lockon2015

Hi all, Sounds good. All of your information really helps out. I have a clear idea of what I want to do now. Can't wait to get started! lockon2015

Hi all, Its been a few years since I last visited this site but I am ready to start using the DCS services again. Are the specs on my computer good to run DCS programs? I think I'm good on the Processor Processor: Intel(R) Core (TM) i5-6600K CPU @ 3.50 GHz 3.50 GHz. Installed Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB. 64-bit Operating System, x64-based processor. If I need 32 GB RAM, do I need a whole new computer or is there a card of some kind I can buy to upgrade my computer? Where it says "Free Hard Disk Space" 120 GB on Solid State Drive (SSD); does this mean free space on my computer or do I need a separate hard drive for this? The Display Card is "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970" but I'm fine with low graphics if I can run the missions without any problems. Will this work? If I go to a smaller monitor (M322i-B1 Vizeo Monitor) with Resolution 1920x1080 rather than the bigger LG I think I will start with what I have in this computer first and see if it works okay. At what point will I need to go to the higher graphics card or the 32 GB RAM? Also, what is the recommended Internet Speed I should have?

Hello, Just for playing basic DCS Flaming Cliffs 3, what do people recommend as a basic Gaming Headset? What do you use and like best? I already have the optical tracker, but I don't think that counts as a headset. I could not find any quick post about this when I did a general search through the basic forums. I would count as a beginner.

Just want to confirm something, The R-27ER radar guided missile. I read and tested that you have to keep the target locked on with your plane the whole time this missile tracks to its target. But this gives a contradiction if there is more than one enemy fighter in the region: If I have to keep my plane locked on fighter number 1 while my missile tracks towards my target, its no problem for other enemy fighters to maneuver and knock me out. I can't re-maneuver until my missile hits which turns out to be a devastatingly long time by dogfight standards. On the other hand, if I fire the missile like a hit-run to avoid a second enemy target attacking me, the missile won't track to its target. It'll surely miss. Thus, what good is this missile? It would seem, at least in reality, you'd want all weopons to be fire and forget. Even if you think you are in one-on-one, it seems a good pilot would always be aware there could be other bandits around unknown to him and once he fires any missile at the target, he's got to refocus on something else. Is there a link about when the R27-ER is good to use and not to use? Maybe, as seems to be from other posts, its just simply not worth anything more than a good distraction to scare an enemy up a bit.

Yes, this is what I was looking for. I will go through those links. Thanks for putting them up.

yes, that's the right question. I understand.

Does anyone have any introductory videos or tracks about trimming used within the context of dogfighting? I understand on a basic level what trimming does; if the plane is unstable you can "trim" controls to not have to keep using the joystick to correct for pitch and roll, but how do people use trimming in a dogfight? For example, you got a bandit red hot, you're flying after him, the radar is going and missiles are everywhere, you turn, do you trim here?, then maybe you turn again, trim here? Then pitch down. Trim? I guess that's what I'm confused about. Or, do you set a trim just as the dogfight begins and not worry about it until everything is over? I also couldn't tell too easy if trim remains after I push a trim button once, say for pitch, and if it stays on Trim until I hit LAlt-9, or if the trim goes away after I stop pushing the Trim button. I know it will take practice but what happens for trimming the nose, and then the roll, so you have a combined trim?

Quick Question: In pitch and roll, there were a few other options: "Deadzone","Saturation X", and "Saturation Y". The two saturations were set to 100 for both pitch and roll and the deadzone for each was "0". The joystick I have is a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro. Are these typical values used for this joystick for the SU-27? Just starting out. I know I have to adjust them but I don't have the experience quite yet. Just looking for ballpark values.

Ah, okay, I see. I got it.

Ah, okay, I see it. Yes, I just started this mission a few days ago, a bit of read this part of the manual, try that, read something else, try that also. Still got a ways to go before its as automatic as driving a car. The important thing is that I got some new ideas from everyone to try. Its really fun so far! Thanks for giving me those tips; I will try them out immediately. One quick question, in the EOS, he does know I'm there, but if I fly around the mountains won't I have stealth then? I'm in the vicinity, but will he know exactly which mountain I am behind?

