Waldo_II

I strongly suggest you do it yourself, really. The longer it takes you to set it up, the better. It is a million times easier for you to memorize the functions that you programmed in yourself than it is to adjust to someone else's. I spent at least an hour programming my X52, and I am glad I did. I also suggest taking advantage of the multiple modes of the X52. For me, mode 1 is for combat employment, while mode 2 is for general navigation (Example, the second HAT switch on the joystick in mode one has guns, HMS, outer weapons, inner weapons, while on mode two, it toggles the four different autopilot functions). I also suggest that the first trigger stage is used for cannons, while the second trigger stage released rockets/bombs. Use the "Fire" button (hidden behind the safety plastic) for ejection.

Be careful about using YouTube videos as reference material. They are usually reposts of reposts of reposts of videos found from unclassified military footage. A lot of information about the video can get lost along the way. For instance, the video you are using could either be some super high-tech version mounted on an experimental Mi-28, or it could be a standard Shkval on a Su-25, or an upgraded Shkval on a Su-25T, or it could be the very first ever Shkval system installed on a modified civilian helicopter launching the very first ever made live Vikhrs. There is no evidence provided that would lead us to believe that this footage came from a Ka-50. Furthermore, we don't know how the footage was captured. Was it from a cheap, worn-out video camera that no longer can detect the full spectrum of colors being held by the pilot's hand, or was it a sort of VHS recording with the video being tapped off between the targeting computer system and the monitor? In addition, you have to take into account the effect that video compression has on video quality and color. If the video has been compressed multiple times (being a repost of a repost of a repost of a video found online), then colors can appear to be drastically different. I really do like what you have done with bloom and contrast. On the other hand, the developers behind DCS have been in the cockpit of a real Ka-50 and have first-hand experience looking at the Shkval monitor, or if they don't, their military advisors (pilots of real Ka-50s that have given feedback to the DCS team) certainly do. Given the conditions, I trust the judgment and work of them over that of a video with an unknown source. I don't mean to downplay the mod. You have beautifully recreated the Shkval output in the game based on the video. If this is footage from a Ka-50 Shkval in the cockpit with accurate colors, you have ported that over to the game perfectly.

Edit: Disregard the comment that was in this place. Google revealed the answer. My B. The point below stands, though. The Roland most likely does use the radar for guidance, but the launching device likely uses a laser for rangefinding, pointing, and tracking.

You can radio the tower, tell them you are coming in for a landing, and they will give you the bearing and speed of the wind.

This was confusing to me when I began, and I don't quite think the explanations above are full in detail. First, a lesson about rotor blades. Rotor blades are an airfoil design, so they naturally will generate lift when moving. However, when flat, the rotors will not generate enough lift to actually bring the helicopter into the air. in order to amplify the amount of lift being generated, the rotors are rotated along the axis parallel to the ground moving out from the center of the rotors to the end of the rotor, creating an angle. Imagine this: you are in a body of water. You put your hand out in front of you with your palm facing the bottom, flat. You move your arm straight across from the right to the left. Your hand comes into contact with a fairly little amount of water, so there is little resistance, and it is easy to move your hand. Now imagine that before you moved your arm, you rotated your hand 45 degrees, so your right hand palm faces down and to the left. Now when you move your arm across, it becomes more difficult to move it because it comes into contact with a lot of water, and it wants to go upwards at a 45 degree angle. The same is true for rotor blades. When you rotate the blade, it will come into contact with more air, it will push against more air, and according to Sir. Isaac Newton's third law of motion, the air pushes back against the rotor blade, and pushes the rotor blade up, and you have lift. "Collective" stands for "collective angle," meaning the collective angle of all of the rotor blades. The one lever will rotate all of the blades collectively, all at once, in unison, etc. That is where the term "collective" is from. Now, when rotor blades are pushing against more air, there is more resistance. When there is more resistance, the blades will slow down. In order to counter this effect, the collective is tied into the throttle. When you increase collective, the helicopter assumes rotor RPM will decrease because of the increased resistance with the air, and will apply more throttle according to collective pitch. The next time you are in the cockpit, take a look at the throttle (on the left side, bottom, in the rear, the yellow (or red, I cannot remember) levers. Put the throttle in the "auto" position (with "page up" twice, of course), and increase collective. You will notice that the throttle levers move along with the collective. This is what I mean when I say that the throttle and collective are linked. Bonus lesson: think about the effect of collective pitch/air resistance on rotor RPM when performing auto-rotation landings. (Auto-rotation is the effect of the rotors spinning by themselves without any energy input from the engines. Such landings are usually only performed when the engines are destroyed, out of gas, or otherwise not working.) If the engines go out and you are high up off the ground, put your collective at minimum to reserve rotor RPM for when you need it down low. If you put your collective at maximum when you don't have engine power, rotor RPM will slow down to a dangerously low number, and when you reach the ground you won't have enough rotor RPM to break the fall/land safely. Put collective at minimum to reduce air resistance and preserve rotor RPM, and when you are close to the ground, ready to land, increase collective and used that stored energy in the rotors to get that lift when you need it.

