Whiplash

Without commenting on the current status of the promised map editor. Would anyone be interested in community supported map project of the MTO? Why or why not. Personally I think it would fit in well with the types of planes that we are slated to get and it would be a nice change or scenery compared to a channel map that has already been done in Cliffs of Dover.

Did anyone else get a little excited when they saw the pit of the 190 in today's official update?

I have been a little confused by this. After reading the change log I tried to run the update via the DCS World Updater but it never found an update. I saw someone post that the update fixed the external light issue on the TF-51 though, and now reading your post I guess it all makes sense. You can only update the beta. I already uninstalled my beta 1.2.8 so I guess I will just wait until this update becomes official. They haven't mentioned it in the news section so I am assuming it is just a beta for now.

Yeah those look good. I could be wrong but I think most of those were taken using EDGE. ha ha yeah I have since toned it down a little. I was mostly trying to experiment how the flat finish or soot would look against the metal surfaces.

That's what she said...

Sure why not

I have noticed the aluminum looks a little off as well. You can add saturation in game by using sweetfx. But the best way to make the aluminum look more realistic is to play with the spec layer. Check out some of Tom_Weiss's skins. My favorite one of his is SCAT VII, you can download it here I've played around with the spec layer a little with some of the skins I made for our group. I'm not an expert but after you spend some time making your own or using others skins like Tom_Weiss's SCAT VII you start to notice there is a lot to be desired from the original mustang skins. Here are a few examples I have of some of our member skins. I used a contrasting spec layer that looks like this for both of those skins. To put it simply, what you see as red will be a dull shinny metal look and what ever is green will be flat and non-metallic looking. If you make the red more translucent and lighter like this: you will get more of a mirror finish for the aluminum similar to Tom_Weiss's SCAT VII. I'm not really sure if this is the type of response you were looking for but I hope you at least found it interesting.

I have to agree 100% with David. There is no reason this should not be a server option. I think the main points have been hit but auto rudder is pretty much the same thing as a handicap in golf, sure it might be for some people but the server needs to have the ability to control this option.

Some say his skin has the texture of a dolphin's, and that wherever you are in the world, if you tune your radio to 88.4, you can actually hear his thoughts... All we know is he’s called the Stig!

I can confirm this too. All the internal lights work including the blue dial lights. I forgot to check the recognition lights but for sure the landing and collision wingtip lights and tail lights don't work.

Right on, I have to admit I was a little surprised when I saw this thread, I was thinking that the P-51D would have been a direct cross over. I guess it's always the little things that get you during a new release. At least its an easy fix, I think... I don't remember any of the start up, taxi, takeoff, and landing training missions mentioning anything about the K-14 or any of the other stuff not feature in the TF-51.

If you can't download the training mission like Zabuza said, I can upload it for you. Also, if you are interested in flying the TF-51 in multiplier combat. d0o0m has made a fantastic mission for the Dogs of War (DoW) server which uses a TF-51 as a photo reconnaissance plane. I have played it a few times and it is a lot of fun. The objective is to fly the TF-51 to a predetermined target snap a picture and make it back to base in one piece. All the while you are being escorted by other P-51's.

Dang man that looks awesome! Keep it up.

Thank you. It's really been rewarding for me. I just hope I can find out who's plane it was someday. Here are some more pictures from Craig's collection chuntly@aol.com They are a bit of a tease because I still don't have a complete close up of the nose art. However, you can clearly see the "C" and the square apostrophe thing next to it in one of these photos.

Thanks for that! Here is another tip for everyone... If you want free samples of toggle switches or buttons, etc, Check out http://www.TE.com you can request free samples. I have gotten a lot of my toggle switches and rotary switches from that site and they 2 day fedex it to you with our charging a dime!

Watching this video really gets me pumped for DCS: WWII. It definitely doesn't make this waiting game any easier. Hats off to you my friend.

I think you ran the battery dead. Make sure your canopy is open and select the ground crew from the radio I think the default key is "\". then choose the power outlet and choose on. That should hook you up to the virtual aux power generator and your starter should work again.

I too have wondered where I could find a switch like the ones you describe as well as the 5 position toggle for switching between the bombs and rockets. I devoted a lot of hours of searching and came up empty. I've contemplated designing my own but just opted to substitute the bombs/rocket selector for a rotary switch and a three position switch like the one GOOdnight described with a momentar push button above it to simulate selecting the up or automatic position for the coolent flaps.

