Waldo_II

I think you are underestimating how big 1.7GB is. What Fraps does is it makes a perfect, uncompressed, lossless copy of what was displayed on the screen. An exact replica, pixel for pixel. If you have a screen that is 1440x900, and you record at 30fps, that is 39 million pixels per second. 2.3 trillion per minute. 9.3 trillion for four minutes. It is also like having 7,200 full screen captures in a single file, uncompressed. Fraps is for recording raw data in its purest form. The output file is meant to be manipulated and finally compressed in the end. It isn't a tool like X-Fire or WeGame where it records, compresses, then uploads. If you want to make a high-quality video, like GA's trailer for DCS, you would use Fraps. Anything casual, you use something else. Your four minute video should be like 200 megabytes max. You really should compress it. Think about this: when you watch a video on YouTube, you have to be downloading it at a rate equal to or faster than the rate at which you play the video. If you can download 1.7GB in four minutes, then that might be an acceptable size. In reality, you may only be able to download 90MB in four minutes (varies greatly upon connection speed). What you will want to do is experiment with video editors and various compression algorithms. The most popular is mpeg. I use Sony Vegas, and I use XviD's MPEG-4 codec.

I'm no ABRIS pro, but I doubt it. I've never encountered any error that I have noticed. And it isn't like you have a satellite dish that you can point around. If there are any moving parts within the ABRIS, it will all be done automatically. Errors in positioning should be small enough that you won't notice the difference. Perhaps if you found a day and time when satellites are on the perimeter of the sky, and you went into the mountains, but if the ABRIS doesn't get any satellite info, I can imagine it would just use input from the INS until it can establish a link. I cannot say for sure.

Think of it this way. DCS: BS was designed for sim mode. DCS is a simulator at its heart. Only the most patient of people can handle a simulator in its full glory, such as DCS. To appeal to a wider audience, the developers created a number of features that lets the player cheat a little. The radar, for example, is a game-y kind of addition, obviously something that isn't true to real life. Options such as invincibility, unlimited ammo, unlimited fuel, labels, simplified flight model, etc. are all features that the developers made to (this is the most cruel way to say this) dumb the game down so a wider variety of people can enjoy the simulator. "Sim mode" is absolute, pure, true-to-life simulation. Realistic flight model, realistic damage, no labels, no radar, etc. "Game mode" isn't so easily defined. More hardcore players will define "game mode" as having a single one of the "dumb-down" options on, others would call "game mode" as having all of the options on, radar, simplified flight model, invincibility, everything. Some of the options are useful to even more hardcore players for practicality. In training, it can be useful to have labels on so you can, say, identify when a missile is launched against you so you can maneuver and know what to do later when labels are off. Rocket strafing requires unlimited ammo, otherwise you are returning to base every three minutes. The only options that can apply to the definition of "game mode" vs "sim mode" are in the list you see that includes all of the options of "labels, radar, simplified flight model, unlimited fuel/ammo, invincibility, etc." It has been a while since I have looked in the settings, but I do believe all such options are on a single page in like a check list. The "use these options for any missions" box, although I'm not sure, I think is there to override any settings or declarations made within missions. Custom missions can turn on labels or radar for you, and I assume that the "use these options for any mission" box overrides the mission's ability to turn on labels. You aren't going need this much unless you plan to play a lot of downloaded user-created missions.

Switching from the mouse to TrackIR/FreeTrack is like going from a rusty old tricycle to an F-35.

The windowed mode works great. I don't think you can resize the window like regular windows, but you can change the resolution in the video settings, and that in turn changes the size of the window. And TrackIR/Freetrack doesn't just help. No, the word "help" doesn't have enough letters in it to express the helpfulness of head-tracking. Once you start using it, you don't go back. If I start a mission and my headtracking setup isn't running, it is an automatic mission abort. No exceptions. It is a completely different game. You don't have to be scared by TrackIR's expensive equipment. For about $10, I built my own head tracking setup with the open-source alternative Freetrack. Construction isn't anything difficult, although it takes more setup than TrackIR. I mean, as you can see I just cut up some pens and ran wire through them, and held it together with hot glue. By default, DCS only supports TrackIR, not Freetrack, but that can be fixed with a popular hack.

Although not extensive, my tutorials may be right up your alley. I traded quantity of information for ease of understanding. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=43227

I got the story pretty well, I'm pretty sure. It's about an angst-filled Su-25 pilot, and the entire film is a mission in which he reflects on what he has done in the past, things he regrets, and then he feels so bad that he goes all harikari on himself. We know the pilot is angst-filled because of how angst-filled and emo the music is. At the beginning, we get a little information and it sets up the story. It gives us the date and tells us its about a Georgian bomber. The dramatic angles are there to fill in the space as we wait for the music to get to the flashback parts. When he music starts getting all angst-y, and yells "WHAT I'VE DONEEEEE" it goes into flashback mode, and he kills an American. The same thing happens a second time. You see obvious military targets and a civilian target. It is assumed the pilot intends to take out the tanks. In his bombing run he destroys the civilian bus, and the cloud leaves the fate of the military targets unknown, but they aren't important. Third scene is just like the first and second. Music goes into the fast-paced and guitar-heavy parts, he destroys a target, and then returns to normal when it gets all calm. He then guts himself. He couldn't be a rogue pilot that decided to take out random targets because he flies at three separate periods in time, and he takes off with a copilot. I may be wrong. The second scenario fits best with my hypothesis, but the first was a legitimate target, the second could also be, although even though it is a military target, it isn't an offensive target.

