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mart

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Everything posted by mart

  1. Thanks Reece That was really helpful, and thoughtful. I'll take it as it comes. There's lots to do/crash into :) Thanks again
  2. Hi again and thanks for the advice. I tried DCS once before, and even have some paid modules. Sadly, it didn't work out. I have a neurological condition that affects cognition and concentration. But, I wanted to try DCS again (& now also iL-2) with a more relaxed approach. Happily, my new Macbook turned out to be well up to the job. Whether I am, remains to be seen. So, I'll be happy starting with the easier sigle-player missions and see how it goes. I know multiplayer is great, but I'm content to wait awhile. :) Happy flying :) Martin
  3. My old Macbook Pro 13" Mid-2012 was the only laptop I've owned so long. It just kept going. I'd have eaten 3 Windows over that time period. I think it was the last variant that you could open up yourself to put in an SSD, extra RAM & the like. Wonderful. I do like the Macs, but I knew, when buying my Macbook Pro 16,that there'd be no DIY upgrading. But, on the upside, it does have 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports, and that can add a lot of oomph to it. External GPU etc. Also, with Thunderbolt 3 and fast external NVME SSD's I can add extra storage, as if it was in the machine. But, my plan B when my Macbook is a bit past it for PC Gaming, is to buy a cheap, ugly gaming laptop, that'd be good enough for all I'd need. I'd have to hide it away for special occasions though! Once again, thanks for your help.
  4. Thanks reece146. That was really so helpful. It's always good to get an answer to something that I thought was totally weird. I've decided to stay with 1920 x 1200 in future. It gives great graphics on my Macbook, or my 22" TV/Monitor, and very smooth, framerates. Judging by the minute size of the framerate counter, the smaller screen sizes also help. I know that a time will come struggle when my Macbook will struggle with DCS as it develops further. Fortunately I have already decided on a number of solutions to that which won't be expensive (ugly and cheap, but with decent specs for the time) and will leave me with the Mac for other uses. My last one was 8 years old when I handed it to a friend, and it's still going great today. I'd done a DIY increase of RAM, and replaced my hard drive with an SSD. That gave it a new lease of life, for what my friend needed it for. Thanks again for the help. I now have a sense of what might be happening. I'm really grateful. Pretty encouraging, when you think of it All the best. Martin :)
  5. DCS and Macbook Pro 16 FPS at different resolutions. After the high framerate DCS ran at with 1920 x1200 resolution, I tried different resolutions of DCS (solely on my Macbook Pro 16 - no external monitor) and the results were a little odd. Encouraging, but odd. My Macbook display doesn't have 1440 as an option. So, I first tried DCS with both the Macbook & DCS set to 3072 x 1920. The framerate dropped, under the same circumstance as before, in the SU-25T free flying (high, low, through urban areas, but no other planes around). The framerate stayed roughly between about 45fps to 60fps, and was smooth. Then I lowered the resolution of the Macbook, and DCS, to 2560 x 1600. So, this is where it gets odd. Under exactly the same conditions, the framerate rose, as you'd expect, to 70-75 plus. It was very smooth, but it periodically froze. It didn't crash the program. The plane simply froze for a second and then carried on its merry way. So, the Macbook was giving a good framerate, and the game was smooth, but periodically froze for a second. But, with the highest resolution, though the framerate was lower, it was smooth and didn't stop once. I am not particularly techie. But I know Mac screens are a little "different". Apple really do want you to run the machine at 3072 x 1920. So, at the preferred resolution, all was well with the Macbook but the fps simply dropped as you'd expect. At 1920 x1200 DCS also ran smoothly and with a high framerate. The problem came with the intermediate resolution. Still 1:6 and reasonably fast, but apparently not to its liking. During the two high resolution tests, it was very strange trying to read the fps on a 16" screen, at a high resolution. A magnifying glass would have come in handy :) So, in future I'll stick with the 1920 x 1200 sweet-spot, and I'm very pleased that my little machine has enough juice to run DCS smoothly. Thanks for the suggestions :) Martin
  6. Many thanks. I'll give it a shot. I'll take a look on the Macbook (16:10) at its native resolution (3072 x 1920). I previously reduced the resolution mostly to be in synch with the monitor, which has a 1080 maximum I haven't yet tried DCS solely on the Macbook, at its maximum/native resolution. It'll be interesting to see. I'll give it a try and see what happens. Thanks again. :)
