MichaelJWP15

Yes, the DCS bugs are a little annoying. I had done everything in mission 6, checked my wingmans jet out for battle damage, no issues. Fell into trail, and as I was doing so, he managed to somehow reverse/slide right into me, killing us both I appreciate the way these missions are set up though, where you can play the parts individually if you want to. In the absence of a DCS save game these are very useful, even though it means playing them in the mission editor means you don't progress the campaign in the main interface.

I've been very much enjoying the campaign, though I am a very undisciplined air combat pilot! Even though I have the best intentions of sticking to the blackboard plan, within very few seconds I am throwing the jet all over the sky on the very limit of control and AoA. I have no real clue whether I am doing an egg, a half-cuban or a rolling scissors I play in VR with full HOTAS which is superb but I do find it very hard to glance down at my airspeed/AoA without losing sight of the bandit. And yes, the AI crashes into the ground for me probably 3 out of every 4 fights. The algorithm doesn't seem to take the terrain into account so I really hope ED address this.

Thanks. So I tried it again, no problems this time and had a lot of fun chasing the F-86 around the sky, VR is so awesome for this as I craned to see him over the canopy bow at the start of the lag pursuit, then crouching more to see under the bow as he came back to my pipper for the shot Will probably never know what was wrong before, but looking forward to working my way through.

Thanks, and understood, I am going to try it again anyway, I don't think it's a bug. Just wondered if there was any debug mode or trick that allows a player to see what the script is waiting for, I guess there isn't.

I realise that the mission scripts check you've done everything on the checklists, but I seemed to be progressing OK for this mission, got all the expected dialogue, passed through the arming area then was holding short for runway 08, right behind the F-86. Then no matter what I checked, I couldn't get the F-86 to take off in front of me. I am sure I forgot something but I couldn't figure out what. So my question is, if you are stuck, is there any way of telling what trigger the mission is waiting for? Edit: I forgot to take a screenshot but there was a warning light "Inertial Nav Sys Out" which I think may have been the issue - but I did ask for a full alignment at the appropriate stage - any clues for this?

Agree with that, it's one of the main reasons why I mainly stick to ground attack in DCS, even though I have always liked the challenge of A2A combat. I am really into this amazing F4 module though and love Reflected's meticulous work so I am giving this campaign a serious try. Will take me a while though as my real life takes up too much time!

Now a lot of us are using foveated rendering / quadviews, that has some weird effects, where you can see aircraft when you look at them, look to the side and they disappear because they are no longer in the high resolution render area. It's all a compromise though, and I would never go back to a flat screen as VR is so much more immersive. So I turn the dots on.

I have to agree with the postiive comments, I find it one of the most fun aircraft to actually just fly in DCS (and I have most modules). The visual and audio feedback when pushing the envelope is extremely well done, and when both engines go into burner you really feel the push. In VR, with good sound, the cockpit is *so* immersive. I really want to try it with force feedback but don't have one yet, apparently its remarkable.

Cool You know my next question - how long to release (approx)?

As per the title, anyone know if there are any more official Heatblur training missions planned? I have done the current set of 8, but still feel like a complete noob and there is of course lots of material not covered in those. I can take off, fly around and land, but anything like a full strike mission against opposition, like I can do in the F/A-18, F-16 or the A-10 is way beyond me. I know there are plenty of YouTube tutorials but being a VR-only player it's hard to train with these.

I am really looking forward to this one, the F-104 has been one of my favourite jets since I was a young kid with a poster of it on my bedroom wall

I find AAR very difficult in DCS, but equally close formation (2-3m separation) also tricky, forward/aft is ok but for pitch I usually end up in bad PIO. Strangely I have done some close formation flying in real life in Slingsby T67 prop planes and was quite good at it, much easier when you feel the forces/accelerations

Great news, @BIGNEWY thanks for the update. And of course thank you to @mbucchia for all the work he's done previously, even though you're understandably stepping away from this kind of open source work I just hope you will occassionally dip in with your helpful contributions. I have used VR with DCS since it was possible to do so, and will never go back to a flat screen.

I’ve found in some training missions there is no F10 menu when opening the comms menu so I couldn’t turn it off. Not sure if there’s another way?

I've been in the F-4E with my Pimax Crystal, it was OK once I turned the gamma up to 2, but I agree it would be nice to have the option of a clean cockpit as well. I also find in my setup that the pilot's (hairy) arms are weirdly shaded, it's almost like they are self-illuminated (glowing). Not sure what's causing that as all other surfaces/textures seem super-real. Find it distracting so I turn him off!

Thanks! will have a go with that tonight

Ok, firstly I am loving this remarkable module and have had a lot of fun just flying around looking at the amazing internal and external models! So I have tried the training missions, first 4 great, but getting further on, my head is spinning when the instructor is basically reading out reams of the manual and switchology. I think my preferred way of learning is to read the procedure and manual, then use an appropriate practice mission configured to practice that particular technique. Anyone know of anything like this available? I guess it is still early days, there are excellent ones available for the older modules like the F-16, F-18 etc.

One thing I've discovered is just how many DCS Youtubers there are! I only really knew of Grim Reapers, Spudknocker and Reflected, but so many more have popped up on my Youtube feed owing to them having got hold of early release F4-E modules.. amazing..

Sad to see that some Youtubers have even put out videos just on this 24 hours delay, come on guys, you are better than that, it's just one sentence and not enough for a 10 minute video is it.

This way we are getting it as fast as possible. For a risk free date, ED/HB would have to aim for a final build probably the week before, then hold on to it if it passed all testing, would people really prefer that? I was in the videogames business a long time, going back to the days when the only way to get fix patches to your users was on the cover disk of magazines!! (Ok this is a bit of a 'back in my day post sorry)

Disappointing as I also had the afternoon free but I am sure there are good reasons, ED would not delay things unnecessarily.

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