Captain Orso

Dear RAZBAM, I appreciate all the work and effort you are putting into your products. As with everything in life, there is always room for improvement. I would behoove you to take some few steps in presenting a professional organization, starting with deciding and presenting a single point from which all information can be found. I recently discovered that newer iterations of the pocket guide are presented for download on the RAZBAM internet site. This information is completely missing from the ED/DCS forum, which is where I would expect to find such information. After downloading this hidden gem, I discovered that there is no publication information; neither publication date nor version or document number, so I cannot tell which document is newer. This is kind of the A and O of publishing documentations and something no professional organization would neglect. I've often read references to statements made in Discord or on other platforms. If it is of any importance, having said it on Discord is worthless and lost to the world except for a very tiny number of individuals who may have see it at the time. This is one of the best ways to alienate your customers who are then left out in the rain and feel like 'second class in the eyes of RAZBAM', because you impart your information on the select few. This is one of the reasons I find Discord to be one of the worst PERIOD ways to disseminate PERIOD information PERIOD ever invented PERIOD. At the very best it's good for a pre-mission chat room, and nothing more. At any rate, for information, which if forgotten tomorrow, it would not bother a single person. The forum makes a perfectly good platform for doing a dev blog and presenting thoughts and less formal information, and being centrally located accessible to all - which means, everyone knows where to find it, which can only increase the usefulness of the information. I hope you will take a moment to consider these thoughts and take them to heart. Most respectfully Captain Orso

A couple of days ago, after the TGP was updated, Wags put up a couple of videos on the changes and IIRC somewhere in the forum he said that using CCD (TV camera) was only effective at fairly close range, like under 6 or 7 nm, while IR worked far better. The reasoning being that there is not enough contrast for the computer to recognize a vehicle -- if you're using area target and just pointing at the ground it doesn't make any difference. Funny thing is, in the Harrier with the same targeting pod you can use the CCD well over 10 nm. In fact it's the only way I use it. Circle at between 10 and 15 nm while evaluating the situation, then pick a target and run in. IR is a catastrophe right now. It has nothing to do with realistic IR visuals, at all. Someone a long time ago decide that trees and bushes are often hot like vehicles driving down the street, just because. Even in the middle of the night after no sun has shone on them for hours, and in the middle of a downpour with 5°c cold rain pouring down on them, countless number of them are all over the map making it nearly impossible to find any targets with IR. ED has said that they are working on a completely new IR environment, but I am not counting on 2 weeks, but more like 2 years, before we see anything of it.

Not in Finland. In Finland fire breaks in the forests are Gripen Highways :music_whistling:

Really?! In the Harrier CCIP is the delivery method of choice. Auto is if the situation demands it, like you can't get the cross-hair on the target in time, or you cannot dive in because of AAA. CCIP is more accurate than AUTO/CCRP.

Try doing SEAD at 25k feet vs SA-10. EW gently informs you of a double launch at you and you're trying to do some sweeping turns to bleed their energy, but eh air is about as thick as pea soup. Later while trying to land LSO informs you that your wings are folded ... :huh: :D

Look at my signature space... P-51D on take-off

Can you describe more clearly what is not working as you expected?

Using the in-cockpit seat adjustment is about as effective as Jennifer Connelly pulling on the reins.

I have a Thrustmaster Throttle & Stick HOTAS. I NEVER use target. I map only in DCS. Not sure what you mean by DX mapping. I almost always use the Paddle on the stick as a modifier and in the Harrier also the throttle-thumb-hat depress is a modifier. What do you mean by, "'shifted (modifier)"?

It may be easy for you to use, but not for most. It was one of the first things people noted when VR just came onto the market, that aiming with your head is awkward and takes getting used to. That is the opposite of intuitive. Because ED generally leaves things in the 'good enough' box when they aren't direct HW simulation. Can you designate what switch you want to operate, regardless of how awkward and taxing it is? Yes? Then it's 'good enough'. Read the thread. There are many who wish for this very much. If we had it and you didn't want to use it, then just don't use it. Simple as that. You make no point other than, 'meh, I don't want it'. Then turn around and go away, because this thread is for people to discuss a solution they would like to have implemented to make their experience better. You bring nothing to the table that will make anything better for anyone.