If DCS uses the same NDB frequencies that the respective airfields use in real life, then a combination of Wikipedia, Google Maps, and World Earo Data.com should do fine. If you have the city the airport is in, you can easily just use Google and find the name of the airport, or you can use a wikipedia list, like this list of airports in Georgia[/ul]. Use Google Maps to make sure you have the right airport at the right location. Once you have the ICAO code for the airbase you want, you can put that right into the field at http://www.worldaerodata.com/ . That website will give you the NDB frequency of the airport. Military bases don't seem to have NDBs. The Guadata airbase doesn't for some reason. If it has an NDB, then it doesn't seem to like to give the frequency out.

I got bored after a while, just as you are now. I even got aquainted with the mission editor and set up a bunch of scenarios for myself, like landing on a carrier, at night, in the rain, with wind and bad guys in boats shooting, but after a while it got dull. So, I turned my attention over to a heavily modded Falcon 4.0, an F-16 sim from half a dozen years ago. More realistic than Lock On, but it isn't as true-to-life as DCS.

For information on the FDAP (Flight Director, or FD) function, take a look at this thread. The information immediately relevant is in the fifth section, "Stability Augmentation and Flight Director."

I made this one a while back on using the PVI-800 and the autopilot system to fly a preset route for you. People seem to like it.

Answers in red.

If you know the road they'll be on and the approximate time, it should be no problem. Set yourself up in front of the convoy about 5-8km out, and hit the front vehicle as soon as it is within range (you can hit past the range if you change a switch from auto to manual, I cannot recall the name. It is below the Skhval screen). After that, lock up the AA HHMWV and hit it, then the M163, and finish off the rest with whatever you've got. Do not be afraid to engage from the maximum Vikhr distance, or to be high up. I guarantee that you can hit them at longer distances than they can hit you.

Its obvious it is a Ka-50, you guise. You can tell by the coaxial rotors and single-cockpit design in the picture. Oh, wait..

Remember that airspeed is not the same as groundspeed. Ignore the number on your HUD- use the number indicated on the Skhval screen/airspeed dial.

Be patient. Either memorize the map presented to you beforehand, print it off, or take a screenshot and keep it up in the background. Also, stand back safely outside the combat zone and take like ten minutes to scan all potential areas for enemies. Villiages, roads, open fields, bridges, shorelines, etc. If there are only artillery-style AA threats, get really high and close up, and use the wide FOV to scan from above. Once you know where all the enemies are, choose your targets and engage from your max Vikhr limit. Always works.

I had this same problem too. The function to fire your cannons and the function to release external weapons are different. (Cannons = Space, Vikhrs/Rockets/Bombs/Gunpods = RAlt+Space) For your joystick command, look in your controls for the function "Release Weapons" or something along those lines. You'll have to bind it to a different button than your cannons.

If you have a monitor you're not using, you can use this: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=46579 If you want an alternative to the developer notes, feel free to look at my own series of video tutorials: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=43227

S-8 OFP2: Don't know. They might be fragmentation rockets, effective against infantry and lightly armored vehicles. S-8 KOM: HEAT explosive S-8 TsM: Used for marking targets. These do not cause damage, they only release some (orange?) smoke. You would use these when you want to point out a target to another aircraft or vehicle. S-8 OM: Illumination round. These burn for 30 seconds I believe. I have found them to be quite inneffective, as you have to angle your helicopter at like 45 degrees to get them high enough, and then the illuminated area will be too far away for you to work effectively quick enough. As for the ballistics dials, I have never used these. I am curious if anyone does. For FABs or the KMGU, I would just generate your own chart if you really want to use them. I doubt the real Russian air force actually uses FABs on their KA-50s. Helicopters aren't really bomber aircraft. It doesn't matter what mode to use for FABs or the KMGU. It isn't like the Shkval is used in anyway. Some people use it just for looking at their target and using the airspeed/direction indicators. Having auto-turn-to-target would be useful too. Gunsight mode wouldn't help you at all unless you are diving at a perfect 90 degrees.

Here is a method I have had with some success. The hardest part for me is keeping the reticle on the target long enough to launch missiles. Start a considerable distance away from your target, and fly straight towards it. Get your reticle pretty close to the target, make sure it stays there at least a second, and hit the trim button. Make more minor ajustments, trim again. Keeping doing so until you are within an acceptable range from the target and you are satisfied to the most part with your HUD reticle alignment. Fire. Pull away and reset the trim.

I've got a screw to hold together a house, but only a hammer to put it in place.

Kh-25s haven't proven to be effective either, although they deserve another go. This weekend when I have time I'll be attempting some high-altitude bombing and more Kh-25 engagements, although I doubt that my mere two missiles will have a large enough effect to bring Carl down.

I have tried many a times to defeat this mighty beast. Even with multiple groups of four Ka-50s, my attacks are consistently in vain. My vikhrs barely scratch the paint, my bombs land only on the ocean surface, and whenever I get close enough for guns, the bright yellow tracers from the mighty Phalanx blot out the sun. Don't get me started on the surface-to-air missiles. Has this feat ever been accomplished? Has anybody ever seen the Carl Vinson sink? I am beginning to believe it to be impossible.

Interesting, although it may be difficult for the second Vikhr to navigate over to a new target. It might also be a good way to burn out your laser

Dooom is correct. Any Vikhr in flight will follow the laser beam that eminates from the helicopter. If you lock up a target, fire a missile, then move the Shkval to anywhere other than that target, then the missile that is flying will follow where the Shkval is. Only one target can be engaged at a time.