Aluminum Donkey

Well, reversing trains certainly is something they do in real life, so it's not *that* bad :) But, yeah, DCS has a zillion and one details that could stand patching up. ED is busy with the F/A-18C and the Persian Gulf map. Frankly, they're also REALLY busy trying to do non-DCS related work i.e. earning a living :) So, we takes wut we gets :) Do you really have literally thousands of hours logged in the Ka-50 module? Wow man, time to hang up the plastic stick & throttle, and fly a real aircraft for a while :) AD

Blah Blah Blah, Money Money Money, stuff stuff stuff. Spend more money, get better stuff :) If you don't know what you're doing, stick with Nvidia and Intel gear, and the more you spend the better your rig will perform. If you *DO* know what you're doing, stick with Nvidia and Intel gear, and the more you spend the better your rig will perform :) AMD? Better value--by quite a large margin. Intel/Nvidia? Better performance. At a price premium. That's why it's premium. It's also why it sucks. So, go AMD--more bang for the buck!! Unless... you want better performance. You know, for more money. Oh man, what to do! So, Intel/Nvidia. ;) Unless you're a smart consumer---So, AMD ;) Unless, you want better performance--So, Intel/Nvidia ;) Unless... Ah, F@#?!! it. Not to be an arse, but after spending a third of a century (on and off) on PC gaming crap, it's ALWAYS been this way. Just buy the most expensive crap you can get, and then come on here to complain about stuttering and low framerates in VR or 4K, like everyone else--myself included. What matters is--did you spend more money! Commence the whine-fest :) Peace and happy warfare AD

Bah, nothing will ever run on that! You need at least four 2TB SSD's in RAID--bare minimum for playing video games :) To install everything in DCS, including all upcoming maps and aircraft, a 250GB drive should be fine. DCS currently is about 110-120 GB if you have everything, and remember, the maps are the biggest part by far. There's only one new map coming "soon", the Persian Gulf. Aircraft modules use relatively little space. So, a 250GB drive is perfect for DCS, and as long as you leave that drive only for DCS, you'll be good to go! You'll have plenty of space left for years to come, and plenty of space for downloading updates (although DCS Updater probably uses any drive space it can find for that.) I'd recommend a fast NVMe drive if your motherboard has the M.2 socket for it, such as a Samsung 960 EVO or Corsair MP500--but frankly, a cheap SATA SSD is fine, too. The NVMe drives do give faster loading times, but other than that, make no difference. So, jibba jabba aside, a 250GB drive is perfect if it's only for DCS :) Peace & Happy Warfare AD

Some of the computers youse guys have are just nuts... 32GB RAM, a pair of 1080 Ti's, kilowatt PSUs, liquid unobtainium cooling systems, holy smokes people! I drove a car to work for years that was cheaper than your toys! I have an old, cheap computer by some of your standards. I hardly ever have problems with DCS 2.5.1 crashing now, if it's going to happen, it seems to only happen when finally quitting the sim (exiting to Windows). It helped a *lot* when I cranked up my pagefile size. I now have 10GB pagefile on C: and another 10GB on D: (Both are partitions on my single SATA SSD). Hardly ever crashes now. Maybe it could stand even a little bit more. DCS itself is installed on a separate M.2 NVMe drive. Try it! No matter how much RAM you have, DCS seems to need a huge pagefile. Leaving it System Managed doesn't seem to work--Windows will only make it so large, and then the sim will crash. Make it huge, and enjoy! AD

I like it too. More kaboomage=more entertainment value :) AD

The *real* A-10 has performance issues! It's as slow as a dog--despite being a fairly modern jet aircraft, it's slower than just about any WW2 piston engine fighter :) I'm wondering why it's so common for people on these forums to gripe about the A-10's lack of thrust. When loaded with fuel and weapons, the real thing flies like a tired cow with a ball and chain around each ankle. It's a well-known aspect of the A-10. It's no rocketship! AD