I've mapped a lot of things to my HOTAS, also very many using modifiers. I don't have LIDS bound to anything, because... why? It's not like I'd ever use it.

Yes, I just wanted to post the video so as to not mix up the different issues. I guess I kind of failed at trying to be clear :doh:

Look at any video showing how to do AUTO (CCRP) delivery, and simply fly lower - far lower.

It is NOT WAD. ED is in the middle of updating the functionality and we are kind of in the lurch at the moment. It sucks for now, but them's the facts.

Please view this video to learn about the TPOD lasing issue:

Not to high-jack this, because this is really needed, but also to pull the coordinates from free-cam view from cam location. In MP you often do not have the luxury of having enemy vehicles displayed on the F10 map. All you can do is navigate in the F10 map to where you expect enemy targets, LCtrl-F11 to jump from the center of the F10 map to that point in the virtual world. Turn on the status bar and lat/long coordinates to see the cam location. Navigate to a target (vehicle or building or whatever to read the lat/long of the target. This is what I call reconnaissance phase. Write the coordinates down of targets you wish to attack. Return to the cockpit to enter them as waypoints. Using the ScratchPad will help with this immensely in VR, but it's still a major PITA and take a lot of times. Not seldom have I arrived at the target location and found most if not all the targets already burning, bc it took so long. Not really much fun :(

Not sure what you mean by "designate point". That's not a thing. If you mean, return to your previous target, if you use the offset, instead of slewing the target point, you can SCS-Right (or toward where ever you have FLIR) to delete the offset cross, leaving the prevous target designated. So you might do this: 1. FLIR on right DDI. 2. HSI on AMPCD (lower DDI). 3. Select a waypoint in HSI, where enemy targets are to be found. 4. WPDSG (OSB 14) in HSI to designate the current waypoint as your target. Diamond carrot will appear in HUD and TGP camera will slew to the target if within TGP gimbal limits. 5. SCS-Right will cycle through targeting modes (no target, area target (cross hairs), point target (two upright lines [box without top and bottom] designate the target by putting the target between the lines [in the box]). 6. Slew to target with TDC-Slew. 7. TDC-Depress designates new target. 8. TDC-Depress again creates offset cross, which you can slew with DCS-Slew. 9a. If you line the new target, TDC-Depress with slow the selected target designator to the new target and remove the offset cross. 9b. If you want to return to the previous target, SCS-Right to cycle to the mode you wish, which will also delete the offset.

Do I understand this correctly? On the one hand Wags says the purpose of the offset is to put the cross on a different target without returning to SP (SnowPlow) mode. On the other hand, there is no need to return to SP mode to slew the target carrot, you just slew it. To create the cross you TDC-Depress. The cross is created over the current target, which you can then slew with the TDC-Slew. If you like the new target (offset-cross) TCS-Depress again turns the offset-cross into the new target. If you wish to use the previously designated target, SCS-Right will delete the offset. Cycle to the mode you wish and carry on. So the only purpose of the offset is to start to designate a new target while maintaining the previous target and being able to return to it by deleting the offset. Am I missing anything?

There is no need for using DMT nor TPOD with CCIP, but it can be useful having the target carrot on the HUD as a way to locate the target quickly while running in. It may also have some affect on accuracy, but it will not remove any requirements associated with using CCIP. You still have to put the cross directly on the target etc. To use CCIP you need to dive in fairly steeply and release so that you don't come too low, mainly to avoid enemy AAA and other fire. Mk-82 SE and Air are not precision weapons. You will do better with normal Mk-82 LD and CCIP. The entire concept of Mk-82 SE and Air is to be able to come in very low and still deploy bombs without risking being near the detonation. To do that you use AUTO mode.

Two -- at least two -- things need to be fixed with the AI Harrier taking off from the LHA: 1. The Harrier MUST put up the wheels as soon as they leave the deck. Leaving the wheels down until a certain altitude has been reached is not only NOT SOP, but it's stupid, because it causes additional drag, when accelerations is of the utmost importance, plus they have absolutely no use whatsoever once they have left the deck. 2. You MUST be able to setup AI Harriers to move to the furthest end of the trolly line at take off inorder to make use of as much deck as possible. More deck = higher speed at wheels-up.

IIRC the state is inherited from session to session. So if you quit a session with the Scratchpad off, when you start again, it will still be off.

