H-street

also one question is did they stop developing the AH64? in their original FAQ it said

if you can find it, they used to have a list of the plans for aircraft releases.. they seem to have removed it but i'm sure somebody can find it again.

ohhhh yeah!!

It really is unfortunate BS and (and soon to be A10) isn't available on Steam. It really is a great platform. I've been PC gaming for a long time and the last time i felt something this great came out for PC gaming was 3dfx Voodoo1. I mean if you think about it Steam has provided a platform where different developers can be seperate and distinct but for the end user all their games can be unified. Install Media? out the window. Seperate download locations? Gone. Having to worry about lost CD-Keys? a thing of the past. Searching for elusive patches? Automatic Unable to backup your game cds? taken care of, steam you can archive all your games install data so even re-downloading isn't a problem. You don't even have to be connected to the internet for steam to work, i run it on my laptop in offline mode almost exclusively. Now take something like BS and integrate that with Steams Cloud feature. Now we are talking about having your Pilot data follow you to every PC, when re-isntalling or anything like that you don't have to worry about backing up your pilot or stats information. Infact i will even launch all my games from within Steam (my non-steam games) just to use the integrate Shift-Tab features (Chat with friends etc..) For eagle dynamics it just doesn't make sense they don't want to go with steam, the amount of exposure steam has gotten in the last year has been amazing.add on to that you instantly put your game in front of 25million users and its hard to ignore that financially it just makes sense. not to mention if BS sold for steam weekend sale, it would probably double the community BS overnight. (ED would probably sale the same number of copies they have sold to date in 1 weekend on a steam weekend sale) the only people i can see who wouldn't support steam are those users on dialup or even slow dsl (we are talking 256k dsl). Other than that steam has been a great platform that has really rejuvinated the PC gaming scene. I really hope that ED changes their view on this. It would add a lot of longevity to their product while giving, us the end user a great benefit and platform.

Thanks :) hopefully they start up the production journals by then

Sitting at the 18 month mark for US release of DCS Blackshark and was wondering if any new news for the A10C has been released? the anouncment section has gone bone dry for A10C stuff, and Lomac FC2.0 kindof butted in Line ahead of the warthog.. I understand we aren't on the 9 months schedule anymore so just wanted to see what the news was..

Now that FC2 is done and hopefully the crew has taken some time off, is there any news or updates on the A10C?

just a couple, disable the clutch button in the control panel to give you an extra button. learn the SST, its not that complicated but you can have fun. Eg. i have my mode switch go from Cockpit view, to external to map view. Mode 2 = cockpit, Mode 1 = external , Mode 3 = Map .. the trick is to assign these "always pressed" buttons as macros instead of buttons/keys so when switching to them it only sends the command once.

Think big picture, A10C + Ka50 + whatever comes out in the future = the Digital Combat Simulator. its been beaten to death around here but Falcon 4.0's integration of anonymous units is sortof what i would envision, only with the helicopters you have an added sense of Combat integration (where with Falcon its only planes). The end result being a multiplayer co-op war campaign where different types of assets are employed on teh same battlefield, whether its planes, helos, armor etc.. I know in falcon i enjoy jumping from different squadrons and missions. imagine a campaign where you could take your A10C on a mission, next mission you take your Ka50 etc.. etc.. now imagine in multiplayer where your A10C squadron would have to coordinate an attack with a Ka50 squadron (all player controlled) etc.. then addon the future planes that ED wnats to add and you can see where this is going

Thanks for the update, being in PC gaming for years now i've come to get a pretty good perspective on release dates and times. When i said the "DCS hoped for a 9month after the NA" wasn't to say, 9months its not here, its more of to say. As far as expectations it was going to be DCS:A10C after BS, with the FC2.0 that changed and so i just wanted to get an idea of expectations. realistically though i'm guessing DCS A10C will probably be a January/February 2011 product release in NA. (are they localizing at the same time as developement or still waiting after the Russian' release?) Do you know if there are any plans for releasing of 3rd party models or anything like that for BS? the last i heard was that 3rd party models and assets would be released with the BS patches. Is that still the plan? The reason i ask is that with BS it seems the potential for the mod community to breathe life into the sim has been taken away with the promise of ED controlling the quality of the mods. But with FC2.0 and then A10C taking up the bulk of the developement time it seems that any hope for BS getting any sortof new content in 2010 is low. Maybe ED can rethink opening the game up to modders, i'm sure there are talented people, who if given the right tools could go a long way.

i've often thought you could achieve this too with 3 projectors, ever since EyeFinity came out (for some reason the Matrox TPH2Go never took off) i have been wanting to start saving for a 3 projector Eyefinity setup. you could make the screens curved easily enough and you would have the bezel problems. and projectors have gotten cheap. the only issue is if you can get a cheap projector with a display port or pay the 100$ for the active dp->dvi adapter.

dang.. looks great http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c0vz7qHU58&

I noticed a new developement update http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=49282 Seems like the DCS A10C is going to be a late 2010/early 2011 product, so i guess my question is apart from FC 2.0 or the DCS A10C has BS been put into a "wait for A10C" holding state? the developer update seems to put FC2.0 in a 4-5 month time until release/completion (BS took 7 months to localize and release/complete) And this is fine but I just wanted to get an idea of timeline and expectations. when i bought BS the line was sortof a , 9 months after the NA release you'll see A10C (which would have put it this month) and then 9 months after that for each addon. FC2.0 obviously has changed this. Are there any plans to start doing production journals (the training videos for BS where awesome before release) or anything like that prior to the FC2.0 being done? Are there any addons planned for BS in the interim? i've browsed a few of the mods going on but the majority seem to be skins/texture type modifications (seems a map or 2 might be in the works)

? i land on grass/dirt all the time. but i am a bit paranoid when i do it, come to an almost dead stop hover just above the ground before i touch down

nope these are unopened boxed copies. HPB gets old store inventory, so these are just some copies that never sold at stores. i am tempted to go pck up another copy just in case in the future i can't download DCS:BS again.

