Safari Ken

I like to apply just enough power so that one or two (but not all three) of the wheels lift off the ground a bit, then do a quick cyclic trim, which is usually to pitch it down a bit. Then I give enough power for full lift-off, and it's always very smooth. I like lifting off just a little like that, as it prevents me from tilting too much in any direction before I trim.

Howdy! I could use some advice from you chopper veterans. I've had Black Shark for a little while now, and I love it dearly. I've gotten pretty good at flying the thing, and I'm getting better in combat all the time, but when it comes to SAM's I feel completely useless. I try to do what's logical; I stay as low as I can, try to keep from silhouetting against the sky (dunno if that matters in the sim, but I feel better with a hill behind me), light off flares like a madman when a SAM has been launched, but no matter what I do, the presence of a launcher is a death sentence for me. :helpsmilie: I would very much appreciate any tips you guys have!

Nice job! :thumbup:

The advice I give to friends buying it, is simply to not be discouraged by the initial learning curve. The eventual feeling of great satisfaction is worth some practice! :pilotfly:

:thumbsup: I can't remember the last game I've owned that has as few problems as BS, right out of the gate.

Welcome to the party! :pilotfly: I just ordered my pedals finally. Can't wait to see how much they improve my flying! :music_whistling:

I agree, and it never occurred to me to do the startup sequence from keystrokes. The buttons are logically-enough laid out that I was able to guess my way through 80% of it. Of course, then I had to actually learn what they all were doing, but the clickable cockpit is a terrific win for ED, I think. :thumbsup:

I leave Aero enabled and have no troubles like that. But I play in full-screen, and I've noticed that certain Aero features (like the semi-transparent taskbar) turn off whenever any application is full-screen, even a web browser.

With my G15, that key has never been a problem (other than that's also my Ventrilo transmit key). But mine's a US keyboard, so you're right, my mileage has varied. :smilewink:

That's why they gave us a hefty supply of emoticons. :beer:

Although I am not a good enough pilot (yet) to do that full time, I heartily agree with you in principle. Better to have full control as often as possible. :thumbsup:

Welcome to the fun! :thumbup: Your impressions are pretty much what my impressions are... The cockpit is definitely the best I've ever seen, especially with the TrackIR's 6DOF. Also I agree that it's amazingly stable; I don't think I've run into a bug yet, unless it was something inside the sim that I just didn't recognize as being a bug. That's a refreshing change from most games, and is even more amazing, considering the complexity of Black Shark. Yskonyn is right about the "shooting range" mission being a good one to start with. When I was first learning, I used that one to start, but then started making my own "tester" missions (the mission editor is terrific and also easy to use), where it would be just me and some non-shooting enemies like convoys. That helped me learn how to target moving vehicles. I just kept upping the ante, until I finally felt comfortable. Did I say comfortable? I meant to say that I don't die quite as often as I used to. :P

I shouldn't have used the word profile. I meant to say that Black Shark was not recognized by TrackIR at all, until I used the Game Update feature. I thought maybe that was TriggerHappy's issue, since he said he just upgraded his software. The game profile is a totally separate thing; sorry for the confusion. Incidentally, my TrackIR profile for BS is quite different than the default "Combat Flight" profile. I love how easy it is to configure every aspect to your liking. I don't know why I would want someone else's profile.

Try doing a Game Update in the TrackIR software. When I installed my TrackIR 4 (not too long ago), profiles for Black Shark and a few other games weren't included, but the TrackIR game update fixed it. I don't think you need to set anything in Black Shark itself (except to reclaim that hat switch you previously had set to view control :)). I agree about the X-52 profiles being very subjective. I wouldn't think of using anyone else's, because who else knows better what works for me, than me?

Don't be too concerned. People have been calling PC gaming dead for years, and our education system has been terrible for decades. Nothing too much has changed. Part of the thing about PC gaming being dead is, as far as I know, the top sellers lists STILL don't include anything but retail sales, and only from certain chains. They don't include digital distribution, and they don't include MMO monthly fees (the MMO thing I can at least understand, since it's not game sales). Personally, I've bought a bunch of games in the last year, and exactly one of them was from a retail store (that was Fallout 3, cuz I wanted the bobblehead and lunch box :thumbup:). So that was the only one that counts toward the sales charts. As broadband becomes more common, digital distribution will become more and more of a factor, and I wonder how long it will take the "elitist sales chart fat cats" to figure that one out. Or maybe Sony pays them extra to leave that stuff out, to make the PS3 look better. :smartass:

How come only two cores? Don't you get anything extra from the other two?

