Czar

I'm out if a subscription model hits as soon as it hits. The world is already messed up on that front, I don't need it on this little digital hobby. [that I love a lot, but that's not enough] It is unlimited. But relies on your machine ID for your account come back to online. If your machine ID changes (hardware failure, dismount and re mount hardware in different slots/ports, hardware upgrade) without going online first, you'll need to contact support. Steam version is limited to 3 days but needs successful authentication to access DCS in any shape or form. If you're out of internet access and is not in offline mode, both formats, stand alone version and steam version, has the 3 day tolerance >>after your last successful login<< unless you updated DCS files and haven't been able to successfully log in. In the later scenario, you're locked out of your modules unless you at least successfully log in once in the current build installed before losing connection.

DCS needs options for contrast and saturation values from 0 to above 100 for everyone. I own a VA and IPS monitors and some tremendous amount of time to calibrate them to look like each other as close as possible, but VA and IPS shows values very differently and they will never look the same. Imagine how many different setups there are out there with many different monitor calibrations, and this outside color tweaks like the ones found on nVidia control panel and monitor built in 'game mode' options such as found on Samsung LCDs monitors. Also, above screens were taken from product marketing. Is a probability they are tweaked for be highlighted on a webpage regardless of how DCS looks natively. Is an argument nobody can win. Everyone perceives colors differently, let alone the atmosphere they want DCS to output. RAW photography from a camera looks a lot different in color than the real subject. Some want DCS to look like raw photography, some want DCS to look exactly like real life, some want DCS to look like a holywood movie. DCS needs the contrast and saturation sliders.

The special particles effects are work in progress in DCS. For now they are sometimes underwhelming yes, but we must be careful about exaggerations. ps: I don't know how is the allowance of real war footage here so I won't link other videos, but there are plenty of 1000lb and 2000lb demonstrations on youtube. This is a capture I made a while ago on the Hornet. GBU-24 Paveway III 2000lb. The blast is quite big. This effect is also present on Mk-84 blasts (90% sure).

Most excited about Kola map for ages now. This will surely be a breath of fresh air into DCS atmosphere if done right! I'm definitely putting more hours of flight time now that map is coming very soon. Unlockables through grind are paid by the customers on its entry fee. The ability to skip the grind is the micro transaction in place. Anyone can place unlockables mechanism on themselves by making their own spreadsheet of achievements X xp levels to not access certain functionalities until they progress a certain amount. I've done it myself since Hornet release and learning it. Dumb bombs first -> then PGMs as an example. AIM-7s before AIM-120s. But the same place where lacks this kind of discipline on someone is the same place where the predatory methods of microtansaction over skipping grind profits. Anything that's forcefully blocked by XP points in DCS I'm avoiding 100%. Unlockables don't mix well with Flight Simulators as their value is on its depth and tool-like characteristics. The most fun I have with all the many modules I purchased comes from after learning its systems and deploy them in the most effective way I can manage and not the aspect of 'I can't do that yet'. Unlockables almost sank IL-2 BoX. The forums were flooded every time a new batch of players came in at a sale, it did NOT attracted new people. Without unlocking anything I always leave a sortie in DCS with satisfaction. The satisfaction is the immersion itself, not a shinny thing behind some blockage.

Yeah, you're right. Appreciated the talk/exchange.

Understood. Understand that DCS only runs with the modules you've purchased, with services online. If you venture into the offline mode, beware of the dangers of hardware failure and machine ID change rendering a mandatory support manual contact to be able to reconnect a DCS installation to your account. Other videogames that have been sunset had a much more lenient approach of access. Some games today, in the other hand, cannot be accessed without a handshake to servers, like DCS authenticator even though it has a 3 day tolerance after the last successful login. Their sunset had not yet happened but if their servers are down, is over for offline play/launching into the menu and play. Milestone bike games cannot get past splash screen without their servers running (heavy single player aspect) Helldivers 2 same deal like Milestone bike games. If your internet go down mid play even in solo you're ejected out of the match and locked into an error screen. (co-op mainly but has the option of single player) Warhammer 40k: Darktide Ghost Recon Breakpoint (single player first) DiRT Rally 2 https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_games_using_Always_Online_DRM Truly there are a LOT of co-op/multiplayer first titles, but also a lot of single player first. Is a little different the 'game taken away from you' in digital terms. If you can't access it because something else went down and you're not aiming to play multiplayer, the software had been indeed taken away from your control. Hence the meaning of 'ownership' I've quoted. You don't own something when, for it to serve you, needs permission from someone else.