  7. Hi Just thought it might help, for any future queries like mine, if I gave feedback on how my Macbook Pro 16 inch is coping with DCS. I have only just started, and I had to grab a full PC keyboard from someone, as starting the FPS command was so much easier on it. I seem to be getting around 120 fps consistently on the Macbook, both on its own screen, and also using a 22" LG TV/Monitor with graphics at medium+ and the Macbook resolution reduced 1920 x 1080 (to match that of the monitor) Have to admit I was happily (very) surprised. For context, I used the SU-25T solo flight training mission. No doubt loads of other planes around would seriously clobber the FPS. But I did go through towns, at low level. The view of the cockpit, looking out of the cockpit and using F2 to get an outside view was really smooth and the FPS still at 110-120 I'd love to tell you what it'd be like on multiplayer, but I'm afraid I may never fly online. All the best. Martin
  8. Thanks for all the help Many thanks. That was really helpful, and makes me very hopeful I could have a lot of fun. I can't see me wanting to play multiplayer (though that'll probably change) or getting involved with the big Supercarrier, F-14 and F/A-18C scenarios. One nice thing about this particular Macbook is that it has 4 Thunderbolt-3 ports, which gives me, in time, access to an external GPU, and more Nmve storage. Not ideal, but helpful. I'd already decided that, in a few years, though keeping the Macbook (my last one lasted 8 years! and is still being used by a student) I'd need to up the specs somehow. The Macbook 16 is a great computer. But there are some cheaper faster setups that don't look fancy, but are fast :) and can be secretly brought out on my mad nights! So, over time, I should hopefully be able to keep up without it costing too much. Many thanks, and to all that have helped. I'm really grateful Martin
  9. Thanks for replying so fast :) Several reputable sites compared my Macbook 16 inch (AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory) to similar NVIDIA GTX Cards. The Macbook came out as roughly identical, in benchmarks, games etc to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (Desktop) Does that make the comparison a bit easier? There are reasons to do with a cognitive problem I have, following a brain injury in the past. I did try to get into DCS when it was FC3 + A10. So, having some information (a guess is just fine) from people who are more knowledgeable about computer specs than I am would be really so helpful. Thanks so much. Martin :)
  10. Hello. This year I bought a Macbook 16inch. It needs to fulfill a number of functions, so I know it's not a perfect match for DCS But the new Macbook 16 is no slouch, and haver fast ssd storage, and of vourse, Windows 10 in bootcamp. It seems to run DCS fine at first sight, though I have only tried single-player missions, with reasonably high graphics settings. The specs of my Macbook 16 are as follow: Intel 9th gen 8 core 2.3hz boostable to 4.8hz AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory 16GB 2666MHz DDR4 RAM 1TB SSD nvme storage I simply wondered if somebody could give me some idea of weather my machine be up to multi-plane missions / environments in DCS Any thoughts would be so very welocome Thanks Martin :)
  11. Many apologies I posted my query in this part of the forum, in error. Thanks. Martin
  12. Since the 1.5 release, I am finally able to play DCS with my 2012 Macbook Pro, via Windows 10 on my BOOTCAMP partition. I got totally amazing FPS but inexplicable stutter that made the sim unplayable even with very high fps. The problem went away ENTIRELY simply by running the game in Windowed mode (i.e unticking Run in Fullscreen) Hope that helps. Amazed by the incredible performance boost with the new 1.5 engine. Thank you ED Martin :)
  13. Well, I'm amazed. I own a Macbook Pro 13" (mid 2012) i7 CPU and Intel HD4000 graphics. I am running DCS 1.5 using Bootcamp, and Windows 10. For those unfamiliar with Macs, Bootcamp is not a PC emulator, or virtual machine. It's a parition of your hard-drive that is assigned entirley to Windows, and you boot into it when you start the machine. Apart from a small Bootcamp utility, which ensures your keyboard assignments and all your drivers are recognized, it is, in effect, a normal Windows PC. My Macbook is entirely USB 3.0. I have DCS 1.5 installed on a USB 3.0 Samsung external SSD Hardrive, and connected to my computer with a USB 3.0 cable. So, the connection is very fast. In DCS 1.0, I could run DCS, but the framerate (and stutter) made it, in effect, totally unusable. I have just updated to DCS 1.5 and my little Macbook Pro just flies! Twice the frame rate (over 40 fps) Totally smooth on "Low" settings, and really quite smooth on the default "medium" setting. Setting DCS to default "medium" and then reducing some features, as best suit you, will give a great compromise between resolution/objects and good FPS, even in built-up areas Just for information, it ESSENTIAL, for me, using my laptop screen, to run the program in Windowed Mode (not Fullscreen). Otherwise, you get good framerates, but absolutely horrendous stutter. Thanks ED, you've made the sim playable for me. Incredible! :) Martin
