Nemesis44UK

Thank you. I've had a love affair with the F14 since the days of Top Gun and Microprose's F14 Fleet Defender.

Damn, damn, damn. Also missed the AV8-B one, which was my backup. Grrr.

Good morning all. Sorry for this being a dumb question, but I wondered if there were any plans for another F14 trial? I have an ageing system (positively geriatric) and was curious as to how F14 may run. I'm aware I'll have to make compromises, but I'd love to pick it up on this excellent Stay At Home sale.

That's a great idea, I had no idea it was possible. I will keep an eye out. Salute!

Thanks so much for your answer. I got home determined to purchase it and...... It's back to regular price. DOH! Still, I know now, so if and when it is reduced again, I will be quicker off the mark.

Apologies, I may've missed it, but is the game installed to an HDD or SSD? I had similar stutters through various PC upgrades and nothing cured it until I moved the installation to my SSD drive at which point, it became buttery smooth.

Hi, I'm interested in buying this, but can anyone tell me how it runs? I have an old system - i5-3570k, 16GB RAM and a GTX1060 6GB. I'd be running it in 1080p. Black Shark 2 and A10 run quite nicely for me, but I'm aware that they are quite old in comparison. Many thanks, in advance,

Thanks to all responders Thanks all for your comments. A quick explanation - I have uninstalled DCS if there is a prospect that I won't be able to play it for a while. Hard drive space is at a premium until I can land my 4TB HDD, so if I don't play a game regularly, it gets removed to make way for one that does. Sadly, with modern games occasionally topping 100GB in size, a 2TB drive fills up a lot faster than it used to.

Ha, it's actually my second child that threw everything out of whack! What's a good budget joystick to have? I'd love a Thrustmaster A-10, but not for the forseeable future. I don't even mind if it isn't a HOTAS setup, but a single joystick with throttle. I only had a very simple HOTAS anyway, so it won't be a massive problem to use keys for most things anyway. Any suggestions? What's a FFB2? Thanks in advance.

Here's the story behind DCS and me. Bought Black Shark 2, PC didn't run it very well. Uninstalled. Upgraded computer some time later, ran BS2, ran great, bought A10, which didn't run very well. Uninstalled. Upgraded computer some time later, ran everything very well apart from micro-stutters. Joystick broke. Uninstalled. New joystick purchased, installed everything and started learning. Had child. Fast forward a bit. Reinstalled all and started playing. Joystick broke. Uninstalled. Anyway, the point being is that I have been away from DCS and not following development for a while until I saw a video on PC Gamer about the new F14 module. It's been a very, very long time since I've been so impressed with a game trailer, which was probably Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 2 or Papyrus' original Indycar Racing, which was around 1993? The flight sim I've spent most time in is Microprose's old F-14 Fleet Defender and I have warm memories of ripple-firing AIM-54s at waves of Bear bombers and your trailer is hitting me in all my feelies. This is like all my Christmasses have come at once. So, I will save and do what I can to get ready, but I just wanted to say that the simulation looks absolutely amazing, you are all to be congratulated on hands-down the best looking sim I've ever seen and I can't wait to play. Cheers.

Many thanks everyone. I might do it at the weekend. However, I found that for some reason, my graphics options defaulted to full screen windowed mode. I changed that to fullscreen and found that it runs much better - 90-120fps in fact. I still get stutters, normally when I'm banking or a sound effect plays, but overall, it's vastly improved. I might fiddle around a bit before I revert. Thanks again for your replies.

Hi, I tried DCS 2.5 last night and it's not for me. My rig is just running crazily slow on this program. Can I downgrade to 1.5 without deactivating modules, removing everything and starting all over again?

Okay, I'll throw my hat in the ring. Loaded 2.5 last night and wow....I'm lost for words. I declined the update because I wanted to just try things a few minutes before bed. It took six or seven minutes to load a module (I actually thought it had crashed) and had massive stuttering when it did start up. Frame rate seems smooth as I'm panning around the aircraft, but it's stuttering like mad. My specs are in my signature, but generally runs things pretty well. I have a feeling that I need to sit down and do some serious tinkering. Previous versions of DCS (I last installed about a year ago) ran very well with only the odd stutter. I appreciate that 2.5 is massively improved etc and things will be different. Now, are there any "usual suspect" settings that I should take a look at? The first settings I should reduce to get it running smoothly. I'm only running a 1680 x 1050 monitor as well, by the way. I appreciate any advice because I'm saving for the Harrier module and it'd be nice to have the system sorted, ready for when I pull the trigger.