Just in case anyone has a half price books in the area and hasn't gotten blackshark yet, i picked up a copy for my brother tonight for $8 (DVD Copy).. i've been to 4 differnt stores and each one had 1 or 2 copies of DCS:BS

i know its been said No to steam but i really hope in the future ED reconsiders.. i can understand they want to keep margin high but steam is just so convenient. in the end as long as ED will let me redownload BS in 10 to 15 years it doesn't really matter but have to say i love the centralization of steam. also the idea of keepign saves/configs (missions?) in steams cloud would also be a great feature. Then reinstalling or crashes or anything like that won't matter because your pilots data, your missions etc would all be saved on the cloud :)

if you have dual dore Try this, it fixed my jittering with the TrackIR, when you start BS: alt tab out and set your BS to 1 core affinity and set your trackIR to another core affinity http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=669366&highlight=trackir+affinity#post669366 for soem very odd reason this fixed everything for me this was my post about it http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=45661&highlight=trackir+affinity

Actually the Dynamic Campaign of F4 was very specific in that it was geared towards multiplayer. If you look at the breadth and scale of Falcon 4.0's campaign, it could have easily gone towards the scale of a small MMO. It was and still is very cutting edge for multiplayer, not many games (i can't really think of any outside an MMO) that allows for a campaign to run and players to join in at any time in the campaign.

Don't get me wrong, BS has a great damage model (you are right that it is technically superior). But to be honest, i have never relived or just sat there and inspected my damaged aircraft more than in IL2. maybe its because the nature of IL2s combat is close in dog fighting, but there is something about being in the heat of battle, having 20mm rounds shredding through you, seeing pieces fly off .. surviving, landing, and then just looking at the damage :) call it perceived damage modeling, or call it what you will, in the end its the experience and immersion that counts at least for me. and you are right, maybe once I get into that A10C and get some air to air battling and see the DCS damage model applied to the A10, i'll have just as much fun inspecing my broken, shot up, pushed around plane :)

I think it has more to do with the fact that we , as flight sim enthusiasts, see the great qualities in other products and want to take all those great features and mush them all together in one final great sim. the dynamic campaign is just one of those "great features" (the DC is working btw in the latest F4 mod, see my last post) that IMO DCS missed the mark on. Its been discussed to death in the past, but to sum up. Its the creation of the that living battlefield that DCS misses more than anything. The idea that your actions affect the outcome of the war by your being a small part of a much bigger picture. Being a combat pilot is much more then knowing how to flip switches :) right now DCS BS lacks that feeling of being part of the war, in a big way. don't get me wrong, i love BS. it is great right up to the point to where you take off, once you take off there is no world to be in. There are targets, and missions, but it just doesn't have that feeling. There is a reason F4 still has a good size player base. but i love DCS for what it is, we talk about DCS being the future sim platform of choice. So take a lot of this criticism with the idea that I would like to see DCS evolve into that ultimate sim. i guess when i think about it, if i could have a wish list it would be. 1. The living war of F4 (feeling of being part of the war, including the radio chatter) 2. the Multiplayer aspect of F4 3. the Fidelity of aircraft modeling of DCS BS 4. the Fidelity of ship modeling of SIlent Hunter 5. the Fidelity of infantry modeling of Armed assault 6. the Damage modeling of IL2 7. the graphics of Crysis 8. the Navy aspect of Janes F/A 18 9. The Armor Fidelity of WWII Online and Steel Beasts 10. the Destructable everything of Soldiers, Heroes of WWII (buildings , terrain etc.) 11. the Physics of Crysis just to name a few, i'm sure if we really thought abuot it we coudl come up with the ultimate sim feature list taking from all the current games and ideas that are out there.

Don't think its been mentioned but there is a great graphic's updated version of Falcon 4.0 its a FREE mod for FALCON, a google search would help you find it. It Falcon 4.0 to some . DCS is great, but until it becomes a living breathing battlefield (a la F4) i'll stick with F4 for campaigns. DCS is fun for startups, and flying but lacks that feel of being the pilot

My suggestion without a trackIR is just learn the keyboard short cuts/setup an X52 profile for Blackshark.. also I don't know if DCS has a padlock feature, if so just use that.. TrackIR is great for SA but the padlocking in games really helps to get one of the big benefits of TrackIR. since you have the X52 that means you have the mouse ministick, you won't even need to setup the HAT for freelook, just use the mouse ministick. Just don't expect to be clicking on any switches in the cockpit with it. But learn your keyboard shortcuts as usual. if you setup your X52 profile correctly , playing without a trackIR would be almost the same as with.

AI + Dynamic Campaign :) i can dream

So i went through all of these and in the end what it turned out to be was i found some old ancient thread about the same thing here and in there was a suggesting to put TrackIR affinity to 1 CPU instead of 2. i did that and it fixed the issue .. i am just finding this odd that DCS is the only game that has an issue with TrackIR having its affinity set to 1 CPU. either way it works great now, its just so nice to have it working. thanks for all the suggestions..