Micr0

Launch bar still down?

So were these fixed??? I ask because shortly after my last post I flew some night passes as the deck lights appear to be much better. The flood lights are no linger in the "emergency" setting and the LA lights look MUCH more realistic. The only thing is that the LA lights still only appear at 1.5 NM. They should start to be visible about 8-10 NM on a clear night. But whatever was done..... I thank you!!!

I hate to be a pest, but this has been reported for awhile and makes the carrier unusable at night. The flood lights need to be turned down, and the landing area lights need to be switched to the same lights used on every other ship so that they are visible. Please fix this.

I had this happen to me one time, but it has never repeated. No idea what caused it.

It isn't common, but there are times when a post maintenance check flight needs to get done and maintenance is running behind. In those cases, pilots have been known to man up, get ready while mx finishes up in the hangar and then ride the elevator to the deck to get going ASAP. Again, not common, but it happens.

What exactly is this addition in the latest update?

Thanks for recommending this. I had no idea it existed. It's a lot of fun and gives excellent feedback.

Has happened to me occasionally as well.

I'm slowly putting together a mission for the player to fly "Opposing Solo". This was a test run I did on what I have so far. All comms are embedded into the mission with more to come.

I flew a bunch of passes last night and I had one in particular that gave me yet another issue. Right as I was “in close” the lighting of the entire ship just vanished right in front of me. By the time the “WTF” reaction wore off, the lights came back on, and I just continued. So I replayed this pass with 8 different settings to see what made a difference. The original settings I used are shown in #1. I then started tweaking the settings and recorded the result. Each change is listed in red. The video starts right at tip over (3nm out). The weather is: visibility unrestricted, high overcast at 8500’ to eliminate the horizon and stars. I wanted to only see the carrier itself with no other illumination. One way or another, the landing area lights are just not bright enough and/or not visible from far enough away. IRL, you can spot them from about 7-8 miles out on a clear night. Also, as is pretty evident from the videos and mentioned before, the flood lights from the island are way too bright. You can spot the flood lights on each setting well before seing the landing are lights. In #7 & #8, you can actually see the reflection of the floods in the water prior to seeing the landing area. I’ve thrown in 2 real life videos to show that the actual flood lights are barely, if at all visible when making a real approach. 1: (Baseline) Textures: LOW Terrain Textures: LOW Civ Traffic: OFF Water: LOW Visb Range: LOW Heat Blur: OFF Shadows: OFF Secondary Shadows: OFF SSAO: OFF Gamma: 2.0 AF: 16X 2: Textures: HIGH Terrain Textures: LOW Civ Traffic: OFF Water: LOW Visb Range: LOW Heat Blur: OFF Shadows: OFF Secondary Shadows: OFF SSAO: OFF Gamma: 2.0 AF: 16X 3: Textures: HIGH Terrain Textures: LOW Civ Traffic: OFF Water: LOW Visb Range: EXTREME Heat Blur: OFF Shadows: OFF Secondary Shadows: OFF SSAO: OFF Gamma: 2.0 AF: 16X 4: Textures: HIGH Terrain Textures: LOW Civ Traffic: OFF Water: LOW Visb Range: EXTREME Heat Blur: OFF Shadows: HIGH Secondary Shadows: OFF SSAO: OFF Gamma: 2.0 AF: 16X 5: Textures: HIGH Terrain Textures: LOW Civ Traffic: OFF Water: LOW Visb Range: EXTREME Heat Blur: OFF Shadows: HIGH Secondary Shadows: OFF SSAO: ON Gamma: 2.0 AF: 16X 6: Textures: HIGH Terrain Textures: LOW Civ Traffic: OFF Water: LOW Visb Range: EXTREME Heat Blur: OFF Shadows: HIGH Secondary Shadows: OFF SSAO: OFF Gamma: 2.0 AF: OFF 7: Textures: HIGH Terrain Textures: LOW Civ Traffic: OFF Water: LOW Visb Range: EXTREME Heat Blur: OFF Shadows: HIGH Secondary Shadows: OFF SSAO: OFF Gamma: 3.5 AF: 16X 8: Textures: HIGH Terrain Textures: LOW Civ Traffic: OFF Water: LOW Visb Range: EXTREME Heat Blur: OFF Shadows: OFF Secondary Shadows: OFF SSAO: OFF Gamma: 3.5 AF: 16X