  14. MacBook Pro and Monitor Sze Hi, I'm new here, so I hope I'm not butting into the wrong part of the forum. I have a MacBook Pro (mid 2012), running Yosemite. It's has 8GB 1600MHz DDR RAM, an Intel 2.9 GHz Core i7 (with boost up to around 3500 - I think) and Intel HD Graphics 4000 (1 GB assigned to it). The Bootcamp partition is running Windows 7 (64) and though I don't have any internal SSD Drive, I do have a USB 3.0 Machine, and a USB 3.0 Samsung External SSD HardDrive, onto which I've installed DCS. So, firstly I'm happy to report that it all works. I don't have an FPS counter, but it runs smoothly on Low, and Medium, at height, and is best on Low for whizzing around towns, in the SU-25t until I immediately crash! I've discovered that the best way to set the monitor resolution, is to do it within the program, and not on my monitor. As I understand it, the lower the screen resolution, the less drain on the frame rate. But does it also matter what SIZE monitor you use. I am experimenting wih 2 flat HDMI HDTVs. They can both get high resolutions which I reduce slightly. But my impression is that the frame rate is higher on the smaller screen (20") than on the larger screen (40"). That kind of make some sort of intuitive sense, but then lots of things that seem to make sense to me turn out to be wrong! If anybody could shed any light on the effect on monitor size (both at the same resolution) on frame rate, I would be just so grateful. Also, just to add to the discussion about Macs and DCS, Macbook's are, generally, not the fastest of Macs in any one year. I love the Su-25t but I have a twist joystick, not yet having bought rudder pedals. As the flight models in a lot of Flaming Cliffs 3 planes tend, mostly, to be simpler than many DCS modules, am I likely to see higher frame rates over my beloved Su-25t. So, that's monitor size, and Flaming Cliffs 3 compared to some other planes. I promise to report back, for any MacBook people out there, and who may like to know, should their MacBook/Bootcamp set-up is slightly borderline. I'm afraid I can comment on things like graphics cards, as when you ow a MacBook, this sort of stuff soon becomes a distant memory. This may also be a good time to thank so many in the community who only recently gave me the confidence to get up in the air. I really do appreciate it. Thanks, Martin
  15. Thanks Ironhand! That is just amazingly helpful, and also very reassuring. Just can't thank you enough. I'm in business. Great. I've popped on your site and was pleased to see it still there. :) Incidentally I read that some of you use are using VAC, for voice control. I hadn't realised it was still used. I wrote the 1st VAC profile for Flaming Cliffs 1, which is in a separate archived "downloads" folder on the VAC site. It must have been fairly rubbish because someone wrote another, which I imagine is much better. Funny how things change. Anyway, that was a long time ago. Thanks so much for your advice and the profiles. You've also saved me 160 quid! GOOD man! All the best Martin
  16. Ill let you know how I get on - slowly I expect :) Martin
  17. PS. By coincidence, my son, Dave, is an Air Ambulance doctor. He spent 6 months winching into gorges in North Queensland, Australia, but is now at Addenbrookes, and managed to get a jammy and competitive extension to his registrar contract by an extra year, so that from August he'll be back on the helicopters, for exactly half his time, over the next two years. No winching though! He's only 5'6" but as adventurous as you'll find. He's amazing. Don't think they do Air Ambulance Black Shark's though! :) Martin
  18. Hi Darkfire I experienced some of the Su-25t properties you mentioned. But I enjoyed the "feel" of it, & also miraculously re-spawned! It's quite a long time ago that I played flight sims. I got Lockon Flaming Cliffs 1.1, but had to stop shortly afterwards. So, flying the Su-25t has, I guess, been my first time in a plane that feels quite different , and doesn't recover as easily as I'd been used to. I would play sims on and off as my son was growing up, and the only one that seemed less "tight", was , I think, Su-27 Flanker (?). Yes - I AM that old! Anyway, I have Flaming Cliffs 1.1 which I never had the chance to explore properly. So, I thought I'd get it out, but then buy the latest F-15 as it's only $10, and use the money saved to get the A10-C. Not too sure yet. I think it could get a bit confusing if I had too many planes available, and I do confusion REALLY well! Incidentally, from those days, I had a "TrackIR 3 Pro". Not as good as the TrackIr 5, but you still do get 6 DOF with the baseball hat band. I didn't get the opportunity to use it long, but I liked it. I know the TrackIR 5 has a much better viewing angle, smoothness etc, but do you think it would be OK for a while, until I can save up for the new version? This is still a really nice forum. Very rare, sadly. I avoid them all except my fountain pen ones. Maybe they could mount a huge fountain pen on an A10, which could fire soft ink bottles labelled "The Pen is Mightier than the Sword" :) All the best, and thanks again Martin
