Moa

Now this is a marginally off-topic but I'll try and make the most of Yo-Yo being on this thread with some questions for him. Please indulge me .. The Simple Flight Model for aircraft is described in Scripts/Aircrafts/_Common/SFM_Aerod.lua I often get asked questions on what parameters mean what. So far I've made semi-educated guesses on each, but the change from 'Russian' symbols to 'Western' symbols leaves me scratching my head sometimes. For each aircraft there are the following parameters that characterise it: kjx, kjz, Czbe, cx_gear, cy_gear, cx_brk and then there aerodynamics table values of: M, Cx0, Cya, B, B4, 0mxmax, Aldop, Cymax. From these I guess: cx_gear = drag coefficient when gear extension is 100% cx_flap = drag coefficient when flap extension is 100% cy_flap = lift coefficient when flap extension is 100% cx_brk = drag coefficient when airbrake extension is 100% M = Mach Number Cx0 = non-induced drag as a function of Mach Number. Now here are some guesses for quantities (could well be wrong): Cya = lift cofficient as a function of angle-of-attack and Mach Number? Aldop = critical angle-of-attack Cymax = maximum lift coefficient at critical angle-of-attack So that leaves the following quantities as unknown (to me at least): kjx, kjz, Czbe, B. B4, 0mxmax It would also be very nice to see the SFM equation for lift, assuming it has a linear section and then a roll off at the critical angle-of-attack, eg: When angle-of-attack (a) is below Aldop: Cy(M,a) = Cya(M)*a and then something else when above the critical angle Then Cx(M,a) = Cx0(M) + B(M)*a + B4(M)*a^4 These are probably very wrong guesses, but it would be very instructive to have them written out for us - for the quantities we can adjust at least (I guess the inertial coefficients are not user modifiable?) Yo-Yo I would be very grateful if would take the time to defines these quantities (or point to a reference/thread/post) where these quantities are defined. I would like to write definitions up for the modders out there (might save you and I getting asked some of the easier questions). Many thanks.

Aha! Thanks for posting the meaning of those symbols Yo-Yo. Confirms our guess about the variables in the Simple Flight Model files. Just one thing, I think "inductive drag vs non-inductive" would probably be rendered as "induced drag vs non-induced drag" by English speakers - just in case anyone who knows a little aerodynamics (me!) gets a disconnect there. ... and Yo-Yo, your flight model for the A-10C is fantastic, very nice job there!

@Viper: I run the stallturn server used for VNAO and a testbed for the 104th stats system (http://stallturn.com/104th/ but has 'global' stats from multiple squadrons). From time to time it gets flipped as an A-10C server but I intend commissioning a dedicated A-10C server within the next couple of months. In am interested in any discussion of multiplayer. Not only from a server maintainer point-of-view, but also as a third-party integrator point-of-view (eg. so that my multiplayer, multi-server pilot statistics system continues to work as DCS evolves). Also, thanks Viper for asking ...

A-10C flight on stallturn on 2011-06-09 07:00 Z (19:00 NZDT). Have new RAM for stallturn so things should run a lot smoother. Will try Kodori Mission again - time to pound some Tors.

Half a dozen kiwis showed up, plus some curious non-kiwis. Yeah, I've ordered some new RAM for stallturn and hopefully patch 1.1.0.8 will also help. Pyr0/deflag's machine makes a good backup too. Was good fun - I'm looking forward to next week.

S77th-Devilman, what's the name of the "Aussie" S77 server so we can look for it? Is it the "ANZAC" server I've seen from time to time?

Correction, the version at mediafire is incorrect (will fix soon). Recovery Tskakaya RWY 09: * ILS: 108.9 MHz * Tower: 132.0 MHz * TACAN: 31x although not needed due to VFR conditions.

Here's the mission briefing (can't post to kiwisim since they don't seem to be updating very frequently). Please read before the mission: http://www.mediafire.com/file/4gbk1vovv0v2tyk/StallturnMission1_OperationSuddenHammer.pdf (20 MB)

104th Phoenix Teamspeak password is "phoenix", as shown on their main page at: http://www.104thphoenix.com/ See you next week.

I had a similar problem where I couldn't run my RAM at full speed. I upgraded my power supply (to a higher rated ultra-quiet Zalman supply) and now run the RAM at its max speed (admittedly only 1066 MHz). Anyway, the change in RAM speed made a huge difference to me. LockOn seems more GPU and memory bus bound (makes sense, it is moving an awful lot of pixels around) than CPU bound. I'd say making your memory faster would probably make the most difference. Since you are able to choose between running your CPU faster and memory faster it would be interesting if you reported your fps (using the fps tool in A-10C, RIGHT CTRL + PAUSE). Then you could see which (CPU or RAM clocking) made the most difference. My money is on the RAM. Make sure you keep all the other parameters (graphics settings) the same.