It is explicit on EULAs across Steam that we are not being grated ownership. We are licensees. It is explicit on EULA from ED: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/support/license/ "2. OWNERSHIP 2.1 The Program is licensed for your use. This Licence confers no title or ownership in the Program and should not be construed as a sale of any rights in the Program. This Licence shall also apply to any patches or updates you may obtain from Eagle Dynamics SA for the Program." We are just disagreeing on the word 'ownership'. I get what you're saying. In my view, what we own is the password for the account(s) control. What we buy is a license for said account(s). Either Steam or ED storefront. Analogue to owning a product as in a Vinyl copy of an album is not the case here. "own /ōn/ adjective Of or belonging to oneself or itself. "She makes her own clothes." noun That which belongs to one. "I wanted a room of my own." intransitive verb To have or possess as property. "owns a chain of restaurants." To have control over. "For a time, enemy planes owned the skies."" "If the authentication servers were to go down, ED would have to find some other way to let people keep using the product they paid for" That doesn't mean they will do it when it and if it happens. I fully hope there are a lot more decades for them yet to come. A lot of games are having services being sunset and games that just reached 10 years old without an option for legit customers to keep having the access they've paid for. Big and small companies regardless. The only current way for digitally distributed products to guarantee customer access to said product if online services go down is the unrestricted offline capability as in GOG storefront provides. You can backup an installer with 100% of the game files and run the installer without online data transfers. ED might even consider releasing DCS pre Edge at the best build with all released modules at the time (with proper agreement with the 3rd party ofc) as a 'classic' product with full offline capability without any sort of DRM or authentications with single fee access in 15...30 years, when hopefully the latest DCS will have a lot more going on. Just being creative. Sky is the limit.

12 years using DCS and I had zero patching corruption issues with the stand alone updater. Storage ranging from HDDs to SSDs. On Steam in other hand, a lot of patching corruption couple of years back caused by their code. It got better. Download speeds is slightly better on Standalone nowadays. Steam being the best one in that was 6 years back. Steam version uses the same authentication. If ED 'go bust' Steam version will go down together with the standalone. The stand alone has a plus of unlimited offline mode, but careful about hardware changes. https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/support/faq/557/ Steam version have a compulsory authentication after a couple of days, I've read. Yes, we don't own anything but a temporary license to use 'X' product.

That's awesome. I'm considering getting the module after so many years. Thank you.

Question: Can you command ground units via F10 map while inside an aircraft module/in the air?

Just letting you know that your post made a huge difference for me now. My POV was set a few centimeters too low and sometimes the double glass HUD would split the symbology if I looked a bit down... It was indeed too low. I then corrected to your reference points and it is fantastic. I can even see if the air brake is fully deployed with the upper mirror now and no more symbology being split... and I thought I got it all perfect. Thank you!

Have you reinstalled it after upgrading to the windows 11? It can be just executing the installer that you get from the store and pointing towards your DCS directory so you don't need to re download anything. Suspicion: registry that are wiped out after upgrading windows to another "number". Then just running the installer and pointing towards the files you already have it installed for it to perform just a files check and making entries on the registry. It is been ages since I've re installed windows and tried to run DCS as just backup files without running the installation. It can be that DCS doesn't need such measure as well. If it is on Steam, disregard. It can very well be "rob10" above evidence being the correct one as well.

Hasty conclusion for a complex problem people here don't know its crucial details. It is between ED and RB atm.

I'm not comfortable speculating worst case scenario, refunds or anything given how tiny amount of data has been presented. It is tragic given how good work has been put into the F-15E and both Harrier and M-2000 are beloved by many. Losing the support for either modules from RB is a heavy loss... I hope agreements come into fruition and both parties are happy. You're correct. Things are more complicated about that last part. Base DCS updates comes and things can break on modules. Their state is not static, regardless of being updated or not. Again, I hope both parties can come into agreement. Nothing good will come out of this otherwise.

Does it happen with only one sharpening filter? Luma Sharpen and DCS native sharpen are active at the same time.