I made two pilot skins.... You can check out my uploads here I always saved everything at the DDS DXT5 level. The different levels just have to do with the alpha layers I believe. for aircraft skins I don't think an alpha layer is even required but for things like arm patches you need the alpha layer to remove the background of the texture.

It is possible, I have done it but it's far from perfect. You can only change the texture and not the actual shape of the pilot's head. What you have to do is modify the head .dds texture file. Name the file whatever you would like, lets say "custom_head" and save it to the P-51 skin folder you want the face to be added. Open the description.lua file in the folder of the skin you placed the head texture and add the following: {"pilot_P51_head_A", 0 ,"custom_head",false};

After corresponding with Craig and seeing his other images, I made some finishing touches on LITTLE*MAC*. You can download the skin from the user file section here: http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/648876/ I hope you all will enjoy! And if anyone finds more photos or information on who the pilot might be I would greatly appreciate it if you would post it here. Thank you.

Well if you become interested, just let me know. I am working on a switch panel and I use the Teensy++ 2.0. I took a c++ class about 8 years ago back in college and thats it. In a short amount of time I had it up and running (its still WIP though). The 2.0 board has something like 16 digital inputs and 6 axis (I think). I could make you a custom driver and script that could essentially make your teensy board plug and play. The drive could be written so when you plug your HOTAS in it will show up in your control panel as LOGICNC P-51 HOTAS or something, and when you open it in the game controler setting only the IO inputs and axis you want will show, there won't be any inputs that are unused. I'm not an expert at this kind of thing but given it's size, price, plus its customization features I don't know how you could do better. It's really easy to even program toggle switches so they do a momentary pulse instead of a constant on signal which is essential for simulator applications.

On that note, I'm sure you have thought this through, but I would suggest a teensy 2.0 controller. It is just about as small as they come. Completely customizeable, more than enough inputs for a HOTAS, oh and did I mention it's only $16? http://www.pjrc.com/store/teensy.html I've played around with them a lot so if you want to know more about my experience with it just let me know. There is some programming involved but it's really easy and I wouldn't mind doing it if you need help.

Do you mean this link? http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/personal/backer/

I made contact with the man who posted that picture of Cpt. William T. Mattison and LITTLE*MAC*. His name is Craig Huntly. This is what I have learned so far. The plane in my grandfathers photo was not Cpt. Mattison's assigned P-51. Originally Craig thought LITTLE*MAC* was assigned to Lt. Walter McCreary. However, Lt. McCreary was assigned a P-51B with the #25. He was shot down due to heavy flack and became a POW. He is still alive as far as I know. The plane in my grandfathers photo was the replacement for Lt. McCreary's after he was shot down. Craig Huntly Collection chuntly@aol.com Craig Huntly Collection chuntly@aol.com Lt. Walter McCreary in his P-51B C.RATION - Craig Huntly Collection chuntly@aol.com Interestingly enough while I was talking to my grandmother about all this yesterday she told me when my grandfather was coming home after the war the officer that was checking his gear looking for contraband or sensitive information was going to confiscate his photo album (mostly of B-24's from the 450th BG, 720th BS) until he came across a picture of a fighter. I guess it was his plane and he liked it so much that he let my grandfather bring the rest of his photos home. I should add that I don’t know for 100% certainty that it was the picture of LITTLE*MAC* that was the officers plane from that account, however out of all the pictures I have seen from my grandfather’s collection it is the only one of a WWII fighter of any kind. I vaguely remember hearing this story before but it never connected with me until I just heard it again from my grandma. She also gave me some insight on their radio chatter. I will try not to paraphrase too much but she basically said my grandfather (who was primarily a radar jammer/radio operator but sometimes waist gunner) loved to tune into the 332nd escort frequency especially on the way back from a mission. He said listening to their accent and great sense of humor was very good at relieving stress from a tense mission. My grandmother even tried to imitate some of the thing my grandfather told her. Try to imagine an adorable 86 years young Alaskan Native gal doing her best to imitate their accent, but she described it like this. Two 332nd FG Escort fighters are flying above the 450th BG B-24's when they spot a 109 below the formation. One would call it out and say something like "you want to take him" and the other would respond "Nah, he not hurtin anyone all the way down there." Needless to say, this has been a very interesting research project for me. Thanks a lot to all those who helped especially Merlin, I wouldn't have all this information if it weren't for his break though. EDIT:Craig Huntly found more picture of the plane on the 450th BG Website... Can't believe I missed these. One appears to be of the plane when it was freshly painting before LITTLE*MAC* was on the nose. http://www.450thbg.com/real/miscellaneous/p51-25.shtml