GregP

Yep, "Add to Cart" over here. And when I order something on Amazon and have it shipped to my office, I then put it in the trunk of my car, drive through a number of traffic circles, perhaps get stuck behind a big slow truck, and then finally get home and park in the parking lot before taking the elevator up to my apartment -- where I can finally open up that package. :)

I'm presuming you're English? So, wow, Amazon says "Add to Trolley" for you guys? That gave me a laugh ... all these little English/American differences are endlessly amusing to me. Anyway, welcome to DCS: A-10C and you can be assured that the code is very stable at this point. I'm sure there must be bugs left, but I've yet to come across any showstoppers as of the 1.1.1.1 patch. This is without a doubt a study sim, though, with Falcon 4.0, as you mentioned, being the closest thing to it in terms of serious combat flight sims to date. But if you're looking forward to Arma3, I imagine you're the type who can handle it. You might want to check out this recent thread from a guy who was just about to give MP a try for the first time and was looking for advice -- could be useful for a beginner. My #1 advice would be: do NOT try to tackle the manual all at once in the beginning. It's just way too dense. A better path is to focus on one particular area at a time (the actual flying; ILS/TACAN; TGP; Mavericks; etc.) and read as much as you can on this forum, on the Wiki, and watch a bunch of YouTube videos about it, before moving on to the next topic. Eventually, you'll have mastered everything. And then at some point after that, after endlessly referring to it, the manual will seem fairly straightforward to you.

Confirmed--mouse scroll does the trick. I was confused because I use a trackball in DCS and knew that I'd tried every combo I could think of before getting it to work...and it turned out that using my other mouse was how I did it. :)

Funny, I had the exact same problem last night and then eventually got it working ... but now I can't remember what I did. :) Maybe something like hold one of the mouse buttons down while you move the mouse left/right or up/down? Or while you scroll the mousewheel? It was something fairly unintuitive like that.

Finally successfully completed this mission for the first time last night after about a week and a half of attempts. Before about a month ago, I had never bothered to learn much about the CDU, so this was all new to me. It's a not hard mission, it just requires that the pilot understand basic navigation tasks. Nice job mia389, thanks for this one! Definitely gotta work on my ILS landing skills, though ...

I just did a whole bunch of testing in-game, and wanted to comment on earlier statements: Agreed and verified in-game. Agreed and verified in-game. Agree with all the above. The function of the attributes on the NAV/ATTRIBUTES page is that, as BlueRidgeDX stated, these serve as the default attributes for any new waypoint that you add (MARK, MISSION, or FLT PLAN). Some other interesting things I found: - If I create a new mission in the mission editor, all the waypoints default to TO-TO mode and 3D. If I then go in-game and check their attributes on the WP/WAYPOINTS page, they all say TO-FROM and 2D; but if I check them via the FPM FSK, they all show properly as TO-TO and 3D (with the exception of the very first waypoint, which as Gerry pointed out in his video will always be TO-FROM since there is no FROM PT defined for this waypoint). Isn't that strange, though? It seems that the default attributes set in the NAV/ATTRIBUTES page, which should only apply to new waypoints, also affect the waypoints created in the mission editor when they are viewed from outside their flight plan. - If I change a waypoint's steer mode via the WP/WAYPOINTS page, then go into FPM and insert a copy of this waypoint (as opposed to creating an entirely new waypoint) into the current flight plan, the newly-created waypoint's steer mode is not the one that I just set; rather, it's the one specified in the NAV/ATTRIBUTES page which (I thought) should only apply to completely new waypoints. That doesn't seem right either, does it?

Hehehe, yup, I knew it was just a matter of time before good old PeterP came to the rescue. You're in capable hands now, jiblet--if he can't do it, no one can. :)

Yup, I know exactly what you mean, because although my setup is different, I ran into exactly the same problem you're having. How are you running these two monitors, though? SoftTH? Or just native within DCS? I presume you meant that the virtual screen is 1920x480, not 1600x480. How about just putting that virtual screen on top, instead of at the bottom?

