Belphe

Loads of interesting pointers in this article: https://www.helisimmer.com/articles/real-pilot-impressions-ah-64d-apache-dcs

Hi, Could George be convinced to take >8km Hellfire shots, potentially mentioning the target is "just" outside the kill range? I've been successfully destroying targets that were beyond 9,5km with the manual override. Thanks

Amazing find - was looking for it myself. Any idea how to make the heading tape and letters thinner? PS. A simple "HUD/HMD thickness" slider in the Special Options for each Aircraft would fix the whole issue. One can hope...

I use the horizon line as a reference to determine my acceleration: When my LOS Reticle is level with the Horizon Line (ref. C) it means that I am maintaining my speed. If the reticle is below the line I'm accelerating, if above I'm slowing down. If I want to make it pretty and levelled I keep my VSI at 0 (ref. D) and vertically align my Flight Path Vector with the Head Tracker (ref. A & B).

A little bug which I haven't noticed on other platforms:

Same here, BARO ALT HOLD is gone and RADAR ALT HOLD only gives a message but doesn't activate.

Thank you all for your responses. They are very informative and cast new light on understanding this subject.

If so, could I suggest such option to be implemented from the back seat? Currently, when we set George CP/G to use LOAL - HI he will still not launch further away than 8km. Perhaps he could have his absolute max launch range increased to 10km? *** Am I aiming too high? Is my aiming too wobbly?

I was in a steady hover. Do you mean it's a bug?

Hi, With all the "amateur" websites such as Wikipedia showing up on the first 100 pages of google search results, this forum and you - the Developers and knowledgeable Community are the only sources of information. Please, tell me what the maximum range of AGM-114K actually is in all its launch configurations. I know that George will only launch it under 8km and I know that this is the range suggested in the manual but having him to lase the target and then WAS'ing/launching the missile myself I used to hit anything just under 10km. Today, all of the 8 missiles I tried achieving this with missed and not because the target was too far - they actually overflew the enemy and exploded 50 meters behind them. Is it that the laser is too dispersed and unable to properly guide the missile? If so, why is it working for the Hornet when its lasing it's LGBs from 30,000ft? Thanks!

Thank you so much for your answers! Something being WIP is actually good news. Am I right to believe that the GPS is not yet implemented? Can the IHADSS information be fed from GPS instead of the INS?

Hi, I have a few questions after the latest update but I'm not sure if they're bugs so I'd rather ask here first. 1. Is it correct that the Velocity Vector now disappears much earlier on the edges of IHADSS than e.g. the Heading Tape? 2. The Torque readout on IHADSS is now very prone to change, e.g. 3-degree change in pitch can increase it from 75% to 83%. Before it was much more stable. Is this correct? 3. George AI is not launching the next Hellfire on the same target while a previous missile is still in the air, despite saying "Roger, engaging". 4. SOMETIMES, multiple pilot launched Hellfires with 12-second intervals while George AI is lasing are not acquiring the laser after the CP/G is ordered to lase the next target. Being 12 seconds before impact I would have thought they could still spot and track the laser as it's just slightly off of their original heading. 5. A cold started, fully "INS'ed" and stationary Apache is SOMETIMES showing 5, 6 and even 7kts on IHADSS. 6. Attitude Hold (>40kts): when enabled e.g. at 120kts the helicopter negates all roll and naturally starts drifting right. 7. Altitude Hold: when enabled in a hover at 5ft it fails during gentle side-strafing and ultimately "lands" the helicopter. 8. Altitude Hold: when enabled in a hover, the caret is placed below the current alt bar on IHADSS (suggesting a loss of alt), even though it holds the altitude well. 9. Velocity Hold (<40kts): gently lowering collective with velocity hold enabled around 30kts+ causes strange pitch down movements and ultimately accelerates the helicopter above 40kts. 10. George AI is reporting "Laser On" but observing his actions with TADS reveals that he takes good 5-8 seconds to actually place the crosshair on the target. 11. INS drift occurs very quickly after take off/reset. 12. When my drifted INS is "lying" to me that I'm doing 7kts but I'm actually in a super stable hover, how does the helicopter know how to remain stationary? 13. Are INS drift and wind affecting Target State Estimation? The above is not to upset anybody. I just noticed a few things and would really like to know if they have been noticed, perhaps are already being worked on or as a matter of fact are working as intended. I know DCS: Apache is in early access, beta and is subject to change. Please respond if you have any knowledge on any of the above. Thanks

Well, this means that I'm not exporting the correct layers, assigning them the correct channels (R, G, B.. I don't know how to "make" a layer an Alpha channel) and/or maybe even exporting some of them twice (?). I don't advance blend anything and leave R, G and B at 100%. However, I'm sure that I don't create the AO layer or assign the Alpha channel at all so this could by it. I also don't clearly understand if R, G and B is to be assigned to the whole pre-made folder such as "Roughness" or " Metallic" or do I group sub folders inside those and assign the channels to them.

