WytchCrypt

Now that I'm getting accurate track replays in my single player missions, I wanted to post a method I use to preserve the replay that even survives new DCS releases After flying the mission and reviewing the track, if it's a keeper I use the GeForce Experience screen record feature that came bundled with my NVidia GeForce and make a movie out of it. I just replay the track and activate the GeForce record when I'm ready (no need to record a whole 10 minute track just to get the last 2 minutes of action). Since it's a screen recorder it records all view/zoom changes. When I've captured the section I want I just toggle off the record function and it creates an mp4. If I want to further edit or do fancy fade ins/outs or other things, I use a free video edit tool called Shotcut Video Editor (https://shotcut.org/blog/). Now a record of my mission lives outside DCS so it's immune to any DCS changes. Of course, it's no longer a track that can be interacted with so no view changes, but it's an easy and fun way to create a movie from any track. When I got my GeForce I had no idea it was bundled with this screen recorder, but I stumbled across it one day and was blown away. It makes me think those out there with other video cards might also have the same kind of software available with their card.

Update: The DDI display changes, caging of TCN & ILS and button pushes on UFC keypad are now reflected in the replay as expected! Problem appeared to be I used triggers to preset the DDI's/AMPCD/cockpit lighting/etc to specific settings before the mission begins and replay ignored that always starting the mission with LDDI=HUD, RDDI=FCS and AMPCD=SA. Once I removed the triggers associated with the DDI/AMPCD screens and manually did the same setup actions while sitting at the cat, the replay showed everything as expected. Some FYI's: 1) I fly the Hornet 2) I just flew the same CarOps mission and watched the replay at 8x speed and it remained accurate. In fact, I flew the mission and after a successful trap, I messaged the ground crew to prepare for another launch, taxi'd over to a cat. Took off again, flew another loop and this time bounced the landing and couldn't catch a wire and ditched. Watched the entire replay and it was all accurate. 3) I change camera angles frequently during replay and no problems 4) I still notice a minor shifting motion in the F2 view while on the cat awaiting TO. I can guess that might be to make sure the plane vs carrier position remains accurately updated to insure a successful replay but if that's the trade off for an accurate track it's well more than worth it! I'll definitely be flying more now that replay is back operational!

Wow is right! I've been away for awhile...just came back and updated to 2.9.1.48335. Ran one of my favorite simple single player Carrier Ops missions from the Super Carrier (launch from Roosevelt, loop around and perform a case III landing). For the first time ever, the replay worked! There were a couple odd things, F2 view shows me a little jittery while sitting at the cat, and none of my cockpit actions like changing any of the DDI displays or punching in TCN or ILS data were reflected in the replay (even the navigation screen didn't reflect me caging the TCN & ILS...but this is the first time I've EVER had a successful replay when launching from a Super Carrier! Thanks ED for giving some much needed attention to the replay function!

That was it! I wonder if defaulting to "external lights = off" on the boat post daylight is a new behaviour as I've never noticed this before? Anyway, I run a CH Eclipse so don't have HOTAS access to the pinkie switch but just hit "L" to get it done Thanks Swift! Also: Just spent more time playing with this and it appears the Hornet's external lights default to off on the boat as soon as the deck crew break out the light wands

Hey all, just fired up DCS and installed the new update. Noticed something very strange regarding the Hornet formation/position/strobe lights. When I begin a mission on the carrier in the daytime my formation/position/strobes all function as expected. When I change the start time of the same mission to early evening or later, the formation/position/strobe lights won't operate...completely dead...no response to changes made to the switches in the cockpit. They even remain dead after I launch and get miles away from the boat. I tested and found this behavior on both SuperCarrier Roosevelt & Stennis. To make things more interesting, if I take the same after dark mission and simply change my Hornet start position from "on" the boat to "turning point" above the boat, the formation/position/strobes all function as expected. Also working as expected is starting a mission from land. I've even found a specific time of day when the external lights go from running to dead. I'm running the Mariana's map, mid August, no clouds. If I begin the mission at 18:00:00 all is good, if I begin at 18:30:00 or later the external Hornet lights are dead. I don't know if this is a Hornet or DCS bug so thought I'd begin by posting it here. Has anyone else seen this behaviour after the latest update? Can anyone try this and confirm I'm not crazy

Which map were you playing that had the problems 20 minutes into the mission?

