beers

You have a native 3.0 GHz, the i7's range from 2.4 to 3.something. Since DCS is really all about 1 thread (at the moment) your core is more powerful. (edit: more powerful than some i7's)

I experimented; i have on-board sound, realtek. Turned off sound in game, looked to be about 10 fps gain. Putting the sound on a different thread could likely result in similar gains? (for multi-core)

I will include Dmitry S. Baikov in my prayers tonight!

I don't know if it is bad form or not to change the wingman skill level in the mission editor, but I find it an easy solution to this common frustration. Most times, in the default campaign, I find the wingman is set at the lowest skill level, so I bump them up one or two. This seems to cure them of the "don't fire 'till you see the whites of their eyes" syndrome. I suppose the higher skill level the more CPU the little guy eats up, ... ?

I have trim and FD mapped to the joystick in the most convenient of places. I think of them as; Trim = I want to point her in a different direction/attitude FD = :helpsmilie: drop to the deck

mumble... looking forward to ED's development

if you have Vista or Win7 it will sorta use multi cores, but in order to really take advantage of multi-core power it needs to be a multi-thread application, which is not expected any time soon, to my great disappointment. In specific response to your question, there are excellent references on this forum, search for 'recommendations' or such... in general, a dual-core will does the same as a quad in terms of DCS, and i also hear the i7's do much better than Core2's. 3.0GHz or better imho; processor speed is the biggest DCS factor and likely will be for some time to come. Win7 would be the best processor, 64bit will give you more memory access, but i do not find DCS to really comsume much memory. There is data from tests people have run around here, do some searching.

Is there any chance that the new FC would be related to the DCS graphics/sim engines? Meaning, would installing the new FC include any enhancements to DCS? I understand that the plan has been that installing DCS A-10 is going to give BlackShark the newer engine, and honestly, i'm a total rotor-head and I'm not all that interested in any fixed-wing, but I've been planning to purchase A-10 just to get whatever enhancements would make BS smoother. I'd be happy to purchase FC if it will enhance BS, but if not, i'm disappointed but patient :)

In the oil campaign, where a mission is time-sensitive and you are part of a group attack it starts you up ready-to-fly. If the mission is not time-sensitive, it is cold. You can change this in the editor, but i wouldn't advise it, unless you can start-up in less than 5 seconds... or fly faster than 300 the whole way...

Gaah!!! Keep voting!!!

This brings up that topic about console vs PC; http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GadgetGuide/air-force-thousands-playstations/story?id=9272180 The military seems to think that a small room full of playstations is better than a super-computer

I don't know abot "spot on". You do NOT need visual to make a lock. If you know the bad guy is behind that tree and you try to lock that tree, just poke around in the dark greenness and after a try or two you'll get a good lock. This is the one point i have found in DCS where they seem to skimp a bit on the reality. I can lock on a house and sometimes on dirt, but I cannot lock a dead vehicle and I can lock things that I cannot see thru trees.

Both of these settings are also related to cannon aiming. It will automatically lead the target. If you have the guts to get within 3 KM of your target the Black Shark's cannon is lethal in A-A. (at least against AI)

i have finally found satisfaction with my q6600 at 3.6GHz. I would strongly suggest that anyone with a q6600 G0 take up the wonderful hobby of over-clocking and go for the gusto, don't settle for 3.0. I recently installed a MASSCOOL heat sink and it makes all the difference. slight nudges to voltages and a hefty increase in timings and badda-boom, flowing FPS. As I mentioned before, at 2.8 I was happier than 2.4. At 3.2 things were even better but still wanting; 20-40fps with drops to single digits in heavy combat. At 3.6 I have not seen it drop below 20 and I average 30-60. MSI P7N, q6600 G0 @ 3.6 GHz, 8GB DDR2 @ 800 MHz, GTX 260, 2048x1152, Saitek X52, TIR5 textures & scenes @ high, distance @ medium, shadows & water = 0, no mirrors

I'm a back-seat programmer for the software company i work for, so I might have been grace-less in my statements... we are going thru the same thing, 3 programmers and a massive program that needs to be converted to multi-thread and we've been laying the groundwork for it for the last 3 years and hope to actually do it next year... so yea, when i nudge for multi-threading, i'm not hoping to see it next year, i'm just hoping to see it. i'll shut up on the topic for a few months :) And i can also say that now that i've got a nice cooler and can raise the voltage and get a stable 3.2Ghz out of my q6600 things are running VERY much better!