Launcher.exe is just the menu/editor system. When you want to play a mission or fly, Launcher.exe launches (hence, the name) DCS.exe. DCS.exe contains the DCS engine and does all of the stuff related to the simulation.

Oh no, I believe you, it is just the the incorrect terminology can lead to misunderstanding and confusion. You airspeed is indicated on the top left corner of the Shkval display, and in one of the dials in the left cluster of instruments, next to the attitude indicator (artificial horizon), the G-force meter, radar altimeter, and barometric altimeter. When trying to position yourself in a hover, ignore airspeed. The groundspeed indicator can only be found on the HUD, in the top left. This is the speed that you must pay attention to when positioning yourself in a hover. In addition to having the digital readout, when you are <50kph, you will get a vector line on your HUD that represents your groundspeed velocity. When it points to the right, you are moving straight to the right. When it points up, you are moving forward, and vice versa. To get yourself into a hover, you must make that line as small as possible, obtaining as little groundspeed as you can. Once you are at ~5kph groundspeed, bring the nose of the helicopter to the horizon or just above it, trim, and engage autohover.

The airspeed indicator works all the time, unless the instruments are shot off in combat. You are likely thinking of the groundspeed indicator, which seems to work only when it wants to. During a hover, your airspeed could easily be anything but zero if there is wind. If you use the airspeed indicator to get into a hover, you'll doing a lot of drifting.

[O] has two purposes: uncaging/caging the Shkval, and moving the Shkval to wherever the HMS is looking. If you have the HMS up, look somewhere, press [O] (or it's joystick equivilant) and the Shkval will slew to wherever the HMS is looking at. It will also uncage if it is caged. Once the Shkval is uncaged and looking somewhere, and all targeting/Shkval settings are on automatic, the shkval will keep looking at that point even when the helicopter is moving (unless of course the helicopter turns too much or goes past the point where the Shkval is looking). What [Enter] does is it will lock the target up, and the Shkval will keep looking at that target no matter what, unless of course the helicopter turns too much/goes out of camera range. If the target moves (and "Track moving ground target" is on), the Shkval will follow it. Enter will also engage the laser rangefinder (if laser is on), providing the targeting computer with neccesary information to attack. If you simply slew the Shkval over the target, it won't neccesarily track the target, just the point on the ground, and it won't give any rangefinding information (if you have already done a rangefind, it will estimate for you if you move the Shkval, but it won't be accurate.) Locking the target is usually neccesary for precise attacks, though not always neccesary. The cannon will generally fire at wherever the Shkval is looking (assuming the estimation of range is correct), making locking sometimes unneccesary, however when the target is locked you will be much more precise, and you have the advantage of the targeting computer tracking a moving target, predicting where it will be when the rounds land, etc. The [Enter] key also does not uncage the Shkval, it will only lock target/rangefind. [O] just turns everything on and off, and has the HMS functionality. That is it. [Enter] will tell the Shkval to lock onto a shape (usually a vehicle or building), and then the Shkval will do it's best to keep looking at that object, and will use the laser rangefinder to get a distance on it. If the "Track moving ground target" mode is on and the target moves, the Shkval will follow it.

