Horns

I believe someone from HB mentioned that the war was a factor because there were team members in Ukraine.

Cheers for the idea. I didn’t look at the log, but I did confirm it was running as administrator. I didn’t change any settings re permissions either when I first installed the community version from the .MSI or when I reinstalled from the zip, but the reinstallation did rectify the problem. I assumed it was either a random corruption issue or a difference between the .MSI and the zip, but either way I’m golden now.

As mentioned, I wasn't able to bring up the interactive kneeboard (or get that page within the standard kneeboard). I did a clean install of Vaicom Pro from the zip file here, following the installation instructions here, and it fixed the problem. The only thing I did differently was that this time I went with the zip file instead of the .msi, but the problem is definitely gone for me. If the other advice here doesn't help, it might be worth trying a clean install and seeing if that fixes the problem for you too.

Cheers for the info. I know that some people are having issues if they have more than 37 mods installed, if you're in that boat that might be the cause, in which case you might be able to test if that's the cause by temporarily dropping back to 36 or fewer. If that is the issue, then I believe the team expect the next community release should resolve it. That said, I just tested for myself (having less than 37 modules) and I seem to be getting the same thing, 'kneeboard' just opens the standard kneeboard with no vaicom interactive kneeboard present, and trying to switch pages doesn't bring anything up either, all I can do is say 'kneeboard' to toggle the standard kneeboard. I've asked a question in the discord, if I get an answer I'll share it here in case it fixes your problem.

How many modules do you have installed at the moment? Any mods? Not sure I'll have an answer for you, but this info might help someone else diagnose what's going on...

Like Frodo?

So in the first mission, vaicom was registering your commands, Jester was acknowledging your vaicom commands, and then he designated incorrectly, and actually changed the target designated after you corrected it. Definitely not the way it should work, but what makes you think this is a vaicom issue? It kinda sounds like the problem was Jester behavior…

Ok, so first the bad news: I don't think there is any access to previous OpenBeta versions, so if you'd rather not deal with OB 2.8 the other option is DCS Stable (ie non-beta) 2.7. I'm no expert, but lockdown without DCS sounds awful, so I'll try to help until someone turns up who knows what they're doing... First question: Is Vaicom hooking the module? To check, open VoiceAttack and then open the Vaicom Pro config window (ctrl + alt + c by default). Get into a mission in DCS, look at the Vaicom Pro window and see if the module you're in is stated there - example below (ignore the red circle):

You can download it here: Release VAICOM PRO 2.8.0 Community Edition · Penecruz/VAICOMPRO-Community · GitHub

If vaicom is to be saved, I think our best bet - albeit still an unlikely one - is that the person who now controls the vaicom IP sells it to a party who can maintain and develop it. Unless someone can figure out a way to identify Hollywood and track down his executor (or the Dutch equivalent), all we can do is cross our fingers that the new owner finds out.

Is the problem with not having vaicom in VR to do with having to use a keyboard you can't see to enter commands, or does it go beyond that (eg menus not appearing)? I'm a flat screen user, I was going to buy a VR headset for flying the Tomcat, wondering if that's still an option...

What’s the command for a slow repair? I guess “dcs_updater repair” only does the quick repair?

I’m keeping a copy of stable branch 2.7 that I’m not going to update, and I’ve amended the shortcut to run dcs.exe instead of dcs_updater. That’s the closest thing to a solution I’ve got.

All hail the KA-50 Frankenshark 3!

Others may have more information than me, but I don't believe we've had any word at all from Hollywood. In terms of Vaicom, I think at this point we should assume his absence is permanent and the current version is the final one we will get. I hope he is ok, and has just decided to step away for whatever reason. His wellbeing is most important, of course, but as far as Vaicom goes, I hope maybe Hollywood (or anyone he might have passed ownership to) emerges at some point to at least hand this over to the community to maintain, but I don't think we should count on that either. I guess it remains to be seen whether Vaicom works properly with DCS 2.8.

Thanks for the explanation, I stand corrected. How long do we have to wait when we switch into a/g? Also, if we enter a/g, wait for the read-in, switch to a/a (eg select/employ AIM-54) and then switch back to a/g, so we have to wait for the read-in again? Always impressed how deep Heatblur dove with the F-14.

