SirBunker

I've been slowly working on a fake US Marines livery but I'm newbie with textures/photoshop.

1.5 already has the new engine upgrades. The only major difference between 1.5 and 2.0 is the available map. If you just want to fly the MiG-21, you're better off installing 1.5 now and enjoying it in its fullness :)

Thanks for the info but I'd rather settle with a pre-assembled solution. The kit also costs more than the regular joystick with taxes and shipping :3

Ah sorry if I misunderstood things about the Cobra M5. While the entry-level sticks like the Extreme 3D Pro and T-16000M can be great, they only have one hat, contain buttons at the base on the lower left which are pretty reduntant for me (with HOTAS, the keyboard is easier and more natural to reach if i take the left hand off the throttle) and, best to my knowledge, feel very plasticky when fumbled. I've used the Logitech one before and while it was otherwise a good stick for its price, I felt it was hard to do any small precise maneuvers. I've researched the Logitech/Saitek/Thrustmaster sticks and my disappointment in them together with finding out about companies like VKB is the reason I created this thread. What caught my eye with the Defender Cobra M5 were the two triggers, a third trigger on the lower part of the stick (seems perfect for MiG-21 wheel brakes), two hats, a very sturdy look and rather cheap price even after taxes + shipping. I tried looking up some info on the inferiority of the latest model compared to the originals, but it's all technical stuff which I have no idea how much it affects gameplay (if at all). To me, it still looks like a good bang for the buck. I googled VKB Gladiator and even found a thead here on eagle.ru. Looks great, but apparently it won't be out until late this year? Anyways, thank you for helping me, I'll consider my choices for the time being. :thumbup:

My old flightstick is finally starting to show symptoms of being too old and worn out and I'm looking at the options of what to get in its place. I have a relatively new CH Pro Throttle so I don't want to buy a whole new HOTAS, but unfortunately the stick-only choices from the big-name manufacturers are quite lacking. The CH Fighterstick would've been a natural choice but it lacks twist rudder (pedals are a no-go due to space issues). I stumbled upon VKB but only their cheapest stick, Cobra M5, was in stock and I had to resort to youtube videos to actually get detailed info on its features. So in short, I'd greatly appreciate if anyone knows of any smaller manufacturers like VKB that produce joysticks. What I basically need as minimum features are a twist rudder, 2-3 hats and a few buttons. Thanks in advance, and don't mind telling me straight if I'm out of luck with this situation. :joystick:

Heh, I thought this was going to pick up slow. Well, I did my part and hopefully we'll be at 3k in no time :)

I would reckon no developer wants to make another variant of a plane that's already available. People who own the first one would be quite hesitant to pay another 50-60 bucks just to fly something only slightly different - and if they came from different developers, people would draw heavy comparison between their quality. Sounds all too risky to me.

But... you already gave real world examples in your opening post. :music_whistling:

Dear OP, can you release an official template for the ZA variant too? Pretty please :wub:

Why would it have to fit among DCS' fighter jets? It's not a fighter jet and neither are the WW2 fighters in game, or the helicopters. Neither do the MiG-15 or F-86 fit together with the later ones. Even MiG-21 is obsolete among the planes it fights online. Why should a low-threat / low-tech combat environment be ruled out from DCS? Helicopters already go into that slot. People love flying jet trainers for the simple fact that they're a joy to fly. In the L-39's case, the module actually includes a light attack variant so you have a gun and a few pylons for missiles, bombs, rockets or bulletfarmers. I don't see what the problem is, apart from "it's not a [insert list of your favorite aircraft]". Luckily the L-39 in the list of my favorite aircraft, so everything's great. :thumbup:

Lonewolf Sandy Red MiG-21, Su-27, A-10C, Su-25T

What has changed is that they've optimized graphics processing to utilize GPUs better. DCS is still a sim, it's still CPU heavy for all the simulation/physics it needs to calculate. Those are not done on the GPU. If you were bottlenecked by your CPU in 1.2, you may very likely be bottlenecked in 1.5/2.0. Like I said, DCS is very much dependent on the performance of a single core. You can have a million cores and it won't help you a bit if a single core can't do the heavy lifting.

Antialiasing isn't that big of a resource hog especially in a game like this. Meanwhile, how's your CPU? The new engine is still very much dependent on the performance of a single core, and sims are generally much heavier on the CPU than normal games.

The discussion is about bindable controls for keyboard/HOTAS and so on.

Those were part of the simplified FC3 controls that M2000 had for unknown reasons and they've finally managed to remove them. The only problem is that there appears to be no proper hotkey controls for the aircraft's actual navigation and radio systems or HUD modes as of yet.

No he's not. The realistic way would be to turn off all map markers in the F10 map screen (i.e. select the "map only" option). However, most of the public multiplayer servers still show the player's own location in the map screen, allowing people to ignore the aircraft's real navigation systems and easily fly around. Public multiplayer can be "gamey" in some regards, so if you want the maximum realism that DCS can offer, you'll probably have to stick to private games.

Yeah, the automatic authentication did its thing and the campaign works fine on its own. The error only shows up when I try to launch the campaign with reshade enabled.

I get the above error while trying to play the new Red Flag campaign with Reshade/SweetFX. Is this a bug, or is it intended for the DRM to now block shader injections?

The weapon is twin-barreled by design.

For manual deployment, make sure you've mapped the individual buttons for flares and chaff, the control named "countermeasure release" doesn't work. The RWR doesn't seem to detect radar missile launches over simple radar locks so I wouldn't trust any automatic countermeasures, though I'm still learning the aircraft myself so someone wiser can correct me.

MiG-21 is no different. You press the IFF interrogator and for a brief time the radar shows a corresponding symbol based on whether the contact is blue or red. Edit: or to put it more accurately, whether the contact is friendly or unknown.

Thanks guys for the scripts, I now have working viewports too. One problem though, I use these on a single screen as PiP views, is there any way to script a dark background for the radar screen?

Flying without IFF sure doesn't sound realistic to me. Of course the best solution would always be that everything was modelled down to the particle level but in the absence of that fidelity, compromise is welcome. Something can be simulated just fine on a grander scale without going for the tiny details, and I'm quite sure many of the DCS aircraft take quite some freedom in their systems (that you consider "high fidelity") modelling in order to perform realistically without touching some finer details. This is the very definition of a conceptual model, and how simulation is often done. Now, I can't say I know a thing about real IFF systems, but after an IRC convo earlier it just really seems like all it would add would be a bit more button-smashing, mission set up, and room for human error. In the absence of modelling it, it really sounds like something that should just be automated, just like many other things in our high fidelity modules at the moment.

All the modules on the official store are digital downloads / product keys.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_in_Russia It's quite possible that their russian employees are having a regular day at work today. The 25th is not a public holiday in Russia as far as I know.