Notso

DING DING DING! Well said.

Has anyone officially reported this as a BUG yet?

Yes, I can now drop the lock like normal. I had to clear the command on the undesignate/NWS line in the DCS controls setup and then just remapped (added) it back to the same button. Works fine now.

Thank you, that makes a lot of sense now. I'm not terribly familiar or up to speed on the history of ED and DCS. But in any event, that makes it all even more important as a "wishlist" item to upgrade DCS world to modern ICAO / western military aviation standards. Especially since the majority of the new Modules such as F-16, F/A-18, Eurofighter, etc are all western aircraft. It would be nice to have a single system / units of measure across the board.

Sorry, you could make it a 350" 4k screen and it still won't be as immersive as VR. Yes VR has limitations, but the fact that you are sitting in a virtual cockpit and everywhere you look is from the cockpit vs sitting at a desk and looking at a big TV makes all the difference. I believe it's one of the reasons some in the "Home cockpits" thread go to such lengths and $$ to attempt to recreate a cockpit is because they lack the immersion of sitting at a desk. It doesn't feel "real". But even if you build the most elaborate cockpit with switches and dials down to the minutest detail, you are still looking at a flat screen and can see the rest of the room around you. Even with multiple monitors arranged in an arc in front of you, you are still not going to get the immersion of VR and the ability to look all around you in all axises. This is why the military spends $50 million to build a domed simulator with projection screens in a half spherical shell.

To answer your first question about whether VR is worth it, I can only say for me VR is the ONLY reason I’ve gotten back into flight simming. I gave it up many years ago and told myself I would never do it again until VR was finally mature. I violated that briefly about 8 years ago when DCS A-10C first came out. I was all excited to fly it hooked up to a 55” flat screen LED in the living room. It was going to be epic. I was bored in about 45 min and never returned to it even once until I bought myself a VIVE Pro full kit. The moment I was sitting IN the cockpit and not just seeing it on a flat screen in front of me - I was sold. For the first several sessions, my response just “Wow!” The immersion with VR is incomparable. Yeah the visuals were not perfect and crisp but it’s more than made up for by everything else. You have to experience it for yourself, but trust me when you try VR you will never go back to flat screen. To me the difference between VR and track IR/Flat screen is you are flying IN the cockpit vs watching the flight on a TV screen as a interactive spectator. I’ve since upgraded to the Reverb and now the cockpit is crisp and the visuals are so much better. The resolution of the HMD makes a big difference in DCS where it might not be as critical in other VR games. As for system hardware, get the best GPU and CPU you can afford and then get the next thing up :smilewink:. VR is very intensive on your system but it's worth every penny!

Yep +100

That's sort of what I thought. Thanks!

I thought Taiwan was part of Mainland China, right. :music_whistling:

To the ED team, as I peel back the layers of the DCS onion, it continues to amaze me cool and immersive this study simulation is. However, there are still come annoyances that just don't make sense. Most of the following revolve around metric vs imperial units, but not all. The caveat to my post is that I am completely comfortable with metric, but international aviation is almost ALL imperial units. Windspeed, altimeter settings, cloud heights, elevation, altitudes, etc etc are generally always given in the imperial units around the world. For instance (not all inclusive): -- ATC clearances - everytime I takeoff from Nellis for instance, I get QFE altimeter settings. However i need a QNH setting to input into the F-16/18 etc for it to read correctly. -- Windspeeds in the mission briefings are given in m/s when the standard aviation unit is nm/hr in most places. -- in mission editor, I select altitude of the steerpoint in feet, but when it gets transferred to a JDAM via WPDSG - the elevation is input in meters. -- JTAC used only MGRS but some aircraft cannot accept that format coordinates. IRL, JTACs can give coordinates in whatever format is desired, although MGRS now is the norm. Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, that was not the case. What I would like to see is a toggle button somewhere in the controls menu where the user can select the standard for units of measure for everything such as weather, ATC, JTAC, coordinate elevation, winds, altimeter settings, etc. So then the game would display either the imperial or metric units as desired and be consistent throughout the game. As it is now, it seems to be a complete mishmash of units and nothing is consistent throughout the game. I'm sure it has to do with whoever the coder was that worked on any particular module and they went with what they thought was the correct format. But there's little standardization of units throughout the game.

It's fixed. It was indeed working fine for NWS but would not work to undesignate in either A/A or A/G. So I went into controls, cleared the current map button and then just added the button again to the same place exactly as it was before and it's working fine now. No clue why it was FU before, but this seemed to fix it. <shrug>

Good, that's what I thought re AGR. Then what does FTT do? What does the radar tracking a fixed spot on the ground do for you?

Hmmm, I'll go try it one more time in both A/A and A/G undesignate and if still not working, I'll report it as a bug. Thanks.

