streakeagle

It did not occur to me why they did that... Now I see! Thank you for pointing that out. I will most certainly take advantage of it :)

Great photos of great setups. I love the flexibility and quality these MonsterTech setups provide. Not only can you build it to meet you needs exactly, you can easily make adjustments later.

If the aircraft you are simulating have conventional control systems, i.e. direct link between control surfaces and the control stick, force feedback is the only way to get anything resembling real world forces. However, the limitations on the realism of the signals being generated by the flight sims and the ability to accurately simulate both the magnitude and response time of forces even if the signals being sent were 100% correct mean it will never be totally realistic. Springs provide simple fixed feedback telling you how far you are away from the center position, which is useful but generally not realistic at all. So given the choice between something that tries to model reality, even if limitations make it far less than 100% correct or a simple system that is almost always incorrect, force feedback should be the way to go. Accurate or not, force feedback is far more immersive. Having said that, I don't have force feedback on my stick. I value the quality of the stick's ability to accurately report its position over its ability to resist motion or vibrate. If VKB or Virpil or even Thrustmaster made a high precision stick with a reliable force feedback system that worked well with DCS World, I would buy it in a heartbeat. But that doesn't exist. So, I have settled for the vibrating seat pad. Even more so than the stick, the feedback from the vibrating pad cannot provide very realistic forces. However, like the force feedback sticks, the information being provided is far more useful and realistic than fixed springs on the the stick. The immersion level from using a vibrating pad is extremely high for me. I can feel bumps on the runway, gunfire, and most importantly, buffeting, which ties in with stick force feedback. The vibration may rarely if ever match realistic frequencies and magnitudes, yet still provides information I would get even from aircraft with fly-by-wire sticks that have zero force feedback in real life. I would still love to have as accurate a force feedback stick as possible, especially for WW1 and WW2 aircaft, but the vibrating seat pad has been a very cost effective way of getting some of that same immersion.

Yes, they came as separate packages, but both of mine were delivered at the same time. Sorry you have to wait until Thursday!

My panels came in this morning. Got them mounted and applied firmware updates to everything. After testing all of the switches I can say I am very happy with these. They will radically change how I map my controls in almost ever aircraft and the different shapes/sizes of the controls will make it easy to use them in VR. I don't fly flat panel displays often enough to appreciate the animated lighting effects very often, but I will try it out.

I also had a problem with Voice Attack randomly stopping while flying. I would issue a voice command and not here the usual audio cues. I would look at the icon in the task bar and it would disappear when I waved my mouse cursor over it. So, I would have to start it over... and then wait for the long delayed beep to get VAICOM back. So far, that problem seems to have gone away, too.

FedEx says my panels are arriving tomorrow by 10:30 AM. When I originally ordered them, the web page went crazy and said there had been some kind of script failure. But Paypal sent me the notice that indicated my order had gone through. My winwing store account never reflected the order. But I got a FedEx tracking number from the Paypal invoice. So, Winwing got the money, tomorrow I am getting the panels, but according to Winwing's records, I have only bought the stick/throttle/extension/deskmounts combined package.

A ways back, something changed and Voice Attack/VAICOM Pro went from starting up and beeping quickly to a much slower delayed response. I don't know which recent update fixed the problem between Voice Attack and VAICOM Pro, but it is back to being ready and beeping almost instantly after starting Voice Attack. Sometimes the little things make my day :)

I haven't flown the MiG-19 much in a while. But tonight I got some time in it and it is disappointing to see that it is still in a "half-finished" condition after so much time. I like the module, but it is in dire need of being "finished" to a proper full release level.

Most of the MiG-21 switches can be made proper with minor LUA edits. But the MiG-19 doesn't even have anything to edit. Too many switches missing from the controls mapping list.

The way capitalism / free markets are supposed to work, if the supply can't meet the demand, then the price is too low. I won't fault any business for maximizing their profit. So, I would say it is a fair call on their part to raise the price a little if they can't keep product on the shelf at the current price. However, some products have steep curves and some products have flat curves. As these panels are far from being a necessity and there is competition, Winwing may find the change in demand with a small change in price may be fairly steep. But if you compare the current price with the closest competitor, Tek Creations, Winwing has a much better price and is designed to work really well with their throttle desktop mount. Neither product is useful for those trying to build replica cockpits. But both are great for giving a decent plug-n-play representation at somewhat affordable prices. I am very happy that these products exist at all, compared to having tons of products for FSX across the whole spectrum form budget hardware to high end replicas. For example, Saitek had all of those instrument and control panels that were only really designed to play well with FSX and X-Plane. I can live with the current prices. I just wait for overtime to build up funds. But if prices go a little higher, I will buy fewer products and less frequently. If they go too high, I can build my own.

