coolts

If i NEVER see another mince pie it will be too soon.:xmas: Ive just got to work after some last minute xmas food shopping at the supermarket. Man, its getting to a stage of "survival of the fattest" in there. It was like a scene out of Dawn of the Dead. By afternoon it will be a no mans land. The shops are shut for ONE DAY and the whole country goes into a "surviving a nuclear winter" shopping mode. Still hoping for Beta 4...... anything will do as my rig just plain refused to play B3 for more that 20 mins before crashing. The fact its taken this long makes me think that ED are determined to make B4 a big milestone release. I might re-install B3 if there is no release today, but i dont want to waste an hour faffing when a lot of other guys with my issue have reported that it didn't cure the crashes. Aanyway, i am having too much fun re-learning BS again. Every cloud....

Cheers for all the helpful advice guys. I've got a pretty decent Hog BS profile now that suits me, (http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1048663&postcount=42 - plug plug), i just need to polish my rough edges and precise slow speed manouverings are deffo a rough edge of mine ;) HiJack - HDG hold off and DM on? hmmm. I hadn't thought of that. TYGER - I will take you up on that, but i'm off up north to the wilds of newcastle for xmas so wont have broadband for a fortnight, sigh. Bucic - so thats what the 'big T is for' Ive been ignoring the wind as well. Its one of those tactile things missing from sims. You cant hear it or feel it so you have to go on ATC advice. A windsock at the FARP would be nice.

I can fly, I can fight. I can do a cold start and I can navigate, hit my objectives and sometimes even come back to base with a wingman but I have one have one very very embarrassing problem. I can’t land at a FARP for shit! I flail about around 4-7m off the deck wafting and spinning until I eventually drop the collective out of desperation and flop to the ground with all the grace and style of an elephant dump. I can almost hear the crew chiefs laughter when they see me coming over the horizon after a mission. “Here comes dumbo dump!” It takes the shine off my otherwise mostly successful debriefings. Are there any FARP landing tutorials about? Or a procedure I can follow? Here i go again...wheeeeeee, flutterflutterflutter, THUD, SPROINGGG :noexpression: (another landing gear out of my wages)

The only way to lay the 'falcon' ghost to rest is to do DCS:F-16 with a dynamic campaign. I want a WAR to take part in and some amount of smoke and mirrors is quite acceptable to achieve that, (as long as i cant see my own reflection). Then we can move on as a community. I would love carrier ops though......mmm superhornet...mmmm

Santa is getting near. I can hear the police helicopter in the distance. Probably an untaxed sleigh..... We need a webcam in the ED office to see how close Beta 4 is, or wether all the dev team are in post-mince pie comas like they are in our office. Not much work being done round these parts. :holiday:

more likely an amazon mistake causing a domino theory price matching frenzy. chaos theory for shops!

Adding another layer of layer of realism and immersion. Well done. Can't wait, (might buy some decent headphones now ;))

with you guys. stuck on the PMC addon because of that stupid helo mission with the side gunner who forgot his glasses. tried 4 times and i cant control the damn thing. might try keyboard, (grrrrrr) after a slightly pants start, the PMC reall picks up midway with an awesome tank hunting mission very reminiscent of the origonal OF.

RC for me as well. Bought TIR4 & 5 from them. They are just up the road from me. Amazon get enough of my bloody money so anytine small independants can match the big boys for price, they get my money as they can provide much better support, and email or talk to real people.

shhhhhhhhh (reverse psychology) :P

you couldnt plan for that kind of cock up. someone got fired i'll bet

It all depends on price. New ATI cards have more outputs than NVIDIA cards, but if you have two, thats a moot point. I'm not a fanboy of either camp, so for me it would be simply price / performance and how they play with my chosen games. DCS is CPU limited in my system since the 580 upgrade so i'm going to be looking at sandy bridge overclocked performance & prices next month to see where my next upgrade is coming from. if thats not impressive, then a sata6 ssd may be on the cards.

Too early. That means i may have to pack the PC. TIR, monitor, hog and pedals in the car to visit folks for holidays. Can you please delay B4 untill the 4th Jan or soon after. Thanks very much. :santa:

Well done you lucky guys who got a cheapie. Spare a thought for the poor amazon-monkey who is probably now licking kindle boxes as punishment for his cockup.

