mkiii

Agreed on the comments re combustion chambers above. The combustion chambers of the modified RR Nene Axial flow engine in the Mig is seemingly more efficient (and AFAIK, that is one of the major design changes that the Russians made to it), given that the overall specs of the two types of engine is surprisingly (to me at least) similar, in thrust, airflow, fuel consumprion etc. I put it down to the fact that newer axial flow engine design was still being perfected wheras the centrifugal flow engine had the benefit of a good few years of development behind it. Having said that, my experience of Jet engines while in the RAF, was that you could alwas spot an older US engined aircraft from miles away, by the massive trail of smoke it left (thinking F104, & F-4 specifically). Heroes of the Skies! I made the Phantom, Mig-21 and Thud models for that episode ! :)

FWIW, have you checked that your CPU is clocking at what you think it should be? CPU performance seems to have a greater effect on DCS than what MY GFX card is set to. I thought my 3.5 Ghz i7 was clocked at about 4.0 Ghz, but realised that Windows (10) Power/performance options were throttling it. It might be worth a peek at the Power Options Advanced Settings Processer Power Management option to make sure that the Maximum Processer State is at 100% Clearly, Windows thinks my Tower is a Laptop, because even on the High performance plan, it was trying to save juice. Although I havent cured all performance issues by far, I have managed to get DCS to at least run at my monitors max setting of 60 fps, where it was running at half that with the same GFX card, and CPU speed throttled. My real problem though, may have been using the ASUS Turbo-V OC software that came with my PC - It's far better AFAIK to not use this, but to rely on BIOS settings.

yeah, I'm not unaware of crazing (was an aircraft mech for 17 years), but at the risk of sounding like a stuck record, IMO the effect is far too pronounced, and should not be on windscreen glass at all (NOTE: glass, not perspex). In any case, is this meant to be a new 1940s combat aircraft, or a modern (ie v old) restoration? Crazing takes quite a while to develop, although polishing marks from constant cleaning are more than likely. All this has been covered previously, so it's not really worth arguing any more. One suggestion I might make, is that the normal mapfor the effect is only a repeating 256x256 bitmap. Would it not benefit (for all aircraft that use it) to be remade at a higher resolution. Perhaps different monitor sizes, fov settings etc make the effect look worse for some more than others? I know that the windscreen crackling is not so noticeable when zoomed out, but looks like a 70 year old aircraft that has been left out in the sun when I am zoomed in. Anyhoo, I'm retiring gracefully now I know how I can get rid of the effects for my own use. It's still a Spit after all, and is still not 100% finished.

I haven't actually looked at how these things are set up in the modelling app, but I haven't noticed the crackles on other glass windscreens, so I'm hoping it is just a mistake that will be corrected.

@justificus. Clearly not :/

The crackles are also very heavy on the windscreen. That is glass, not perpex. It just aint right. The default spit canopy we have turns completely opaque white when the sun hits from the side! And again, the spit in that video is not a brand new wartime aircraft with a groundcrew that polishes the canopy & screen after every flight, clue being that it is taking off, covered in bugsplats, and is unlikely to have an armoured glass windscreen. On top of that the camera is focussing in the interior, not looking through it. I guess not many people really care whether they can see out or not in this module.

This is happening frequently to me, and with Head tracking, it doesn't seem to be a big problem, but I have noticed that some odd things also seem to be happening with my Warthog setup. Switches become deactivated. For example, in the Spitfire, I have the EAC Arm and RDR Altm switches set up to replicate the Spits mag switches. When TIR disconnects, these often (but not always) turn off. I think I have an engine failure, but a quick look at the in-cockpit mag switches shows they have both turned off, not something that is going to happen IRL. V. ODD. I originally thought this might be a lack of voltage to my USB hubs but after adding 5v power supplies, it still happens.

A stupid question I know, but have you checked your "Takeoff Assist" settings since the update? I was surprised to find that for some reason all my modules that used this feature had it set to full on after a recent update. Previously I had set them all to zero.

Get the Cougars. They work well with the A-10, especially if you blue-tack them to the bezel corner of your "instrument" monitor, and set your left and right MFD to appear under them. If nothing else, provide an extra 56 keys that you can use. I have started using a combination of native exports, exports via modded lua files & settings in Monitorsetup lua and occasionally, where there is nothing to actually export, such as WWII aircraft, the excellent Ikarus app. I welcome the day when there are no more betas, alphas, and just one version to set up though. ATM it seems to be a constant juggling match to keep up with changes to various luas and different settings for each module.

I was getting the odd sound related crash, usually when things get a bit overloaded, such as an extended firing of MG/Cannon or rockets. I use built in HD Audio chipset on my ASUS Mobo, which usually works fine. It may be coincidental, but this started happening after I plugged something into my rear line-in port, ( I normally use either speakers or headphones connected to the front or rear green ports). After disconnecting the line-in, Crashing seems to have stopped (so far). Probably it is a coincidence, but you could try making sure no unnecessary sound devices are in use.

The last update to 1.5.6.1648 seem to have fixed most of it for me, although I still get the odd stutter, nothing anywhere near as bad as the initial release. My main problem now seems to be that when I create a lot of noise, (guns / rockets), I risk a CTD, which never happened before.

