Lurker

The hud in the Tomcat was a fairly new fangled thing, and was never meant to be used as a primary instrument. There were reasons for the pitch ladder being offset to the horizon, the primary being, there was no easy way to calibrate it at the time. Once you get used to it you don't really notice it anymore and I for one prefer the lean and minimalistic HUD of the F14 compared to most other fighters out there. If I need more info, I look at the relevant instrument in the cockpit.

We're just having a bit of fun. What's wrong with that?

Looks really great. Makes me hold out against all hope for a good Su-24 mod from someone, some day.

Any planned support for Force Feedback Joysticks?

If this is possible, it would somewhat alleviate the fact that there are no modern RedFor planes in the pipeline for DCS World. I would love to see an upgraded variant of the Mig21 in any way shape or form. It's a proven airframe, but imagine one with a pulse doppler radar, the ability to carry the R27 or the R77. And yes. They do exist!

It is difficult enough to try and explain single core processes to people without an IT engineering background, let alone multicore/multithreaded. In really, really, easy to understand terms it's not as simple as offloading different tasks to different threads/cores. Those tasks have to be scheduled to work in tandem, or parallel to each other while at the same time TALKING and sharing RESULTS, and minimizing the wait time, so that the combined NET result of thread scaling is an actual performance gain. I can't stress how difficult this is to program and implement correctly. It's not just, oh offload it through Vulcan API or some such, that might work for an engine written to take advantage of these APIs, but in DCS World we can safely assume that significant parts of the DCS engine will need to be completely rewritten for this to become a thing. I would say that multicore support (at least initially) will bring very limited gains to DCS World. Keep your expectations in check people!

Do these have a return to center spring?

@Wags would it be possible for you to share which pedals you are using in the DCS AH64D? Most importantly are they spring based (i.e. return to center) or not? Thank you.

It's not just wind. Even in 0 wind, a helicopter will still drift due to tailrotor downwash. This is how I understand it at least.

The whole thing looks like it's going to be very, rudimentary at best. Which is a damn shame. I might have to skip the Apache. It's either that or try to find people to train and fly with. I wish Eagle Dynamics would come out with some more videos of George in action (and they probably will) but I suspect a lot of people (who play singleplayer) will be disappointed with his implementation. From what little what I've seen I know I already am. I guess I was hoping for a more robust AI, one which I as a pilot don't have to handhold into finding targets. I mean what if I don't know the targets are there? I guess I was hoping that George would be able to be more autonomous, maybe he will be, but if Petrovich is anything to go by, I'm not holding my breath on this.

Looks like some of the George AI menu symbology is out of the bag. Looks a lot like the Petrovich symbology. Not sure how I feel about that, but it's not great. You need to direct George to "look" and then press a button for him to acquire a target. Which seems to work fine for rocket attacks in Coop mode I guess. I really hope he doesn't get turned into a barely automated targeting pod (and one where "I" have to be the one directing "him" onto targets, instead of the other way around. I am ranting a bit. I guess I shouldn't be, the Apache is meant to be flown with another person. With the Hind I can manage, as Petrovich really doesn't do that much, but I don't think this will be possible with anything other than really simple tasks for George in the Apache. Sorry for the rant, it's just that a RL friend of mine who I used to fly with in the Hind had to take an aeronautical tech job in France and won't be able to fly in the foreseeable future.

There are people who simply don't want to pay for maps that they don't want. I find it hard to believe that people should have an issue with that, but then I see a comment like this one. Wow. Just wow.

Actually it doesn't say anything about George (other than that Casmo will be voicing him) and that there is some kind of menu, for which Casmo uses a keyboard.

When you say A you mean the A mk60 with the longer burning motor? Yes it appears that the C seems to be the worst performing variant kinematically, which is something that has been confirmed by Heatblur to be still in investigation. (I.E. whether thats the way it was in real life or not). I don't know whether that's intentional or not but the C has a smokeless motor, and is meant be used more as a poor man's AMRAAM and at similar ranges, it sacrifices reach for stealth (no launch indication) and better guidance and terminal performance. I have no idea how it was in real life, but it's probably a fair bet to say that in DCS World this is not simulated for the C at all. In other words we get all of it's disadvantages and no advantages, except for the smokeless launch, which is wasted on the AI anyway.

