LanceCriminal86

Guess I should get to work on a default QF-4 skin for us to include, I think I already had some of the masks created for the hi-vis paint, just need to make a very faded and weather worn Hill scheme.

You're not going to get any traction on that request. Again, tying up dev time that can and should be spent on actual F-14 things, not fantasy weapons that were never operationally used or even integrated on any of the jets being presented.

Those were all carry tests, with only the one known AIM-120 being an unguided "shot" for weapon separation test. I have never seen anything showing that the finalized software being worked for the D ever made it to a live jet to fire a live missile, and the A/B would have been right out of the picture as they lacked the digital stuff needed to properly use an AMRAAM. The 88, 65, 84 are completely out as there's never been anything showing Grumman had even made progress on actually integrating those into any jets, again just carry tests. There are much more important things that are relevant to the actual jets we have and are getting that are worthy of dev time.

This came up as being something that was desired, part of the issue I believe is that there are scripts when the aircraft loads in, particularly when manned, that set up all of the various arguments. That loadup activity overrides the custom args, as Yae tried similar in the Tomcat to hide the RIO. They may work with a static aircraft but they don't work with AI or manned, it would take a deeper approach to allow those args to be overriden after the aircraft loads in. Or that's what I recall from when we last brought it up.

The USAF didn't lean into NVG usage until ANVIS sets came online and were available in enough numbers. The Phantoms were being retired as those sets were coming online, so there was likely no overlap. The F-4Gs were around slightly longer but I've seen no indications of NVG use with them either. The Navy began using NVGs around '86 with first on-cruise usage in Intruders during the '87/'88 cruise on the Coral Sea. As quickly as NVG usage started coming online it also identified the need for NVG compatible cockpits, which is something there's evidence of in Navy aircraft but not in the F-4E in USAF usage. Modernized jets from other countries, the Greeks and Turks are more likely. I can't say I saw any ROKAF crews with them nor JASDF in their EJs. Unsure as well with the Germans.

And the first Tomcat drop of bombs in combat were VF-41 in Bosnia, dropping LGB that were buddy lased. It wasn't until '99 during Allied Force that they dropped self-lased LGBs in combat.

They could launch and trap, but they couldn't go below decks. Which is why there's the clips of them doing carrier quals on Coral Sea, and the story of a jet each from VF-114 and 213 that landed on Midway due to weather and low fuel state and launched the next day.

They've answered that so many times, NO, there isn't info on the APG-71, and NO the D is not on the docket.

Yes

The things presented either had photos provided, seen in cruise videos, or SMEs provided direct guidance of what was used. The photos of the wires have been posted plenty, I've seen the plate in either a photo or cruise video, and I vaguely recall seeing the tape in one or the other as well.

The AIM/ACE jets? Yes, I have most of the resources I need to make them, I am just waiting for the early externals to see what I actually will have to work with. But I have names and photos for each of the 6 jets.

I found that finally after some digging, doing a test of it now. The contrast definitely matches, messing with the pattern a little bit to get a less crisp layout and those patches on the intakes.

Double check the movie please.

Remember that the original film used, how it was processed, and then how it was scanned is going to impact how the colors look. Some scans of old Kodachrome slides, if you don't adjust for it needing tungsten lighting, will come out way blue. It's hard to tell if that was FS35237 Medium Gray or a different mix as it does come across as very blue. This is from '81 and you can see a 3-tone on the nosecone. It's difficult to make out but there could be 3 tones in there, with the belly being a different and much lighter gray than the light ghost we're used to. Or the dark ghost could be deeper and bluer than we're used to. Here's a good example of the same jets, possibly taken around the same time or day even, but different scanning/processing making the colors and contrast very different. Here's that jet into 1982

Maybe it's a contrast thing but the "35237" used on their F-4s just doesn't seem to jive with the same shade as used on things like the Tomcat and other Navy aircraft. Maybe it's the juxtaposition of the other colors but the HAF one always has seemed far more "blue" to me. I had experimented with using the same shade as I had used on Tomcats and it just didn't look right. Other big issues is trying to find good HAF jet shots where folks haven't blown out the contrast or gone with "HDR" or faux HDR style shots where the balance is completely out of whack to emphasize all the grunge. The middle shot seems to be better balanced at least.

As could cat launch without AB, and they definitely did it in the earlier years with light loads. Later on with increasing loads and aircraft weight it became the SOP to always use burner.

They haven't even decided which Navy Phantom they plan to do, and it's years out most likely.

Definitely not happening. Not only because documentation, but it was immediately discontinued from use and started being removed from jets partway through the first F-14 cruise, and not mounted on any later jets. And the team has elsewhere expressed those early jets are well out of scope.

The HGU-55G is planned eventually with a more proper German pilot.

They're just counterweights for TARPS pod. On cruise or during workups fleet squadrons would just use the Phoenix pylons, and it was eventually just how the remaining squadrons did it in the 90s. But during the 80s and early 90s you'd definitely see shore-based squadrons with the Sparrow slugs, I don't have copies that are web-hosted but I've got shots from VF-202, VF-124, etc. showing them. I don't believe they were even a wired-in CATM, but rather just a Sparrow body full of concrete from what some former maintainers said. VF-202 even stenciled 'Superheats' on theirs.

Because they didn't get the capability until 2002.

Not fly-by-wire, it replaces the AFCS and works to curb a few undesired tendencies the Tomcat has at high AOA and low speed. But to some pilots it was like training wheels. It was mainly to prevent dangerous situations that would lead to flat spins.

They have to rip into the cockpit art anyways to work on the earlier A stuff and the cleaner cockpits that they've hinted on. The F-14's cockpit wasn't put together the same way the F-4's was so it's more intrusive to go back in there and rework the cockpit to clean it up. And if you're already doing that, spending some extra art hours to get the B Upgrade bits modeled, some of which are also correct for the existing Late F-14A and B, then it makes a lot of sense to just get it all done at once.

In the past, we've overwritten cockpit files in a skin such as changing the BuNO plate on the F-14. It should work in the F-4 that way, so I'd try just dropping it in with the rest of the skin files.

You have to go under the Mods folder which contains the cockpit, not CoreMods. So from main DCS folder X:\DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\aircraft\F-4E , and under that Shapes will have the cockpit EDM, and Textures folders there has subfolders one of which has the VR body zip. If you load the cockpit edm you can generate a livery file that will include the VR body, the lines end with "highrez"