IronMike

Please understand that what we cannot accept, is that folks want to tell us that the FM and stick input implementation is wrong, and to change it, after flying it for precisely 1 day or much less even in hours. and without having flown the real jet. The reactions we get from SMEs (12 of them who flew the jet for thousands of combined hours and one of them who still flies it today) - are a destinct testimony to the opposite. The FM has been build based on heavily including their input, every step of the way. Again, whether you give it an open minded chance, or not, is up to you. Fly it for a couple weeks, a month even - then tell us what you think. Of course that won't help much, if you never give it a real chance. If you are a real pilot, you will know that judging an FM and getting a good feel for it after a few hours of flight is not possible. I invited you to give it an honest try. You keep coming back with "no". After spending likely less than a full day with it. Please be so kind and understand that that won't just change our mind. Don't get me wrong. I know where you are coming from. I felt very similar initially. And all I can say, I am so, so happy that I didn't convice Grover to go the classic route, as I initially wanted to, when I first tried it. I truly and fully know where you are coming from. But so many things that we were able to do that work as in the real aircraft, are made possible through this. And the rabbit hole goes deep. From bellow intakes freezing at high alt, to flipping backwards with pitch down stick in a clean tailslide to so many quirks and peculiarities in between, to just name a random few, which occur now naturally, most importantly - made it possible for us to take the FM to the next level, and we will continue improving on it, too. But you can't explore and experience it, if you don't give it an honest chance. I can only kindly invite you again to do so.

There are no core features of the aircraft missing. What is missing is gun camera, a different version of fuel tanks for the F-4F and a different version of ECM pod for the F-4F. Some features will be expanded on, like for example giving Jester the ability to operate the Pave Spike pod, but the pod is fully operational for yourself both in SP and MC. We still call it early access, because we want to expand even further, namely with the DMAS upgraded version. This just for clarification. Apologies, but this is not true as such. We will put a detailed explanation and description of the system up shortly, as we see that many misunderstand it and are thrown off by the animations.

One of the big disconnects everyone sees, is rather visual. I added that to the "issues you may encounter" thread. This will go away eventually once you get used to it. But the feel is overall closer and the system, realistic, spring loaded or not. If you focus on what the stick in game does predominantly, you're not giving yourself a chance to get used to it, to just fly it and feel it. You are looking at the stick because you saw "ah there is a lag in the animation." Ask yourselves how much you actually look at what the stick does in other modules. If you want to help yourselves getting used to it, you can hide the stick, and fly around for a while. Connect the feel for the FM and what your actual stick is doing, leave force blending on and stick force at default 60lbs. I am not saying you have to hide the stick to get used to it, or forever fly with a hidden stick. But if "unseeing" it is difficult, you can try if it helps. And no, our SMEs did not just give up arguing about it because they grew tired of it, as one of you suggested. We discussed FM with them on a daily basis for well over a year, several times a day. They grew fond of it. They gave it a chance. And according to them, it now flies and feels as close to real life and their memory as possible, though minor improvements are still planned - but these are not related to this topic. Only one out of our 12 SMEs uses a force feedback stick. I ask you all kindly again, give it some time please. It threw me off in the beginning, too, after a while one does not notice it anymore, unless comparing on purpose. Your inputs in the FM are not delayed, except through occurring inertia in the FM, as in the real jet. Whether or not we change it, is not up to debate, and won't be, please be so kind and understand that. As much as we like to cater to you all. Whether or not you give it an open minded chance, is up to you on the other hand. The movement of the 3d model of the stick in the cockpit goes through a type of low-pass-like filter. Otherwise, it might look erratic and actually even less realistic. However, it doesn't represent the actual physical simulation of the entire stick simulation, and that means that the change of your input is instantaneously transferred to the controls system. Yet, that system runs a complex simulation that adds realistic inertia to the mechanisms that transfer your input to the power actuators. To summarise, the lag you may see when observing the 3D controls doesn't represent the system's delay; there might be some realistic inertia reducing the controls' responsiveness.

Hey, thanks for the suggestion, but same as in the F-14, it isn't really needed, because you have stored alignment, which takes around 2 min. It is though, same as in the F-14, up to the mission maker to provide it.

Sorry, but this will not happen. We kindly ask you to spend some time to get used to it please. We had similar blowback from our testers and even SMEs, until they got used to it. Our SMEs agree that it now feels not only closer to the real aircraft, but actually enhances the feel in the sim, it increases the resolution, and it requires you to do more what you do in real life: trim constantly. @Super Grover will explain in a post more how the trim works (which is a realistic trim feel system for the first time in an end consumer sim, vs a fake trim axis as sim modules commonly offered until now, including us btw). But we certainly will not re-code our entire input system, we meticulously built over the past 3 years, because some cannot take the time to get used to it beyond flying it for a day, no matter how much you insist, sorry, because there are basic misunderstandings on how the system should work and actually does work in game.