Unfortunately not. It's highly unpredictable and I could never conclusively tie it to any mod, type of mission, or action I was taking after a mission began. I've seen it on both the Caucasus and Mariana's maps which are where I spend nearly all of my time. It's like everything's fine and then bang...the ocean is gone. And of course replaying the track of the mission doesn't repeat the problem. Extremely frustrating as 95% of my missions are carrier based

This leads to an interesting question...what RAF aircraft were actually able to chase down V-1's and take them out by wing tipping or guns?

Agreed, nobody gets a free ride on the flight deck and why it's the most dangerous workplace on the planet. My brother-in-law served for many years throughout the 70's and early 80's and his cruises were always on a carrier. He was never on the flight deck though but a couple dozen stories below in the machine shops. He told me most cruises they'd lose one or two of the flight deck crew to accident or just losing their bearings and falling off the boat...

That is amazing! And the LSO only gave you a "C"? After that landing they should have made you Fleet Admiral. When I get too cocky about my carrier ops skills I'm giving this "Head wind 97 kts. Boat 24 kts" setup a try

Thanks for the info all

Hi all, I'm a long time sim jet guy (Flanker 1.5 Su27/33 since the mid 90's then DCS Hornet) but also a bit of a European theater WWII history nut. I've always wanted to fly a Spitfire and take out incoming V1's! What DCS modules/terrain would I need to make a mission like this happen? Obviously the Spitfire Mk IX and then either the Channel or Normandy map (recommendations please). Do I also need the WWII Assets Pack? Right now DCS is having a cool bundle of the Spitfire & Channel Map, though I've heard the Channel Map is significantly smaller than the Normandy map. Not sure I care though...as long as the Channel Map has the white cliffs of Dover Also, I'm a single mode only player and make my own missions. Thanks!

I'm experiencing the same thing...any way this could be added under DCS for d/load as a User File?

That sounds great, as long as we start with a functional mobile ICLS for field carrier landing practice first

This has been a major nit of mine for many years. Back in the Flanker 1.x DOS days the replay system was perfect. As the sim evolved in complexity it got more and more unpredictable. I recall it still being solid in LOMAC but starting to get flaky in Flaming Cliffs and beyond into DCS. I fly very simple single player missions I create in the mission editor and I have noticed one thing that affects the accuracy of the track. Let's say I'm practicing carrier ops...if I start the mission in air to practice Case I or III landings the track replay system works fine. I don't believe I've ever had one of those missions turn into fiction on replay. OTOH if I take off from the carrier, absolutely zero success playing back the track. Also taking off from a land base on landing on the carrier never works for me. As far as tracks not surviving DCS version updates...absolutely true for me. Because of losing so many cool tracks after DCS updates I decided to take a different approach. After a mission that I want to make a movie of, I go into track replay and give it a try hoping it works. If the replay is accurate I use the NVidia video capture function software to record the playback of the track then edit it in Shotcut video editor. Works great and I have an *.mp4 of my mission that never goes bad...of course it's all dependent on the DCS track editor succeeding in the first place! I really wish DCS would throw a resource at fixing this problem once and for all...making movies of my flights is one of the main reasons I love DCS so much!

Now that we have the mobile Tacan Beacon TTS 3030, I'd love to see a mobile ICLS beacon as well. Someone in a recent thread mentioned there is an actual unit called an AN/TPN-22 that was used in Iraq circa 2005 that supports ICLS. Could we get that modeled and available in the mission editor? Thanks!

That would be so cool to have as an object in the mission editor! I would drop it on every runway I wanted to enable Hornet ICLS. DCS did give us the mobile TACAN station, I wonder if they could also model a mobile ICLS station?