That seems to make sense, since most of DCS World *is* graphics textures, after all :) I find it only uses about half of my 8GB VRAM most of the time, usually it'll use 6GB or a little more over Normandy, and about half of my 16GB system RAM. On the other hand, it still has a taste for huge pagefiles and crashes without them, I guess there's still a bit o' tweaking left for ED to do :) AD

Wish I could help you man, but this seems to be a screwup on Eagle Dynamics' part. When buying new modules, always keep your own local copy of all your product keys. Make sure they're the RIGHT keys!! As in, check, double check, then triple check to make sure they're right, then save a couple copies of the file. Then, check once more. When DCS World starts bitching and whining about your product keys being invalid, as it like to do to amuse itself from time to time, you can email ED (or phone them) and bitch about it loudly until they sort it out :) I've had a few problems with keys myself, although I'm lucky enough that they sorted themselves out automatically after a day or two. These things happen, but it blows MASSIVELY when it does, since you already paid your money but can't use your modules!! :mad: If you have a local copy of the key, try de-activating the module, then re-activate it with your key. If you don't have a local copy of the key, then... make sure you always, always, always and ALWAYS keep a local copy of the key :) Best of luck, this can REALLY suck. AD

Wow, that's weird... Your computer is really hefty compared to mine, and I've been getting great framerates with 2.5.1, and very few stutters compared to 2.2 and early renditions of 2.5, which were always absolutely AWFUL for me. The only people who are really 'in the know' are the good folks at ED, and they probably all own PCs that are more like yours than mine! :) Just curious, are you running DCS from a mechanical hard drive, or SSD, and if it's an SSD, is it an M.2 NVMe drive, or regular SATA SSD? I just ask because this sim (like any other flight sim) is heavily dependent on drive activity while flying, and if you're getting stutters, it might be because of the classic I/O stall phenomenon. I'm not sure what to suggest, other than having a huge pagefile (20GB or more) on a SATA SSD, and maybe try installing an NVMe drive exclusively for DCS World, if you haven't already done so. AD

Interesting... I've noticed that as well, GTX 1070 here... DCS 2.2 used to eat up all 8GB of my VRAM, and almost all of my 16GB system RAM as well. When flying 2.5.1, I notice that it typically uses half of my VRAM and half my system RAM as well. Which, of course, really really sucks, because DCS 2.5.1 STILL uses an enormous paging file (20GB!) and crashes without it--strange, since the sim now uses so little memory compared to what it used to, so no paging file should be needed at all! Oh well, at least it runs reasonably stutter-free now, and overall performance has been mercifully good. AD

Everything seems to work this way, not just DCS World. Welcome to Windows PCs ;) You should post your system specs in your sig to everyone can see right away if your 'in gear' or not before starting the race :) DCS (and flight sims in general) tend to have absurd system requirements compared to all other games. It's always funny when the gaming community starts running on about Crysis or CoD as being "demanding", those games were a joke to run compared to even early iterations of DCS World. AD

Confirmed Ill. I hope this gets sorted out; it seems to me that every time I fancy a spin in the A-10C, something doesn't work, and I'm left messing around with it for ages to try and sort it out--only to find out it's actually a bug! DCS is still a great flight sim and it's come a long way--but this sort of shyte needs to end. AD

Not mission exit, I meant exiting the sim. Back to Windows. Seems to crash a lot less often now with big pagefiles. AD

Greetings everyone, I was having constant crashes after a couple missions, and fixed it by increasing the size of my paging files. I now have a 10GB pagefile on C: and another 10GB on D:, that seems to have done it. I still have the odd crash when exiting the sim though. No big deal. My system specs are below. Just in case you were wondering :) Peace and happy warfare AD

Don't kid yourself, your system isn't really half bad for something so old. I've had DCS running on machines that, by today's standards, were little more than shoeboxes full of rocks :) AD

