sc_neo

alright, thx.

Looking forward to give this a go in coop. It states 'single player only' at the top,...is this mission for multiplayer also or only the one you host yourself? And if it works in mulitplayer, could you add a second slot for all aircraft that are present only once like the SU-25T etc?

I did the SU-25T ''Difficult Landing'' training mission and that stuff is incredibly dark, and you cannot by any means see the runway since it hasn't any lights turned on in that mission. And lighting in and on the aircraft is too dim also. The anti collision lights on the wings are barely visible, you really need to look for them from inside the cockpit, and the red front dash light (L) looks way to weak as well, like there is some kind of filter applied to it. I did the same mission in 1.5.8 and there all lights on the airfield and in and on the aircraft were as they should be. Needs more tweaking in 2.5.1.

Is or will this be playable in coop by any chance?

Kinda in a DCS summer break....but i am looking forward to this later this year. Cheers mate!

ok, i go online for the update. So the account gets locked down in offline mode when updating without going online beforhand? Just like changing your hardware/system would while ones DCS accoumt is in offline mode?

ehm....shouled we disable offline mode before updating the game via the patcher to the latest build? Because i have offline mode enabled but can still update the game. Hope updating DCS while offline mode is active is a non issue.

@Cobra ...will the training missions for both A and B models also be available on NTTR or only be placed in Caucasus. I, for one, do all my training flights in NTTR and it would be a shame to completely leave that map and this opportunity out of the package!

yes, that is how i understand it. Afaik only the new AV-8B Harrier module uses the new keyless (no StarForce anymore) system, so atm you still need to deactivate all other modules to not loose activations. So if i understand it correctly, atm you need to do both if you change something sifnificant enough about one of your PCs. Keep your DCS account in online mode, and deactivate all old modules before changing stuff.

@finch Its dead simple. You cannot enable online mode from any other PC/machine than the one you where using when putting your DCS account into offline mode. And if you put DCS into offline mode on one of your machines and you change something significant enough on this very PC, then this DCS installation or the master server (not entirely sure whether this is or serverside only) considers this altered PC a different machine from the one you used to enable offline mode,...which brings you right back to my first sentence. If you have multiple DCS installtion on various hardware in different places, then you are better off having you DCS account be in online mode all the time unless you specifically know that you will have access to that very PC you might enable/disable offline mode. And i case you mess that up or forget about it and have traveld 1000miles to your second PC but put DCS into offline mode on your first PC,....then you call you wife, brother or whoever can access that PC and put DCS out off offline mode. And if thats not possible, you contact ED customer support.

yes, you do sort of. I think i know how the current implementation works and its fairly simple to understand. What am asking to be considered; make the switch between online mode and offline mode automatic (not requiring manual user action) so whenever people either leave multiplayer or shut down dcs, offline mode is automatically enabled (provided there is an active internet connection). No matter how long users don't start DCS, if there is an internet outage that day DCS is still in offline mode.

@BIGNEWY Could you relay that notion of automating the switching between offline/online mode when accessing and exiting multiplayer as i described in posts 61 and 67 to ED? Would you say that this somehow undermines or impinges on the idea of EDs new protection system?

Again, all they needed to do is to make this 'go offline and go online again' automatic when exiting and starting the game. Enable offline mode automatically when the user exits DCS and enable online mode when DCS is started up the next time provided there is a working internet connection, if not, DCS stays is offline mode. This would probably require a checkbox in the settings so people can enable or disable this automation and do the switch manually if they are so inclined so to not run into issues with multiple DCS installations (PC home, Laptop, PC summer hut or whatever). This pretty much eliminates the risk of being locked out if your internet connection fails you for unforseeable reasons, but might slightly raise the incidence of people being locked in offline mode after changing somehting significant enough in their PC without remembering to click that checkbox beforehand. And if your PC crashes in an unrecoverable way, yeah in this rare occasion you need to contact ED customer support to get you back into online mode. And this is already the case for those who enable offline mode right now and expereince a fatal system crash. Tell me if i am overlooking something here, but this system would adequately cover the ''forseen and unforseen'' loss of internet without changing the way the current system is designed in any way, except for automating what is currently possible already. With that automation in place, ED could validate my installation everytime i start up DCS for all i care. Again, i am happy that we got the offline mode and i don't want to deride it or something, i just think we are pretty close to a very good solution that covers all situations except for a fatal system crash...and in that case, i think one probably has bigger concerns than contacting ED customer support for once. EDIT: It'll be even more failsafe if this automatic switch to online mode happens only when clicking on the multiplayer tab and as soon as the user leaves multiplayer and goes back to the main menu offline mode is activated.

