ZQuickSilverZ

I have been reading and thinking about all these post of sims gone by. It's funny how what we used to consider "simulators" are by today's standards nothing but arcade games. I wonder what sims will be like in the future. I wonder if we will look back some day and see a DCS title as "arcadey". Nothing seems to change our perception as fast as advancing technology, and nothing changes our acceptance as fast as expectation. I also find it funny how people describe these games they used to play. How fond thier memories are. When you see videos of these old games on Youtube they usually have really exciting, energetic music. In reality they had just bleeps and bloops (or worse*). At the time they made flight seem so real. In reality they were just slide shows. So I pose this question. How much of gaming is reality and how much of it is the player interjecting his own expectations into the game therefore changeing his overall perspective of the games believeability? Is balancing believeability (some games are not realistic but maintain a believable atmosphere) with perception (it's real enouph for me so I perceive it as real and fill in the blanks) and expectation (how does it compare to what else is avaiable) the secret to making a good sim? I mean you could play those games for hours back then right? I am betting you could'nt do that now. They could not hold your attention. Why? These games are the same today as they were 20 years ago. The only thing that has changed is your expectation of what a simulator should offer. So my main question (finally) is this. When does a simulator stop being a simulator and become nothing more than a video game? *Back in the day we had these things called PC speakers. The speakers only had 2 settings. Off and smoke detector,fire alarm, train whistle, bust your eardrums out loud. Thank god for adjustable volume speakers.

Gadroc would you agree that MSFFB2 is just about the best FFB stick money can buy? Honestly to me the MSFFB2 was perfect. It just did not have enouph buttons. Just curious about your opinion. Also Helios is so awsome.

My first Flight Sim was Sierra's 3D Helicopter Simulator on a Tandy 1000HX (also my first computer). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_1000 For its time this thing was unreal. It had over the modem multiplayer (in 1987 no less) or you could fight the computer or just fly around. It came with a really cool instruction manual. http://www.sierragamers.com/uploads/24082/The_Games/3D_Helicopter_Simulator_Manual.pdf You could actually weave between buildings and use objects in game for cover. One thing that was very strange was that it had 2 covers for the same exact game. I never could figure that out. Funny at the time of this writing my First (Sierra's 3D Helicopter Simulator) and Last (DCS BlackShark) flight simulators were both Online (if you could call modem support in 1987 Online) combat helicopter simulations. Come to think of it maybe simulators have not changed all that much..........(just kidding) ;)

Im going to give you the low down friend. First off the G940 has alot of slop in the middle. You can't get rid of it. Second in DCS Blackshark if you retrim it will hold the new physical center, however, you basically have to put electrical tape over the sensor eye because the stick is not balanced well and will not keep its position without motor assistance (in other words if you move your hand its just going to flop over sending your helo out of control). With tape over it it will hold but sometimes kicks like its bouncing. The motors are noisey. The LED's are not user friendly and are not supported by anything I know of. To use them you better be able to do scripting. I tried to use it in FSX and can not get the throttle to calibrate. It's hard to tell if the rotaries are centered. Despite all the complaints it seems to be MADE well (I beleive the FFB problems and slop are software related) The stick is very customizable and seems pretty solid and durable. Alot of people have had problems with the R2 rotary jumping. I have to I am afraid. I would say my satisfaction of the stick is about 7 out of 10. It could be 10 out of 10 if they would fix the software problems. Ok, lets cut to the chase. This stick in my opinion is NOT so good for DCS Blackshark (compared to a MS FFB 2 wich is PERFECT FFB wise but does not have enouph buttons). It works alot better for fixed wing however. Unfortuneatly if you want FFB there are not alot of choices. Would I recommend buying this stick......... Yes but only if your not intrested in FSX or Blackshark and can tolerate its "bugs".

If you are flying DCS Blackshark you should put a peice of electrical tape over the "eye" so that it wont kick around when you take your hand off the stick.

Well LawnDart since I do not have that headseat I can't argue. I will say this is the first time I have EVER heard of this. Apparantly from your statement "Only headset I've ever used like this that actually shows up as a separate sound device" this is the first time you have seen it as well. What program shows it as a soundcard? Was it under the hardware manager on the PC? The reason I ask is TS will show my mic and Logitech headset as a sound device (note a sound card and a sound device are NOT the same thing). It also shows my soundcard. But I assure you my mic and headset do NOT have soundcards in them. Not challenging your claim LawnDart I am just trying to figure this out. I checked this product out on newegg before posting this and I did not see anything that stated this headset had a built in sound processor. You sure its not picking up the digital to analogue decoder? To me this makes more sense as all speakers are analogue. There is no such thing as a digital speaker so any digitial signal has to be converted.

