Shahriar0

So the much anticipated 2.5.6.52196 Open Beta is out. There are a lot of fixes and improvements in it, but sadly the F-14 landing light bug is still present! Would HB offer an explanation as to why they chose not to fix this by reverting the brightness of the light back to the way it was? It should have been the easiest fix with plenty of time to test and calibrate. For comparison, I am attaching landing light shots between F-14, F-5 and MIG-29. Granted the planes are different in size and design and illumination, but there is no way F-14 light is this dim and faint. Thanks.

Done. I searched through the pages and didn't find one so I added the request. Thanks.

Adding key binds to the HUD TRIM dial would be greatly appreciated. This will allow to easily raise and lower the pitch trim in the HUD and place it on the horizon line for level flying without the use of attitude indicator or the VSI.

Obviously, I meant Heatblur (I had another bug going on with ED so I got them confused.) No big deal. I am sure HB knows my comment was addressed to them.

Would ED care to comment on this mini-feature request? Thanks.

That's interesting that this is platform dependent! BTW, my VR headset is Odyssey+.

Would ED care to comment on this bug?

Let me close this issue and explain what was happening using a simplified example (no replay track needed): Create a new mission, put an F-5E on the map and create a waypoint to set a heading. Set altitude/speed for 10,000 ft/350Knots. Click on the plane, Copy and Paste it. Click on the second plane and select F-14. Mission editor would automatically selects 430 knots for it. What I used to do before was to ONLY click on the second plane and set the altitude/speed. What I did NOT do was to select waypoint 1 and separately do the same thing for that route as well. As a result, ME was still using the previously set speed of 430Knots to get to waypoint 1. I should have paid more attention and looked at the Summary section which showed the Average Speed for the route as 430Knots. Now, this is open for discussion that why does ME pick a different speed for a plane when that speed is not too slow or too fast. Also, when altitude/speed is set for an airplane, in my opinion, it should be set at least to waypoint 1 as well if not beyond. That's what I thought was the behavior. Thanks.

IronMike, I don't see the HUD TRIM knob listed as function that can be mapped to keys (to raise and lower the pitch ladder.) Is it possible to support this so we are not forced to use mouse to control it? Having the ability to use Hotas would a great help for VR users, and much appreciated. Thanks.

Well, it actually goes beyond canopy. I was flying at night over land in the northern part of Persian Gulf map and when I went to map view and back, the entire terrain became lit, like infrared images, for a few seconds before the scene went dark. I would now call this severely broken and immersion killer. Hope it will be addressed soon. Thanks. Edit: Added an image to show the effect.

After upgrading to 2.5.6.50979 Open Beta, I have noticed that in a pitch black night when I change my view from cockpit to map and then back to cockpit, then I see the canopy fog up for about 4 to 5 seconds before it goes back to dark (and it happens in two steps, first less bright and then dark as it should.) This is most noticeable in pitch dark nights, but it likely happens in other times too with less intensity. Also, this happens only in VR, and every single time regardless of how many times I switch my view from cockpit to map and back. This issue happens to multiple airplanes as well (I have tried F-14, F-5 and MIG-29.) In the case of MIG-29, the mirrors are weirdly bright during those seconds (see the attached image.) Thanks.

Haha, to me more is better :) But thanks for the tip.

Oh, such a good question. It did not even occur to me to try out other planes, mostly because I like to practice instrument approaches at night only on the F-14 platform. Why would anyone want to try this in the F-5E for example? :) So I tried this in the F-5E and it did happen there too, although not as pronounced. That is perhaps due to the design of the canopy itself. I also tried the MIG-29A and the effect was there too, but interestingly the mirrors were totally bright during those few seconds as if it was dusk and it looked a bit foggy too. So this is not a Heatblur issue. Sorry for raising it. I will take this to the proper forum. Thanks.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. As long as this was by design, I can live with that. I, myself, like to rest it on the horizon on cruise. It makes making level turns so much easier.

I have noticed that in a pitch black night when I change my view from the cockpit to look at the map and then back to the cockpit, the canopy looks foggy for exactly 4 seconds before it becomes dark again. This happens only in VR. The effect (which is actually kind of cool to look at) happens every time. Even after several back-and-forth between cockpit and map views, it continues to happen. As such, I don't suspect it is the reloading of the textures and similar to jitters we see when a mission is initially loading. I did not see this effect prior to 2.5.6.50979. Thanks.

