The Integrator

Hey, thanks for the great campaign! I'm having some trouble with this mission. I took out the SA-9 with a maverick and the two bunkers with a GBU-38 each. I then got the prompt to call Uzi in and did so. After a while they arrived and shortly after I got a message to the effect of job's done time to RTB. I returned to Kobuleti and landed but didn't get a "Mission Success!" message like I normally do, and after exiting I noticed the campaign didn't progress. Did I miss something or did I complete all objectives but the campaign just didn't progress for some reason (in which case I will sneakily edit my logbook to force it to progress ;) )? Aside: has this mission been changed significantly since its inception? I noticed a lot of people saying it is perhaps the hardest mission of the campaign, whereas I found for example the mission where you have to protect that escaped prisoner (Schaefer I think was his name) as he drives a jeep to safety a lot harder! The cloud ceiling makes it a bit tricky but I found it relatively straightforward to snipe the SA-9 from out of its range, spot targets from a safe distance, then climb above the clouds and drop GBUs on their heads ;)

Why is this even in the game? There must be some reason someone made a conscious decision to add it. I kind of agree lol, it doesn't particularly bother me (although I find it a bit strange). If it were gone I would feel like *something* were missing, I would look back in fondness on the days I spent perplexed by this strange little quirk :P Oh DCS, you so crazy

Hey, In this video Wags mentions at around 4:15 that there is work going on to improve the AI, specifically in dogfighting. I couldn't find anything about this anywhere else, is there any more information on this? It would be nice to have AI aircraft no longer using the basic flight model :P

Hey, I'm thinking about getting an Oculus, primarily for DCS. I have heard very positive things about it but have read a few concerning things about the difficulty of spotting targets. Generally these were from a year or so ago, has this improved and how is it in 2.5? Also I've heard that the relatively low resolution of VR means that reading cockpit instruments can be difficult. Is the scale of this problem exaggerated and how far can things like variable pixel density address this? Thanks

Hey, I am considering upgrading my current system and since I am having tempting thoughts about VR I have done a little bit of searching about what components are best for VR. My usual understanding of RAM is that the speed does not really make a difference and if anything it is the lattency/clock speed that is important. Since RAM with a higher clock speed will often have higher latency, there is no real difference. Now, I did a bit of searching and found this indicating that this may not be the case for DCS in VR (this was a year ago so maybe things have changed). A few people say things similar to what I said above about latency being important, but the issue was never really resolved. I also read that clock speed in DCS VR can make a difference up to 3000MHz, but not after that. With the simply absurd price of RAM currently I want to get my choice right :P . Main contenders are things like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMK16GX4M2B3600C18-Vengeance-3600MHz-Performance/dp/B01AKWSUOU https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMK16GX4M2B3200C16-Vengeance-Performance-Desktop/dp/B0143UM4TC/ref=sr_1_109?ie=UTF8&qid=1518139147&sr=8-109&keywords=ddr4%2Bram%2B16gb%2B3000mhz&th=1 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-Vengeance-3000MHz-Desktop-Memory/dp/B0134EW7G8/ref=sr_1_1?tag=skim0x3152-21&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1492410834&sr=1-1&keywords=ddr4%2Bram%2B8gb&refinements=p_n_feature_five_browse-bin%3A677429011&th=1 each of which has latency/speed of 0.005. Ordinarily I would just get the cheapest (ha! As if there is such a thing as cheap RAM anymore!) but if I do decide to get VR it might be better to get the fastest one despite the extra cost and higher latency. Any advice is greatly appreciated! P.S. how would 16GB DDR4 (whatever speed I end up with :p ), i5-8600k, GTX1080 fare in VR? How about a 1070? Would a 1080Ti be necessary?

