Drakoz

Focha, I know what you mean. What I felt when doing turns is, you roll into the turn, but when you center the stick to stop the roll (to maintain constant attitude to complete the turn), you can't just center the stick. You have to hold just a slight amount of aileron roll to hold it in the turn. If you go back to center, the Gazelle will roll back to level. My first thought was, "am I fighting some kind of auto pilot assist?", and I haven't learned enough about the Gazelle to know one way or the other. But when I realized that I needed to maintain a little aileron roll to maintain a turn, it made all the difference, and I was able to fly the Gazelle just fine. This effect has another result, which is part of why I think many people are complaining about the sensitivity of the cyclic. People feel they must pull a lot of cyclic to initiate a turn, but then all of a sudden, the helicopter is banked too much because suddenly it responds very quickly. So they over react and pull back, and sit there flipping left and right because of this effect where if you center your stick, the Gazelle goes back to wings level. The trick seems to be to initiate a turn with minimal stick push, and be patient a moment for it to respond. Then when you have reached the desired attitude for the turn, pull the stick back some, but not all the way, in order to maintain the attitude, and it now it flies predictably. You have to be patient, and use small inputs. Realistic or not, I can't comment, but this is the required technique to fly the DCS Gazelle. Regards, Michael

Control setup is always trial and error. Everyone want's something different. It's a preference and experience thing. Novice pilots usually want less sensitivity. Experienced pilots usually want more sensitivity. There's a reason the real thing is very sensitive as this is generally preferred for better control. But it makes it very difficult for novice pilots. It's just a matter of practice and getting used to it. Because DCS is a sim, you can adjust the curvature and saturation to fit your preference or allow you to work up to the more sensitive settings. In a real helicopter, you don't get to do that. I'm not a pilot, but I have flown both Robinson R44 and R22 helicopters. Because I flew DCS Huey at high sensitivity settings, I was able fly the real thing, including holding the R44 in a 5 foot hover with no instructor assistance in my first flight. If I had not learned to fly DCS Huey at high sensitivity, I would not have been able to do that. The main issue is the spring in the joystick. Significantly loosen that up, or remove it (so as to get rid of the 0 crossing detent) and you'll see a marked improvement in your control of a DCS helicopter. For a helicopter, there is no "stick center" because "center" depends on conditions such as wind, desired attitude, and helicopter design. So the spring center just messes everything up. For example, a US type Helicopter (CCW rotor rotation like the Huey) must have the stick held slightly to the left to maintain a flat hover in 0 wind. European helicopters (like the Gazelle) require a slight amount of right stick to maintain a flat hover in 0 wind. Now create your own mission and add about 10-15 knots of wind and practice hovering in ground effect (5-10 feet off the ground) with different orientations to the wind. You will always have to keep that stick pulled slightly into the wind. Again, the joystick spring just makes this very difficult. You'll also find that anti-torque authority constantly changes depending on wind orientation as well, and the center detent on your rudder pedals makes this difficult as well. I have my pedal's spring set at the minimum setting, and I have considered removing the spring altogether, but the Saitek Pro Combat Pedals seem to have a small enough spring and center detent that it hasn't been a big issue. So it's the spring and center detent that is the issue on the stick, not the sensitivity. Getting used to a sensitive stick is part of learning to fly a real helicopter. Dealing with a center detent and spring is not. Also, drop your graphics settings to maintain at least 30 FPS, and ideally better. In order to fly a sensitive aircraft, you need to have a fast feedback loop (eyes to hands), and that means a high frame rate. Flying a real helicopter is also a very visual process, not seat of the pants as you might think. You must use references like the horizon to keep the helicopter stable. The same is true in DCS, but if your frame rate is so bad that you are flying a slide show, this amplifies the bad effect of a sensitive controller, making it feel impossible to fly. Regards, Michael

