GregP

My bad, I misunderstood your #1 -- you meant press and release the snap view button; I thought you meant just press it without releasing it.

Ah -- well if that works, then yeah, that's definitely simpler, aside from the fact that you have to hold the snap view button down the whole time. Doesn't that interfere with moving your view to the new desired position, though?

Let me preface this by saying that I use a 3-screen SoftTH configuration in DCS: A-10C, so you might see different results if using a different setup -- but I think it should basically be the same. In DCS, choosing the 'HUD' snap view (RCTL KP0, then KP5) gives me a zoomed in view of the HUD frame but the actual HUD symbology is way too zoomed in, with most of it lying outside the frame and thus not visible. With the betas and their inconsistent snap view saving behavior, I never quite figured out how to create a more useful zoomed in HUD view. Boredtechie posted a very useful set of changed snap views here for things like the MFCDs and CDU, which I incorporated into my SnapViews.lua file, but he didn't list a 'zoom HUD' configuration, and trial-and-error at guessing numbers for viewangle, rollange, hangle, etc. just got too frustrating for me, so I decided to find a way to make DCS's 'save cockpit angles' functionality finally work for me, as I'd yet to work it out. With the release version of A-10C I've now got it working, and thought it might be useful for others. Here's how: Assuming I want to overwrite the inadequate KP5 snap view: 1. If you haven't already done so, set UseDefaultSnapViews=false in your View.lua file. 2. Toggle snap views: RCTL KP0 3. Press the snap view you want to change: KP5 4. Untoggle snap views: RCTL KP0 5. Move/pan/zoom your view to where you want it; for me, simply using zoom in (*) and slightly panning the view up a bit got me a nice zoomed in HUD view. 6. Save cockpit angles: RALT KP0 7. Press the snap view you want to set: KP5 And that's it, you're done! Pressing RCTL KP0 and then KP5 ought to take you to the new zoomed-in HUD view. And you can go to your SnapViews.lua file to see what values for [11][6] creates this view, for easier setup next time.

I just last night worked out the proper sequence for 'saving cockpit angles': 1. Toggle snap views: RCTL KP0 2. Choose the snap view you want to change and press that key: e.g. KP5 3. Untoggle snap views: RCTL KP0 4. Move your view to desired position 5. Save cockpit angles: RALT KP0 6. Press the key of the snap view you chose before: KP5 Voila! RCTL KP0 and then KP5 should now give you the changed view you wanted. You can also, as you say above, now look in your SnapViews.lua file and see the values in [11][6] and save them for future reference.

TigersharkBAS, I just wanted to thank you again for these excellent videos. I was able to order all the parts, assemble everything, and get it up and running in DCS with minimal trouble. The hardest part, really, was just getting the very thin wires that come with the GP-Wiz40 (which seem to actually be for solder connections, requiring users like myself with screw terminal switches to cut off their ends, carefully cut off some sheathing, and then delicately twist the individual wires around each other) to not constantly snap when moving things around. After a few tries, though, I've got it all working. I did an AHCP, minus a few of the switches, as my first project just to test it out. It's brilliant -- thanks again!

Yup, clean install after uninstalling Beta4. And I have no graphics options set outside the game, so if I'm doing same in-game then I'm stumped as to what's different.

Indeed you are! Porsche Turbo S Wheel with Clubsport Pedals. I gave up trying to switch out the Clubsports for my CH Pro Pedals whenever flying, and finally found a way to get the Clubsports to work in DCS properly (found this on the ED forum somewhere, but can't quite remember where): Left Rudder: set it to the pedals' Joy_Slider2 axis, check the 'slider' box, then set the responses to 0, 100, 50, 0. Right Rudder: set to pedals' Joy_Y, check both 'slider' and 'invert' boxes, set responses to 0, 100, 50, 0. Wheelbrakes: set to pedals' Joy_RZ. The only downside, and it's a minor one, is that since I run the pedals thru the wheel, I have to turn on the wheel first, meaning the fans inside it are running the whole time I'm flying. If I separately connected the pedals via USB to the computer, instead of running through the wheel, this could be avoided -- but then in racing games, I'd lose the brake pedal vibration effect, which only works when run through the wheel (it's a 'canned' effect, always occurring at a designated pedal travel percentage, but I like it anyway).

So I dialed my overclock back down to 4.6 last night, to match what I was running with Beta4, and I get the exact same framerates I got at 5.0 with the release version: 44 and 47. Apparently, something has changed in the release version that has negatively impacted framerates on my system. I'm stumped!

I don't know -- unless you're specifically trying to run with 3 sticks of RAM (for example if that's what you already owned and didn't want to buy new sticks), does going from triple-channel to dual-channel really affect anything? With this platform, it doesn't seem like RAM is much of a bottleneck. With Sandy Bridge there is no de-linking of the FSB from anything else, so I don't think there's any way to play with things like QPI. All you have control over is FSB -- which pretty much has no headroom -- and multiplier. Right, I'm waiting on Microcenter to begin stocking the fixed boards, at which point I'll do my exchange there. Either way it doesn't affect me because I just switched my SATA devices over to the 4 ports that are not affected by this defect.