Ah-HA! So then not only is that line in the manual incorrect, it's also incredibly confusing. Your explanation makes much more sense. And this gets at a higher-level concept regarding waypoints that I think I've only just now finally grasped: all waypoints originally exist independently of flight plans (i.e. flight plans are always considered to be choosing from a set the same size or larger than the total number of waypoints included in the flight plan), and when you pull a waypoint into a flight plan and change any of its attributes, that attribute change does not get back-propagated to the original waypoint that exists outside of the flight plan. By including it in a flight plan, you're essentially creating a copy of that original waypoint, so that any change you make to the copy does not actually affect the original. Example: AAP STEER PT dial is set to FLT PLAN and I'm looking at my flight plan on the TAD. My flight plan includes 3 waypoints: 0 (INIT POSIT), 1 (MSN001), and 2 (MSN002). By pressing the FPM FSK and then selecting my flight plan, I can look at each waypoint's attributes. Assuming that their default steer modes were TO-FROM, I could change them all to TO-TO. I confirm here that all 3 waypoints are now using TO-TO mode -- but importantly, this only tells me the mode that these waypoints are in when they're part of my flight plan. If I exit out of FPM and press the WP FSK and then go into the WAYPOINT sub-page, I will see that waypoint 1 (MSN001) is still in steer mode TO-FROM. How can this be? It's because that change I made before from TO-FROM to TO-TO only affected the instance of waypoint 1 (MSN001) that exists inside my flight plan -- it did not affect the 'original' waypoint. On a related note, one thing that confused me about Fish's video was that, when he's demonstrating the TO-TO mode, his CDU screen shows TO-FROM. But this is because he's on the NAV/ATTRIBUTES sub-page, which only shows the default steer mode for all waypoints -- it will not indicate what the current steerpoint's steer mode is. To see that, he'd have needed to be on a different CDU page, according to the position of the AAP STEER PT dial: if it was on FLT PLAN, he'd have needed to be on the FPM/WPTATT page; if it was on MISSION or MARK, he'd have needed to be on the WP/WAYPOINT/PG2of2 page. The reason why that was so confusing for me in his video was because even though the steer mode continues to show TO-FROM as he cycles though waypoints, an updated "DIAL HSI TO XXX" message would show for every waypoint he cycled through (indicating that TO-TO mode was being used on each waypoint). But, again, this is because the steer mode shown on the NAV/ATTRIBUTES page is only the default steer mode for all waypoints, and does not indicate anything about the actual current steerpoint. So Gerry, your comment above that "CDU-WP doesn't work as a means of changing a waypoint's steer mode" is (I presume) explained by the fact that you probably had your AAP STEER PT dial set to FLT PLAN, in which case, it makes sense that changing the steer mode there was not affecting the waypoints that were in your flight plan. Also, I agree with your comment that "Its unfortunate the attributes from the NAV page does not work, as this would be the most sensible place to change it, and you have the required course visible, to allow you to tune the course dial"; or, stated maybe more clearly, it would be nice to have some CDU page that both allows you to change a flight plan waypoint's steer mode AND gives you the "DIAL HSI TO XXX" message; it's strange that that message ONLY shows up on a page that does not reflect current steerpoint information.

I haven't heard of anyone figuring out how to do this, but I can at least tell you that with multimonitor configs the info bar generally shows up on the bottom of the lowest screen...so I would think that you'd be seeing at least part of it on one of the screens. What're the screen resolutions / aspect ratios and what exactly is your setup?

DCS probably writes to some config files in your Documents folder, which is probably on your C drive, and Windows may flag such a write operation as something requiring UAC approval -- that's my guess, at least. And maybe your other sim doesn't write anything to the Documents folder, thus avoiding UAC.

I've been thinking about that, and wondering if it maybe has to do with the position of the AAP dial; p. 229 of the manual, regarding attributes that can be assigned via the CDU when on the NAV / ATTRIB sub-page states: "Waypoint Specific Attributes. These are used when the AAP STEER PT dial is set to MISSION or MARK. These can be uploaded from the DTS or entered from the Waypoint page (new or modified). Flight Plan Specific Attributes. These are used when the AAP STEER PT dial is set to MISSION or MARK. These can also be uploaded from the DTS or created/modified from the Waypoint Attributes (WPTATT) page." That seems to say that waypoint attributes cannot be changed when AAP is set to FLT PLAN (which, on second thought, makes perfect sense). Do you remember how your AAP dial was set?