I use a Logitech Premium USB Headset 350. It sounds decent. The mic works well. The problem is the comfort. This thing feels like it was designed by someone who's favorite past time is kicking puppies into highway traffic. In about 2 hours your ears will be so sore they will feel like they are on fire. Headsets don't have soundcards. A sound cards job is to process sound information to relieve the processor. Otherwise you have what you call "onboard" sound. Its not a headsets job to process sound. It only acts as the delivery. How would you fit something as large as a soundcard into a headset? Thats a great idea about the battery pack and TIR. Wish I would have thought of that. Good job. Third if you just want a mic you could always go to newegg and do a search. There are tons of wireless mics that use both RF and bluetooth. They obviously come with a transmitter/receiver that connects to the pc. Problem is these are not cost effective. The range from 50 to almost 300 dollars. My guess is the 50 dollar ones are not too good of quality. If you want a mic that is crystal clear i suggest this. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836111601 Honestly people can not tell the different between this and the headset on Teamspeak MOST of the time. It's clear. Believe it. I myself use Game Commander 2 (I had no luck with VAC, I found GC2 to be much more responsive and have far fewer mistakes). I would say it has about 98 percent success rate for understanding commands and it is very customizable. (it understood shkval..... right out the box so to speak, no training required) I had great luck using it with a mic, however, lately I wear my TIR more and more (took me while to get used to it so I did not wear it at first) so I don't use the mic much anymore. On using the mic the only question is this. Backfeed through the speaker or command interference from the speakers when using voice command programs. I suggest getting a really good SOUND only headset and using this mic. It will definetly increase your options.

Gadroc I hope you keep up the good work. All I can really say is THANK YOU.

It's not odd to want to shoot down other aircraft. I am glad you feel that Lock On FC2 has something to offer you. When you said that the Ka-50 met your tank busting needs what I read into that (I guess innaccuratetly) is that A-10A, A-10C, Su25, and Su25t would be "more of the same".

Wags you wouldn't be playing this for research would you? You working on some advanced ground based element? Maybe I should go to SIMHQ and start a rumor LOL.

I find this opinion a little odd. Ground pounding in a helicopter and ground pounding in a fixed wing are totally different. The delivery is different and the tactics are different. Ground pound in an Su25t then ground pound in the Ka-50 (since these are the 2 most comparable and share shkval, vickers, and rockets) and tell me you had a similar experience.

I just thought I would share the solution I had to my problem. The reason Blackshark was not picking the rotaries up was because somehow the center was on one side of the rotary and an end was on the other. So I could only go back and forth from one side to the center and the other side was never registered. If this happens to you you need to recalibrate your rotaries.

I had a computer virus wipe out my hard drives. Before the virus I used my R2 rotary on the throttle to zoom my view in and out. After the virus Blackshark does not seem to recognize the rotaries. I can use them to zoom (by assigning them a key) but they work differently now. Used to I turned it a little and it zoomed a little I turned it alot and it zoomed alot. Now it acts more like an on and off (I go back to the middle to turn it off). This way of operating makes it hard to zoom with any precision. Is there a way to get Blackshark to recognize these rotaries again? Also what does Blackshark assign these rotaries in the axis assign menu? Like JoyX, SliderA, JoyRZ for instance. I would be most grateful for any assistance. Thank you.

You know people that do not want to mix DCS and FC do not have to. You can add and remove aircraft on multiplayer correct? If you don't want to mix them just remove the FC2 aircraft and make them unselectable. That way we can all get what we want. Everyone wins. Also I am curious if ED is going to link the games eventually so that you can change from DCS A-10C to DCS KA-50 to DCS whatever without having to leave and rejoin a server. As we get more aircraft this becomes in my opinion a more serious consideration. Though my personal opinion is one should semi specialize (Helo, Ground Pounder, Air to Air Superiority). After all I think we can all agree that these are very VERY different kinds of combat. I rather be average at one thing then suck at them all. :) What compliments the A-10C? Im sure most will say the Su25T, but maybe there is something even better. I would love to hear your opinions. Keep in mind I am not asking what aircraft you want to see next. Only what you feel is a comparable aircraft that would work well on "the other side".

I am intrested in making my P1-P8 (the LED backlit buttons) change color when pressed (and tied in with the game if possible like hitting backspace turning all targeting buttons off and the lights as well for instance). I have them tied to the targeting buttons (turn to target, ground moving target, etc) and autopilot stabilization channels (everything except flight director). I would like them to be red or off for off and green for on. Can anybody help me do this. I found info (http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=45895) that morg has already set up but I could not get it to work and it is very complicated. Thanks in advance.

Yes it may have been a banner the thing I clicked said play. Also I wanted to add that avast is what I am using as well.

Thanks stretch.

Thank you. By the way your site set off my anti virus software. Said it was a trojan. Might want to check into that.

I have seen it posted in some of the forums.

What is PCIP?

Harry Cockpit? +1

This is my belief. Flaming Cliffs offers many aircraft and is easier to play. Some people that are not familiar with flight sims may not see the value of a DCS title since it only comes with one aircraft. FC2 is a good gateway to the DCS series. I rather have a multi aircraft, easy to fly sim for new people than to have them get overloaded with DCS and quit before they really ever get started (were talking about new people here that only had a slight interest in trying a flight sim anyway). In my opinion FC2 is like DCS Training Wheels. It's important because of it's value to introduce new people to our flight sim and prep them for the more complicated DCS titles. Once they fly for a while, get familiar with instruments and navigation, and figure out what kind of pilot they are (since FC2 offers air to air and air to ground aircraft), then they can step up to a DCS title.

Hey JujuMan I was just curious, are you still happy with that set up?

Word of caution about autohover. If you engage autohover and a missle is fired at you autohover CAN get you killed. Your trying to sideslip to dodge the incomeing missle and the autohover is trying its best to keep you in one spot. Autohover is GREAT for SCANNING. However, once the enemy is located and found to have anti air capabilities its best, in my opinon, to turn it off. If not at least turn it off once you spot a missle coming at you. Hope your fast.

Thank you Looney. I never even thought to try that. That does make a lot of sense. Thank you for the suggestion.