Mars Exulte

I didn't say anything of the sort. Me too, as soon as I can play again, I intend to compete in as many of them as I can. I also intend to use whatever aircraft people consider ''worst'' at the time. Tears of rage taste especially sweet when the victim doesn't at all see it coming Nothing wrong with that. To a certain extent, yes. And yes, it is useful to know. But when a person compares spread sheets and concludes ''how can I possibly win'' they are doing it wrong. Full stop. If the differences are extreme, say an F-5 vs a JF-17 (looks meaningfully at another thread) yes, you can abstractly determine a conclusion. But if they are NOT starkly separated, then they become far less significant. You aren't going to win off a degree or two a second, or a few hundred pounds of thrust, or a g or two. That is not how it works. The pilots are not 100% equally skilled, they are not going to perform a set series of maneuvers. It will not come down to ''math'' and ''spreadsheets''. Period. That is not how it works. A person that thinks it does, does not understand the subject all that well. These are influences on the final result, but not determinants. I am perfectly fine with others views, on matters that are subject to debate and open to interpretation. That does not mean that all views are equally valid, or that all subjects are open to debate, or that a person may be wrong. In this particular situation, people trying to ''min max'' fighter jets like it's a stat based MMORPG are very definitely doing it wrong and do not understand the topic. Nor do I. Nothing I said has anything to do this comment. What I said is fact : air combat is not about the stats except in specific (BVR, perhaps) or extreme scenarios of disparate capabilities. A few percent plus or minus will absolutely not flip the fight one or the other way all by itself.

That is a great view! The lighting is vastly imprpved, too. It really captures the joy of flight =) I remember the first time I flew (in rl) through a multi-layer cloud bank, the things I saw that day have stuck with me forever, and the views I'm seeing in DCS now elicit the same feelings =) Ugh, I really gotta get my life sorted so I can go back to flying

Because using Google is hard, and they would much rather skip research/reading and have someone personally answer their questions or tell them what to do This is why companies spend billions of dollars on ad campaigns.

This isn't a MMORPG where you compare DPS and tanking stats. Those numbers are relevant reference points, but it does not realistically matter if A is slightly more at a given statistic than B. It literally doesn't work that way unless both pilots are very incompetent. Yes, actually, having higher T/W and acceleration is extremely useful in a fight. There is more to fighting than pulling on the stick as hard as you can or trying to ride a certain ''best number''. None of them are 100% realistic because this is a rough digital approximation of reality. That said, it's also irrelevant if it's 100% as long as it's relatively close. To repeat an earlier comment, there is more to air combat than 'stats'. It is not a spreadsheet. In the real world, pilots do not sit down and compare spreadsheets then shrug and say ''what's the point, he's 0.5 degrees a sec faster sustained turn than me *cry*'' It really amazes (and annoys, obviously, but that surprises absolutely no one around here) me the ''stat chasing'' mentality some people around here have. To put it very, very simply, the more a person obsesses over spreadsheets and numbers, the less likely they have any idea what the hell they're talking about.

They're still working on it, and have said so several times. ED has multiple teams, and can work on more than one thing at a time generally. There have not been any details provided as to what MAC will be or how it will work, afaik, probably whatever they were originally envisioning has been reassed and they're doing something different now. I wouldn't wait with bated breath exactly, if they're talking about something it usually means ''it'll be a while''.

There are always people who can't manage simple tasks. Steam they select it with a drop down just like with any other Steam game. For the rest, it takes about 15 seconds to use search to find either Skate's GUI or simple command line instructions. DCS handles betas the same basic way every other game does. And just like with every other game, 75% of people are too inept or lazy to use search.

It's pretty far from this thread, at least

The problem with the whole ''it's aliens'' thing, or even ''it's a foreign power'' is the stuff seen/reported is utterly random and pointless. You can spin it however you want, and make bs apologies like ''*long drag on cig* It's like... aliens, man, they don't think like we do'' but that's a bs cop out. Irrational pointless behavior is irrational pointless behavior, and there's no way to explain it away, except possibly that ''aliens'' or ''foreign powers'' have the mentality of a pre-teen engaging in very clumsy pranks... and even that doesn't work, cause it would be once or twice, by one or two, and then that's it, or at least a bit of variety. The fact sightings are both common and completely irrelevant implies it is almost definitely NOT intelligent life, or even stupid life, nor likely created by intelligent life.