Ah, Thank you all for your responses. That takes a weight off my mind and clarifies things nicely. Thanks.

Good morning, I have the original boxed copy of Black Shark. I have the upgrade to Black Shark 2, but I'm wondering - is there any way to "upgrade" to the standalone version, short of paying full retail price? It's a pain in the plums to have to install the boxed version, put in serial key, then download the update and put in the serial key for that. I only ask because the current method of the DCS World "OS" and installing modules afterwards is so damn straightforward, it just works, you know? It's a good way of doing it! Trying to install from the DVD (which mine doesn't work very well) seems so.....antiquated :) Anyway, no worries, if it can't be done. Thanks in advance.

Hi, I reinstalled DCS World after a long time away as my computer has been pretty erratic of late and a new graphics card seems to have sorted it. (My old GPU was overheating, running at around 97C). However, I find that I have 3 activations left on Black Shark, 2 activations left on A-10 and 5 activations left on FC3. I read the sticky on this forum and it says that Black Shark will regenerate activations once per month, but if that were the case, I should have a full complement for all my games. Does it only regenerate if it is installed? I have no plans to reinstall again after this current installation, but I'm concerned that I'm going to get locked out of games that I lawfully purchased. Can someone please advise?

Hi everyone, I'm dipping back into DCS after a long while away. I get occasional emails and I get really excited to see which new module is being released. Then I get disappointed. There are (to my mind) some real strange decisions going on. For example: I hope for MIL MI-24 Hind*, we get the MI-8 (what?) I hope for Cobra gunship, we get the Huey (fair one) I hope for the record-breaking Lynx, we get the Gazelle (which hasn't done anything). Add to that the fairly weird selections of the F5, F86, MIG 15, MIG 21, Albatross, Hawk and Aviojet. I'm sorry, but is anyone really clamouring for these modules in place of fan favourites such as the F-14, F16, F-117, FA-18, AH-64 Apache, MI-24, Eurofighter Typhoon or even the Comanche? There seems to be a wealth of well known, well respected aircraft out there with tonnes of research material available, yet have never been simmed to the depth of DCS. Instead, we get a pair of cold war fighters and a bunch of planes that no one but afficionadoes even know exist. (I'm excluding the MIG-21). So, to ask my question - how do ED select which modules they are going to do? I'm assuming licencing fees are astronomical for the more well-known planes, which must have an impact. *My all time favourite helicopter and the most recent sim to cover it is probably Digital Integration's "Hind" - about twenty years ago.

GTX 660 2GB Factory O/C

I've been dying for a mid-east map since the days of F15 Strike Eagle 3. All these lush forests and grass and hills are great, but I really want a relevant map.

Shut up and take my money It seems churlish to argue about this, but this isn't the first time ED have sent misleading newsletters out with incorrect pricing. I'm sure it's a genuine mistake, but to this simhead on a budget, it's the difference between buying one module or two. Now. Having said that, please take my money. One copy of Flaming Cliffs please :joystick:

Does anyone have an idea why I should get a CTD whenever I load DCS when I have my GT Experience wheel plugged in as well as my Black Widow joystick? Easily reproducible, happens every time. If I unplug the wheel, the game starts up just fine. FWIW, it happens whether the controllers are plugged into my hub or directly into my PC. Any ideas?:(

I do agree with that, but my time is strictly limited (a couple of hours a week) and last night, I thought hmmm, let's fire up BS2 and have a blat. Spending my precious play-time trying to do engine starts etc is a bit.....hmm. :) The fact that the game can be crashed by the press of a button (or two) is surely a concern? This seems to only have been introduced by the latest patch to 1.2.6. Anyway, will feel brave and have a go of sim later - I will do some reading of the manual at lunchtime :smilewink:

Me too Press the P key playing BS2 and it automatically crashes out of the mission in Arcade. Tried remapping control to no avail. Reproducible every single time. Running latest versions of everything.

Thank you, thank you I love this game. Could never get Black Shark to work satisfactorily, but out of the box, A10 runs pretty well on my rig. Question - self-shadowing cockpit, will it reduce fps, or is it reasonably light on the GPU? The feature is in IL2-Cliffs of Dover, and I can't believe how immersive it feels.

Update Anyone? Further info - against my better judgement, I bought A10 and it runs like a dream, far better than BS, imho. On the ramp, I get between 19 and 25 fps, but flying I get around 60 - 80 fps in the cockpit. These are the same kind of frames I am getting in BS, the only difference is that in A10, they are steady...approaching lots of targets, fps drop, but on a scale. Not 50fps>8fps>50fps>6fps rendering the game very difficult to play.