Faelwolf

Be aware that in my experience, those changes will also affect the HUD and MFD's in cockpit, so you might have to play with them a bit to find a balance that works for you. (And as always, back up the file before you mess with it) The original post is a great starting point. Adjusting DMC outline thickness to 1 and taking fuzziness down to 0.0 helped a lot with reading text over the map in the DMC for me on both monitors. As always YMMV. I'm curious as to why this issue only seems to occur in the FA-18, I have no issue in other planes, such as the A-10C. But it is what it is.

There is another detailed flight sim out there, that the last time I checked was almost $200 just to get started, then forces you to re-buy every module whenever there is a major update. I'll stick with DCS thanks. Yeah ED drives me nuts sometimes with fixes that break something else, etc., and I've done my share of complaining at times, but for what it is, and the hours I spent over the years flying it, I most certainly got my money's worth. Very few sims/games have this kind of life span, and in things like RPG's most ongoing development is tied to a monthly fee as well as expensive yearly expansions that are required to keep playing, often costing more than the game did. ED never requires you to buy anything really, there are several free planes to go along with the free download, at least one of which is fully combat capable. You don't have to buy a single module if you don't want to, and just the ones you really want if money is an issue. BTW I am one of those old retired guys, and I don't have any money lying around. I'd like to get the carrier while I can get it cheap, but even that small amount of money just isn't in the budget right now. I'm not living on dog food, but there are still bills to pay and a fixed income only goes so far. I can always catch one of the numerous sales later on, so can anyone else. When the FA-18 went into early access, I happened to have the money on hand so took advantage of the discount. I haven't flown it at all until lately, as I wanted to have more features, etc. But it was my choice. I did not have to buy it to be able to keep flying my beloved A10C. Even A10C 2 won't be required to keep flying the A10C (though I am going to start putting a little back when I can to pick it up when it releases). For that matter, the carrier module isn't required to fly the FA-18. This is aimed more at dedicated realists, and squadrons who want a higher level of detail for their ops. The existing carrier in the game is perfectly fine for the casual flyer, and isn't going anywhere that I know of. Early access isn't for everyone, it's basically pay to beta. In a way, they are paying you to beta by giving you a discount on it. It also gives us a little insight into their build process, as well as a chance for us to give some feedback into what we are seeing on our end. No developer could hope to have the wide variety of rigs and setups that the community has, so it is a valuable resource for them, too. I was once a beta tester for a number of RPG's a while back, and ED listens to us far more than those companies did. So all in all, if you don't think it's worth picking up at this time, don't. No one is forcing anyone to buy it at all, really.

I reset my default head position to the old one. (rt CTL + rt SHIFT using numpad / and * to get the position I liked, rt CTRL + numpad 0 to save as default) Then I modified the .../Mods/aircraft/A-10C/Cockpit/Scripts/HUD/device/HUD_param.lua file to change the value (Line 6) TFOV = 170 to 150. I did this from a copy/paste into my mods folder for OvGME so it doesn't have to be done manually after every update, but do what floats your boat. My HUD is back to old cockpit visibility and is working just fine. With my old eyes, I also much prefer the old head position for reading the MFD's. As always, you may need to adjust a little differently due to your setup and personal preferences, and YMMV as to effectiveness, you may have to play with TFOV a bit. But it worked very well for me. Tested both with and without TrackIR with no issues. Edit to add: This for folks having issues in 2D. Don't have the rig/goggles to work with any VR issues, but will like to, some day :)

It's a bit of a catch-22. To fix the issues requires manpower and money, but the problems reduce sales, which limits the manpower and money available to make the fixes. The most practical solution would be an outside investor, but that is unlikely in such a niche market, so the cycle continues. The addition of 3rd party module developers helps a little by giving them additional manpower at lower cost to them, but it isn't going to be enough to break the cycle, and has created it's own problems. The situation is complicated even further by the continual evolution of computer technology and the resulting higher performance and feature expectations of their customers. ED is a small company in a very limited market, and IIRC the PC market was, at least initially, a side venture for them to begin with. I admit to being frustrated at times, but compared to what flight sims used to be, we have come a long way. If something like DCS had been shown to us back in the 90's we would have been stunned. I feel the biggest problem ED has is in communication. They often over-promise, but I think they honestly believe they are going to reach the goals they publicly set for themselves at the time they make the statements, but lack the transparency needed when they fall behind schedule. They have yet to learn that it's better to under-promise and over-deliver, especially in this age of social media.

The Huey, you don't want to be anywhere near me :)

Nothing ever is :)

I imagine you could just set it up in OvGME and swap it out for updates, then swap it back in afterwards, like any other mod.

I own the retail box, and did what BigNewy suggested back when DCS became DCS world. It works fine. The serial number from the box set becomes your DCS module serial number, and the module manager will download and install the current version of the A10C module for you to fly. Very simple and straight forward system. There is no need to install the discs, you just need the serial number once you have downloaded and installed DCS World 2.5 from ED's site. Once you have registered the box set serial number to your ED account, it is yours permanently, no need to ever re-register it, even if you reinstall the game. Once it is installed and running, you can delete the files for the disk version of the game to save space, they are no longer needed, unless you want to fly retro for some reason :)

Definitely check your brake setup and make sure they are releasing completely. Some pedals don't play well with DCS, like the Saitek Combat Pros. It can take a lot of tweaking to get them working right, and even then it's double-tap to make sure the sim got the release input from them. I ended up having to set one pedal toe brake to control both as an alternate to keep from veering off the runway on takeoff and landing, as I never know which brake will still be half on......

+1 Snoopy! Right now the USAF is still in a minor bit of hot water with the public for trying to cancel the A-10 program, and could use a little good will from fans of the A-10, so negotiating an updated sim contract isn't out of the question. So it sure doesn't hurt to ask, and let ED know the interest is still there!