@deflag: perhaps you can try joining once the rugrats are asleep. Next week we may adjust the time to 8pm start - I'll ask during the briefing. If you think you can make it then please do the preparation I outlined in kiwisim thread (I find there is nothing worse than finally getting an opportunity to join but I am not prepared because I thought I wouldn't make it). @hawka: 12:00 to 16:00 local is probably a no go (you have a night shift job?) Hopefully once a 104th DCS:A-10C server gets online (work is being done to make this happen) we'll be able to use that (and people will be on it around the clock I'd imagine). That will have a much larger capacity than stallturn.

Sign-up for this mission is in the kiwisim thread: http://www.kiwisim.net.nz/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5409

:) See Nem, look what you are missing out on being in London. @Kaiza: that's a shame. Thought you could make a great flight lead for those new to the Hog Charlie. There's always next week ... (or divorce, lol)

VNAO mod can be obtained (with permission) from the "join VNAO" link at: http://www.virtualnavairops.com/forum/vultures-row-general-discussion/2578-how-do-i-join-vnao.html

Yes metalnwood, this Thursday on stallturn (203.97.221.19) Briefing on 104th Teamspeak TS3 (IP:64.34.167.18 port 8056) starts 2011-06-02 19:00 NZDT; which is 2011-06-02 07:00 Zulu (UTC) for those used to working in that. Start spooling at 07:30 Zulu.

Cool. I'm making a mission now ... Got 8 Hogs on coldstart (you will need to know how to start it up) and 4 in air for those nuggets really new to the sim. Will keep the difficulty low (no JTAC) until everyone gets up to speed in the Hog, so if you are new don't be afraid of looking like an egg, au! just jump on in and people will show you the ropes (although you should be able to do takeoff and landings and know the basic cockpit layout). Will make mission fairly straightforward for now. An adaptation of my Kodori Gorge mission for VNAO (based on a mixture of events from 1991 and 2008 Georgian/Abkhazian civil war). Threats are not too hard but there is some mountain flying for those that like it - although you can also linger in the stratosphere and drop PGM (yawn) too :) Will post a link to the mission briefing in this thread, so you have time to do basic flight planning (if you enjoy it like me), although no planning is required (just follow the waypoints). What time is convenient for you fellas? Probably need 30 mins to get everyone squared away with comms and mission briefed. Then 30-70 mins flight time (depending on how many target groups to slam), time for fragging stuff, and a little time for debriefing. I guess around 2 hours for those that can stick around for the whole kaboodle. Default loadouts are mostly Mavericks, Mk-82 and rockets (easier for nuggets). You can of course change loadout for precision guided munitions (PGM) if you are landed or on coldstart. So, shall we say: * briefing at 2011-06-02 19:00 +12 [NZDT] => 2011-06-02 07:00 Z in UTC, and * takeoff time (T+0) at 2011-06-02 19:30 +12 NZDT This timing is designed so you don't miss the news, but you get going while your missus is distracted watching Shortland Street :) nb. This will be an open mission, but preference will be given to players from NZ and Australia - I reserve the right to ask players further away to leave if we have no slots left for locals (unlikely, but it could happen). No pings over 300 ms unless the server is pretty empty.

Well the 'stallturn.com' server is located in Wellington. Mostly it runs the VNAO US Navy mod but I bought an A-10C license for it a few weeks back. It can handle a dozen VNAO folks connecting from the US every Saturday afternoon, so it would hopefully be even smoother for a bunch of bad-ass kiwis. I'm happy to flip the server over to A-10C and get a few folks on. Plus, I've adapted my 104th Phoenix stats program for A-10C (http://stallturn.com/104th/ you need the Java plugin installed in your browser, which you can get for free from http://www.java.com) Otherwise, there are some other good A-10C servers out there, including: * S77, although sometimes passworded so you can't get in :( * Seen an "ANZAC" server up from time to time. * the 74th server is located in Northern Europe. I put my stats system on it last weekend (combining pilot stats between the 74th, 104th, and =4c= servers, so no matter which you fly on your career follows you). 74th_Tyger has developed many of the advanced tutorials for A-10C and that is his stomping ground, so it is worth connecting to that server and letting him teach your the fine art of the Warthog Stomp. Unfortunately, ping is a little high from Godzone (I crashed on final approach a couple of times so the connection can be shakey from the Antipodes). If I made a mission for kiwis to fly cooperatively together on stallturn what local time would suit? I'm thinking a Thursday or Sunday night? We could use 104th Teamspeak for comms. ps: Kaiza, you are far too modest mate. Why don't you tell them what your day job is (night job is obviously Warthog Knucklehead :) ). If you don't then I will!