I can easily believe that "old hardware can indeed run this simulator with acceptable framerates" where you find 20-40 fps acceptable. People here are asking why an average of 60 isn't the norm. (and from my experience, 20-40 average includes spikes in the low teens, single digits in moments of battle craziness). My single-core P4 350MHz would run DCS fine if it wasn't running Windows XP at the elementry school that I donated it to. That machine couldn't run FarCry very well let alone Crysis, ARMA2 (and wasn't all that smooth playing netflix), therefore that machine has lost it's right to be called "my gaming rig". Seems to me that most spec's I've seen from DCS pilots include a multi-core rig. My q6600 does a fair job when I have water & shadows @ 0, I get averages from 20-40, but at moments there are single-digit fps, and those moments are the issue. That moment normally comes at the wrong time, ya know? FPS don't drop when people are shooting at you, FPS don't drop when a bunch of movers start advancing, FPS don't drop when the fight reaches that good old crecendo. (FPS DO drop when you get your wingie killed, but that's not quite the point, is it?) So, ditto on the statement that a focus on FPS improvment is essential to keep my attention in future releases. As i've wined before, multi-thread, multi-thread, multi-thread! 64-bit might help with this issue some, and I am hoping that our heros at ED know more about this than I do. Whatever the solution, the ONLY problem that I have with DCS is FPS. IMHO, I don't think DCS needs bigger & more involved battlefields. I think it needs a battlefield that best simulates the experience of flying this (and future) warbirds, and I think the experience of FPS that NEVER drops below 20 is a very important part of the simulation experience.

I was tracking on an apache, waiting for him to turn in some way I could get a shot on him, and suddenly I see his wingman is pointed right at me in a hover at about 5 KM. I locked him up as quick as I could and just before I launched on his yankee ass I could see the smoke as he launched at my po' ass. i'm yelling "go go go go!" Apache gets hit, BANG, and his shot explodes a safe distance from me. So, between the arc travel of Hellfire vs the direct path of vikhr and the speed, it seems you can win even if you don't quite beat them to the punch!!!

My experiments with the red/blue glasses showed the helmet-mounted-eye sight was weird. It couldn't figure out if it wanted to be on the right or the left eye, flickered back and forth. But the red/blue thing was amazing, I can only imagine the system with the glasses is incredible.

I suggest waiting a few more weeks/months to see what the next DCS module does. The difference between a dual-core running over 3ghz vs a quad-core at 2.something is that DCS will run better on the cheaper dual core, but the dual-core is less powerful than the quad from many other vantage points, so depending on what DCS looks like in 2010, you might be jumping the gun. If things don't change, a dual core will serve you better, if the new module changes things dramatically then a quad might be helpful.

Thanks!!! So, I am looking forward to DCS moving up to 64-bit almost as much as I am hoping that some day it will be multi-threaded :) Love the game.

Need some hardware wisdom; I have a free choice between 4GB DDR2 800 or 8GB DDR2 533. I've tried both and the difference seems minor if at all, leaning toward the 4gb @ 800. Any experience? Advice? And then, what sort of improvement might I expect from 4GB 800 if I purchase a set of 8GB 800? I'm running Win7-64 on a P7N SLI moboard, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.39GHz), GeForce GTX 260. Without o/c I get frame rates in the range of 30-5 with the typical over-battlefield at 15-20. With o/c (CPU goes up to about 2.88 in either memory config) I get a range of 50-9 with typical over-battlefield at 20-25. So, I'm functional, but only barely. I've gone thru the various config tips on the board here and I'm fine with shadows=0, water=0, medium range, but lighting has to stay, and I didn't find it gave me a massive FPS boost anyway... any suggestions welcome. EDIT: I'm talking about Black Shark here.

Where'd you get red/blue glasses? I've been to all the junk retailers around and i can't find them anywhere. Stupid $.05 plastic and cardboard have cost me $5 in gas so far!

Is it just me or did this series already fizzle out?

Just got my registration key and now downloading the iso of the Win7 final release. Currently working on Win7 Eval copy. Anyone have experience with this yet? Need to de-activate and re-activate or is blindly installing ok?

It's not the game, bro, it's your sleep-deprived brain.