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Im currently using the G940 board for the stick head... 3 wires then vs 14 for the buttons etc. Much easier and neater.

For christmas I bought myself a new stick. A Spitsim Edge Combat Stick. It's part of the Edge range from Spitsim. Significantly cheaper than the flagship Spitsim range but its still more than a Warthig with throttle. These are made to order and they are willing to accomodate special requests! For example my stick has been fitted with my old Logitech G940 head. They usually supply these with either a beautiful aluminium replica spitfire spade grip or with a B8 grip. I've tried both and the spitfire grip really adds a special something when you are flying a spit in FSX of Il2 Cliffs of Dover etc. Construction is all stainless steel and incredibly sturdy. The stick gimbal is supported on rose joints so can be replaced easily if they ever wear out. There are no potentiometers both X and Y axis are on Hall Effect sensors and have 12bit resolution, thats 4096 discrete steps compared to the 1024 of the Logitech G940. A Warthog does have it beaten here with 16bit resolution but honestly above 1024 steps you really cant tell the difference. The mechanism is covered and protected by a leather gaiter which is available in a variety of colours. It doesnt fully seal to the shaft but it will keep most of the dust out. The things that really set this stick apart from all the others I've tried are the length of the thing. About 16" or so! Curves are a thing of the past as its much MUCH closer to real life stick deflections. Of course this does mean you can't use the stick on a desk. Fortunately Spitsim also make a plinth to support the stick. Though I currently just have it screwed to an old stool. I will be building myself a proper simpit eventually. It also uses a unique springing arrangement. Its an obvious choice when you think about it, rubber! A Y shaped custom made rubber spring fixes to the bottom of the stick and to 3 posts on the base. Its slightly lighter loading pushing away than pulling towards you and roll is lighter than pitch but here's the game changer: there is no centre detent! It simply gets progressively heavier the further from centre you go! No more "bump" as you cross the centre, no over-controlling as you have to overcome the initial detent before anything moves. Just beautifully smooth control. It has a different feel to coil sprung sticks. More like the feeling you get in a real light aircraft with airflow providing the resistance. The Edge range is designed as a simpit package. Seat, stick, Plinth, Rudder Pedals and bar to link to the seat plus a throttle quadrant. For me this was just too expensive but its an excellent setup. All stainless and aluminium alloy with the rudder pedals again featuring rubber springing but no toe brakes. More details at http://www.spitsim.co.uk/ under "edge controls"

IIRC canopy fogging/icing is simulated but there is no graphical tepresentation yet. Fingers crossed it will be present in DCS 2.0! As to forgiving engine management I'd like it to be possible to hot start... I've never managed it even when bring rough with the startup. Roll rate I can't really comment other than there is a very pronounced step in roll rates. It suddenly reaches a speed where roll authority reduces significantly... I'd have thought it would be more gradual.

Bet its really cheap compared to a real Typhoon... But if its genuinely being marketed as a training aid for real air forces its probably in excess of what a decent car costs.

Im guessing DCS treats the flames kinda like smoke? Its 180 degrees to velocity vector? Would it be possible to treat them like extra reheats only available when equipped so the flames align with the nozzles correctly?

SLI is an odd one... For me it works fine after a couple of tweaks in Nvidia Inspector.

I'll check when i get home regarding view distance

What module too? 30-40 on the ground in the Mig21 is about right... Its CPU limited so try 4k with MSAA and TSAA off. I get 38-60fps in 4k with the Mig21 with SLI 780ti's and a 4.55ghz i7. So similar specs really.

IMO it's a pity Milan didn't patent hos design ;)

I still think the ground handling is too easy personally! It's strange others are struggling with it. Stupid question but you guys having trouble arent engaging the nosewheel brake to taxi are you? I much prefer the Mig15's implementation of the system. All steering on the brakes until up to reasonable speeds. And it IS a lighter plane so more responsive. I do however agree with fixing the sunken tyres...

Have been experimenting with labels that are just a black dot. It's a compromise really. Too easy to spot against the sky by about right against ground clutter. You still lose sight of them if you arent paying attention. I only have them showing within 10km at the moment but may reduce that down to 7. I may also try lightening the colour but my last attempt at this lead to the dot being VERY visible through the cockpit. Another interesting thing is if you force ambient occlusion via Nvidia Inspector you get the occasional bright flash from in game objects. When a plane does this you it really pops out at you. What I've seen of the DCS 2.0 previews is that lighting id far more advanced so hopefully you will see more light reflected off other aircraft and so be able to spot them more easily.

Theres nothing consumer grade on the horizon as far as I can see.. A few semi professional options that need building into a simpit after sinking about $1000 into getting 3 axis FFB... I've decided to "downgrade" to a non ffb stick as the notchy motors of the G940 just make precision impossible. I extended the stick to try and get some more precision but this lead to an ffb deadzone the size of a small country. My new stick will require mounts making as the springing is HEAVY compared to most PC sticks.

I'm aware of that. I'm wanting DCS EFM/PFM and ASM though.

Around where I live light aircraft can be seen flying around. Generally unless close to an airfield they will be around half a mile up. They look like an aircraft in DCS about 300 FEET away. If im right under them.

Well NOBODY saw that coming... TWO F-14'S Leatherneck you are legends. I've not read the whole thread yet but is there a petition for Danger Zone to be the F14 DCS menu screen music?

B26 widowmaker for me on that list as my Grandads old squadron operated them In North Africa/The Med As stated Mossie is a light bomber and being done by VEAO JU-88 is probably the most sensible one on the list, though The He111 is the more iconic aircraft. Dream medium bomber? Vickers Wellington.

Fascinating isn't it that so many methods have been developed just for this one thing... Telling you where to point the nose to hit that target.

Having same problem. Seems warm up time might be VERY important now

As usual AI damage model sucks. Player damage model is far more advanced. Melon size hole is airframe = bad day

I'll turn FFB off to check but either way it needs something doing ;)

Not a big issue but nose down trim in the menu causes nose up trim ingame and nose up causes nose down.. Nice easy fix!

Hard to believe... Spock was a 20th century icon and will live forever I'm sure there was far more to the man than the character he most famously played and my condolences to hid family and friends.

Second batch is now bottled and kegged! Roughly 30 pints. I've just opened the first keg and its very similar to "old tom" an award winning ale... so I'm pretty pleased! Next batch will feature a little wheat to add head retention and lighten it a bit as its a pretty heavy hitter now!

DCS only uses 2 cores. One for the game one for the sound. You need to check individual core useage not overall CPU useage. Also can you check you GPU load? I'm pretty sure you will discover a bottleneck... Either cpu core pegged at 100% or the GPU. DCS currently doesn't much like AMD cpus.. at least older ones. I gained 20fps going from an old Phenom 2 at 4.2ghz to an i7 at 3.9!

Im not sure about feedback in helis but i'd love spme good rudder pedals with control losding and a centre that moves with trim for flying fixed wing. Unfortunately I've only ever seen FSX specific systems with £100+ motors which are still marginal for realistic forces when massively geared down too...