Get a FFB stick if you can or fly with no spring in your stick. Real helicopter cyclics don't have any (or much) spring feel. Well, that's true with any aircraft, but at speed, wind pushes on the control surfaces attempting to push the stick back to center. This is not true in a helicopter. So springs in the joystick really hamper the experience in sims like in DCS. The center detent of the spring mechanism is the problem. The force needed to over come that center detent gets in the way of the minute stick movement you need to have if the stick is being moved through it's center. I have a Microsoft FFB 2. This is arguably the best FFB stick made. But really, any FFB stick (even with FFB disabled) is better than a stick with a spring. You can also consider removing, or significantly reducing the spring force in your non FFB stick like Grogshop suggested above. The spring mode for a HOTAS Warthog, for example, is a huge improvement. Another alternative is to extent the stick by 2X or 3X length, giving you more leverage to overcome the spring and detent. Doing so also affects the saturation and curvature settings in DCS, perhaps making them more realistic, or at least easier to fly. BTW, when flying in DCS (Huey, or otherwise), I use simFFB to control the Force Feedback effect, not DCS's FFB controls. For example, Gazelle currently does not have FFB support. But simFFB adds realistic friction, spring, and dampening force to simulate how a real stick might feel due to friction and hydraulic trim systems. You can adjust all three settings in simFFB (Spring, Damper, and Friction). To use it, you load DCS, enter your flight, alt-tab out to Windows and run (or reset) simFFB, and it takes over FFB control from DCS. SimFFB also has trim capabilities built in to replace the equivalent controls in DCS. So you can set a trim button, or use the hat, and simFFB will adjust trim just like in DCS or a real aircraft. As for saturation and curvature settings in DCS Gazelle, I'm using about 10-15 curvature, but actually changing saturation is probably better as suggested above. But don't reduce sensitivity too much. Real helicopters are very sensitive. Anti-torque should be more of a muscle flex, not a foot movement, and same for the cyclic. I fly with 3 fingers on the stick and move my fingers, not the hand, to stay in control. I learned this flying a real helicopter (as a novice pilot) because it made it easier being new to flying, and reduced stress and fatigue on my hand. Regards, Michael

