Vol4Ever

I ended up buying the FA18 / PG package & it's running smooth as silk on new PC on highest graphics settings. Haven't been able to do VR yet as I didn't have right cable. Supposed to be coming in today, but it may be the weekend before I have time to hook it all up & figure out exactly how it works. For now I'm studying Chuck's aircraft guide, specifically the detailed cockpit views with everything fully labelled just to start learning that part. Will be a steep, steep learning curve for me, but I really enjoy the simulation aspect. I'm diving deep and trying to get a baseline understanding of how this real plane actually works, and my hope is to have the game settings turned up to high realism levels versus "arcadey". I had seen lots & lots of cockpit photos in the past, but never sat down and studied on a button-by-button basis. I have no idea how Chuck puts those documents together. Extremely professional looking with insane amount of detail with what I can only assume to be technically accurate data. Wow. ~Vol

Based on your sig, I'm assuming above is the choice you prefer?

As to pedals, don't most sticks have twist feature to do rudder / ground steering? Granted it wouldn't have realism of pedal set, but you'd still have control without using keyboard. I'm still torn on the plane decision though as I love both. I do like your earlier comment about the Tomcat releasing after the Hornet and designers being able to tweak from "lessons learned". Kinda cool having a RIO too so you can focus more on learning to fly (or vice versa if you want to learn RIO tasks first).. The combo sale is also nice but doesn't make or break deal. Compatibility with upcoming Supercarrier could sure swing the needle though. Screenshots of that beast have me drooling. :)

Hornet + Persian Gulf pack shows as on sale for $84.43. Also, the feature write up on the F18 talks about a carrier, but the F14 description DOES NOT. Is it maybe a case where the carrier included with F18 is just an upgraded model? Basically, is there a carrier already in the game regardless of which aircraft I ultimately choose? Leaning Hornet, but only because it's been out longer. Figure that means there will be more tutorials, existing "proficient" users, and things like that. Will absolutely be learning experience for me, almost from the ground up.

How do you get the Stennis? Is it included with one of the other modules while waiting for new Supercarrier?

Thx for notes. I honestly thought the 18 came out before the 14, at least in DCS World. And yes the "Navy" model is more what I'm thinking, and ABSOLUTELY want carrier ops to be in my training regimen. Dying to try VR carrier catapult & landing sequences, most likely accompanied by many virtual deaths. Ha! Much of my time will be SP as opposed to MP, mainly because of my stage in life with wife & kids. It's almost impossible to get a single gaming session of any length to speak of, and I know sudden drop offlines aren't very popular in group gaming. My only flight stick right now is the one made as a dual Windows / Xbox model, and I've never owned a pedal set. Most of my current budget is toast just from getting the Oculus and building a PC with great specs, but I'll eventually get some much better stuff if I end up really getting into this VR world. For now, I have ballpark 150-200 left, but it's set aside for software items being discussed here first. I do have 1 related VR play question. Is stick (and pedal set) the main means of control? Obviously with headset on I won't be able to see keyboard. Always wondered about that.

Greetings friends. My situation mirrors previous post by @TheSledge almost verbatim (https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=259495) but I didn't want to hijack his thread. Based on advice obtained in my own previous forum discussions, I just had the ultra-rewarding experience of building my own rig. As of this morning, I finished doing all the software and file moving from family's ANCIENT desktop. Main push was upgrading to handle DCS VR as my family got me an Oculus Quest last year. Now my dilemma. I want to immediately purchase plane & possibly either Nevada or Persian Gulf maps to support developers. I want to get ONE aircraft and learn it inside out. Also anxiously awaiting Supercarrier as I'm sure everyone else is too! Willing to watch videos, read message boards, print hard copy manuals, etc, but my plan is to focus on a single model for quite a while. I have it narrowed down to F14 and F18. Been the Hornet for a long time, but the Tomcat really piqued my interest when it released. Like TheSledge, I'm totally new to DCS but my sim days go all the way back to Bruce Artwick's *original* MSFS version 1 on IBM PCjr . . . . On a single 5.25" 360k floppy disk. Lol. Still have that thing, believe it or not. Say current DCS is 100 GB. Doing math backwards, that would be roughly 278,000 of those floppies. :) That's enough reminiscing. Any tips on which fighting machine gets my first dollars? Ready to fly. ~Vol

So you talked me into building my own. Selected mobo expandable to 128 mb, populated day 1 at 32. Using AMD Ryzen 7 3700X CPU. 4 TB 7200 rpm HDD with 500 GB nvm stick drive to handle DCS load. Second guessing my GPU though. Radeon RX 590 Fatboy supposed to be here tomorrow. That's only component I'm not sure about. Before opening, did I go too chintzy there?

