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Although I still think the Merlin can last longer than 2 minutes at a boost of 8, at sea level, in a climb. Here are some hair raising numbers. What happens every second? In that one second, the V-12 Rolls-Royce Merlin engine would have gone through 60 revolutions, with each of the 48 valves slamming open and closed 30 times. The twenty four spark plugs have fired 720 times. Each piston has traveled a total of 60 feet in linear distance at an average speed of 41 miles per hour, with the direction of movement reversing 180° after every 6 inches. Three hundred and sixty power pulses have been transmitted to the crankshaft, making 360 sonic booms as the exhaust gas is expelled from the cylinder with a velocity exceeding the speed of sound. The water pump impeller has spun 90 revolutions, sending 4 gallons of coolant surging through the engine and radiators. The oil pumps have forced 47 fluid ounces, roughly one-third gallon, of oil through the engine, oil cooler, and oil tank, scavenging heat and lubricating the flailing machinery. The supercharger rotor has completed 348 revolutions, its rim spinning at Mach 1, forcing 4.2 pounds or 55 ft³ of ambient air into the combustion chambers under 3 atmospheres of boost pressure. Around 9 fluid ounces of high octane aviation fuel, 7,843 BTUs of energy, has been injected into the carburetor along with 5.3 fluid ounces of methanol/water anti-detonant injection fluid. Perhaps 1/8 fluid ounce of engine oil has been either combusted or blown overboard via the crankcase breather tube. Over 1.65 million foot pounds of work have been done, the equivalent of lifting a station wagon to the top of the Statue of Liberty. In that one second, the hard-running Merlin has turned the propeller through 25 complete revolutions, with each of the blade tips having arced through a distance of 884 feet at a rotational velocity of 0.8 Mach. Fifteen fluid ounces of spray bar water has been atomized and spread across the face of the radiator to accelerate the transfer of waste heat from the cooling system to the atmosphere. No wonder the Merlin sounds like a soul in torment! Regards David

When using Normandy with Deferred Shading selected on, the cockpit is too bright, lost all contrast and some definition. Also when attacking targets against a bright blue sky, the gun sight cross is hard to see. Same in the 109, so will these be fixed in the next update, or is this way down the priority list? Turning Deferred Shading off fixes the cockpit, but we loose the lovely Shading and colours in Normandy! Regards David

I have been experimenting and worrying about my poor graphics performance in Normandy. Specifically the use of Deferred Shading and AA AS. I have a GTX 980 with 4 Gb as you can see in the signature. I was thinking that this was to blame for the low performance. It is not! I think I found the culprit in the metashaders folder! I renamed the DCS.openaplha folder and let the sim re build a new one, thus getting rid of the old metashaders folder! Resulting in smooth flight and averaging 60 FPS! I have in game AA and AS set to off and don't notice any issues! The Deferred Shading now looks excellent! If anyone has not yet done so, I recommend to rename your DCS.openalpha folder in Saved Games. Let the sim build a new folder and then just transfer your joystick settings, in Config/Input. I see my GTX 980 using all its VRam and running at 100% load. This is fine and obviously with a higher GPU I could safely continue to plan for an Oculus Rift purchase...! BTW, this only applies to Normandy.... Best Regards David

I find "Low" settings, in 2.1, give the same smooth flight as 1.56 maxed out! Medium settings, in 2.1, are bearable, with some stutters and graphic artifacts on shorelines and edges of wings. Tell you what, I think the VRam requirement for maxed out settings, in 2.1, is 11Gb, or in other words, a 1080 ti @ 11Gb! But wait! If guys with a 1080 ti are seeing problems, then we await further development:smilewink: It's all going the same way. Look at the P3d v4? 64 bit, so sooner or later when scenery add one become fully 64 bit optimised, everyone will need more VRam!:megalol: Thats progress, I presume. $$$$£££££✓

If 2.1 Normandy/Nevada is using more VRam that's in my GPU (GTX 980 with 4Gb), then that's why I am seeing stutters! The system RAM (32Gb) is slower than VRam and it doesn't matter that I have 32 GB RAM. I am not in a position to go and buy a Titan GPU. I sincerely hope ED can optimise 2.1, or I am confined to 1.5. The stutters, shimmers and strange artifacts on the Normandy coastline and at the edges of the Spitfires wings are unacceptable. If no optimisation is possible, then they should clearly state what the games GPU requirement is. Regards. David

