Smashy

I'm not sure if you want non-reports but the fly-an-empty-mission-first method worked for me really well. After today's patch, I tried 5-8 missions without flying an empty mission and experienced no crashes. I'll report back, submit logs if crashes to happen again. Thanks to @Flappie, the beta tester team and all the devs for all the hard work. I've been following this monster thread and it can't be easy staying on top of all the various crash reports.

Same here. It's like Christmas morning reading changelogs!

Just in case you haven't noticed yet, 2.7.1.6430 increases flare count so now the Hornet can carry 120 expendables in any combination.

First _OK_ landing ever! Super excited this happened.

Same here but it was Hornet 3.0/Korea, EF2000, Jane's F-15E, and Flanker 1.5 and 2.x for me. I dabbled with Jane's F/A-18 but never got too far into it. Hornet 3.0 and Korea were some of my favorite games back then and I'm thrilled beyond words to have something like the DCS Hornet module to enjoy these days.

It looks like the 2.7.1.6430 patch released today mentions a fix for this in the changelog. I just did a daytime flight in the Mustang and can confirm that it has been fixed, hopefully for all aircraft. Thanks for checking @NineLine

Thanks for the summary @Bunny Clark. I briefly played around with the new HOTAS/TDC features and found them marginally useful. I have my TDC axis sensitivities relatively low to help with fine adjustments when targeting so it's too slow for me to move it edge-to-edge on the DDI. This is made worse by the way the cursor resets to the upper left corner after hitting the TDC depress when selecting something like the range arrows. Some questions: anyone know what is "TA" mode on the A/G radar format? what is EXP: FAST? I'll be digging around the docs and experimenting so if I figure anything out, I'll post here if no one answers. I also need to find info on the new RAID features (SAM and 1LOOK).

That's some crazy public school math LOL. (j/k, I think the use of the word "ratio" saved you)

Ah, thanks. I don't think my post was very clear as the responses from @=Panther= and @Shimmergloom667 did not address my actual question. I already understand about cycling through tanks and setting date/clock/TZ. What I was trying to figure out was what "SP" signified and the various numbers that are displayed next to "SP" when you press QTY or up arrow after MODE is pushed a single time. It seems like this is something that is cosmetically implemented but has no real impact on operation of the plane?

When the MODE button is pressed once, "SP" along with 3 digits is displayed. I've only seen "888" on the first press. If "QTY" or the up arrow button is pressed, the number cycle through different values. What does "SP" mean and what do the various values that cycle though indicate?

Welp, crashses while loading 2nd missions are back.

I was having consistent second-mission-load crashes today. I saw maybe 6-8 of them. I saw the latest posts here and installed Windows 10 20H2 KB5001391 and did about 4-5 mission reloads with no crashes. I'm cautiously optimistic that this update has done something to help. If the crashes return, I'll update here.

I bought the P-51 on the last sale (April 2021) and noticed that daytime flight hours for the P-51D and P-51D-30-NA are not logged. Nighttime flight hours are. The weird thing is, I could have sworn this was working before. I noticed this when I checked to see how many hours I had in the Mustang because I was starting to get more consistent with my takeoffs and landings and was wondering how long it had taken me. The TF-51D appears to log day/night hours properly. So do the other modules I'm currently using (Huey, Hornet, and starting Bf-109). I tried creating a new pilot and even deleted the logbook.lua file to start from scratch but neither action helped. This is not a big deal but I was wondering if anyone else has seen this problem.

Thanks @Flappie for collecting all these troubleshooting steps. FWIW, I tried all relevant ones and no luck. I still get the frequent second-mission-load crash. Sometimes even the first mission load crashes. In summary: Empty fxo, metashaders and DCS temp folders (done) Remove ReShade from DCS (n/a) Installing the latest Nvidia driver 466.27 (n/a, AMD GPU here) Reduce preload setting to 100000 (done) Set V-sync to "application controlled" in NVIDIA options (n/a) (more radical) Reset all NVIDIA settings (n/a) Remove mods and run a DCS repair (done, ran the full repair) Update Windows 10 to the very latest version, including optional updates (done, digging the new dark mode Start menu) Manually setting pagefile size (done, set to min 16GB, max 32GB. No effect, reset to default) I'm confident you guys can find and resolve this crash. Thanks for the continued support and hard work to get this resolved!

Amazing work, @Protek438! That looks great - super clean and functional.

@Flappie - I was having this problem off and on since 2.7 dropped and have submitted a bunch of crash logs via the dialog that pops up. Hopefully someone got them. A few days ago, I was able to temporarily remedy the crash by unchecking the fullscreen box. The crashes returned after I toggled fullscreen back on (stupid, but I was trying to see if I lost any FPS with fullscreen disabled). Since then I've been plagued by the "second mission or shift-R" crash. I tried all the things listed here, cleaning up those temp AppData files, quit-to-desktop, removing options.lua, removing my saved games folder but nothing helped. I also tried updating GPU drivers, multiple reboots, closing all other apps, avoiding alt-tab, changing from 2 monitors to 1, alt-enter. This is not the sort of thing tech support like to hear but I just shotgunned random things and yesterday my crashes disappeared. I just now loaded up a simple Huey mission in Nevada and had no problem with a shift-R restart. I wish I could tell you what fixed it but tbh, I don't remember everything I did yesterday to get it working. I'm running Windows 10 Pro 10.0.19041

I was able to move the AI panel from my secondary monitor to my primary one by editing the following file: <DCS installation path>/Mods/aircraft/Uh-1H/Cockpit/Scripts/AI/ControlPanel/g_panel_page.lua Look for the following line: local shift_X = -0.65 Back the original file up and play with the value. The value of "-4.22" worked for me. I don't play multiplayer so I don't know if this fail IC or not. I'd also like to find a way to move the cargo view panel but that's not super high priority for me so I haven't looked into it yet.