Translation: I like long walks on the beach looking for missing links, and poorly edited videos with dramatic music, mostly on YouTube and THC.

Yes, you're behind the times. The F-18 tpod footage has been floating around for about two years and was confirmed as legit by the DoD shortly after it appeared, they also explained the way they altered the procedure for reporting such things. I realise it may be new to YOU, but two years ago we already watched those videos, discussed the DoD response, etc. Yes, you're bringing up the rear on this particular topic Your video even cites a 2019 response. That whole channel is behind the times. It's called recycling clickbait for more ad revenue. It's like conspiracy themed sites/channels are a gimmick or something... who knew?

I think a carrier style walk on is a good idea in principle, but dunno how feasible coding it actually wouldbe. Unlike the arrestor wire, it's not a finite point that you only need to reach for a instant at the right instant. AAR, like formation flying, requires constant adjustment over a prolonged period of time. If a person can't manage that in the first place, it's unlikely they're going to be able to stick it in and hold it... if they could, they wouldn't need the aide in the first place.

Yeah, that ended up being a poor choice. I helped my brother build a new rig with 3600x and 5700XT at msrp... a few months later his card was going for $800-1000. Crazy stuff, yo.

Reminder to the more angsty among us, you downloaded a beta version of a major system update. You are literally mass guinea pigs. Report your specs, specific issues you seem to be having, and try to be actually productive. If you can't handle being a guinea pig, then give it a couple weeks for them to try to hammer out the worst issues. Otherwise, accept your ''launch day blues'' It was the same situation last time there was a major update. And before that. Almost... like...

LoD issue, maybe? @Crouz That's... not how that works. By all means, if a driver is stable, all fine. The driver updates are usually related to optimisations for specific games, typically where something is lagging considerably more than it should. That 20% you mention will not typically be ''across the board'' but rather for a specific game, sometimes even for a specific CPU/GPU that was having issues. So no, your GPU will not be +300%, nor is Nvidia or anybody else making that claim. The old wives tale about drivers degrading GPUs has been disproven repeatedly by every tech site/tech reviewer out there. Launch day compared to ''several years down the line'' benchmarks are typically either identical or even slightly faster. Now, if you're a sloppy overclocker, overheat your silicon and cause it to degrade, that's a different matter, but provided the device hasn't suffered mistreatment, they don't ''degrade''.

All bs aside, if 500gb is all you have for both OS, software, and games? Yeah, that's not gonna stretch far these days. I figured that out 7-8 years ago, before DCS even really entered the picture for me. 500gb isn't enough these days. The good news is, when I bought my 500gb SSD back then, it cost $300. These days you can get several TB for that :D

Not a lot, but I have flown some in RL. The knowledge base I built up over the many years of reading and simming was most definitely tremendously helpful. I will say 2d simming creates a weird false perception, because the scale and FoV are off and its usefulness is most of a conceptual nature... VR on the otherhand, I found to be an extremely useful tool for practicing, found myself making the same mistakes in VR I was making in the plane and I was able to correct those tendencies. That statement can be applied to almost any vocation because it's largely true. Most acts are not that terribly complicated in and of themselves, and ''anyone'' can learn to do them. The issue is whether or not someone has a natural aptitude for a task, which is a somewhat nebulous concept, and how well they fundamentally understand what they're doing. As with any profession, there are people who are very good at passing tests, but suck at the actual doing. Yep, I think the minimum age for a glider ppl is 14yo, which is even lower than driving... which is... so unbelievably ironic. Especially considering glider pilots are expected to learn all the same airspace and what have you regulations as a powered pilot, etc, yet the roads it's just ''here you go!''... probably has a lot to do with the carnage on the highway and why we don't regularly have planes falling out of the sky. Imo, people hang up too much on ''their right to do a thing'' instead of acknowledging that some things probably need a minimal level of education first @@ You forgot time =( It's difficult to juggle a fulltime job and all the ''real life things'' and then somehow find a couple hours a week to go fly. Flying in general has a lot more capacity for learning, there's always room for improvement and expansion, understanding the science of flight and the atmosphere, too. The basic concepts are simple enough ''anyone can do it'', but it takes a lot of effort and education to be ''good'' at it. Those are the best sort of things to learn!

