Bahger

I'm back into DCS after a three year break and am using the L-39 as a "re-entry-level" jet, if you will. I'm loving it; it's a true analogue aircraft and flies just like it does IRL; you have to manage its lack of grunt and turbine lag very carefully. My question is this: What is the best way to navigate in what seems to be essentially a VFR-only aircraft? Can anyone tell me if the VOR works and if it has an ILS? I haven't looked into setting any radios yet. I don't want to fight this aircraft but just tour around Nevada in it and master a few of the relatively mild aerobatics that it's capable of doing (with enough downhill airspeed). Also, it's been so long since I last flew in DCS that I don't know how the VFR-style kneepad function works. And I am embarrassed to say that I cannot figure out how to get out of the big theater map once I've accessed it from in-cockpit. Thank you!

Now THAT is useful to know. I had no idea. After an entire morning of frustration I think I've got this but I've been struggling with controller conflicts that I have to resolve in the DCS controls interface. Would those of you with experience loading TARGET profiles say that it's good practice to clear all input data from all columns before loading the custom TARGET profile into the combined device and keyboard columns so that I do not have to worry about conflicts from the default settings?

Wait, I think I fixed it. I had forgotten how quirky all this stuff can be, with so many devices having to play nice... Do you think it's good practice to have those imported .dill.lua files as the only files in their destination folders? Deleting one that looked iffy seemed to fix my joystick issues but I can't be sure. Thank you so much for your help; the L-39 (which I've been lucky enough to fly twice from the back seat) handles beautifully with this profile; it's such a great analog aircraft that welcomes good trimming...

Wait, I think I fixed it. I had forgotten how quirky all this stuff can be, with so many devices having to play nice...

Wait, I think I fixed it. I had forgotten how quirky all this stuff can be, with so many devices having to play nice...

Gents, I am looking for a good Warthog profile for the L-39. I am having a bad experience with this one, which looks very well made but every time I run it to get the combined virtual device in TARGET it disables my joystick and I have to get out of TARGET and reset the stick's USB connection before it will work again. I don't mind mapping the whole thing in DCS but in the past I have found expert profiles (albeit for my old CH HOTAS) very helpful. I am facing several steep learning curves here so assistance would be much appreciated.

Thank you, Home Fries. I am having a bad time trying to get this profile, which looks very good, to work. I did all the file transfers using great advice from this thread but every time I activate the combined virtual device in TARGET it disables my joystick and I have to get out of TARGET and recycle the joystick's USB connection to get it working again. You are obviously a Warthog power user; can you suggest an L-39 profile that works? I am gnashing my teeth. If there isn't one, I will map all the commands in DCS but it will be a trudge.

Frederf, I followed your instructions to the letter but unfortunately whenever I activate the combined virtual device in TARGET, it disables my joystick and I have to get out of TARGET and recycle the joystick's USB connection to get it working again. It's very frustrating. Of course it could be an error on my part, but, as I said, I followed your instructions very carefully. Is there anything you can suggest? If not I will either have to find a new profile for the L-39 or go through the process of mapping all functions in DCS...

Yup, it was a very efficient business in the end and I am now up and running with all modules available and a new Nevada map! It's so interesting to note the improved state of DCS after all these years (Starting with Lock-On). The things I am seeing now were not just unavailable when I last played but almost inconceivable. Thanks for all your help and encouragement, guys. I am in the process of setting up the HOTAS (with TM TARGET...wish me luck) on my "starter" jet, the L-39, which has a sentimental association for me and should be relatively easy to learn.

This is fantastic, Frederf, thank you for taking the trouble to explain it to me in detail. As much as it is possible to map everything in the DCS control interface (which is somewhat better than it was four years ago when I last used DCS) this user-made profile for the TM Warthog looks detailed, authentic and well-built to me (in spite of the filename errors) and now, thanks to you, I get to save myself some time and to fly the Albatros with a ready-made, full-featured map. Will it input the right rudder commands, including toe-brakes, for my TM rudder pedals, I wonder? Thanks again for this; I owe you a beer.

I am facing multiple learning curves as I reinstall DCS after three years away. I have no experience with the Thrustmaster Warthog TARGET software. One of the most teeth-grinding challenges is attempting to activate a user-made Thrustmaster Warthog profile for the L-39 Albatros in DCS. It’s a very well-made profile but I just cannot figure out how to get it going. If someone could explain this to me as though to a very smart ten year-old I would be very grateful. Here’s the deal. The instructions go as follows: Install : Unzip file content where you want on your PC. Open Target. Run the “Combined XXXXXX.tmc” with “Run configuration” Button. Open DCS. Load the 3 .diff files provided in the correct category (see file name). Enjoy ! Warning ! : Works only if you load the 3 DCS command profiles provided, in the proper categories (Keyboard/Thrustmaster Virtual Device/Thrustmaster Virtual Device Axis), and set the TrackIR/Teamspeack keybinds as specified in the layout image provided. The italicized text is what I simply cannot wrap my brain around. Where are these “categories” to be found? The names of the files I am supposed to load in the correct categories are LOAD IN DCS CATEGORY AXIS THRUSTMASTER VIRTUAL GAME CONTROLLER.dff LOAD IN DCS CATEGORY KEYBOARD.dff LOAD IN DCS CATEGORY THRUSTMASTER VIRTUAL GAME CONTROLLER.dff But how do I load them? In DCS, it appears, but how? I am familiar with the columns is the DCS controls setup page but what do I do once I get the combined device column after running the configuration file in TARGET? Please help, I am about to tear what’s left of my hair out. Many thanks.

