vicx

pepin, I think you misunderstand what I mean by HUD. I mean the 2D arcade style overlay used in CA. CA only has an arcade style overlay but the aircraft in DCS can put this overlay onto a glass surface to replicate a real glass HUD. Most real life armour and anti-air units have a collimated sight or a they have a TV type display or a PPI or all of the above. In CA you cannot have these things because it is not yet supported.

Oh yes it is very premature to say that the new system has problems ... when most of those problems are due to the old system. A clean break might be the best approach for ED to take. Remove the old to make way for the new.

Hmm ... experimenting with Gameplay.Options.ModelEnlargement = small at the various resolutions shows that effect is very dependent on zooming changes. I think I might need to visualise this totally differently to what I have done. Those initial images I posted were good at showing there was a problem with the render but not at revealing ... WHY? Zooming changes the LOD levels ... I will post a marked up image showing how that effects the game when Gameplay.Options.ModelEnlargement isn't even being used. LODS were the the original ModelEnlargement feature back in LOMAC days and probably even before that. Short history lesson Over time ... many long distance LOD models have been refined and made less obviously BIG and easy to see. They used to be HUGE in LOMAC ... really obvious with the model for the IGLA terrorist model and Chechens in the ZU23. Those models had long distance LODS the size of a HOUSE. So over time new EDM models have the LOD models built into the model and not externally referenced by a LODS file and the long distance LODS have been getting smaller but still the LODS aren't as uniform across all models as you would hope and some of the box shapes are DARKER than the main model (easier to see), some are LIGHTER than the main model (to simulate distance) and some are just wrapped in a MIP mapped version of the main texture. Models made for different versions of the engine have different approaches. So this is the type of LOD levels that many ground units have. Aircraft boxes aren't as big but they are a box which could change their visible pixel size (compared to geometry) at long distances. This is why you have that problem with ModelEnlargement where the ground units are disappearing and then re-appearing larger at long distances ... this is exacerbated by zooming because zooming also changes the LOD setting. If the LOD only changed based on distance away then you could eliminate the randomness and then start to focus on tweaking the base setting. I mean ground units still have a visible model at 100km? Maybe it's like that so that units like Reaper can operate in mission and use their long rage optics on them or it might be required so that the A10-C TGP can work. This is also why without ModelEnlargement you also have problems. I have marked up this image to explain what is happening when an F15 at 5km is totally invisible and one at 10km can be seen more clearly. I hope this side of things is more clear now. I might make a new set of images which shows what is happening at each of the 15 zoom levels ... but my interest is in VR which was no zoom so I have a low level of motivation. The images I could have posted today simply show what is already known which is that the scaling is often random. I think a billboard solution with a completely new set of LOD shells/models for all of the units (built with a consistent approach) is what is required. And then tweak the LUA values for different resolutions and zoom levels.

I think it is an interesting development but we really need the HUD system in CA to start supporting positioning of HUD elements in 3D space just as is done with the aircraft. At the moment none of the 2D HUD style elements work for VR and I think it is because they are not elements drawn into 3D space. Who is going to make a PPI EDM in 3dMax? SD do you want to do that? Maybe the first version can be very basic like this 2D one.

I went to delete an Album in my profile and it deleted ALL my albums ... not just one. Is there an undo?

The idea to have NEUTRAL side or even have factions in addition to FOR and OPFOR would more accurately represent combat operations. I myself just want to add neutral air units and neutral statics so that identification and ROE and things like civilian casualties become important factors. Not interested in just window dressing, more interested in tracking correct procedures and mission objectives achieved. I'm sure someone will make a mod so that people can take off and land from and ... McCarran International Airport in an airliner. It seems an obvious thing people would want to do.

Good question. It is called Tracking Mode and is bound to - sorry its RSHIFT-L When you turn it on you get a text notification. You should probably bind it to convenient button so you can toggle it ... so it's not on all the time. Just before firing you also have to use the Laser Range Finder to get the exact range to target for the FCS system to work properly. This is another thing you need to bind to an easy button. You have to track the target smoothly. Using the middle mouse button turns on the red arrow mouse mode which helps this a LOT. I use a thumb axis on my x55 throttle to rotate the turret axis horizontally so I just use this if I'm only tracking horizontally. The FCS uses your input as part of the lead calculations. If your input is shaky ... your calculated point will be shaky. The tracking movement MUST be perfectly smooth. I added this FCS control to the Tunguska and that's when I needed to use the mouse mode. Enjoy. Add this to any unit lua definition that you think should have a fire control system. It is a taste of things to come. GT.WS[ws].laser = true __LN.distanceMaxForFCS = 10000 --in metres