One other question I had was the HVA Hunt Mission. I noticed if I fly backwards there's a squad of four friendlies quite a ways back. How do I tell them to join up and fly with me? I tried some of the controls in the "controls" section, but nothing seemed to work. I tried locking on them and sending them the "join" command but that didn't work either. Or is this even possible for this mission? Maybe those friendlies are just for scenery and can't help me at all.

Hi all, I'm having some trouble getting the R-73, R 27 ET to lock on or fire. I can't get the R73 missile to fire at all. I uploaded two tracks from this mission. It takes about a literal minute or two in until we get to where I try to fire missiles at the blue dots. I do understand that when I fire R73 in this mission, I am just on the outskirt of their range, so they may fail, but the R27-ET should be good to go, as 10 km from where I first see targets is well within its 30 km range. The radar R-27 EP doesn't seem to lock on or fire much either, even holding buttons down more than a few seconds. Its okay if it turns out that maybe I have to fly high and fast to launch these, or that the enemy has chaff, or some other reason. Perhaps in sneaking around the mountains and trying to surprise the enemy, the ground heat and/or weather interferes with these missiles ability to lock and hit. If this is how it is supposed to be from all simulated factors, I'm fine with that, I'll just keep working at it. I'm just making sure I'm not doing something obviously wrong with how I attempt to fire missiles. When the blue dots appear in both tracks, I am actually punching the lock button and trying to fire missiles. I haven't gone suicidal; the track can't record my pressing of joystick buttons or holding them down. As far as the rest of my flying, yes, I know, still trying lots of things out. Just focusing on launching and firing missiles for now. R27ETnotLockV2.trk R27ETnotLockradarEither.trk

It looks like I have DCS_World_1.2.16.43180.9-9.exe Is this the latest version? I think I ran the DC updater to get to 1.5.2. I may not have though. If this isn't the latest version, how do I get to it? I still have all my original passwords, login, product keys, etc.

Hi all, As you know from my previous post, I am going to buy all the computer parts I need for DCS. Previously, in December, I tried to to uninstall DCS 1.5.2 and replace it with an older version that would run on my archaic computer. I have abandoned that idea and will have a correct PC by tomorrow. Nevetheless, in my attempts to uninstall the latest DCS and reinstall an older versions, I am not sure I have the most up to date version. How do I find out which version of DCS I have?

So,I looked up the monitors: a 40 inch, 4k monitor is ~ 500-600 US dollars. A 55 inch ~ 1000 US dollars. I could probably do the 40 inch in say 6-10 months but I wouldn't be able to get to a 55 inch for a lot later. However, both of these are 4K monitors and would need the GTX 980, according to vendors. But, the forum seems emphatic that I shouldn't need the GTX 980, which is about 170 US dollars more than the GTX 970, for the same DCS experience. So that's my dilema. Of course, such posts go back a couple of years when there probably was a much greater price difference between the two cards and the 4K's were much more out of reach than they are now. Here are the options as I see them: 1) Get the GTX 980 now in anticipation of a larger 4K monitor later. 2) Use GTX 970 for now and go to 4K monitor later (32-40 inch). I don't know if this will cause noticeable problems later. 3) Forget the 4K for awhile, at least until a better video card than 980 comes out. Just get GTX 970 and use 27 inch to 32 inch for now and don't worry about 4K until way down the road. 4) What about GTX 970 on 32-40 inch but not at 4K? Is this possible? In fact, I realize I hadn't asked this yet. A 40 inch 1080 with GTX 970 might be a good solution, barring any bad experiences people have I don't know of yet. Also, I would buy the larger monitor later to dedicate it to gaming and not TV. Would this make a difference in what to look for? Again, I'm just going to be flying missions that come with DCS and maybe a few of my own and won't be going against anyone on the internet until I got really good, but will be awhile. I'll probably use pure dogfighting with the SU-27, F-15/16 series, and Mig series modules. I don't plan on any bombing, no WWII, no helicopter, no takeoff or landing. I should've mentioned such earlier but just thought of it now.

Also, SSD. Some vendors said that the SSD drive was not needed, unless you play against other people on the internet. It does give an extra advantage on internet gaming, but not gaming against campaigns by yourself. Any comments on how important an SSD is for gaming?

