Wrecking Crew

I'll bet you read this post on the 4K Success story -- there are some comments in there of mine. I like mid-tower cases and got this latest in the Cooler Master Storm Scout series -- Storm Scout 2 This case would be pretty tight for water cooling -- if you want water cooled I suggest a full tower case. This Scout 2 case is a bit tight but will take the GTX 980Ti cards -- I have two in it. The GPU temps were too high for my liking *until* all the fan holes in the case were populated. I ended up putting two 4-pin fans (all fans are 120 mm) on each side of the CPU cooler and now have seven 3-pin case fans in all the openings. The two top fans and the two side fans are on splitters. Two fans per motherboard fan header. After all the case fan openings were filled I was able to get good temps on the GPUs. WC

There is a big highway bridge at Hosta, just a bit north of Sochi. This bridge is an objective in my mission called 'F-15C Hosta Bridge' (attached). Used to be the bridge was visible for many miles away. Now the bridge is missing until maybe 2-3 miles away. Please fix the visuals. Screenshots -- The ends of the highway where they connect to the big bridge are in the red circle - The two white smoke markers are at the center span of the missing bridge - This bridge should be visible for many miles distance, it used to be... The endpoints of the highway are under the red arrows, I'm pretty close in this shot - WC

EVGA support did say SLI *could* be configured between slots 1 & 3 but that the card in #1 would run slower to match slot 3's PCIe speed (x4?). I'll leave my cards in slots 1 & 2. --- The Refresh Rate is 60 Hz, and DCS is capped at 60 fps in the Autoexec.cfg; the primary GPU temp is mid-80s °C using the cards' own fan control. DCS Vsync is on. With Nvidia Control Panel I have the old 3D profile for Black Shark with SLI Rendering Mode to NVIDIA recommended (SLI), Shader Cache to Off and Vertical Sync to Use The 3D Application Setting. DCS -- Textures - High Terrain - High Civ - High Water - High Visib Range - Ultra Heat Blur - High Shadows - Medium Res - 3840x2160 Aspect - 1.777 Monitors - 1 Res of Cockpit Displays - 1024 every frame MSAA - 2x (4K) HDR - Off Depth - Off Lens - Dirt + Flare Clutter - 500 Trees - 15000 Preload - 125,000 AF - 8x Flat Shadows - On Aero - Off VSync - On Full Screen - On Oculus - Off Autoexec.cfg -- options.graphics.maxfps = 60 if not net then net = {} end net.download_speed = 1024*1024 net.upload_speed = 256*1024 Using GPU-Z to monitor both cards, the Memory Used is the exact same, but the GPU Load is much higher on the Primary, 40-70%, while the secondary is about 8-10%. I'm running DCS with Fullscreen checked and pressing LAlt-Enter; when I press LAlt-Enter the mouse cursor is squished flatter. GPU-Z is showing the primary GPU with 'PerfCap Reason' of both VRel and Therm, but I don't notice anything different on screen. WC edit --> does MSAA and/or AF affect the gradient bands across the sky?

Stay light on fuel and don't load weps and you will have a better chance of driving back onto the tarmac after a repair. WC

Here are some thoughts on my new TV monitor after a week of setup. I am running two GTX 980 Ti FTW cards in SLI. The primary card is on top, closest to the CPU (i7-6700K, 32 GB DDR4 3200). The two games tested are DCS World and World Of War Ships -- both do not support SLI at this time. I tried the second GPU in PCIe slot 3 with one slot between the cards for better airflow -- but SLI would not come up as an option in Nvidia Control Panel, so card 2 went into slot 2. The resolution is set in Nvidia CP as "4k x 2k, 3840 x 2160 (native)". I tried the "4k x 2k, 4096 x 2160" choice briefly but the screen was too wide for the TV monitor. For most of the week, the Refresh Rate was set on 60 Hz. For DCS, my server is capped at 30 fps and this computer is not capped -- and was getting 60 fps in the game. WOWS was giving 59-60 fps mostly, and dipping down to 51-52 with about 5 ships fighting; with WOWS I had to create a profile for it to run a single card only because of bad screen flashing. I got pretty concerned with the primary GPU temp in both games (89-92 °C) and fan speed maxed out and loud. I swapped the cards with no change. Switching the Refresh Rate to 30 Hz cured the high temperature issue -- now the primary card is running in the low 70's °C. Perhaps if SLI was an option in these games, or if the GPUs were water cooled, then 60 Hz would be fine. I see a little stutter at 30 Hz with everything turned up, so I will mess around with some of the graphics settings. I'm running Nvidia's Precision X fan control software to adjust a custom fan curve to keep the fan speed % steady from 70-85 °C. Also using the GPU-Z utility's Sensors tab to monitor both GPUs. I have to start the Precision X software and click on both GPUs to 'initialize' their fan operations, which I don't like having to do. I wonder what these GPU cards would do if I did not run Precision X? When would the fans kick in? So I called EVGA support. They said the Precision X utility does not need to be run -- these GTX 980's will kick on the fan at 60 °C and auto adjust from there. To run constantly at 60 Hz the GPUs should be water cooled. Running in the mid 80's °C is OK. I asked if running a second 22" monitor off the primary card is OK and was told that is not a problem at all (two people from EVGA told me that). I'll try the 50 Hz Refresh Rate to see where that drives the temps. All in all, I am happy with the computer and TV monitor choice. The icons are easy to read and game graphics are great. The TV is about 45" away. I had to adjust TrackIR curves to smooth them out. I'm also running Logitech game software to control the G series mouse DPI buttons to quickly move across the big screen. edit --> The 50 Hz option is working well in both games. Getting 50 fps and GPU temp is in the 80's °C. Game play is improved. WC