#1 tip for best performance in flight simming: Spend dough. Lots of it. The more the merrier :) Just make sure you put it where it counts: A CPU with a high core clock, and the mightiest video card that can be summoned by the bank account of any mere mortal. DCS doesn't seem to care about memory speed. All you need is a GTX 1080 Ti and a CPU with 4.0+ GHz core clock. Even a Core i3 is perfect as long as it's a 'K' processor and you run it at 4.0 or higher. In other words, pour all your cash into a hefty vid card, and build the rest of your 'pooter around it :) 16GB of RAM should be fine--especially with the new update with better memory management. AD

So, is there a MiG-29 PFM now? Or in the near future? I've been waiting for this for ages!!! Even if it's an FC3 level module, that would still rock, it's the one thing DCS has needed for ages! AD

YESSSSS! I'm glad someone gets it! Things you buy for your own consumption, enjoyment/distraction, and/or general use are not investments, they're expenditures! A little off-topic but I'm glad someone brought this up. It's always lame (mildly amusing, but still annoyingly LAME) when people talk about "investing" in a new TV, car, sofa, dishwasher etc. etc. etc. :) A video card for your gaming rig is the LAST thing you'd ever wanna be caught being dumb enough to call an investment--and at today's prices for the fool ass things, it's pretty much the same for crypto miners :) hehehehehe AD

It's cool and all, but personally, I'd really prefer it if all modules were completely finished first, and THEN announced as being available for sale. A guy can only take so much! I was *really* looking forward to that Typhoon :( Just a personal preference, understand. AD

One way of looking at it is, it costs what it costs... If you're buying a brand-new Ferrari, what difference does it make if it's $250,000 or $375,000, or for that matter, $500,000? The 1180 is gonna be fast as all heck, and for a video game device, it's gonna be expensive as all heck :D AD

You're being FAR too formal about this. It's a PC flight simulator; jump right in and fly the thing around! If you want, you can put the flight manual on a smartphone, tablet PC etc. etc. and display it so that you can check it out while fiddling with stuff the P-51's cockpit. But, I find the most entertaining way to get into a new module is to just hop in and start messing around with everything on the ramp :) As questions pop up, I fly the training missions and consult the manual. You said you've flown the 109 and 190 a lot; these WW2 machines are all very similar in form and function, and the major difference is the location of all the buttons and switches. Everything essentially works the same way. No need to be so organized and formal about it. Fire up a mission and amuse yourself :) AD

You have one heck of a computer!! Turn Anisotropic Filtering up all the way to 16x. It makes the horizon *much* nicer and doesn't decrease framerates much, but does use a fair amount of video memory--which you have lots of (8GB.) Turn off ALL antialiasing in Nvidia Control Panel. Set MSAA to 2x in DCS World--no higher than that, it isn't needed for a 4K display. If it affects framerates too much, turn it off, and just use FXAA either in Nvidia Control Panel, or in a program like Reshade. Rock & roll! :) AD Oh yeah, I almost forgot--you have two GTX 1080s. Consider selling both of them and getting one GTX 1080 Ti. It'll probably perform better. :)

Just install 2.5, that's it, no problems at all. It runs better now than it ever has, so if you have a decent rig, you'll be pleasantly surprised! You need it to run the Normandy map. Normandy won't run on 1.2 or 1.5, which are obsolete anyway. The new higher-detail Caucasus map is free and comes with 2.5, so you'll have that to fly over while scratching your head about what new stuff to buy :) Easy as falling off a log. AD

Easy. If flying is what you want to do, and want great aircraft to do it in, get the FC3 package. That pretty much covers it up. If you're not an A-10C fan, then don't get the A-10C. Yes, it's a great module, no, it's not something you can learn quickly :) FC3 has plenty to keep you busy with. If you want more detailed modules, get the MiG-15bis and/or F-86F, both of which are great simulations and are a fair bit 'busier' than the ones in FC3. F-86 is easier to fly, MiG-15 actually performs better and has hefty armament :D AD

Actually, now that you've brought it up, I really wish ED would distribute all their products using "real" torrents that you can download in a client like uTorrent. That would really make life easier. I hate downloading 100GB of stuff at 0.6 MB/sec. AD