GregP

Yep, I'd most likely buy a set too. They look incredible!

Well I haven't done a test with the 7970, but back when I was using a 6970 (but still using a resolution of 6400x2160) my FPS went from 20 up to 23-4. I'd imagine just about same would happen with the 7970.

Excellent video. I always knew I'd been neglecting the HOOK options, but it never occurred to me that the EXP modes were all that useful. Definitely learned a lot here -- thanks!

Yup, as I posted here: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=84963&highlight=7970

Update: 1) I verified that I do in fact have "use these options for all missions" already checked. 2) I deleted all controller axis bindings in game mode, and still I have the weird control behavior. So that's those two possibilities ruled out. I've attached two versions of the Smerch Hunt mission: the default version and a version with all LUA files removed ... both mess up my controls. As a point of comparison, I've also attached the default In The Weeds missions, which works just fine, with or without the LUA files that are included in it by default. Missions.zip

Right, that's going to be the first thing I check when I get home today. :) Also I should note that these missions don't actually change my settings -- if I go into the controller options in-game they're all correct -- they just somehow get overridden during the mission.

Snapviews are views that you can define such that when subsequently pressing the corresponding button will take you directly to that view again. As such, they're perfect for getting zoomed-in views of MFCDs, instruments, etc. There are two ways to access them: 1) Momentary snapviews: Press LWin + KPx, where x is 0-9. This view is only active for as long as you hold down the button combo. 2) Sticky snapviews: First press and release RCtrl + KP0, then press and release KPx, where x is 0-9. This will 'toggle' the snapview such that it will remain fixed in that view until you press RCtrl + KP0 again. So how do you define the snapviews? I believe some are defined by default, but they may or may not be proper for you based on the resolution you use. For my setup, for example, none of the default snapviews are adequate, because I run a 6400x2160 resolution across 4 monitors, which is most definitely not what the devs had in mind when setting them. :) To set your snapviews: 1) Change ‘UseDefaultSnapViews’ to ‘false’ in View.lua 2) Change ‘DisableSnapViewSaving’ to ‘false’ in View.lua 3) Move the viewpoint to your desired location (refer to the Key Commands PDF for the key combos to pan, tilt, zoom, etc.) 4) Press LWin + KPx, where x is 0-9 5) Press RAlt + KP0 And you're done. Even though I use TrackIR to pan around and zoom in on the cockpit, I still find snapviews to be tremendously useful. I have mine set to: KP1: Radios KP2: NMSP KP3: CDU KP4: left console KP5: HUD KP6: right console KP7: left MFCD KP9: right MFCD

Thanks for the responses, guys. I'll pass on the missions that are messing things up tonight when I get home. With more testing I realized that not ALL missions get messed-up controls ... it seems that most ED missions (for example In The Weeds, Defend Camp Yankee, and Sitting Ducks, and the campaign missions) work just fine, but user-made missions such as =STP= Dragon's Mission and Training Packs and StrongHarm's "Build-up In Patara Valley" always mess up my controls. It seems that Smerch Hunt also messed them up, even though I believe that is an ED mission file. Anyway, thanks for the help so far, guys.

OK so, removing all the *view*.lua files does indeed restore my desired modified snapviews. HOWEVER, I can find no way to stop my controls from being remapped ... even if I delete every single file other than 'mission', still my controls are messed up. In a simple takeoff mission that I created long ago, my controls work fine. But as soon as I load another mission, suddenly roll and pitch are reversed and get 'stuck' in either full forward/backward/left/right after I move the stick. Is this not a common problem? You guys can just take other people's missions and jump right in?

This is an annoyance that's been around since the betas. It seems that the vast majority of user-made missions that I download somehow preempt my own snapviews and default viewpoints with (I'm guessing) whatever the creator was using. So for example my own tweaked HUD view now gets replaced with some other HUD view, apparently the one used by the mission designer. It also seems that axis and button assignments are also prone to being preempted by user-made missions ... what's going on here? Is there any way to prevent this from happening? It essentially makes these missions unplayable, doesn't it?

As do I: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=84963&highlight=7970

Hmmm .... well, I've built a system that has 2/3 of that display area for less than half the cost of that setup (I run DCS at 6400x2160, incidentally):

Official ED answer here: http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1395308&postcount=24

Finally an answer, woo-hoo! Thanks for responding, USSR_Rik. Well, at least we know that no amount of pestering AMD is going to change anything. :) Looking forward to Nevada and other future DCS releases.