In what way is CPU affinity related to the allocation of limited tasks to the GPU related? The difference between DX9 and DX10, beside new graphics libraries, is the ability to allocate a limited number of tasks to the GPU, decreasing CPU load. This only happens when programmed to, and works for a limited number of tasks due to the relative inflexibility of even more recent GPUs, despite the recent surge in ability brought on by newer architectures such as nVidia's G80, G92, etc. CPU affinity is what core a single thread of execution is assigned to. Single-thread programs usually assign themselves to whatever core is not being used as much as the other(s). What DCS Max and the recent version of DCS.exe did was assign, by a more efficient process, what affinity they should have. Your statements haven't made any sense. Assigning CPU affinity certainly can have performance effects. If you assign every single program to core 0 and a single program to core 1, then that single program will run incrediblyl smoothly because it has that core all to itself. I cannot imagine why anyone can believe that wouldn't work. In addition, DCS: Black Shark doesn't even use DX10. It doesn't matter what operating system, it doesn't use DX10, only DX9.0c. All non-graphics related processes are assigned to the CPU, and the CPU has the job of telling the GPU what tasks to process and complete. DCS: Black Shark also, AFAIK, is a single-thread program. It cannot allocate different tasks to different cores, this is why CPU affinity has the effect that it does. Were it a multi-thread program, the task of calculating, say, rotor physics could be assigned to core 0, while AI threads could be assigned to core 1. Since this is a single-thread program, all processes are assigned to a single core. CPU affinity decides what core that is assigned to. No matter what operating system, (except Windows 2000 and lower, operating systems which do not support hyperthreading) CPU affinity will have the same effect on performance. Just because it is on a DX10 supported operating system doesn't mean that physics calculations will be magically assigned to the GPU. I have done my research, I do know what I am talking about. CPU affinity certainly has an effect in XP, as it does in Vista and Windows 7. No more of an effect in one than the other.

Last I checked on the three dual-core Windows computers at my house, both 32-bit and 64-bit, and every dual-core Windows computer at my friends' houses, my school and public library, that is BS. Also, this.

No no, I mean jumps from, say, 65° to 66° degrees. This happens when the slider is anywhere but the maximum and minimum. It feels like the helicopter is shaking, though it isn't.

Sorry this isn't quite related to the topic, but when you guys set the slider to a point other than maximum and minimum, does the FOV bounce around for you? If it isn't either set to maximum zoom or minimum, the FOV seems to bounce back and forth just a little bit, certainly enough to bother me.

Did you try taking off after taking those pictures? The torquing effect will spin you around and around. I've done it a few times, plenty of fun.

It is more likely that he is going lower than the minimum recommended rotor RPM if he is maxing out the collective. Higher collective means more resistance on the rotors which means rotor speed, ultimately rotor RPM, is down. Going under the minimum recommended rotor RPM is alright for a little while if the reason for the low RPM is high collective. I figure that the amount of lift being provided is compensating for the lower RPM, unless someone here can correct me.

Once your altitude is stable and you are within ~10kph ground, push the nose to the horizon and hit the trim key (default T) and let go of the joystick immediately, letting it return to the center. After trimming, you are now ready to use the auto-hover function (Alt+T). Also, a while back I made this hovering tutorial: .

If I understand correctly, Eagle Dynamics's plan is to make each module (Blackshark, A-10C, AH-64A, etc) all compatable. They will all use the same engine, so system specs will be similar if not the same for all modules.

How much of the A-10A manual would be relevant to the A-10C? I can imagine that many of the weapons systems, autopilot systems, and defensive systems would be completely different with the upgrade to modern digital electronics.

If I understand correctly, your hand has a tendency to twist the joystick while you use the HAT switches on the top. The twisting motion is bound to your rudder. You can go into the controls settings and perform an axis tuning on your Z axis. Create a deadzone so if you twist the joystick, say, 5 degrees no rudder action will occur, but if you twist it 6 degrees, the rudder will engage.

