RyanR

HTS is one of the best reasons to Viper. Also, CBU-105's. You can get your Supercarrier fix from the Tomcat. The learning curve for the Tomcat's front seat is pretty mild compared to either the Viper or Hornet. Though AAR in the Turkey is waaaay harder! -Ryan

Are we missing the vertical HUD steering cue for JDAMS and -103/105's in PRE mode? Or is it my memory flakey? Thanks! -Ryan

Fuel tanks are surprisingly low-drag compared to other things. -Ryan

Once the ATP is more finalized/betterized, mission designers can just limit the Litening pod entirely from the allowed ordnance. As it is, the ATP is probably real close to that point. -Ryan

LOL. DCS makes me appreciate why fighter pilots can't wear progressive lenses. Sigh.... -Ryan Or they should just call the Litening the "Early-Access pod". -Ryan

I forget: how are the TGP's on the F-15E and Hornet compared to the Viper's (unrealistic) Litening pod? I got more comfortable with the ATP last night. It's pretty good. I think a big part of getting used to it isn't so much the "blur/focus" but rather that the FOV options are more limited than the ol' Litening pod. The discontinuous "zoom" makes takes some getting used to. As it is, the ATP does pretty good at what the old pod did. There are still some hiccups with MT mode in A-A and A-G. I'm sure ED will sort them out soon. Someone once told me that it's really hard to program things to not be perfect. The Litening pod, is "perfect". The ATP attempts to simulate reality which is not computer-perfect. Once the ATP gets sorted out, mission designers can restrict the use of the old pod. It'll be fine. -Ryan BTW, the new, outlined font is terrific!! -Ryan

Also: Remember that some missile systems (SA-10, -15, NASMS, etc) can shoot down HARMs. Tacveiw can be pretty enlightening here. -Ryan

The ATP is not as easy as the previous pod. Was our Litening pod simply unrealistically good in terms of optics/laser/etc? I kinda thought so. Perhaps reality is just more difficult? -Ryan

TMS aft seems to be a fix. Problem: In either IR mode, you can't see the bandit, save for a slight blur. In TV mode, the bandits jet exhaust is inky black, so you can't even make out wings. -Ryan Fair enough, I'm just better at breaking things than the testers. -Ryan

So, in order to do what Wags does in the videos, I should not do what Wags does in the videos. -Ryan

That may be it. I will check. This may be what Wags said to "Press TMS long" in the video.... Thanks! -Ryan

How can ED not reproduce the problem? Sadly, reproducing the problem is the only I can do. -Ryan

Did ED do any testing with the ATP before release? Here is the ATP not even trying to follow a bugged and non-maneuvering MiG-19. -Ryan MiG-19_ATP_fail.trk

Am I missing a steering cue for GBU-38's?

TRK attached. Nothing in MT seems to work per Wags's YT video. TMS-right short does not cycle between targets. TMS up long does not snap the crosshairs to the selected target. It does seem to work as advertised occasionally.... but rarely. There's also a "zoom" issue when using XR. You get no zoom until you wiggle the crosshairs a bit. Then you get all the zoom. -Ryan Bad_ATP.trk

THIS. Get in the habit of hitting dobber-left and backing out to the root DED page. -Ryan

You can fail the coarse align if you're looking outside the HUD..... or if your head tracking has a hiccup. Dobber left doesn't get you back to the root menu in the DED? -Ryan

This is a weird one. Last night I noticed that DCS wasn't reading the full output of TrackIR correctly for pitch. In other words, when I look full up with TrackIR, DCS only sees half of that input. To test this, I chose "tune combo axis", and the square cursor was only showing 45% the movement. I checked TrackIR, and it was putting out the full 90 degrees of up. DCS just wasn't seeing it. I had been playing around with OpenTrack software for a week. So, I then closed TrackIR and used OpenTrack. Looking "full up" in OpenTrack, DCS now sees "full up". My working assumption here is that since OpenTrack is viewed by DCS as "TrackIR", playing around with with OpenTrack again had corrupted the way that DCS "reads/polls" the output of real TrackIR. This is sort of confirmed by clicking on Rescan Devices in DCS while looking straight up with TrackIR. After doing this a few times, DCS started seeing 75% of that pitch, up from just 45%. Does this make any sense? It's hard to explain clearly. Thanks! -Ryan

The A-10 is a lot more complicated with nav points... because it's an attack plane first. The F-16 is a lot simpler if you remember a few rules: All sensors in the F-16 look at the same place. "SP" is "snowplow".... a fixed distance ahead of the plane. Otherwise, sensors look at a steerpoint/markpoint. I never use snowplow. The F-16 gets confusing when it comes to "CZ".... but it makes sense if you think of the F-16 being a "pre-GPS" fighter needing a way to update the INS. When you slew the sensors, all the steerpoints move. This is sort of baggage from those INS days where you'd use the sensors to get an INS fix to update all of the steerpoints. CZ simply zeroes everything out to erase the offset you put in slewing the sensors. In practice: Use CZ often. In addition to the TGP and FCR, the HAD/HTS and dive-toss bombing can introduce offsets. Once you find a ground target to blow up, make it a markpoint. Markpoints are saved as steerpoints #26-30. You only get 5 markpoints before they start overwriting themselves. Use CZ often. -Ryan

You can't really win. A smaller high res monitor wasn't helping me. A bigger monitor at the same res fixed that. I did learn that forcing DLSS with a 3080 wasn't the right thing to do. Now I have a 5080. Much better. As with all things with DCS, just throw money at the problem. -Ryan

Even for offline play, it'd be nice to have more control. It helps train your eyes where to expect to find a bandit during some BFM. -Ryan

Are spotting dots going to get "better" or more customizable at the user end? I have dots set to 2px, and at 1440px on a 27" monitor with a 3080, things are still a bit hopeless using DLAA or DLSS. If I use MSAA, it gets better, but it's still hit or miss. Often, I can see a dot for the lead bandit, but can't for his wing man. Yet, if I set the resolution down to 1080px, I can suddenly see dots at 40 miles. That seems to be in line with the wisdom on the internet: To see best, turn off all of the things that make DCS visually stunning. I have a new rig with a bigger (but same resolution) monitor coming, and I hope that fixes things. I don't mind taking a heater from a MiG-19. That's how you learn. But a MiG-19 with a cloaking device isn't really fun. Thanks! -Ryan

I noticed that you can interact with the "wrong" IFF panel! Bizzarre. For multiplayer, you basically need to uncheck all of the "simple-logic" options: Landing gear, IFF, Unfolding the triggers, etc. I can't throw any stones at Aerges, they generally do great with the F-1. It's still a ridiculously good module. -Ryan

Just about to complain about this. I've wasted hours with the F-1 since this patch. People who run MP servers aren't going to figure this out. That means the F-1 is going to be messed up for the people that own the module. -Ryan

Seems every user option is screwed up in the multiplayer. This roll-out was poorly thought out. In situations with Dynamic Spawns, the F-1 is all kinds of messed up. -Ryan