Captain Orso

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.

I've recognized something new. I'm guessing the procedure to to using TPOD and IRMV are as follows -- although this only works sometimes(!!) :mad: Status: DDI-L = stores (IRMV selected and ready -- IRMV is boxed and crossed out and caged)) DDI-R = TPOD, target is locked -- you must press TDC-Depress ONCE on a target to designate and lock it (target diamond appears on HUD), afterwards you may switch to a new target by slewing TDC, and pressing TDC-Depress is no longer required SOI is DDI-R. - SCS left. - Cage/Uncage button to uncage the selected IRMV. -- IR-Seeker head automatically slews to target selected by TPOD. If within range, IRMV will become firable (crossout is removed from boxed IRMV). - Pickle to fire IRMV -- Next IRMV (if any remain) is selected [newly selected IRMV is Uncaged(!!!!)). This is wrong from my understanding. You uncage a single weapon, not a class of weapon. If IRMV on pilon 7 was just fired and IRMV on pilon 1 is now selected, it can not be uncaged. I believe this is how subsequent IRMV's should be fired: - SCS right. - Slew TDC to new target. - SCS right twice to switch to point target (vehicle) mode. - Adjust targeting aim, if necessary. - SCS left. - Cage/Uncage button to uncage the selected IRMV. -- IR-Seeker head automatically slews to target selected by TPOD. If within range, IRMV will become firable (crossout is removed from boxed IRMV). - Pickle to fire IRMV Because the newly selected IRMV is marked as Uncaged, I press Cage/Uncage before moving the SOI back to the TPOD, however, when I've selected a new target and return to the IRMV page, uncaging does slew the seeker head to the new target, but the boxed IRMV NEVER becomes uncrossed and is therefore not firable :mad: After re-Uncaging the IRMV, TDC-Depress -- which would be the method without TPOD targeting -- makes no difference, crossout is not removed. Somewhere along the line here some status is not being set correctly (maybe the Caged/Uncaged status). I have managed to fire subsequent IRMV's a couple times after fidgeting around with it for long enough, but after a while, there's no way to tell, exactly what made the difference [rubbing a penny on your left elbow while whistling La Marseillaise and hopping on your right leg is as good a guess as any], but that can't be what is expected of virtual pilots.

I'm flying only OB and occasionally it works in the Hornet. In 5 flights on got 4 missiles off -- FOUR! - against stationary T-72's on a runway. In the Harrier it ALWAYS works.

F/A-18C - TPOD - AGM-65F Do these play together in any way? In the AV-8B this works like a dream. Us the TPOD to lock a target, uncage the IRMV, confirm target designation, rifle. It goes faster than it took me to write that. In the Hornet... :mad: It's the same TPOD, it's the same IR-Mavs, it's the same service branch to some extent, and in some it is exactly the same. What's wrong here (and it may be just me completely)?

When you setup the Arleigh Burke in the ME you can choose either "default" or "Michael Murphy" skins/liveries. Regardless of what you choose, the CC wears the Michael Murphy skin.

Barring further information becoming available, you can look at what the military does elsewhere, as in other aircraft. Generally the military has some kind of plan -- I know it's not always so -- but if ALL other aircraft do not require the master arms switch to be on, it's a good indication that the F/A-18C does not either. One might also ask experts, like on The Fighter Pilot's Podcast. I imagine the information will be quickly forthcoming and correct. As a bit of anecdotal evidence, I saw a video in which an actual former Harrier pilot flew around in the DCS Harrier -- it was amazing to see how easily he controlled the Harrier in hover -- and at one point he dropped bombs, and then explicitly stated that he switched master arms off, 'because you don't want to accidentally drop bombs on the wrong target'. But if master arms were required for chaff and flares, you would need it on anytime you were anywhere near possible enemies, and basically make the statement kind of strange, like what about self-protection.

In 2.5.6 the default rounds were changed from the solid, hard core (not hardcore) AP, rounds for the HE rounds, which are good against soft targets. So the current round detonate on impact and there is nothing left to ricochet.

There's a sub-forum for this...