Thanks. I'm just hoping not to need a PhD in HOTASology before it's flyable with the Warthog.

Hi gents, I am coming back to DCS after a long hiatus and want the L-39 to be my first aircraft module. I have a steep learning curve; not only is the aircraft new to me, so is the Warthog HOTAS so I am looking for advice about how to get the Albatros in the air with full HOTAS functionality but without spending hours and hours learning T.A.R.G.E.T. at this point. This profile looks great but complicated; should I install it immediately or is there an easier way, such as a default profile in DCS once the airplane loads? I am very rusty so please bear with me. Thanks.

Ok, I am now in the thick of rebuilding my DCS install and adding to it. There appears to be no official channel through which to pose the question about the free Nellis map I never claimed so if any of you guys has a contact I can approach directly, I'd be much obliged. Thanks!

Thanks for the warm welcome back and sound advice, gents. Home Fries, it's good to see you again; I was lucky to find a small group of guys who were prepared to help me out with authentic voices on mission comms, it really enhanced immersion and I'm glad I figured out how to do it. And you often made my comms scripts better. Just to clarify, I have a 1 TB SSD as my boot drive and a 2 TB HDD for data and games. Having read what you guys are saying, I'll break my rule for DCS and put it on the SSD. If trying to claim my free Nellis is a headache, I'll pay for it. Having flown and designed missions only for the Caucasus map since Lock-On, it's going to be a real kick to acquaint myself with the other theaters. Thanks again for all the good advice.

Hi gents, I am coming back to DCS after about three years away. My PC fell behind the tech curve but now, armed with a great new gaming rig and a Warthog HOTAS, I am eager to dive back in but concerned about what to download and how. I was once a very active member of the DCS A-10C community (from the closed Beta onward) and after getting quite proficient in both the Hog and the Mission Editor I published many full-featured missions. However, that was quite a while back, DCS has come a long way since then and now I am looking for a bit of help with the re-entry, particularly as it relates to reacquiring long-uninstalled modules I bought many years ago (when they weren't even "modules", really). If anyone can weigh in on any of these points, I'd be grateful. - The consensus seems to be to download from ED and not go through Steam for this. Thoughts? - I'm told that it's best to install on an SSD. I tend to use my large HDD for games as I do a lot of singleplayer but I could make an exception for DCS and install it to my SSD boot drive if that's the way to go. - All purchases are made and downloaded from inside DCS World, right? - When I last played DCS, there was a big advantage to using the Torrent option to download content but the clients were often infested with all kinds of nasty malware. Can anyone recommend a "clean" Torrent client, even if it's paid? - I never claimed my Nellis map from DCS after earning it by being a Beta participant for the A-10C. Does anyone have suggestions re. how I might now claim it after all these years and get the Hog back even though I might not have any record of a license key? - I intend to buy all theaters (with Nellis free of charge, hopefully) and fly the L-39 to ease myself back in (I've been lucky enough to have flown it twice IRL so I can't wait). Then I want to learn the Hornet, the Tomcat and the Harrier and eventually get back into mission design. I think that's it for the moment. I will probably spend tomorrow morning reacquiring the sim and setting up as much as I can. All tips and advice would be very welcome. Thank you!

Sith, I did not start the ad hominem insults, I just responded to one. Politely.

No, because my tone was not childish, nor was the nature of the point I have been making. If you wish to criticize my argument I suggest you find a more appropriate adjective because "childish" doesn't work, whether you agree with me or not.

Some people appear not to have had the patience to read the contents of this thread properly before throwing out accusations of childishness. As you would see if you read this thread carefully, several contributors, myself included, have acknowledged a clear and necessary distinction between the developers of the Sabre and DCS. Obviously Belsimtek is not responsible for theater development. However, its product is part of an overall business plan that is fragmented and imperfectly executed at the moment and has been for quite a while. I am happy to be patient and as I said in an earlier post, might even buy the F-86 after all but I am making a point that should be self-evident, which is that licensed content for DCS World is being released into an operational vacuum right now and that people who want to fly an operational combat study sim might not be happy test-flying a Sabre around an ancient and ahistorical Caucasus map with no appropriate battlefield assets.