So, users running the steam version have access to DCS and all their modules totally independent of internet availability and can always start steam in offline mode even after the loss of an internet connection and in case of wrecking or changing their PC significantly they would not face any issues concerning switching between online and offline mode since afaik steam's offline mode has not restrictions on that; where as stand alone guys not currently in offline mode would be locked out after not being online within the last 3 days and having no internet connection for unforseeable reasons on day four? I am still trying to understand the rationale for having to be online to activate the offline mode. This obviously covers the ''planned'' online hiatus but not the unforseeable loss of internet access on the very pc you run DCS on. Or better, i do understand that if you could activate offline mode after you have lost you internet connection ED's master server would not know that your account is in offline mode and can only be taken out of offline mode on that particular PC. This switching between offline/online being bound to the very same PC seems to me to be the strongest protection feature of the new DRM mechanisnm. Doesn't help a lot concerning credit card fraud but somewhat for account sharing. I would kinda say that the crux here is the 3 day period. If this was increased to 4 weeks than the incidence of finding oneself without internet at that very moment when you have fallen outside of that period would happen way more seldom for most people. I guess, if you worry about having unstable internet, the new routine is to always put DCS into offline mode right before exiting the game. Hence, whether you have internet or not next time you play, you still have at least access to it in offline mode :) Question: Is the unique PC hash value comparison only always happening on EDs master server but at no point client sidewise? Hence, if i move a DCS stand alone version that i put in the new offline mode to another PC with a totally different hash value, will that moved DCS version start up and work just fine in offline mode but can't be taken out of offline mode again from that very PC? Or will it not even start because it checks internally against the PCs hash value and goes like, ...''i am set to be offline and this is a different PC than the one have been put into offline mode....so no joy! ? So: the best and easiest solution seems to me: add a checkbox to the settings which automates the switch between online/offline mode which trys to go online and validate when starting DCS when there is an internet connection, but which puts DCS into offline mode every time when exiting DCS world, keeping the restriction that this needs to be done on the very same PC in place.

Plesse do.

Is the steam version of DCS affected in the same way, i.e. does it validate itself the same way as the stand alone version at least every 3 days and can be put into DCS's own new offline mode? Or does it use steams offline mode which i can activate after the fact of internet loss?

Are there any screenshots of the terrain posted somewhere else?

So same experience as rrohde here. The ATC gave me takeoff permission for runway 3/r whilst i was standing on the ramp, but on approach i was ordered to land on runway 21 without further info whether the left or right one.

Huh, when i first sat in the minigun Gazelle and press righ-ctrl+c and nothing happend i was going like....whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Keybindings messed up or what? I then took a closer look around and what do ya say....no doors!

I just wish ED would write detailed posts about that side of DCS...really go into detail (depending on what they want to make public record) how the engine is build, works and what issues they face or how they are trying to improve or change it with Vulkan. Or the eventual goal of a spherical planet earth...what they think might get them there. Heatblur is the prime example of writing about techincal stuff concernig their projects in depth and exciting but comprehensible for the layman at the same time. Two indepth dev. blogs concerning the engine or the world a year would be totally sufficient. More along the line; ''don't tell how long you think it might take, but show us what you have achieved already, and what is still missing and we can discern ourselves how long it might take in the end''!

I rather hope ED takes their time with Vulkan to make it a a scalable and future proof implementation. We have seen how games that got dx12 slabbed onto it often performed barely equal to dx11 at best, often even worse. Afaik, the best Vulkan (and DX12) requires an extensive deep engine 'rewrite' or upgrade. I gather it will take big game engine providers many more months to get this right so those new APIs can deliver what they promise. Hence; i'd rather see this done properly but coming later to DCS when the API is in a matured state! And i hope this might get us one step closer for Linux gaming. Concerning that, my main conern lies with all that extra software like mod managers, SRS and what not. Even if the game itself runs fine on linux, the entire ecosystem we rely on needs to be supported as well.

so the ai mini-gunner cannot be ordered to attack ground targets atm? One has to jump to pos. 3 and do this oneself?

looks and reads great! Hope we Su-27 ST owners won't miss out for too long! Btw, is there a Su-33 export version?

@Hog_No32 Could you post your excat ingame graphics settings? I have a 2gb gpu as well and nttr runs fine enough, but caucasus sind 2.5 is on the unplayable side. I'd just like to check which combination of settings might look good enough and perform in Caucasus well enough, too.

haha wow, what a big noob i have been, disabling 4xmsaa did the trick, same fps but with DF enabled. Wow, good i remembered that there was something going on with AA and DF back then. It seems 2xmsaa works fine as well. Got to go back to those AA threads and re-read what the best setup was. @ricktoberfest Do you use ingame DCS Msaa or do you have this disabled and use the gpu drivers AA solution?