Anti-torque in a real helicopter is _very_ sensitive. More like flexing the muscles in your foot for normal control, not actually moving your foot. After flying a real Robinson R22 and R44, I increased the sensitivity of DCS Huey to match the real thing. Previously, I think I had about 25 or 30 curvature in DCS Huey because I thought the anti-torque was way too sensitive, and it was still very difficult to fly the Huey at this high curvature. Now I run DCS Huey at about 10 to 15 curvature and anti-torque is, as I said, more a muscle flex, not a foot movement. DCS Gazelle is just about the same to me (a little more sensitive than the Huey). It is especially difficult in a hover, or in slow ground operations. In flight at speed, you don't notice it so much because the weather vane effect of the tail keeps the helicopter flying straight, giving you a feeling like now the anti-torque pedals are working. But in flight at speed, you can pretty much relax the anti-torque because it doesn't do anything anymore. For the Gazelle, I also put about 10-15 curvature, and again, do anti-torque inputs through muscle flexing, not necessarily foot movement. This isn't a bug. It's just how real helicopters work. If you are trying to fly any DCS helicopter with the rudder twist in a stick, or if you feel like the anti-torque is working like a light switch, you are going to have to get a better rudder control (see my comment below), or add significant curvature to your rudder axis to make it flyable. But it's not a bug in the sim. If your goal is realism, however, you need to get the right rudder pedals. Something that allows you to push with the ball of the foot on a round peg (like in real helicopters), not something that holds your entire foot (like most rudder pedals setups for flight sims). I use the Saitek Pro Flight Combat Rudder Pedals because like a real helicopter, the foot rest is a round peg, not a "foot cup". Place the ball of your foot on the peg, and adjust anti-torque by flexing the muscles in your foot or ankle. Movement is practically imperceptible. Someone watching you move your feet would think you weren't actually doing anything. A Robinson R22 or R44, for example, really is that sensitive. I used to use the Saitek Pro Flight Pedals (the kind where you put your entire foot on the pedal). But when setting the curvature to an accurate sensitivity to match a real helicopter, because I had to move my entire foot (my entire leg), it was very difficult. So I put the ball of my foot on the lower end of the pedal and flexed the pedals using muscles and my ankle. It worked much much better. Then I bought the Saitek Pro Combat Pedals and I haven't looked back since. Similarly, the stick in a real helicopter is pretty sensitive. To fly the Robinson, I rested my hand on my leg and held the stick with 3 fingers, moving my fingers to fly, not my arm or hand. The Gazelle is very sensitive here as well, like a real helicopter, and the only way I've had success flying the Gazelle is to use the 3 finger method, trying to relax my hand, do small inputs, and wait (be patient) for the helicopter to respond. Don't do big movements, and don't try to counteract every movement you see because you will get into pilot induced oscillation (PIO). Again, this is exactly like a real helicopter. Real helicopters sway back and forth, balancing below the rotor system. It is very unnerving to a novice, and you have be patient and let it dampen itself out, rather than trying to react to every sway left and right, or forward and back. If you try to counteract every sway you see, you get into PIO. The first day I flew a real helicopter, I was able to hover an R44 five feet off the ground for 5 minutes on my own with no help from the instructor. He said barely 1 in 100 are able to do that. But, I'm not special. Learning to fly in DCS Huey is what made it possible. And in fact the one thing that made it most difficult was because my anti-torque pedals in DCS Huey were not sensitive enough, so I kept rotating too much - until I started thinking in terms of muscle flex, not foot movement. I did fine on the cyclic and collective because I had the sensitivity in DCS set about the same as the real thing. Mostly, stay calm and relaxed, keep practicing, and you will eventually get it. Also, change your graphics settings to maximize FPS. Flying a helicopter at 10-20 FPS is just ridiculous. You need a faster reaction time than that to do it right. Otherwise, you are just going to get frustrated. Regards, Michael

I discussed this several weeks ago and was told (without any allowance for an appeal) that registration is closed, and making changes is not allowed. Never mind the fact that the rules (both posted on the forums, and the PDF version of the rules) clearly states that contestants will be allowed to change their registration (e.g. change aircraft, or what ever else someone might want to edit) up until the start date of the tournament. Here is what the rules say: I asked (privately) for this to be appealed to the entire group organizing the event, and I got no response. I dropped it because I didn't want to get in to an argument over a minor detail. But the organizers have chosen not to follow their own rules. I don't really care that much, but rules are posted for a reason, and everyone should follow them, contestants and organizers alike. I assume it happened out of a simple mistake. The organizers intended that registration would close, and 12 hours later the tournament would start. Hence, I assume, the plan was to close the registration forum (no edits) as the method of closing registration, and that would prevent changing of applications. But the problem is, it wasn't expected that the tournament would occur 2 months after registration closed. A reasonable thinking person would realize because of the time between closing registration and the tournament, they should make concessions, follow their rules, and allow changes. But when I tried to make that argument, it was denied at first, and then ignored when I tried to escalate it by asking for it to be considered at a higher level (i.e. I asked for it to be appealed). Why did I care? Because I wanted to practice flying both the Mig15 and Sabre for a few more days before the tournament began and then (as allowed by the rules) make my choice later. This would give me the fun of learning both aircraft better. I set my expectations that I would be allowed to do this because the rules said I could. So my frustration is, the rules weren't followed, and it has taken some of the fun out of the tournament. I made my case and it was denied. I leave it up to others to make the case if they care.

