mkiii

I would say that an in cockpit kneepad / map that zooms into the current version, on-screen so you can actually read it would be good. BUT... You really need to be able to position it on screen where you want it for each aircraft. ATM it is messed up if you have anything but standard monitor settings.

As the title suggests. Persistant GUI based settings that are saved correctly via the GUI, or at least in an easily understood single user config file that can override the default settings, as is the case for the Monitor Setup. Maybe this is already possible, in which case, I am prepared to be "informed". I'm a bit tired of editing lua files for every aircrafts FOV, Snapviews, Control Indicator and Kneemap position after each update. Some settings persist via my Saved Games configs, but most are in the program folders & don't work when placed in my USER Config folders. Clearly, this is less of an issue for people using "standard" monitor setups, but for those with aux. screens driving external displays/MFDs, to one side or below the main screen area, this can be very fiddly, since all of these settings tend to look terrible when the 3d world is one size, but the screen size in the GUI is set to overall dimensions, which include the extra screen(s).

You "Should" be able to export a Cinema4d Model / animation / materials etc as a Filmbox format file, (.fbx). This will import directly into 3dsMax, and bring in almost everything you need. Tweaks will still need to be done, but most of the hard work can be avoided. Using .3ds files is not very useful these days. There are severe limits on what it can handle, not least the polygon count, which is limited to 65535 triangles per mesh. This may work for you if you intend to do simple objects, but it is a lot easier to get a model to the almost complete stage in your app of choice before importing it into Max. Especially if it is rigged up and has LODs. The painful transition to Max probably aught to be done sooner rather than later. Your artist might even like it. I use Modo in my day-to-day modelling, and have no (major) problems importing finished, textured models into Max / Maya via .fbx files. I did a quick test of an aircraft model exported to .fbx, imported into Max and loaded it into Model viewer OK. I just wish I had more time to play around with this stuff. it would be nice to see some of my models in DCS, even if they were just AI driven.

Yup. I know it's been mentioned before, but I couldn't find a dedicated thread. So here goes. Give the Hogski some lovin'.

I finally "Got It" I think.. 15 landings in a row without bending the A/C, and one of those after a bottle of wine :) I don't know what happened, it just suddenly went from at very best, 6 in a row, but more usually 2 or 3, to 15. I feel that the main thing I started doing differently to before, was to trim almost full nose-up once I was on the final approach. It seems that the act of having to push the nose forward slightly to counter any possible bounce did the trick. that and learning to judge the correct height to flare better. So to all those who feel like giving up. Just keep doing it. keep mental notes of what you did when it went wrong, and when it went right. Unfortunately, each persons set-up is individual, so no one set of instructions will help you 100%. The real thing didn't (or shouldn't) deviate much from one person/aircraft to another, but in Simulation world, we each have different computers, settings controllers, and even seating positions. All affect the way the thing flies. In my case, I tried putting the stick in front of me, to the side, between my legs and so on. For me, ATM On the desk, directly in front of my right arm is best (Old and stiff shoulder). PS. That Main gear is still too weak IMO, even if I can now land with white indicators showing on both Indicator rods (these white marks really need to be made more visible imo). You guys ARE checking that before you count your landingas as good, aren't you? ;)

So you don't hold right rudder during T/O? Interesting.

Hah. Tomsk. Your Vid basically shows one of my "good" landings, but just a bit less steep on the approach. ;) One thing I have noticed is that during a landing with a light aircraft, it seems to be a fair bit easier to float down, though more prone to bouncing. I can vouch for the reward part. Once taking off "clicked" for me, it was a huge achievement... same as managing to hover the Huey. I find it amazing that the wartime pilots who had to do this for real, although experienced on the whole, still had to do it right from the very first time. If the Luftwaffe was anything at all like the RAF, then instruction probably consisted of someone standing on the wing shouting some verbal tips followed by "Viel Glück".

Thanks guys. Well... Practice Makes Perfect they say ;) I'm now managing to make it down in one piece nearly every time, with about 60% of my landings being good, straight in and lined up, 30% involving a little bit of undercarriage leg bending, and the rest usually dropping a wing and writing off an aileron... with maybe 10% being a complete cock-up... but all good landings in the sense that my little man can walk away from them. I can fix it though, being an ex aircraft fitter ;) 99% of my prangs were because I flared too soon or too late and either dropped a wing in the former, or bounced with the latter. I still think the gear is too weak, but I am doing my practices in the Instant Action, full fuel and ammo (whos idea was that?) mission. Part of my improvement was taking on-board the flare advice. I had been coming in far to shallow, and not being able to see the runway for most of the landing was a disaster. Now I come in a bit steeper and a little hot, with the runway picture taking up half my windscreen, trimmed nose down, which forces me to hold the stick back almost to the point where I want it for locking the tailwheel, and keeping more of an eye out rather than on the instruments, mainly using the base of the gun indicator lights as my reference for the touchdown point, and the top of it for the horizon during the flare. I tried "raising the seat" bit I found the view over the nose distracting. Throttle set to around .7 ATA and speed around 230 at the threshold. The Dusk conditions, my poor eyesight, and the sloping line of hills on the horizon are no help in that mission though, so the occasional glance at the Turn and slip/Artificial Horizon is necessary. The biggest issue is judging height at which to flare, or more to the point, what height I'm floating down the runway at. I also seem to be getting slightly better results with no stick curves, (on a TM Warthog), but a little on the rudder pedals (CH), otherwise I can't reach full travel comfortably (I'm old and creaky). Jets are easier, that's for sure. Even the Huey seems easier, and that's a pig to land neatly.