Well, this might not help much, but I can confirm that the snapviews are working properly for me in 1.1.1.1. I presume you've tried rebooting your computer, unplugging and replugging all peripherals, etc.? Sounds like you've got a stuck key or something.

Yes, I had a 6990, and in DCS one of the cards gets disabled, so it uses just one of them.

Exactly. Although I have to admit, it seems that wtfisgoingon has done the impossible ... he's got usage on both cards and better FPS with two cards than with one. Well my friend, consider yourself lucky ... all the rest of us are quite sure you are the only person in the world who's gotten Crossfire to improve your FPS in DCS. I'll have to have you build me a computer sometime. :) Bottom line though, is that 99.9999% of us cannot get it to work, and it seems to either be due to the DCS engine not really supporting it OR AMD not supporting the DCS engine. And I ask again my original question: Can SOMEBODY from ED answer this question for us? Anyone?

Nope, you're the Chosen One, apparently. :) But seriously though ... given all that I've read on this forum, very often people believe that Crossfire is working for them, because for whatever reason they get better results with it 'enabled' instead of 'disabled', but when they actually look at their GPU usage, in utilities like Afterburner, they discover that the second card was not in fact being used. So yeah: I'm really, really curious to know what's going on with your cards. Clearly you're seeing some kind of advantage ... but the odds of it being a result of a true Crossfire setup are just incredibly low, at least based on everything else I've read. Can you describe specifically what you mean when you say you have it working?

Yeah you seem to be the luckiest DCS/AMD fan ever :) -- to my knowledge, you are the only person who has ever gotten Crossfire to work in DCS. I tried your suggestion about shutting off Catalyst AI, by the way, but it didn't work for me. Are you absolutely certain that both of your 5770's are being used? Have you used something like MSI Afterburner to verify it?

Well, anything's worth a try to get CF working, but following the above process, I get no change in either GPU usage on the second card (0%) or FPS on my dual 7970's. Oh well....

Really? I didn't realize that. OK, will update original post.

This issue has been discussed to no end in these forums, and lots of DCS users have tried to contact AMD to ask if Crossfire support will ever be added to their drivers, but have never received a response. Could we get an official ED response to this question, as in all my searching through these forums I don't think I've ever seen one? Does Crossfire support of the DCS series depend on AMD updating their drivers accordingly (i.e. creating profiles for DCS), or is it the game developer that must work to enable Crossfire? Is there a specific technical reason why CF does not work in DCS? Or is the DCS engine basically "CF-ready" but the DCS series is just lacking proper recognition from AMD? I'm not looking to point any fingers, I'd just like to know how the process works and who we need to lobby to get this finally working. DCS users generally spend a lot more money on computer hardware than your average gamer, especially on video cards (there are already 46, at last count, DCS users who really want to be able to use Crossfire, as tabulated in this poll), and it's really frustrating that we can't get the maximum utility out of these expensive multiple-GPU setups in our favorite flight sim.

Yup, I've already tried that route, like so many others. But I think I'm now going to try to get some of the guys who run the hardware sites I frequent to ask on my (our) behalf, as they seem to have regular contact with AMD. Worth a try at least.

Sorry, I don't own FSX so I really couldn't say. I wish! No, I'm not running Crossfire in DCS. Believe me I've tried every single combination of CCC and Radeon Pro profile parameters that I could think of, and I'm convinced there's no way to do it. I'm running Crossfired 7970's in every other game, and even technically in DCS (because I'm not manually disabling Crossfire) but the second card doesn't get used at all.

Ah, OK, that explains it (sweet pit, by the way). Exporting stuff to a 4th monitor, and being smart about how you arrange the monitors within Windows, is different from what I'm trying to do (although it is what I used to be doing). My setup (pic here) is more like taking a giant canvas of the normal view in the cockpit and just dropping the lower left and right corners of it; this was the only way that I could use the touchscreen to interact directly with the cockpit instruments without having to use Helios. Although I tried and really liked Helios, ultimately what I wanted was something that felt more natural, and didn't give me two cockpit views. I think I've achieved that ... but at the cost, of course, of rendering this ridiculous 6400x2160 resolution. :)