doveman

I understand that DCS 2.5 runs much better with 32GB vs 16GB RAM and I also use a Win7 Virtualbox (not whilst gaming) which needs about 8GB allocated to avoid error problems which is another reason to upgrade. So I'm planning to sell my 4*4GB Corsair Vengeance LP 1600Mhz CL9 (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) that I currently have installed, plus another 2*4GB of the same sticks which came from my spare system and buying s/h 4*8GB instead. I'm just wondering whether I'd see any significant difference if I upgrade to 1866Mhz RAM and whether I should stick with Corsair Vengeance LP or if Kingston Hyper-X Fury or any other LP sticks would be better? Motherboard is an Asus Z97-A and CPU is i5-4670k OC'd to 4.3Ghz.

Well I feel a bit better knowing it's not just my one that does it! What are people using the Incr-Decr slider axis for? I know in the real plane that's the throttle friction control, which the WH has a separate control for, but it seems a waste not to use it for something. I enjoyed doing one of the training missions now that I have a proper set of controls., or at least I did until it told me to slew the HUD target pip into the box it drew but the box wasn't fixed in the HUD, so it moved around depending on what angle I looked at it from and I couldn't get the mission to continue. Did anyone else encounter that problem?

There is some stickyness. It probably won't matter for planes but I imagine it would make it unsuitable for helos, as there's too much resistance to be able to make small adjustments without pushing through and oversteering. The stick also rotates slightly (maybe 1-2 degrees) to the left. It's not that I haven't tightened the grip properly, as if I remove the grip I can still rotate the stem it plugs into. Currently the stick is to my right and on the desk, so if the stick was directly in front of me I guess I'd be less likely to accidentally rotate it but even so I still doubt it should be doing this. Is there anything I can do to fix either of these issues myself, other than buying an alternative base that is?

Well almost £600 for the Virpil setup is a bit steep for me so I decided to get the WH for now. I think I'd be annoyed if I waited and missed the opportunity to get one for half price, although they seem to have plenty in stock if anyone else wants one http://shop.thrustmaster.com/en_gb/deals-73/used-products.html I wouldn't be too gutted if the WH stick gimbals fail out of warranty, as I'll still have the throttle and the grip, which I can re-use on the Virpil base if I get one in future. I'll probably use my FFB2 stick (with TM FLCS grip mod when I get round to it) for helos and the WH stick for planes but if the WH gimbals fail I'll be able to make do with the FFB2 stick. I've got a little side table to put the throttle on so that's quite ergonomic. The stick will have to sit on my desk for now, so it won't get much use until I can sort out something better as I'll sprain my wrist but at least I can test it and use it occasionally rather than putting it in storage. I'm rather enjoying flicking these chunky metal switches on the throttle base :)

I can get a TM Warthog stick and throttle for half price direct from TM with 6 months warranty. It's listed as used - customer return, so I guess it could just be an unwanted return that's been opened but not used, or it could have been faulty and they've fixed it so well that it's even more sturdy than ones that come off the production line, or the repair might have been bodged and it might fail again soon. Much as I like the sound of the build quality of the Virpil controls I don't think they're available yet and even if they were, the throttle isn't ideal for western aircraft like the A-10C as it doesn't have all the right buttons, hats, etc. I don't have a throttle at all at the moment, just the slider on my Sidewinder FFB so I really need one to be able to fly the advanced aircraft. However I probably won't be able to use it much for a while, as I'm refurbishing my flat and will need to wait until I've finished that and built a new desk/pit to have room to put the controls, so they'll probably get put back in the box after I've tested them to make sure they're OK. I guess if I knew how to check the TM stick and throttle over to look for problems when I get it then I'd feel more comfortable about getting it, so can anyone give me some tips about things to check or look for, common faults, etc? Or if you think it's a bad idea to buy it, then please say so.

I'm not sure why it would be using nearly 4GB system RAM for video mem, especially when it hasn't quite used all the VRAM yet. I know GPU-Z shows Dedicated (Actual) VRAM usage and Dynamic VRAM usage and I think the latter is where it's using system RAM if there's insufficient VRAM but I think that was only showing around 200MB if I recall.

I tested OB 2.5.1 last night and had MSI Afterburner OSD showing some stats on the right, with the in-game stats on the left. I only have a HD6950 2GB GPU and Afterburner shows DCS as using 1868MB but DCS' own stats show Video Mem: 5982.94Mb, so what's up with that? I'm not sure it comes across in the screenshot but the cockpit also felt very washed-out/overly bright, even after I turned the Gamma down to 1.8.

If this isn't a suitable substitute to the Warthog throttle for use with the A-10/F-16/western aircraft then that's fine. I've just seen a fair few complaints about the build quality of the Warthog so was hoping I might be able to buy something better built and I've seen people say they're looking forward to the VKB throttle so that they can use that instead of the Warthog, so I was just asking if that will be practical. I don't care if it's not exactly the same as the Warthog (which I've never used, so I'm not accustomed to it) as I want something that I can use with several aircraft, so of course it's going to be a compromise but if it's lacking controls I'll need so that I have to do something awkward to replicate them or take my hands of the throttle to use the mouse then I'll have to get the Warthog throttle. Ideally of course I'd buy multiple throttles and a collective with changeable button boxes for the helos but I can't afford that unfortunately (and such collectives don't exist as far as I'm aware) I'm only interested in getting a throttle as I'm going to use my modded FFB2 (with FLCS grip) for the stick, so the throttle has to have sufficient controls on it. Mode shift/shift button is just too confusing for me I'm afraid, I need to have a physical hat/boat/etc. for each cockpit one, even if they're not in the same place as on the real throttle.