This is why I said for a torrent to work, everyone needs to seed for a period longer than it took to download in the first place - ideally to maintain a 1 to 1 download to upload ratio. Most torrent clients prioritizes uploading such that you have a 1 to 1 download to upload ratio before you stop seeding. If it takes 10x longer to upload, that's fine as long as people seed. With the DCS downloader, though, as soon as we are done downloading, it stops seeding, losing much of the benefit of using BitTorrent. I assume Eagle is compensating for this by having a large enough pool of servers seeding, but if the downloaders continued seeding even for just a short while longer, it would help a lot when the servers are overloaded. And in fact, the torrent is working quite well right now. I'm downloading the 25GB NTTR map at 1.0MB/s to 2.0MB/s using the torrent method. Just a few minutes ago, I was trying to download just one of the small (100MB) aircraft modules using the HTTP method and it failed to download (server timed out - couldn't reconnect after several attempts - I assume the servers are just overloaded). The HTTP servers are overloaded, but the Torrent is going strong. Critical mass has been reached for the NTTR torrent, so for the moment, it is working great. By the time anyone reads this, however, that could change. :( FYI, my upload speed is between 300KB/s and 500KB/s. Neither of these numbers are maxing out my connection, but that is how it should be. It leaves me room to still use the Internet without overloading my connection (both down and up). Regards, Michael

I forgot to mention, MalwareBytes always flags a lot of IP addresses when you are downloading using a torrent. It's because many people's computers have been compromised with viruses and flagged on "bad IP address" lists which Malwarebytes uses to block undesirables. For those not using MalwareBytes (or similar), don't worry. You can't get a virus from someone's PC when downloading a bit torrent file from them. The torrent protocol makes sure of that all seeds are verified against the original seed so the file is unmodified. This protects from viruses, but more importantly, it is what guarantees an error free download. Even if MalwareBytes is blocking a few IP addresses, there should still be hundreds of other peers that don't get blocked. Regards, Michael

I think some may be confused about the torrent download vs. the http download. I just downloaded the DCS 2.0 Alpha/NTTR via the torrent down loader and speed was 0.7Mbps to 2+Mbps for the first file (it was 1 or 2 GB in size). But after that was done, another down loader started, downloading a much smaller 125Mbyte update file and the download rate is 38Kbps to 50Kbps. This is not a torrent download. The slow download is using HTTP now. E.g. if I hit cancel, it will not switch to HTTP. It will just cancel the download. I assume this one is slow because the DCS servers are over loaded right now. The BitTorrent idea has great merit, but it only works if DCS provides enough seeds, or makes it such that we all continue to seed longer than just during our download. Before the built in updates, I always used to download updates using my own Torrent client, and I was always happy with the speed. I would continue to see for several days as well as long as my computer was on. In theory, if all the HTTP servers are seeding instead of HTTP'ing, then download should be just as fast or faster with the torrent as it is only using HTTP. But that depends on how many seeds DCS provides vs. HTTP. The benefit should come when their servers are overloaded, and seeds from end users helps fill in the gaps. But if the end user seeding ends when the download is finished, then the major benefit of using BitTorrent is lost. Many people may not want a Torrent running in the background after they download a file. I don't mind as long as I can control the upload speed, and maybe it only continues for a short period of time (time for me to upload the data equivalent of 1 entire download or similar - like we already use as a priority mechanism for our BitTorrent clients). But I assume many people will not like this happening in the background. Give people a couple simple options to set the upload speed, or cancel it out right, and the torrent downloaders should really be a benefit, not a detriment. I assume the DCS devs are weighing all this to figure out the best compromise. Regards, Michael

VEAO, thanks for doing the discount. Being in the USA, however, the discount ended many hours ago for us, even though it is still Nov 30th, Cyber Monday in the USA. Hence, I was not able to take advantage of the special. I'm not complaining, but making a request to everyone that sells stuff for DCS to please be considerate of time zones when you announce a special offer. Either please let the discount go until midnight at the last time zone (GMT-11), or announce the time when the deal ends (e.g. midnight GMT for the UK for example). I assume this deal ended at midnight UK time Nov. 30th. But that is 8 hours before midnight in the USA on the West Coast for example. I've seen this happen many times and it gets frustrating. At a few websites, I have even had products in my cart that I put there before the sale ended, but because I didn't realize the sale ended at midnight in a previous time zone, when I went to actually make the purchase, the deal expired, and prices all went back to normal. That didn't happen here, but I'm just making my point that thinking you are going to get the good deal, only to find out it expired 20 minutes ago because of a misunderstanding of time zones is very frustrating. Thanks for your consideration.

