DimSim

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. While someone could use the current mission editor to populate units, you are right in saying we need technology to make a large map simulate that 'bubble of activity' near the player. You're also right that 'purists' would expect civilian ATC at civ airports. Baby steps though, just having some civ air traffic would be a start. While I didn't mention it in my post, ATC was actually a primary 'training' scenario I had in mind, just to take off, navigate and fly to same or other airfields following ATC. We do have some dedicated user made missions which add more realistic ATC. (Not directed at cfrag) Rather than dismiss the idea out of hand due to the many complexities, this could be a long term goal, with a series of development steps along the way. For example, MS Flight Sim has sliders for airport traffic, vehicles, boats and aircraft. We currently just have civ vehicle traffic. Adding civ boats where maps define valid regions could work the same way. Air fields could define static objects representing parked aircraft and support vehicles, to be enabled or disabled enmass to liven up the world, even if they initially don't move at all.

The goal of this wish, is to create a single mission, or if needed, random missions, with no specific combat objective. Instead, populate a mix of armed and civilian activity on each terrain map. The primary goal is to allow players to perform either training or even recreational flight activities while being surrounded by activity making the world appear more alive and immersive. For example: Military airfields will have military aircraft taking off and landing. Civilian airfields will have civilian aircraft taking off and landing. Both military and civilian flights will be present in the air. Water areas will have water craft of all types What we have right now, are a few, very limited 'Free Flight' instant missions, and a variety of training missions. We also have civilian vehicle traffic including trains, which is great. A goal of this 'single' mission, or variation of mission generator, is to combine these goals (free flight & training) into a 'living world' back drop to facilitate armed and un-armed flight training. If someone reading this is thinking 'Just use the mission editor and create a living world on each map'. Then please do go ahead and do that, share me the link when you're done, I'll be appreciative .

I don't have any links to share, but I believe ED said they plan to improve Dust the same way they improved Clouds, sometime in future. I expect the goal is to improve the visual display of smoke and dust, which if not too heavy on performance, could create opportunities for new environmental effects.

Seeing this error box after completing Mission 8. "Can not open debriefing file". I've seen this before in the past. Don't remember if that means the mission referenced a bad object or a general game bug. I see in dcs.log 2025-06-22 04:38:28.873 INFO EDTERRAIN4 (40604): ITerrainContextImpl4::setTextureMode(full=1) 2025-06-22 04:38:29.103 ERROR LUA-TERRAIN (Main): getObjectPosition: object is not exists 2025-06-22 04:38:31.931 WARNING LOG (54084): 88 duplicate message(s) skipped. 2025-06-22 04:38:31.931 ERROR LuaGUI (Main): ERROR loading debrief.log: constant table overflow stack traceback: [C]: ? [C]: in function 'loadfile' [string "./MissionEditor/modules/me_debriefing.lua"]:476: in function 'load' [string "./MissionEditor/modules/me_debriefing.lua"]:422: in function 'show' [string "./MissionEditor/MissionEditor.lua"]:699: in function 'openReturnScreen' [string "./MissionEditor/MissionEditor.lua"]:717: in function <[string "./MissionEditor/MissionEditor.lua"]:711> 2025-06-22 04:38:31.938 INFO DXGUI_WIN_ADAPTER (Main): resize main window to [3840, 2160]

Can confirm that after another 15mins or so in game, the AI jets appeared on the HSD.

Just for interest, I flew Ground Pounder's excellent free Harrier demo campaign for South Atlantic. A lot of flying was low altitude (~150ft). I experienced intermittent but fairly extreme slow downs at times. Because they did not persist, I didn't associate them with specific altitudes or interaction regimes. All flight was around the Falklands, not the main land. I have 32GB RAM and otherwise high system speck.

Following @NagyViktor I tried manually loading Mission 3, and Datalink worked fine. So it's only Mission 1 and perhaps other specific missions which are affected.

Thanks for trying to help. I've tried everything recommended with no success so far. While I thought this was a general F16 issue, it seems to only occur in one or more specific campaign missions. I've joined a thread in that forum with other people observing the same or similar issue. It is a cold start, on taxiway, in Syria.

I did make a new thread, but mod merged it into this one.

Thanks for responding. That is what I have been doing and having success for Instant action missions. Seems this campaign mission behaves differently for unknown reason.