The '7500 monitor I'd purchased got delayed so I canceled that order. After a lot more research, and waiting to see if Samsung 2016 4K 48" models would be released (there are only 55" and 65" for 2016 in the 9000 series) I settled on the Samsung UN48JS9000 Curved 48-Inch 4K. When I went to buy, Amazon had a package deal that includes a Samsung 350W soundbar that connects wirelessly to the TV and my mouse got away from me and ordered it, too. Both will arrive today. WC

That took care of the dcs log errors. Thanks! WC

There are missions on my site that you are welcome to try -- see the link below. WC

That's an interesting question. I assumed that it is the vehicle's proximity to the FARP, not what group it is in. WC

I've been using this DCS calendar table, and have a mission (attached) that is set for 09 September and an early morning start to take advantage of the sunrise at 06:48:43. I don't see sun until 07:27-29. You can see in the screenshot that the time on the HUD is 07:29:42. Daylight Savings? :smartass: WC

A-10A - LAU-61 Rockets should be changed to LAU-68. The older default loadouts for the A-10A describe the rockets as LAU-61 which are no longer available for Ground Attack tasking. WC

Reset it with Num-5 and Num-Enter. WC

Hi folks, I run the open Hollo Pointe server. Especially for the new folks, there is a text chat icon that appears on the left of the screen when you have unread text messages. Open it with 'TAB' every so often (like when you see it :) ). When the icon is there but the text chat window is closed, you will be missing out on what could be important information. You can press TAB again after reading the content and the text chat box will close and the icon will go away until there is more text to display. Press Cntrl-TAB to open a line below to enter your text. Be aware there is a Text To Allies and Text To All option. WC

Hi, I run the open Hollo Pointe server. In multiplayer, the text chat window is by default closed now, and shows the envelope icon along the left side when there are unread messages. I have a couple of suggestions for improvements. 1. Default the text chat window to open. Yesterday I was on approach to Vaziani and got ATC clearance to land, and I broadcasted text messages all the way in. But as I was on final a new guy was turning onto the runway so I had to go around (being in pretty bad shape my a/c did not make it). :pilotfly: Now I was thinking that the new guy did not see my texts because his chat window was closed! Sure, he was in the wrong in a number of ways, but I could not get the guy's attention and chat with him. Heck, the first times I saw the text chat icon I wondered what it was and how to open it. This is a problem because it isolates new people from text communications. 2. The mouse should be able to open and close the text chat box, and get the cursor onto the edit line. 3. If the text chat box is closed, allow Client texts to show through. 4. When switching back and forth from Allies to All text broadcast, keep the cursor in the edit box so one doesn't have to go click on it again to type a message. 5. Different colors and/or regular/italics for text to Allies vs text to All. Put a 'To Allies:' and 'To All:' in front. 6. Suppress the text chat icon from appearing with 'user took a screenshot' message. Take a screenie of a scene when the icon is not visible and the icon will pop up and be in the next screenshot. I want my screenies to be clear of this icon which requires me to open the chat box and close it again for the next screenie. Or, filter out the text chat icon from a screenshot, but not the text in the text chat box if it is open. WC

AFAIK, the protected missions/campaigns are all single player; a multiplayer mission cannot be protected. I believe the protected ones are compiled like a DCS module, and have to be installed like a module. WC

Yikes, my server's Slmod ServerAdmins.lua was inadvertently changed. The UID for 'Wrecking Crew' is still there but the player name associated with it is now 'Hollo Pointe'. During my testing I made numerous attempts to register 'Hollo Pointe' as an admin and thought I was successful, until I looked into the file. Edit --> I tried this again after repairing my ServerAdmins.lua file. Looking at the on screen chat text, after Wrecking Crew types in '-admin load Hollo Pointe', and I exit the mission as WC and join as Hollo Pointe, I see in the text chat on screen: 'Slmod: you were granted server admin status by admin "Hollo Pointe". This ^^^ should have said that admin status was granted by "Wrecking Crew". Checking the ServerAdmins.lua again I see that this time the UID for Wrecking Crew is correct with the WC player name. WC

