InsaniD

Judging by the response I received by criticizing DCS BS DRM, I doubt Eagle Dynamics cares. One of the Moderators told me that it wasn't the time or place to criticize their DRM and that it won't help anything. Just FYI.

If you have a Creative Sound Blaster sound card, you may want to experiment with using ALchemy, because AFAIK, the sound system still uses DirectSound, which was replaced by OpenAL in Windows Vista / 7. ALchemy restores some of the functionality of DirectSound by translating OpenAL into DirectSound (which BS uses). You may or may not get a performance benefit from it, but I know in my experience with BS1, it did help somewhat.

I understand what the original message said. There is another thread on here where another user posted almost the exact same concern about running out of BS1 activations because of BS2 (1 activation left) and they were told by a Moderator they can contact Support to get their BS1 issue resolved (http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1321076&postcount=3) I have BS2 Upgrade and BS1 DVD US (with 1 activation left). When I first tried to install BS2 upgrade with an existing BS1 install, it took away one of my activations for BS1. I don't want to get into a situation where I have to bug you guys for help! Additionally, I am a customer of yours, and I have helped support Eagle Dynamics by purchasing software. I have every right to voice my concerns about DRM or my purchases.

BTW, the Steam versions of DCS also have Starforce DRM. There is no way of getting away from it, no matter what version you purchase.

Hello, I sent an inquiry to customer service over 8 days ago and still have not received a replacement product key for DCS Black Shark 1. I am at only 1 activation left, and I do not want to get stuck in a situation where I have to wait a week or two for a response to get a replacement product key. In my original e-mail I sent to customer support, I gave all the details that are required. The response I received was this: I included my product key for DCS Black Shark 1 in the support request! If you read my request you will find my product key (serial) in the message. Additionally, how can you say activations are of little importance?! It is a known fact that because of Eagle Dynamics decision to use the extremely draconian DRM Starforce, one cannot play the game without any activations! Finally, as I stated before, I am contacting support to replace my key BEFORE I run out of activations so that I don't get into a situation where I can't play BS anymore and I have to send another support request and waste time not being able to play. If you guys get too many support requests for reactivation or whatnot, why don't you guys just release a patch that removes the Starforce (virus) from DCS Black Shark 1? Here's information that may not be necessary, but I want to make sure you guys can help me: Ticket #9602 Subject: DCS Black Shark: 1 Starforce Activation Left Owner - (insanid) Created - 12.11.2011 18:24:51 Updated - 14.11.2011 09:36:16 Category - Activation

I guess my biggest concern with the way that the DCS series is headed, is that there are no recent patches for the game, and that ultimately with no multicore enhancement, the game will end up running the same on a core 2, as it would on a core i7 and above. I don't think it's too much to ask the developers to look into performance issues in the game engine itself, and also some of the missions. IMHO, ED should not have released a mission if it does not meet certain performance requirements. And finally, with the power that can be harnessed from today's multicore CPUs and GPUs, I'm sure that you can have the cake and eat it too (i.e. advanced ballistics).

From what I have heard Koala, disabling hyperthreading tends to help DCS Black Shark. Keep in mind though, hyperthreading is a big feature of the Core i7 that makes it perform so well. IMHO, disabling hyperthreading for this game because it doesn't support multithreading very well, is not justified. But, that's just my opinion.

After testing this game for now over a year, tweaking this and that, upgrading hardware, I have come to the conclusion that DCS Black Shark and some missions, are poorly optimized by Eagle Dynamics, and we are in DIRE need of a new patch for DCS Black Shark. Just to clarify: This isn't a call for help, because at this point, I have already done everything possible to resolve any frame rate issues with certain maps. When I mean everything possible, I mean the following: -Tweaking various graphic settings (view Medium, water Normal, etc...) -Uninstalling / re-installing the game -Upgrading SATA drivers / chipset drivers on my PC -Reformatting and re-installing Windows 7 -Testing ALchemy to see if I can get Direct Sound to work properly -And finally, I upgraded my machine to a Core i7 860, with an ASUS i55 Sabertooth motherboard, with 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz, and an ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB (with Catalyst 10.1 8.69.3 Mass Effect 2 Hotfix) So, I have played this game now on two different system configurations, on my old core 2 duo e8500 with a GTX275, and now my new i7 860 with a Radeon HD 5850. The game overall performs better on my new setup; however, I was disappointed when I noticed that there are still FPS issues with certain missions like Battle, or Death Valley. In Battle, at the very beginning of the mission, there are a barrage of rockets fired from the enemy that explode in succession for approximately 1 minute. During this time, the FPS in the game slows down to under 30 FPS, sometimes dropping under 20 FPS, but after the barrage of rockets, the game's FPS will gradually go back up to a playable frame rate (i.e. 40-50FPS). There are still spots in Battle that will drop the FPS considerably, but nothing as bad as the beginning. On the same note, in Death Valley, the FPS starts off really bad, around the mid 20FPS range, and it does not improve until you get airborne and start leaving the air base. My question to the developers of this game is: What does it take to run this game without any stuttering, or any huge FPS loss. It seems that this game is poorly optimized for multi-core (I understand it is an engine issue, but can't this be addressed somewhat?). I just want to play this game without having to see my FPS drop below 30 FPS under any circumstance. My system specs, even on my old PC were way above the recommended settings, and I still received some performance issues. I know that I am not the only one having these sort of problems, so please, anyone that agrees with me, please comment, and let's send a message to ED that this game needs a new patch ASAP! Note: I did not make this post to bash ED or any staff of ED, I just want to provide some constructive criticism:pilotfly:

No problem Panzertard, I appreciate all of the feedback :) I have tried using other audio setups, and I end up getting worse FPS than using my Creative X-Fi; plus, the X-Fi has really nice EAX effects. I also have tried using other drivers for my sound card. That didn't seem to help the issue. Since LOMAC and DCS Black Shark use similar engines, I would like to know what ALchemy settings LOMAC needs. EDIT: I Just played Black Shark without ALchemy, and the FPS stuttering seems to be gone. It sucks not having directional audio, but I would much rather live with just plain old stereo sound, than have FPS stuttering. Before recently formatting and re-installing Windows 7 x64, I would have the stuttering, even without using ALchemy, but this time I installed the SATA drivers for my motherboard, and I think that did the trick. Solution: 1) Do not use ALchemy because it is not 100% supported. 2) SATA drivers for motherboard have to be installed.

I need some help here from people using Creative x-fi, or Audigy cards. I use a Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI. What ALchemy settings are you using with DCS: Black Shark? The reason I ask, is because I am having a hard time with configuring ALchemy with DCS Black Shark. The reason that I use ALchemy, is because I experience FPS stuttering in the game without it, and it seems to make a big difference in FPS; however, there seems to be a big trade-off between different settings. For example, I used the following settings: Buffers: 4 Duration: 25 Max Voices: 128 The settings above, will still make the FPS stutter every once and a while, but I get much better directional EAX audio. Whereas the following settings, Buffers: 6 Duration: 40 Max Voices: 128 Will make the game play smooth, but the audio starts to stutter when I start releasing flares rapidly. I would like to know what settings should be used with DCS: Black Shark, that will give stutter free audio, and also smooth gameplay. Here is my setup: Gigabyte EX38-DS4 Motherboard Intel Core2Duo E8500 CPU (overclocked to 3.8Ghz) Average CPU temperature 35 celcius 8GB (4x2GB DDR2-1066) PNY Geforce GTX275 896MB 2 x 1TB Western Digital Black Edition HDDs 1 x 500GB Western Digital Caviar HDD Liteon 16x DVD+RW drive. Thermaltake Toughpower 750W PSU Saitek X52 Pro HOTAS Logitech G19 Keyboard Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard Windows 7 RTM x64 Latest nVidia drivers SATA drivers for my motherboard installed, newest version All the latest windows updates. BLACK SHARK SETTINGS: DCS Black Shark 1.1b No mods installed Resolution: 1680x1050 (monitor native resolution) V-Sync on All settings on High, except for View Distance, and water is set to Normal. Cockpit resolution 1024.

I used to have the exact same problem that you are experiencing, and it all came down to a sound card issue. I have a Creative X-fi Xtreme Gamer, and I had to do the following to get DCS Black Shark to run without much stuttering: 1) I updated my sound card drivers. 2) I have a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer sound card, so I installed ALchemy to get my hardware sound EAX to work properly. 3) After tweaking with ALchemy, I found the following settings that make DCS Black Shark run smooth: Buffers: 4 Duration: 35 Maximum Voice Count: 128 To test if you are having a sound card issue, disable sound in DCS Black Shark, and see if you still have stuttering.

I was in the same position, when I recently re-installed Windows 7, and I could not figure out a way to back up the logbook. There is a program called the Blackshark Backup Utility (sp?) available on the lockonfiles website, and it backs up most of the important folders, that may help out if you want to try and backup configuration.

You definitely can set the Shkval to a different axis. I use the Logitech G13 gameboard's Analog stick to control the Shkval :)

Programs and games that run from the Program Files (x86) directory have some permission issues with Vista and Windows 7. I would suggest installing your DCS: Black Shark installation to "C:\Eagle Dynamics\KA50" etc..., that way you avoid permission problems with the Program Files (x86) directory. Try that, and see if your UAC can be disabled with it installed to your C:\.

Do you have the proper .NET framework installed for ModMan? Now keep in mind, you must use the exact .NET framework that ModMan requires, the latest versions of .NET do not have some backwards compatibility with calls to older versions of the .NET API.

Thanks again for the manual, Wags! The quality is excellent :)

Why would you want the DCS engine to run like crap? The CryEngine would push the system specs through the roof! I like playing my game with maxed settings with good frame rates and decent graphics. I think the KA50 model in DCS Black Shark is good enough, and I could honestly care less about the terrain and seeing every individual grass grain. All I want is a game that looks good, runs good, and simulates an aircraft good, and DCS: Black Shark's engine, currently does this fine.

What I did to help with aiming for air targets, is I mapped the POV on my flight stick to control the Shkival movement up, down, left, right, and then because I like to also use it for looking around the cockpit, I binded the POV to look around the cockpit with the right CTRL modifier. This way, I can easily track targets with the Shkival, and have the ability to adjust my view in the cockpit. I also find it's a bit easier with HMS on, so you can lock a target with mouse-look. It's not an easy task, by any means, but with a little practice, you can be decent at it.

You could just hit the Backspace key to reset the targeting system after you are done with the kill...

I was in a similar situation, with the game running poorly, even though I have a high end PC. What I did to fix it, believe it or not, is I enabled Antialiasing and Antistropic Filtering in my nVidia Control Panel. This made the game run very smooth, and increased my overall FPS quite a bit. I don't know anything about ATI cards, but I know you can force AA and AF for games with your Catalyst software.

Thank you so much PoleCat! Not only did your instructions work and make DCS Black Shark look 100% better, but I also get a huge performance increase in the game now! :) +rep to you, my friend.