isoul

If Su-25T Shkval don't use 0x zoom then its good to be removed cause game becomes more and more realistic. The 8x zoom can be "partially tamed" at closer distances if you point the camera by turning the whole aircraft towards the target then use ground stabilize and slew the camera using the keys. Btw, where did you read that ED will remove 0x Zoom? Are there any patch notes for the upcoming patch?

Exceptional work Ricardo!

I don't know if its possible to make a "one-fix-to-solve-all". Since stuttering some time occurs due to view distances it may need to make fine adjustments according to one's system and prefrences. The basics is to tweak graphics.cfg. The settings may vary from rig to rig and from user to user. For example, I prefer mud-movers (Su-25, Su-25T) so I do care about the object visibility range while the F-15 pilot, who flies 15km above the ground most of the time chasing aircraft, doesn't care that much!

Great news Wags! Any details about what the patch notes?

Fusion no need to call "peace"! I was never aggressive or intimidating against you... just the opposing way of thinking. First of all I would like to mention that whats in Falcon isn't necessarily the best thing to implement in FC2.0. What I mentioned before about RH-202 and modern AA defenses is what I 've been told by AA crews of the airforce since 1995, its not my imagination nor my experience from any computer simulator. Another think that makes me doubtful is that flak guns were retired from most armies in the '80s. Today only a few ex-Warsaw Pact countries utilize such guns. Apart from this you mention 30-40 KS-19 and 20-30 KS-12... Thats at least 50-70 guns. Aren't these quite many? What will they protect? A city, an airfield? How many guns can be controlled by a single SON-9? IMHO I would suggest you to use your skills and time to create more modern equipment but still I may be wrong.

Ethereal you can't be more right about what you say! I am glad to hear that ED is doing something, anything to take care our requests. About the suggestions... its only ideas since I don't know the capabilities or the limitations of the graphics engine. I am not in any position to direct ED devs! If I was I probably could do it myself..! The best thing I could do is to try different settings and see how the performance would be affected. The only thing I can do is to direct people to the solution that worked for me until something better or something official comes out.

Of course the 0x zoom is essential in order to spot a target! No arguement on that Bob!!! I said that no one will try to spot a target, using 0x zoom at great distances, like 30+ kilometers away. At these distances, using 0x zoom, its impossible to spot a target! Still, trees are visible 30km away from you even at 0x zoom. So the number of objects being displayed in Shkval counts at least several hundreds. This is why every, bet EVERY system is brought to its knees... even computers with powerful graphics cards and processors! Agree on that Shkval is a second(independent) camera. So, if its a second camera and is computed a second time, why not do so with different settings? The LOD1 and LOD12 are different for MFD as I can judge from graphics.cfg, why not implement more settings like fog distances and object distances? This is were I object Ethereal! Why not have an ED solution? Its a known problem, everyone can reproduce it easily and it is a matter of game design... While I can tweak some files and improve the game's performance, ED should do it because : 1) Its their product. 2) They could do it better than me. 3) I am a customer... it isn't good to ask customers to improve your errors in design without a discount! Is it?

Wait a second guys! Removing 0x zoom level isn't a solution... You can't search for a target using 8x, only if you already have spoted it visualy and turned the seeker to its exact location. Ethereal, you mean that the reason is that in FC2.0 while at no-zoom (0x zoom) you still can see single trees rendered at great distances. 1) This ISN'T needed cause no one will try to spot a tank at that distance using 0x zoom. Even if you try, you can distinguish a tank from a tree since everything are tiny(but still visible). As it is now you can see trees on a mountain using Shkval at 0x zoom at too great distances (maybe 30 or 40 km away) while trees aren't visible at half that range when you look through the cockpit glass. 2) Its unrealistic to be able to see trees at this distance. Why the Shkval's 0x zoom is so much better that your eyes? Its 0x zoom afterall, right? Am I not getting something right? 3) You are a crippled aviator in many cases even with the "much longer sight" cause when you are running the game with 11-15 fps you can't handle the Su-25T, not to mention to point Shkval to the direction you want! Please take a moment and read my simplistic solution to the problem : As we all understood the problem is that in Shkval you can see objects at too great distances even at 0x zoom. In my opinion the distance shouldn't be so great! By tweaking Fogparameter1 and Fogparameter2, in graphics.cfg at the end of the file, and setting both to 2.5 you can increase the fog effect so the trees in great distance will disappear. This has little impact at view distance in cockpit, a big impact in Shkval's view distance at 0x zoom(which is welcome). This makes the game gain 10-15 fps, running at 25-30 fps, were otherwise it would run at 15 fps average. Of course the impact at visual range in cockpit isn't the best think but its less annoying than running the game with 15 fps! What would be the best solution? The best solution that comes to my mind (though I don't know if it can be done) is to be able to set different visual/fog distances for Shkval MFD zoom levels and cockpit/camera views. In MFD objects shouldn't be rendered at too great distances when using 0x zoom. When you set zoom level to 8x or 23x the render distance could be changed since at 8x trees should be visible at some extend, but this has no impact in fps since FoV isn't that great. Same goes for 23x zoom level. Isn't that possible? PS : Sorry for the long post, I am just trying to help...

