[F18 build]

That is one clean, nice looking build, Hawke! We'll done!

[General D's Sim Pit]

Well, this is my upgrade from plywood, popsicle sticks and chewing gum - it's nothing NEAR what some of you guys are able to accomplish, but it's definitely a major upgrade for me. Took me a while to build it and it turned out pretty clean so I thought I'd share...

This started out as a Trak Racer racing frame, and I adapted it to be used for DCS flight simulation with the WinWing MIP, Thrustmaster Warthog throttle and FA-18C stick, Crosswind combat pedals, Virpil stick base and button panels, a miscellaneous X-Keys button panel I had and an Earthquake Sound shaker unit.

The frame is high enough that my eye position is level with the center of the 55 inch LG OLED, and the casters allow me to simply unplug everything and roll the entire unit off to the side when I'm using the PC and display for gaming or other things. I roll it right up to the desk when in use.

Please forgive the mess, still cleaning up...

    

 

I purchased a metal cable raceway and that really kept things neat and tidy, except for the birds nest where I plugged all the USBs into the powered hubs. I'll go back and clean that up later... I made the USB labels out of plain printed paper and scotch tape - worked surprisingly well.

 

I have a good friend who is a retired machinist, and he made the pedal plate for me per my drawings with six inches of pedal adjustment in one inch increments. Here you can also see a front view of the cable raceway.

 

I pretty much ditched the mounting instructions for the MIP panel and used heavy duty gussets to mount the MIP and stick base. It's really solid, no flex or movement whatsoever. You can see the Earthquake shaker mounted to the frame at the rear.

 

Found this metal power strip that was easy to mount to the profile for powering the USB hubs and whatever else I might need later.

 

Final result - still working on choosing what all I want to map to the button panels, but it's flyable now! 

 

This will work in the interim until I can fulfill my dream of building a full sim pit after I retire - that's definitely a bucket list item!

Thanks for having a look!

 

[Photos/Videos (NO DISCUSSION)]

 

 

Just want to mention one thing regarding the CH-46D video that makes it all the more impressive - a Marine commented that the ship is probably travelling at around 18 KTs, so not only is the pilot swinging around and hovering to pick up the load, but he is also matching the speed of the ship at the same time! He said they watched those pilots do that all day long during Desert Storm.

The F-22 video speaks for itself... as usual:-)

[Ugly color banding on objects at low sun conditions (OB 2.8.2.35759)]

I just updated open beta to 2.8.2.35682, but I don't know if that's when this issue started. I noticed that when flying the Caucases Free Flight mission just to test the update, and while in the F4 view, there are evenly spaced lines all across the wing that change in spacing and angle as the orientation of the aircraft changes. 

I've marked some of them in red in the screenshot below. In this orientation flying straight and level after setting the AP to Heading and allowing the aircraft to change course and settle out they extend from the front to the rear of the wing as shown. Also in this specific orientation, they creep slightly to the right every few seconds.

Track file attached.

Thank you!

 

FA-18C Caucuses Free Flight F4 view.trk

[How accurately modeled are the sun and moon positions based on date and time of day? Solar eclipses visible?]

Moderators - I'm not sure why this thread was at some point moved to "General Bugs" as the original question was simply a curiosity, nothing more. Please feel free to move it to a more suitable home in the forums if you like. Thanks! 

[How accurately modeled are the sun and moon positions based on date and time of day? Solar eclipses visible?]

Well folks, for all it's worth, are solar eclipses modeled in DCS? The answer appears to be YES!

I opened this thread back in August of 2019, and at the time the general consensus based upon other posts was that solar eclipses were almost certainly not modeled, so I took that a face value and went on about my life because I didn't have the slightest idea how to use the mission editor at the time.

I decided to revisit this question now, years later, since I've been dabbling with creating my own missions.

Researching past and future solar eclipses visible from Las Vegas, Nevada, I found a partial eclipse that would be visible from Las Vegas at its maximum on Oct 14th, 2023, at around 9:26 am. Here is what the eclipse should look like:

I set up a mission with a single FA-18C sitting on the ramp at Nellis facing east at the specified time. Loaded the mission, hopped in the aircraft, looked up into the eastern sky above the open canopy and here's what I saw:

The position isn't perfect, but I'm not going to split hairs over this - I'm just impressed that the eclipse is visible at all. Now, would a total solar eclipse actually darken the landscape as if it were nighttime? I have no idea, and I suspect that would depend entirely upon how the light source from the sun is modeled, i.e. is it a point source actually emanating from the sun, etc..