**EDIT** 1.1 uploaded (see above) No worries. I will upload v1.1 at the weekend which will have engine cutoff valve controls, and L/R fuel shutoff and engine governor controls. I am going to map them to the hog throttle base FUEL, and ENGINE OPER swiches. It also has working throttle controls using the hog flaps 3-way. I may change the AP to use the LASTE panel PATH/ALT-HDG/ALT switches as in the hog but that might be a step too far. 'hogging the shark' if you see what i mean. I am trying to avoid the temptation of adding U/M/D style layers as i did that in my FC2.0 profile and ended up with a telephone directory as a guide ;)

whay aye!

Well, i've just seen the reviews of the new Cayman ATI/AMD cards, and they look comparable to the 470/570. Glad i went for a 580 now as i was worried that i may have jumped too early and the 6970 may have beaten it. I sold my 285 for £130 so, in the end paid £260 for my 580. Result (luckily) ;)

If you want a sandbox playpen without any bads trying to shoot you down, just create a quick mission yourself. its a doddle. have a few fuel trucks bumbling about for target practice.

The nature of betas and bugs unfortunately means that you fix one and it causes another, (one if you are lucky). I wouldn't expect a 100% stable and bug free beta otherwise it wouldn't be a beta. Sounds like this one may be a big release though........fingers crossed it emerges soon ;)

Its mainly the in-built missions giving the "xxx is not responding" crash. Beta 1 & 2 never did that so its a new phenomenon. Once i got used to startup, flight, and weapons deployment procedures I moved onto operational missions to start to understand how to use the hog effectivelly on the battlefield. "camp yankee" for example crashes on my rig usually once the action heats up. At first I didn't mind because i thought, "Beta 4 will be along any day now". That was a fortnight ago. I stopped flying because i didnt want the crashes to define the experience. Crap beta tester i am ;)

Look at the date. ED are either working to release B4 in time for Xmas so they can go off for hols with a big warm fuzzy knowing there will be thousands of happy simmers dancing around the xmas trees, or they have somehow magically mashed all the bugs and can actually hit their 2010 release target. I feel the former is far more likely and in that scenario far more preferable, as you “don’t open the oven door till your Yorkshire puddings have risen properly” as my gran used to say. To be honest, the crash-a-day nature of B3, (on my rig), has given me pause to revisit Black Shark with the hog and I am getting back into it, re-learning the shark and TARGET script, etc. So, time well spent, (in terms of flight simming ;)) Looking forward to B4. My GTX 580 is waiting........(quietly, thank feck)