From the text on the registration page: The tournament has not begun and as best we've been told, will not start for 2-3 weeks. I took this to mean we have until then to change our aircraft choice. If the statement had said that changing our registration was not allowed after the close of registration, I would have changed it before the registration closure time (midnight GMT+3 11/20). But that's not what we were told. I'm not trying to make trouble. But I am asking that you be more clear about your rules to avoid confusion. It is disappointing when the rules say one thing and something else happens. Thanks. Regards, Michael

It was said we could switch which aircraft we choose to fly up until the tournament starts, but with the delay in starting the tournament, it is unclear when that cutoff is now. I was going to change to the Mig today, but you closed the thread and I can't make that change now. Please clarify.

Thanks, helpful response. If the rule is, you run out of fuel first, too bad, then fuel will be a deciding factor in some matches whether the contestants try to conserve fuel or not. As a contestant and spectator (because I'm not going to win this tournament), I'm hoping to see some epic battles. But if those battles are determined by fuel, there will be nothing epic about it. I don't think people normally care about fuel when dog fighting in DCS unless they are doing it as part of a long encounter (starting at the airport, flying into battle, and having to make it home alive). This isn't Korea where the smart pilot bugs out and goes home at bingo fuel (to live and fight another day). It's a "video game" match with artificial circumstances created for the sake of fairness and it is a fight to the death. I'm not refuting the 11 minute fuel amount. I'm not the one to ask. I'm just asking, should it be higher to guarantee fights will be determined by skill, not worrying about fuel. Maybe 98% of all dogfights in DCS are determined in a few minutes. If so, that's the answer to my question. Also again I'm suggesting, there will be a lot of inexperienced dog fighters coming out for the first time. Lots of these contestants will spend half their time just trying to find their opponent because they aren't skilled at keeping their eye on the other aircraft. For these people, fuel may often determine the match. Or maybe not, because chances are they'll be matched up with a superior combatant and the match will be over in seconds. :) So really, it's the battles by expert and equally matched contestants which could draw out for a long time that I am thinking about most. Regards, Michael

The utility hydraulic pressure gauge is a great way to tell if the brake is transitioning from one state to the other, but won't tell you if it is in or out once it goes back to full pressure. I used the gauge when I was learning how to use the air brake to see how long it takes to complete it's movement. But with a few hours of flying, you'll just know by experience and you'll realize an indicator isn't necessary. You can tell by the wind noise, and the nose will rise slightly high when the brakes are out. If you aren't sure toggle your AirBrake button again and see if the nose moves up or down, and/or the wind noise gets louder or softer. You don't even have to let it cycle the full range. If the brake is in, and you toggle the button, you'll know immediately that it's coming out. Toggle the button again to retract, and you are now oriented. If it's a case of wanting to know when you are doing ground operations (not flying), use the utility pressure gauge. It takes longer to retract than to extend. So if you are unsure, toggle the button a couple times and the longer indication of low pressure means you have retracted the brakes. FYI, the MiG15 has a visible toggle switch and indicator on the left panel, but you can also momentarily extend the brakes with a button on the flight stick which is kind of nice if you bind both to your HOTAS. Regards, Michael