Which aircraft? Mark location isn't cheating. If you had a real route map, you would look out of the cockpit and plot your position on the map with a chinagraph wouldn't you?

These vids all help and after many hours of practice, I can land without burning the majority of times.... but I feel that there is something wrong. Yes, it is difficult, and I appreciate that the real thing probably is too, and that people who have mastered it can take great pride in the fact, this is OK. I can handle having to learn, BUT the main gear linkage just seems too prone to buckling. I accept that slamming it down hard is going to wreck the gear (at best), but the simple act of having one wheel lift off the runway, and settling back down under either it's own weight on the landing run or with the aid of a little side stick, should not be enough to break the actuation (radius) struts. When you consider that Erich Brunotte says that the A series landed like a Piano dropped from a building, and the Dora has the same gear. Bottom line. I think the gear damage model might be off. PS OT, but. I found this Handbook on the A-8 which makes an iteresting read: [ame]http://www.lexpev.nl/downloads/fw190a8.pdf[/ame]

Once you do get your screen back (Adding the VR section worked for me), you might find that some of your modules control settings are messed up now. Some sort of fixed themselves after fixing the black screen issue, but there are anomolies. My Dora for example, had the TM Throttle Flaps switch set up to switch flap settings. These are now blanked out and unselectable, leaving only the toggle up and down flap settings available. Didn't see ANYTHING in the release noteds about this or the fubar caused by options.lua. I know it's a Beta & all that, but a bit of documentation would have helped here.

The whole editing of .lua files and so on needs to be sorted out come V2.0 final, or at least documented, with a bare minimum of descriptions on what to edit for 1 screen, 3 screen and single wide screen consisting of multiple monitors described, plus how to set up FOV and export instrumentation. There is much info on these forums, about this topic, and much of it is out of date, referring to older formats of config files, and some confusion (by me at least) on issues like the one with user files being ignored. Granted, any number of things could be causing that issue, and I would like my user configs to work. I worry about modifying files in the game folder.

Actually, having just checked, you are right. DCS does indeed save all the control files when you hit OK... but to the default files that have the long ID number after them, NOT to the individually saved (in my case - shorter) filenames. This is a bit annoying IMO. I want the defult files left alone, and my versions to be saved. Ah well... I can't help with TrackIR. I Use FreeTrack, and any changes I make to that are done in the FreeTrack app itself. I just ignore the settings in DCS

It helped me when I experimented with exactly how far back the stick needs to be pulled in order to lock the tailwheel. It might help if your stick has strong springs such as a Warthog, to just pull back a tiny bit past half way, in my setup, this means the label in the bomb panel is just visible over the top of the stick. Doing this means you can centre it just a bit more easily. Your centre may vary from this position, since I have about 20% curve on Pitch and Roll axes. (I noted that the real thing has progressive control throws according to the manual). The tip to use ONLY Right rudder to correct was a lightbulb moment too. That helped a lot. Now all I need to do is land the thing without doing a ground loop at best... :)

I only use Single Player mode, and editing server.lua works fine. However, I have noticed that DCS seems to ignore the one I have in my Users/myname/Saved Games/DCS/Config/View Folder, forcing me to edit the on in my DCS Install folder. Could that be the problem?

It doesn't look like there is. You can load the .miz file in the Mission Editor, and manually set the time limit on each Trigger that is displaying a text message. This is simple enough, but probably isn't worth the effort.