There will be no such changes. We kindly ask that you spend some time to get used to it please. We had similar blowback from our testers and even SMEs, until they got used to it. Our SMEs agree that it now feels not only closer to the real aircraft, but actually enhances the feel in the sim, it increases the resolution, and it requires you to do more what you do in real life: trim constantly. @Super Grover will explain more how the trim works (which is a realistic trim feel system for the first time in an end consumer sim, vs a fake trim axis as sim modules commonly offered until now, including us btw). This is not true. We do assume that the pilot has the hand on the stick all the time, and actively works on positioning the stick, constantly controlling it, and fights the forces that apply to the stick. So it is exactly the opposite of what you describe.

Just an FYI, Vulture is our main WSO SME, I would say it is safe to say he knows.

ICS Volume. Depending on your sound system/mix - you may want to lower "world" and "in cockpit" audio options a bit while leaving master and "helmet" at 100%

This is correct, as you need have ground and battery power. Battery is cycled to on by the engine master switches. Note that the crew chief menu thus indicates "hand signals" in the beginning. Aka, before ground power and batteries are on, and you have comms, you communicate through hand signals and thus will hear no reply.

Dear all, gathering your questions and most pressing concerns and feedback from yesterday, we want to present you with a list of issues you may run into, when trying the F-4E for the first time, and ways on how to avoid them. We hope the below list helps you get started faster and smoother. Please spread the word! Your Heatblur Team Issue: I am experiencing bad performance with the F-4E. Fix: Make sure you are using the multithreaded version of DCS, not the singlethreaded. This will significantly improve your performance. We do not recommend running the F-4 in the singlethreaded version. You already have both versions installed, always. To run the multithreaded version simply run the DCS.exe in your Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\bin-mt folder. Issue: My F-4E keeps pitching up violently although my controls are bound correctly. Fix: This happens to non-FFB users who have FFB enabled in their MISC options. Simply go to MISC options and disable FFB and the issue will go away. Issue: I am using VR and the JESTER Menu, Manual and/or Bombing Calculator are cut off. Fix 1: It is an issue with the DCS VR implementation and an unfortunate combination of graphic settings. You can fix it either by selecting "use dcs internal resolution" in your VR settings or using our special options if you don’t want to do that. It is described further in this section of our manual: https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/dcs/special_options.html#hb-ui Fix 2: As stated in the manual, setting the VR render window to LEFT or RIGHT eye without checking the "Use DCS resolution" box makes the Jester menu cut off. However if "Use DCS resolution" (fix 1) alone does not solve it for you, you can try to use the "BOTH" setting for the redering option. Jester menu should then be back in full, normal size and centered. Fix 3: Found by Des 2-2 (thank you!): "an (easy) solution to the HBUI cut off at the bottom in VR issue: change the resolution of the VR mirror to at least 1920x1080. Many people set it below that in the hope that it frees up a little GPU resources." Note: We are currently trying to find a solution together with ED. In the meantime, if neither fix 1 nor fix 2 work for you, the best is to experiment with the resolution settings offered in the special options. Our apologies. Issue: I downloaded and installed via the DCS module manager, but when I spawn in the mission, it goes to the F10 map and only AI spawns. Fix + EDIT: Going through the reports of the past few days and fixes that were found, most likely this issues is because your antivir program is either blocking HBUI.exe or one of our DLLs. We kindly ask you to add exceptions to these in your antivir program. This should fix your issue. If the issue persists, please make a report. Issue: When I go to the mission editor, I do not see the F-4E. Fix: You need to turn off the “historical setting” in the Mission Editor. It is at the bottom center, represented by a clock symbol. Click the clock symbol to turn it off. Issue: My JESTER menu gets stuck. Fix: If using head tracking and mouse at the same time, they can conflict. You can disable either in the special options settings for the F-4E. Moving the mouse pointer out of the menu fixes it, too. To close the menu you can hold the Jester menu button long. Issue: My force feedback pitch and roll force seems very light or weak. Fix: You have gain settings for force feedback in the special menu options. Note that you can increase them to 500%. Note that if both roll and pitch axis are set to the same value, the roll axis will have less force feedback force. This is intentional and true to the real aircraft, where the roll axis requires less input force than the pitch axis. Please adjust to your personal preferences. Issue: It looks like the stick in my cockpit is lagging in comparison to my real stick. Fix: The movement of the 3d model of the stick in the cockpit goes through a type of low-pass-like filter. Otherwise, it might look erratic and actually even less realistic. However, it doesn't represent the actual physical simulation of the entire stick simulation, and that means that the change of your input is instantaneously transferred to the controls system. Yet, that system runs a complex simulation that adds realistic inertia to the mechanisms that transfer your input to the power actuators. To