Anyway, just my small contribution to put this question to rest. Cheers everyone! 

[DCS World SCREENSHOT AND VIDEO THREAD!!!! (NO USER MODS OR COMMENT) 2022]

This screenshot was begging for a meme, so I gave it one.

[Starting VAICOM keyword training in the control panel does not start the MS speech training window]

On 1/14/2022 at 2:43 AM, MAXsenna said:

Wild guess. New Windows installation/refresh/reset that resat your MS Speech Recognition settings? At least it seems you need to re-configure MS Speech. Try to go through the MS Speech setup once more 

From my own experience doing the MS Speech training multiple times works, (yeah, I know it's s boring and tedious...), much better than the individual keywords training. 

Cheers! 

Hey MAXsenna, after reading your suggestion I pulled up speech settings and saw that speech recognition wasn't turned on. I started it and followed the prompts to the end, and that resolved the issue. This did indeed occur after a clean reinstall of Windows. Thank you!

[Starting VAICOM keyword training in the control panel does not start the MS speech training window]

Hi all,

I need to do keyword training, but pulling up the Editor page in the control panel and clicking on the microphone icon does not start the little MS voice recognition window with the blue microphone button. Instead, it starts this:

I've already been here and set up my mic, and I have no idea why starting keyword training pulls up this window again instead of the MS voice recognition window.

Windows 10:  Version 10.0.19044 Build 19044

VAICOM:        2.5.26.4

Any help would be appreciated, because I absolutely CANNOT make the speech engine recognize "Kutaisi" otherwise.

Thank you!

 

[New to 4K, need help with blurry terrain issue]

From what I read about TrackIR, there was something about its camera refresh rate being 60 Hz or something along that line, and what I experienced was that it's very laggy/skippy at 120 Hz even with smoothing cranked up. I'll play around with all this stuff some more tomorrow, for now I have to sign off - going on midnight here and I have to go to work tomorrow. Thanks so much for all the help!

 

Hawkeye, I tried VR a while back, granted not before acquiring the 3080 Ti, but I found I still preferred my old Helios glass cockpit and TrackIR - maybe I'm just old:-) I guess it's just a personal preference, but thank you for the suggestion:-)

[New to 4K, need help with blurry terrain issue]

OK, so I Googled LG C1 motion blur, and arrrrgh, I found a forum discussion where motion blur with LG OLEDs at 60Hz is a problem. Now that I think about it, I was running the LG at 120 Hz for the other games. I had to dumb it down to 60 Hz for DCS because TrackIR gets all wonky at 120 Hz. It was suggested to increase Black Frame Insertion and turn on True Motion, but that results in a dimmer screen. I guess I'll give that a try, but it doesn't sound promising. Yeah, LG OLED is one of the best for gaming, but apparently not at 60 Hz. I'll see if I can gather some additional info on this. Huge SIGH. 

[New to 4K, need help with blurry terrain issue]

I don't think there's a motion blur setting on the LG but I'll check, and other games at 4K are crystal clear. The HDMI is an Audioquest Pearl 48, rated at up to 48 Gb/s with HDR.

[New to 4K, need help with blurry terrain issue]

That's the crazy thing, I thought Gsync would take care of all that with Vsynch off but it doesn't. Reading about it online, I saw where a number of folks had the same issue with stutters and used a combination of Gsync and Vsynch together, and that seemed to resolve that issue for me as well. I didn't have any heat issues even when running the LG at 120Hz and Vsynch off. Some areas I saw 100+ FPS, but the GPU never got above like 75 C, but there were stutters.

 

The subwoofer brand is "Definitive". I don't remember what the specific model is without dragging it out of the enclosure, but it's big and the jet sounds are quite punchy. I need to redo my specs to reflect the new hardware, have not gotten round to it yet.

[New to 4K, need help with blurry terrain issue]

Motion blur is off. I do have Vsync turned ON in nVidia settings because without it I get stuttering.

[New to 4K, need help with blurry terrain issue]

I sure hope someone can help me with this issue. I've finally gotten my hands on all the parts for my dream system, and I pretty much have everything dialed in for relatively smooth performance while flying except for one last annoying problem.

