Celestiale

I am in the discords of both current feasible FFB "DIY sticks", the Rhino and the FFBeast. There are several people building DIY units themselves, so far most of them didn't really spend much less then the version you can buy (800€ +), not accounting the time they spent to make it work. The only ones who managed to do it cheaper are from low-cost countries with cheap material prices like Russia.

what is the general consensus about getting this to work with the Crystal? Are most people managing to get this working flawlessly? Asking since I am thinking about buying the Crystal and this is one of the features that are important to me

As the title says I am interested in this new kit. Seems like the only competitor of the Rhino as a "garage-build" FFB joystick. Does anyone here have experience with this joystick and can say something about it? I am in the waiting list for both already, but don't know which one to take when it is actually my turn yet. There is a guy in youtube who did a bunch of videos about it, f.ex. this one:

Thank you LucShep, this seems like a good method, guess I will use the soft link for that.

Hey folks, I just got myself a Samsung 990 PRO NVMe M.2 SSD just for DCS in order to increase performance. Now I wonder what I have to do to get the best performance out of it. Is it enough to copy the game folder, or do I also have to move the save folder to the new SSD? Does it make a difference in terms of performance if I transfer the supporting applications (SRS, Simshaker, TrackIR) to the new SSD? Thanks, infos are much appreciated

Hey folks, I recently got back into DCS after a lenghty break and noticed that with my current rig the performance is quite bad. Already have most of my settings down (even flat shadows) and did pretty much every optimization guide I could find, but on the more taxing aircraft (like the Apache) it is still sometimes a slideshow in 1440p, so I play in 1080 on my 33 inch screen now, which is not so great. My rig: Processor: i7 8700k Mainboard: AsRock Z370 Pro 4 RAM: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout Series DDR4 32GB (2 x 16GB) 3600MHz Gaming (the fastest RAM that works on my mainboard) Graphicscard: RTX3070ti As you see, my processor is quite old (6 years), so I figured the processor is holding my performance back, especially since I have a lot of stuff running in the background in addition (Discord, SRS, TrackIR, Simshaker). But when I checked the performance log, I could see that my processor was barely going above 50%-60% load, while the RAM was mostly at 90% (though never maxed out) and the graphics card was constantly hitting max. So using this kind of information, a simple graphics card upgrade should already give me plenty of added performance, while I can keep my old CPU. Or am I missing something? Can the CPU somehow hold back my graphics card while not being at full load itself? Some help would be much appreciated, really want to enjoy DCS in better quality

I think for WW2 a proper zoom is necessary for IDing aircraft and spotting ground targets (doesn't hurt for newer planes as well). I am used to the Migoto App in IL2 Great Battles, where you can set a 5x and 10x zoom via button. I am actually baffled that there is nothing comparable in DCS. For me the current zoom isn't nearly enough to do anything useful apart from helicopters, so DCS is sidelined for me.. I am actually amazed that there isn't a bigger lobby for such a make-it-or-break-it feature...

this is actually by far the biggest problem i have. When just flying around zoomed out i mostly have very good FPS, more then 100. But as soon as i start zooming - which i am doing a lot, with my rather small 1080p screen - the stutters begin. Very Very annoying. Let's see if the SSD will solve it, i hope so :) So how does this work then? I just install the hardware hungry games on my SSD, and leave the rest (e.g. system, steam) on my HDD?

Ok, seems pretty much like a unanimous decision to me. Thanks folks :)

I have built myself several rigs so far, but to be honest not really an expert in balancing it out regarding bottlenecks etc. Right now i have an I5 4670, GTX970 and 20GB ram. No SSD. Now i am thinking about upgrading my rig a little. My options: replacing i5 4670 with i7 4790K (top model from last generation, 4,4GhZ) replacing my 970 with a 1070 or 980 Ti (1080 too expensive) adding a 500GB SSD to my rig Now what do the experts here think will help the in-game performance (FPS, stutters) the most? I don't care about a minute loadingscreen or so, which could surely be solved by a SSD. Sheer in-game performance is really the only thing to interest me. I am playing in 1080p (for now). Want to build it also in foresight of Normandy and Oculus Rift (want my Rig to run VR fluently once every part is upgraded) Obviously doing all 3 would be the best, but hard for my current financial situation. So i'd rather do it bit by bit, starting with the part to up the performance the most :) Thanks for your answers