One other question, does the number after the i7 or i5 mean anything? For example, the i5 has these models I5-6600K, I5-4670K, would there be a big difference for DCS in terms of 6600 and 4670K? I have a couple other questions, but I'll do them one at a time.

Hi all, I went shopping today looking for a Gaming Machine for DCS 2.0. Below is what vendors said on some common topics from the threads. I write this just to confirm that what the vendors told me is what people experience. If there is anything grossly wrong, please let me know, as I haven’t decided on what to buy yet. I went to four vendors: best buy, microcenter, FRY’s electonics, and a local PC builder shop. Basically, here’s what I found for a necessary system to last a long time for a beginner if you bought it today: The basic range is 1300 -1800 dollars. If you order parts online and build it yourself, you will spend around the lower range. If you have the vendor build it and you want extra warranty, you’ll pay nearer the 1800. Bundles-in-one were also at the higher end of that range. Motherboard i5’s are being phased out. The local PC builder shop was the one to sell an i5 the best. Best Buy and Microcenter are clearing them out. FRY’s sold all they had and aren’t restocking but will specially order the i5. All four vendors carry overwhelmingly i7 machines. All 4 agreed “k” designation needed for gaming, overclock option. Though there may have been a huge cost difference between i5 and i7 six to eighteen months ago, there is only about a 100 dollar difference now. Though i5 is all that is technically needed for DCS but are obviously being phased out by i7. Monitors: All vendors agreed that 1920x1080 resolution for 27 inches is just fine for gaming as powered by the GTX 970. Most didn’t think a 4 K monitor (3849x2160) was needed—the local PC builder even going so far to say that it would be a very long time before 4 k monitors enhanced gaming experience in anyway. Other vendors said that if you really wanted a 4k monitor and wanted it bigger, say 32 inch, then you would need the GTX 980 card and that the GTX 970 video card would have trouble powering a large 4K monitor. Does anyone have any experience with this? The vendors also said that ocular rift for 350 US dollars would be available in 6 months or so, and would replace multiple monitors. That might be great as I can’t buy 3 monitors and it’d be nice to have such an inexpensive device to do the work of 3 monitors. Also, about power supply for GTX cards: No danger of blowing anything out that I could find. If you get a power supply with not enough watts (400 or so), the GTX card just simply won’t be powered enough to work right. But I didn’t see anything about not having a power supply damaging a computer or its components. The local PC builder said that all-in-ones had cheaper power supply that wore out faster than build-yourself power supplies, but since he doesn’t sell all-in-ones, I don’t know if this was just a sales tactic. Can anyone comment on power supplies being unreliable in all-in-ones? Such systems and parts should last a minimum of 5 years, without much advancement. Has this been the case historically with older generations of these parts? Anyway, just reporting what I found. If anyone notices any real flags with what the vendors told me, let me know.

It could be really basic computer programming to start. A gamer would go to a place on the webpage and type information about their kit into the appropriate fields. The computer code would compute the total cost of the kit. A "For" loop would organize each kit by cost, from cheapest to most expensive, and output everything in a text file or spreadsheet that could be accessed from the website. There’d be a block of text for each kit and corresponding parameters for the individual parts. A tally could keep track of how many people use which parts.

