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19 July 2024 Dear Fighter Pilots, Partners and Friends, The DCS: CH-47F is almost ready for early access release. We have been using the additional time to fix issues and provide additional functionality, create more content, and test. With the “Hook” nearing early access release, we are in the process of creating instructional videos, the first of which is an introduction and a simple start procedure CH-47F Introduction and Cold Start tutorial. As we are now on short finals, don't miss the opportunity to take advantage of the 30% savings during the pre-order phase. We are currently developing a new variant of the AGM-12 Bullpup air-to-surface missile, as well as the GBU-8 HOBOS guided-bomb. Please read the details below. We have extended the DCS Summer Sale till the 21st of July, 2024 at 15:00 GMT. Please make sure you take advantage of these final summer savings this weekend and grab yourself up to a 50% discount across most of our aircraft, terrains, campaigns and more! Thank you for your passion and support. Yours sincerely, Eagle Dynamics DCS 2.9.6 Update and CH-47F Status The comprehensive DCS 2.9.6.57650 update introduced significant new content and changes across the platform. Based on the feedback and bug reports, we have been able to identify some key issues that we are working diligently to resolve in a hot fix and before launching the DCS: CH-47F. This includes, but is not limited to issues that some of you may have encountered with the new Launcher, multiplayer dynamic spawn, VR quad view support, controllers, and the module manager. Stay tuned for more news coming soon. In the meantime, please make sure to check out the Introduction and Cold Start video by Matt Wagner. To best understand what the DCS: CH-47F early access release will entail, and to get you started on learning this aircraft, we have released a draft of the DCS: CH-47F Early Access Manual. Enjoy! Weapons Development Progress AGM-12 Bullpup The Bullpup was one of the first mass-produced, guided air-to-surface missiles and entered service before the Vietnam war. It was a Manual Command Line of Sight, or MCLOS missile, which meant that the guidance was provided by the pilot through manual steering inputs. DCS currently features three variants of the Bullpup, the AGM-12A, the original 1958 variant for the Navy with a 250 lbs warhead and an Aerojet Mk 8 solid motor (initially designated ASM-N-7), AGM-12B, the 1960 improvement with a Thiokol LR58 liquid rocket motor (USN ASM-N-7a and USAF GAM-83A designations), and a 1964 derivative with a much larger warhead and an LR62 liquid rocket motor: the AGM-12C. 3D models were provided by Heatblur Simulations. All variants of the AGM-12 featured a canard, cruciform aerodynamic configuration and a bang-bang steering system stabilised through a 500°/s roll rate. In addition to the engine nozzle, the rear of the missile included a pair of tracking flares that burned with an increasing intensity over time. To improve the controllability of the missile, the bang-bang canard steering was modulated. Effectively the canards deflected in short pulses, whose length and frequency depended on both the angle of deflection and the rate and duration the stick was moved. A basic form of auto-trim was also used. One major limitation of the system was a tendency for the control axis to roll left because the roll rate increased during the deceleration to the transonic region. This was caused by delays in the control system. This was compensated for by adding a fixed offset to the roll gyro reading that did not depend on the actual roll rate. All these effects on the control system are fully modelled in DCS. Rockwell Homing Bomb System After the AGM-62 Walleye was introduced by the US Navy in 1967, the USAF awarded a contract for their own TV-guided bomb system to Rockwell. This resulted in a series of conversion kits for dumb bombs, dubbed HOBOS, or the Homing Bomb System. These kits consisted of an electro-optical nose seeker section, an aft control section, and a set of strakes running along the body of the bomb. The seeker and guidance used were similar to those on the AGM-62 and AGM-65, and it required the pilot and WSO to align the aircraft with the target using the seeker video feed and lock onto target contrast before release, proving to be difficult in practice. Different daytime electro-optical and infrared seeker kits were developed for different types of bombs, of which only the KMU-353A/B kit for the Mk-84 low drag bomb saw extensive combat use. This configuration, designated GBU-8/B by the USAF, was used from 1969 onward, and is featured in DCS. The 3D model is provided by Heatblur Simulations. GBU-15(V)/B Despite the low effectiveness of the HOBOS, Rockwell was again contracted to continue their guided-bomb development in 1974. The result was a modular system that Rockwell referred to as Modular Guided Weapon System or MGWS. This resulted in the GBU-15(V)/B family of guided-bombs, also known as the Electro-optically Guided Glide Bombs, or EOGB. Initially, two variants were developed: The GBU-15(V)1/B with a daylight seeker and the GBU-15(V)2/B with the same IR seeker as the one used for the AGM-65D. The configuration was similar to its predecessor, the GBU-8/B, with the Mk-84 also serving as a basis of this weapon. However it had a significantly larger set of “wings”, a more sophisticated guidance system, and an ability to communicate with the supporting launch aircraft through the AN/AXQ-14 datalink. These new features significantly expanded the envelope of the weapon at low altitudes compared to the GBU-8/B, and it allowed for employment without a line of sight to a target at the time of release. The weapon followed a 3-stage guidance logic: After a separation manoeuvre, the weapon entered midcourse mode where it would follow a lofted trajectory along the release course. After the WSO spotted and identified the target, they would point the seeker at it and switch the weapon to transition mode. It would then turn to target heading and manoeuvre to keep the seeker at a constant look-down angle, allowing the WSO to adjust the impact angle. Finally, the WSO would select terminal guidance mode in which the bomb would either be automatically guided into impact if locked on, or flown into the target manually. The GBU-15 is in development. Summer Sale Last chance to save As you may already know, we extended the DCS Summer Sale 2024 in order to apologise for the delay of DCS 2.9.6. Please enjoy the 50% savings across almost our entire range of modules. Shop now! Thank you again for your passion and support, Yours sincerely,