I'd say not getting shot down would be a nice step in the right direction. :music_whistling:

I only said that from my own experience. It's hard to be objective when you're actually making a video, so I look back at previous vids I've made, and try to learn from my mistakes. That's actually the best way to learn, I'd say. Just do it and see what works for you. I make videos strictly for myself (I love editing and I love games, so this is my version of a peanut-butter cup). Videos I've made, where the timing lines up perfectly with the music, tend to seem a little forced, I guess, for lack of a better term. Other ones I've made, where the timing is just a bit off, are in reality no less forced, but they don't SEEM as forced when you're watching them. Also, I use mainly orchestral music (soundtracks normally), but I have one or two that use standard rock songs, and it works great as long as the subject is appropriate, and the song is not too obnoxious or anything. Like someone said elsewhere in this thread, music is meant to enhance or "frame" your video, but it should NOT distract from it. My favorite thing to do with IL-2 videos (which is my favorite game to record) is to dig up a bunch of period music, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and that sort of thing. Also I grab radio clips of news from the time, and then I sort of mix them up in the video. It takes longer to do that, but it works great for setting the mood.

That's a given, since the music will often shape the way the video works out. Plenty of times, however, I've gone in with a firm notion of what song I want, how the footage will fit, etc, but during the project, everything changes. You have to be flexible. As Eisenhower once said, "Plans are useless, but planning is everything." I hate it when people time their video exactly to the music. That comes off really cheesy. It's okay if the action follows the tone of each section of music (as the song gets louder and quieter, etc), but when it's too closely matched, it seems very amateurish (at least to me), which is ironically the opposite of what the creator thinks that will seem like...

:D Yes, you're right. Depending on the game(s) I'm using, I like to pick subtle, suitable music (yet still have the game sounds audible). But not every video is suited for music, and certainly not all music is suited for videos. One advantage of a light soundtrack is to cover up the audio seams in the various shots of a video; simply using game sound can be jarring, when you switch between inside and outside views, for example. A little music can help things blend together a bit better. The faster the editing, the more that becomes important, at least in my experience.

http://www.fraps.com/ Fraps is the best way to record the footage. It runs in the background, and you use a hotkey to turn the recording on and off. It was originally made as a benchmark tool, but I've used it as a screenshot and video tool for years. Once you have the footage, edit it together (no one likes raw footage) using whatever you like. Windows Movie Maker is surprisingly good for a free app, though I prefer Adobe Premiere, myself. The nice thing about DCS, as with IL-2, is you can easily record a mission as a replay, and then watch it from any angle. So the best way (in my opinion) of shooting the footage would be to record the same mission from several angles, and then edit those together into a powerful, dramatic tour de force. Oh, music can be good too... add some music. :smartass:

I paid with my debit card.

Touche! :D

Yeah, Zakk lives in Vancouver, WA (see his location for details - though I assume he doesn't live AT the airport). I live in Oregon, and I'm American, and I agree with most of his statement. However, don't feel too bad; it's true that Hawx was developed outside the US, so I guess you got him there... Guitar Hero is not ruining kids' desire to learn real guitar, it's just getting in the way is all. In the same way, arguably, that flight sims get in the way of people learning how to actually fly. You know, why pay all that money and risk dying and whatnot, when you can just jump into MS Flight Sim? Oh, and for the record, I like my iPhone, thanks. It's not perfect, but it's still a nice little device!

Yeah that's it! I played Flight Simulator on an Apple //e, and Jet on someone else's Commodore 128. I also remember, earlier than that, playing a text-based, turn-based flight simulator on the Apple ][+ at the library. Can't recall the name. I've looked for more info about that one on the Tubes, but no dice unfortunately. A little too obscure, I guess. 8)