Yes. Each column on the controls page should be saved to a separate file. If you look at what is automatically saved there by DCS before you start, you will see that there is one for each. Some controllers bundle Throttle and stick into one device. Saitek Profiler (Possibly) and TM Warthog (when using Target software), in which case you will only see device for them in the setup page. You have separate controllers listed, so them and everything else, including Rudder pedals, Mouse & Head tracker etc. will need to be saved as separate files. One for each. I advise making new files rather than overwriting the default ones. Just give them an obvious name, and make sure you put them in the correct aircraft folder. Sometimes it opens in the last place you looked, and might be the wrong aircraft. To Save: Select something in the appropriate column so that it is highlighted (as if you were going to set up a control) then save profile as... To load: As before, select the appropriate column and Load correct profile. By default, stick, mouse, keyboard etc have separate folders, although Im not sure it matters where you actually save them. I save everything in my User/Saved Games folder to stop updates wiping them. Once everything looks good you can click on OK and quit: settings should be saved. If they are not, then go to to the folder where you saved them and make sure that you have rights to save there, the file isn't write protected etc, and check file date/time to see if it matches what you epect. You shouldn't have to load them every time, just once. Maybe again after a major update to DCS As for re-registration, it is something that pops up occasionally, but not every time. I sometimes get it after an update, but just clicking OK the same as you does no harm. It does sound as if there is a problem with your install though. If it gets too much, you can try running Repair from your windows Start Menu under DCS or reinstall.

Just a thought, you do know that you have to select each individual controller and save that profile? I.E. If you have a separate Stick and throttle, you have to select each in turn by clicking somewhere on the entry screen for that controller, then click on save profile, giving each one a unique name. Just hitting OK does not save the profile AFAIK. Also, be aware of where you are saving and loading the profiles. I suggest that it might be best to save and load them from your user/Saved Games/DCS/Config/Input/ACName folder, so that you can be sure that they are safe from any DCS updates or re-installs. I don't use any profiler software for DCS now, but when I used the MadKatz app for my old X52 Pro, there were no problems getting it to work in DCS.

In After crashing the UH1, recovery into a new aircraft is not possible (assuming one exists, and the option is selected in the GUI). It works fine if I start a mission in another type of aircraft. Pressing RAlt+J from F2 view clearly does something, because the UH1 on screen often jumps in the air a little, winds up, winds down, usually with a wet start, then shuts down. Occasionally doors open or close, or any combination of the above. No amount of pressing F Keys will get me in the cockpit, and the result is usually a broken aircraft.

I have a similar problem with the "Ground attack-easy" mission (haven't tried the other one). It is very difficult to gain control of the Huey when the game starts in-flight in the Release & Beta version. It is Possible to avoid crashing if you apply right rudder and set the collective to about 60 to 70% before clicking on Fly. Whatever you do, make sure that you move the collective (throttle control in my case) immediately after pressing fly, otherwise the sim treats it as if it were set at zero, and you will plummet.

Same Here. Wasn't it always that way though? Either way, the voiceover doesn't mention the SAM & AAA cover on the targets in the harder versions of the mission. Doesn't repair just DL the same files and remove your edits? If you must delve deeper, perhaps try looking for the last versions files from the backup folders?

Amen to that. Just purchased the module, and was a bit miffed at the Russian only Tutorials. My eyesight is OK for spotting targets, and flying, where a quick zoom in overcomes any problems, but the text on a wide screen set up is just a bit too small for me, especially when it near the op of the screen and everything it wants you to click is at the bottom. I'm all for absorbtion, but selling a product with no real localization is a tiny bit lazy imo. Having native language as a default is fine, but when I select English in the options panel, I sort of expect that is what I will get. BTW. Since we have to read the text, is there a way to make it stay on screen longer? It fades far to quickly.

When I was a mech, I never took my jacket off.... but that's UK weather for you ;) Back on topic though, it is a bit odd in the Caucus theatre that HAS doors, (some at least) open, allowing you to taxy in (yes I said taxy not taxi). How are you supposed to turn round, with no groundcrew to help? Aircraft would never taxy into a HAS unless someone was about to bomb them and there was no other option. In front of the HAS is a paved area that is so tiny, that even something as tiny as a Hawk would have trouble not going onto the grass. The revetment areas are a little better, and you can just about circle around in a larger aircraft such as a SU-27, although it is prone to blowing tyres if you turn too tight. We have the unrealistic Groundcrew repair and rearm commands, with the repair one lifting the entire aircraft up on an invisible crane, so I can't see it being much of a stretch to include a 'turn A/C' command to physically rotate you 180 degrees.

Did Your chute snag the stern of the carrier? ;)

I assume the default Cannon Mode being A/A is because this is primarily a fighter & You want to be able to quickly swap between Magic & Guns instantly in a dogfight without releasing the controls. When you are doing A/G attacks, you generally have to plan more in advance. Identify target, Line up, Select correct weapon, select ranging mode, CCRP, CCIP or Gun mode and fly onto the target, so releasing the throttle to press a couple of buttons is less intrusive. ATM I don't see any movement in the A/G pipper regardless of what I do. It just seems to act like a gun cross (ie fixed), and seems to be zeroed to a very close range, and/or small speed range. so it might not make any difference which mode you use.