Quick update 2024

I think I got it removing this line seemed to do it. GT_t.WS_t.Type42_SeaDart.moveable = false But I also changed some names, so thanks Crazyeddie for the idea Or, I think it might have been coded without the booster before

I must note that despite the continuous updates of DCS, the problem of unit penetration has not yet been resolved. Is it that difficult to avoid it?

Chuck's Guide to the F-15E Strike Eagle is finally available! The page count is 900+ pages. *** Link: https://chucksguides.com/aircraft/dcs/f-15e/ *** This project was a roller coaster from start to finish. Two cockpits, many heavily-integrated systems modelled to an unprecedented depth, RAZBAM-gate, a community ever-hungry for anything Eagle-related... and much more. It was a difficult endeavour to say the least, but your shared excitement to see it all come to fruition is what kept me going throughout these last months of sheer insanity. Happy reading! Chuck

Hi @Heatblur, I've had the F-4E for almost 2 weeks now. I've gathered a lot of information material online and ordered a book about the F-4E. I also use YouTube as a source of information. I never wanted this module, I thought it was too complicated. Now I've succumbed to its charm. I have a lot of modules, but none captivates me as much as the F-4E. What you, Heatblur, have delivered here is phenomenal! Hats off to your development team. Personal note: I don't want to pretend what would have been the result if all the work had been put into the Panavia Tornado instead of the F-4E...

There is only so much I can do to implement the advanced weaponry. At the moment I'm happy that I even got the YJ-21 working after the last update. Until ED releases information of how to create ballistic missiles there isn't much I can do to improve it. With the DF21, make sure it has a clear and unobstructed view towards the target. That's also a workaround based on what's possible for modders in DCS.

I have been flying around for a week now, and being someone who likes to fly helicopters, this is what I'm seeing everywhere I fly in the S/W portion of the map. It's unfortunately a hodge podge of puzzle pieces stamped on top of satellite imagery. I own all of the DCS maps and I've never seen this before.

I was finally able to fly a portion of the SW map a short time ago, all of it below 1000 ft. Some of it on the deck. While there are issues, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw for an early release. Looking forward to jumping into other areas of the map as time allows.