 

When looking out the front of the cockpit, everything looks clear and crisp, however, when I look out to the side while flying at say 1000 ft or so where the terrain is moving by faster, it's blurry like it's out of focus. There's no stuttering or lagging, it's just blurry and causes substantial eye strain because my eyes are trying to focus on a blurry image.

 

My system specs:

Asus Maximus X Formula Z370 

I9-9900K@5.00 GHz

32 GB 3600 MHz ram

EVGA 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra

55 inch LG C1 OLED 3480x2160

27 inch Acer touchscreen for Helios 1920x1080

EVGA 1000W PSU

TrackIR 5

 

It took me quite a while to work through the all bewildering settings required for the PC, DCS, TrackIR and the LG to work properly together, and here is where I've ended up:

 

LG refresh rate is set to 60 Hz

Acer refresh rate is to 60 Hz

G-sync is set to ON in nVidia settings for the LG for both windowed and full screen mode

Frame limit is set to 60 FPS in the nVidia control panel for the DCS program settings 

V-synch is set to ON in the nVidia control panel for the DCS program settings

Prefer maximum performance set in nVidia control panel

Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias is set to Clamp

 

LG has Game Optimizer ON and motion processing is turned off, but for some reason Game Optimizer shows "59 FPS" in it's settings and I'm not able to change this. Problem? There are a number of other hard coded settings in Game Optimizer that I'm not able to change but they don't appear to be related.

 

The HDMI input on the LG is set to PC.

 

Both screens are extended and are being rendered for DCS+Helios as 5760x2160. 

 

Nothing crazy is set in DCS system settings or maxed out, Visible Range is set to HIGH.

 

That's about all I can think of right now, but if you 4K gurus ask for more I'll be happy to provide anything you ask for. I'm SO close to having all this working, and the blurry terrain is the last darn thing I'm dealing with.

 

I'll be forever in your debt if someone has an idea of where the problem is. Thank you!

[A-6 bombardier/navigator's harrowing partial ejection story]

Hey guys I just stumbled across this story moments ago and thought I'd share it with the community.

 

Somehow an A-6 bombardier/navigator partially ejected during flight due to a malfunction, exposing the top half of his body to the 230 kt airstream outside the canopy. His pilot managed an emergency landing on the carrier, and the story is told both from the pilot's and BN's perspectives. Pretty darn scary. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

 

Irish Luck - Surviving Partial Ejection from A-6 Aircraft (gallagherstory.com)

 

 

[Capt Zeen F/A-18C Beta Helios Profile ! ! !]

On 11/2/2020 at 11:24 AM, Snacko said:

Started playing with Helios 1.6 and Capt Zeen's awesome profiles a few days ago and everything is working great. But today I noticed that the Emergency/Parking Brake handle will not 'Pull' out. I can only get it to rotate. But if I use the Brake Lever in the F/A-18c cockpit it pull out just fine in the DCS Cockpit and also in the Helios profile...

 

How do you 'Pull' the Brake lever out in the profile??

 

Thanks!

Hey Snacko, was asking some questions of my own in this topic and saw your post. To the right of the brake handle you'll see the text "PARK BRK TURN PULL" and just to the lower right of that there is a button. Press it, and the brake handle should pull out:-)

[Capt Zeen F/A-18C Beta Helios Profile ! ! !]

One more question, and someone asked this before and Capt Zeen said he was going to look into it, but I couldn't find where he replied about this later. The Pitot Heat switch will not stay in the ON position. It seems to be set as a momentary switch such as the one used for the warning lights test, i.e. I can move it to ON and as soon as I release it the switch flips right back to AUTO. Has anyone else experienced this issue and fixed it somehow? Thanks!

[Capt Zeen F/A-18C Beta Helios Profile ! ! !]

Hey guys, looking for a little help. Somewhere in the forums someone once asked how to remove the reflections from the bottom right gauge cluster on the center console. Capt Zeen said to delete any images in the profile that start with "Crystal". I did that, but now I get a red background with what looks like a black X where the gauges are supposed to be (see attached image). Does anyone know how to successfully remove the reflection overlays and still have the gauges appear as they should? Thank you! 