Once I know where everything is, telling Jester what to do takes a matter of seconds. This is what people mean when they say they want George to "be" like Jester. It's not about complexity, it's about the user interface and simplifying tasks. For example: telling George to scan for targets and then to mark them as target points within the nav system should be something that is at most nestled within a 2 level contextual wheel, I.E. it's two button presses. Open menu (press A) 1. First level: Select George Scan for Targets using TEDAC and Press A 2. Second level: Different types of Scans that George can do using TEDAC, etc. and what he can do with them is second level: Select Enter as Target Points press A All of this Should take less than a few seconds, and then you just let George do his thing, as you start seeing the target points appearing. How that would work WITHOUT any kind of visual aid or menu, ALA Petrovich is a nightmare I don't even want to think about. Would probably be simpler to do it oneself, which is something that not only breaks immersion it undermines the whole concept of flying as a two-man crew. Which is exactly the way it works currently in the Hind. Petrovich is nothing more than an automated targeting pod. And a very bad one at that. Making George smarter than that is absolutely essential to the Apache being enjoyable without multicrew. *edited for clarity*

No, if you're facing three bandits, then fire one missile each. That would be 3 missiles in the air at a time, maximum. You still have 3 missiles left. Order your wingman to hold fire (although with the AI in DCS the way it's working it's questionable if you can even control him properly). Ideally you should be testing 1 v 1 or 1 v 2 just so you can have more missile volleys per sortie. My point is (and the point everyone else is trying to make here) is that you can't ever expect a certain PK, not even against AI, there are too many factors in play. You're testing missile kinematics and guidance, and for those tests to be as accurate as possible you need to use proper tactics when engaging.

Yes. Don't fire all of them at once. If the missile makes the aggressor turn around, it's doing it's job. You can't expect it to fly 25 miles and then chase down the target. If you're expecting that, then you're playing the wrong game. Fire a missile each, crank and see what happens. If they go cold on you, press. Once they turn hot, fire again, crank. If they keep pressing they will die. If they somehow manage to avoid the second wave, and live, then you are the one who has to turn cold, or risk getting killed.

What you are saying makes sense, it's just that I've never thought of Petrovich's menu as a menu really, since you don't ever really see anything on screen and it's just very simple commands that you can issue through it. If it indeed turns out that way it's going to be very hard to enjoy the Apache in single-player. Damn, what a bummer

Have you played Heatblur's F14? I don't think he will be, I just hope he will be. For Petrovich you basically tell him where to look and shoot. That's it. With George in the Apache, this will not work well at all. I mean if you're going to be micromanaging him the way you need to micromanage Petrovich, you might as well jump in the front cockpit and do everything yourself. What makes me think that Eagle Dynamics is going in this way is Casmo's keybind video which just came out today, he mentions a signle keybind for the George menu, which makes me hope I'm right and that it is a contextual menu similar to the one that Heatblur uses for Jester.

Casmo talks about him being George? Now that's interesting. He seems to have bound a keybind for AI Menu, so that's some good news too, must mean that the AI menu is at least a little bit contextual, although he talks about using his keyboard with it, which is not really encouraging for us VR players.

I'd settle for the Lancer, but I would LOVE the F-111.

Seems like controlling the tads will probably be best done with an Xbox or PlayStation controller

Not sure what all the fuss is about. Progress is going pretty well, people are hugely impatient. The only thing that is worrying is the state of the AI as the Copilot\Gunner. I hope they do a contextual menu like Heatblur have done, there are too many things going on that won't allow a rudimentary "Petrovich" like AI to work properly. A contextual AI menu would simulate crew communication, would allow much fewer keybinds, and and would alleviate a lot of handholding that the pilot would need to do to make the AI frontseater "work" properly. I know that many who post here people don't really care about this feature, but please remember that most of the people who play DCS play in single-player and they need to get this feature right or there will be a lot more crying in the forums. So please everyone, be patient.

Some people only have one eye, or are partially blind in one eye. You don't want them to fly the DCS Apache? *edit* sniped by Wags. Damn my eyes!

But why 9%, why not 1% or something? I don't get it. It's absolutely killing me that AP hold will fight me and my pedal inputs. It shouldn't be doing that at all. It's why I fly with AP YAW off, and why I removed the springs from my pedals.