About 90% of the key combinations do nothing more than push a button inside the cockpit. There are, however, a limited few on the cyclic and collective, along with stuff like closing the cockpit door, changing camera angles, etc. that require more than just the mouse. After playing for a while, taking baby steps into each system, you get a sense of what everything does and where something should be (A newbie wouldn't know where the intercom switch would be, but an experienced player would know that it should be on the right wall panel next to datalink power switches, radio switches, etc) For a full list of default keys, click here for an online guide (html)

I figured that part of it is my control scheme. Right now I'm using a combination of 6DOF Freetrack headtracking, a Logitech Wingman Attack 2 from the '90s, and a mouse+keyboard. I do plan on getting a Saitek x52 soon as I find myself enjoying the flight sim genre more and more. My joystick has the following functions: Collective throttle, left rudder, right rudder (both bound to buttons), cannon fire, missile/bombs release, trim, and lock target. In order to move the Skhval, engage HMS, arm weapons, select weapons, etc. I have to move my hand over to the keyboard. If I need to adjust magnification, I have to reach over to the mouse. I am positive that the Saitek x52 will be able to accomodate for 90% of the controls I use, but I cannot imagine doing all of these things at once like you describe. Target spotting and identification will still be an issue, I can imagine. I really wish the Skhval had a 1x magnification level, it would make life so much easier. I guess I'll have to wait until I can get said controller. Thank you very much for the response, though.

Thank you everyone for the responses and feedback. I always read everything people say about my videos, your comments never go unheard. I do appreciate all of the positive things said, and especially the criticism. I haven't had much time lately, so I haven't produced any more. However, in the next few weeks that might change. When I went into making these, I divided the theoretical group of people who play DCS: Black Shark into two groups. The first being the hardcore, knows-everything, detail-thriving simmer, and the other being the kind of guy who enjoys flight sims, but isn't looking for extreme detail and immersion, but will appreciate it (of course, individules within the two groups will vary greatly from the stereotype). These were meant for the latter, which is why I took the casual approach. They aren't going to want to look too deep into the functions of the Ka-50, but want to be able to use a wide variety of them. I figured that the target group (type B, for this explanation) is just going to want the autopilot to fly the basic route for them during long periods of flight, nothing special. That is why I decided to skip over the Flight Director function, and tried to throw in a little humor with the "it sucks, so we won't talk about it, it sucks." I knew that a few of the dedicated simmer group would come across it and not take quite the same appreciation for the videos. My reasoning is that this group would consist of the guys who watched and listened through the entire in-game tutorial on it. I didn't quite like the tutorial for the reasons outlined in my OP, and I figured that the type B group probably didn't quite finish the tutorial or pay close attention the entire time either, so this video was purposed to highlight the functions most relevant to that kind of guy. MainSail, I think I would categorize you in with the first group. I might not apply the full stereotype to you, but I think you might lean towards that group. I mean, that's fine, this stuff is probably easy as cake to you. If you haven't the chance to play the game much yet, I hope this was a starter for you, and hope that you look into the more detailed in-game tutorial. You will certainly get more out of that than I did. As for giving different systems their proper respective names, I decided to stray away from that. I would easily categorize myself with the more casual simmer group, and when I play I don't think of every system as the "UV-26" or "PVI-800," I just think "ABRIS. Flares. Countermeasures. Fancy navigation business," so my logic led me to think that other people of the casual simmer group would have similar mindsets about them, and by using the more casual naming system the video would appeal better to them. I thank you for your response, I appreciate the constructive criticism and positive comments, despite your disapproval. You might want to check out the last video, it is certainly a different style than the tutorials, not meant to teach, rather to entertain.

