derodo

Sabre-TLA, I looked at the mapple flag missions not long ago, but I was hesitant...I'll probably give them a try. CommDante, thanks for those insights. I'll try to put all of them to the test; the main problem is that there's a huge gap from theory to practice. I'm kind of aware of what I am supposed to do (put the missile abeam and such), but I fail misserably most of the times... Evading radar guided missiles is more or less feasible (sometimes); but heat seeking missiles are a complete different thing. Most of the times I don't even know when they are launched; so I'm in the air, and all of a sudden, mi plane just explodes...how come? Of course, IR missile...crap! Not to mention spotting them...that's kind of impossible. I manage to do it when I setup a mission on my own and I know exactly where the SAM launcher is, and I can see the initial smoke trail. But on a real mission...there are sooo many things to be aware of that I just get lost. Anyway, thanks a lot guys for the hints again. I'll try to put them to good use. Seems It's going to take a while though :)

Thanks for the hints guys, That's what I do basically. Setup my own missions and practice. I usually have no problem beating *just one* enemy fighter, or taking out some AAA with guns/rockets...I even made a mission just to learn how to evade SAMs (it was lot of fun, btw). But putting it altogether is a complete different thing. The campaigns come fully loaded, with sams, more-than-one enemy fighter, AAA, and not so much clues on how to aprroach the battle...should I follow the waypoints intially? Or is it better to figure out a different route? Just looking at the brefing screen and the mission planner drives me crazy. There are so much things out there! I mean, is there any chance of surviving 2 vs 3 + SAM + AAA in real life? I can barely take out one enemy fighter at "excelent" AI, and my wingman is not much better than me, how am I suppose to handle it? :) Anyway, if I decided to try the on-line thing (which I didn't yet), where should I start? Is there any "official" place to start looking at? Something like an "on-line DCS server for dummies?"

Hi there, I've been playing DCS for quite a while now; started back in the days of LOMAC, which was the sim that got me "in". Never was a good combat pilot (nor am I now), but I enjoy learning how to handle the jets, the startup procedures, the avionics, the vistas, taking off, landing, and shooting some easy targets from time to time. I'm still flying it (specially since OB 1.5). Purchased a few modules (FC3 + P51 + Hawk) and I'm loving it. But never had the courage to try any of the campaigns. I always liked the SU27, and I spent quite a few hours learning it, but mostly solo. Setting up my own missions to test things out, reading the manual, the forums, watching videos, etc. But yet, I'm hardly able to beat any of the non-training-missions/campaings that come with FC3. Never tried the campaigns before because I knew they were probably too much for me. And it turned out to be the case. I tried yesterday, for the first time, the SU27 campaign "Fortress Mozdok" and...well...the two first missions are way too easy. Almost nothing to do. But then comes the third one...and I don't event know where to start. I mean, I do, or I should, but I'm completely overwhelmed knowing there gonna be hostile airborne targets + AAA + SAMs at some point...I only tried once and got shot down by an SAM. Didn't try again yet (I will), but my feeling is that the campaing does not progress "linearly"; it kind of starts with two dummy missions, and then jump into something much more complicated (at least for my skill level). So it's probably me (I told you before I'm quite a bad combat pilot), but I still miss some sort of "traning campaign", like the one that comes with the P51, that has a more "linear" progression, and is quite easy to follow in the beginning; and it gets more and more complicated as you get by. Is there anything out there like that for any other airfraft? Something that starts with basic things; cold start, taxi, take off, then get to basic combat employment, etc. then aproach thinks like planning the mission, BFM, tactics, etc. Everything in one single, linear, progressive package/campaign. Or maybe what I need is a book? Or more learning material? Or maybe I just have to go on-line and get trained with real people that know all these things...where do I start?

This is similar to this other wish, but not quite the same. I'd love to be able to see what skin I'm choosing in the mission editor. Right now the only way to check it is to actually fly the mission (or so I think). It's not that terrible, but it could be better :) Don't even need to be able to change it in-game; this would me more than enough to me.

Hi all, I tried searching for a similar thread and I couldn't find one, so I'm posting what I've experienced... Sometimes, don't know exactly when, the UI gets irresponsive. I mean, every click I do "outiside of pure gameplay" takes a long time, and somtimes the "rotating windows circle" appears to signofy the app is kind of busy. "Outside of pure gameplay" means that clicking on the 3D cockpit elements is just fine, and flying around is also fine. No FPS drops. But when hitting ESC, once the menu appears, anything I click takes way too long to complete. Going to "customize controls" and clicking on any of the controls for example, takes several seconds until it gets highlighted. Writing anything in the new "search box" is the same; takes a few seconds for each characer to appear. Once this behavior starts, it can also be observed in the mission editor. Anything you click takes much much longer than usual. Even saving the mission. Or clickin "fly". Quitting DCS and starting again solves the problem. Until it happens again :) Usually when I suddenly quit a mission via ESC. But can tell it for sure.

OMG. How can I be that stupid! Thanks dburne for enlightening me. It was just that. I'd swear I double checked it!!!! Damn. SHAME ON ME.

Maybe it's me, but when flying at dusk, when the sun is already set and everything starts getting really dark, it feels *a lot* different looking at the sunsetting horizon than anyother place. I mean, when I'm flying towards the horizon where the sun already set and it's lo longer visible, the HDR adaptive luminance (or whatever) kicks in to try to compensate the bright orange sunset, making EVERYTHING, including the cockpit, way too dark. I was trying the Hawk, and it was impossible to find a sweetspot in which I could see the instruments whenever I was flying with the horizon still in view. Not even with the emergency lights on. It seems like due to the HDR, everything was overexposed and turning the light dimmers brigher made it even worse. I had to fly just the other way (with the horizon at my back) in order to se anything in the cockpit. I know it makes sense to have such an effect when directly lookin into the sun or anywhere too bright, but it was almost night time; everything was really really dark except por the thin orange line at the horizon, and yet the HDR was trying to compensate, making it really difficult to read the instruments because everything was overdarkened. Maybe that's the case in real life, and I just have to avoid flying in that direction. I don't know. Any hints? Is this normal?