I've been listening to the F-14 Tomcast (I'm a little late to the party) and I noticed an interesting point during one of the episodes. I'm afraid I'm not sure which one, but I think it might have been the one about the F-14D Combat Systems. Apparently, when configuring the F-14A for the air-to-ground mission, the RIO had to read in magnetic tape to prepare the systems. I've got several questions, and I'm hoping the good people here might have the knowledge to be able to answer them. I don't believe the magnetic tape read-in requirement is modeled in our DCS F-14, so these questions are regarding the Tomcat IRL. FTR, although the read-in requirement might have affected our variants IRL, the F-14D doesn't seem to have the same requirement, so I think the DCS F-14 winds up having role agility that roughly approximates the F-14D. I don't think this is a bad thing. My questions: 1) What is the earliest point in a mission when the magnetic tape could be read in and how long did it take? Could it be initiated prior to taxiing or take-off? 2) After the air-to-ground tape read-in, were any radar modes or air-to-air missiles unavailable, and if so, which ones, and until what event? If the radar was impacted, how would this impact the pilot being able to use ACM modes? 3) Was there any air-to-air usage that would require the RIO to repeat the air-to-ground tape read-in (eg radar guided missile employment)? 4) Did the tape read-in requirement also apply to the F-14B? Thanks for reading H

Thanks Max, your help during this time is invaluable.

Does anyone have any idea how long @Hollywood_315will be away for? As mentioned on Sunday, I have emailed support as I have the same update loop problem as Subcidal and others, wondering when Hollywood might be available to address it... It's not a huge issue for me but I'm reluctant to turn off updates, as with my memory I might forget to turn them back on lol

Still three months left this year, let’s not doubt the power of The Sad Man just yet…

I have this issue too, I just emailed support. Fingers crossed we get some sort of answer soon.

You must be psychic; I was trying to set an EA standard that the EA F-16 met I was impressed with the standard HB insisted on before bringing the F-14 to EA, I could ‘feel’ the character of the plane from day 1. There can be a huge difference between devs: I bought a ‘release’ standard module from another 3rd party dev (around 2018 I think) that has a terrible flight model, an inaccurate cockpit and nothing resembling a true manual. I put it aside and bought the ‘EA’ Viggen, and received substantial documentation, a beautiful flight model and well modeled, all-but-complete systems. HB could easily have brought it out of EA and done the few remaining things as a ‘mid life update’, but it seems like @Cobra847 won’t declare something complete until it meets very high production values. I applaud him for that, but I wonder if sales were lost because of the ‘EA’ tag…

I’m sure someone else can give a more authoritative answer, but I think EA can happen once the aircraft is usable as an aircraft and useful to a good extent in at least one of its major roles, beyond that developers have the discretion to wait until one or more specific features is complete. I think ‘Full’ release state used to mean feature complete, now I think a module can achieve release state before some of its peripheral features are complete, these are done under the banner of “product sustainment”. That’s just the way I think of it, I hope someone with actual knowledge of ED policy weighs in.

What I may not have made clear in the OP is that this was a reply to something someone else said, not an announcement per se (I’ve added a note explaining this in the OP). It would be nice to have something official, even if that is just an affirmation that they still hope it will be this year. The “Phantom Phorever” teaser was great but I don’t think we’ve heard much from them since, I think a lot of us expected to see our YouTubers showcasing this by now.

Yeah sorry, it displayed while I was editing but not after I posted. I'm getting to that directly... The text from that article, posted by our @Cobra847, apologies for the f-up... I love the enthusiasm as usual /u/Mode1961, especially since you've been bouncing around thread to thread announcing this delay already (Strong sense of dejavu too, it feels like 2018 again!) I'll just head this off once again though by quoting myself from last week for those interested: We're behind as to where we expected to be at this time due to the war and my own personal tragedies - but we're standing on the gaspedal at this point to make up time. I know that is ambiguous; but I can't offer anything more substantial than assurances that we're doing everything we can to unveil and launch as soon as possible. And my follow up post from the day before yesterday: We're behind our projected schedule at present due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and my own personal tragedies, but we're working hard to make up for lost time... ...Don't extrapolate silence or ambiguity to a negative conclusion - we simply prefer to do a full and thorough unveiling like we did with the F-14 and AJS-37 once we feel ready.