Hi Rudel, I'm trying to use the method you've posted here to set some at-start cockpit setting, but without any success. Could you please have a look at my trigger and say what I'm doing wrong? Many t(h)anks in advance! This is the switch I'm using. The aircraft is an F/A-18C. The first Action (Message to all) appears normally. Flag On is for safty. The two "Cockpit Perform Clickable Action" should set the console and instrument panel ligthing. And Set Command 816 causes the aircraft into Active Pause, which always works, only the lighting settings are not working: Any ideas what the cause might be?

That this option never made its way into DCS is obvious to me, because both methods are difficult to use and not what anyone wants. Let's be clear about a couple of things first. The problem is that currently the mouse-pointer position is not in reference to the virtual cockpit. It only references its cartesian coordinates on the monitor (Windows desktop), so when you turn your real world head, the virtual cockpit sweeps across your monitor, but the mouse pointers remains absolutely stationary on the desktop. So if you were to place your mouse on a box with a void below your mouse's motion-detection or simply disable its sensors, so that it can never report of any movement of the mouse, then you would basically have the same environment as in Oculus Home. The "mouse pointer" is centered on your HMD and you move the pointer by moving your head. But that is awkward and uncomfortable. We don't want to control the mouse-pointer with our heads, but rather with the mouse, but only with mouse movement being relative to the virtual cockpit. Nothing else is of use in the DCS virtual world. Anchoring the mouse-pointer to the virtual cockpit cannot be any issue at all. Every clickable switch has it's coordinates constantly calculated to the desktop, but anchored to the virtual cockpit. Simply do the same to the mouse-pointer, but allow the mouse to modify the position of the pointer within the virtual cockpit through mouse-movement-input. It's as simply as that, and should have been done this way from the beginning.

I know in general how to edit controls for binds. In this case it just never dawned on my to try different values. Sometimes I is a bit dense. I'll have to look up that thread. There was one somewhere telling how to get a tool-tip with the device number for every switch and dial in the cockpit, but I can't find it any more. It's just 2020 I guess :huh:

YISSS!! Many Thanks! My value_down was wrong; 0.0 and not -1.0 :thumbup:

Has anyone come up with a good definition for binding the Launch Bar to a simple On/Off switch?

Thanks for the replies. Okay, I can see the small lights on the instrument panel to be kind-of emergency lights that are on automatically. However the idea that the Lighting Mode Switch would have special logic to keep the IFEI lighting on Day although set to Nite just because an engine is not running, basically telling the pilot, "I don't care if you don't want the overly bright instrument lighting in the middle of the pitch-black night, you will get what I want you to have", and then not even switch to Nite when the engine is running. Nah, to me it looks like a typical failure to monitor the switch position when the engines are off and when they first start.

That's just silly. It's supposed to be a flashlight like penlight that the pilot carries with him.

Once you've turned the battery on, the IFEI (Integrated Fuel / Engine Indicator) lights up. However the Lighting Mode Switch will do nothing until an engine is running, and if you start an engine with it set to Nite, you must first switch to Day and then back to Nite for lighting to be effected. Aslo, to the upper left of the IFEI there is a small flood light, which shines down on the IFEI, which I cannot turn off. It's always on as long as the battery switch is on.

With the Battery Switch off, you can turn the Flashlight on and off and switch from white to green light, but you cannot change the brightness until you have switched the Battery Switch on. Very odd behaviour for a handheld flashlight.

I wish they'd make a Sd.KFZ 234/1 version of the Puma with the 20mm auto-cannon. Firstly it would give the Germans a mobile AAA, plus it's actually the most numerous version of the Puma, so it should have been the better choice.