Thanks Gerry! Unfortunately I have less time to actually FLY the sim than to think and type about it, so I haven't been able to verify what you found, but it sounds about right. In that case, my earlier description of my understanding of the modes should be modified to say that TO-TO mode assumes by default that your previous waypoint was the one indicated sequentially previous in your flight plan (i.e. that if your current steerpoint is waypoint N, your previous waypoint was N-1, and N-1 is therefore your FROM PT--I wonder if it shows up on the NAV/FROM PT sub-page automatically?), and that's how the proper course is calculated; but you also have the freedom to designate any other waypoint as your desired FROM PT, and then a new course will be calculated and shown on waypoint properties page. To summarize: TO FROM mode: the default waypoint mode; path to current steerpoint from any desired radial, which must be entered manually via the CRS knob in order for the CDI to be properly referenced. TO TO mode: the path to the current steerpoint from 1) by default the previous waypoint, or 2) from any other waypoint designated as the FROM PT. In this mode, CDI will be properly referenced even without manually entering the course via the CRS knob, but it's a good idea to do so anyway so that your Course pointer is pointing in the right direction.

Download 7-zip -- this will open both ZIP and RAR files, and is completely free.

Yup, that all sounds pretty much in agreement with what I thought. Thanks! That still leaves me with the question though, about whether that CDU tooltip is correct or not, i.e. is it really true that only the TO FROM mode is currently functional? And also, if the 1.1.1.0 patch fixed a bunch of previously broken functionality regarding steer modes and ADI/HSI/CDI indications, perhaps Fish's video isn't quite showing us what it should be, at least as of 1.1.1.1 (through no fault of his own, obviously). In that case ... hey Fish, any chance you'd remake it? :)

Didn't actually read my (admittedly long) post, did you? :)

My T-shaped 4-screen setup basically requires that I change the default snapviews as soon as I get in-game, but I'm finding that they aren't saving in DCS:M. Is this a known issue? I remember the same thing happening with the A-10C betas. And yes, I am setting View.lua's "DisableSnapViewSaving=false" and have tried both "UseDefaultSnapViews=false" and "UseDefaultSnapViews=true" (since there is no SnapViews.lua in the default install of DCS:M, only a SnapViewsDefault.lua). Neither combination saves the cockpit angles after pressing RAlt-KP0.

Perhaps my confusion is based on my perception that these modes are very confusingly named: what exactly does "TO TO" mean, especially as it requires a FROM point to be set, while the "TO FROM" mode apparently somehow allows navigation TO or FROM a waypoint, although the manual never explicitly states how you choose between TO or FROM? To make matters worse, the manual doesn't describe the situations in which one or the other might be used, or why. By way of providing some foundational definitions for the following discussion, I quote these comments from the 1.1.1.1 manual: Page 226 ("NAV / Attributes Sub-Page"): "By default, a waypoint's attributes are: Steer: TO FROM" Page 229: "TO FROM - the commanded course is the great circle path along the course entered via the HSI COURSE SET knob to/from the selected steerpoint." Page 229 : "TO TO - the commanded course is the great circle path from the designated From point, displayed on the CDU FROM Page, to the selected steerpoint." I have of course seen , and I've read and re-read the relevant sections of the manual. Fish's video is an invaluable addition to the manual; however, I've begun to wonder whether maybe some of these things have changed since 1.0.0.8 (the version used when Fish made his video), thus confusing things further for the new learner. For example, from the 1.1.1.0 patch notes: "• Waypoint attributes from ATTRIB page are now correctly applied to a newly created waypoint or markpoint. • Waypoint attributes are now correctly applied to ADI/HSI steering when the steerpoint altitude/coordinates, current fly-to DB, or current steerpoint number have been changed, or when the ANCHOR point has been set as the steering destination via the NMSP. • Many fixes have been made to the ADI steering bars logic. Pitch steering will work for the anchor point now. Pitch steering was improved and is less sensitive. Bank steering bar will properly steer to the course set via HSI. Bank steering pointer will no longer generate strange steering commands. • Course set display on ATTRIB page will refresh when FROM point has been changed." In particular, that second bullet ("Waypoint attributes are now correctly applied to ADI/HSI steering when...current steerpoint number has been changed") would seem to possibly invalidate some of Fish's video because it would imply that in 1.0.0.8 we could never be completely sure whether our choice of TO TO or TO FROM for a selected steerpoint was actually being applied to that steerpoint. I also noticed (see attached pic) that while in the NAV/ATTRIB page, the tooltip over the CDU's LSK L5 (STEER mode) says "Current waypoint steering mode (only TO FROM functional". Is that a remnant of limited functionality from an earlier version? Perhaps related to the second bulleted fix from 1.1.1.0 quoted above? Or is this true for version 1.1.1.1? So, given all the above sources of confusion, my current understanding of the way the TO FROM and TO TO modes work in 1.1.1.1 is as follows (please correct me if I'm wrong -- that's the whole point of my thread): It makes sense to me that the TO FROM mode should be the default waypoint attribute: absent any other information, it seems logical to generally assume that if my current steerpoint is waypoint B, I am probably coming from waypoint A. Since both these points were set up prior to takeoff, it can just be assumed that my FROM point is waypoint A (i.e. I don't need to manually set my FROM point) and thus the course between them is known a priori. If the above is true, I would think that the desired course setting for waypoint B (i.e. coming from waypoint A), moreover, could be found on the NAV/ATTRIB page, and I would need to manually dial this into the HSI in order for the CDI to be referenced properly. However, this mode also gives me the flexibility of allowing manual (i.e. not having been calculated a priori by my known previous waypoint) specification of my desired inbound course toward waypoint B, in case I want to approach from some other direction than from waypoint A. In that case, rather than enter the course shown in the NAV/ATTRIB page into the HSI, I enter whatever course I want, and the CDI will be properly referenced to that course. The TO TO mode, in contrast, seems to me to be primarily useful in a situation where I know I want my current steerpoint to be waypoint B, but I am not coming from waypoint A and would like to manually a choose a different waypoint instead. Thus I manually set my FROM point in the NAV/FROM PT sub-page; a course would be calculated between these two points and would be shown on the NAV/ATTRIB page; and from there I would enter that course into the HSI in order for the CDI to be properly referenced. So -- is anything wrong with what I've written above? In some sense this is probably a minimally-relevant issue for many Hog drivers since, as long as you have a functioning HUD and TAD, you don't really need to ever refer to the HSI or ADI in order to navigate between your waypoints. But I've avoided the intricacies of the CDU for too long and have finally decided to tackle it, so I'm trying to figure this all out. My feeling is that if different modes are provided, there must be some good reason for it; and that if I don't see any need to understand or use them, I'm probably missing something.