Thanks for pointing out. I answered there. It is a known issue on some devices especially in missions with a lot of units. No need to remove the whole mod. Removing scripts always solved the issue. Only drawback is that the doorgunner won't work out. Btw. It happens with every script which uses a special function provided by ED in the hook environment. Tacview etc.

Sometimes I just get bored with X-Plane and go to DCS, sometimes backward. It's never been the case that I thought A was better than B and abandoned it. For those who like flight simulators the problem is ATC, which in DCS is very bad, but that doesn't stop me from flying without it. The procedures in DCS are very conventional and extremely primitive, so this is a problem. I won't even talk about how the tower allows you to takeoff - it's a far cry from realism.

Planning to do one more pass on the F-4 exterior and engine sounds. Just finished the F-14 sound update.

The F124 Sachsen Frigate is more or less done.

I've updated the coordinates in DCS Web Viewer. You can also draw and measure with the map tools. https://dcs-web-editor.github.io/dcs-web-viewer-deploy/?zoom=6&lat=34.488447837809304&lon=67.39013671875001

The most well known prop aircraft in Vietnam I can think of would be the Skyraider. Although I wouldn't say no to any of the other suggestions, the E-2C especially, and I'll add the B-26K Counter Invader as another option to continue the twin engine aircraft speculation trend. Looking forward to whatever it is.

Great newsletter! I'm happy to see that you take the issues of the latest patch seriously, (though I'm not that affected personally), and are working on a hotfix to be released before the Chinook. Great call! Thank you! Cheers, and have great weekend everyone! Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

News about the Mig-29A would be nice...

I am all about that CH-47. Gonna be fun.

A well known racing sim regularly releases new tracks and typically even if the track is of little personal interest they tend to raise the bar in terms of quality with each release, occasionally they go back and update the old tracks but in general the new ones are the best. I have kind of fallen in the trap of buying each new map in DCS in the belief the latest will be the greatest. Also to see what new third party developers bring who the party in some cases. I share Mark’s disappointment to some extent with the recent releases.

I noticed that these instruments in the screenshot below are missing from the early access manual. Will this come during early access or has it been removed? Thank You!

Вообще-то, многопоточная сборка работает гораздо быстрее, чем однопоточная. Если конкретно у Вас это не так - потрудитесь привести более полные данные по железу и миссии.

I see the frustration from everyone IF they thought this was a completed release, that seems to be the mention time and time again stating the FAQ mentioned that it's a final release of SW during an EA of an overall map. My thoughts of the FAQ was feature complete meaning locations and layout with structures, being early access, meaning not finished as a full release. So to clarify, the SW is final release... or EA? I know the overall map is EA, but is SW EA? I genuinely thought SW was EA and any issues located, as they requested, would still be worked on in the future for updates. If SW is final release in it's current state and no further work will be done, then it's a shame, meaning only the parts that look good will look good. If SW is EA, then I don't get the uproar. EDIT: Just read the other post that @Schlingel mit Kringel quoted by ED. Guess my assumption was right. Too many people jumped to conclusions too soon. The future IS bright. I stand by this purchase and continue to enjoy the experience.

question: Im changing options in the preset editor, where did the save icons go? yeah, you should ditch Avast. They had some legal issues recently that got them into a bunch of trouble. not only that, but Windows Defender works just fine if not better.

ed watching ch from other room

Proton mail did it! Thanks! Glad to hear! Good to be here guys, I've been watching it all from far away, couldn't sign up until now, finally did. I'm here to listen and get better for you.

You can’t explain the Fidelity Paradox to the Hard Core Sim players. They always want fidelity over usability, and they’ll always complain about the problems that fidelity causes them. It’s a core reason game devs wholesale abandoned Flight Sims at the turn of the century. Players are much more accepting of Simulacra in other game genres to enhance playability.

It’s actually a game. Regardless, these “sims” will always lack the physical feedback/cues that a pilot would experience in the real world. So… having things like audible cues that might not be exactly realistic can be a good thing to help make up for the gaps!