That was the problem. I'm bombing the airfield at Marianas Tinian which is 280ft elevation and the original wypt was set at 5000...reset it at 280 and nailed it on the first try. That also explains why I was having such a hard time keeping my velocity vector above the dive line on approach Thanks!

Hi all, I've been exploring the world of dumb bombs lately and have experienced something I'm definitely not understanding. I load up on Mk series bombs and with CCIP I'm deadly, but in AUTO mode I'm awful! I setup a simple mission to bomb an enemy plane sitting on the runway, I place a waypoint directly on the plane. I enter the mission and do what I've seen Wags and other Mk82 demo vids do: Stores... Select Mk82 Mode = AUTO MFUZ = nose UFC Qty = 8 INT = 100 WPDSG on A/G on At this point everything looks great. I get the target on the plane and all goes as expected on approach. Like I saw in the demo vids, I go ATC at around 450kn and level off at 5,000ft. Hold Release when the countdown gets to 5 seconds and bombs away. I just studied a replay and noticed the issue is the AUTO countdown hits 0 when I'm directly over the waypt so obviously the bombs are way past target. Am I doing something wrong that's making the targeting computer think that the designated waypoint is not the target but the release point? Thanks!

Forgot about my UFO mods as they're not managed by JSGME. I'll pull those and make the other cache clears you recommend and report back if the problem returns. I also read in a similar thread people had success clearing the .../Saved Games/DCS/fxo & metashaders2 dirs so I'll clear those out as well. Thanks!

Resurrecting this thread as unfortunately the problem has returned. I've been flying the Marianas map hoping to not see the problem where originally the issue occurred on the Caucasus map but no joy. No mods loaded, very simple mission...just me and a Supercarrier with a few static planes parked on the deck. Here's a couple shots at what I'm seeing...same as before, the ocean textures go missing in the middle of the mission. Doesn't repeat the issue on replay. Log attached. Flying newest stable: DCS/2.7.5.10869 Don't know if it's relevant but I seem to have quite a few ERROR_ONCE DX11BACKEND: texture not found errors in the log. Considering all I fly are Carrier related missions, a missing ocean texture issue really hurts...any help would be appreciated! Thanks! dcs.log

Wow, I've been through many of these as well. I started with Jetfighter II which ran great on a cheap x286/x386 - and an extra cool factor was I lived in the SF bay area and that's the map that was modeled...and you could land on a carrier! Then I moved to Flanker 1.0 and I was hooked on the ED train...the realism just blew me away and my favorite feature was the replay. I went through Hornet 3.0/Korea, Janes's Navy Fighters, EF2000, JetFighter III, Falcon but none of them could replace the thrill of Flanker and none had the replay feature. Long live DCS!

Interesting...I'll have to give this a try. Currently I drop gear and go full flaps when I pass 250kts in the break...then I stick forward to counter the ballooning and once I stabilize level then I trim to AOA...

I'm not an expert and only make about 40% of my carrier traps (and my LSO hates to see me in the stack) but I can say I was very resistant to learning the proper trim AOA technique of landing the Hornet for many months. I kept thinking why should I bother with trimming, I'll just fly the AOA with the stick. Well, after having zero success consistently landing with proper AOA, I decided I wanted to learn how to land the way the real Hornet pilots do so I finally bit the bullet and mapped the trim up & down controls to my flight controller. It took many hours to get used to it but now that I am I find dropping the gear, flaps on full then trimming AOA and controlling altitude with the throttle to be one of the most fun things about flying the Hornet! When I was learning I watched many youtube vids but this is the one that really clicked for me. I like it because it's not just about trimming AOA for landing, but how to practice trimming AOA in general and get comfortable with it.

Just fired up Marianas last night for a few minutes to fly around. Very exciting map (especially since Hornet/carrier ops and some ground pounding are 95% of what I fly). Looks like Anderson is TACAN 54X but doesn't seem to have an ILS channel. Correct? If so, is there a workaround to put some kind of object or unit on the base that transmits ILS so my Hornet can lock on for landing? I know I technically don't need it, but it's so much more fun to land with both TCN & ILS locked on Thanks!