Compared to other jets, the A-10 is a Prius! It doesn't have the speed and acceleration of a sports car, but it goes a long time between fill ups, and a little fuel goes a long way. :)

I started out with the Cougar MFD's, then while looking for a monitor to mount them to, found an inexpensive touch screen monitor and went for the full Helios setup. It does make a big difference either way, won't fly without it. I found that it just took a little tweaking to get my frame rate back, and the sim still looks and performs well, and my system is modest compared to many. (Though cutting edge all those years ago when I bought it. >sigh<) feefifofum has the right idea, much easier and inexpensive to just mount the MFD's onto another monitor than to buy and try to fit a pair of mini LCD's. A LCD TV will work too, so long as it accepts PC input, as most do. If your video card has an HDMI port, that makes it even easier to find a LCD TV to fit. You can get a smaller LCD TV cheap at any pawn shop or off of Craigslist. It doesn't have to be fancy or high end. Another advantage of monitor mounting them is you can use the extra screen space to display other things as well if you like. DCS is really flexible on outputs.

It's always interesting just how much damage even a soft object (relatively) like a bird can cause when you add speed to the equation.

For the mavericks, if you are slewing them to a waypoint, markpoint, or SPI and don't get a lock right away, try giving it a TMS up short to lock target (I think of it as "giving it a nudge") much easier than trying to move the camera around a bit and get it to re-acquire as I've seen some do. The maverick wont target lock if the waypoint is at altitude or undefined, as it is looking at open air.

To be honest, with no Hornet throttle to go with it, I can't really justify the cost of purchasing the Hornet stick to go on my Warthog after all the mapping and such is already done on the existing stick. I think that may be a common thought, and will hurt sales. With a matching throttle, it would be way more tempting. Having the throttle and stick map 1:1 to the A10C was a major selling point for me on the Warthog.

.......or has the market for flight sim controllers gotten that small? We have the F-18 replacement stick coming out for the Warthog, but apparently no throttle in the works. Also they never came out with a stand-alone of the cougar throttle, so it could be paired with the stand-alone stick, which is just a repop of the Cougar stick as it is. It seems to me they could just as easily do the same for the Cougar throttle, the tooling is already done. With the new rudder pedals coming out, they obviously see some market potential overall, and BMS is still popular, with a DCS F-16 in the pipeline as well IIRC. Not even a hint of a Warthog/Cougar quality "universal" throttle as a catch-all. All this after the initial hype of the Warthog being the first in a line of modular flight sim gear. It's a mystery to me.

I use CS3, and have never had an issue. I am under the impression that ED uses Photoshop in-house, and their kits are set up for it, but they don't need/use the advanced features. You may save some money by poking around on Amazon or E-Bay for an older version.

Yeah, I had to a break as well, a "couple weeks" turned into a couple years, too. Life sure goes by fast anymore. Coming back, I agree the difference is almost night and day. Arma 3 type play incorporated into DCS? That's been my hope for the Combined Arms module since the beginning! Maybe some day :)

Even the most complicated aircraft in the sim can be learned in progressive steps, so I'd say don't let apparent complication sway you. The nice thing about DCS is you can own all the modules if you want, so this isn't a "Game breaking" decision, either. What aircraft strikes your interest the most? Fly that. The F-18 certainly meets all your mentioned interests, and with it currently in beta, you can learn all that is currently modeled, and grow with it. As others have mentioned, there are several aircraft that are more complete that you may enjoy as well. Frankly, with the cost of a module being about the same as one night out to dinner with the wife, (or less, depending on your area) any module is cheap. Having too many options to choose from is a nice problem to have :)

Not in-game that I know of, but I suppose you could always write a script. I personally just keep all the things I use on my quick start bar, and go down the list, with DCS at the end of it. Doesn't take very long.

Awesome! Thanks for this, downloading now, didn't want to have yet another version of DCS on my drive.

Sun bleached, dust scoured, or both. Don't leave your car parked outside for any length of time in the southwest! :)

I may be wrong, but can't you download from steam to your standalone folder, then activate with your standalone keys? The data shouldn't be different, just the folder location.

For A-10C I paid $59.99, plus a trip to a major city near me, roughly an hour's drive each way. I didn't know about the beta, or would have bought it online much sooner. I only found out about the sim right at release, and bought it the next day, it was only in the one store in my area. The joke's on me for not checking to see about online purchase, and the news release I read made no mention of it. I was pretty disappointed that after going through the trouble to buy on release day, that I was excluded from the NTTR map, but not going to go into that here, water under the bridge. I think the price for the F-18 is a bit high, but I think that is a reflection of the number of hours it took to create. I pretty much expected it after reading all the dev posts on it over the past couple years. They had to create whole new systems on each end to make it work. We are getting the advantage of some of those systems in other modules, including updates to older ones, in the near future so I am not complaining. If anyone thinks it is too high to buy, then just wait a bit, ED is great about having sales. Compared to the price it would be in that "other" high fidelity sim series, it's already a steal.

I think it could happen if there is enough interest shown in Pacific theater aircraft. F4U and P38L would be a good start. I would be quite happy to have both. Both aircraft saw use in the European theater (though rather limited in the case of the F4U, in it's British configuration) so would not be too out of place in the Normandy map, but they really shined in the Pacific. Given the history of the Normandy map and WW2 aircraft as DCS modules, there is unfortunately not enough inertia to bring about a Pacific theater map without a lot of support for the aircraft first. The general increase of WW2 era aircraft might start to get the attention of the old Air Warrior and Aces High online flight sim crowd, which could result in quite a few sales and interest in expanding the line even further for ED. I personally think at this point we will just have to wait and see, though I remain hopeful.