I use a Sunbeamtech Core Contact Freezer w/120mm fan -- not top of the line, was using it for 2 years on my old QX6800 -- but DCS under load, in my testing so far, doesn't push the temps above 70, and idle in mid-30's. Yeah, my next test was going to be dropping back down to 4.6 to see if I could replicate, or even just get closer to, the FPS numbers I was seeing in Beta 4. And why 5.0? Simply because the headroom is there, and it's fun to say your machine is running at 5 gigahertz :) With these Sandy Bridge chips o/c'ing is effortless, and I got at least a 10% FPS gain when going from the stock 3.3 up to 4.6, so I assumed going up to 5.0 would at least not hurt things. But perhaps I've pushed it too far. I guess I won't know til I try 4.6 again.

I don't know -- I'm a bit hesitant to present this, because I feel like there must be some obvious thing I've overlooked and screwed up -- but I did a comparison last night between Beta 4 and the release version and I got a big DROP in framerate, DESPITE the fact that I have overclocked my processor even more now than I had when I did the Beta 4 test. My setup was/is: WAS: Beta 4 64-bit version, i5-2500K @ 4.6 GHz, 8 GB DDR3, GTX 470 at 680/1360 IS NOW: Release 64-bit version, i5-2500K @ 5.0 GHz, 8 GB DDR3, GTX 470 at 680/1360 I ran two different tests (one a simple sitting-on-the-runway takeoff mission, the other during the LITENING Pod training mission) using a 3-screen SoftTH setup at 4630x1080 and got these results: WAS: 52 and 57 IS NOW: 44 and 47 That's a disturbing 15-18% drop in framerate since Beta 4. As I was entirely expecting a framerate jump with the release version, I'm really confused here.

These threads are always fun. Some nice setups here, guys! I'm surprised that more of you don't run SoftTH or Eyefinity or Nvidia Surround. I'm loving SofTH with DCS: A-10C, even though it is solely responsible for my not being able to easily add other monitors for MFDs, Helios, etc.

Aw man, wish I'd known about polycase -- thanks for the link. I could've used that before buying my now too-small 7.5x5x2 case from Mouser Electronics to build an AHCP.

Wow, TigersharkBAS, I just watched your videos and whereas beforehand I had little to no interest in building such a panel, now I am definitely going to give it a try. As I'm not so big on the startup process, I'm thinking of trying the Armament HUD Control Panel as my first project. Thank you so much for taking the time to put these together -- I love stumbling across cool new home cockpit additions.

Wow, Sandman, that profile looks incredible, nice work! I myself use SoftTH with 3 monitors, so I don't think Helios is currently an option for me, but man it's tempting after seeing the coolness that it's capable of. Thanks for sharing.

Krebs20, unless you need Hyper-Threading for something (DCS won't use it), save yourself a hundred bucks and go with the 2500K. I've got mine running at 4.8 GHz on air cooling and could easily push it to 5.0. The few hundred extra MHz you might get with a 2600K won't make any difference in DCS -- see my post here to see how much O/C affects framerate.

Kuky, I ran a single CPU test case in Cinebench 10 and got a score of 6700. copen, my case is an AZZA Hurrican 2000 and my CPU cooler is the Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer 120mm.

Kuky, no problem at all, will do tonight when I get home.

Updated my post above with overclocking results.