Just bit more info. I tested it a bit more, and the behavior is quite easy to spot. Just entering into the control setup window, whevener I click the modifier button, it remains as "pressed" or "active" until I click it again. It's like if the modifier were treated as a switch, with toggles on each click, instead of only being active while it's pressed. It seems that's only happening with modifiers set on joystick buttons. Regular keyboard modifiers work fine.

Hi there, I hope this is the right place to post this...I have an x55, and have configured the pinky button on the stick as a modifier that I use for several thigs. In 1.2.x it worked just fine, but on 1.5, is as if the modifier button keeps in the "pressed" state until y click it again. For example, I have the same button mapped to wheel brake (without the modifier) and landing gear up/down (with the modifier). Using just the wheel brake is fine (it brakes :)). But now, as I prepare to land and drop the landing gear (button + modifier), the landing gear gets down (fine), and when I click again the wheel brake, instead of braking, the landing gear gets up! So the button without the modifier now lowers/raises the landing gear instead of braking. To return it to its "normal" state I have to click the modifier button alone one time. That seems to fix the problem.

Was having a look at the new encyclopedia, and spotted the ka-50 has a missing texture. It's barely noticeable because the replacement texture is quite well setup :) I'm attaching a screenshot. Just my 2 cents.

Just wanted to share my enthusiasm here as the rest of the people is doing :) Simply amazing. That's it. Singnificant performance improvement and, OMG, the visuals are just...freakingly outstanding. I don't think I'm returning back to 1.2 anymore :) Thank you very much ED for this big effort. It's been worth the waiting. Well done.

Yup. Just happened to me. I was trying to reproduce it with regular missions and I couldn't. Didn't realize it happened with a training one (the second Hawk training mission).

YESSSSSSSSSS!

Great. Nice it's WIP. I also think the shadows on the cockpit glass are way too dark. Moreover, I think they are unrealistic (and maybe a bit distracting while flying). I've never seen such dark shadow areas on my car while driving. Never cared to look for them, but if they are there, they are very subtle; and knowing a little bit about how light works, I don't think that's correctly modeled (at least in the 1.5/2.0 videos I've seen lately). For a perfectly transparent surface, no projected shadows from other surfaces should be visible. Now...considering the glass in the cockpit might not be 100% transparent, it would be ok to have a subtle shadow effect, barely noticeable (if any). My point is, that having no shadows at all in the glass areas would be just fine (better than the dark version seen in the 1.5 videos). If the light interaction with the glass is to be correctly modeled (which I don't think is needed), then the only visible effect you should see is that the scratches and imperfections in the canopy wouldn't reflect off any light on the "shadowed" areas, so you won't have those nice highlight refections wherever other surfaces project their shadow on, as they are blocking light coming from the light source, thus, preventing it from being reflected. But you should still be able to see through the glass (which ideally is 100% transparent, so no light coming from whatever is behind it should get absorved). Or so I think :P

Am I still on-time to be eligible? :)

Nice pre-release test vid by Wags. It's getting closer! (still don't get why the dark shadows on the cockpit glass...seems a bit unrealistic and distracting; hope they can tweak it a bit more and make them lighter at least)

Ok I tried again and this time it worked. I went to the game controls and played a bit with the throttle axis settings, just for making sure it was correctly reporting 0% when it was all the way back. Clicked on the invert axis twice...I know that jast made nothing but just in case... :P The touch down was around 210Km/h this time, and I waited a little bit before pressing P to make sure I was below 200Km/h...and it just worked... So there was no bug as expected...it was just me being not skilled enough I guess. Or maybe that stupid axis tweaking somehow changed something...who knows :) Thanks anyway guys for the help, and sorry for the inconvience.

Thanks for the responses guys. I'd say I got my engines idle, or so I think (as I pull the throttle all the way back). I tried again and it's the same. Not the best landing in history, but enough to see what is happening. I'm attaching the track file. You might have to scale time a bit with CTRL-Z to skip the flying part...and then back to normal with SHIFT-Z when landing. If you switch to the external view, you'll see the chute going out and the rope being broken...touch down speed was around 240Km/h, and throttle I'd say it's iddle, but I'm clearly doing something wrong...or maybe the throtle axis is not correctly calibrated and it's not at 0%. I'll try it again double chacking the throttle axis before, and landing at a lower speed. land_nochute.trk

Even when the C in DCS stands for combat, I'd say YES. Mainly because what I like is just flying (and splash some enemies from time time). I'd definitely buy something like that; It would be really great to be able to fly non-combat aircrafts.

Hi there, I know this is kind of a stupid question but...I just can't seem to make the dragging chute work when landing the Su-25T I know I have to press the 'P' key once I touched down and below 200Km/h...and I do so, and I can even see the little tail door opening up if I switch to the external view, but nothing is coming out of it. I made almost a perfect landing (the best I can do at least :), soft touch down, nothing goes wrong, but the chute just doesn't come out, and so I can only rely on the wheel brake and most of the times I just end up outside the runway :( I even made a stupid test, trying to release the chute just before taking off, and it worked! it was useless but it worked (of course I just quit the mission and start again without releasing the chute early on, so that is not the reason it doesn't come out afterwards :) What am I doing wrong? Maybe I'm still going too fast (200Km/h)? Is there any known bug preventing if from working right now? (I'm using v1.2.4.12913)