It ain't perfect but you can make do, as in the VNAO mod: http://www.virtualnavairops.com/forum/vultures-row-general-discussion/2578-how-do-i-join-vnao.html Sure, it has its limitations, but so do all the FC2 aircraft (which are not up to the extremely high standards of DCS). You can do joint operations and this results in decent combined arms play that require teamwork and using the strengths of each platform (fighter, attack, helo): Here are some videos of recent VNAO cooperative missions (credit: VNAO's "JAR"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXxXsLefn6Q or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjtWYhsGjKU It is a re-creation of the Operation Geronimo mission to kil Osama bin Laden, but with the twist that the Pakistani Air Force scrambles to enforce its sovereignty. ps: if you watch the PLAT landing you'll see a pilot with the callsign "X-Man". He's a US Navy trainee aviator and currently flies the T-45 Goshawk for real. He has been selected to fly the Hornet so with transition to that soon. He's livin' the dream :) pps: If ED do make a FC3 I'll personally be willing to pay for it. This is such a great game and the combined arms aspects (FC2 works with Ka-50, and hopefully one day with A-10C is a great strength of the series).

In addition to Panzertard's excellent points there are other characteristics of the network that should be considered. These are: * bandwidth, which corresponds to the bit-rate (how many bytes you can transfer each way per unit time). By today's standards the bandwidth requirements of a LockOn/DCS client are pretty modest. * latency. How long is a round-trip of a message. The ICMP ping time gives some information about this. * jitter. The variance in the latency. This is a bigger factor in gaming than the latency. If you have a latency of 100 ms but a jitter of 500 ms every 10 seconds then you (and everyone trying to maintain formation or gun you) will have a worse experience than someone with a latency of 250 ms with a jitter of 30 ms. * packet loss rate. The number of data packets that either never reach the server or make it back to the client. This really hoses your experience. Usually low latency is associated with low jitter and low packet loss, so people think that low latency means a good connection and high latency means a bad connection. When you consider the four factors I've mentioned you'll see this is not strictly true.

Thanks for your continued work Panzertard. By the way, do you know how to get the mission name from LockOn ? that is, do you know what variable it is stored in?

In general: * RAM makes the biggest difference to game performance * 64-bit operating system allows you to address the extra RAM * Disk makes a difference to load times (including terrain texture loading in-mission). Since you have plenty of RAM (and assuming you are not running 32-bit, which couldn't use the RAM) then getting disks and doing RAID makes sense. There is one caveat with RAID. Try not to use hardware RAID. Initially this sounds counter-intuitive (why use software RAID when hardware is available?). Well there are several reasons: * software RAID (especially under Linux) is reliable. In circumstances your software RAID is borked the chances are your hardware RAID would be borked as well, and * (most importantly) if you lose your hardware RAID controller generally you need to get the *exact* same controller to access your drives. Good luck if your board/chipset is getting older. This is not a problem with software RAID. I've heard of cases where data was lost on RAIDED drives because replacement controllers could not be obtained and the RAID format was proprietary. Never heard of a problem using software RAID.

Please note that the replay of a trk used to be imperfect, so TacViews recorded from a trk replay would differ from a TacView recorded 'live' from a game. I think trk playback has been improved recently in a patch (although I have not tested whether it is 'perfect' yet). So, please be aware (and don't be surprised) there may be some difference between a 'live' generated TacView and a track-replay generated TacView.

sobek is correct. I have programmed to NaturalPoint's developer interface (years ago - but had to sign an NDA which makes me ineligible to create alternative software) and its interface is *very* simple. This is both good design from NaturalPoint, and the fact that a TrackIR is just a glorified webcam with IR emitters, IR filters, some hardware for efficiency, and some nice software all bundled nicely so it is easy for consumers. There is no *magic* in TrackIR compared to FreeTrack or FaceTrackNoIR. It is all relatively simple as far as programming goes.

Hmmm, anti-competitive measures to protect a dominant market share is a slipperly slope - and depending on the circumstances is not always legal. Bigger companies than NaturalPoint have been stung by this (Intel, Microsoft, IBM - who are so big that they flout the law and treat the fines as a cost of doing business). US anti-trust laws apply when a company use their monopoly (which is legal to have) to leverage advantage in another area. This is not legal in US law. Monopolies are subject to stricter rules than companies in a balkanized market, so anti-competitive behaviour that would be permissible for a company with non-dominant market share is not permitted for monopolies (no matter what the size of the company is, it is the relative market share that matters). Since NaturalPoint have a monopoly in consumer head tracking they are subject to different rules than their business (Optitrack) in industrial head tracking (where they are not a monopoly). Anyway, the solution is to avoid NaturalPoint's license terms by using view control software that does not require NaturalPoint's developer interface. Wouldn't it be better to support webcams *and* TrackIR instead of TrackIR only? This can be done, and has been done for many games other than DCS/LockOn.

Great stuff Tyger. That HD looks fantastic on a big TV.