, Tanker, JTAC, Flight, etc. that are loosely based on the George interface. We are also testing and evaluating new AI voice-over options that will allow us to rapidly amend voice dialogs. We are working closely with subject matter experts to create an authentic radio environment specifically for the combat environment with a deep focus on pure military dialog which is substantially more economical than in the civilian ATC world.
[/p][p]DCS Voice Chat will also see further improvements including the ability to add radio stations to any AI bot or map object and communicate with them using Voice Chat and adding a lightweight radio client that will allow direct connection to DCS servers.
[/p][p]Mission State Save. Mission State Save was introduced in 2025, and we are continuing its improvement. While making an exhaustive save of the entire mission state is a monumental task given the complexity of our simulation engine, we opted to address the most popular demand and save the most relevant aspects of the mission data. This includes ground unit and aircraft positions, their operational status and waypoint coordinates, etc. We have already delivered most of the community-requested API functions. Next on our list is to add Advanced Waypoint parameters to the saved data and we expect to finish this work soon. With this update, Mission State Save will store all waypoint parameters that can be set in the Mission Editor or via the scripting API, resulting in AI units retaining their waypoint rules and restrictions in the saved mission.
[/p][p]Stay tuned for next week as we delve into the second part of our roadmap newsletter.[/p][p][/p]