Well put! I still think the Merlin was not quite that fickle with a boost of 8 for brief moments when radiator airflow was reduced in a dogfight. Cheating, no definitely not. Seemingly, for composing missions in Normandy, it would be prudent to have a flight of 4 Spits v 2 109's or 190's. The odds of a 1v1 Spit victory on 109/190 with AI super pilots, is a slim one. The 109/190 can Boom and Zoom with ease. The mk9 Spit just doesn't have the speed. Interestingly, in the Historic accounts from Bunyap, many encounters with 109/190's were brief affairs. The 109/190 chosing to run, rather than engage in a prolonged fight. They knew,as we do in DCS, that the Spit couldn't chase them! Victories coming when the other guy made a mistake in ACM. So the question is, how to simulate this in a mission, using AI? We all know the AI go "at it" until they either die, run out of ammo, or fuel? Interesting times ahead!:D Regards David

Good point! Well made! However, the overall lack of cooling at higher boost does result in the need for very careful and constant monitoring of the coolant temps. That and the sudden high speed stalls make for a high stress combat!:smilewink: Now flying the Mustang in the high power region has no such worries.She just trucks along in high boost with temps in the red? As for the 109 and 190, they are dream engines. I mean full boost, MT on and those temps are pegged at high with the engine blasting out sweet full power notes! Must be that simulated auto prop pitch keeping the engine sweet? Certainly, of the four WW2 kites, the German machines present almost carefree dogfighting at Max boost! If the 2 minutes at 120c could be tweaked a little, to say 5 minutes before the kettle boils dry, then combat in the Spit would be more rewarding. Regards David

A little straffing run on Carpiquet pre D Day! The radiators blew after 2 minutes at combat power. (2900 RPM, 8 boost), in spite of rad shutters manually wide open? Also, as we know the rear view mirror is bugged. I did not use Deferred Shading, so AA x4 and Aniso at x16. These are in game settings, exactly the same as I use in Caucuses 1.56. I find using the Nvidia control panel either makes things worse (stutters). The radio voices are from my Wingman radio mod on User Files.:smilewink: Tally Ho!

Normandy without Deferred Shading. AA x4, Aniso x16. A little straff on Carpiquet airfield.....pre D Day so still occupied! The Spit blows radiators at combat power (2900 RPM and 8 boost?) and the rear view mirror has a bug. Apart from that, some beautiful countryside and interesting damage effects. Tally Ho!

With a modest combat boost of 8, the radiator coolant temps go 140+ and result in flames emitting from the exhaust ports. Please review the effectiveness of the radiator flaps, even with them wide open manually the aircraft will die after 60 seconds? This occurs with low ambient air temps. Regards David

Yes the mirror has gone in 2.1?

Thank you. It will be great when it's complete.:D There are more pressing issues presently.

There are no beach obstacles on the map, neither are there any in the Asserts Pack. Also, there are no British or German infantry units. Any plans to add these? At the moment the Normandy coast looks like a holiday resort?:cry: Regards David

Same here. It's the Deferred Shading. I turn it off. Untick Deferred Shading in the GUI. The Deferred Shading also means the in game AA is no longer effective, with AA set to my previous x4 the stutters are ridiculous! Alpha?

Yes rad shutters are in auto mode (switch forward) . If the ambient temperature is high, say 30c, the coolant is going to need the shutters wide open (switch back position) which is what I select when charging around after the Yellow Noses!:smilewink: What was the coolant temperature reading before the "fire"? You shouldn't get a fire before the radiator busts with plumes of white smoke, which is actually steam. If the engines on fire it's gotta be something else? Normally with a boost of 8+ I get at least 10 minutes at 2800/3000 in combat? I don't think they have finished the Spit yet. The model is different again with 2.1, the ground handling is smoother with the brakes not bouncing the tail wheel all over the place! Cheers.