So, I've been really digging on this one. I've been flying dozens of passes at night with various settings trying to figure things out. One thing I realized is that I was incorrect about the drop-down lights being too bright. It's not that the drop-down lights are too bright. The problem is that the flood lights from the island wash out the landing area lights, while the drop down lights are not affected by the flood lights - so the drop-down lights appear brighter. The flood lights are also visible from about 5 mi out, which is completely inaccurate. From behind the boat, the first thing that is visible is the landing area along with the drop-down lights, and the ball. While the landing area lights are still too dim, the real culprit here is the flood lights. They need to be toned down quite a bit.

Well, whatever is going on with these lights, one thing is certain: the drop down lights are too bright and washout the actual landing area lights. I tried about 10-12 different setting and the drop down lights are always just too bright. They are supposed to be the same intensity as the landing area.

The arresting wires appear to stop player aircraft a little too quickly and short of where they would end up IRL. This is even more apparent with AI aircraft. Would be nice to have a more realistic "payout" if the wires.

So, last night I flew around the carrier for the first time in about a month. I noticed that the visibility was the equivalent of about a quarter mile. It didn't seem right so I checked the weather settings and the ceiling was at 3,000 ft with fog disabled. I fiddled with the settings, enabled and then disabled fog again, removing all clouds and the visibility went back up to normal. It seems as though fog was enabled even though the check mark was not ticked. I wonder if this has anything to do with the visibility problems people have been having.

Years ago I made these videos which were a ton of fun. They were done in FSX with FS recorder. I would fly the 1 spot, then replay it and fly the 2 spot and so on until the entire routine was created with all six Jets. The fs recorder software simply recorded my initial flight by logging the position and configuration of my aircraft 8 times per second. It would be phenomenal if something like that were created for DCS so we can replay flights as traffic.

Fagulha, Yes, I think we agree. Oddly, AI aircraft don't seem to do that particular "bounce" into the shuttle. I made a short clip to specifically highlight what I'm describing:

Agreed

No "limits" on angle of bank from the 180 to the start. For example, guys doing the SHB are much more than 30° of Bank because of the speeds that they're at. You just fly what needs to be flown in order to get a good start. I'm sure you know, but that consists of rolling into the groove at 3/4 of a mile, on speed, and wings mostly level. Then once you're in the groove if you start getting funky with your wings, yeah, you're going to really upset Paddles.

Just my two cents: looks like you need more bank at the 180. That will give you one continuous term to final with minimal changes rolling into the groove.

That's pretty good

Nealius, I agree and I do use that mod. It helps a little, but it's still is not as visible as the real ship. Thanks for pointing that out though. I had forgotten to.

So this is been something that has been bothering me since the carrier came out. It's not specific to the super carrier, it happens on the forrestal as well. But the landing area is just too blended into the rest of the deck with regard to the paint. It's pretty much impossible to pick out the ladder lines and centerline until you're in close. And from what I can tell it's not a matter of gamma, because gamma just makes everything brighter and then washes out the landing area in the brightness. I thought it was just me until I watched Nasty try his approaches to the super carrier in the following video. My recommendation is that the deck needs to be repainted so as to not make it so washed out. Nasty's debrief is at 18:40. All that said, I do always want to say thank you guys for a wonderful simulator and even more awesome module.

Something that has bothered me for a while is the fact that when you are hooking up to the catapult in the f-18, as the launch bar is dropping into the shuttle the aircraft acts as though it's going over a bump, and the whole plane drops a couple inches. In reality it's just the launch bar sliding up and over the shuttle while pivoting on the nose gear. The actual tires don't go over a bump, and from the cockpit you can't even tell it's happened. Now when the airplane is taken into tension, and the shuttle is moved forward, yes the airplane is correctly nudged forward. But I think the current way the aircraft bounces when simply dropping into the shuttle is incorrect.

+1

The way the carrier is set up now the catapult crew waits about 3 seconds after an aircraft leaves the deck to lower the JBDs and to begin moving into position for the next launch. It would be much more realistic if the crew and the JBDs began to reset when the aircraft was about halfway down the catapult stroke. Refer to how quickly the crew begins to reset: https://youtu.be/cWOpDItw1iI