Aluminum Donkey

For the amount of money you pay for a new Warthog system, I`d call Thrustmaster and demand very insistently that you want one that works!!!! For that kind of money, why piss around, it`s just a computer game controller. For that much money, it bloody well better work *perfectly*, and for a very long time. AD

Look at it this way. If you can afford the GTX 1080 Ti... ;) Peace and rock on AD

Wow, a lot of discussion around this. In a nutshell, they sell the product for what the market will bear. Everyone knows that. I wonder why people feel the need to belabor it in discussion... There's a reason why a new Ferrari costs more money than an old Ford. It's because that's what people are willing to pay, and it optimizes profit per unit sold. AD

My condolences on your loss of the 980... As far as a new one goes, I'm using a GTX 1070, and I'd recommend it as the minimum for a 'great' DCS experience. The 1060 6GB version is... adequate, but don't expect anything stellar. It'll do the job for 1080p if you don't want to run with most graphics settings at max (which, of course, is what the bulk of the effort recently put into DCS was all about.) DCS World is a very "1080 Ti-worthy" game, but if you run a single screen at 1080p, you can get away with a 1060 6GB on medium settings and a couple on high. Stay away from the 3GB version of the 1060--it's not suited for DCS World. When it comes to video memory, morer is betterer :) Peace and happy warfare AD

It's possible to update 2.2 Open Alpha to 2.5 Open Beta. Check out the thread in this forum, called "You can transfer your 2.2 Open Alpha to 2.5 Open Beta!". It's on the second page (right now). It shows you everything you need to do, and it works. When I downloaded the 2.5 update, I grabbed the entire _downloads directory just before the torrent was finished and copied it to my hard disk, it was about 99% complete and takes up 18.8 GB on the drive, so if anyone wants it I suppose I can try creating a torrent for it, so it won't take a bloody dog's age to download... You're still probably better off downloading it from ED though. Peace AD

Just about! DCS 2.5 is all-inclusive, I wouldn't bother with older versions. You know, unless you 'prefer' them for some reason... which you probably don't, because 2.5 is all-inclusive, and that's the whole point of it :) Good a reason as any to let bygones be bygones. Keep 2.5 and wipe out everything else (even though ED themselves might say that 1.5.X is still the only "official" release version... no point in egging 'em on!) Peace and happy warfare AD

That's pretty funky! I already know how the radar works, but thanks for posting anyway :) AD

I have the Cougar, it's a good stick now, but I'm a machinist and rebuilt the gimbal myself. The stock gimbal is total junk. Buttons and hat switches are all good quality though. I also fitted mine with Hall effect sensors on the two stick axes, an easy enough mod to do and very worthwhile. I used Allegro A1302 sensors. IMPORTANT: Make sure you disable Windows auto-install, so it doesn't install any drivers automatically, otherwise it will attempt to auto-install when you plug it in... while installing the Cougar drivers :) This will cause a driver conflict, which will make the stick buttons 'flaky'. It's not a problem with the stick itself, but appears to be related to Windows trying to search for and install drivers by itself. Took me a good long while to sort that out. If you don't want to rebuild your gimbal, or install a mod kit, you might want to buy something like a VKB or other stick instead, because the stock Cougar gimbal really is pretty bad. I bought my Cougar used; if I had paid the asking price for a new one I'd have been mighty miffed at how bad it was!! Peace AD

Parxuk, I agree with Pedro, for DCS you'd want a GTX 1070 minimum. The 1060 6GB just isn't up to it. I'd hang onto your cash and wait until the Bitcoin mining craze fizzles down a bit and look for a really good card. DCS just doesn't like 2nd-rate cards, and you'll still have to pay a small fortune for a 1060 that will just underperform. Personally I'd love a 1080 Ti, it really is *the* card for DCS World, but I'd love a new Ferrari and my own personal Learjet, too :) AD

Installing more RAM will give you less frequent stutters and possibly faster load times. That's it. As others have pointed out, DCS World is *extremely* demanding on your video card. If you can get it to run at all on your laptop, and said laptop does everything you need it to do except run DCS particularly well, you'd be much better off keeping the laptop you have for everything else you use it for, and saving the bread to get a dedicated desktop for something as incredibly demanding as DCS World. Both your eyes and wallet will thank you for it. Yes, it's entirely possible to get fast gaming laptops--but for what a really, really good one will cost you, you'll be partway to getting a real pilot's license :)

Nobody ever wants to hear this, but if you're buying a new rig with the specific intention of running DCS World on it, you're better off getting a desktop PC. :) A Z370 motherboard, Coffee Lake CPU such as the K (unlocked) Core i3 (4 cores, 4 threads), 16GB DDR4, and a nice video card. Doesn't have to really break the bank, and will deliver outstanding performance. Desktop = better performance and lower cost. AD

2.5 isn't available yet. When it is, just take 2 minutes to set up the controls yourself. It isn't hard at all, the WW2 aircraft are very simple compared to the more modern iron... You can even do it when the sim is running by pressing Esc and clicking on Adjust Controls. AD