Hello! 1- If the target is HOT aspect, PRF to MED will make it difficult for STT. Keep on interleave (MED + HI) until you're comfortable with the systems. 2- Are there bricks showing bellow the hafu symbology? Bricks mean your radar is picking up returns from the object and STT is possible if you have it constant. Your radar won't be able to lock data link contacts without own radar returns. 3- TDC depress should STT a contact but ONLY if the yellow cursor is over the contact. Undesignate will unlock from STT and further undesignate commands will cycle designation between available contacts. 4- Instead of slewing the cursor onto the contact and if the screen is not cluttered with radar returns from other objects, you can reliably quickly STT a designated object by SCS-Right for AACQ mode (auto acquisition). The radar will STT the first return its scan will pick up. It saves time but beware if the area is cluttered. Hope it helps. Happy flying!

Crash Master. You marked as solved by your own comment? What was the solution to the issue, in case anyone else with the same problem comes to see how it was fixed?

Great to know! Thanks for the info, Flappie.

If everything else fails, before nuking any kind of hardware, delete your windows/system temporary folder. I've seen hints of it making problems relating to editor files failing to compile on mission loading while troubleshooting other problem I've encountered in DCS. My issue was unrelated to the temporary files, it was the carrier crewmen statics preventing mission loading, for further information.

You can slew the flir to a waypoint with boxing weapon designate on the HSI or SA page. Given you already have the flir on one of the DDI, make it soi with SCS to the screen position (if it is on the right DDI, SCS Right. If it is on the left, SCS Left. Lower DDI, SCS down.) To unlock it from the waypoint you repeat the previous SCS command to switch the tracking mode to area track without the center diamond. This is on the ATFLIR pod. PAGE 222 on the manual onwards. If you want to place the TPOD at somewhere on the ground with the HMD/JHMCS (helmet mounted display). Press SCS up and UNDESIGNATE so you can see a clock style crosshair on the center of the HMD/JHMCS. Press designate to target at somewhere on the ground and all the aircraft sensors will point at that location, including weapons. Slew the FLIR to whatever you want to target from that point. PAGE 323 on the manual. I fully recommend reading the manual or watching thorough guides as videos to get the system philosophy first. This schematics can be helpful. Source:Dcs F 18 Flight Manual (windows.net)

1-Disable every background programs besides programs your controllers needs. We've seen in the forum DCS crashes related to RGB profile programs in the background. Other kind of programs can as well play a factor. "disabled e-cores / disabled XMP / disabled hyper-threading / tried Process Lasso" 2-Undo all of the above. Everything at default in my end through several PC builds through the years. DCS have been solid. I'd assume is a background app issue. 3-Look at Windows Event Viewer to check for GPU device crash.

VRAM saturation won't produce such stutters. I also have a 12gb card. Both textures settings on maximum while having heavy missions of my own. Scripts, especially tacview scripts are worth to look at. Tacview recording will produce stutters on heavy missions in single player.

These were horrible and I always disabled them. They didn't gave the feel of being enveloped by a transparent composite bubble but instead like being inside a illustrated candy plastic wrapper. Dynamic reflections are functionally better, but with the current hardware they cannot be as sharp as pre baked "pseudo reflections". That's where the blur comes into play. In 3D there is also the binocular aspect and eases much more the visual impact of the reflections existence on clear day conditions. If they are made super sharp as some are asking, the distraction element will be much worse. They are moving and dynamic and are not static. IMO, there could be a slider from OFF to 100% opacity to these visual elements on options....or even a resolution option under "caution" advisory on changing the default value. Options and liberty to chose always triumph over restrictions and constraint.

A biased defense of the module because I'm a sucker for this plane since forever ago , despite agreeing with a lot of points: Although new 3D models up to date to the current techs and poly counts are always nice, especially the 3D gap near the nose of the hornet looking from the cockpit (I'll upload a picture soon) is ALWAYS nice to have, it is much likely for ED to prioritize other 3D models rightfully so. Also, new modules under construction are a point to consider. Munitions models have inaccuracies although new stuff are coming with the fuses updates. Some munition models are VERY old, example of the Mk-20 cluster bombs. GBU-12s are showing their age...etc. Other AI plane models that are not involved in future 3rd party products are also in much needed overhaul. I'd wish all these ED modules to be laser scanned with a decent level of usage wear displayed on the fuselage just like the real plane it was scanned from and perhaps when the tech allows, different visible wear in a randomized fashion or fully procedural based on the usual places they would be displayed on real planes. Recent photographs from still operational 18Cs are amazing. Likewise, majority of the default liveries are struggling a bit to keep up with the times but still a pleasing to the eyes model+textures while flying. Personal livery recommendation (with dynamic numbers): VMFA(AW)-224 (digitalcombatsimulator.com) Mandatory current (some have old pilot model) Hornet model eye candy: