Bearfoot

I have always liked the Tomcat(*). I only started loving the Tomcat since (virtually) flying her in DCS. So the answer to "Why?" has to be HEATBLUR. Thank you, Heatblur :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup: (*) p.s. and Tom Cruise had nothing to do with it, as I only watched Top Gun a few years ago.

So set up 1v1 vs AI F-16 Block 52, guns only, air start, on the Caucasus map. In the actual engagement, right after the merge, I pull up sharply. I hear the airframe/wings creak, so I am just on the verge of breaking her, but carefully (and successfully) stay right on that edge all the way through the loop. In the replay, instead, the wings break immediately at this point. Not sure if any information is gained here, but I do think it is interesting that these two outcomes have to do entirely on how much I stress the airframe, and whether or not that is sufficient to break the bird. If the latter threshold is at least partially based on some sort of internal (to the F-14) random number "dice roll", perhaps here is where the issue is?

Not in any single player mission that I know of in the F-14.

Can someone link to the referenced turn rate test mission? Seems to have been lost in the squabble

(1) So as not to get side-tracked, the "Jester problem" is, at this point, just one symptom of a larger syndrome. The syndrome more generally is replay tracks diverging from the actual events in many ways, including aircraft positions, movements, and outcomes. (2) I fly in VR, and use head movements to select options in Jester after calling it up using a keybind.

Air start, all of them.

There is a huey mission that has you sub hunting. You drop sonobouys and IIRC there's even a waterfall readout?

I sometimes play on the Just Dogfights server. The tracks that are automatically recorded from there (on my local machine) play perfectly, or at least they did the last time I checked. Have not tried this recently though (last was couple of months or so ago).

Appreciate the challenges. I wish DCS had a "just replay exactly what happened" recording (like TacView) rather than this "reply but allow you to dynamically take control", which is almost certainly a big part of the problem. Or at least, by providing a way for the replay to diverge from history, allow the problem to occur. For sometime now I've suspected that the issue might have something to do with Jester (mainly due to the way Jester pops up and then it is impossible to remove). I note in the replays that some systems follow history (what actually occurred) exactly --- e.g., the guns fire when I actually fired them the first time, even if there is nothing in front of the aircraft in the replay --- but others do not (e.g., AI position). Jester's call outs seem to be accurate with respect to the replay rather than following what is actually recorded. Since there are so many varied circumstances where things are wrong, maybe we could pin down on where things are right? Is there ANYONE out there who has a SP replay track recorded locally (i.e., not server side) that works? If so, please share info!

In another thread IronMike indicated that DCS has a hard limit on sound files, and the F-14 has run up against it due to Jester, which is impacting aircraft engine and system sounds. So, I ask you, which you prefer --- more Jester banter or more General Electric F110?

Interestingly, last night, on latest Beta, I did a 1v1 F-14 vs AI F-16b52 on the Caucasus map (SP). Track replayed flawlessly, as did the replay of the replay, with me jumping views etc .... EXCEPT for the Jester menu. I did indeed call up Jester a couple of times at the start of the engagement. However, in the replays, Jester came up a couple more times than I remember, and then just stayed up throughout the engagement. Even more interestingly, the spurious Jester summonings occurred and persisted in the replays of the replays exactly the same.This was an IR missile only engagement if it makes a difference (guns loaded but not fired). I tried another engagement in the Caucasus map, guns only 1v1, F-15 player vs AI F-18C, This time I avoided calling up Jester. Very quickly the replay started doing something else. It seemed like my aircraft was moving like I remembered but the AI was doing something else, so that when, e.g., my replay aircraft fired its guns, it was firing ito empty space or the ground while the AI aircraft was elsewhere. Of course, it is impossible to be sure and my aircraft may actually have been doing something else as well.

Amazing! What would be great is if we could delegate important "game/sim" hotkeys to this device, freeing up our HOTAS to actually do more aircraft things. E.g., I have the two VR zoom levels bound to the TMWH pinky switch. Or I have labels on/off bound to a joystick button. Same with F10 map etc.