I have a question regarding the pitch ladder in the HUD. How come the 0 degree pitch is not over the horizon line? (see the attached photo. The pitch ladder in VDI, the VSI, and the Attitude Indicator they all show level flight but the solid pitch ladder in the HUD, which I primarily use to fly, is way below the horizon line? I understand it can be trimmed via the HUD TRIM, but shouldn't that be over the horizon line by default when a mission is started? Thanks.

I just confirmed that Instrument/Console Brighten Down command do work, but Brightening Up has gotten broken (deleted the RAlt+1 and RAlt+2 bindings and mapped new key combinations to no avail.) Just to add that using mouse to click repeatedly on multiple dials under VR is a pain and time consuming. That's why I want them mapped to my Hotas so I can throw a switch and take care of all my lighting.

After the 2.5.6.50979 Open Beta, I get no illumination when looking out from the cockpit in a pitch dark night while from the outside there is light, but faint and dim (see attached pictures - with no image processing done to them.) In my opinion, the previous landing light illumination was much closer to reality. Hope HB can re-adjust this light. Thanks.

Hi, After upgrading to 2.5.6.50979 Open Beta, the keybindings to brighten up the instrument and console lights actually turns them down! I do not remember whether the keybindings 'RAlt + 1' and 'RAlt + 2' are the default ones set by HB or I did them long time ago, but they used to work just fine. Now, when I use them (either via Hotas or keyboard), the lights turn down. The key mappings in the setting section are there and correct so I don't understand what they are not working. Other than that, overall, I am pleased with the light overhaul. Although I was used to a more intense instrument/console lights. To my eyes, now they look a bit dim at their highest intensity during daytime - althought not having seen a real F-14 cockpit, I can't be the judge how realistic they are. Thanks.

Understood. Appreciate the comment and attention by HB. I am crossing my fingers for this to be a trivial one :)

In case HeatBlur is assessing the priority to make the fix, let me say that while this is not the most crucial two indicators in the cockpit but they are certainly useful to the backseat as an instructor! I am currently using the F-14 platform to teach a friend of mine some of the basic aspects of flying - including landing. I can take the back seat and zoom into the front cockpit instruments and monitor VSI, AoA Index, Turn/Slip Indicator, etc. and talk real time to him. This is something I can't do in any other DCS plane and is extremely useful (and realistic.) So having all instruments and indicators show correctly from the back seat is fairly important. Appreciate if Heatblur would chime in and let us know when we can expect a fix.

Let me be more specific; This only happens with two human pilots occupying the cockpits. If a single pilot lowers flaps and then moves to the rear cockpit then the indicators do work as expected. It's beyond me what the difference is, but my front seat and I did observe it. We reversed seats and result was the same. From rear cockpit looking (zooming) forward, these two indicators did not work.

Hi, When flap is lowered, the flap position indicator continues to show flap up when looked at from the rear cockpit looking forward. Similarly when plane is turning, the turn/slip indicator does not show any movement. These are the only two instruments that I have noticed not working correctly when looked at from RIO's point of view. Hope they could be fixed rather quickly. Thanks.

I believe Persian Gulf map can benefit greatly from the addition of Tactical Fighter Base 6 located at Bushehr as well as the Kharq island with it's oil export installations. Currently TFB6 is home to the IRIAF F-14 squadron (used to be in Shiraz but moved to Bushehr during the Iran-Iraq war in the 80s so they would be closer to the Kharq island. The primary mission of Tomcats were to protect Iran's major oil export facilities at Kharq were many aerial encounters happened. With the introduction of Heatblur's F-14A later this year (hopefully), it would be great to have TFB6 and Kharq island added to the PG map. Thanks.

Let me be more specific about the problem I encountered. For all the planes I fly, I assign the necessary "Lights" commands to key combinations (if they don't have preassigned ones) and then bind them to my Hotas profile outside of DCS - being a VR user I want to minimize using mouse and clicking repeatedly on the light dials. For F-14B, they include Exterior Lights Master Switch ON/OFF, Lights Instrument/Console Brightens Up, etc. All those keys were working and present until I upgraded to 2.5.6.47224 after which I noticed that all those assigned keys were deleted and therefore not working. I ended up reassigning them and now they work as before. This had never happened before, either to the F-14 or other planes. Seeing entries in the release notes about keybindings made me suspected a problem introduced by Heatblur.