Cobra847

That's very odd and frustrating; I will investigate. Sincere apologies.

I'll highlight this issue for the team to look at

Hey everyone, a major Viggen patch is still in the works; some of the major items planned are up on our roadmap if you'd like greater insight into what we're working on. @MYSE1234 - it should be in; we just didn't refresh the changelog with what was there for the previous patch. Can you indeed reproduce any issues?

Yes- unfortunately- ICEMAN was really somewhat of an afterthought (it's actually an interface to the F-14's autopilot, technically speaking) - and we are currently unable to execute several commands simultaneously. This is something we endeavour to avoid for future multicrew modules, and will be making the requisite investment into generic pilotage AI that will make it all a bit more capable. With no promises, we will hopefully backport this at some point.

We have no control over the sound mix when Hear like in Helmet is on. This is simply a lowpass filter applied by the DCS engine cutting out most of the high frequency sound.

We're all entitled to our opinion and we're open for critique; but I don't shy away from disagreeing in matters of artistic expression (there is very little room for this in the rest of our products, considering we're aiming for 1:1 recreations of reality). Defense should not be taken as a reaction to an attack, but rather a discussion, afterall. We've made a conscious choice to have the sound mix that we have. Not planning on changing this in the Tomcat - and I do not see us picking a different design choice for future aircraft either as I think the points others have made there accurately summarize our thoughts on it. I understand that the phased turbine sample may be super annoying to some of you, so I will see what I can do for one of the next patches!

It would be fairly trivial for us to add a special option for the ECS- I will add it to the backlog with no promised date for now. If anyone wants to try; you can locally edit the gain parameter on the ECS .sdef's in the /Mods/ folder. Interestingly; one of the worst issues of realistic ECS levels is that it sits very similarly in the mix as the intake whine; so you will certainly feel less engine/thrust level feedback.

I think it fits well because by and large, I'm proud of the immersive soundscape we have built in the F-14 cockpit and exterior (and Viggen), and every tone and sound, across the entire mix plays a part. That rhythmic musical tone is just a phased turbine soundsample buried in the mix. It's been present in the Viggen since 2017 and in the Tomcat since launch. It's difficult to go back and change complex mixes retroactively because some people have a keen ear for a specific part of the sound. Hopefully that is somewhat understandable. FWIW, If we're going by SME sound feedback, we'd be spiking the gains of the ECS so you couldn't hear literally anything else. I understand that this thread notes that there is actually a metallic chime in the same sample, which if so, should be removed. That is entirely separate from the phased sound which you take issue with and we'll certainly take a look.

We are not currently planning on revising this particular sound, though we will check if there is an errant chime of some sort there. It has been there since launch and we feel works well in the soundscape of the Viggen and F-14. We may tweak other aspects of the interior sounds which may make this fit better in the total wall of sound. One of the most frequent praises we get is sound design and effects. Eye of the beholder, I suppose?

We're certainly disappointed in the decision-making process of various tournaments- especially those we have sponsored. We will not be involving ourselves in sponsoring tournaments that do not allow the F-14 for now. We will continue to push the issue of missile desync with the appropriate people to fix this issue in DCS to hopefully resolve cases of MP desync. For what it's worth; we do not have any direct control over multiplayer synchronization that happens outside of the F-14 at all. This is an engine level issue that may be exacerbated by something unique to the F-14's employment of various weapons. If this was something we could handle unilaterally, it would have been done by now. We will continue efforts to solve this with urgency.

Keep in mind there is no scripting to this. You may have just gotten lucky. If your hook will intersect with a wire (within reasonable limits); you will still trap. So even if you slam your hook on the deck and it bounces; it may simple have dropped enough to catch another wire.

We've finished the main body of work on this, and we're now getting into fine tuning together with our SME in a separate branch. It's still a ways off; but definitely progressing well.

Yes indeed - hopefully this process won't be too long. This feature is going into initial testing later this week - unfortunately we couldn't get it into this patch!

