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Everything posted by Headwarp
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There are some older threads on this I'm sure, but these days we have VR, and I just picked up a Samsung Odyssey recently. It feels really awkward starting in the plane with my left eye aligned to the gunsight feeling like I'm smushed against the right side of the cockpit and my head going through the glass when I look around. I understand why it's like this, to make it easier for people without headtracking, and it also helped me when I was using TrackIR. However - I'd really like the option to start from the center of the seat, as it lines my right eye up with the crosshair perfectly in VR. (revelation about why the german gunsights were off to the right to begin with) In short - I think we need an option to start centered in our seats in this aircraft especially in VR. Perhaps a new checkbox in the "special" menu, or a keybind that lets you switch between a center seat view, or center crosshair view for the benefit of all users. I do not have the BF-109 K4 module, but I imagine I'd run into the same issue.
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Improved stability and dedicated server - Discussion
Headwarp replied to NineLine's topic in Multiplayer
This right here, is basically everything I personally could have hoped for with the transition to 2.5. Not just the DS being on the fast track, but the general picking up the pace and getting to the bottom of some long standing issues. I would ask the community to embrace the fact that 2.5 was a big deal. Whatever the reasons behind it, prior to the release of 2.5, the devs were juggling different versions of the client while we keep piling things onto the wish-list. 2018 is a good year for combat flight sims. It's basically a new beginning. Before we know it hardware will improve, and I feel Eagle Dynamics intends to step up to the plate. The pace has increased. We have to remember things won't happen overnight. Both single player and MP have their flaws, but I don't believe ED's hands are idle. I want to thank Wags, ED, and Nineline for making it official that a pure server client is in the works. I also have to give props to the DDCS server admin, Drex. I don't know him personally but I'd have never bought the Mi-8 even on sale if not for his server setup. Fixing the "uncontrollable" tag in the mission editor for units could do a lot to help him out while we wait for a server executable. ED, those of us who most passionately argue our points are undoubtedly hopeful fans that have witnessed the potential the sim provides and are dying for the next list of improvements to DCS World. Forgive us. And in turn, I hope the community remembers to show appreciation when you come through for us. -
Why is it So hard to land the MI 8
Headwarp replied to tusler's topic in DCS: Mi-8MTV2 Magnificent Eight
I honestly need to likely check the manual for what EGT to stay under and how long, but it's not like you're just going to be holding the collective at max, the power is there if you start to stumble but I was able to taxi around an airport wheels off the ground like I was in a huey. It takes less collective to achieve the lift to stay afloat with the ECL up. I feel like it's safe to say you can stay within the EGT limits for the majority of your time spent in a hover or descending at take off power. But that's just my best guess. If I started to enter anything resembling a vortex it only took at most a few seconds of what might be unsafe limits to sort myself out. But, I feel way less likely to hear that shakey sound at all with the ECL's @ take-off. -
Why is it So hard to land the MI 8
Headwarp replied to tusler's topic in DCS: Mi-8MTV2 Magnificent Eight
I find that the curve tends to throw of my sense of how much power I'm actually applying as you move away from the center of the curve. Perhaps my WH throttle does provide a longer throw than say an x55 or something, but I do find it much easier to control my climb/descent with a linear axis for the collective personally even if it does take learning to make gentle/small corrections. My experiences adding a curve had me all over the place. It's hard to describe, just the changing length of throttle movement for x amount of power increase/decrease at different positions in the throttle threw me off, personally. And normal flight keeping the ECL's @ center is fine.. could fly til it ran out of fuel. It's just when approaching hover that I need to move them up, if not to max/take off power just beneath it. IDK if you're supposed to leave them centered for runway approach, but she's easier to whip around at low speeds near the ground with the ECL's up. Certainly easier to maintain a controlled descent rather than fall like a rock if the OP is struggling. -
Why is it So hard to land the MI 8
Headwarp replied to tusler's topic in DCS: Mi-8MTV2 Magnificent Eight
Having just bought the Mi-8 and I don't know all the procedural stuff all that well, but just trying to fly the thing, I found it pretty straight forward to transition into a hover and land by increasing the engine condition levers to the upper positions rather than center.. and back down to center for anything but takeoff and landing. Before I looked around and saw the two engine condition levers I was plummeting into the ground anytime I got close to hover speed. I had to look them up in the manual or I'd have referred to them as throttles based on my Ka-50 experience, but full up = Take off power, makes sense to me to use that setting if I want to hover or land. Personally, I disagree with any curves on the collective. I need that axis to remain constant throughout the entire throw in any DCS chopper. -
27" 144Hz or Oculus rift - What will it be?