This throttle certainly looks interesting but I wonder if I'll be able to use it easily to fly the A-10, as it doesn't appear to have the same number of hats, switches, etc. on the throttle as the Warthog. I don't really care about what controls are on the base, as it's not that hard to build a switch/button box if necessary but building the actual throttle levers and the controls on them is beyond me, and most people I imagine. The other aircraft I'd like to fly is the F-16 and whilst the Cougar throttle is obviously ideal for that I don't have room (or funds) for multiple throttles, so when choosing which one to buy I'm looking at whether it will lend itself to being used easily with different aircraft.

Likewise and with all the talk of how bad sitting is for us, I've been trying to think of a way to fly whilst standing but the pedals are a bit difficult to think of a replacement for! Maybe a giant slider that you move left and right with a toe might work but you'd still need something to do the toe brakes. Sent from my ZUK Z2132 using Tapatalk

I haven't had the opportunity to compare with other tech such as ultrawide, 4k but if you like night flying I'd recommend you try and get a look at a VA monitor. The blacks are so deep that things like lights, stars, etc. really pop compared to IPS, where the night is more of a murky grey. Sent from my ZUK Z2132 using Tapatalk

Hi molevitch Inspiring work. Maybe I should sell my MSFFB2s and do something similar, although I probably wouldn't go to the expense of buying a real cyclic but just make a DIY one with tubing and my F16 FLCS grip. One question, do your trimmer and collective brake switches still send a signal to DCS? Although your controls don't depend on DCS to hold them in place, I believe at least some of the helos (I only really have knowledge of the KA-50) depend on those signals for the correct operation of the autopilot/autohover systems.

Doesn't seem logical. Sure, with BC prices higher, there's more chance to make profit after paying for the electricity but surely you'd make even more profit using a dedi miner which uses less power, so why not spend the £650 on those and avoid tieing up your PC? What do I know though! I came in too late a few years ago to make any profit mining with my 6950 and then invested in the wrong currency and lost money. I made more profit betting on the World Cup

Looks great Trip, it's inspiring me to get on and do mine! Is that a Warthog grip? Have you connected the buttons to the FFB circuitry? I think it uses a 6-pin PS2 connector so it must encode the signals and normally the Hog circuitry would decode them. I'm planning to use a FLCS stick and I've already wired a Teensy up to it, so it will have it's own USB connection for the buttons. I'll have to work out how I'm going to run the USB cable through the pipes whilst still enabling the stick to be removed for transportation, to avoid it getting damaged. It would be ideal of course if I could make it so it can easily be swapped out for a Hog (or other) stick but that's probably going to be tricky, if not impossible, so I should just concentrate on getting it working with the FLCS.

I've never tried pseudo-6DOF, nor would I know how to measure/compare the latency. To be honest, I haven't had time to setup Opentrack properly with the UTC yet because I'm renovating my flat, so whilst I wish I could help I'm not in a position currently to do any testing but the LEDs are very bright and well picked up by my PS3-Eye with filter removed. If you already have the trackir camera, I hear the trackir software is somewhat easier to setup than OT though.

Might have meant the UTC MK II. https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=159647 I actually bought that to replace my EDTracker, Pro as I missed 6DOF and found it quite annoying having to calibrate it by holding my head still for 20s every time I plugged it in

I tried it twice in Chrome and both times there was the resume option but that didn't do anything. I can download much bigger files without any problem, so something's wrong with this if it takes 7-8 tries to get it to download.

I can't download this for some reason. It gets to about 350MB and then stalls. I've tried with Chrome and IE.

Personally I find Barthek's a bit too neon green for my liking. Starway's and Mustang's are both great but I prefer the larger fields in the latter. As for the mountains, I think Bartek's are probably the best, followed by Starway's. Mustang's are great but they're covered in snow and I prefer to be able to see the rocky textures. It would be great occasionally though, like now 'cos it's Christmas and due to snow here in the UK :) Would be awesome if we could switch between them from the DCS settings.

Thanks

That's Starway's thread, where's Pickskings?

I never knew about .mep files when I used JSGME. I just labelled my mod folders with letter prefixes (C for cockpit mod, T for terrain, etc.) and used numbers (so T1, T2) where mods needed to be activated in a specific order. I haven't checked this works with GME yet though

Very happy to see I may soon have an alternative to the Warthog throttle, which from what I've read isn't great quality inside.

It's quite amusing that you say it's straightforward and then insult people who are confused by the FM labels by suggesting they'd be confused by childproof caps, yet you are clearly confused yourself, as you say the simple (standard) model has no physics, that Professional FM is the next step up when in fact PFM is the most advanced FM available in DCS, and that Advanced is the highest level, when in fact AFM/AFM+ is between SFM and PFM. Then you say that all 3rd-party models so far have been intended as "full simulation models" (meaing PFM) and thus it's pretty obvious what is on offer, which is incorrect as the Gazelle at least uses AFM (I don't know about any other modules). Then you suggest that it doesn't even matter how good or bad the FM is, as even if we've flown civilian aircraft we're in no position to judge the accuracy of a fighter plane's FM. By that logic the devs might as well stop bothering about accurate FM in a sim and just give us something that looks pretty!!! OK, the few people who have actually piloted the aircraft IRL might complain but hey, they're a minority so no point worrying about them! About the only thing in your post that isn't wrong is the statement that External (EFM) means it was made by a third-party.

Thanks. Admittedly I didn't fully read the store page after reading about the FM issues but it's good to see the devs have been honest and upfront about what level of FM they're offering.