Good question! I'm still trying to find my around DCS and am in the process of learning to fly and operate the Hornet and Huey. In this context, I'm using assists that: compensate for what I feel are inevitable shortcomings with a 2D single-player desktop sim that provides nothing to help proprioception or the vestibular system. So dot labels and perhaps control position indicator. facilitate the learning process (i.e., immortal against SAMs so I can try various tactics and techniques to see what works and what doesn't without having to constantly restart) simply to enjoy the game as I want to. For example, I find the stick and rudder things most fun and have spent a ton of time on AAR and finally am able to do it at a mediocre level. Same with hovering in the Huey. I'm continuing to work on fine-tuning my Huey control and Hornet AAR and am working on the Hornet's Case I recovery procedure and execution. I prefer easy comms because I know I won't miss having to twiddle radio frequency knobs while learning these difficult skills. I do like knob twiddling in certain situations so I do enjoy cold starts and complete shutdowns. As I progress I imagine I will take more of a purist approach and eliminate some, if not most of the crutches I'm using now. Things like F10 map might help me learn to interpret what my Hornet's sensors are telling me but I feel would detract from the total experience in an actual mission. Oh, I've already turned off the BDA window. That thing always reminded me of a score counter in an arcade game

I was reading the various and polarizing "can we get an easy AAR option" discussions and got to wondering what cheats and assists everyone uses. DCS is a game after all and I don't think there's any shame in a player adjusting the options to make it as fun as possible. For context, I've only been playing DCS for roughly 6 months and only play single-player. I mostly fly the Hornet but lately the Huey has been taking up nearly all of my time. Here are the cheats/assists that I'm using: Dot labels (with mod). This one is invaluable to me since spotting is next to impossible without labels. At the same time, I think full labels are too intrusive so the modded dots are a good compromise. Easy communications. Pretty important but not essential. I just don't find managing the minutiae of all the radio gear that interesting. I'm especially curious to hear other's thoughts on this option. F10 View Options - All. Just because it's the default. Player aircraft immortality. Very rarely, and only when practicing specific things like SAM evasion/defend tactics. Plane-to-Plane view (F5). I'm embarrassed to say I use this every now and then in a gunzo fight but really, really, REALLY try to avoid using it. BDA window. It's cool to see instant results for released weapons. Sometimes I disable this but often forget to do so. Controls position indicator. On rarely for Hornet, nearly always on for Huey. Huey autopilot - enabled. It's an immersion-breaking assist but I justify using it by thinking it's the copilot taking the helo so I can dial in ADF/VOR/ILS freqs or fiddle with other knobs and switches. Huey rudder trim - enabled. Just to make things easier on my feet. There are likely more "cheats" I'm using but really do try to stay away from using too many crutches. For me, a lot of the fun in a game like DCS is meeting the challenges presented and working to overcome them.

Thanks for sharing a link to this. Great interview! My favorite quotes from PilotMi8: "The good thing about simulators is that you can experiment limits of aircraft which pilots can’t, due to constraints of equipment, regulations and the desire to live." Q: What will the team work on after the Mi-24 releases? A: After the Mi-24 is out, we’ll work on the Mi-24. The amount of bugs 1000 users find instead of 10 is obviously going to be higher, so we’ll be working on that for the foreseeable future. Q: How does the Apache compare to the Mi-24? A: Why do you people care so much about the Apache? It’s too early to get a feel for it anyway, whenever there is one we’ll talk. (Friendly rivalry at ED. Love it!)

I've been using your Hornet kneeboard pages for awhile now and have found them beautifully formatted and crammed with useful information. Thanks for putting these together. I really like how information is organized on the various pages. I have ne question regarding the PDF format after doing a quick search for info. Does the PDF format require something like "Kneeboard Builder" to use in-game? Or can they be used as-is? Thanks again for creating these!

Thanks for the update, Badger! For those interested, here it is.

At the end of the day and whatever you call it, DCS is a game. It's entertainment software and I'm all for having options that maximize the fun for the widest possible audience. It's a timely topic for me because I just started focusing on in-flight refueling and if you asked me 3 weeks ago if I'd ever be able to do it, I would've said it's impossible. But I'm pretty stubborn and am the type that finds such challenges "fun" so after a couple of weeks of focused practice, I'm finally able to perform air-to-air refueling. I'm not good at it yet, but I can top off a 60% internal fuel load with 2-3 attempts (on my best days). Would I use an easy-AAR option? Probably not, but that's just me. However, I can totally understand how such an option would be great for someone else who isn't as fortunate as I am when it comes to free time or is simply not interested in learning this one thing in a game that has a thousand other things that might offer more entertainment.

I'm not so lucky. After 2 weeks or so of trying, I'm only now starting to get the hang of it. I do seem to be making progress - quicker plug-ins and staying on the hose longer. I still have a way to go to consider myself "good" at it.

Speaking of crowning achievements... This was a pretty big deal for me