Right, I currently have one 1080p monitor and one 1440x900 monitor. I only put the main DCS window on the 1080p monitor, and use the second for cockpit instruments (for example flying the A-10 I have the MFDs displayed on the second monitor). If I got a new monitor, perhaps 4K, it would be the same setup with the main DCS screen only on the main monitor which I assume means that having the second monitor is not a big performance hit, since it's only displaying instruments. It's either a new monitor or VR, and since from what you say VR is to be avoided for now I am looking at a new monitor. If I need a new GPU it won't be bad since, as you pointed out originally, I can save on the CPU, motherboard, cooling etc. I can hold off on a new monitor for a time and just get a new GPU for now. Here in the U.K. the Ultra Gaming is £140 ($194) (although that's on Amazon on sale from £150 I don't know how long for), and looking around you are right, there are various Z370s for around £100-£110 ($139-$153), so I think I will look into those and get one of them instead. At least 16GB RAM does seem like the way to go.

I suspected as much. Forget about VR then! Would a 1060 cut it or do I really need a 1080 or even a 1080ti (they are soooo expensive)? My current fan (Arctic Freezer 7 PRO Rev.2) should be OK for moderate overclocking. I will stick with that at least until I've tried it. What do you think about the Aorus Ultra Gaming motherboard? You also think I will need more RAM?

Well this has certainly given me a lot to think about, thanks for the great replies. I will probably get the Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Ultra Gaming for the motherboard since it is cheapest of those options and seems to be similar to the Gaming 7 just with slightly fewer bells and whistles (such as 1 ethernet port rather than 2 but...who needs 2 ethernet ports? :p ). I think I'll get the i5-8600K for the processor since it's a significant increase from the 8400 and I would like to keep the option to overclock open. That said I don't think I'll change the CPU cooler right away since after looking around a little it seems my current CPU fan should be OK, certainly if I limit the overclocking. You mean you don't think the extra performance is enough to justify the cost of the hardware (-K CPU and a Z370 motherboard)? I would be tempted to get the 8600K anyway even if I weren't going to overclock it (admittedly it would make the choice between that and the 8400 a lot harder) and the Ultra Gaming motherboard seems among the cheapest 370 motherboards (after looking briefly it turns out there aren't any B or H motherboards for Coffee Lake, only Z for the foreseeable future. I'm sure the B and H were supposed to be released around now :p ). Do you think the 8600K is not worth the extra cost over the 8400, or do you have any motherboard choice you think is a more cost-efficient option? VR is an idea I hadn't given any serious consideration to before. How would this system handle it? Getting an Oculus (I assume Oculus is the way to go, rather than Vive?) instead of a new monitor is certainly a possibility. As for the GPU I will just see what the situation is once the smoke clears from upgrading everything else :p Certainly after this the GPU is next on the chopping block. Do you think VR will be handled Ok with the GTX970? As for RAM, it looks like the jury is still out on that... :p I am aware that 16GB seems to be generally considered the standard for DCS. I am tempted to leave it for now and see how things go after changing the CPU, especially with 16GB of RAM currently sitting in the region of £120. I'm prepared for things to end horribly and I end up having to get more RAM, especially if I go to VR as I am becoming more and more tempted to :p I think so...is that the "automatically manage paging file size for all drives" option?

You can update stable 1.5.8 to 2.5 already by opening a command window from the DCS bin folder and running DCS_Updater.exe update 2.5.0.13818@openbeta

I am a little confused about what options can be on with which others. Currently I use MSAA x2 in game and in the Nvidia panel I have "enhance application settings", antialiasing 2x, MFAA on which is a setup that I understand works quite well (https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=200906). Can I stack FXAA with these (more to the point do I want to do that? Since FXAA apparently can blur things). How about staking ReShade SMAA with others?

Sorry for OT, but where did ED say they are doing the MiG-23?