This skin continues the lifespan of Phantom II F-4E-60-MC, S/N: 74-0644 last seen at Seymore Johnson AFB NC when it was with the 335th TFS (”Chiefs”), 4th TFW. It went through aerial target conversion to a QF-4E drone, No. AF262 by BAE Systems at Mojave CA in June 1991. It was operated and maintained by the 82d Aerial Targets Squadron at Tyndall AFB FL. It's final day is listed as "Expended 09-NOV-07". Submitted to User Files 7/18/24

I actually appreciated the efforts ED is doing to re-make systems that were working good enough for the sim standards, like the choice to implement a INS+GPS more deeply. Instead, this radar false returns, seems a step back to an ancient, well known, philosophy: all hat and no cattle. Seeing how much is WIP, it's a feature force pushed into the update in a state that can be titled only with: "fake returns", further explanations are quite fancy given that the user can't be convinced in any way this is not a fake graphical effect on the radar screen. You move the radar, nothing changes, you turn off the radar, nothing changes. I just give my two cents: we don't need candies and fancies, just pay more attention to the DEEP details that can make this sim good. Start checking the gimbals of the antenna on the scan pattern when azimuth is set to A1 and the aircraft is maneuvering with medium pitch angles, scan volume positioned on the gimbal limit and you roll the aircraft. If someone in the team only have the patience to do proper tests they will notice something wrong. A problem that only the F-16C has, but a lot of people just don't care because most of pilots don't use A1 and use the radar while leveled. This... months are passing and still we don't have a proper functioning AUTO MLC Filter. At the current patch its forced on, so it filter all even in lookup(no clutter) scenarios. I think going on with decorations while these and more core radar issues are still there its a waste of time.

Hi, we have the suspicion that the AMEDEE (the internal curve of the pitch system) is excessive in this new update and we are working on toning it down, but we don't think that this non-linearity is a bug.

Patrol Base Wishtan circa 2008. South west of FOB Jackson in Sangin, further west on pharmacy road than PB Tangiers. All of these templates are hidden. To reveal them on your map you will need to go to map options in the mission editor and unhide blue units! Download link; https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3339585/

I find DCS improperly models engine and wind noise. Wind noise should completely drown out engine noise at high speed. Wind noise is also a direct clue to airspeed and is absent in DCS. I find engine noise is louder than wind noise in DCS Individual sliders for wind and engine would be welcome additions to overcome this

I've come across some new strange behavior when it comes to ground unit radars, and I think it's all across the field. When a SAM system and its radar are facing a certain number of incoming threats (missiles or aircraft) it will either not launch or launch a lot of missiles which then detonates after launch, the behavior becomes very irrational and obvious faulty. But, if you reduce the incoming threat number to just one threat below the threshold value the SAM will work just as intended. I've checked several in game systems like the Patriot and S300 (as well as my own assets of course). The same behavior. The only thing that differs are the threshold number of max incoming threats it can handle. And I can't seem to figure out what is controlling that. You might think it's the amount of radar channels, but that's not the case. I have two very clean mission files with a Patriot system and incoming targets. The first one with the max amount of threats to function perfect, and the other one with just one more threat and it stops working completely. This seem to be some sort of core game mechanics not working as intended as the issue can be spotted in more or less every SAM system with a radar. The difference is that the behavior can be more or less irrational depending on the units configuration. Edit: I should mention that the issue only seem to affect weapons guided by the launching asset (like SARH, TVC or laser guided) it doesn't seem to affect ARH based weapons. SAM radar issues - not working.miz SAM radar issues - working.miz

Dear Aerges, Longtime fan here. Flown DCS for years but had to other ways to contact you so I had to make a forum account. Thank you for all the dev time put into the external model, it is much appreciated. This module often brings me more enjoyment than any other aircraft. - Lakota 2-1 | Warden 215

Yeah its annoying. it applies to SAMs as well; this really got on my nerves while implementing Aster 30 Block 2

Just out of curiosity, have any of you erased the files in your C:\Users\****\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\fxo and C:\Users\****\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\metashaders2 folder? This is old school but I do it after every patch to clear any old cache/files that could conflict with the new. When you launch each map for the first time after the update, it take a tad longer because it is regenerating those files, but I feel like it has helped me avoid so many problems I hear on the forums. I have flown the Cayuse as early as last night with a ton of stuff on the Marianas map with the boys and have not had any issues. Also flown it on Afghanistan with 0 stutters. I would suggest trying the above method. It wont hurt anything. Those files automatically regenerate when you launch DCS.