Ordered as soon as I saw the post on facebook saying they were available. In the long run, I may build a completely accurate Hornet pit, which will leave me with just the throttle. But right now, I am flying lots of multiplayer and frequently hopping between various aircraft. The startup panel that came with the throttle combined with these two panels will give me most of the controls I need to fly any aircraft and the shapes/arrangement of the controls means I can easily use them blind in VR. So, I can't wait for these to arrive.

When you start, you can "hook" to the deck, I think it is the "U" key. But once you get the latest alpha development EFM (external flight model) version, the problem is eliminated. But I think it is going to be a long time before that version is publicly released because real life work is going to slow down development for a while. If you see JNelson flying in the Vietnam server, he is one of the EFM developers and he can give you access to the alpha release. I would like to try dogfighting the MiG-19 in the A-4. I haven't fought against any live people in the A-4. With the publicly available SFM (simple flight model) release, I was not interested in dogfighting. But now that it is flying more like a real aircraft, I would like to see how it behaves against other aircraft.

That looks awesome! ... and heavy. What would be the total cost with shipping?

As much as I love the F-14 grip, I have to admit the feel of the trigger is far from satisfactory.

Is there an updated German Air Force 113 skin? Someone I fly with in multiplayer has it and I wanted to install it to be able to see him flying that skin. Love all your work. The latest F-86 skins are great!

I have both. Neither one is a perfect replica. But aside from the extra switch, I think the TM grip is more accurate in shapes/sizes/screw locations, etc. But the differences are very minor and the Winwing grip is functionally better in every way. If I could easily adapt the Winwing grip to work on my VKB Gunfighter base, I would use it rather than the TM grip. I much prefer the feel of the VKB base over the Winwing base. I tend to fly with the MCG Pro grip to support flying MiGs (and the Spitfire) with the analog brake lever on the the stick and to a lesser extent the flip down gun trigger. I also have a total of six grips that fit the VKB base. So, I don't get to use the Winwing grip despite really liking it over the short period I tried it out. I may have swap sticks again just so I can use that grip.

I use single #50 springs as well... more than strong enough for the 200mm extension.

The MCG Pro is longer than most other grips. With the 200mm extension, the range of movement is very large. While great for precision, it is actually a larger range of motion than real world sticks. The 100mm extension provides a more realistic range of displacement. Both work very well. The most important aspect in deciding which one to use would be how it fits your installation. The curve in the 200mm extension is something I didn't want or need. I was set up for a straight stick, so the curve put the grip too far back into my lap. It still worked because of the extreme length, but it created the wrong geometry for my install. The 100mm extension worked better with the MCG Pro, but was too short for the other grips. I need a straight 150mm grip for all of the other normal sized grips like the F-14 and F/A-18. Right now I am using the Wingwing desktop mount for the VKB stick. Its vertical depth adjustment allows me to use either extension to get the grip to the same final height, but again the curve and range of motion make the 200mm a bad option for me: I would have to push my seat back a couple of inches, which would put me farther back from the throttle, too. Or I have to sit with grip too close to me. In VR, you can judge the geometry of the throttle/stick/pedals of the ingame cockpit versus your installation. My current setup using the 100mm extension matches pretty close to most cockpits, which is what I really want.

I have an original early production Saitek Pro Rudder Pedals from many years ago and didn't replace them until I got Thrustmaster TPR pedals. It still works 100% with no spiking. But the toe brakes no longer spring return, but gravity keeps them at 0% when my feet aren't on them. The spring loaded pegs that lock the adjustable pedals broke a few years back, so they just slide down to the shortest position. I didn't bother to do any of the cool mods to get rid of the center detent because they already worked very well for flying DCS helos. But I have seen many posts over the years about how all of the Saitek products went downhill when MadCatz took over. I understand Logitech was trying to improve the quality control in recent production batches of the old Saitek products. I hope they succeeded. I loved all of my Saitek sticks: X-36 USB, X-45, and X-52 Pro in addition to getting countless hours of service out of the rudder pedals. Two things have happened that made me leave Saitek before I ever had a problem with their gear: 1. Much more realistic and/or higher quality hardware has steadily become more available, and 2. I am no longer a poor starving college student or an entry level employee (i.e. I have the means to purchase expensive hardware). But when I was short on funds and wanted to enjoy combat flight sims, Saitek gear kept my happy for quite a long time. I was happy to see Logitech pick up the product line rather than let it die out completely.

If you want to see what it is like to increase the head turning rate, use VR zoom. If you are going to give up 1:1 tracking, you might be better off using a flat panel and TrackIR. If nVidia still natively supported stereo 3d with their drivers, a high end gpu matched with TrackIR and 3d would be very close to the VR experience other than the amplified head tracking.