Thanks for the reply! :) I'd actually given up on this. Honestly, I've seen uglier solutions, and really what makes it ugly is only the way lua scripting works. I would give a kidney to be able to use bash scripting here :smilewink:

First you MUST make the designator behind 'scene.' unique when referencing that object: EG: scene.m1 = sceneAPI:addModel("AV8BNA",-3.0, 1.8, -6.0); scene.m1:setLivery("FAA 3", "AV8BNA") and scene.m2 = sceneAPI:addModel("AV8BNA",-60, 1.8, -6.0); scene.m2:setLivery("FAA 3", "AV8BNA") Second, you must us the Folder Name of the folder where the livery(skin) resides to reference it. Ignore the name in the default.lua file, sceneVR does too. EG: scene.m1:setLivery("VMAT-203S", "AV8BNA") but NOT scene.m1:setLivery("VMAT-203 Special", "AV8BNA") That should get you off onto the right foot.

The touch controllers are big, and bulky, and role around. Put them down, and they are never oriented to be gripped. You must alway turn them into position. My mouse is normal sized, always right-side-up, always right where I left it, because it never roles away. What is the advantage of touch over mouse? None of which I know; only disadvantages. Plus I hate the hover-hands way of working them. Know why optical keyboards never caught on? (optical keyboards = projector and camera [very small and easy to carry and setup, far easier to carry than any physical keyboard]: keyboard image is projected onto a surface, camera to view where you touched on the keyboard projection to actuate a keypress) Because people don't like to hold their hands in the air, and have no physical reference, nor support for resting their hands. Try it for 10 minutes, see how your arms feel. On top of that, touch controllers lead you to believe your hands are actually in the cockpit. They are not. There are things around you, which you cannot see. Oculus and the other companies went to great lengths to protect you from walking into or hitting things in the real world, which you cannot see, with your hands . Maybe with enough care and practice you might overcome the urge to reach for a switch or dial which would have you putting your hand through a real-world physical object... maybe. I'd rather not deal with it. Ultimately, I don't want a mouse pointer at all. No one needs a mouse pointer for anything. You need and indicator of which switch or dial you are working in the cockpit. That can be done by putting a highlighted box around the switch or dial. Moving the mouse moves the highlighting from one switch to the next. Very simple, very easy to use, practically impossible to lose. To make it even more realistic and easier to use, once you haven't sued the mouse for 10-15 seconds, or maybe simply move it to the joystick or throttle, it's off and no highlighting is visible. Start to move your mouse and highlighting comes back on, but always starting at the stick or throttle, maybe depending on in which direction you move the mouse - move to the left and you start with the throttle, emulating you using your throttle hand, move to the right to emulate moving your stick hand, or maybe a completely different mechanism. These are just thoughts, but there are so many different ways to make things easier for the virtual pilot in the VR cockpit. They just have to be implemented and not ignored.

I just asked this yesterday: F/A-18C - TPOD - AGM-65F. The short answer is that it's broken badly. Sometimes it works like a charm, and sometimes it wanders off in to the woods and starts picking mushrooms, never to be seen again. Following what I wrote in my thread in post#6 I've gotten off 3 good missiles in a mission, and then today, following the exact same method, I couldn't get a single missile off, an I have no idea why. One major issue is that the TGP loses it's targeting carrot. It also doesn't work the same as in the Harrier. Two major differences are, in the Harrier when you undesignate a target, the TPOD returns to bore-sight and the target carrot is erased from HUD and Map. In the Hornet undesignating a target removes the target from HUD and Map, but the TGP stays facing the same direction, which allow you to slew to a new, nearby target. Only Cage/Uncage returns the camera to bore-sight. I've had major issues with this, in that it seems after returning to bore-sight the logical carrot (whose position is defined by some internal values) becomes unsynchronized with the real carrot to the point the real carron disappears from the HUD and Map never to return. Even after pressing Undesignate and Cage/Uncage, and then aiming the VV (Velocity Vector) at a ground target and pressing TDC-Depress, the carrot no longer appears on the HUD, and if I then slave to an IRMV, the IRMV is looking somewhere else completely, and it is not possible to manually adjust the IRMV as long as the TGP is turne on. You have to shut it completely down to then us the IRMV's IR-Seeker to acquire a target.