The two files are in xxx\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Scripts\Hooks. It is "gunner_export_hook.lua" and "OH6GunnerDataExport.dll". removing the lua file should be enough.

Yep, as the smoke seem to be the issue, it's a DCS core issue. It looks like issue only appears in the single thread version while the MT version doesn't experience it. But instead you get the extremely heavy smoke effect.

Hey, fellow pilots and Slugmouse users! If you are having problems in DCS when the Slugmouse wakes from sleep, be sure to "disable hot plug" in DCS settings > controls. Failing to do so will introduce stutters or severe pauses in the gameplay when the Slugmouse, or any other game controller, keyboard, mouse, etc., wakes from sleep.

Map is satisfying for EA level (9/10). Bought for support ED. But I would like to have feedback on numerous questions or issues

There are nice patterns for village and market areas. But 2+ floors city area full of cloned model and there is no pattern (e.g. just random as artists doesn't feel how buildings actually should be placed). Do you agree? Also there are much more colours, blue, green, white in real afghan towns, not only sand, brick and grey colour. EA issue or it's ok on your opinion dear devs?

Does a civy-sim allow you to do airdrops / cargo that actually impacts other players, and have the risk of needing countermeasures though? I see the 'new' civy sim allows for a lot more activity - which will be interesting, but still - the ability to work with others in multiplayer (more than just sharing the same skies, but having an impact to others) I think will be quite enticing. Anyway - we'll know soon enough.

As @Naquaii suggestion, our list is just for our own reference. It is public for all users who can post any input freely and I have no issue to continue bookkeeping the user's input into our list, but the updates are stayed at the DCS forum only. However, anyone enters the bug/feedback at discord and update me the link or any reference, I am glad to update our list. Meanwhile, I have stopped compiling and entering at discord due to @Naquaii recommendation. Thanks.

Collective fun ModelViewer2_3cSrbzkMAi.mp4

getting some geuse

Added a new section to the FAQ: What does Early Access, Features and such mean for Terrain and how does it compare to Aircraft modules? (ADDED) We have noticed some confusion on what Early Access means for a terrain, especially one being sold with the possibility of owning only 1 or 2 parts. Features on a Terrain can be described as things like Airfields, Cities, POI's and such. Saying the SW portion is mostly feature complete it's for these types of objects and areas. What it doesn't mean is that those areas are necessarily done in layout or textures, all these things can change during Early Access. This also goes for textures, for example, some have pointed out areas where highly detailed abruptly bump up against low detailed areas. Even in the SW regions, this is still very much WIP. The challenge of doing a huge map like this is maintaining a reasonable size and performance. The idea here is to get the most out of the high-detail areas for all 3 areas, then go back and see how much we can push those medium-detail areas you would see between High and Low areas. If we were to complete the SW area before the others and push it to max levels before the other 2 areas were in, we run the risk of having an unmanageable sized map, or one with poor performance, and would require us to go back and pull some detail out. This is a very new way of doing a map, along with one of the biggest and most detailed maps to date, there will be some growing pains and it will look rough in places at times. We appreciate all those who are willing to continue on this EA with us, and we look forward to all your feedback and reports on the map!

Thanks for this. It turns out the Oh-6A was the cause of my stuttering issue. Specifically the scripts/hooks files. I removed all mods as a first step in troubleshooting when this issue came about with the last update, but I must have missed those script files. I spent days trying everything to stop the stuttering and nothing worked. The odd part is it only effected the Caucasus map and I did not use the OH-6 mod on that map. I could use the OH-6 on other maps and I had no stutter. And it only stuttered after the last update. It is just weird. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks again. I can finally play DCS again. The A4 and the OH6 where the only two mods I used, but I think I am done with mods going forward.