They were part of the retail game before 1.1.0.9 but were then removed. Still available here though: http://files.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/84753/

Right, I eventually figured it out on subsequent runs. I guess I'm just still a bit confused by your terminology, though ... I understand "fly the 290 radial out to 12nm from the TACAN" by I'm not sure why you refer to that as "12 DME". DME is a device, not a unit of measure, right?

Excellent! Thank you, sir. I put my unemployed wife to work setting up the download at home (10GB? Wow!), and can't wait to give DCS World, the Su-25T, and the P-51D a test this evening.

Some of us (*ahem*) like to get started on their HOTAS profiles while at work ...

Welcome to the forum, Mr_Ripley! Username455 pretty much answered your questions above, but I just wanted to mention that there are a TON of amazing online resources for learning DCS: A-10C even on your own. Some good places to start: DCS: A-10C Wiki, especially in the "Guides, Tutorials and Reference Documents" section ExcessiveHeadspace's videos And, of course, this forum. My suggestion would be: 1) Read through / skim the manual 2) Do all the training missions 3) Read everything on the DCS wiki 4) Watch all Fish's and EHS's videos 5) Read as much as you can on this forum -- there's a TON of helpful info here on every topic you can imagine And after all of that -- even if you've never gotten online -- you should be a fairly proficient A-10C pilot. Good luck!

I gave this mission a try last night but got stuck on the first waypoint -- how do I figure out what 12DME means? I mean, I know what DME is, but you seem to be referring to some kind of a DME station that I could dial into my TACAN or something -- and I don't recall that ever being mentioned in the manual. Hints?

The benefit of CPU o/c'ing in DCS is, as EtherealN mentioned, very much system-dependent. What I can say, however, is that based on my experience as detailed here, with a single screen at 1920x1080 in an example mission my FPS increased 14% by going from a stock 3.3GHz up to 4.8GHz, while using 3 screens at 4680x1080 the same overclock increased my FPS 8%. In other words, nowhere near a linear improvement in performance with overclock, but essentially a 'free' increase with no downside other than increased power consumption and heat generation, which are both probably non-issues for most of us --especially given how just about everybody, regardless of system, seems to be wanting more FPS in DCS.