Trainers!? Why haven't we got a DH Chipmunk yet? And as someone else mentioned earlier, a DH Tiger Moth?

You can also check what the latest versions of the main apps are (without running anything) here :- http://updates.digitalcombatsimulator.com/

cheers n8d0g. Had a look at a preview of it, and he doesn't skip on the technical detail at all does he ;)

Bah Humbug!

Yep. Make sure the PointTracker settings for Model Position are accurate. IE Calibration. The important one seems to be the y position, which sets the pivot point just below your ear. In my case, the setting is about -220mm which allows me to look up and down with minimal z movement. I'm using freetrack though, because I have found that OpenTrack does some odd things, namely it randomly reversex axes. Sometimes I need to invery pitch and x, other times not. I can't figure out why and it is v annoying.

I am using 3 1920x1080 monitors in Surround, on a GTX 970 as one screen of 5760x1080 in the monitor setup, and one 1280x1024 monitor running on the built in intel HD4000 graphics chip with no problem, and getting 60fps, which is the max the monitors can run at. I have the 4th monitor to the right in the Display settings setup, with the top aligned with the main monitor. Physically, the screen is below the others, and for various reasons is inverted - although this has no affect on the settings. You should do whatever uses the least ram (ie the lowest combined width x height). Adding a further monitor would just mean making sure the gui had the correct settings for width and height.

Making the smoke more visible is easy enough. Look in Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Bazar\ParticleEffects\Effects\SmokeMarker.lua Change Line 2: local smokeLife = 8*smokeLifeC to something higher local smokeLife = 40*smokeLifeC This creates the normal column that ends in a slowly fading whispy smoke cloud that you can easily see from 5 miles away. I'm sure that the rest of the parameters in there could produce nicer results, but this works ;) You might want to mess around with the LOD settings if this doesn't cut the mustard..

Just extract the file SpitfireIX_CPT_GLASS_DIFF.dds which can be found in Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Mods\aircraft\SpitfireLFMkIX\Cockpit\Textures\Cockpit_Spitfire_LFMkIX_Textures.zip Back up the file in case of accidents. Edit out the dirt and scratches, and reinsert into the zip. You need to edit R G & B channels individually for best results, not the combined RGB image. The dirt is on the Green channel. You need to keep the overall grey about the same, while reducing the darker dirt marks. Save as DXT1 RGB (No alpha) with Generate Mipmaps set to on. If you want to keep the changes you make, then you need to edit a copy that is in your _MODS folder, replicating the same folder structure as the original (If you use Jsgme) and leave the original alone, otherwise it is likely to be overwritten by an update. The crackles in the perspex are made by the SpitfireIX_CPT_GLASS_NORM.dds in the same zip. Edit the individual RGB channels for this one too. Save as R8G8B8 24 bit Someone has already made a mod to remove the dirt on the spec map:- https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/2315459/ My cleaner cockpit specularity file, reduces the dirt and crackles, but does not remove them Place the extracted folder in the same place as the existing textures zip file DO NOT REPLACE THE EXISTING ZIP WITH THIS ONE:- https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlvGQxoyD0PcnwJIhrsXLPNQR8Bx EDIT: I just realised that the crackles are not only on the perspex hood, which I can live with, but also on the Armoured Windscreen. Now this is not at all acceptable. They will have to go :/ Just making the normal map blurry will get rid of them.

On a side note: I use freeTrack, and it is a bit prone to disconnecting, but I suspect that it is something more fundamental than a head tracker problem, because when it happens and I am flying the Spit, both Magnetos turn off at the same time (I have them assigned to switches on my Warthog Throttle). Could this be Windows messing with my USB ports? I Tried OpenTrack, which works OK, but has a really annoying bug. Every now and then I have to turn on or off Axis reversal on X and Pitch.

Your pain is shared. The AI fly with a much simpler flight and damage model than us mere humans, so they are basically supermen in flying tanks that seem to never stall. The stock response is to play against human pilots ;)

See his custom.lua file - near the top. You need to have your resolution set in the gui to the width of all your monitors, and the correct modified 1 screen monitorsetup/lua selected, but in your .lua file have the Center viewport defined as just the width of the 3d screen/camera. Notice that the MFDs, radar etc are all defined outside of this area. Also, you need to combine any multiple monitors that are used for the main viewport into one screen using "Surround" or similar.

Just don't get too comfortable with any curves you set up. The devs are bound to be fettling it soon. OT: Anyone else feel the need for a Nice shiny Saab Draken to do the shooty stuff? If we do get one, we will have to wear special soft shoes so we don't scuff the high speed finish ;)

Ditto. From the GUI, assigning any controls to the viggen and hitting OK freezes the game on a black screen. Music still playing in the BG, but forcing a hard exit of the app from desktop or Task Manager. Other aircraft settings can be edited without this problem. Deleting options.lua from Saved Games/Config helped. No Crashes / black screen after that when setting control options. No mods are loaded, and an install of Beta 1.5.5 is working OK.

Not too fast.... I might have time for that nap after all.