UPDATE: Added overclocking results. Well guys, I just built a new system last night and ran some quick tests, and am excited to share the results. I've done what I think is as close to an apples-to-apples comparison as is possible, and I'm amazed at the performance bump I'm seeing. I ran these tests under Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and DCS Warthog Beta 4 64-bit. Using Method 1 from the instructions (here), I "sysprep'ed" my existing Windows install and simply moved it to the new build with no problems at all, a Windows first for me, saving countless tedious hours of program reinstallation. This should minimize the differences between the OS configuration on my old and new systems, making a direct performance comparison all the more meaningful. Old system: Core 2 Quad Extreme QX6800, stock 2.97 GHz overclocked to 3.47 GHz eVGA nForce4 680i SLI eVGA GeForce GTX 470 SC 8 GB DDR2 PC2-8500 (1066 MHz) New system: Core i5-2500K, stock 3.3 GHz overclocked to 4.6 GHz Asus P8P67 Pro eVGA GeForce GTX 470 SC 8 GB DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 (currently running at 1333 MHz) My standard framerate tests use FRAPS in a simple 'sitting on the runway' mission I created and then a 1-minute framerate record in the Litening pod training mission. I also run two different video configurations for testing: a single monitor at 1920x1080 and 3 monitors with SoftTH for a total resolution of 4630x1080. A caveat with these two video configs, though, is that FRAPS will only display the framerate for the left or right monitor when running 3 screens; given that these tend to be rendering at higher rates than the central monitor (I believe this is simply the way that SoftTH works) the results below appear to show the unexpected result that I get higher framerates when running 4630x1080 than I do when running 1920x1080. This is not actually the case, it's just that I can't measure the central monitor's FPS with FRAPS nor with DCS's built-in framerate counter as it doesn't seem to be working. As such, it makes more sense to look at framerate percentage changes rather than raw numbers to get an idea of the performance increase I'll see. So far I've been able to push it up to 4.6 GHz without much work, and I have a feeling I could probably safely get it to 4.8, but there may not be much additional payoff. In-game graphics settings: Textures: High Scenes: High Civ Traffic: Low Water: Medium Visibility Range: High Heat Blur: On Shadows: Medium Cockpit Res: 1024 MSAA: 2x HDR: On TSSAA: Off Clutter/Bushes: 250m And here are my results: Sitting on runway: Old 4630x1080: 39 1920x1080: 24 New, stock 3.3 GHz 4630x1080: 48 1920x1080: 43 New, o/c to 4.6 GHz 4630x1080: 52 1920x1080: 49 Litening pod training mission: Old 4630x1080: 39 1920x1080: 27 New, stock 3.3 GHz 4630x1080: 52 1920x1080: 46 New, o/c to 4.6 GHz 4630x1080: 57 1920x1080: 60 So basically I'm seeing an incredible 25-74% framerate increase (25-33% increase in the configuration that I actually run) going from my old system to the stock 3.3 GHz of the i5-2500K, but when I crank it up to 4.6 GHz I'm seeing an insane 33-122% increase (33-46% in my actual config). Of course, the "FRAPS only measuring outside screen framerate" issue makes it hard to tell if the the percentage increases at 4630x1080 are being measured on the same scale as those at 1920x1080, but either way, I'm quite happy. Bottom line: woo-hoo!

So far the only two unmapped unshifted keys I've found are 'i' (key command PDF says this is for HOTAS Coolie Switch Down, but that's a typo, it's actually 'j' in-game) and 'F8'. If you have pedals, you can unmap X and Z (left and right rudder) too.

Just wanted to add a note regarding my experience doing this in Beta4. Even after setting UseDefaultSnapViews = false in View.lua and copying the config lines in the OP into SnapViews.lua, DCS seemed to not use these settings (perhaps because I also had EnableSnapViewSaving=true in View.lua?). What I had to do was set UseDefaultSnapViews = true and then copy the OP lines into SnapViewDefaults.lua, and then everything worked perfectly. Only thing I had to change was the viewangle parameter (65 degrees on the MFDs), as I run a 4630x1080 triple-screen SoftTH config.

Wow, what a timely thread, as I was trying to solve EXACTLY this problem -- using my racing pedals as rudder and wheelbrakes in DCS. In my case, I wanted to do this because my CH Pro Pedals have been replaced in my cockpit with Fanatec Clubsport Pedals, which are much heavily and harder to move, making switching them out depending on whether I'm flying or racing a real PITA. I had puzzled over how to get them working for days now, and then came across this post. Problem solved! In my case I used the clutch and accelerator as left and right rudder, and the brake as wheelbrake (setting the left rudder axis to 'slider' with deadzone 0, saturation X 100, saturation Y 50, and curvature 0, and then right rudder axis to same but also 'invert', as shown in link above) and it works perfectly.

Good point; I overgeneralized based on my own experiences. What I should have said was: If, like me, you have two different video cards, not in SLI, being used to run 3 monitors, selecting any of the '3 monitor' options in DCS will not automatically span your view across all 3 monitors, nor will using the above guide do it. All it will do is put the MFDs on the side monitors. You'll need to use SoftTH to get the view spanned across all 3 monitors. If you have two Nvidia video cards in SLI or a single GeForce 295 -- which has 3 display outputs -- you can use Nvidia Surround to get the view spanned across all 3 monitors. If you have an AMD/ATI Eyefinity-capable card, you can use Eyefinity to span across 3 monitors. I think that just about covers it. :)

This is a very helpful guide, thanks. But I just wanted to point out to new users that the multi-monitor support in the game does not allow you to span your view across three monitors; rather, it lets you place the MFDs on side monitors or duplicates your view on the side monitors. To span across three monitors, you'll need to use a hardware solution like TripleHead or Kegetys' excellent SoftTH, a software solution. I'm using the latter and it's working beautifully in Beta 3, aside from an issue where the default zoom in way too far zoomed in. In the normal cockpit or external views, this is not a problem as you can simply zoom back out, but when trying to view MFDs full-screen, you'll be too far zoomed in with no way to zoom out. Hopefully this will be fixed in a future beta (because it was not a problem with Beta 1).