av8orDave

How do you safely swap from CPG to pilot in single player? Currently, you don’t. If you try to, you’d better have plenty of altitude and be clipping along at a pretty good speed.

Earlier in this very thread, I said I was done with preorders because dates are unreliable, vague, and consistently missed (and then was told I wasn’t being fair). On the unreliable and consistently missed side, this is a new one in seeing the actual preorder delayed. On the “vague” side, we now know that the EA release date, which hasn’t even been announced, is unchanged. Quite the head-scratcher. Again, my criticism isn’t of ED or Razbam… they make a great product. It’s of this goofy preorder business.

Yeah, I think it is a no on the pre-order for me. This discount is nice and all, but I think I'm done handing money over to devs when the release dates are vague at best, and they consistently miss the communicated date (reference basically every 3rd party or ED release that I can recall). Add in that the process is at least partly of out of Razbam's control (seems ED has to implement / execute the patch), it's a big mystery when you'll get the product. I suppose I'll do differently than I've done in the past and just wait for the early access release. Not trying to be a malcontent... ED and Razbam make great products!

Is there an estimate as to the release date? Hesitant to pre-order without knowing how long the expected wait is... made that mistake with the Apache (granted, not Razbam) but I'm hesitant to throw the money down if it is six months until release.

Put it in the shortcut line after the quotation mark for DCS.exe. There should be one space after the end quotation. See pic attached. Not to be a pain in the rear, but I will add that this isn't a very professional way to design consumer software. Having to add command lines to start the program for increasingly common equipment and modes of playing ain't the way to do it. ED needs to address a graphical interface for startup options.

Ok, so an off the wall question... Can a JDAM (GBU-38, for example) be dropped unguided, effectively as a MK-82? If so, what is the right way to do it? Example: Coordinates aren't available and the pod isn't working. Is there a way to just select something like CCIP and drop visually?

^ This, 100%. I got all amped-up and pre-ordered the Apache from ED when it came out, then it was delayed by like 3 or 4 months... that was disappointing. Not sure what the plan is from Razbam but I'd level set expectations until we hear something specific.

I'll add that the 'hog offers old-fashioned stick and rudder flying vs. the Hornet's fly-by-wire wizardry, which is nostalgic and attractive to the real-life pilots among us. Probably the biggest difference in my mind (whether it is a pro or con is subjective and depends on your perspective) is that one plane is 100% dedicated to one specific mission, while the other is a true jack-of-all-trades.

That is indeed the funny thing about VR. It seems like it is VERY sensitive to the specific system specs, and also sensitive to individual preferences!

Great point. For flight simming, the wireless thing offered by the Quest 2 is really not necessary... I actually have only used it specifically to try it out.

I frequent the VR forums and regularly see posts from people requesting opinions on what VR headset to get started with for DCS. I figured I'd take a couple minutes and throw in my two cents... For starters, my system specs: Ryzen 9 5950x, RTX 3080, 64GB DDR4 RAM, M.2 NVMe SSD, Win 11 I started using VR last year after being a lifelong flight-simmer (I can remember playing F-15 Strike Eagle 2, Falcon 3.0, Fleet Defender Gold, Janes Longbow 2, and Janes F-15 as a kid). I dove in with a Quest 2, really because it was affordable, available, and everyone says they are basically "plug & play." Quest 2 "pros": - Easy to configure - Relatively affordable for starters - Doesn't require firing up SteamVR - Somewhat "customizable" experience; Oculus Tray Tool, Oculus Desktop Tool, etc give some options as to how to configure the experience - Can be used either "wired" through Oculus link cable or in a wireless configuration Quest 2 "cons": - The battery life is just ok and it seems to charge (or not charge) randomly - Requires a facebook account (I really don't care but some do) - Requires way more "tinkering" than advertised to try to get decent performance & visuals; I am able to get 72 fps consistently on "simple" single-player missions, but have the visuals dialed back close to minimums - The visual compromises to get decent performance are maybe the biggest drawback - The "clarity" / resolution is not great, so getting things to look decent is a challenge; there is almost always a significant "shimmer", and on some aircraft (F-18, A-10) reading the MFDs can be nearly impossible Last week I got an HP Reverb G2 v2. My experience so far: Reverb G2 "pros": - Basically just as "plug & play" as a Quest 2, especially if you already had a VR headset and are familiar with the "VR dance" - The setup to use OpenXR & OpenComposite (which I'd recommend) is super easy and well documented on the forums - The visuals and performance are a step-change compared to Quest 2 - The resolution is significantly higher and there is very little shimmering; In situations where I have to have MSAA set to 2 for the Quest 2, it doesn't require it at all on the Reverb G2 - The FPS with visuals and very high settings are GREAT; I'm sitting around 65 - 75 FPS, even in really heavy DCS Liberation missions Reverb G2 "cons": - More expensive than a Quest 2 - uhhh... that seems to really be it. Long story short, there is no comparison, at least on my system between the Quest 2 and Reverb G2. You get better performance, visuals, etc out of the G2 and it is totally worth the extra money. I wish I'd have made the jump earlier... it would have saved me a ton of time trying to dial in the Quest 2 to give visuals and performance that it just wouldn't do.