 

 

[Kingston HyperX Cloud II headset mic noise cancellation]

9 hours ago, hornblower793 said:

Just to say I also use this headset and can vouch for its sound qualities. It is also very comfortable to use - you just need to make sure the front of the mic is towards your mouth (both front and rear being covered by the noise baffle)

Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk

 

Thanks hornblower - something else I forgot to mention is that the Cloud II headset does not require any bloated driver software like Logitech or Razer for instance and is plug and play via USB. The USB option utilizes a mini inline sound card so that the headset registers as a separate device from any additional sound devices you might have in your system. That was important to me for VAICOM, because I use my main 7.1 sound card for the main audio in DCS and for general gaming, Realtek onboard sound is used for SimShaker output, and the headset is used for VAICOM radio communications and anything else that should go to the headset in DCS.

 

The inline sound card can be bypassed by unplugging it from the headset and then inserting the 3.5mm headset plug directly into a jack on a sound card or receiver. The Cloud II has virtual 7.1 speaker capability, but only through the inline sound card while using the USB connection. I haven't tested the virtual 7.1 quality or bypassing the inline sound card because I only use the headset for VAICOM (thus far), but the options are supposedly there if you need them.

[Kingston HyperX Cloud II headset mic noise cancellation]

When I fly the FA-18C I like to make things as realistic as possible, including having the cockpit sound level similar to the actual aircraft, like 80-90 db during flight. I know there's a "Hear like in helmet" option, but I like to actually "feel" the cockpit sound around me via my 7.1 surround receiver while wearing my headset to better simulate what it's like to wear a helmet in the cockpit. Now, if any of you are as crazy as I am in this regard, then you might have noticed that the external noise interferes with speech engine's ability to understand you. That's the issue I had with my old Logitech G35 headset - if I turned up the cockpit sound, the speech engine couldn't recognize a word I said. I recorded the G35 headset mic with Audacity while flying, and I could clearly hear a great deal of background noise even after turning on passive mic noise cancellation.

 

I read some reviews of the HyperX Cloud II headset, and the consensus was that the mic noise cancellation with that model was very good so I gave them a shot. What a difference! Even with the cockpit sound running at 80-90 db as measured on my cell phone app and recording the Cloud II mic while flying, I could barely hear just a hint of a background noise under those conditions during playback and my voice  was crystal clear. The speech engine had no difficulty recognizing voice commands in a normal speaking voice. Maybe there are other headsets available with even better mic noise cancellation, but for what I paid for these, they were excellent.

 

I thought I'd pass along my experience in case any of you guys are as silly as I am... 

[TM F18 Stick Grip Wobble]

Found disassembly pics here: TM F/A-18C Hornet grip disassembly and OTTO upgrade - Page 3 - Thrustmaster - ED Forums (eagle.ru)

 

I feel a little better about it now

[TM F18 Stick Grip Wobble]

Great, the first TM FA-18C grip I ordered had to be replaced because the buttons were sticking, and now I'm having this issue with the replacement after just a few weeks. 

 

So, just to be clear, there are three allen screws holding the the grip handle together, one just behind the paddle switch, another about an inch back and up from that one, and a third screw up by the weapon select switch - is that correct?

 

I'm a little nervous about attempting this because I had a bad experience performing surgery to smooth out the ball and re-grease my old, sticky Warthog base. I can't remember exactly what happened now but I managed to ruin it, had to buy a new one. Hopefully this won't be as tricky...

[ThrustMaster FA-18C grip issues]

Got my replacement Thrustmaster FA-18C grip, and I can happily report that it is a vast improvement over the first unit that I ordered. Weapons select left (sidewinders) is still a tad bit difficult to engage, but I suspect that will pass as the stick gets broken in and as I get used to it. Everything else is working fine! Thanks for your input, guys, and I sincerely hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

 

@oboe, I can confirm that after configuring the first FA-18 grip (that had issues), I was able to pop it out and replace it with my original A-10C grip and all my Hornet mappings for that stick were retained. Likewise after the new FA-18 grip arrived, I removed the A-10C grip and popped in the new FA-18 grip and likewise the mappings for the FA-18 stick were retained. Didn't have to change a thing:-) 

[ThrustMaster FA-18C grip issues]

Thanks so much for your responses, everyone. I guess I'll return the darn thing because if I break it trying to fix it I'll be out of luck... sigh. Too pricey to risk voiding the warranty at this point.

 

One last question for you - when you received your sticks, were the boxes sealed? Mine was not, i.e. it was packaged with no sealing tape that had to be cut or anything like that. I ask because Amazon is notorious for reselling items that have been returned by others.