Headwarp replied to desertowl's topic in PC Hardware and Related Software
Hehe I wouldn't jump on that too quickly. 1080Ti is JUSt pushing 4k. 7680x1440 would be pretty rough. -
They aren't as pretty but I'd wager CH products would last longer/handle a bit more abuse than Saitek products. There's also the TM T-flight pedals to consider.
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A fully modular gold rated EVGA 850w PSU is like $99 USD on sale right now @newegg. Sales are good. You can often find similar prices on corsair psu's as well. I've had a 1000w (way more than I need) for the last 4 years and it's fine. I took apart and cleaned a 800w psu and helped a friend build a free (for him) i5 2500k system with it. I've seen PSU's die due to a piece of dust or a cat hair.. systems boot right back up as soon as you replace the PSU. Risks for damage are mostly concerning PSU's that don't put out enough wattage to cover the system's power draw or insecure connections to valuable components, or using the wrong slots on a modular psu. i.e. cpu 8 pin has a different pin configuration than say - 6+2 pin PCI-E power. Or, gpu having 8 pin connections and the +2 isn't snug. Or no surge protector in a thunderstorm/power outtage. Running a single GPU you likely won't be using more than 500-600w right now under full load. A little headroom never hurts, especially when you find modular PSU's on sale from respected brands with decent warranties. 850w + modular for $99 USD is a great deal and you'll likely never draw enough to have it at capacity. My current build minus harddrives and gpu, monitor/headset from my previous system ran about $1300-1400 USD.. I've added a 250GB 970 evo for boot (not really doing much but maybe higher speeds for swap files vs the sata III ssd it replaced) and plan to add a 500gb 970 evo to put my sims on, followed by nvidia's next greatest consumer GPU. And then i probably won't buy anything except additional ram or bigger nvme drives for it in the future. Dude's got options.. and I've seen cheap PSU's run solid as a rock for years on end, and expensive PSU's let off a puff of smoke in it's last moments with the ONLY damage I've ever had to a component that wasn't a power supply being a fried memory controller on a motherboard from a power surge caused by a lightning strike/power outage out of decades of owning PC's I've personally put together. EVGA at least has a minimum 5 year warranty on their PSU's if not longer.. it's been awhile since I've looked. They're quick about RMA's if needed as well. So yeah.. PSU $60-130 USD.. and they're almost always on sale when I look for them, and non-modular PSU's still doing the job at a lower price. Just messier cable management. For me at least, it's easier to find a respected brand of PSU than it is to find one that should come with "Buyer beware" labels, as long as you're covering the needs of your system under full load, and everything that should be connected is connected and with the appropriate cable. You can get a rough estimate of what wattage your system will draw before you even buy it with a quick google search using the string "PSU calculator"
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trying to stay within $1500 with today's gpu prices is going to be tough. Personally - if you're going to build a desktop at any point - it's worth going big. imo building an 8th gen system right now could potentially last a good 5-10 years. Case - $50-$180 bucks z370 MB - $100-$290 DDR 4 3200mhz ram - $180-$200 per 16Gb so $400 for 32gb (16 gb is fine for DCS imo) i7 8th gen cpu - $300-$420 (i7 8086K turbos to 5ghz? Whaaat?, if my 8700k is any indication, it should handle 5ghz on all cores like a beast) PSU - $60-$130 (modular is awesome) AIO liquid cooling unit - $112-$140 970 Evo 500GB NVME - $200. Personally I'd use at least a cheap 250gb 2.5" ssd as a boot drive, and dedicate the 500GB 970 Evo to simming. I've always followed a multiple drive philosphy with my builds. Without the GPU, choosing the most expensive parts in my list we've reached your budget. But what you could do, is invest in a 1060 6GB for $300 and easily find a cheap 1080p monitor to hold you over for the time being. , and save up for the next top of the line GPU next year, and sell the 1060 used. Then save up for an awsome 4k display or VR to utilize all that yummy gpu power. you'll have one hell of a rig for the next greatest gpu when they come out. Personally I think the 8700K, 8600K, , 8086k cpu have potential to take us through the next 5 years minimum with their achievable clockspeeds. And should an API be introduced that make better use of multicore CPUs or hyperthreading, we'll have 6c/12t to utilize it. One advantage of building a desktop - you don't have to pay for everything all at once. Start off with the pieces you can afford and strike things off the list. The only downside to that is being limited to the manufacturer's warranty if you're outside of a return period on some parts should something go wrong during the build.