summarise, the lag you may see when observing the 3D controls doesn't represent the system's delay; there might be some realistic inertia reducing the controls' responsiveness. Issue: I want to close the manual or bomb calculator, but it does not work. Fix: You need to click with the mouse out of the manual or bomb calc window. If clicked into it, keyboard input is enabled and will prevent the close/open commands. Issue: My cockpit appears to be very dark. Fix: Please make sure that you have “Cockpit Global Illumination” turned ON. If this alone does not help, our recommended Gamma setting is 2.2, so you may want to increase your Gamma. Note: there is currently a bug that will load the cockpit darker on the second spawn. A third spawn should fix that. Issue: My trim is not working on the ground, the stick is either full forward or full back and when I trim it does not change position. Fix: This is correct as is on the ground. The bellows system pulls at the stick with increasing airspeed, while the bobweight system pushes the stick forward with increasing G. In flight and when you are trimmed out well, these forces roughly balance each other out naturally. On ground however, the bellows measure airspeed 0 and hence do not add any force that would counter the bobweight system pushing the stick forward. You also will not see trim doing anything in that situation, since the trimming merely changes the length of the lever to which the bellows can apply force to the stick and do not move the stick around directly. Issue: I cannot make sense of the controls indicator. Fix: The big green diamond is your joystick input. The small green diamond is the neutral in-cockpit stick position - this is where the cockpit stick will reset if you re-centre your joystick. The orange/red diamond represents the actual cockpit stick position after taking into account all effects, including your joystick input, the feel trim system, force limiting, and blending. This position is transferred to the power actuators moving the control surfaces. Issue: I have trouble getting used to JESTER 2.0 and the new menu. Fix: We recommend giving it a few days to get used to it. Jester 2.0 is designed more proactive than JESTER 1.0, he scans the sky himself for example, he will turn radar on and off himself if landing or refueling, etc., and overall requires less use of the menu through the JESTER context action. With context action you can direct him to switch targets, lock them, unlock them in air to air, to lock ground returns for dive toss, and more. We recommend to familiarize yourselves with the JESTER section in our manual in general, here: https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/jester/overview.html And with the JESTER combat section in regards to context action, here: https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/jester/combat/overview.html Issue: Jester has trouble finding targets. Fix: While Jester searches the sky in a forward, primarily head-on, co-alt aspect of your radar, one still needs to consider the limitations of the AN/APQ-120 radar. It is not a search radar, and the detection ranges are very short. This means that with 2 bandits racing at each other, from detection to merge, your BVR timeline can be less than 45 seconds. IRL Phantoms were guided to their target’s general position with the help of GCI and AWACS units. The F-4E’s radar is also a radar that needs to be “flown” pro-actively. This means helping it through your maneuvering - or non-maneuvering - as much as you can. Look-up aspect is in general preferable, so positioning yourself slightly below the bandit helps. Some bandits with a smaller cross section, like the MiG-19 may be picked up by the radar at less than 20 nm. In short: try to use the radar more as an intercept radar than a search radar. Try to estimate where you targets will be, either through conventional SA building or through the aid of GCI and AWACS, and then position yourself for a successful intercept. If you want to dive deeper into the topic, we recommend Karon’s tutorials on youtube, from FlyAndWire. Issue: I am encountering weird behavior, like some weapons not working, or even get a CTD when trying to host a server, etc. Fix: This is likely owed to the presence of mods. As of now, the only mod we know that works together with the DCS: F-4E Phantom II for certain is the Community A-4 mod. Any other mod can potentially cause issues of various kinds. This is why we strongly recommend to disable all your mods, should you be running into such issues. ED is aware of the potential conflicts between modules and mods and will be looking into it. Please be so kind and understand that full functionality of the module cannot be guaranteed when running it with mods. Thank you! A tip from user “Mederlock” to improve performance, if running into issues: “A little tip that might help some people's performance: in the task manager details page, dcs.exe->set affinity->de-select the first core. If you check the DCS log file you can even see which of your cores perform the worst and de-select those specifically. You'll have to re-do this every time you launch the game or use a tool like process lasso to automate it on startup. I've heard a few reasons why this can help, [...], I don't really know the theory but it certainly helped my performance a lot, as well as several other people in the group I play with. Worth a shot if you're having stuttery or poor performance.” Check out these beginner tipps and tricks from Tricker: Here is also a nice cheat sheet for WH key binds, made by Blackbird (as a proposal). You can also check out the control bindings guide in our manual here: https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/dcs/controls.html#binding-guide

Oh no! The poor chief!