Hey Everyone! Having just wrapped up work on the major F-14 update launching today; we figured we’d give you a quick rundown of what is included and where our next priorities lie with regards to the F-14. For this update, we’ve focused greatly on improved carrier physics through a new mass dynamics physics engine driving the hook, simulating the carrier burble, as well as other improvements across the jet, bringing the F-14 one step closer to an exit out of Early Access. With the completion of this testing and shipping cycle for this particular patch, we now turn our attention to more improvements and additions such as JESTER LANTIRN and Forge, as well as the completion and launch of the Forrestal class carriers, which will fill out our next major F-14 release. New Hook Physics - Mass Dynamics Systems As part of an ongoing effort to expand and improve our physical modelling (both on the F-14 and on other modules currently in development), we’re developing a brand new engine for mass dynamics. At present, this system allows us to simulate swinging masses in a realistic, physically-driven way; that is to say, masses that can move about their pivoting points in accordance with gravity, G-forces and other applied forces. One natural application for this technology is our newly-simulated F-14 carrier landing hook, which skips over the deck in improper landing conditions to generate realistic hook-bolter behaviours and pulls up from the flight deck under the strain of the taught arresting cable. The hook can also snap off from its pivot if sufficient energy is applied to it, leading to new (and occasionally hilarious) failures and encouraging a stronger focus on skill and by-the-book landing procedure. Moving to a more physically “real” solution like this comes with a lot of exciting implications; simply coding masses to move through a predefined range in a predefined time is predictable and inflexible, whereas a physics-based solution allows emergent behaviours in novel and unexpected situations. To see examples of this, feel free to observe the way the extended hook bounces gently on the tarmac when taxiing, or the (greatly improved) behaviour of the turn-and-slip indicator during wild maneuvers. Carrier Burble To further improve the simulation of our carrier aviation environment and simulation of the F-14 in carrier operations; we’ve created a new system simulating the aerodynamics of the aircraft carrier burble. The burble is the name given by navy pilots to the aerodynamic wake aft of an aircraft carrier. Aircraft carriers are massive objects, and their movement impacts the airflow around them. You can think of them as if they were moving mountain ridges. When you approach one from the leeward side, first you get the wave and some lift; then right behind it, you hit a significant downwash. Besides, the carrier top isn't smooth; there's the island, multiple antennas, deck equipment, parked aircraft and other structures sticking from the deck, which cause the airflow to be unsteady and turbulent. The overall effect is proportional to wind over deck. The faster the aircraft carrier moves or, the stronger wind is, the more pronounced the burble becomes. Typically, the airspeed change from the burble is just a tiny fraction of the wind over deck speed, and the absolute value doesn't seem to be impressive. However, given how little the margin is and that the burble tries to crash you into the stern, it will add spice to your future traps. Iceman Orbit and Fly to Waypoint In order to bridge the gap before we ship JESTER LANTIRN and to make flying RIO in Singleplayer a much more realistic endeavour; we’ve implemented two major new additions to ICEMAN, our Pilot AI. These two features are flying to a waypoint, and orbiting a waypoint. You can now tell ICEMAN to fly to a waypoint entered into the navigation system; or any point defined on the F10 map. You can also ask ICEMAN to orbit a waypoint, and can select between a variety of diameter and speed combinations. You can also select right handed or left handed orbits, in order to allow you to effectively use the LANTIRN targeting pod from the rear seat. ICEMAN can fluidly switch from one orbit to another orbit (i.e. moving into a closer orbit) or change direction at any given time if asked. Iceman was generally built in a stop-gap way, and we will in the future look at more ways to improve and add more functionality to this part of the F-14- especially as we continue development of the A-6 and others, and require much more investment into AI technologies. JESTER Reporting Improvements We endeavour to improve JESTER in many areas, especially as we continue to process your feedback on what can be done better and what frustrates those of you flying single seat the most. Improving JESTER’s reporting of ongoing combat is one of our highest priorities, and we’re rolling out some initial improvements in this area with this patch. We’ve significantly tweaked how JESTER perceives the threat of missiles and the speed and visual acuity of his detection of missiles. JESTER should now remain far more calm in combat environments with regards to missiles that do not concern your aircraft, especially those fired in ground to ground engagements. Furthermore, JESTER’s visual acuity and speed of detection should now be more realistic. We will continue to improve JESTER over the coming months across all areas. Some of these include new features (e.g. LANTIRN and Checklist reading), but we also endeavour to improve JESTER’s radar and other competencies. Night Catapult Signalization The standard way of launching off of the carrier at night is to flash the aircraft’s lights to signal the carrier crew. This is now implemented in the F-14, and takes the place of the standard salute during daytime. MAK-79 Bomb Clamp Models - Float begone! A fix for this major issue has been a long time in the making; and we’re happy to finally have revised our ordnance code and modelled new MAK-79 bomb clamp adapters that will now accurately mount the various pieces of ground ordnance the F-14 can carry to the belly phoenix pylons. Some of the positions and bracing of various bomb combinations have also been adjusted for appropriate spacings. Autopilot Logic Overhaul Based on SME feedback; we’ve overhauled our autopilot simulation model and introduced many changes to it's functionality. The Altitude Hold feature will now null the rate (like a fighter) instead of trying to return to a set altitude (like a tubeliner would), it will not disengage with lateral stick movement anymore, instead it will disengage if 10lbs longitudinal pressure is applied to the stick (or the resulting equivalent in vertical velocity). If you have Heading Hold selected as well, you will be able to use lateral stick input to steer the aircraft, and when leveling it again, Heading Hold will update its set heading and hold it. Furthermore, if in Heading Hold and if below 5° bank angle, the aircraft will level the autopilot again. Both Attitude and Altitude Hold will now “grab” easier when engaged at high altitudes (pending some minor updates in the future as we flesh out the AP logic even more to match its behavior precisely for all altitudes).The general roll rate of the aircraft following lateral stick input has been greatly increased. Altitude Hold will now only engage if you are within +/- 200 FPM vertical speed. Overall this greatly improves the ease of use of the Autopilot and is now as close as possible to how it functioned in real life. A quick tip: to engage Altitude Hold, simply level your climb or descent at the desired altitude, and when within +/-200 FPM, press the autopilot reference button to engage it. This is how it has been done in real