Haven't played DCS for quite a while, thought to fire it up and finally do the Huey campaign. Most of the time i have between 80 and 150 FPS with the settings i chose. But i discovered two spots so far where my FPS drop to around 10-15(!). One spot is the city next to the oil platform in the oil platform landing quick mission. As long as it isn't in my field of view i have superb FPS, but as soon as a part of it enters the screen, FPS fall down to around 20 (from over 100). Ok, not crucial. Second spot is the UN base that is part of every Huey campaign mission. When i approached it in the first mission my FPS dropped from around 100 to 11! Starting second (or every other) mission doesn't make it better..always between 10 and 20 FPS. That makes the whole campaign virtually unplayable, and is a real bummer. I wonder where it's coming from? Doesn't have to do with trees or big cities, already checked those places, having no FPS drop what so ever. Changing graphics also doesn't change the FPS at those bad spots. Makes me wanna wipe it of the drive in an instant again.

Nice, had no idea about this leap motion. Awesome to see it working already..because this means this, or something similar is probably/hopefully not too far away. About your first point - yes, i am playing IL2. Just like DCS

One thing i was talking with some flight Sim buddies the other day. Our dream come true for such a "study sim" like DCS would be, if you could operate your cockpit with VR motion controllers. Just talking about WW2 planes now, because there we have good comparisons without clickable cockpits. Currently the added value of the clickable cockpits over Sims who do those things automatically (IL2) is very tiny. After clicking a few buttons, you take off, and really have no added value. Even the manual start up gets repetitive after a while, and i think most people use those automatic startups when flying online. On the other side you have a lot of additional work, you have to put into those aircraft compared to their IL2 brothers and sisters. I don't know how much additional work this is, but i believe it's not really worth it, when you observe it from a price/performance point of view. Same for the customer. I own all WW2 moduls, because i am a fan of all those planes, but when i have to compare it to the main competitor, "BoS/M/..", i get more value for the price i pay over there. I rather have two well modeled aircraft without clickable pits, then one with clickpits for the same price. This could change in the future however. Already trying out the Oculus Rift motion controllers, i was absolutely stunned how precise they are in the virtual reality. It's really like having your own hands in there. It goes that far, that you could easily type on a virtual keyboard (while just moving your hands through thin air in real life). In theory, it would be absolutely no problem what so ever, to operate all those cockpit knobs, buttons, rotaries and switches with motion controllers. Of course it would be necessary to add your own hands in the game, but this can't be too hard i gather. Only shortcoming in the current situation is, that you would have to change from your HOTAS to your motion controllers (and back), when wanting to operate things. This could hurt the immersion a bit, when you first have to "pick up" your controllers IRL, before your hands start moving in game. Remedy could be, to fix motion controllers to you arm, being able to pick them up immediately when putting your hand off the HOTAS. The perfect solution would of course be to use motion gloves, which i am sure are not too far away. The value you'd get would be truly incredible. For the first time, you'd really feel inside the cockpit. When you didn't experience it, you just can't believe it, how much of a difference it makes to have your own hands in the VR, instead of just using the VR device (with normal controller, HOTAS, Wheels, pedals etc). I think this would be as close as it can get in any way, to really fly in a combat situation. In contrary to all other flight/space sims, DCS has already built in the spine for such a feature. Seeing DCS constantly adjusting to new technology, and how early they supported Oculus Rift, i am hopeful they consider this feature, once the appropriate motion controllers or motion gloves are available. This would be the absolute last step to a "StarTrek-like Holodeck experience", way earlier then in the 23th century. The added value over non-managable cockpits would be there definitely. Double and tripple. Would spend 100 bucks easily for a single module, once this would be possible.

Thanks mate, can you tell me where this button is? Looked like mad, but couldn't find it in the cockpit (or google) Edit: found it, thanks

Compass in my Mig is always showing around 12° more to the "left" - anticlockwise - then i really move, e.g. 14° instead of 26° etc. It's always around the same margin, and doesn't change when i choose new missions. Did i miss something to set up or anything? Didn't find anything, also no mention in youtube tutorial vid i watched. Got the Mig21 new, just learning it. Thanks for any solution in advance