I am testing my modules in the new Deferred Shading mode. Here is how I see my Mirage in Nevada with Deferred Shading, see attachment photos. Canopy reflections..hmmm? OK, but trouble is, I can not read the HUD now! Apart from that the frame rate is half what I had in 2.05, now with stutters! Same in the Normandy map! Also the stutters are there regardless of Deferred Shading on or off? Definitely Alpha now! Regards David

Yep, that's how I understand it. For #2, I think the only way to set altitude is via a BAD waypoint. This chap explains how to do a INS BAD waypoint. Although I can't get the dumb bombs on target using this!:doh: For auto approach, only really used as an aid in zero viz. I always hand fly since the Fly By Wire is just beautiful and you just follow the HUD! Cheers.

Sounds like your system is using the disk as a page file. In task manager how much memory is the game using? If it's grabbing a lot of your system RAM, it will use your SSD memory and slow things down. Even though SSD are fast they can't deliver the same speed as our RAM. I have 32 GB RAM, all SSD's and still see stutters in Normandy, so it's an issue at the moment....for some of us at least.

+1. After flying about for a couple of hours this afternoon upon loading Normandy, I am somewhat disappointed. Far too bright, almost bleached out colour of the trees! The Deferred Lighting option gives the cockpit of the Spitfire a horrible, faded, cartoon like look. Also with Deferred Lighting the Kneeboards on all WW2 aircraft are devoid of any map features. Turning Deferred Lighting off restores the Map in the Kneeboard. My frame rate is half what the Caucuses map is, with stutters, which I have not seen since FSX days! So I will not be buying that Oculus Rift! At least that's made my mind up and saved me £500! At least this is Alpha, so we should expect improvements? Regards David

Will there be a drop tank available in future? Also possibly a bomb? The Normandy Missions would benefit from both features I believe. Especially in the early phases when Spits flew round trips from Britain. Cheers David

When Deferred Shading is on, the kneeboard map is blank in all WW2 fighters, Spitfire, Me 109, FW 190 and Mustang. This makes navigation in cockpit difficult. The F10 Map must be used? Regards David

Yes please supply some 88's and some 37 mm flak guns. I was just creating my first mini mission in the Normandy map and noticed there are no flak units, either static or active? Also the transportable 37 mm flak, which could be mounted on those railway wagons, making strafing them a bigger hazard/challenge! Could we not use the cannon effects we already see in the AA 30 mm?? Best regards David

Need Mustang to do some runway textures! Once I get Normandy up (still downloading at dial up modem speeds on my ultra fast Broadband!) I am sure there are more airfields that had concrete runways. If we make a list, one of our terrain modders could rustle up a cement mixer!

4 hours to download and install 2.1 update. I can not install Normandy or the Asserts Pack which I have purchased. Can this be addressed please?

Agree with this and what's been said re AI damage and AI ability. I don't play multiplayer player, so the AI is vital for my experience. With the soon to be released Normandy map I am anticipating re creating D-Day and subsequent battles. Many of the air to air encounters were very brief and resulted in the FW190's/109's retreating on many occasions. There is no way to simulate the AI doing this, unless you add factors into the AI mission, that causes them to RTB when Winchester or Bingo. I am awaiting Normandy and in the meantime having fun with dissimilar air combat!:D The Sabre is (for me) the weakest "Jet" to fight a FW or 109. The 50 Cal's appear to be completely ineffective (when I do get any hits?:smilewink: As for the 1st generation sidewinders, well they just don't lock. Zoom and boom should work with the Sabre, alas I usually go Winchester and leave the AI FW pilots laughing at me:megalol: So apart from it's air to ground ability, the Sabre is not the dogfighter I had hoped for. More fun with trying the Mirage against a pair of FW's. But interestingly I have the best experience with the Mig 21. Cannons (HE and AP mix) cut the WW2 aircraft in half and the missiles lock well. The Mig accelerates faster than anything else and the way it bleeds airspeed in a +7 g turn can be useful against the FW AI!:smilewink: The Spit v FW/109's is the "realistic" option, however I load the AI with 30% ammo and RTB them when Winchester. To try to recreate the "skirmishes"". As for the Mustang, well in my experience, it does not compare with the Spitfire, either in handling or firepower. History tells me that once the Merlin was fitted to the Mustang, it was at least equal to the Spit. I do not find this is so. Anyway, here's to D-Day and Tally Ho! Cheers David