Hi all, One thing I think would be useful on this forum would be a global spreadsheet to summarize all the parts relevant to DCS and their supporting information to help players decide which parts to buy. A reoccurring theme through the threads is “what should I buy for DCS?” Indeed, I am in the same position. A gamer could click on such a spreadsheet, scroll to their ability, and decide what parts best suit them for their DCS experience. I attach the beginning of such a spreadsheet with this post: “DCSrequirements.xlxs” in the attached zipfile. Such a document would make life easier for all gamers who are in transition of parts as DCS upgrades; otherwise, figuring out what parts a person needs by gleaming through all the hundreds of threads is lots of hard work and very time-consuming. Such a spreadsheet would be easy to maintain--I did this all the research presented in the attached spreadsheet in about 10 hours or so with very basic knowledge—how much easier for the whole community to maintain such a list. I went through all the “What should I buy?” threads and pulled out each part I could find where there is discussion over using the part of DCS. In the attached spreadsheet are some very basic columns: Part Notes “ballpark New Price” (general cost to buy the part New off amazon or best buy); Thread Reference (many of these are blank because I got tired of typing in references) Date Expected Outdated for DCS (Blank because I don’t know having no experience here) This last column “Date Expected Outdated for DCS” would be based on how long monitors, motherboards, cards, coolers, RAM, etc typically last before a DCS upgrade renders them completely obsolete. One question I didn’t see anywhere on the threads was: “if I buy such and such, how many DCS upgrades would most likely take place before I have to replace the part in question with its next generation part.” Will a monitor work for DCS for 10 years? Will a video card only be good for 3 years? Such predictions would be ballpark, of course, and based on how long older generations of parts remained usable for DCS. For example, not related to gaming, but I could probably say that in 6 months, a USB drive will hold twice as much and cost half as much, based on how USB drives generally advance. I could say with some experience that USB drives double in their capacity about every 6 months to a year. It’d be great if people gaming on DCS who have gone through much parts swapping through many previous upgrades could help out in predicting—ballpark--how long current parts are expected to work with DCS. The above longevity column could simply be “date expected to be totally obsolete for DCS” or be split into additional, more detailed columns like “expected lifetime it will work great” next to another column “expected lifetime to where the part will be slowing down but still can be used”, etc. Also included in such a spreadsheet would be some examples of standard kits depending on the gamer’s ability. I put examples of two such kits at the bottom of the spreadsheet. The first kit comes from the DCS recommendations off the website with a couple extra parts people seemed to think necessary from all the threads. Indeed, this is where I am right now, and put in this kit parts I have and am considering buying. Its easy to see from such a spreadsheet how much the initial, total cost for obtaining DCS-compatible computer parts for a beginner would be. Not surprisingly, a beginner would probably start with the cheapest parts. I also tried to imagine what a kit would be for someone who’d been playing a long time and made a quick list of what that kind of DCS player would be interested in. Of course, not being an advanced player, I did the best I could off all the threads but a more expert gamer could complete such a kit. Then, other DCS players who are ready for more expensive parts could just open the proposed spreadsheet and quickly see what the next advanced parts they should buy are. I began the spreadsheet, but it is by no means complete, certainly has lots of mistakes, but is the best I could do gleaming through all the threads. There could be additional columns for parameters (speed, memory, power usage, etc) deemed necessary to understand whether a person should buy one part or another and which parameters would be irrelevant. For example, from many of the threads, it seemed a general consensus that the i7 operating system is considered too expensive to be hardly any better than the much cheaper but just as usable i5 for playing DCS. On the other hand, most people felt that 8 GB RAM works adequately for the current DCS but will soon be obsolete in pending upgrades and people should transition soon to 16 GB RAM. I also saw a thread where, a higher “fs” video card was certainly more expensive, but after a certain point, increasing the “fs” did not enhance the DCS experience in any way, and thus a gamer would not need to buy any more expensive video cards beyond a certain “fs”. Such a spreadsheet would be dynamic as new parts come in and old parts go out of date for DCS. One other column might also be where players evaluate the quality of a part. 10 stars would be that a part works great and one star would be the part works poorly for DCS and you can enter your vote on the spreadsheet in such a way that your vote is automatically updated. There were a lot of questions in the threads about the quality of parts so such a feature in such a spreadsheet would be widely used. I didn’t include this column in this attachment because I haven’t tried all the parts other gamers have gone through. In the thread “ “, he came close to such a column, but I’d rather skip all the graphs and numbers to get to the recommendations as succinctly as possible. Brand names could also be in these columns. Finally, it would be easy to maintain if each person at some point (or, at least, a lot of people) typed in their kits and how much the constituents of their kit cost. Kits could be arranged from cheapest to most expensive. If a gamer has been using the kit for awhile, they can also rate the parts (and brand names) from experience. Anyway, I think such a spreadsheet would be helpful. DCSrequirements.zip

Ok, I got that. I will do it.