  19. Thanks Mar I just replied to Dark fire. The problem turned it to be getting enough power to my joystick. Thanks for getting back to me though :) Martin
  20. Hi Darkfire Well, I was at this until about 2am but before I did, I ransacked my old cable and bits box. I read your post about 40 minutes ago and thought I'd test a theory before replying. The truth of it seems to be power. With my laptop, I have a mini USB Hub that can also be powered with a cable you can plug in, and power from a USB adapter. I had a very old USB hub that's powered via a huge brick, and my latest phone has more powerful USB charger than the old 1st generation iPhone charger I'd been using. The joystick functions perfectly well now, both with my old monster, and my small hub if I use my new phones USB adapter. So the whole problem was simply about a small power margin. That'll be easily solve. GREAT! I've been using the Su-25t, which came with the free DCS World download. But I'll probably get FC3 in time. I have FC 1.1 but I wouldn't get the benefits that DCS offers. I like the Frogfoot, but would like to give the A-10 a go. I'd also like to try the F-15. I can't say I've really been "flying" yet as most of my time yesterday was about un-freezing the plane and getting a controller to work. But at least, in doing that, I've stopped being frightened of the program. So, along with realising my Macbook has hidden powers, I had a pretty good day. Thanks for your continuing help, Darkfire. It really is appreciated. Time for that strong coffee and a few minutes of smugness. All the best. If I missed anything from your post, I'm sorry. I was trying to post and experiment at the same time :) Martin
  21. I've been flying! Hi Since I last posted, Martin has been flying!! I started a thread today, which I now can't find. So, I hope you don't mind if I put it here. I first got going this afternoon, with DCS installed on an external SSD Hard Drive. I set myself up for instant action, and then the game was frozen, with a completely still graphic of my plane in the air. I could look around with the mouse, but that was it.It was simply frozen, mid-air. I've discovered that the problem was down to something much simpler than my external hard drive, or the fact that I'm running on a Windows partition of my MacBook. The cause of the problem was that I had my joystick (a Cyborg Evo) plugged into a powered USB hub. My computer is completely USB 3.0, and so is the hub, and it's cable. The hub's never caused me trouble before. But, in this case it clearly did, because the moment I plugged my joystick directly into a USB 3.0 on my computer, everything started working perfectly If anyone has any thoughts on why that might be, I'd be grateful to here them. A Macbook 13" only has 2 USB ports, so your not going to be able to run a HOTAS unless it's simply a case of trying a different USB hub. But thanks again for all your help. You've all been very kind. Oh - and was also pleased to say that my modest MacBook, with Intel integrated graphics, flew very smoothly with the graphics options near maximum. Couldn't believe it. So, thanks again for all the encouragement. Seems I have my foot on the first rung of the ladder :) All the best Martin
  22. Hi Everyone. I'd be grateful for some help please. First, I'd best explain my set-up. I've returned to the forum, and flight sims after a number of years away. I now have a MacBook Pro, with Windows 7 running in a boot-camp partition. I haven't had compatibility problems apart from usual strictly windows problems (old programs etc) and they've been sorted. The Windows partition seems to be running nice and fast, with no glitches. It has almost no programs on it. It's a vanilla 64 bit Windows 7 install, and then some games games. My Macbook is USB 3.0 In order to add some speed to the DCS program, I installed it on a Samsung 256 USB 3.0 external Solid State Drive, using a USB 3.0 cable. I've found it personally hard to get to get going, because of the learning curve, but have had incredible encouragement from forum members, and today I got down to it. I made myself immortal and went for a harmless instant action "Go for a tour". I set the visual definition on all three of its average settings, whilst I was investigating my problem (below) I am using a Saitek Cyber Evo joystick with updated drivers. This is what happened. Loading of scenery and objects was fast ( I used the incorporated SU-25t) but very strangely, it flashing back to the windows desktop briefly,whilst it was going through the full load-up of different objects, until it was ready to go. Seemed a bit weird, bu the loading was was fast. Then I'd start my Instant Action tour flight, and the plane was totally frozen. I could look around outside and inside the cockpit, using the correct keys, but couldn't control a thing. The plane just stayed there, stable, but un-moving. I