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FFB Curves just adds deadzone rather than curves
Headwarp replied to Headwarp's topic in Bugs and Problems
"Somewhat normal" yes. Just a quite a bit too touchy. Which is true for all of the helo's in DCS trying to utilize FFB for force trim imo. So again I appreciate P-chop trying to address this, and hope they're actually on to some way to apply actual curves with proper FFB positioning rather than a deadzone I have other joysticks to use if I didn't want to make use of the FFB. It's all about that force trim.. which.. feels unnatural in the gazelle after flying the Ka-50 or the huey. Lol I've read through the sa341 manual hoping it spoke more about how the Force trim works, but it doesn't really say alot. So I'm taking P-chops word for it. It's not the trimming to attitude that bothers me anyway. Just how touchy the stick is. I can't say I'm too fond of flying helos without FFB. -
FFB Curves just adds deadzone rather than curves
Headwarp replied to Headwarp's topic in Bugs and Problems
The thread is about the FFB Curves setting in the "special" options menu for the sa342. It was an attempt from P-Chop to allow Force feedback joystick users like the msffb2 sensitivity curve settings, and it's just making a deadzone instead. Whether or not they are already aware of this or whether there's something they could do about it is all I posted for. It's been an ongoing thing with DCS. FFB users can't adjust sensitivity curves in the axis menus or it throws off the position of the stick when trimmed. This was intended to be a work around specifically for the SA342 module, however a deadzone doesn't do what "Curves" do. I was barely touching the stick in the first flight of that video, I had to pull halfway through each axis to get a response using the FFB Curves setting @ 50% in the second flight. What is preferred is a less sensitive response I.E. curve not a complete lack of response I.E. Deadzone. You do not use a force feedback input device, so pardon me for asking, what's your point of posting in this thread about a setting which has no relevance to you? I'm just hoping P-Chop still has another trick up their sleeve when they take a look at it. It'd make a lot of FFB users happy, and give us something to point out to other devs is possible. And for all I know it might not be. The implementation of this setting in the first place makes a guy hopeful is all. makes me wonder if ED or 3rd party devs could IF/THEN their way to a lower overall sensitivity for the g940's and msffb2's of the world, or at least adjust the axis to match the shorter throw of available FFB sticks. -
So, I got to playing around with the FFB curves setting today and it's really not making the stick any less sensitive. What it is doing is creating a deadzone, and the bigger you set the FFB curves, the bigger the deadzone, and when you reach the end of the deadzone it's just as touchy as it is without them. I'm going to make a quick video to demonstrate. The controls indicator still moves the diamond although the aircraft is completely unresponsive until you hit the edge of the deadzone. If video is blurry it's because you're reading this just after I uploaded and it needs time to process @1080p and 4k Please don't take this as a lack of appreciation for your efforts to give FFB users some long needed axis tuning options, I'm just hoping you guys can link this to axis curves rather than deadzones.
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use the throttle to control the flight path indicator, use only pitch trim to move the E bracket. If your flight path indicator is below the E bracket, trim nose up, if it's above the E bracket, trim nose down. Use the stick to keep it level as you slow down to on-speed, or go half at like 170 knots, then full at around 150 knots but the really tricky part is throttle control as you reach on-speed. After that you should only be adjusting pitch with trim not the stick, and again only to line the flight path indicator with the E bracket, once you are on-speed AoA throttle does all the pitching up/down. Without autothrottle it's pretty much a constant forward/backward movement of the throttle to maintain a set speed. Push, let off, push (before it stops spooling down even), let off (Before it stops spooling up even)
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I advise using a keybinding or some form or controller input for the purpose of setting corse/hdg. Something easy to reach or feel for.