Fuel Quantity The rules say regarding fuel: Is this enough? Two issues... 1) A match can easily exceed 11 minutes due to inexperienced pilots taking longer to get a good gun shot, or two equal and experienced pilots because they are really good at defense. I imagine the final battles between the best pilots will become drawn out battles due to the equality and high level of skill of the pilots. I would hate to see a long battle constantly interrupted by the 11 minute fuel limit. Or maybe that is the intent? To make sure the matches are fast and furious? But the bigger problem is... 2) The rules say the match is a draw if both run out of fuel, but this is unlikely to occur at the same moment. Someone will be a sitting duck for a period of time, and depending on fuel usage, that could easily be 30 seconds or more. It makes fuel strategy the most important factor. Maybe fuel strategy was intended as part of the competition, but I would hate to see matches determined by who can conserve the most fuel and finally get the kill only when the opponent's engine dies. The way the rule is written, a draw only occurs if both run out of fuel or ammo. Thanks, Michael

Nickname: Drakoz Your profile at ED forum: http://forums.eagle.ru/member.php?u=108387 Chosen plane type: F-86F Sabre Country of residence: USA Time: GMT-8 Language of communication: English Confirmation of familiarization with regulations of the tournament and the obligation to comply with them: Familiarized with regulations of this tournament, oblige myself to comply with them. I have read the rules and regulations for the tournament.

The broken FFB support is frustrating, so no refuting your comment. In the mean time, disabling the shake as I posted in a previous message, and using simFFB to enable damping force and a mild spring is still very immersive. The stick doesn't change with trim input, or according to speed and stall characteristics, but simFFB still gives it a realistic feeling of resistance and motion. In fact, DCS really should implement the feel of simFFB as a feature, but that's another topic. You can download simFFB here: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=84883 Or specifically from this post: http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1394206&postcount=18 or for Logitech G940 to fix a minor problem http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1628706&postcount=43 Just copy the simFFB.exe to a convenient place (no installer, just run the .exe) and double click it. It's a bit of a pain to use because you have to load DCS (start a mission in MiG-21Bis), then Alt-Tab to simFFB, go to Options and click on "Init DirectInput" (this enables the effect for your FFB stick), then Alt-Tab back to the sim and fly. simFFB takes over FFB control from DCS and at least makes it so your stick isn't just loose and floppy. Again, it does not perform active effects using information from DCS. It just provides a very realistic mild spring with dampening and friction (all adjustable). It's the dampening that is the big difference. It is quite nice in fact, and if you use it, you may find when they actually fix the FFB bug, you'll miss not having simFFB's effects active. All FFB implementations should have friction and dampening effects like this. Now that I have tried simFFB, I may be hard pressed to go back to DCS FFB effects to be honest. To Leatherneck Software, excellent work on MiG-21Bis! Best jet sim in DCS. Thanks! Regards, Mike

You should be able to turn off the vibration by just turning down Shake in the DCS FF tune menu. This is on a per aircraft basis, so it doesn't affect other aircraft. No need to turn off FFB globally. It won't enable stick force (no spring force), but at least the stick won't rattle itself to death. And yes, shaking like that is very bad on the stick. These things are mostly just plastic bearing surfaces and they will wear out. For those that don't know about the "FF Tune" menu..... To do it from the main menu, go to - Options -> Controls. - Select MiG-21Bis. - Select Axis Commands to show only the analog controllers. - Select anywhere in the column for your FFB stick (or select JoyX or JoyY). This will enable the Tune FF button. - Click Tune FF. - Set Shake to 0. You can do this while flying from the "Adjust Control" menu option when you hit ESC as well. This FFB problem is not specific to any particular FFB stick. The FFB commands going to the stick appear to be screwed up for all FFB Sticks. FYI, I'm using a Sidewinder FFB Pro with an Adapt-FFB-Joy USB adapter. Same problem as what everyone else reported. Regards, Mike