Hello all, I'm having a hard time running DCS Flamming Cliffs 3 on my usual computer, hence I am looking at how to upgrade it and will probably get a Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB drive. But, before I do that, how do I tell if the motherboard I have will support a SATA 6 GB/sec connection as is required for the SSD?

All right! I took everyone's advice. I bought some of the gadgets and will try them out. They should arrive this week sometime.

I'm having trouble loading my joystick profile. I've attached a screenshot. I think I found the executable, as highlighted in the "Browse For Game" box in the lower right hand corner. I think the "DCS" icon on the middle box "Profile Properties" is in the right place. The trouble happens when I try to load my particular joystick profile with DCS. The only way I can see to do that is to go to the black window called "Logitech Profiler" in the top left and click on my profile. In the screenshot my profile is "Play Lockon 2015 Pr where the "Pr" is cutoff and really is "Practice." When I click on "Play Lockon 2015", I'm under the impression that DCS should start up and it kind of half does: I mean, it starts starting up, but then my computer has a black screen and that seems to be where the game stops loading, even after 10 minutes. If I try and activate the game the usual way, it usually takes 2-3 mins to load up. I end up having to go to task manager and get DCS to quit that way. Suppose I load DCS the usual way by clicking on the desktop shortcut, will DCS automatically recognize my joystick profile? I don't know how to check if it is loading my joystick profile or not. I didn't see anything from the DCS title menu that helps you select the correct joystick profile. Is there a way to do this or be sure you are loading the right profile?

This post is similar to my earlier post about rudder pedals, but different enough in my mind to be a new thread. I am going to mostly fly modern jets and planes at present and not going to do planes before the 1970s nor any helicopters (old or new) for a long time. I also won’t spend much time on takeoff/landing. I prefer missions where I am already airborne, as much as possible. It looks like I am at the point to where accessories are needed. Pressing or hold buttons on the keyboard all the time proves very difficult, as I'm sure everyone knows, especially for speeding up and braking (slowing down in the air) and I’m ready to buy some new accessories to make the experience easier. Previously I asked about rudder pedals and got lots of good information about them. I find I am wanting braking pedals the most at this point in my progress. Are braking pedals the same thing as rudder pedals, or do I need different pedals for braking? It did seem that rudder pedals could assigned braking functions (from earlier posts). However, for modern jets, people said mostly that rudder pedals would not be needed. If people who fly modern jets don’t have rudder pedals, do they still have braking pedals? If not, how do they brake without using keyboard functions? If the braking pedals are different from rudder pedals, what opinions do people have as far as brands and models? I admit, that when I went to speed up or slow down, I instinctively wish to have gas and braking pedals, like a car, though I know speeding up and slowing down in the jets and airplanes doesn’t work quite that way. Is this possible with the right accessory? If so, why would stepup and stepdown thrust be needed in increments where, to speed up or slow down, you could just keep your foot on the gas to speed up and foot on the brake to slow down, like a car? When people use the throttle, is it common practice that the left-hand (I am right handed and have the joystick in that hand) to control the throttle? This relates to speed up/down in flight. The default keyboard controls for the Su-27 I know about are Num +/- to thrust up and down a lot, PageUp and PageDown to Thrust up/down in increments, and also the “lever” that I can swing through 180 degrees in front of the handle on the joystick, this later joystick throttle to control the gas flow. First, do I have this all correct? From the previous post I had on rudder pedals, I did not think that I needed a left-handed joystick for throttle. I hadn’t even considered the throttle as needing a separate accessory as I hadn’t progressed that far in the simulations to even know about them, but I really I need a throttle at this point. How are the above throttle/accelerate functions suppose to transfer to a separate throttle accessory ideally? I looked up the throttles on the internet, X-55, X-52, Ch Pro, and three level quadrant. What does the thumb do, ideally, or which fingers is it good to have on which buttons/levers most readily for a throttle accessory? Also on the list of accessories in the previous post was a trackIr. I didn’t see much of this on amazon or ebay, at least nothing that made sense in the context of flight simulation, and don’t know what a trackIr would be useful for. I just might not have come to that part of fighter piloting yet. But, people did say it should be high on my list of accessories, even more than pedals, so I wanted to inquire further.