The frequency you are trying to enter is likely too low. It does not accept the 100... ranges, only 225 (UHF) and above. "The COMM unit is capable of receiving and transmitting on a wide range of manually selected frequencies, totaling 3500, or it can operate on 18 preset channels. This functionality covers a frequency range from 225.0 MHz to 399.95 MHz. On the other hand, the AUX unit is designed to receive signals on 20 preset frequency channels, ranging from 265.0 MHz to 284.9 MHz." https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/systems/nav_com/uhf.html

Thank you for your suggestions and feedback! We will look into it. The ground cart however will remain as is, as it appearing with external power on and off (should one re-request is less immersion breaking.) Check the special options tab for the F-4, you can adjust your throttle axis split for MIL and AB range and add a deadzone, too.

Yes, that is correct.

Thank you all for the very kind words and valuable feedback. We are happy that you like it. Our apologies for those of you who are running into issues here and there, I will put up a small thread tomorrow "How to avoid possible issue" including stuff like FFB off for non FFB guys, VR menu cut off, trim not working on the ground etc. Luckily though, most of what I have read so far is avoidable with some minor tweaking. As for those who seem to have a bit more struggle with VR performance, please be so kind and share you specs and settings, it helps us to investigate further. We are of course also seeing some minor bugs here and there and we are already preparing a hotfix to address the most urgent stuff in the next few days and then hopefully more next week. Thank you all again, please continue giving us feedback.

Dear all, the moment has finally come. We thank you all for your incredibly kind patience, for sticking with us. Not much remains to say, other than we really hope you enjoy it. As usual, we ask you for your kind feedback, for the Phantom, for the very first time. Your Heatblur Team

We recommend that any interested 3rd party contacts us via our official channels, and we will be happy to discuss the particularities with them.

NOTE: If you purchased the F-4E on the DCS E-shop, you can ignore this announcement. Your install will become available via the DCS in game module manager automatically once the patch goes live on May 21st. 1.After purchasing a key from the Heatblur Store, you will have received an email by Sendowl. The email will contain your license key. License keys can look either like this (early purchase): E370-E4F5-3D9D-A967 (example key) // or like this (late purchase): ED-26BSF-12V7M5F (example key). 2. Go to https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com and login to your DCS account. After that click on "profile" 3. Go to the left bottom of your profile page, and under "Licensing" select "Redeem Voucher." Then click "GO" 4. Paste your key into the field where it says "Enter voucher code" - then click "REDEEM" That's it! After doing so, you will get a message telling you that you have successfully redeemed your license key. You will then be able to install the F-4 Phantom II module tomorrow via the DCS in game Module Manager, as soon as the DCS update goes live. Should you have lost your email or key, please do not worry. Simply write support@heatblur.se and we will send you your key again. Please include your order number. If you run into issues redeeming your key, please contact ED customer support. We thank you all for your purchases, for your support and for sticking with us on this long road. We hope you all get to enjoy the Phantom tomorrow! Your Heatblur Team

We coded him from the ground up, entirely. But rerecording by now some 13.000 + voice lines, would have easily added another 2 years to the development. However we added lots of new voicelines fitting the F-4.

Well, Dumbass Tacos sound hell of a lot tastier than Smartass Tacos though

See, IronMike, is a tribute to the Top Gun Jester. It comes from Micheal Ironside. But we never said that JESTER, is a tribute to Top Gun. Even though it is fair enough to assume that.

Dear all, Due to unfortunately being unable to offer a pre-order on Steam this time around, we'll be offering DCS: F-4E at pre-order pricing ($59.99) on Steam for the first week of sales. We hope in this way we can make up for our promise to partake in the pre-order on Steam and give you a chance to grab the F-4 for the same discount. We sincerely hope to see you flying the Phantom with us regardless of your chosen platform. Come next Monday, May 13th, we will also discontinue the merchandise and special edition packs on the Heatblur Store. If you still wanted to grab a t-shirt or vinyl for yourself, or one of the special edition packages, we kindly suggest you do it before then. The pre-order discount will of course continue for both the Lone Wolf and Crew Pack Standard Editions until release day, May 21st. The same goes for the ED E-shop of course. Regarding keys bought on our store: do not worry, we will send out instructions on how to redeem them on the DCS website shortly prior release. Your keys are always safe with us, should you have lost them, and we will be more than happy to assist you through the process. Thank you for all of the wonderful support and we hope to see you all soon in the Phantom Skies! Sincerely, Heatblur Simulations & Eagle Dynamics

Dear all, we are proud to announce the release date of the DCS: F-4E Phantom II. May 21st 2024. We thank you all for your very kind patience and tremendous support you have shown us over the past couple years. We hope to see you all soon, in the Phantom skies, come May 21st. From all of us at Heatblur: Thank you!

Thank you for your kind feedback!

Pre-release is still a very special time, it's an all hands on deck kind of situation. At this point I may also remind you that all throughout F-4 development we've layed significant ground work that ultimately will benefit the F-14, too, and help us push it out of release. The line still holds true, it has no bearing on our steadfast committment to the progress of all our existing modules. Thank you for your kind patience.