life. We hope the extensive overhaul of the autopilot will let you enjoy the more relaxed moments of (not) flying the F-14 Tomcat even more. Full Changelog These are just some of the bigger changes shipping with this patch; the full changelog is as follows; NEW: Hook Physics Added physics based hook model. Hook will skip now if landing too fast. Hook will shear off when arresting with excess kinetic energy. Hook no longer clips through ground. (Spectators and RIO may notice some clipping due to network lag.) Added collision shell to hook. Hook can now be damaged by gunfire or explosions and detach from the aircraft. Added spark effects and hook break sounds. NEW: Iceman Features Iceman can now orbit a steerpoint or map marker. You can select between a variety of speeds and diameters You can ask Iceman to fly a left or right handed orbit You can smoothly transition between orbit diameters and speeds at any time Iceman can now fly to a steerpoint or map marker. NEW: Carrier Burble Aerodynamics Carriers will now create a burble behind the stern. Burble intensity differs with carrier and wind speeds and needs to be taken into account when landing on the carrier. When in close, the burble will first generate positive vertical velocity, immediately followed by negative vertical velocity. NEW: At night, the catapult launch is triggered by turning the exterior lights on (in accordance with manual procedures). Added a new special option which flashes the lights automatically together with the pilot salute. NEW: Added MAK-79 bomb clamp models and revised loadout code. Bombs will now no longer float around the aircraft pylons. NEW: Added 15 Mariana Islands Quickstart missions. Note: Will be available when the Marianas map launches. JESTER reporting improvements: JESTER is now more selective in reporting incoming missiles, and he will ignore the missiles that don’t look like potential threats. Completely rebuilt turn and slip ball indicator physics. Overhauled several aspects of Autopilot behaviour: ALT Hold will now null the rate instead of returning to a set altitude. ALT Hold will now engage only if within +/- 200FPM vertical speed. ALT Hold will not disengage anymore with lateral stick input, but with approx. 10lbs longitudinal pressure (or its equivalent in vertical velocity). HDG Hold will not disengage anymore with lateral stick input. Lateral stick input can now be used for steering in HDG Hold and will set the new heading upon release and leveling. With HDG Hold engaged and if lateral stick input is released within 5° bank angle the AP will level the aircraft now. Fixed ATT and ALT Hold not engaging properly at higher altitudes. The aircraft will roll smoother now if lateral stick input is used during ATT, ALT and HDG Hold. If the aircraft is overbanked or overpitched during ALT and/or ATT Hold, ATT Hold should now return the aircraft to 30° pitch and 60° bank. Taught JESTER the importance of breathing: he will turn on his oxygen on startup now. Asking JESTER to input waypoints will no longer break the INS alignment procedure. The option to input the waypoints is disabled during times when it could impact the alignment. Fixed Wing Sweep multi-crew initialization issue. This should solve F-14’s causing collision damage on carriers if spawned in the wrong order due to unswept wings. Fixed slip-ball negative G-load erratic behavior. Fixed radio catapult salute. It now triggers launch. RIO can now use radio catapult salute to trigger a launch, too. Fixed guard receiver in both radios. Guard frequency is now audible and automatically sets guard frequency according to your last selected frequency in the AN/ARC-182: 40.5 FM for 30 - 88 FM, 121.5 AM for 108 - 156 AM, 156.8 FM for 156 - 174 FM and 243 for ranges set between 225 and 400 AM/FM (and will always be 243 AM for the AN/ARC-159). Possible fix for the BDHI TACAN needle bug where it could get stuck pointing down. Fixed RIO aspect switch affecting only DDD, it now affects target tracking, too. Fix TID radar azimuth line flailing around during AWG-9 ground-based tutorial missions. Added radar altimeter test light. Brake Pressure Gauges are now operative. Gun is no longer operable with air source RAM or OFF selected. Extending speedbrakes now interrupts fuel dump (except in the case of combined systems hydraulic failure). Fixed Hydraulics, Flight Controls, Engines and Gear not being repaired. Single-player RIO Total Fuel gauge now shows correct value during INST test. Fixed hydraulic transfer pump operation - pressure drop to approximately 2,400 to 2,600 psi in the inoperative system is now simulated. Fuel transfer switch now causes engines to correctly draw fuel from forward or aft tanks. Fixed multi-crew synchronisation of the Yaw String. Fixed multi-crew synchronisation of the Wing Sweep indicator. Fixed multi-crew synchronisation of the Wing Sweep Emergency lever and its cover. Fixed multi-crew synchronisation of the Gear and Hook system. Now working from RIO’s perspective: Nosewheel Steering Indicator Light Wheels Warning flashing light Brake lights Landing Gear Indicator Speedbrake Indicator Gear handle emergency position Hook handle emergency position Nose Strut Switch Fixed bug where RIO low fuel warning light would never turn off in multiplayer. Fixed syncables bug where master INST test wouldn't register on RIO devices. Fixed syncables bug where master LTS test wouldn’t register on RIO devices. Fixed RIO caution lights for low oxygen and low fuel not showing in multiplayer. Fixed doubled up tow bar latch geometry. Towbar latches are now stowed. Added holes for towbar latches. Fixed gap in gear doors on right side. Fixed broken normals and UVs on the right side gear door. Fixed missing afterburner texture planes in F-14A-135GR. Added missing VID stencil text to RIO DDD Panel. Fixed an issue where another aircraft landing on the carrier where your F14 is parked could trigger a landing-log event for your aircraft. Fixed an issue where landing on a carrier within one minute of starting a mission would fail to generate a landing-log. Fixed a potential CTD if pilot and RIO spawned in sequence and landed on the carrier within one minute. Gear extension and Speedbrake sounds are now audible for the RIO in multi-crew. Added refuel probe turbulence sounds. Corrected a bug which caused some duplication of canopy-opening sound effects. Increased AIM-54 and AIM-7 RCS. Added BDU-45 and BDU-45B practice bombs to loadouts. Fix for CATM being launchable (previously DCS used to ignore launch API on these). Adjusted BDU-33 and SUU-25 attach position on BRU-42 forwards slightly to match lug holes. Added bindings for VR reset base, spyglass zoom and zoom. Fixed Campaign OP Reforger Mission 5. Updated Cage the Bear Campaign (thank you Kaba!): Updated all missions to 2.7 weather (clouds!). Updated CN localisation. (Thank you Alphabet_Ghost!) Corrected mission 5 carrier frequency. Corrected mission 5 allied F14 liveries. Adjusted mission 8 divert airfield trigger - should now activate no matter which spot you stop at. Fixed Carrier TACAN in Syria Quickstart Recovery Missions. As noted in the lead-in, we’re now continuing work on the next major update to the F-14, focused greatly on further aircraft improvements, changes to the AIM-54 and further feature additions such as JESTER LANTIRN. This is all wrapped in the major task that is completing the final Forrestal class art overhaul and releasing the first version of that to you all. Stay tuned for more updates on these items soon as we blaze ahead and start hitting Early Access completion milestones! We greatly hope you’ll enjoy experiencing this latest update to the F-14. Thank you as always for your amazing support. Sincerely, Team Heatblur