could admire it from all angles, but nothing else. In this state, it seemed entirely stable, and showed no signs of crashing. It was just frozen, whilst I could look around it completely smoothly. I wonder if anyone had any thoughts on what is happening. I know that usually I might try a variety of things, but I am new to problems that I've heard can be caused when USB 2.0 meets USB 3.0. I have only just started using bootcamp, the program is new to me, and the installation is on an external drive, but which will make the whole process a lot faster than my 5400 rpm internal optical hardrive. I just have no idea where to start, with my problem. If anyone has any idea what's happening, it'd be great to know. But please don't waste too much time on it. You've given me a lot of help already. Many thanks Martin
  23. Thanks Doveman Very kind of you to get back to me. Since I made the post, I've continue to work hard at figuring things out. I finally concluded that I'd just have go for the controller that seems good for me, and buy it from Amazon. If it just doesn't suit me, or, in the case of Saitek, I get a duff one, I'll then have no problem replacing it ether for a different model, or the same model that actually works. That's one really good thing about them. I also began to notice on the forum, and on tutorial videos, that people have all sorts of different, weird, and wonderful setups. Just amazing. You lot are ingenious! Also, on reflection, I can't just keep asking people questions without doing more myself to get out there and try things. We're all different, and I should get off my backside and do something to try them out. But I really do appreciate you getting back to me. But I''m getting used to people on this forum being helpful. Have a great day. Martin :)
  24. Sorry to come back for one more query. I'm sure you've had enough of me already! But, looking to (hopefully) the not too distant future the future , I was thinking of HOTAS set ups, and realise that things have changed. At one time, my eye would have gone straight to Saitek and be looking at an X-52 or x-52 Pro, but it seems things at Saitek have changed, and a very high proportion of people are expressing concerns about the quality control since they were taken over by another company. Then, there seems to be a big jump to a Thrustmaster Hotas. I had a good look around and noticed that you could get a CH Fighterstick, for a reasonable amount, and i've experienced their quality in the past. Also, unlike many companies, you can buy the throttle separately and so bulld up. I know the CH throttle is really too big for me, but other companies don't seem to sell them separately. So, in a nutshell, Saitek used to fine, but now seem to have quality issues, and after that the expense rockets, and the kit could be too large for a small hand. I'm sure lots of people have faced this problem, and decision. But having been hiding away in a cave for so long, I don't have the perspective that most people on the board would have, about how these different factors should be considered. Any advice would be really helpful. Thanks (again) Martin :)
  25. Thanks Darkfire Thanks for the information about my Macbook - great news! I'm also likely to be getting a small-ish USB 3.0 Solid State External Drive, whatever happens. Also, thanks for the encouragement. I am following everyone's advice, and one of the things I've discovered is that my android tablet is fantastic for reading really big manuals, keeping key commands on, and so on. So you can, when you're ready for the next step, put your tablet on a stand and have the Youtube tutorial, the manual and the key commands all there in an instant. Fortunately, though I have (but discovered everyone does!) a mountain to climb, I still remember the nature of flight, aerodynamics, targeting etc. I also have a few bits and bobs to keep me going for quite a long time, while I figure out whether I'm up to it. I have a Saitek Cyborg Evo, which will hold 40 commands (and which I like), and, in time, a TrackIR 3 Pro, which has less of a view angle, but has 6 DOF, and which I found in a box gathering dust! But that's for the future. Not now. I have learned not to rush, after initial panics, because I can get a kick-back because of some things I mentioned at the start of the thread. But for other people telling ME not to rush, they've been great in saying that THEY have to do the same thing. That is SO good to hear. Thanks again for the encouragement. And a really good forum. I used to hang around, anonymously, from time to time over the recent years, which meant that I kept up with developments to some extent. Well, I'd better go off air for a while so I can take my time, and I'm really sorry if I don't reply to other messages from people for a while. I never expected such a helpful, and if I'm honest, such a non-judgemental reaction. I'm grateful for it. And if anyone wants any advice about fountain pens, don't forget to contact me. Ha! All the very best Martin
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