Just arrived to report the same and ask for help. I'm new to F16 so could easily be at fault. Have asked in the F16 forum and tried everything there. I have successfully enabled datalink from the Instant Action missions with both auto and manual startup. I'm trying mission 1 of this campaign and have had no luck seeing other aircraft. Have tried: Auto and manual startup Ensure MIDS LVT not On until INS Aligned Waiting for full alignment before enabling MIDS LVT Ensure INS switched to NAV after NORM for align. (Auto startup leaves on NORM.) Roll away from hanger. Get airborne. (To avoid radio/GPS obstruction.) Hack 'Fix' by turning GPS Time off and on again from DED -> LIST -> DLNK Please help.

If DLINK requires careful startup sequence to work, it stands to reason that either the module is bugged or the auto startup features is bugged. Edit: I was able to get data link working with both auto and manual startups, but not for every mission. Still investigating, could relate to mission instead of aircraft.

Yes, tested outside hanger, on runway and in the air. Yes, DLINK shows GPS Time and Fine.

HSD, not HSI, sorry. Edited post. Bottom right on your image.

I'm new to F16 and trying to play a campaign. I can't get the data link elements to display on the HSD, or anywhere else. I am using auto start, which could be an issue, after reading thread: Which suggests there is special order during startup, which may not be honored by the auto start sequence "...the MIDS switch, which you have to put from OFF to ON after the alignment is done (not before) for Datalink to work." If so, is there a way to 'fix' this after startup? I have seen a fix which involves turning data link off then on again via the LIST -> DLNK screen. This has no effect. Everything else appears to be in the correct state. Edit: Repro steps: Show working: Instant Action -> F16 -> Caucasus -> Ready on ramp Observe friendlies on HSD, at least after they take off after a short time. Show not working: Instant Actions -> F16 -> Caucasus -> Cold and dark Press Auto startup Observe no friendlies on HSD, all instruments set to expected states. Edit: I can get the Datalink working with auto startup.

Posted similar over here:

+1 wanted to request the same, after not being able to see the ground through all the icons

Thanks, I'll try again. I thought I had checked the F-10 menu and found only ATC available at that time. EDIT: It's also possible I needed to put the primary radio back to channel 1 to see the Instructor option.

Trying the tutorial at the moment with the first F-18 slot. Can't click 'Request Takeoff' from Tower. Option is present, but won't click. Possibly because another F-18 snuck out ahead of me and is blocking the ramp?

Just completed the 3+1 campaign demo... Fantastic! Thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward to completing the campaign some day. Hopefully Razbam and ED can bury the hatchet, get back into business so this wonderful aircraft and quality campaigns like this can get back into people hands.

Thanks. That does appear to work. In fact as long as TACAN is ON from the UFC, you don't need to have TCN boxed on the HSI to show the distance at top left of HSI. Boxing TCN will display on HUD as # DME though instead of waypoint. EDIT: One more thing, TACAN needs to be set to T/R, not A/A.

Thanks! I notice the AFC On/Off Toggle action actually goes all the way to Reset, then to the Off position when toggled off.

Just trying a different joystick binding for auto pilot and observed something unexpected... I previously had AFC On/Off Toggle and Alt Hold On/Off Toggle bound. These work, if a little finicky at times. I just tried binding AFC On and Alt Hold On & Off as 3 different binds (No AFC Off, Reset or Toggle). What I found is that if Alt Hold was on, and AFC gets turned off, pressing AFC On will not 'stick'. You can see the switch move forward to the On position, then it immediately returns to Off. However if I also bind a AFC Reset and press that first, the AFC On will work, staying at the On position. Hope that makes sense. Question is, is this intended behavior, or is there something wrong with AFC On control binding logic?

Just started the campaign and have enjoyed the prologue mission so far. I have a question about wingman TACAN. Mission 1 suggests using the TACAN to help fly formation. I see Blue 1 is 29X, so (using +63 rule) I set my TACAN to 92X A/A and box TCN on HSI. I don't see any range information or spinning bearing indicator. I watched a YouTube of RedKite demonstrating this, but his 6yr old video showed a different result to what I see. Any tips on getting TACAN range to wingman in the AV-8B?

Replaying the short version, after the first spot checkpoint, most audio and text messages disappear. Just get the F10 I/R display without any idea what was actually said. Selecting repeat last doesn't help. Not sure what went wrong this time. I blindly selected F10 Okay and the mission progressed a bit further, but no more audio or text.