I am skeptical that there will be a golden bullet solution. I favour giving people choices and letting them work out what are the best combinations. I suggested a range of server flags not because I believe that all them will be used but because it gives people a choice. There is a general pattern to the way online game servers serve a player-base. There are always a couple of hardcore servers, a couple of servers with speciality settings and the rest just seem to have all the fun stuff turned ON. That just seems to be way it plays out. That combination tends to lead to most people getting what they want. Anyway ... I will be capturing images using the MODEL ENLARGEMENT feature next so that they can be compared to the first images I posted. Same scene ... with MODEL ENLARGEMENT: small. We'll see what that looks like. No doubt the results will be ugly and problems with the MODEL ENLARGEMENT feature will be revealed. Which we could use as a platform for constructive suggestions on improving the feature ... or not. I would prefer the first option. --- Stand down Corrigan :chair: We are at a rare moment of equanimity and everyone is being well behaved. Just chill and we can have a look at some pictures later today.

Cockpit Visual Recon lets you look out the cockpit and put a crosshair on enemy units and clic on them to add them to the F10 "Fog of War" map. Something is wrong with the Visual Recon crosshair in DCS 1.5.xx. It disappears behind world geometry.

[ame] [/ame] Oh that was hard to watch ... he is firing with the aim helper and standard mouse control ... it looks so JANKY. It looks bad and it is the old and bad way of playing tanker. I say this because ED have added a PROPER simulated FCS system .. so you should use it and use it properly. You place the reticule actually ON the target and you track the target smoothly keeping the reticule on the target. You don't have to manually lead the target at all ... if you are doing it like that ... you are doing it wrong. All you do is track the target as smoothly as possible *protip use a thumb axis on throttle controller for pannig the turret or use the mouse mode with the red arrow* then only engage the FCS when you are ready to fire. The FCS will adjust the barrel and give you green and then you fire. The FCS calculates the lead and the thing underneath the crosshair explodes. It is just smooth and controlled and beautiful ... not anything like that video. --- I hope the lead coder of CA sees that video and realises what he has to do. He has to totally take the training wheels off CA ... ASAP. I would agree with Blooze here. There is lot more in CA then what people realise. It isn't just a toy. There is some solid stuff in there. I have been messing with a mod that uses this new FCS system to add some sweet simulation to naval AA guns. So the idea is that you put old iron sights on the attacking aircraft and then the AA guns with radar rangers lay the fire where it needs to go. It isn't perfect but it just feels waaay better than aiming at a fake HUD circle. Arcade side of CA needs to fade away. I like where ED is going with this but I am pretty impatient.

Sorry Decibel, I did not know that ATI users were unable to evaluate the new feature. I give you credit for actually wanting to see a BETA feature for yourself to see if it can have some value for you. So far I also haven't seen you claim that other people don't need it ... so you are way ahead of some people. Also I am not saying that you should be stopped from using a feature that can help you spot targets easier with a 4K monitor. That would be your choice and you should be able to play how you want. I would agree with other people that if a server operator wanted to set flags based on RESOLUTION or based on FEATURES they want to allow or disallow. That would be their choice too. Everybody gets to choose. I think you are wrong about value of the images I have posted ... I have to say that a technically proficient person IS able to view and evaluate these images (exactly as they are). If you only want to focus on one thing in those images ... pay attention to the RED and ORANGE circles. They show the biggest existing problem. On low resolution displays ... aircraft just don't show up OR they pop in and out of existence between odd and even zoom levels and other random times. You don't get this as much on a 4K monitor as you do at 1080P or in VR. I stand by the utility of these images and I also extend the invitation for you to submit your own images. You have an ATI card ... I have node idea how ATI cards render DCS. You might have heaps of problems compared to someone with an Nvidia card. You should post some images so we can look at them. You have to edit graphics.lua to force screenshots to be PNG images instead of JPG but that is all that is required. Finally even though there are rendering problems for ED to fix, I agree with other posters who also want more than just a fix for rendering problems. I would love a completely modern flight sim that doesn't only rely on 15 levels of zoom to be able to see things. I am playing more and more in VR and VR has no zoom so of course I need some kind of feature. Still I hope that ED can improve on what they have done so far.