Nobody is throwing his toys out of the pram. I started this thread not to whine but to make the very reasonable point -- and one on which many people here agree -- that until DCS/ED come up with their first new map in about fifteen years, their disparate collection of aircraft without theaters or supporting assets constitutes a test-flight simulation, not an operational flight simulation. However good these aircraft are -- I am sure that the F-86 will be superb -- there is a crucial difference between this product and anything approaching what most of us define as a full-featured combat flight sim.

I'm very grateful for ED/DCS and I've been supporting them enthusiastically with my money and hundreds of hours of time spent in mission creation for about twelve years now. DCS has been the only game in town for the serious combat flight simmer after the heyday of study sims for the PC ended. I imagine it is a lot more difficult, time consuming and expensive to develop full-featured study sims of modern aircraft with dedicated 3D environments, for modern systems vs. what developers faced in building products like Jane's sims, Tornado, Falcon and EF 2000 for 486, DOS and Pentium-era technology. However, it is fortunate for DCS that they are the only serious developer left standing and do not have investors pressing them to rationalise or accelerate their product line because of the threat of competition. And I wouldn't want them to if it led to inferior standards, as, for all the seemingly piecemeal nature of the transition to a brave new dawn that we are all expecting to arrive -- in, what, two, five, ten years, who knows...? -- if there were another high-quality modern jet sim with a fully modeled theater and assets to come along, many DCS consumers would migrate. That is the risk DCS appears to be taking by supplying individual platforms of a very high quality but no battlefield context, no dedicated assets, no campaigns, no game. Interesting wars have been fought with decisive air power in the last twenty years, all untouched by DCS, including Kosovo, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan. Air power was decisive in the Falklands in 1982 and the Israelis are, as they have always been, on the forefront of its use in both wartime and as an asset against domestic terrorism. Many people, myself included, are happy, and grateful for the chance to test-fly high-fidelity individual platform simulations in the DCS world, but people in this thread who have -- politely and constructively -- pointed out that the diversity of aircraft lacks coherence and the continued absence of context weakens immersion have a valid point. I intend to stick with DCS but if a fully-featured, high-end jet study sim comes along, modelling any fixed-wing platform used extensively in combat in the last twenty years, with a dedicated theater, appropriate assets and adversaries plus a mission editor and a campaign of some kind (dynamic or not) I'll be there in a flash. Meanwhile I am not convinced that any of this is part of DCS's business plan. I did not like the stock campaign for A-10 and am not completely confident that the F/A-18 will be a fully-rounded simulation as described above. Perhaps their plan is to put all the tools to build good battlefield assets, campaigns and theaters in the community's hands while they concentrate solely on the aircraft...but who knows?

That's interesting, Home Fries. Is there any possibility of having era-appropriate objects, for ambiance, targets, verisimilitude etc., such as vehicles, radars, AD and such. Unlikely I know, but much easier to mod in than terrain, I assume.

Me too. The text in the press release quoted in DCS's Facebook post announcing the F-86 made me believe there would be a Korea theater.

Points well made, Sith, I am holding on. I am not active in mission design any more, however.

On reflection, I was wrong to state that my purchase of the Sabre would be conditional upon the availability of an appropriate theater as this appears to be holding Belsimtek to ransom when the issue is not under their control. If the "study sim" aspect of all of the deeply modeled DCS platforms were the only consideration, or promise, involved in this product, then the theater issue would be moot. However, DCS has a very capable mission editor and even a battlefield command module which demonstrate the engine's capacity for very detailed scenario design. However, for scenarios to have any real depth or atmosphere, the infrastructure of combat is needed, which, in the case of the Sabre, must include such things as contemporary air defense equipment, radars, ground vehicles, etc., so that the user can feel he is flying missions rather than test-flights. All sims and games, however sophisticated, require the player to accept some level of abstraction but for many of us, flying a Sabre or a Mustang in a historical vacuum is an abstraction too far. DCS is doing great work in commissioning these high-fidelity simulations of individual aircraft but in addition to supporting them with my dollars in the hope that they will finally manage to build appropriate theaters for these aircraft -- and replace an ancient map in the process -- I feel perfectly entitled to question their business plan because it all seems very piecemeal. Third parties now appear to be responsible for most of the aircraft simulation while DCS attempts to broaden its income stream by supplying sim-lite platforms. Nothing wrong with that but if the burden on aircraft simulation development can be successfully shifted to licensees such as those responsible for the Sabre, the Huey and the Hawk, it is not unreasonable, nor is it wrong, to wonder why the company appears incapable of delivering much-needed new theaters and terrain in anything approaching a timely manner. I'm sorry, but there is more than sufficient justification for committed suporters/customers such as myself to question the efficiency of their business model here, even while admiring their aspirations.