Rant6

I have been flying BS in 3D for a couple of months now, and as average_pilot said, there are a couple of minor glitches, but overall, the experience is awesome. I am not using any special hardware. The current nVidia drivers are capable of displaying anaglyph 3d - that is, the "old" techology that uses red/blue glasses. I ordered 3 - 4 sets of red/blue glasses off of Amazon for ~$2.00 each. I then went into the the nVidia control panel and enabled "3d vision discover", and now all of my games are in 3D. The one side effect is that the colors are soemone muted because of the changes due to the red/blue glasses, but I have partially overcome that by adjusting my monitor red/blue/green adjustments with the glasses on, thus bringing back some of the true color. Considering that this 3d setup cost me $2.00, I am very happy with the slighty incorrect colors.

This weekend I discovered that I had everything necessary to run nVidia 3d in "poor man's mode". That is, with only the software driver and a set of blue/red glasses. The end result is not quite as good as using shutter glasses and a 120Hz monitor, but still, it works very well, and the price is right (about $2 for a set of blue/red glasses). The biggest problem is that the colors are very muted. I went through all of my games to find out how things looked. I have not flown DCS BS in a year, but when I entered the cockpit, I was blown away. I've never seen anything like it. Every needle, dial, switch, etc. stood out in full 3d. (I aslo use Track-ir.) The cockpit was clearer and more useable than anything that I have ever seen, and the experience when flying was simply unbelievable. Every switch lable was clearly readable, and the hud suspended in the hud glass was just way too cool. Looks like I'm back flying again.

Thanks all for the help!

I have two game controllers attached to my PC. The first is a force feedback Logitech G25 steering wheel/pedal, and the other is my Siatek x52. When I first started flying BS, I disabled all commands that had defaulted to assignemnts on my steering wheel, and I made sure that everything was set up to use only the x52. At first I had a terrble time trying to fly and trim the BS, but after a few sessions I noticed that, every time I hit the trim button on my x42 collective, my steering wheel would move. I confirmed that all axis were assigned to the x52 and none were assigned to the G25, but for whatever reason, the trim centering feedback was being sent to the G25 and not to the x52. When I realized this, I unplugged my G25, and whoola! the trim functin worked and I could fly the chopper. I have not found any way to prevent the G25 from interferring with the trim function through either Windows (Vista) control panel or through the in-game controller setup. Does anyone know how to correct this? Every time I fly I have to crawl behined my computer and unplug my wheel, and then I have to crawl back there again to plug it in. A real pain. Thanks for you help in advance.

Thanks guys for the responses. I did try the search, but apparently I need to work with it a bit because the results did not seem to be relevant (searched for "altitude mission"). It looks like, in the mission, that the engine anti-ice is already on (switches are up), but I may be mistaken. During one attempt I did flip the engine anti-ice/dust protect switch. The switch went to dust, and the engines immediately died. I was thinking that this is a 2-position switch, but perhaps I'm wrong. I'll check the manual.

I have finally had enough practice seat time to try my first mission, and so I have flown the "Altitude" mission several times. At the same point each time I get an EKRAN warning about ice buildup, and so I turn on the rotor anti-ice switch, but shortly thereafter the engines die and I crash. During one attempt I turned on the rotor anti-ice system BEFORE I got the warning, but I got the warning anyway. (Apparently systems failures are scripted into the mission?) It seems like, as soon as I select Waypoint 3, the engines die and the KA-50 falls to the ground. I have not been able to prevent the engines from dieing, nor have I been able to restart them while I am falling. I wonder if I should reduce altitude, but then I will be outside of the mission parameters, and I may not have enough altitue to get to the LZ. Can someone give me some tips to get through this? Thanks. Rant6