What is the benefit of lowering the desktop resolution through OTT rather than just setting it lower in DCS settings?

Correct. I don’t use OTT, ODT, etc.

Nice, I’ll have a look, and thanks for the heads-up.

Is the resolution feature on SideQuest working again? I used it way back when, but it stopped working following an update and the community had no estimate on when / if it would be working again.

Not to be disagreeable, but "in real life tanks are NEVER jettisoned. EVER." isn't true. In Desert Storm, tanks were regularly jettisoned, particularly by F-15 drivers as they were closing on bandits and engaging was looking imminent.

Awesome, just enabled them. Thanks.

On an unrelated note: Am I missing something on signatures? I can't see your specs (nor anyone else's) when they say their specs are in their signatures.

Figured I'd post some progress for anyone else that it may benefit... Going into the weekend, I was getting inconsistent FPS with fairly low settings (on super basic single player scenarios, I'd get inconsistent FPS ranging from 25 - 75... on Liberation missions, I could get around 25 - 45, with fairly large swings). My system is Ryzen 5950X, RTX 3080, 64GB DDR4, SSD, Quest 2. I was running Med textures, low terrain textures, 2xMSAA, no shadows, standard clouds, 8xAnisotropic, no global cockpit lighting. I ran the Quest 2 at max resolution in the Oculus app, 72hz, no ASW. On a whim, I switched from 72hz to 90hz, used Nvidia control panel to cap the framerate to 45fps, and switched low latency mode to "Ultra". I was shocked to see a consistent, rock-steady 45fps even in complex Liberation missions. I dialed MSAA to 4x, went from no shadows to low shadows, went to 16xAnisotropic, and even dialed the PD in DCS up to 1.2, and I'm still running a solid and consistent 45fps, only with significantly improved graphics quality. I'd still love for the core game to be optimized for VR performance, but this is a huge improvement, for what it is worth.

The performance compromises can be significant, but you’re correct… once you’ve tried VR, you can’t go back.

The above answers are correct in that it frees up a weapons station and provides an improved field of view for the targeting pod. The Osprey series of books (U Navy Hornet Squadrons of Operation Iraqi Freedom Parts 1 & 2) have some great pics of these asymmetrical loadouts. I've seen them used with one Mav, one LGB, and one JDAM; three LGBs; three JDAMs; three HARMs; and all kinds of other varieties. It certainly appears that asymmetrical loadouts were more the rule than the exception on the legacy Hornets during OIF and OEF.

From today's patch notes, one of the items is "initial work on velocity hold submode." Anyone have an idea what this means or how to use it?

Thanks for the tip. This was exactly what I was looking for!

Just wondering if anyone can recommend good software for capturing FPS, GPU frametimes, and CPU frametimes for users of the Quest 2. I currently use the default FPS monitor in DCS, but I'd like something that captures the info to go back and review after a session. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

This one is a hot-button for me. It is embarrassingly easy to set up a dedicated server (even on the same machine) and see a huge performance boost, but there are compromises... for example, everything seems to be either an air-start or a cold start, and in the Apache you can't switch seats. I just don't understand how there is no official solution yet to CPU related bottlenecks where there are simple but compromising workarounds.