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That's pretty much just AI behavior afaict. Even in the F-15C once you merge with an AI jet they just start turning hard and even do vertical maneuvers and it becomes a battle of trying to point your nose at them without completely stalling out. But - along side The Art of the Kill, this website http://www.combataircraft.com/en/Tactics/Air-To-Air/ gives some nice visual representation of various maneuvers. In practice - this stuff just kind of ends up being the result of the fight other than the scissors maneuver which is usually initiated by whoever's in the defensive. Flying against human opponents allows for more practice of BFM imo, although in servers that allow for the aim-120 or R-27ER usually you're dead or get a kill well before you get close enough to actually utilize it. BFM applies to ALL combat aircraft. So hopping into a WWII fighter provides a lot of practice on grasping the concepts. There are only a couple maneuvers that The Art of the Kill states are no longer used today. Hope this helps you gain some footing. The hornet will eventually get the Aim-9x and HMD, which will be pretty amazing in close range combat, as you will be able to acquire lock and launch without necessarily being pointed towards your target. Also - don't forget the G-limit override.. in the sim we get to use this more freely than pilots in real life would at least for now, as exceeding 8.5g's doesn't require a rebuild of the airframe.
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I actually bricked my Xwind's recently attempting to flash the firmware. Which apparently I just got really unlucky as Milan said he couldn't brick an MCU no matter how hard he tried. Milan got me setup with a replacement MCU and this is another selling point of the crosswinds - if ever anything does need repair, you can take them apart with confidence. Literally took me 5-10 minutes to break them down and put them back together. The only wires are the toebrake cables and aren't terribly difficult to get to should they ever short or malfunction, and the MCU itself requires no soldering. Crosswinds may be pricey but worth every penny imo. smooth as butter, much stronger than plastic, and not too difficult to repair if ever it needs it. Plus they're gorgeous. I wish he had been offering them in graphite or black when I ordered mine. :)
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TM Joystick Stiction cured in one minute
Headwarp replied to DeepDrummer's topic in PC Hardware and Related Software
This might not actually be horrible...when I took mine apart I noticed a lot of friction coming from where the plastic ball meets the part that sits on top of the big spring and thoroughly lubed that area up. -
The abstraction is labeled in a way that makes you think it would work with an On/Off toggle switch where On = Arm and off = safe, similar to how the Idle/OFF mappings work, but works as a single button toggle instead. I'm guessing it's just a placeholder until you get an actual "Master Arm toggle" mapping and that this is intended to work on a 2 position switch in the future, and just pointing it out if not. Sorry if this is already known/mentioned. *Edit* and I'm also sorry I posted this in the wrong section. Belongs in Controller bugs and questions. >.< My mistake. I meant report this quickly and get back to flying this thing.
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Dudes.. simplified IFF is a PLACEHOLDER. And a good thing for multiplayer. Wags has stated they hope to implement a much more realistic IFF system. The lack of it has friends of mine not using it in MP for the time being. Quit nitpicking for the love of god. This is 3 patches since they released the module not all that long ago and it's Early Access. The goodies will come. They're doing good work. Give them some credit. We should be encouraging the development of this module not complaining about what they haven't had time to address yet. I'm not trying to moderate, and I'm not saying you don't have the right to talk about what you'd like to see, but patience is a virtue here. If you come across a bug or problem post it in the bugs forum, but for the time being - there's a lot to be happy/excited about with what's happened, happening, and will happen in the future in this mod IMO.
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This virtual aircraft is pretty amazing and it's only going to get more amazing as they implement more of its features imo.
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Geforce experience did get kind of stupid with requiring a login, but tbh I hardly ever notice that it's running unless it tells me there's a new update to download. NV Share works great though imo, I'm able to record @ 4k with like 135 bitrate and still maintain decent FPS. The video files get huge, but I'm also able to edit and render them to 3440x1440 so fellow 21:9 users get a nice full screen view that's almost as good in quality as what I see on my monitor when flying. If you plan on doing editing/rendering, I'd recommend software that allows for setting specific framerates. I'm using Sony Vegas 14 Pro but I got it for dirt cheap, and found the nicest thing about it was being able to set the framerate to the thousandths. i.e 59.835. I mention this because the rendering suite i used before was Davinci which only allowed preset framerates, which sometimes caused clipping with my NVShare videos which had slightly different values of framerate.