Related to this ... a wish to have Radar based AA able to 'lock' in tracking mode aircraft when out of ammo. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=2557437#post2557437

This could be based on Alarm State. If Alarm State: RED they are more aggressive and keep locking up threats to 'track' even when empty. If Alarm State: AUTO they stop locking up threats to 'track' when empty. If Alarm State: GREEN they are are not locking up threats because radar is OFF.

You just found a new feature! Press RCTRL-F10 to get a PPI display. It's cool right? Coming in DCS 2.0 ... SAM Simulator Lite.

You mean spotting is easier on a 1080P than on a 4K? Maybe you feel this is true but it is not technically true and my testing is showing this. If I posted uncompressed video you would even more clearly see the advantage that HIRES guys have. Maybe you are not a technical person but I assure you that 4K windowed is the same as 4K fullscreen. Now can you see how the shots were made. Do you think that DCS in windowed mode is different to DCS in fullscreen? So would yuo like to dispute my results? ... then take some screenshots yourself and post them. These shots are taken with no AA and with MODEL ENLARGEMENT feature OFF. Just so you know there is a bug when you change this option you must restart DCS. I tell you this just so you don't get caught out. So take all the screenshots in windowed mode at different resolutions just as I have. Do this just so that you can be convinced there is no trickery ... I assure there is not but prove to yourself anyway. Maybe the only reason you haven't already done this yourself is because you are not that interested in the results. If you just want things to stay as they are and for nothing to change ... that is OK. Now we know your position.

Well you do have an advantage compared to a LORES player trying to do the same thing. I don't suggest that spotting is easy for HIRES players just that they have more chance than a LORES player. It is a general observation that spotting IS hard and Sharpe and some others have suggested that you just have to learn to use the zoom. Sure that is A way to do it ... but it doesn't always feel natural or fit into a warbird dogfighting scenario. This is why even some HIRES players would like to have a feature that lets them dogfight without having to zoom. In real life you don't have to zoom so it's not an unrealistic expectation to want this as an OPTION in DCS. Of course HIRES players playing with a special FEATUREX need to be on a server that allows FEATUREX and HIRES players in that combination. That way Sharpe and others can avoid playing with you ... if that's what they want.

Yep small and big stuff too. They are great for Amazon and others for products that only deliver to US addreses. It isn't a mystery delivery service .. they show you pictures of the box when they get it and stuff like that. It is a very professional and large business. Last used them two years ago. Current rules regarding tax I am not sure. It used to be for a package is under $1000 value no tax required. Hopefully Vive will be under $1000AU.

I think that SERVER FLAGS are a great idea and something we need to use. If you check my post a page back you will see that I have identified gameplay problems that are emerging with the use of high resolution monitors. This is a serious issue that is just going to get more and more extreme with 5K and 8K. Once people find out that being LORES means they don't even get to see a HIRES enemy that CAN see them ... people will be pissed. Trust me they will be pissed off. They will prefer not to play on the same server as HIRES players. Absolutely justified. So in DCS you will have HIRES players LORES players LORESVR players HIRESVR players Putting HIRES/LORES/LORESVR/HIRESVR flags on servers is very good place to start. If ED put FEATUREX, FEATUREY, FEATUREZ into full release then flags for FEATUREX, FEATUREY, FEATUREZ on servers makes perfect sense too. Everyone can choose the way they want to play and who they play with and/or against. Just doing nothing is not a serious option. === You can complain about reducing player counts on servers by using SERVER FLAGS but this is not what happens in other online games. SERVER FLAGS give players peace of mind. They know what they are getting when they connect to a server and this encourages more participation. You end up boosting overall numbers. === I really don't see any other serious suggestions that even try and solve existing problems. Most suggestions here just want to ignore problems that other people have and protect their advantage.

It would be technically possible for ED to reduce the maximum level of zoom based on what resolution you are running. I mean that would stop "unrealistic advantages". --- Anyway how about that new feature that works for VR and people with low resolution monitors. How do you think the resolution factors into that, should the sprite be scaled based on resolution? Maybe in VR the zoom action could scale the size of the sprite instead of modifying the fov. This gives VR user the equivalent of a zoom.

Thanks for the confirmation.