This is an absolutely valid possibility that I've always wanted to attempt, but it's a bit intimidating. I've done some self-upgrades over the years to store bought PC's (laptops too!), but mostly stuff like adding memory, swapping hard drives, video card upgrade, etc. For DIY, I don't even know where to start. I know the biggies like case, motherboard, CPU, RAM, graphics card, HDD, etc, but the nickel and dime stuff scares me to death. Component compatibility & fitment, tiny mount screws, power and data cabling, etc. Figure it would wind up like a home DIY project, but unfortunately it would probably involve online purchase/wait cycles instead of just hopping over to Lowe's. I guess that lends itself to a secondary group question. Has anyone ever done DCS VR via laptop with any level of success? Friends and customers love playing with my VR headset, which is original reason I bought standalone Oculus model. Maybe "portable" DCS just isn't a realistic goal.

Finally stepped into world of VR, but my thread will be a little backwards from others. I already have Oculus Quest (which I *love*) and am now looking to buy a PC as opposed to the opposite! Our home desktop is WAYYYYY overdue for upgrade, but honestly DCS/VR is what's driving the specs. I'm primarily an Xbox gamer, and our PC is only used for web browsing, network media streaming, Microsoft Office, etc. But I'm also a flying junkie. Played tons of flight sims over the years (Xbox Ace Combat series = pure junk, even when viewed as "arcadey"!), but will be somewhat new to DCS. The sim realism carrot dangling with VR capability to boot has me drooling. :) 2 primary areas for opinions. - Desktop versus laptop. Desktop is overall better fit / better bang for buck, but portability of laptop & ability to carry DCS remote . . . . . . . I'm on the fence, but leaning laptop. - Kicking myself for missing a BB Black Friday special. They had a 17" Dell G7, i7, 16GB RAM, GeForce RTX 2060, 1TB HD + 256GB SSD on sale for $1,099. Currently $1,499. Unfortunately I don't have an unlimited budget, so I'm watching for deals. Also know that I don't necessarily have to have graphics settings all turned to absolute ultra realism. Curious for those who can testify to a good VR experience on lower-spec'd machines. Budget is $1,000 - $1,500 closer to the lower end is better. Am I pipe dreaming? To even think about doing DCS VR, will I just have to suck it up and buy a pricey gaming rig? Thanks in advance. ~Vol

Yes. I have it. It's just on a pretty old computer with outdated hardware. I'd like to get a more hands-on demo from a seasoned player to see if I like it enough for what would probably be a decent cash outlay (PC upgrade, flight stick, VR, etc). I have nothing on my machine with VR & I want to at least try it for a few minutes & watch someone who knows what they are doing fly an actual mission. ~Vol

That may be just a wee bit far for a DCS demo! :D I'm wondering if there's a way to search Location field in profiles for those that chose to fill it in, but all I can find is the usual topic & message search stuff. Tried different keywords in case someone had put in a message somewhere, but no luck there either. Lots of hits on "Memphis Belle" though. LOL

Hey everyone. New here, but long time RC hobbyist and I've played sims all the way back to Bruce Artwick's original DOS version. Also LOVE Great Planes RealFlight which is a realistic RC simulator. Been interested in DCS for quite a while as it appears to be a technical marvel. Watched tons of YouTube videos. Is there anyone here in the Memphis, TN area, specifically Germantown / Collierville / Fayette County? Please PM me if you'd be open to get together sometime. I'd like to see a working copy with someone who knows what they're doing.Really like the FA/18 model and definitely want to get into VR (complete newb therel). Thanks in advance. ~Vol