rrohde

Yep, "software sells hardware" - that has always been like that in games.

So the brightness lever on the AOA indexer doesn't help then?

Ah, I see. That's likely why - at a certain distance - the trees no longer seem to connect to the ground either, and thus seem to have a gap between their base and the ground contour. Almost as if 3D objects and the terrain scale differently.

Fantastic looking map - cannot wait! Also, I always wanted to ask this as this appears pretty much everywhere in DCS (mainly when 90 deg angles are involved when one 3D object connects to another): How come the shadows shown in the screenshot below (marked with red arrows) do not connect with the base of the fence/wall? This leaves a gap that looks is if light seeps through that looks somewhat unrealistic. Is that a settings thing (draw distance doesn't seem to affect it), or an engine thing? The right side of the image shows what should be shown, assuming that this somehow could be addressed in the current DCS engine... Thanks for any insights.

Well said! :thumbup: Another thing to note - none of the so called AAA games model anything to the extent and complexity that DCS does. ASM/PFM don't exist in AAA games - eye candy and polish does. Yet we demand ASM/PFM perfection from ED. So it's a totally different market and - just because games and simulations run on PCs, doesn't mean that they should be compared on equal terms. For fun, someone should make a line chart that compares the complexity of ED's DCS modules to the level "knowledge/comprehension of what it takes to make DCS by the average armchair pilot". The graphs should show the complexity of DCS modules going up, up, up over the years, while the level of the armchair pilot's comprehension hasn't kept up and kinda tapers off (or maybe shows a downward trend that accounts for all the strange posts popping up on these forums lately). :music_whistling: So yeah, there's definitely a delta between DCS and it's "nay-saying" user base... Side bar - wouldn't it be fun if OP struggles to justify getting a highly realistic F-16 in early access, but he's perfectly fine to pay $$$ for Star Citizen ships for a rather buggy alpha release?

First-day buy for sure. Always nice to see some more maps, especially those relevant to "current events". Do we know more about the whereabouts/status of the Afghanistan map?

+1 Just imagine *not* having DCS around. I am really grateful for the passion ED pours into DCS to make it what it is today - and I am very much looking forward to the DCS future as well.

@M1Combat - well said. +1

In the newsletter from Jan 20, 2020, ED said this: "This month we begin the testing of version 2.5.6 of DCS World that will include improvements to the lighting system. This will be most evident at night when viewing the cockpits. In addition to cockpit lighting, overall world lighting will appear more natural and balanced with improved tones. Following this, our goal will be to further enhance world lighting by allowing multiple world-lighting sources. This will provide a much more natural and realistic appearance to the world." So this has been an ongoing process that was announced a while a go, and is now finally starting to bear fruits.

+1, OP. The problem is that a lot of people who voice their negativity here on the forums are usually those who totally underestimate the complexity of DCS modules. Some even compare DCS to simple polished (often regurgitated) AAA titles that come and go year-after-year, while DCS in itself (and by merit) is a nothing short of a AAAA title (yes, 4x A - you saw that right) - plain and simple. It's deep, complex, and constantly improving. They don't know how or care to perceive/understand/comprehend what's ticking under the hood in terms of development cycles needed to make our beloved planes do what they do realistically. And DCS offers realism in spades. In terms of flight modeling and system modeing, DCS is beyond what's available out there. ED's push towards ever increasing realism created a paradigm shift in me that allowed me to step back and reflect on how much passion, work, tears, man-years, and ultimately love for the subject matter goes into each and every module. Once that paradigm shifted for me, I no longer sit on the forums and complain, but instead look forward to what's next and enjoy every minute in these planes. DCS also started to attract more and more pilots who fly (and flew) those amazing planes in real life, and who are now spending time here on the forums to help us armchair pilots understand these modules better, or fly online with the community for fun, and are part of the development cycle as SMEs. This to me is a clear indicator that ED is doing more right than they're doing wrong, else these folks wouldn't show up here and participate to the extent shown. I personally cannot start to comprehend how many man-hours and man-years go into each of those modules that ED and partners provide us with, but this is something that the wider community need to understand - and appreciate. Once that becomes clear, a lot of the constant bickering should make room for the awe of the technical achievement that DCS is today.

Well said! +1

The only custom item I have asked Monstertech to cut for me was indeed the vertical extrusion for the MFDs, and that's 40cm long. The rest is all standard stuff from Monstertech as sold from their website. The Monitor Stand is ~130cm tall.

1) Yes, I do. What two bars are you referring to? 2) No; and I don't know if that would work 3) Yes, the Self-Standing TV/Monitor Stand 4) I have the MTX Keyboard Mount and the MTX HOTAS addon (works well with my center mount) 5) Sure, I just grab the keyboard from the keyboard mount and put it on my lap 6) Any car seat should work (so long as it has a slide/rail as that's what attaches to the rig) 7) Pics? yeah, same as in the first post: https://imgur.com/a/JEemfuR PS: for any measurements you should contact Monstertech directly ( https://www.monstertech.de/en/contact/), or post questions on their own forum: http://www.monsterfoundry.net/index.php

Because DCS is more demanding in terms of flight- and systems-modelling than FSX (and simulations like it). Developers coming here from FSX et al will find quickly that merely creating a nice 3D model doesn't cut it in DCS. Not every developer has an aeronautical engineer on hand to whoop up a realistic flight model.

Don't ask to ask - just ask. :) I check the forums here occasionally, but I disabled PMs long ago.

ED stated in one of their newsletters that they're working on the lighting (including night lighting), and apparently that's an on-going process in Open Beta (and we're here to witness all that in our Open Beta participation). All part of the normal development cycle - ED updates the core, and 3rd parties have to adjust. We only have to recognize that this is standard procedure, and need some patience (or move to Stable instead).

Awesome module, and I only scratched the surface. Did some take-offs and landing, got a feel for her behavior and she's easy to handle in a pattern, considering the massive torque. No dogfights or anything yet, but I love flying it.

That's one of the occasions where I would love to see ED's Yo-Yo chime in.

Noticed that as well. Maybe some more updates are needed to tweak some of the older modules to the new lighting system.

That rattling sound is gone after today's patch. Thank you.

Yes, the HTTP download speed is nice. I got steady 15MB/sec for today's patch, which is close to what I usually get from Steam game downloads. So yeah, thanks ED for making massive updates less painful. :thumbup:

Snagged the P-47 and Channel Map as well. Looking forward. :thumbup:

This is the place to spam the F5 key: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/news/changelog/openbeta/

Now this is a strategy to get behind. Shows that ED is listening and willing to adjust based on collected feedback that is not based on whining or "gimme gimme" entitlement, but actual representative data collected. Kudos to ED and everyone involved in the process.

This! :thumbup: Sadly though, these silly threads usually go on for pages upon pages for no real reason...