Hi, Grimes -- thank you for all the work you are putting into Slmod. I installed the Slmod 74 build onto Hollo Pointe with the previously existing config.lua, BannedClients.lua and ServerAdmins.lua. My UID for Wrecking Crew is in the ServerAdmins.lua. I can verify admin rights with '-admin', and '-admin load' is pointing to my /DCS/Missions folder like it should. I get new Slmod chat logs for each session but they are empty of the typed in text, the file size is zero. I see lots of these entries in dcs.log -- 00075.126 ERROR Lua::Config: Call error onSimulationFrame:[string "C:\Users\Hollo Pointe\Saved Games\DCS\Scripts/net/Slmodv7_5/SlmodStats.lua"]:70: attempt to index upvalue 'statsF' (a nil value) stack traceback: [C]: ? [string "C:\Users\Hollo Pointe\Saved Games\DCS\Scripts/net/Slmodv7_5/SlmodStats.lua"]:70: in function 'resetStatsFile' [string "C:\Users\Hollo Pointe\Saved Games\DCS\Scripts/net/Slmodv7_5/SlmodLibs.lua"]:2677: in function 'reset' [string "C:\Users\Hollo Pointe\Saved Games\DCS\Scripts/net/Slmodv7_5/SlmodCallbacks.lua"]:259: in function 'newHandler' [string "./MissionEditor/GameGUI.lua"]:596: in function <[string "./MissionEditor/GameGUI.lua"]:595>. 00075.134 INFO LuaNET: SLMOD INFO: successfully loaded (name = slmod.basicSerialize) function into export. 00075.135 INFO LuaNET: SLMOD INFO: successfully loaded (name = slmod.serialize) function into export. 00075.135 INFO LuaNET: SLMOD INFO: successfully loaded (name = slmod.oneLineSerialize) function into export. 00075.135 INFO LuaNET: SLMOD INFO: successfully loaded (name = slmod.serializeWithCycles) function into export. 00075.135 INFO LuaNET: SLMOD INFO: successfully loaded (name = slmod.deepcopy) function into export. 00075.136 INFO LuaNET: SLMOD INFO: successfully loaded (name = slmod.tableshow) function into export. 00075.138 INFO LuaNET: SLMOD INFO: using banned ucids and/or ips as defined in C:\Users\Hollo Pointe\Saved Games\DCS\Slmod\BannedClients.lua 00075.138 INFO LuaNET: SLMOD INFO: using server admins as defined in C:\Users\Hollo Pointe\Saved Games\DCS\Slmod\ServerAdmins.lua 00075.168 INFO LuaNET: SLMOD INFO: successfully loaded unitAttributes. 00075.169 ERROR VFS: VFS_open_write: CreateFile(C:\Users\Hollo Pointe\Saved Games\DCS\Slmod\\SlmodStats.lua): The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. The attachment has dcs.log, debrief.log and the Slmod folder root files config.lua and Slmod.log. Only DCS was open on the server when these sessions ran (Notepad++ was closed). Do you know why the Slmod chat logs are empty and how to fix this? WC

Hi, Shahdoh, The settings in your link are all client side -- do you have recommendations for the server? WC

Holy cow. RIP Blooze. I'd helped with a mission he was designing and was looking forward to its release. He was a champion of DCS World, and a really, really fine graphic artist. WC

Yep, I turn off/Pause the TIR when in a CA slot. WC

A mission on my Hollo Pointe server called 'Witches Hollo' lets an A-10C driver pair with a Combined Arms JTAC to drop GBU-12s from above the cloud deck. The JTAC has to stay in binocular view so as not to lose the laser. What works is when the human JTAC gives the coordinates of the target and the heading to it from the JTAC position. The Hog driver should SPI the coords on the TAD and come in on the same heading. WC

Hi, Cik, I agree with your post except for this ^^^. The laser is not visible. WC

Spherical zones work well to limit the height of the volume. A Cylindrical zone does go straight up. I haven't used the bomb_in_zone(?) function, if it has the zone_type variable try setting it to sphere. Hmmm, did not see anything in the Mist Guide about this function. WC

Yes, 8 digits for the E, with a leading zero. I enter the N the E and the Elevation, and a Name. Then I press the ? button to save it. Whenever I get a CDE error I'll press Clear and re-enter the info. WC

I also have a two screen setup and run DCS Windowed. Alt-Enter does fill the primary monitor but the mouse won't work directly over the buttons, the alignment is off for clicking stuff. WC