As the title says... is there any info? The only word I found about it is that its being investigated. Hey, DCS:BS has no problem with it... DCS:BS has no serious impact in FPS, it doesn't even show every single tree kilometers away as FC2.0 does. Is there any patch coming out soon or just a quick fix? Is this issue solved? I am anxious cause strike aircraft are my favorite and I wouldn't bother if FC2.0 included fighters only. I love the Su-25T and its FM but now its unplayable unless you tweak and sacrifice some detail... Currently I restrict myself in playing the Mig-29 althought I would love to fly the Su-25T instead. Sorry for being irritating and pressing on the matter...

Yeah, a Rheinmentall MK20 is enough to shoot down an A-10 or Su-25 since its capable to engage aircrafts like the F-4. The only problem is that I don't know if the AI is capable of such coordinated actions needed to create an "umbrella". Still I doubt that a flak gun can be of much use against these aircraft. If flaks are useful, why flaks aren't still used as AA?

I may have said it wrong but you CAN fly through the defensive "umbrella" created by AAA, such as the Rheinmental 202 MK20. The umbrella is just intimidating cause of the great volume of fire. This doesn't mean that flying through will necesserily get you killed or hit but are you willing to risk it? Most won't! Its main role isn't to shoot down a modern jet, although a kill would be welcome tacticians doesn't expect that great results. They primarily focus on putting great stress to the enemy pilot and disrupt him. The AA gunner's orders are so... often they will just fire to the approximate path or over a target area rather than immediatly infront of the aircraft. Every pilot under so intsense fire wouldn't be so focused when delivering its ordinance and that is often enough to save the target. The flak's rate of fire is so low that it's hard to create the volume of fire or any intimidating effect.

I doubt that KS-19, with its 15 round/min rate of fire, could be of use against modern jets! According to AAA personnel, even the more modern, Rheinmentall 202 20mm AA Gun can't engage effectively modern jets like F-16 or Mirage-2000. It is used for mass-fire protection, creating an intimidating "umbrella", rather than indivitually defeating enemy aircraft. This could be used and simulated in FC2.0. These guns can engage and defeat older aircraft that may be still in service like the F-4, Sea Harrier or Mirage F1. Bofors, that were mentioned above by Renato, are so obsolete that Greek army uses it, in conjustion with time-fuzed ammo, as anti-personnel guns protecting coasts from landing infantry...

I have tried various tweaks in graphics.cfg and I have seen that reducing far_clip and various ranges helped BUT made buildings transparent even in close range. This was quite ugly and annoying. While trying setting Fogparameter1=2.5 and Forparameter2=2.5 helped decreasing that transparency effect to medium and long distances while still making the thousands of objects in the far distance to disappear... thus making less objects to be displayed in Shkval and the impact in FPS lesser. As it is now my FPS will go no less than 25fps (it was 15 previously) and the Su-25T is somewhat flyable even while using Shkval. I 'll try further tweaks... please, any suggestion and improvement would be much appreciated. Still this is NO SOLUTION but it seemed make the flight of Su-25T possible... until ED releases a patch or something to solve the issue!

THX Arthonon and Sarge55! I knew that my GFX card wasn't the issue! DCS:BS has better performance simply because(in Ka-50) there is two zoom options instead of three(in Su-25T). The first zoom level displays way too many objects that brings even high end machines to its knees! So... in case you have low FPS when flying Su-25T and activating Shkval(usually near towns) the problem IS NOT your GFX card or your computer! It has to do with how ED made things to be displayed in it and they should fix it! Btw... is the same problem present in FC1? Is it so annoying?

