MichaelJWP15

We shouldn't forget also that DCS module developers are tiny and ephemeral by most software studio standards. The team members are also usually geographically disparate and the employees usually only short-term contract, despite some members having grand job titles like CEO. They could disappear overnight and we should not expect them to have the stability of a larger developer. Certainly if I pay for an "early access" module (and I have paid for many) I have zero expectations of it ever being "final", whatever that means.

Anyone got any idea what is going on with these wide FOV lenses? I was told last year they would be shipping September 2023. I asked again in November and they said still testing. Now we are 6 months later, and still no Wide FOV lenses, are we to assume some kind of production difficulties? Perhaps the ones being tested on YouTube are one-off hand crafted versions...

I agree, also I jump around between many modules in DCS, aircraft in MSFS, cars in various racing sims, so I could never settle on one cockpit to build and sit in. Leap motion is good but it will be great if better haptic gloves become available so you get some kind of touch feedback when you interact with switches, even if it's never going to be like the real thing in terms of not putting your hand through things.

I have my pre-order in and no problem with the delay. Best for them to get it as ready as possible. In the meantime, I only really know fully the F/A-18 and the A-10 II in DCS, I have in my collection the F-16, F-15E, AV8 and Viggen, none of which I am close to properly mastering so plenty to do and not complaining

Just wondering, those thinking about using pass through so they can see real-world cockpits, won't it be super-jarring to be in the DCS environment with it's realistic lighting and shadows, then combine that with your cockpit lit by your room lighting? Or maybe they will come up with a linked "sun" light on a robot arm swivelling round, the light colours being variable and with an LCD mask in front of the lamps to simulate clouds. Just musing....

I have tried that, I bought the F-15E a while ago and really want to learn it but every time I try a tutorial or a training mission I literally find myself falling asleep with all the nested menus and submenus and subpages etc. etc. Maybe one day after I've retired from work

I don't mind Youtuber previews/tutorials, as long as not more than 48hrs before the release.. otherwise it is super-frustrating

! I've not seen this anywhere @Silver_, where did you read that QV is no longer necessary?

I came from the G2, which served me very well, but the Pimax Crystal is playing in a higher league, for the first time I can clearly read all instruments and MFDs without having to zoom. I have an Apache strap but only use it for long sessions. I also tried the Q3 as I had a Q2 for a while. Certainly good value but otherwise not on the same level as the Crystal. I only play flight and racing sims though.

Nice - if you get the chance, photos of that support leg underneath the Rhino would be cool, but no rush, I am on a long waiting list for the device!

Other thought is, if this is one of perhaps 10 short videos leading up to release, and the next one comes in say 3 days, can we assume are 30 days away from release? Or perhaps I am overthinking this

Cool. That may be the solution, can I see also a support leg underneath the Rhino, is that non-standard?

Nice work though while you're hiding everything away you're still using up the floor area of a full seat and pit. In my case I need to use my normal office chair, rudder pedals under the desk. Not ideal but been doing it for years and it's an ok compromise so far..

It's interesting. I wonder if the workload of running 1000's of separate 'mini-sims' as each component is updated is going to be hard on the CPU. Perhaps there will be an update frequency setting for those with lower level hardware, similar to the one for MFDs

Main issue for me is I don't have a man cave unfortunately, so all my gear has to go on my regular desktop. This is fine with a standard base but the FFB base would make the stick too high... hmm at the moment I am thinking I may need a custom work desk with a recess and cover where the Rhino can hide during the day.

Ok, you may have emptied my wallet a bit more as I checked out some of the videos on the Rhino and I have to say it looks very good May have to give it a try… Personally I justify all this money as I used to fly GA for real at a cost of well over $2000 per month, this is all cheap in comparison!

Any deadzone is a dealbreaker for me, I hate them. Also after thinking about this quite a lot, I think FF is far more important for racing sims than flight sims. I've driven real track cars and done a lot of race simming and the tech has come leaps and bounds in the 25 years I've been doing sims. In real aircraft, I think now pilots are used to it, they don't really miss the feedback through the stick that much in anything 1960s+, though like others who've commented, there is a wealth of information coming to you via your seat on g-forces, rotation, slide slip, buffet, structural limits, as well as the sounds from slipstream, engine and stresses and so on. (At least we can have good audio in sims)

Back in the day, I used a Microsoft FF Sidewinder stick, and we supported it in our games. I never really got on with though as the force application was too crude. Seeing how good some of the wheels are now it would be great if we could get something similar for flight sims. The software would have to be up to it though, with low latency. Devs would also have to decide whether to replicate early attempts at artificial feel when hydraulic controls were first introduced, or something more like what feedback you woud get if controls were still connected by pushrods etc. Of course FBW like the F-16 is a special case, I think it has no feedback, right?

Definitely painful but it's a useful service, knowing how easy it is to scratch the front. Also was surprised that inside is so amazingly tightly packed and you have to virtually destroy the case and outer fittings to get to the electronics! Even worse repairability than a MacBook or iPhone...

I think you have to set your expectations. I have the Crystal and a 4070, can't justify the prices for a 4090, though many can on this forum Quite happy though, I get around 50-60fps and the cockpit is so clear, the two biggest improvements were the multi-threading and the dynamic foveated rendering. My worst case is when flying low and I look at 90 degrees to my flight path, that IMO is when you could do with 120hz true fps. As Gyster says, in VR, nothing will be perfect even with the deepest pockets!

This is really great stuff - love getting original documents for any of the modules but this is 'above and beyond' !! Much thanks @Kirk66 now can you share some Phantom anecdotes?

Yes, indeed - and thanks, glad you liked it, IW2 was one of our last ones before I sold the studio. The team was large for us at about 15 people, and as AAA games were getting bigger and bigger, we found it harder to raise the necessary budgets, we had an MMO persistent universe IW3 in the design/prototype stages which would have been very like what EVE:online became, but couldn't get the green light unfortunately.

I remember those pre-internet days (this is a bit after cereal tops) where you bought your games in a games shop and things like EA's Jane's series came with big thick manuals and keyboard overlays. You used to walk past and get excited because the boxes where stacked up in a display, only to find out they were empty and the game wasn't actually released! I'm looking forward to the F4 too and its pre-ordered, though not sure if it's just nostalgia.. after all, it's going to be a pain without all the assistance jets like the F16, F18 and A-10 give you with their datalinks, targeting pods and laser guided bombs...

Thanks, all my graphics code was in 80x86 machine code back then! I actually still get people asking me to do a remake of Subwar with modern tech. One day maybe, and this time I would certainly include VR support

Quite a long time ago now, but sci-fi sim games; Powerdrome, Subwar 2050, I-War/Independence War.. games sold in boxes with physical manuals, keyboard guides and maps we coded our own 3d engines back then, always wanted to do VR support but it wasn't commercially viable back then.