Supposedly updated compression techniques make the 10GB of VRAM in the 3080 effectively larger than the 11GB of VRAM in the 1080 Ti/2080 Ti. If that is true, the slightly smaller VRAM of the 3080 should be a non-issue if the 11GB of older cards was enough. I would love to see someone lucky enough to score both the 3080 and 3090 compare DCS performance with both especially focusing on whether the extra VRAM of the 3090 is utilized to good effect or if they both perform about the same due to DCS Worlds ancient graphics engine and single core cpu optimization. I originally planned to get a 3090 but based on what I know now, I am more likely to get either a 3080 or AMD. But if I knew for sure the VRAM on the 3090 made a critical difference with DCS VR and a Reverb G2, I just might eat the cost in money, size, and heat output of the 3090 to see the full quality possible on the G2. But it seems like other than VRAM size, the 3090 is only about 10% better at twice the price and given I am upgrading from a standard 1080, the 3080 or even the 3070 will be a huge jump forward at a fraction of the price.

[rant on]I have elected to wait for PointCTRL v2.0. Perhaps a bad decision since Miles has run into some technical issues and stays busy keeping up with orders for the old version. I tried the LeapMotion hand tracking system. The demo application is awesome, but something gets lost in translation when it is imported into SteamVR, where it is not nearly as accurate and also costs too much performance. If LeapMotion hand tracking was natively supported in DCS rather than having to be modified to pretend to be a Vive controller, I bet it would work better and cost lest cpu overhead. I also tried using the Touch controllers from the Rift S. They are far more precise than the LeapMotion, but still were cumbersome compared to simply grabbing a mouse. While the LeapMotion caused more problems, I still had inadvertent control operations while struggling to reach and operate some controls, i.e. while trying to turn a knob or flip a switch, I might hit a canopy jettison lever or some other critical control that would ruin my flight. So, based on what everyone else has said and demonstrated in videos, I am sure pointCTRL will finally provide a solution superior to a mouse for operating controls while in VR. But whether I fly VR or flat panel, I still want an operational sim pit. At a minimum, I want all the physical switches working and in the correct geometrical positions to match the in-game cockpit (which may not exactly match the real-world cockpit). But I also want working gauges and MFDs. The problem becomes whether I want to simplify a panel (i.e. flatten it) to support using a single monitor to provide all gauges and MFDs or stick with proper geometry and either have no active displays or deal with driving multiple screens. I favor Mustang's F/A-18 Hornet kit, which goes with the flattened main panel to use the single monitor, but I would really like proper geometry that mimics the in-game cockpit, which would work much better with VR. But the question is moot for the moment. I need to get through some real-life issues before I have to make a decision and move forward on multiple sim-pit projects.[/rant off] Back on topic: for those who have the means, there is no reason not to keep both flat panel TrackIR and VR. Why not have the best of both worlds even if you mainly use/prefer one? I currently use a 49 inch 4K TV for my flat panel. It looks great, but I would like to go as large as I can afford. At least 65 inches. When I am ready to move forward on cockpit building, I will figure out what size I can afford. Maybe by then 8K will be the standard and most high end gpus will be able to handle 8K really well.

I haven't bought any of your products, yet. But I am a big fan. The key word is "yet". I need to sort out some "real life" things over the next few months. Once the dust settles, I should be ready to start working on cockpits, that's with an "s" an in more than one. 1) Finish my real F-4 throttle integration and re-mount/re-integrate the real stick, which doesn't involve your products. 2) Build an F/A-18 pit, which could use a lot of your products. I may also end up getting your F-16 stuff, too.

While I still enjoy flying in 2D with a giant 4K screen with the impressive graphics quality and steady 60 fps, I am far better at flying helos, flying formation, air-to-air refueling, dogfighting/situational awareness, and carrier landings in VR. The 1:1 head tracking and wide field of view in both the vertical and horizontal give me a much better sense of where I am looking versus where the nose of the aircraft is and the relative motion. My big problem with VR was visual spotting range and DCS patched that up a while back so now I can see a little blurry dot at decent distances (further than icons on multiplayer servers with icons). It still needs much higher resolution so that I can see what I am spotting and judge its aspect at reasonable ranges. I am so used to VR, that I have difficulty maintaining a visual track in a rolling dogfight with TrackIR. I become disoriented. It wouldn't be a problem if I went back to TrackIR exclusively, but I am not doing that, so I generally reserve TrackIR for training, sightseeing, and recording video/taking screenshots. I do find it more relaxing to use TrackIR when drinking/eating while flying. I don't have to reach out blindly for my glass/bottle/food and I don't have to tilt my head back to make up for the VR headset blocking me from titling the glass/bottle any further.