MP or SP? Recorded on server or your own computer? I think these factors may make a difference and perhaps explain some of the conflicting reports? Perhaps folks reporting their experiences --- especially ones in which replay works --- can be very explicit about all the conditions so that others may try: -- MP or SP -- recorded on server or local computer -- what player aircraft/units were in the mission -- what AI units were in the mission -- what map -- what version of DCS -- date mission was flown In SP, they are broken for me EVERY time, in every mission. At least they were the last time I checked. I'm talking about IA missions or my own missions I set up, with or without carriers, on any map (incl. Nevada, which has no possibility of carriers!) . Very quickly after replay begins, the aircraft start doing their own thing, diverging from actual history. Weirdly, sometimes it seems like the player aircraft still manuevers and fires according to what happened, but the AI aircraft might be doing something else. So I find that the player aircraft twists and turns by itself and fires into empty air etc. Also, doubly annoying is if Jester is called up during a mission, it pops up in the replay ... and then stays open. NO way at all to close it. EDIT: I should note (in reference to my own suggestions above!) that I've only tried recording from my local machine . Tracks from SP are broken. Tracks from MP (online) recorded and auto-saved on my local machine (not server) play perfectly (last I checked).

Oh, and BTW, my understanding is that at least in DCS the Mirage can accelerate while in a 6G turn (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). So there's that ....

Counterpoint https://sofrep.com/fightersweep/dogfighting-in-an-fa-18-hornet/ So, really, as in many things in life, the only correct answer is "it depends"

There are a LOT of first-person accounts of aircraft performance by pilots who flew and fought in them. You need to read a little bit more widely, because if you do you will realize that the ratio of pilots who prefer the F-16 to the F-18 equals the ratio of F-16 pilot accounts to F-18 pilots accounts. There are a few accounts by people who have flown both. And, these are pretty much equally split, with the fault line running between people who have flow the F-16 first (or mainly) and vice versa. If you imagine you are going to get a golden bullet smoking gun correct answer on whether the F-16 or the F-18 is "better", than you are going to be very disappointed or very deluded. For many reasons, but one among which is that there is no one single "better" metric that is applicable. "It depends" is the best you can do. As for your original question -- it seems to me, still, that you do not understand the difference between instantaneous turn rate, sustained turn rate, and minimum radius. And why these differences make a difference in different ways to BFM. Or what factors aside from the aircraft itself go into determining these. Do you want to go through a revolutionary paradigm shift? Read Chapter 4 of: https://www.cnatra.navy.mil/local/docs/pat-pubs/P-826.pdf You will find the experience fundamentally transformative in terms of your perspective, questions, and answers.

I have no idea. Without that information being shared --- down to the numbers --- neither does anyone else. Even if conditions are "equal", it's also meaningless, because those "equal conditions" may favor one aircraft over another (e.g., altitude, tournament G-limitations, loadout), while a different altitude/loadout may have the opposite result.

Absolutely not. :thumbup:

I prefer the Tomcat :) Whether or not it is better :) And, honestly, there are ways of flying each of the F-14/F-18/F-16 so that anyone of them can be better than the other. And I'm not just talking about pilot skill. I'm talking about flying each aircraft to its strengths vs the weakness of the other.

Not to mention, that the two important things that matter is how much G the aircraft are pulling and how fast they are going ... even assuming they control for altitude and weight. Without that info, I don't think you can take that video as anything in the way of meaningful evidence of anything except cool flying

Also, in the beginning of the video it says "minimum radius turn time" .... from an EM perspective, that's just word salad (in particular, the conflating/confounding of radius and rate).

Only in a 1C dogfight. In 2C rate wins

Conditions is only half the story. The other half is the metric by which you are defining "winner". Minimum radius or maximum rate? These are different, with different "betters" and "winners" ....

I know you folks have a million things on your plates (and chances are, that also includes things outside of DCS!). However, would it be possible to get some news about the current state of the replay? With the F-14 right now, it is completely borked. Replays just go and do their own thing. My understanding is that ED has fixed it for the F-18 and the F-16. Not sure about other modules, but it is definitely broken for the F-14. Which is so tragic that such a beautiful bird, so well modeled on the inside and out, just cannot be savored in action after the action! Perhaps we (your fans/players) could help pin down the circumstances in which it happens, if you give us hints where you think the problem might lie?

"Minimum radius turn time" ... ? Is that minimum radius or maximum rate? These are very different in EM theory. It's like saying, "fasted longest distance". That's when I turned the video off. Life is too short to get caught up in strong or clear arguments based on weak or fuzzy concepts. But apart from the video, as your question includes the phrase "out turn", you should also clarify what you mean with reference to the questions/parameters I describe before. You may get answers without doing so, but trust me --- they'll be meaningless.