Is FFB a gimmick in DCS? Not as bad as some sims that try to give the pilot the "total feel" of the aircraft through the stick. Stuff that you should feel through your butt is instead run through the FFB stick because that is the only FFB device the sim developers have available to give you immersion. This kind of feel is a gimmick. IL-2 Sturmovik was kinda bad about this. Shoot your gun, and the entire stick shakes so much you can't stay on target. Aircraft shake from gun fire, yes, but the shake should be felt through the seat, not the stick. At least not so much that it actually affects your accuracy. So, is FFB in DCS a gimmick? No, because DCS does not seem to have the problem of excessive vibration for vibration's sake. The real question to ask is, does DCS implement _all_ the proper forces through the stick that should be felt through a real aircraft stick (which is the question the original poster was asking). That question is in the same vein as asking, does DCS implement an accurate fight model. The answer is pretty good, but not perfect. DCS is good enough, I would say, without being gimmicky. Plus, much of the problem is the inconsistent nature of the FFB protocol and how it is implemented on different joysticks. I want FFB to get effects like the stick going floppy on you as you stall, proper trim feel, and to get rid of the unrealistic spring in a joystick. Real airplanes don't have springs on their sticks. The spring effect comes from wind pushing on the surfaces at speed. Stall out (no speed) and the stick has no resistance. Similarly, trim tabs are just that - tabs on the control surfaces that help push the control down/up, left/right so you can relax your hand and have the stick stay where you left it. FFB in DCS does this just fine, and to be honest, that's all it really needs to do. This is already 1000% better than a spring loaded joystick. Now some technical stuff.... I believe the FFB commands via MIDI was a Microsoft thing. Maybe other FFB controllers used the MIDI pin as well, but for a USB FFB device, MIDI doesn't matter. USB has it's own PID (Physical Interface Device) layer which is used to implement FFB. It's part of the standard, just like a keyboard, mouse, or common joystick are part of the USB HID (Human Interface Device) standard. As far as I understand, you don't even need a custom driver to implement a USB FFB device, just like you don't need to write your own driver just to implement a mouse or keyboard. These "basic" devices are part of the USB protocol, and all computers that support USB support these protocols. Look for the USB PID document on USB.org for more information. This doc completely explains the FFB commands that can be sent via USB to a FFB device. As best I understand, FFB is defined in DirectX (the higher layer), and the generic USB PID driver (the lower layer) sends those DirectX FFB commands to the FFB device. The variable part is what commands the sim chooses to use, and how well the USB FFB device implements those commands. There are several hundred possible commands, but the most basic are joystick position and spring tension settings, plus basic sine, square, triangle, etc. wave pulse trains. Regarding the Microsoft Sidewinder FFB Pro and MIDI FFB... In the game port days, Microsoft wrote a driver to convert the DirectX FFB commands to MIDI commands for the original FFB pro. Check out the adapt-ffb-joy project (https://code.google.com/p/adapt-ffb-joy/). It is a USB to game port adapter for the Microsoft Sidewinder FFB Pro. They have lots of information about the FFB protocol, and historically how it applies to the FFB Pro. I built one and fly DCS P-51D and the Huey with it. It's great. They did this by using the USB PID specification and an Atmel microcontroller to convert the USB PID to MIDI FFB commands for the FFB Pro. The USB PID is commonly known (documented), but they had to reverse engineer the MIDI FFB commands. Regards, Mike

