Jenrick

Is there anywhere where it actually lists out what say 102% percent of engine RPM is? Either in a manual of an MFD display, I've looked and hadn't seen it. I know you can use VSTOL mode and see the percentage but that doesn't help all that much, as I don't fly much beyond takeoffs and approaches in VSTOL mode. I general I use the engine RPM as my gauge for operation. Anything under 1000 on the dial is certainly safe (I haven't tried really hot weather so caveat emptor), and honestly for most flying right around 900 works great. It'll get you to mach .8-.83 depending on load and altitude and keep you there. Be careful if you roll in with any real altitude, you can be over 550kt TAS real quick with the throttle this far forward. If I'm trying to max range, or just cruising I'll throttle down to 600 or even less and you'll still cruise along nicely, with good fuel flow. -Jenrick

Sorry for the bit of necro'threading, but I had a question regarding the current DCS IR implementation. Currently when I select the IR mode for a given sensor, the display is basically just a B/W filter/conversion of the normal texture with no additional modification to the render? The main reason I'm asking is that it wouldn't seem to be difficult to simply have an IR texture layer/map that is used specifically for the IR sensors. Instead of displaying green grass in a field, it displays as black (assuming WHOT, and you really would do just a literal color flip to BHOT) etc. Vehicles could have an IR map that while static, shows an hot engine bay, etc. Does this loose some of the nuance of real IR, absolutely; we're also moving along at 150 knots (at least) over the terrain, I can handle the grass not having dynamic IR shading. This is the same concept as how the texture to the actual object is selected and rendered, the highest rez texture isn't loaded and rendered until something is within draw distance for the render engine to do so (I'm hoping at least that DCS implements texture switching based on draw distance). There is no need to identify objects, parse a list of vehicles/buildings/etc in the render queue, etc, just simply display the IR map on everything being draw in the sensor window vs their normal map. Depending on exactly how ED's graphics engine works, this could be very computationally intensive, or it could literally add no overhead. As I don't work for ED, it's beyond my knowledge to say. Now, this would require ED to basically add an IR map to everything in game, OR to simply have the default "cold" texture be used for anything that's not hot. As a quick hack, it'd probably look ugly, but it would only require creating IR maps for a couple hundred ground units. The IR map wouldn't need to be detailed at all, so it'd be a quick job. Not knowing how many assets in game use the same texturing for terrain/buildings/etc, it might even be a quick job for ED who knows. Now is this an accurate IR sensor simulation, heck no! However it will work for about 99% of what anyone needs an IR sensor to do in game. It doesn't take into account weather, time of day, crossover effects, sensor range, etc. What it would do however is create a zero processor overhead (in the sense of the need to calculate, locate, etc each instance) method of portraying IR energy as it is released from the source. Cold ground and hot engines, now have high contrast when viewed from the correct angle; from the wrong angle, the mass of the tank might shield the engine making it much harder to detect. The sensors range, contrast limits, etc can now all be handled in a separate manner acting on this IR layer to tweak sensor performance in game, and is based on the contrast of the objects against each other and the background just like how a real IR sensor works (and yes I'm fully aware there's a lot more that goes into an IR sensor, but that's close enough for what we need in game). How to implement this with the NAVFLIR hot spot finder, I'll have to ponder, but a lot of the question revolves around how the real NAVFLIR works algorithm wise. If we generate an IR map for everything, then the issue becomes how to simulate the actual parsing of IR sources that the NAVFLIR does. -Jenrick

So doing some quick research, even for an infantry designation, you ought to be able to get at least a 1km+ see: http://asc.army.mil/web/portfolio-item/lightweight-laser-designator-rangefinder-lldr-anped-1-and-anped-1a/ Does anyone know if vehicles have a longer range designation capabilities in DCS? Anecdotal testing seems to support that they do, but I haven't sat down and done any consistent testing. -Jenrick

Is there any way to check LOS for the JTAC in the editor besides trial and error? I've had the same issue. -Jenrick

I've found the harrier remarkably docile when hand flown. Sure it takes some trimming initially but I had a very pleasant cross country flight last night, spent about an hour all hand flown. Don't get me wrong I'll certainly use the AP when it arrives, but I don't find having to hand fly the AC limiting at all, even when doing pre-combat procedures. -Jenrick