Although I am not an expert, I do know a fair share about offensive helicopter strategies, the outlines of what RL Apache/Cobra/Eurotiger/Mi-28 pilots due in order to engage enemy ground targets, or at least I think I do. (And don't get me wrong, I absolutely love DCS. This isn't meant to be a criticism of the game, the programmers, etc. DCS is one of the finest pieces of software money can buy) From what I understand, this is the order of processes that RL attack helicopter pilots follow. 1. Gather information from recce elements: UAV photos, forwards observer information, satellite photos, etc. 2. (optional) Fly extremely high and use computer-assisted optics (like the Skhval) to do their own reconnaissance. 3. Identify what targets are on the battlefield, determine what priority each one has in terms of needs-to-be-killed. 4. Engage targets using this method 4a. Set up behind a hill, arm weapons, prepare for rocket launch 4b. Increase lift, pop up from behind the hill, acquire pre-known target if recce information is reliable. If no pre-known targets, scan for targets, select one 4c. Fire rocket, if need be stay hovering 4d. Decrease lift after missile impact, hide behind cover. I know that this is what should happen in the game, this is what I should be doing. The problem is that this doesn't work for me. Instead, this is what I do. 1. Use mission breifing to gather information 2. Fly up very high, very far away from target zone, middle of the sky where everything is nice and clear 3. Use Skhval to find targets and identify targets, get approximate range 4. Send wingmen off with the Recce command to ~1-2km away from targets 5. Pray that they don't get shot down 6. Stay high in the sky, be ~7-8km from targets, just barely within Vikhr range. 7. Send wingmen off against targets one-at-a-time with the "attack my target" command 8. Wingmen dive down to go low, travel until they are well within Vikhr range, fire, run away back to me 9. Repeat from 7 until wingmen are out of Vikhrs 10. Fire my own Vikhrs off from the far reaches of the effective range of the Vikhr missile, one at a time. The problem with the proper technique is that if I pop up out from behind a hill, it takes me so long to find a target, point the helicopter to the target, shoot, wait for kill, then return back down that I might as well stay hovering above the mountain the entire time, in plain view. Then, since I am in plain view, I might as well be in the middle of the sky where I can see everything at once, you know what I mean? There is just too much to handle with the proper method; I have to get into a hover, raise altitude, re-aquire hover, start scanning with the narrow 7x FOV or with my eyes through the window (the problem is that with the 7x magnification, it can take a long time to find a target, let alone the one I am looking for. If I use my eyes, I can't see the section being blocked out by the Ka-50's body, and I don't have any magnification at all so determining the difference between a shrub and a MANPAD is all but impossible. If I zoom in to even 2x, the HMS is on the very corners of the screen, and I still have to adjust with my keyboard and lock after I use the HMS), slew the Skhval over to the target (which takes forever), angle the helicopter properly (takes forever to do), shoot it off, wait until it hits, then lower the collective and be careful not to vortex. It is all too much for me to do efficiently. Hovering in the middle of the air makes me feel dirty, like I have invincibility hacks on. It is all too easy to take out targets because you are never close enough to them for them to kill you, and any idiot could see you hovering in the middle of the sky like that. What I'm trying to get at here is this: Why am I so effective? Why are my poor strategies letting me win each mission without a single scratch? Why are bad strategies working when proper technique seems to be a waste of time? Inside of me I have two conflicting interests: One part wants to be fully immersed in the world, behaving like a real pilot, whearas the other part of me wants maximum combat efficiency, never to be in danger yet destroying all in my path all as quickly as possible. I've done some thinking, and my only conclusion as to why poor strategy works is this: ground assets are too underpowered in this game. Just think: A CR2/M1A2 has enough computer power and weaponry to be able to hit a football at 8km away (a slight exaggeration), yet they don't shoot at me until I'm only 2km away. Even a M2 Bradley can engage up to 6km away. Both systems have the computer power to calculate trajectories to hit space ships moving at warp speed, yet if I fly perpendicular to either of these vehicles in the game they always miss by a long shot. The AI seems too slow, too unintelligent for a true-to-life simulation that I feel DCS is trying to create. Of course, maybe I need to be tough more modern doctrines of offensive helicopter techniques. If anyone can link me to some good sources detailing attack helicopter doctrine, I would be glad to read it, and thanks. I know it will come up, I have been meaning to read Ed Macy's Apache, but as a student my summer reading is too much to accommodate for it. Unfortunately I will be gone for a week or so after tomorrow, so I won't be able to respond quickly to any replies, but I will get back here first thing after I get back.

What I do is I'll take a screen shot of each mission's briefing and corresponding pictures, condense the information as closely togather in a single image, and I'll have that image in the background behind dcs.exe. I can Alt+Tab any time to see the photographs/threat lists/etc.

Maybe you should watch the whole thing before making rude sarcastic remarks, for if you did you would find that I worked changes of music as launching points for humor.