Keep in mind that the Ranger and Indy are not easy modifications considering the hull and deck changes - hence why we're leaving it open-ended for now. The Forrestal and Sara were chosen because data was more readily available at the time, and it fits well for going back in time considering the A-6 and others.

We've now lowered the damage values across the board to try and avoid this desync; this change will be available with the next patch - let us know how you find it!

Just a quick update on this front; we are preparing to launch our major F-14 patch and hopefully that will be wrapped together with a proper update on the Forrestal which will then be our target release for the next major DCS patch.

I'm very confused. You want us to use the Ka-50 pilot in the F-14 as a stop-gap? And FWIW; I find the pilot body very useful and immersive, and I'd love to add more features to them (e.g.; when you manipulate a control, you see your pilot execute that animation) - it's just a matter of priorities and development bandwidth.

FWIW I spent the morning speaking with a rendering engineer at ED to try and help solve this issue- it is being actively worked on.

Headsup: what we noted last minor patch holds true today as well and there are no shipped HB changes in today's patch.

Just a short update on this; we've just procured the last of our required scans to finally finish the AI draken and will be fixing errors introduced last year due to insufficient data. We'll update you ASAP on the progress of the aircraft!

We are currently looking into a fix for this issue, hopefully fixed in the next patch

Thanks for highlighting this. It's an unfortunate workaround for the fact that the F-14's sparrows are mounted in a non standard way vis-a-vis other DCS aircraft.

We are not ignoring this issue - there is a DCS issue logged and an investigation is underway. I can't verify the testing team individuals direction. If there is something we can do to fix this in the F-14; we will. We have never, nor will we ever ignore issues; paying customers or not and I'm sorry that was not clear from my response. I was referring to the communication in this thread.

FWIW we don't believe this to be on our side currently - hence why this has gone "ignored". Those texture asserts are errant.