Oh really? What about a 5K monitor with a 15 level zoom? You do realise that adding zoom makes it possible for a 4K monitor to be better than eyes without zoom. I mean I just showed that if you have a big 4K TV and you use the Zoom in DCS then you can read the bort number of an aircraft 1km away. What happens when you go to 8K and still have zoom ... can you read the fighter patch on the pilots shoulder from 1km away? === Do you really want me to explain this with more words? When the 15 level zooming system used in DCS was first designed and the FOVs were selected, what was the monitor size that ED were considering. What assumptions were in the the design document. Lets take a guess and say that 1080P was rare and 4K TV sized monitors were not even considered in the design document (this is when they first chose the default FOVs and the Zoom levels). So now you have 5K monitors becoming available with 8K after that and maybe now it IS possible to Zoom in on aircraft and see detail that is impossible. The maximum zoom level becomes unrealistic. So yes at some point ED are going to have to consider that the high end displays combined with zoom functionally exceeds human eyesight. They will have to scale the zoom back unless we decide as players that it is OK to have better than real life eyesight. I admit that sometimes it is fun to have super eyes and I would leave it in as an option. Servers can disable it ... whatever. I hope I do not have to explain that again. ==== And then there is VR. Yes VR is coming in at lower resolution ... and it can't zoom, but because it has a lower resolution does not make it low end because a VR HMD will cost more than a 4K TV and it will be considered a premium experience. People will want it. It is actually possible that VR will become very desirable and very common even before a 4K HMD becomes available. What if the first Oculus Rift sells in the millions and many of those people want to play DCS. What should ED do? Should ED let them experience a simulator where they can't see anything? That would be a poor business decision. I don't think ED are poor at business. They will improve the VR experience. You can complain about the new features but after a point it does no good. We really do know your position now. === If the thread was to finally focus on the actual original post, that would be good. To remind people ... Yes the method between 1.5.0 and 1.5.1 appeared to change. I lost my 1.50 copy but I'll see if I can redownload it from ED servers. 1.5.0 definitely looked better in VR.

x-posting this in case it helps Just a tip for anyone experiencing crashes with the Rift. I can only speculate about the bug causing the crashes but I do know if there is only one aircraft slot in a mission (and it is the designated as player) then you try to spawn straight into the cockpit BUT this seems to cause a crash. if you add a second aircraft (as a client) to the mission then when you run the mission you initialise outside the cockpit with a world view and the slot menu and when choose to spawn into the aircraft you do not crash. if you have CA and add a CA slot to the mission this is also true; when you run the mission you initialise outside the cockpit with a world view and the slot menu , and when you choose to spawn into the aircraft you do not crash. Basically setup the mission to initialise with a world view instead of straight into the cockpit in VR. (You will have to edit MOST missions to temporarily fix them or wait for ED to fix the bug) If other people want to confirm that would be great.

Let me show you unrealistic advantages. And this is just one tiny example ... this only shows one model of aircraft, and doesn't even cover ground vehicles, contrails, etc. So have a guess what a 1080P user can see in identical circumstances. They see this. The orange circle indicates popping and the red circle indicates the fact that the object is never seen.. And lastly what a VR user sees. So about those "unrealistic advantages". Don't tell me you didn't know, that YOU ALREADY had all the "unrealistic advantages" ... just by playing with a 4K monitor. It is obvious to everyone. Still this is not the conversation I want to have, I don't want to talk about 'cheating' or 'advantages' or all this other BS. If I wanted an "unrealistic advantage" I WOULD just buy a 4K TV. It is not secret knowledge ... everyone knows this. BUT I don't want to buy a 4K TV because I'm not looking for PVP glory. I want to play DCS in a VR HMD because it feels awesome. I don't need VR to be equivilant to a 4K monitor ... I just need to able to virtually and literally ... see just a little bit better. A 4K TV player can read the bort number on an F15 1km away but you got a problem with a VR user who wants 3 pixels. :lol:

Since 1.5.1 ...MODEL ENGLARGEMENT setting in Options.Gameplay menu does not work for VR users. Settings in this menu have no effect in game. *Update - depends on a specific setting. Repairing game fixed problem.

Just a tip for anyone experiencing crashes with the Rift. I can only speculate about the bug causing the crashes but I do know if there is only one aircraft in a mission designated as a player then the world initialises in the cockpit when you spawn and this seems to cause a crash. if you add a second aircraft as a client then you initialise outside the cockpit with a world view and when you spawn into the aircraft you do not crash. if you have CA and add a CA slot to the mission this is also true; you initialise outside the cockpit with a world view and a menu overlayand when you spawn into the aircraft you do not crash. Basically initialise with a world view instead of straight into the cockpit in VR. (You will have to edit MOST missions to temporarily fix them or wait for ED to fix the bug) If other people want to confirm that would be great.