Thank you both for your assistance! With your help I was able to fix the issue and saturation on my model looks much better now. Edit: My joy was short-lived. The saturation was OK'ish in the model viewer but in the sim issues came to light Shadowed areas are now black as hell and some details have lost their prominence. Could you explain what AO and (A) mean? Is AO "diffuse map" by any chance and (A) stands for "All"? I'm sorry, I'm very new to this and my questions are extremely basic.. All I'm trying to achieve now is to simply mimic the material properties, glossiness and saturation of the default skin on one that I modified using roughmet.dds. It seems that I will have to trial and error the advanced blending to get what I want but it's extremely difficult without seeing the effect straight away.

Hi, I hope you can help a beginner skinner I have downloaded the skin templates and worked with them using Photoshop. I edited a particular skin and exported it to .dds format. By looking at the file structure of other liveries I learnt that RoughMet.dds files are also required. As far as I understand, they define the "roughness/smoothness" of the material. To generate the RoughMet.dds I exported both "Roughness" and "Metallic" layers from the original templates and disabled "Base Color". I also made sure that SNAPSHOT was unticked. Unfortunately, the elements of the fuselage I made my own textures for seem darker in-game than the originals. I am quite sure that the issue is in the RoughMet file as, when running the sim without this file, the skin saturation looks good again and the retextured areas only display "texture missing" message. Could you please assist me here and let me know which layer from the "Roughness" and "Metallic" groups creating the RoughMet file should be disabled to prevent oversaturation of the model? Or perhaps the issue lays elsewhere.. I'd be very grateful for your help.

We can rule out trimming as I only do that when leveled but what you say about the retreating blade stall makes total sense. Unfortunately, at the moment there are both voices saying that it is normal for the Apache at 130+kts as well as that it's the incorrectly modelled FM. Of course the whole flight model is still very much a WIP but I'd love to know if the above behaviour is actually on ED's radar labelled as "incorrect" or not.

Coming back from a sortie, no weapons, no ammo, 1050 fuel left. Cruising 130kts at 15ft above the Syrian plain. Dodging occasional vegetation with smooth, long turns. Keeping the velocity vector centred, flying nose to tail trim. After a 5-second right turn that required a little bit of a pitch up I roll left and follow with a slight left rudder to keep the velocity vector in the centre. Suddenly SCAS starts screaming and I discover that centring the stick does not stop the left roll. I counter with full right roll but it's too late and too low. Is this normal and if so, what am I doing wrong? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JcEFcJlwvQ

That did the trick! Thanks so much. Is there a way to see the range of the "ground crew services"?

Hi, Thanks but it still doesn't work. I have just run the same mission setup as seen in the video and enabled APU to power the radios prior requesting the rearm/refuel. I also checked if Groom Lake had Unlimited A/C, Liquids and Equipment. It did

Thanks for checking. I tried the same with some extra weather settings and it still didn't work for me. Please take a look at the clip - I hope you can bear with the resolution:

Hi, Can Groom Lake be made a refuelling & rearming airfield? I am BLUE, Groom Lake is BLUE and Ammo & Liquids are set to Unlimited. However, when I use the rearm/refuel screen and press OK the ground crew does not respond with "Copy". I checked and Nellis has no extra structures such as Warehouses, Fuel Tanks or Ammo Depots either but is able to rearm me with no issues. I'm parked cold in one of the parking spots in an Apache. Please, assist.

The only thing that ATT HOLD >40 does for me at the moment is keeping the bank angle at 0. Since it's not a heading hold it should allow for trimmed maintained turns as well as flying in straight line when trimmed correctly, both in nose to tail and centered ball setups (the latter is possible). I don't think my "fixed wing past" should matter here as I simply follow the meaning of words: attitude hold should hold attitude. Let's hope it's WiP

I don't quite understand the ATT HOLD >40kts either. I trim for nose to tail which requires me to keep a ~3 degree left bank to maintain heading as "the ball" is shifted left but the moment I enable ATT HOLD the helicopter rolls out and starts drifting right. That's not an attitude hold. Attitude hold would allow me to fly in circles if I wanted to, instead it negates all roll.

Works very well for me as well. BTW, does INS drift have anything to do with Position Hold? The AP had significantly more issues establishing the "hover" after the INS deteriorated. Is it possible to reset the INS while airborne/moving or do I need to be landed?