Updated shark hog profile (run from script editor now) **edit** small bug in fuel switch function found and squished ;) please update your TMC file with the one from the RAR file Here is an updated version of my BS Hog profile.. Change log v1.1 Additions --------- I have added functions (mostly to aid manual start-ups), since in BS most of the switches are stateless, (i.e. Same button controls on and off states), there is no way to determine the state of a switch at game launch, so for these controls I am assuming cold start. If you start with engines running or airborne, then my advice would be not to operate the engine controls as they will work back to front, (or worse as they manipulate the switch covers as well so you may see some craziness). If I can figure a way of reading button state at launch I can fix this. (switch controls also open/close switch caps) Throttle flaps control now controls throttle (Up-Idle, MR-Medium, DN-auto). I have not added a “full” as AFAIK it’s not often used. I can change this later if necessary. Fuel L/R NORM/OVERRIDE switches now control engine shutoff valves. (Before mission start make sure switches are in “override” position). ENGINE OPER switches now control both L/R engine governors and L/R engine cut-off valves. (Before mission cold start make sure switches are in central “NORM” position). UP (momentary) – open engine governor switch flap, activate engine governor, close flap. Down – open engine cut-off. (Switch stays down. Move to mid to close cut-off and flick up to disengage engine governors at shutdown. APU Start – (start in down position) UP – APU Fuel shutoff open. (You must manually start the APU as normal). DOWN, stop APU, close APU fuel shutoff Modified functions ------------------ TMS –UP lock target. Removed PULSE command so now holding up will allow unlock/slew to finely tune target. SHKVAL View. Having spent a month trying to control the shkval with the slew control I have given up. It’s just not accurate or sensitive enough in this sim. I have moved fine SHKVAL control to the coolie hat. It’s stiffer but by god it gets the job done better. I recommend using HMS for rough aim then Coolie hat for fine adjustment. Spotlight slew– moved to slew control Trim reset. Removed from H1-up-long. It was interfering with longer trim usage and is not modelled in the RL BS. Plus you can manually re-trim easily. China hat tracking gate resize. PULSE command removed for faster gate resize with held position. Boat switch. Added basic logic to tighten up control; Aft – target reset (cage shkval) Mid – uncage shkval (if it isn’t already) / wide FOV Fwd – narrow fov Now you can start with it in any position and it will act accordingly. To do..... ---------- As I learn the sim more, (or re-learn in my forced A-10 hiatus), especially cold starts, I find tying the hog throttles switches to engine / fuel switches is a real help. I am avoiding dual virtual switch control from a single real switch as this would be cheating ;) LASTE – path/alt/alt-hdg switch. Not sure what to do with this. I could try and ‘A-10-erize’ it but the fact is that the shark and hogs AP mechanisation is very different so I don’t see any point. Suggestions welcome. I hate a wasted switch! USB codes so they work on any nationality keyboard EAC on/off - Currently set to MASTER ARM as I like a proper “thunk” when I arm weapons ;) It may be more realistic to set this switch to the ‘K-041 targeting/navigation power switch’. As I use ‘Jojo's Black Shark Profile for Thrustmaster MFD Cougar Pack’ for my mfd’s, I don’t really need another MASTER ARM switch Rotor brake – I keep forgetting it in the cockpit. I may map something for it, but as it’s only used once..... The HOTAS is for often used vital commands and the rotor brake does not qualify..... Changelog v1.0 Abandoned TARGET GUI and converted to pure script Accompanying Macro .TTM file for enhanced readability Higher res JPG reference image Changed cannon to TG1 Added LONG commands to add functionality to H2 for gun / ammo commands Added H1 snap views (**still testing this) Flight director toggle on Mic switch with other AP modes Added logic function to control pinky switch for external lighting regimes; · Pinky forward, activates combined landing/take-off lighting mode · Pinky aft activates formation / night time lighting mode · Pinky centre simulates FENCE check lighting, (all off) To do... Now I have got my head round scripting and conditionals, I will code throttle fuel flow, engine oper and APU start switches to control similar in shark to facilitate cold starts. I am toying with adding quick interior lighting. nvg lighting commands to LONG commands in H3 to control (cockpit light, NVG lights, Panel lights & Backup ADI light) I plan to convert all the assignments to USB codes so they work on any nationality keyboard i have my eye on the flaps control and think it would make a good throttle... As usual, if anyone has any suggestions, please PM as I may miss something obvious! Cheers Coolts (many thanks to Nicu, Dimebug, Teej and others on the forums for guiding me in the right direction) BS profile.rar

Heh. If I hadnt mentioned a couple of things i didnt like i may have been called a FANBOY! ;) Seriously though, it is a very nice, solid piece of kit. My cougar is in the loft and aint coming back in a hurry. Target runs just fine and i am learning it by slowly buildin a BS profile from scratch. No throttle / brick issues at all. The slew control is the only thing i dont really like and strangely, it didnt pop into my head before,. I much preferred the microstick on the Cougar. This is one thing i will mod ASAP as it just aint accurate enough for the SHKVAL.

Like Smooth stick movement No centre slop Consistent force Mans buttons Mega accurate compared to my previous controllers I can now zero a T-80 from 1.5mn Easy to hold a position compared to cougar Metal Heavy metal Cold heavy metal Steampunk throttle HOTAS makes you feel confident and aggressive. Probably not safe for Cessna flying.:pilotfly: GRRRRR I have ordnance, move your civilian arse! Don’t like S3 switch hidden round stick base. I don’t have a 5 inch long little finger H4 push on stick feels little hollow Throttle shafts plastic. Slight right throttle play when separated. About 2mm No throttle rotaries Would I buy one again? Yes. Without hesitation.

I 'hummed' and 'haaad' for a whole year before taking the plunge and upgrading and I can tell you IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE. Put it this way, using the normal track clip on the TIR5 gives you better smoothness then the trackclip PRO did on the TIR4. The trackclip PRO on the TIR5 is silky smooth! In TIR4 I had to have the smoothing at 40-50 to stop jitters. Now I have it at 10. Much faster and accurate. And you can sell your TIR4 for about £70 on eBay to fund 50% of the upgrade.