I hope you didn't tried to fly Su-25T with Shkval active... This is a known issue! In general if you experiencing stuttering you should decrease view distance(which makes the game more realistic) by tweaking graphics.cfg. You should describe your problem and your hardware in more detail for us to understand what is going on.

This maybe but I haven't seen my poor GTS250 "struggling" under the DCS engine. More important... in FC2.0 while flying Su-25T I have 60fps...then when I want to track a target and activate Shkval the frames go at 15fps(when set at high), if I zoom in the frames go to normal again! This is simply because ED made Shkval display trees&buildings at great detail for several kilometers away. On the other hand I thought ED's recommendation for FC2.0 was nVidia 8800 or better ... if this means at-least-GTX285 I think its not my bad. Btw some people said that even with GTX295 they got low FPS with SU-25T and while using Shkval.

75!

The FPS drop is tremendous. While at 60fps(capped using the maxfps setting in graphics.cfg) the FPS may drop to 15-17 even with settings at medium. If I tweak graphics.cfg I am able to decrease the depth that objects are drawn in Shkval and I get a roughly acceptable fps (28-30fps in the same mission area) but still this isn't a solution. Even an 50% fps is quite much! At least the game seems playable with SU-25T but ED should make some optimization in an upcoming patch ASAP cause this isn't normal. I have tested that in the Su-25T quick mission and seems to work.

The only disadvantages I can find on my X52 is its (light)weight and non-precision slider. 1) If its base was heavier and a stick a bit harder it would be perfect. 2) The slider on the throttle stick is non-precision IMHO. Leave it somewhere between 1%-99% and it will "flicker". Its strong point is that its quite good for its price compared to other products!

I tried this setting for a few minutes and the only change I ve seen in clouds is that after a few seconds I show that clouds at close&medium distance were moving with a slight stutter. When I set it back to 0.03 the stutter was no more at all ranges. Long distance clouds were never moving I think. I tried this at Su-25T Quick Mission.

I had DCS:BS install on my machine and I installed LOMAC+FC2.0. I am running it with no problems at all. As Mastiff is mentioning above, Win7 may cause you problems if you choose to install some games in the Program Files/Program Files(x86) forlders. Try another folder (I installed in d:\Games\Flamming Cliffs 2.0).

In real life the higher your altitude is the better "visibility" a SAM has on you! So, when you get in range, you can expect that the SAM will do its best to bring you down... and you have done its work easy! I bet the key is observation! Be it a friendly FAC, RWR or your aircraft's camera you have to observe your target area and identify/prioritize any threats. Apart from this there is some RL basics when engaging a SAM : 1) If you can score a kill at stand-off range you alway do that! 2) If you can't score a kill from a stand-off position than you have to utilize low flight/ground cover to keep the SAM from detecting you. Then you have to attack very fast in order to leave yourself vulnerable for as less as possible! Of course this requires you know the location of the SAM 3) In case you get ambushed, meaning there was a SAM that you haven't seen soon enough, you always go defensive, take evasive action, use CM, go low and run like a rat to the closest ground cover and PRAY! Never overfly the target area cause, even if you won't get hit while you are in close range, once you pass above it you have your back turned to your enemy... and that makes you an easy prey! You may want to watch this so you can see yourself some pilots talking about tactics and how they approach SAM sites in SEAD missions.

I don't have FC2.0 yet but judging from DCS, I would prefer to fly around with an uncaged Shkval rather than flying over a city. If the FPS drop in Su-25T is that great, to become annoying, as you say because of Shkval its really sad... and makes the idea of purchasing FC2.0 a not-so-good-idea!

Actually there won't be any Su-27 vs F-15 fight in the near future, and if this comes to reality, it will probably be US F-15 vs some minor air force with not well trained or well armed pilots/aircraft. So any outcome wouldn't be without doubts*. Since this is a theory talk, I expect that AIM-120C would be better than any other counterpart for one reason... AIM-120 has being fired in real fights and it had much more opportunities to be evaluated and improved. * In a real fight I think there are some factors that counts much but can't be measured. That is "pilot's experience" and "facing the unknown"! We all understand the "experience" part! The "unknown" is the enemy weapons that pilot haven't faced before or haven't been tested in real combat. The lack of knowledge of the enemy puts much stress to any warrior and is capable of negating much of the technological. Still this works both ways, right?

Yeah, that is to be expected since your CPU/GPU actually process 2 different images in order to show them on your screen. Still, in DCS, the FPS drop isn't that high compared to flying over a city/airfield.