I find 2.2 to be as stable as anything, but it certainly stutters a lot. Have you overclocked your CPU or video card? If so, the voltage may not be high enough. I've had "stable" OCs that stand up fine to something like a Prime95 stress test, and then conk out on me trying to run the sim. AD

I completely suck at deflection passes :) It doesn't help that the sim seems to ignore anything but direct-from-behind hits; although maybe my gunnery is just that crappy :)

That's what I thought... A bomber's "AI" just keeps flying straight and level while you waddle around behind it taking pot shots at it :) The damage model is very simple though, I believe the only thing that happens is, after a couple hits, one wing breaks off and it augers in. That's it--always the same wing, and it doesn't matter where you hit it. Since the B-17 is such a big hunk of tin, it would require a much more complex damage model to present a convincing target than a small, single engine fighter. You can set up a pile of 'em for a big turkey hunt, but it won't be very entertaining at this point. That's something for the future. AD

That's exactly what should happen, the enemy's ECM unit detects incoming radar locks (STT mode) automatically and activates itself to 'jam' the lock. Your radar resets itself and resumes scanning, so you can't fire any missiles (in other words, when ECM is activated, it doesn't transmit radar-jamming noise all the time--only when a lock is attempted). To get around this problem, you have to get closer to your intended target so your own radar unit can ignore the enemy ECM transmission enough to track it's own return (radar energy reflection from the target). It works best if you can do it without getting shot down--hence, your opponent carrying an ECM unit :) Getting close enough to use infrared tracking (EOS) on the Su-27 and/or MiG-29 is a great way to deal with it--if you can get inside 10 km or so without getting hosed :) AD

Refine the simulation engine to eliminate stuttering. Everything else can come after :) AD

Your system already looks fine to me. What sort of performance improvement are you expecting? When gamers say "performance" what they mean 99% of the time is "framerate", and going from a 4.6 GHz Core i5 to a 5+ GHz Core i7 isn't going to make any difference in DCS because the sim only uses 2 threads, and even the busiest missions don't load one core up to 100%. 16GB RAM is already good, and I'm pretty sure that faster memory has no effect on framerates at all, it just allows faster swapping of assets between video RAM and system RAM, which may reduce stuttering slightly (but won't eliminate it--that's up to the developer, it's not just a matter of throwing expensive hardware at the sim). If you want better framerates in general, then get yourself a GTX 1080 Ti (not a regular 1080, the Ti version). Your system is fine, and a hefty new computer isn't going to make much of any improvement. The 1070 you have is great, but the 1080 Ti is that much better--and more expensive. Peace AD

I wonder if that would help... I run a single SSD, with 2 partitions... C: for the OS and D: for everything else that's 'big' (DCS World and other flight sims). As for the 4.0 GHz CPU speed, I rarely see DCS at more than about half to 2/3 load on one core, about 1/3 on another, and next to nothing on the last two. It doesn't seem very CPU intensive, even with a large number of units in the air in a big furball. I can run my CPU at 4.5 no problem, maybe 4.6 or 4.7, but it's only a few percent more, it's not like even the newest ones will easily exceed 5.0 GHz. Not most of them, anyway. Even at 5.0 it's only 20% faster. I just constantly get stuttering, even at low graphics settings. Framerates in general are very good, but stutter is awful. It sucks...

I haven't been able to get mine to stop, except for the helicopters, which I guess are slow enough that stuttering either doesn't occur or is unnoticeable. I'm seriously considering secure-erasing my SSD and reinstalling Windows and DCS from scratch. It's that bad for me. Do you use separate drives for each one? AD

1080 Ti?! Bah, who needs archaic flint-knife & bearskin hardware! What are you playing, Pac-Man? Titan V or bust!! Seriously, no matter what hardware you throw at it, DCS seems to stutter like a bloody booger. There are guys running hefty LGA-2011 systems with 32GB memory and Titans, and even have their own Russian-built Diesel generators in the backyard supplying the electricity. They still stutter like hell. That said, I'm sure the gear you mention will give you stellar framerates at 1440p, just like my much-lesser system. Best of luck ironing out the stutters though!

Wow, I haven't tried Fast Mission creator in a long time... but, I suppose that sort of thing could happen :) I usually just go into Mission Editor and create & save a nice little furball or two. That way, you pick and place only the exact aircraft types you want. AD

"Patience" implies "choice" :) I'd prefer to fix all the dang stuttering, but hey, a usable Ka-50 pit would be nice too. AD

WW2 aircraft engines were magnificent pieces of hardware. It's a shame so many were destroyed! Oh well, I guess that was the whole idea :) Peace AD

The exterior model and liveries are great! I wouldn't touch them. They're already top-tier. It's the interior that sucks... You can't see jack in 2.2... I tried the Blue cockpit mod, and while it looks nice, you still can't see anything. The HUD is hard to read too, even with the brightness knob turned up all the way. I guess we'll just have to wait it out.