Gotta get that chocolate spread for The Flying Baguette

How does it fare in BVR against say the M2000? Have you tried strapping some AMRAAMs to that sucker? How about WVR? I'd imagine it has a pretty good turn rate

Hi all, I have had enough of sub 30fps if I want decent graphics settings! It is time for a not unsubstantial upgrade. Currently I am running i7-2600k @ 3.4GHz 8GB DDR3 RAM GTX 970 (4GB) MSI Z68A-G43 motherboard 2 250gb ssd (one of which is home to DCS :) ) 500gb hdd Displays are one 1920x1080 and one 1440x900 I have a 650W PSU As you can see, the only half way worthwhile component is the graphics card, while the motherboard is truly ancient. I think the most urgent upgrade is the processor which, given the outdated chipset, will require a simultaneous motherboard upgrade. For the processor I had a short list of i5-8400, i5-8600K, i7-8700, i7-8700K and I think that the i5-8600K is the best option, especially since it is overclockable. The 8700K just seems like a disproportionately large price increase for the performance increase as far as I can tell. That said, the 8600K is quite a price jump from the 8400, so is it really worth paying more for the 8600K? Since I intend to overclock it (assuming I get a -K) should I get water cooling? I currently have a pretty good CPU fan (Arctic Freezer 7 PRO Rev.2), but I can see that if I overclock watercooling might be necessary. If so what should I get? As for the motherboard, due to the Coffee Lake processor, as far as I can tell my options are B350, H370, or Z370. If I require overclocking I am restricted to the Z370. I'm not sure what to spend here. Should I just get the cheapest Z370 I can find or is it worth spending a bit more to get something more substantial? As for RAM, I fully intend to increase that to at least 16GB, probably 24 or even 32 since I am aware that DCS is fairly RAM intensive. This is also something to consider when selecting a motherboard. I have heard that RAM is quite expensive at the moment. Should I wait for it to come down, or is it not likely to come down for a while in which case I should just brace myself and do it now. Is it worth replacing the RAM I already have with DDR4? Could I even use some DDR3 RAM with some DDR4? I don't think the graphics card is in need of an upgrade at the moment. I should also mention that I intend to get a 1440p monitor as well (advice on this is appreciated as well :) ) at some point and will then probably use all 3 displays. At the moment I run DCS across both monitors but the smaller display just has the HawgTouch MFD displays or something similar. Similarly if I used three monitors I wouldn't split the main DCS display across all three screens. I would have one main image on the 1440p monitor, then use the others for instruments/MFDs/documents. Please help me rid my life of stutter and low frame rates! Thanks!

Any idea why?

I was hoping to find something exactly like this, thanks so much! :thumbup: Do you happen to have any experience with the effects of playing around with the Nvidia graphics control panel or ReShade? Things like FXAA.

I have noticed the problem with the flood lights in the A-10, they seem to do little more than slightly illuminate the canopy handle :P I have heard that turning deferred lighting off can solve this but haven't had a chance to try it myself yet.

Why did you just post a picture of an empty field?

I am surprised you use Word. Have you heard of the typesetting software LaTeX? It's the standard software that's used to prepare journal articles for publication etc. It is free and it's very easy to create beautifully formatted documents, for example if you have lots of figures you want to place among the text (as well as linked tables of contents, you can even refer to a figure or something in the text and have it so that when you click on that reference it takes you to the relevant figure).

How about more Christmas jets? :P

That seems like a good idea I think I will adopt it :thumbup:

:lol:

Thanks for all the great replies! What exactly is unrealistic about using the throttle slider? Is it just that it's on the throttle not on the stick? This would not work for me as I use that for zoom however I am still curious: the brake lever in the real Spit allowed (as far as I can tell from the manual) for gradual pressure to be applied (there were not just on/off), and OK maybe that lever on the throttle is a bit easier to manage than a lever on the stick but it looks pretty acceptable given the TM Warthog setup.

Hi, What do people using the Thurstmaster Warthog HOTAS use for their keybindings, in particular for the trigger and the brake lever? For the weapons I was thinking about first stage trigger fires just the machine guns, second stage fires all weapons, weapons release button fires just the canons, but that seems a bit clumsy. What else do people have bound to their HOTAS? Thanks,

I think that DCS World 2.5 will include, if not at release then at some point down the line, a much improved model of infra-red which will hopefully make infra-red cameras realistic for everyone including of course the Harrier.