Pressing E (WEP) also changes the range of the throttle in the sim which can result in accidentally using WEP when you didn't intend after you have broken the wire. Since WEP (E key on keyboard) just breaks the wire, as stated, E just allows you to move the throttle further forward in the sim and hence increase the manifold pressure beyond 61 inches to a max of 67. It is a little confusing because at lower altitude it doesn't seem to do anything, but that's been explained in previous posts. Also confusing... pressing E changes the range of throttle movement (sim vs. our real controller). So, before pressing E, you have to move your controller throttle to 100% to get 61 inches MP. But, after you press E, 100% throttle movement now represents 67 inches, and 61 inches is now somewhere around 80% throttle. Because of this, it is easy to accidentally push into WEP when you don't want to or need to and possibly blow your engine sooner. I assume in the real P-51, pilots who broke the wire would use muscle memory of the throttle position to avoid using WEP any more than they had to, but we don't have that in DCS because of how E changes the throttle range. So, if you have a programmable controller, you might want to program the throttle axis to compensate for this. I wanted my physical throttle control to match what the sim throttle was doing, including having to think about not breaking the wire, or not pushing into WEP if I didn't need it after breaking the wire. Using my HOTAS Cougar, I programmed the throttle so that before breaking the wire, 0-80% movement of the Cougar throttle represented 0-100% in the sim (61 inches MP). The 80% spot on the Cougar is right at the upper click on my throttle. But if I push past the upper click, I programmed the Cougar to press E, and I re-map the Cougar throttle so the Cougar 0-100% is now 0-100% in sim as well. Now, if I move the Cougar throttle to 80% (the upper click), this is exactly as it was before - 61 inches MP. It creates the illusion as if I actually broke the wire, and it still forces me to not be ham fisted with the throttle, constantly shoving it all the way forward into WEP, which would blow the engine. You'll want to program a reset on your throttle to change it back to "wire not broken" for when you load a new mission (without having to reload the controller profile). The Cougar, for example, doesn't know I've reloaded the mission, and hence does not know the state of the wire. I programmed that if I pull the throttle all the way back to 0%, it changes back to the pre-WEP setup. Most WWII sims of the past didn't seem to have this because moving your physical controller throttle to 100% engaged WEP automatically. But DCS P-51D is being more fancy having an actual key to break the wire. Not trying to turn this into a HOTAS Cougar discussion, but if you are curious, here's my TARGET code to do it (because I know someone will ask). Note, the throttle axis is actually reversed compared to my comments above - 0 to 100% on Cougar is actually 100-0% in the sim. That's normal. // Throttle // Throttle is mapped to have an upper dead zone of about 20% which is at the upper notch for my throttle. // This gives 61 in. manifold pressure at upper notch (may need to adjust this depending on notch position). // If upper notch is exceeded and pushed to max physical throttle, WEP is enabled on P-51D (break the wire). // I also re-map throttle axis to use the full range of physical movement as though the last 20% range is // equivalent to moving past the wire in WEP. Interestingly, it just works out that after breaking the wire // the notch still makes about 61 in. manifold pressure, and the upper 20% now moves to the WEP max of 68 in. // You cannot reset WEP in game (once wire is broken, it's broken), but to reset range on throttle, pull back to // minimum throttle and SetSCurve is reset back to pre-WEP scale (20% dead zone at top). This is needed if I // reload the aircraft. If I accidentally resest to non-WEP, push to WEP again and it goes to WEP mode. // Remember, WEP really only works if Pitch is set to max RPM (3000 RPM). Otherwise you won't see increased manifold pressure. MapAxis(&HCougar, THROTTLE, DX_Z_AXIS, AXIS_NORMAL, MAP_ABSOLUTE); SetSCurve(&HCougar, THROTTLE, 21, 0, 0, 0, 0); // upper dead zone at 2nd notch to allow for WEP engagement KeyAxis(&HCougar, THROTTLE, 0, AXMAP2(LIST(0, 2, 98, 100), // 0-2% is "set WEP" range. 98-100% is "Reset WEP" range CHAIN( EXEC( "SetSCurve(&HCougar, THROTTLE, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0);" // Engage WEP - change throttle to use full range, no upper dead zone ), // and PULSE+ENG_WarEmergPower // engage WEP (break the wire) ), 0, // do noting in center zone (2% to 98%) EXEC("SetSCurve(&HCougar, THROTTLE, 21, 0, 0, 0, 0);") // Reset WEP - reset throttle curve to non-WEP if I go to 0 throttle. ) ); Regards, Mike