Sorry for the stupid Q, but is FTT here the same thing as AGR in the Hornet? Typically, AGR as I understand it is just a ranging mode only and does not "track" anything. It is just a mode that has the radar fire down the LOS of something such as the CCIP pipper, gun or rocket pipper, the AUTO designation point, or along the LOS of the TGP if the laser is not firing instead. Therefore nothing is being tracked, but rather you are getting ranging to wherever the AGR spot is pointed at the ground. If I see the term FTT, it implies that something on the ground is being tracked in 3 dimensions much in the same way that an aircraft in flight is being tracked while in STT. That's an entirely different concept than just a ranging mode.

Thanks Wags. All clear to me and I appreciate your candid answers. I can only speak for myself in saying you guys are doing an amazing job and the product speaks for itself. I think people are being too hard on ED and don't realize not only the enormous complexity of this undertaking, but it also ironically simulates almost perfectly the actual development cycle of the real aircraft as bugs are worked out and new features added. Except ED's turn around time is often days/weeks or months rather than the years or multi-years it takes to make a change or add a capability to the real aircraft. Furthermore Wags, I appreciate your team's dedication to continue development work during this time of true global crisis. It would not have surprised me if you guys had shut down altogether like most of the rest of the world until this pandemic was in the more manageable stages. That you guys have carried on speaks volumes about your dedication and passion for getting the product right. I can only chuckle and facepalm when I read the amount of whining and crying on this thread given the circumstances going on out in the real world right now. So thanks again and keep up the great work. Stay safe and hug your loved ones.

I'm not understanding why there is so much angst for the ATFLIR. My understanding from some of my Hornet buds back in the day was that it was a POS compared to the Lightening Pod.

Sorry for the silly question, but What do you mean by aircraft and weapons cards?? What would this do? Thanks.

It's specifically not working to undesignate / drop lock on a STT contact. For instance, I had the tanker locked up to rejoin and then as I approached pre-contact position, I wanted to drop the lock. The only way I could clear the lock was to turn the radar to STBY with the console knob. AS I said, the NWS steering button on the ground works fine, so I know the physical button is not broken.

I'm not sure how realistic it is, but when I'm doing overheads in the hornet on shore, I fly it more like a USAF overhead rather than the long slow boat pattern. I know it's supposed to be the same for the USN/USMC whether its a boat or shore based pattern so they keep the same habit patterns, but I find the USAF overheads more fun and easier to manage. So in the break, slow down to <250 on the Downwind, gear down and HALF flaps. FULL flaps is where you get the huge nose change and need for lots of trim. I fly the airspeed right at around 190-200kts off the perch (touchdown point is 45 deg behind from the wingline) and then nose down and power as required to manage the airspeed around the turn. Once on final and lined up with the runway, I work to get on a 2.5 deg glideslope and power to maintain on speed/AOA (in the staple) to touchdown. i know that's blasphemy to boat guys, but it works. :music_whistling:

The tactical use of IFF in RL is way more complicated than what is being described above or how DCS appears to implement it. First of all, when someone says "IFF", the question is: Which one? Depending on the ROE and the level of the conflict - the rules could be to have ALL the modes and codes ON (M1, 2, 3, C and 4) or have them all OFF. For instance, in a low level threat conflict like Afghanistan right now, with no air threat and civilian airliners and cargo mixed in with combat aircraft - everyone is going to squawk all modes and codes at all times. In a very high threat, neer peer conflict with say US vs China or Russia - there will be much more strict EMCON procedures and likely all modes except M4 will be turned off crossing the friendly line outbound and then turned on approaching friendly airspace so you aren't mistakenly shot down by other fighters or friendly air defense. Mode 4 is encrypted for this reason. What I don't know yet is how does DCS implement IFF interrogation. When you press the IFF interrogate button in the cockpit, what modes and codes is it interrogating? Is it Mode 4 only or is it customizable like it is IRL? The ATO/ACO will specify the codes to squawk for each day. Do MP "wars" even use ATO's?

Does anyone have a suggestion to fix the double physical detent in this new shapeways plug? Has anyone bought from them before???

Straight line, yes. But not necessarily level. But you can be at 1G in a 45 deg dive as long as you're going in a straight non-curving path.

Yes, the bomb racks will have ejector cartridges similar to a shotgun shell that is supposed to push the bomb (or tank) down and away from the jet to achieve safe separation. But they are limited in how much they can do. Remember, you're talking about a small little push on a 2000lb hunk of iron. It's really not more than a nudge down rather than a violent push. Watch some videos of Edwards or China lake flight test weapons testing and you'll see that it's not a huge push away. To hit the bombs in flight, you would have to be likely less than 0 g, as in negative G. A bombing technique to achieve good accuracy on a dive bomb CCIP attack would be to gently be pushing the stick at release to ensure that you are stable at 1G or slightly less. 0.5-1.0g would be ideal. More than that and you risk not achieving safe separation. Go back and look at your HUD G meter when you pickled to see what it was when the bombs hit you. I'm betting it was something less than 0g.

You have the rest of your "life". :lol:

I'm not having any issues with STT holding lock. But I have seen TWS drop all L&N, and other contacts suddenly and inexplicably with non maneuvering targets. I've had this happen quite often right around 20nm ish range or just before Rmax.