This thread we're posting in right now? It's said that for quite a while. Has nothing to do with the YouTube comments which are much more recent, thus all the excitement.

Actually flying is not that complicated, just some basic concepts and how to manipulate the primary controls. Learning how to operate any particular aircraft is mostly a case of memorising which buttons to push, mostly a case of repetition. Where things get complicated is comm etiquette, interacting with airspace, and the ridiculous amounts of legalistic red tape and regulation you have to deal with. So, sims are more than capable of teaching what you need to know to fly in general, and to fly any given aircraft if it reproduces it accurately. As far as the quality of simulation required, DCS, Xplane, etc, are far beyond what you need to ''learn the basics''. Most ''real'' sims are considerably more basic than what we have here. That third part, though, that's the part ''sim pilots'' tend to completely gloss over. So, they're more than capable of teaching you to ''fly'', but as far as teaching you to be a ''pilot'', that part requires a lot of book reading and study effort. I talked with a kid once, his dad was a pilot who claimed ''landing a plane is the hardest thing in the world'', which is just exaggerated nonsense and ego masturbation. Then again, I believe he lost his ppl after flying drunk and getting tangled in a power line.... so I guess it depends on your frame of reference. Being toasted probably does adds a fair amount of challenge to the process. As far as real world licensing, everything is about the magic FAA sticker. My controls are probably equal or superior to the ''certified'' controls, but they don't have that sticker so cannot be used. Same with sim software. Is it certified? Then it can be counted as sim hours. If no sticker, then no county. That's been the case for some time. It doesn't exempt you from needing real hours, though, for the actual certification. The USAF as I understand it is dropping the big multi-million dollar sim pods for simple VR gaming rigs. 99% of the benefit, 1% of the cost. They still require seat time, too. So no, real hour requirements aren't going anywhere, nor should they. A sim can provide a lot, but you still need practical real world experience, too. How a person behaves ingame, and how they behave in real life, are not the same and if a person screws up in real life, they crater their plane in a Walmart somewhere. You need both, and always will.

You're right, I haven't watched nearly enough grasping conspiracy videos to form a good opinion, I needed one more and now I'm convinced. Btw, just because somebody is in a position of authority does not eliminate the issues with outlandish, unproven claims. Morons get appointed to important positions on a frightening frequency. My favorite example is a many times elected Georgian senator worried Guam would capsize if an airbase was relocated. Leave alone the resurgence of Flat Earth Theory, and innumerable conspiracies. Appeals to authority are meaningless if that authority cannot be supported by facts and analysis.

Nope, first thing that happened after I got the Oculus software running was disabling the crap onboard speakers. I have a wireless Steelseries headset I use for that Much better

But he is not a jedi yet!

Well, you can ask, but he'd have to flash you with a neuralyzer after.

Yeah, honestly weird stuff you see in the real world makes you pause when discussing ''realistic'' stuff. I remember a while back, can't remember if it was here about the Syria map or somewhere else, but some guy was complaining about (or requesting, I can't remember) a certain lake being pink/reddish and the whole ensuing argument about ''HURDUR REALISIM''. Tldr, the lake is actually pink, that IS realisitic. I often see similar discussions around here about myriad things, and it's really funny what people get in their heads about what the world around them is like and what phenomena are/aren't ''realistic''

Interesting discussion, but a lot of you guys are being way too cerebral. Political objections to maps are not because they're worried somebody will wargame a scenario. All respective parties are constantly doing that, anyway, and don't need a video game for the purpose. Any MoD that DOESN'T constantly wargame scenarios needs to be summarily fired. No, the objections to this sort of thing are invariably much more petty and ridiculous. See China complaining because NASA included Taiwan as a dropdown option in an online signup. In specific cases, like Crimea and Taiwan, acknowledging there is even a dispute IS the offense. Typically the, ummm... ''offended party'' we'll say, believes that if they push their narrative hard enough and long enough, it will eventually be seen as fact by enough people that it will become the effective reality, too. Thus the tendency to pursue even very obscure things like video games. It's about public perception. Most places/situations don't have this issue (Syria for example) because the relevant parties are all largely in agreement on the situation. It's very specific gray areas that fall almost entirely within the scope of ''public relations/public perception'' where it becomes an issue. But we've ventured a bit from the topic of ''should we make sandbox maps'' Any new map is a good map, imo, provided it is constructed in a reasonable manner. You know, like this