The throttle has "Off" at 0, "Idle" at 1, and the rest of the full range at >1 to 10. To go from Off to Idle in the real Harrier you must simply push over the Idle-Stop. Think of it like a tiny wedge built into the throttle housing between Off and Idle - the upright end faces towards the Idle position and the ramp end points toward the Off position. There is a sliding plate on the throttle (the Finger Lift) aligned exactly with the wedge. If you try to pull the throttle back past the wedge, the Finger Lift plate hits the wedge and blocks the motion. If the throttle is at Off, if you push the throttle forwards, the Finger Lift plate slides up and over the wedge and the throttle reaches Idle, but cannot return to Off without operating the Finger Lift, as per above. To get past Idle there is a different mechanism, which is also a Stop, but electronically operated. When the brake is on, the Stop is in place and the throttle cannot be advanced from Idle. If the brake is off, the Stop is retracted, and the throttle is free to be pushed past Idle. If the throttle is not at Idle the brake switch is either blocked or automatically returns per servo to it off position. At any rate, you cannot set the brakes with the throttle not at Idle. To emulate the push from Off to Idle, you need a button-press. To emulate pulling from Idle to Off you need a button-press. If you have an On/Off switch, you can configure it to emulate the throttle being at either Off or Idle. You can use a different On/Off switch to emulate brake on or off. If you have a Thrustmaster Warthog Throttle, you can put the indent toward the rear and calibrate it to only register axial motion to DCS from the indent to fully forward. If you pull the throttle back over the indent it activates button 29 (to be absolutely exact, the left throttle lever activates button 30 and the right throttle lever activates button 29). Then you can bind button 29 to Throttle Cutoff, and when the throttle if moved to Off the engine will turn off, and when moved to Idle, if the APU is turning the engine, the engine will start.

If a waypoint is bugging you, create a sequence -- you can create up to 3 sequences, each with up to 15 waypoints IIRC -- and simply lieve it out. If it's already in a sequence, it can be removed from a sequence, thus making it easy to ignore.

Hi Willie, I can't say I've heard of a site, which specifically pairs experts with tranies, but I hardly know everything, and I'm not sure of what you mean by "site". The DCS Forum is well known for uncounted helpful souls, willing to pitch in and help a mate along. On reddit (a kind of forum site) the hoggit (hoggit is a club of flight-sim enthusiasts) sub-reddit (sub-forum) has a new thread started each week specifically for people to ask questions, which are then answered by knowledgeable members, and some of hoggit's members are the most knowledgeable in the community. If you mean a server where you can fly with someone, hoggit also has a training server, and once a week if I recall correctly, within a certain timeframe they have some experts online who are willing to teach people specific things. I'm not sure how far the information you've gotten already has helped you. I know the people here are trying to be helpful, but after reading through everything, my first thought is, I have no idea what you know to begin with, but I kind of have the feeling that about 90% went over your head, because you don't know some of what the basics are of what the good helpers here are talking about. So I'll start out with some very basic questions to try to find out what information level you have. Don't worry if you don't know many thing or even anything of what I'm asking. In bite sized pieces, all you need to know is pretty easy to learn. Do you own a headset with a microphone? Do you know what VOIP (Voice Over IP) is? Do you know Teamspeak? Do you know Ventrillo? Have you ever used Discord (not just the voice-chat function)? Have you ever used any in-game voice-chat function to speak with other players, including the one in DCS? What DCS module(s) are you flying? You can PM me if you'd like to rather than drop your pants here, I mean it can be kind of daunting, all this in front of everyone. Best regards Thom aka Captain Orso

I asked this once somewhere. Just turn it off. The switch is between the throttle and nozzle angle control lever. Then your throttle will have direct control of fuel input and can easily over-temp the engine at high throttle settings. You can try turning it off with an healthy engine to experience the effect. Just turning the JPTL off will often not change anything, and a lot of times the engine goes out if the JPTL is damaged, so you might want to practice restarting the engine in mid-flight too :)

I was sliding today. Spawned directly fore of the island and was quite busy with flight planning. After a good 20 minutes or so I was running up the engines and getting flight-ready, when suddenly I sled backwards off the deck and into the water. I think the Stennis was doing a port turn at the moment. Before that I didn't notice that I had been skidding, but I know that after I has spawned a Tomcat spawned just to my right and apparently although both of us had our wings folded, I noticed sparks coming from my starboard wing a couple of times as if it were rubbing on the wingtip of the cat to the right, and shortly afterwards I landed in the drink.

Just from a logical standpoint if a big tile could be defined which would included Mount Pleasant AB and the area surrounding it which had post '82 buildings. Then you could use the definition of this tile as the basis for pre- and post-82. Both would have the exact same landscape edges, so one or the other could be dropped in seamlessly without issue, and the devs could put on whatever they wished each tile; the pre- having maybe just a road and a sheep pen or whatever, with post- have the airfield and it's buildings. This would prevent having to have two complete maps to install, but I don't think ED has the technology to do something like this at this time, nor if they are working on or planning to work on this or something similar.