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https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support Unfortuneately, I can't say alot without knowing your specific OS and the model of your laptop. Looking at a random Acer Predator model, the safety guide recommends not servicing your system yourself, specifically not opening it up. The user manual, which you will be able to download from their website, also describes the "Factory backup" process which involves a 16GB USB Flash drive, which they also recommend creating as soon as you get your new laptop. User manuals for personal computers are your friend, my friend. hehe. I'm very uncertain if you'd be able to use such a feature to install windows to the new drive with whatever Acer had preconfigured for the laptop, or a new drive at all. It should still technically be possible to install just a fresh copy of windows using the windows media creation tool if using windows 10, which can be downloaded from microsoft, but again you'd want download all of the drivers from the acer support page and apps prior to swapping out the drives and putting them on a formatted USB flash drive, and perhaps another usb drive for the bootable windows installation media to rule out any networking errors that may occur should Windows 10 not have an appropriate driver for your network interfaces, so you'll already have all your system drivers. I have no idea however, whether Acer might have some kind of tailored package with their copy of windows. I wouldn't imagine there would be any problem with the windows license, which the key for might be on a sticker on the laptop even if OEM since the actual hardware will still mostly be the same. Despite the warnings to not open up the laptop yourself, I saw at least one post where someone on the Acer forums mentioned swapping his m2 SSD. I bet the Acer forums could provide you with much more accurate information regarding your product than the DCS forums could, they're all Acer users, my desktop is a Frankenstein monster compared to your laptop, although much easier to upgrade and swap things out. If you call or email Acer support, they might be tell you a lot more than I could give you even if I had access to the manual for your specific model.
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Thank you Wags for dropping bits of knowledge on us. I've been nothing but excited for DCS since the announcement of 2.5 followed by the Hornet, and you've been the voice of that journey. Thanks ED, for bringing us such an awesome module, as well as getting us all under one roof clientwise.
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Easiest way IMO is to download all the drivers for your laptop system and devices (Find these on the manufacturer's website) to a USB flash drive or DVD-Rom and then do a fresh install of windows. It may take longer get things setup and download/install the latest windows updates, but it eliminates a lot of room for error. Not to mention if something does go wrong, you can plug the old drive in and likely still boot. If using win10 - there's a tool you can download to create a bootable USB flash drive for installation purposes. Not to mention - if there happens to be any malware on your system, a fresh install in most cases takes care of that, as well as programs that create registry entries when installed. You can save all your DCS joystick profiles individually in the game and reload them on a fresh install with the import/export features in the controller menus. Worth adding to your usb drive or DVD-Rom. USB Flash drives are getting pretty big these days as well. You could get one that holds 256Gb or more than one and put anything on your current drive that you'd like to keep on it, but if you have fast internet and the stuff you have is easy to download and reinstall it isn't a big concern. Might be pricey, but - as long as you can keep track of the tiny things, it'll be there if you need it for similar purposes in the future. Just make sure to use the "Copy" and not the move function, should something go wrong so you can just plug the old drive in should the need for it arise. It looks like there might be adapters out there as well for converting m2 drives to USB for extra storage and if you wanted to recover specific files, but not having used them myself, I can't really be too helpful there. I will say that cloning the drive could be quite tedious, as it seems you're going to be replacing the drive you want to clone. You'd have to clone it to another drive into the system, which may or may not need to be empty, set the other drive up as a boot drive in bios, clone the drive again to the new drive, and then set bios to boot off the new NVME. Unless you have another nvme slot. A a SATA m2 drive is also considerably slower than a PCI-E m2 drive, sata III is sata III, but I run DCS fine on a sata III SSD. That's all up to personal preference, budget, and hardware capability. The compatibility should be well documented in your laptops manual, which you can also likely find on the manufacturer's website.
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I would suggest a single 4k screen, 21:9 screen, or 3 1080 screens, or VR and even running with those setups you will be on a constant quest for the latest and greatest GPU at every turn.