JHzlwd

Almost anything your see in the responses is worth a try. Here's what made a dramatic improvement in my FPS: (1) Replaced h/d with SSD (2) Reduced screen resolution during play from 2550 X 1600 to standard hi-def 1920 X 1080 (cannot see any difference in detail but fps really jumped) (3) In simulation options, reduced shrubbery and clutter to about 10% of maximum visual range supported.

That would be me. I have the other modules and they are great but once I tried them, went back to Black Shark which holds my interest more. (a) Enjoyed the challenge of learning to fly a helo (it took forever) and the ongoing refinement of skills. There is a very long learning curve which enhances the feeling of accomplishment in mastering this complex and peculiar method of flight. There is always something additional to learn. Fixed-wing is easy and natural by comparison. (b) As suggested, the action is a lot more "in your face". With a helicopter you can stick around to harass the enemy (in fact, there's usually not much choice). There's no BVR and no "drop 2 bombs and run" tactic available. This is not to belittle fixed-wing folks at all. It's just that the helicopter provides a different type of excitement and intricate skill set that hold my interest better - a personal thing. Kaktus29 makes good points ... this is a weird way to fly, whacking the air with brute force like that, and you probably have to be a bit weird - even a masochist - to enjoy that. I sometimes think of the helicopter as "the camel of the air". Like the camel, it is a rather ungainly, ugly and improbable beast, ill-tempered and difficult to control. It is dangerous to everyone, including its master whom it will cheerfully kill if it is not properly disciplined. But, in those situations for which it is designed, nothing else comes close for effectiveness.

It is certainly a downer to be accused of fratricide but reality is reality. Years ago I believe it was "Strike Commander" where they would haul you off to the courts martial and I *really* hated that. In DCS all they do is take away your medals. I find the possibility of being demoted has made me more careful which is probably a good thing.

Another long shot ... What is your altitude? The missile will drop quite a bit until it builds some lift and could hit the ground if you are too low.

I had a very similar problem the other day flying Black Shark. I would get a lock, release the Vikhr and it would go AWOL half the time. Someone replied I should double-check weather settings. It turned out to be the wind which I had cranked up and variable. Even though the missile is laser guided at the speed it is going it doesn't take a whole lot to put it off course enough for a good correction to be impossible. IOW, "realism". Just a thought as no one has mentioned wind yet. it is also possible for a moving target to dodge the missile at the last moment and I have had that happen.

I build a lot of missions and also have some questions about AI in general. Often it is my fault in understanding just what it is they are trying to emulate. When you do find out, the action then sometimes seems more reasonable. We could do with some documentation concerning what to expect in various situations. For example, I sometimes find an armed vehicle, such as a tank, will simply stop at a certain waypoint and do nothing even though there are targets nearby. He won't move until you whack him with something, then suddenly he gets it into his head to be aggressive and kill someone. There are many more examples. Right now I am struggling with my squad of paratroopers who although designated "Excellent" will not fire a single shot while enemy infantry only "Good" slaughter them. It's horrible to watch from a safe distance. Maybe Emile Arnaud got into their heads ;-) (He was the 19th century pacifist.)

Hi Wasted, As you will see from the signature lines my system is reasonably high end yet, frame rate can be a challenge. Last year I put a lot of effort into advanced solutions such as minimizing deferred procedure call latency, hard page faults, etc., etc. Here are the things that worked best: (1) In "Options" Bumped screen resolution down from 2550 X 1600 to ordinary hi-def 1920 X 1080 (this is probably not an option for you). Appearance did NOT change but frame rate went up a lot. (2) In "Options" turned down Clutter and Shrubs to the bare minimum for some realism. (3) Chucked out some software that was getting in the way. The worst offender was Gigabyte's utility that loads with Windows. Whatever it's doing, it makes a big hit on performance. I am no longer using a Gigabyte MOBO (for other reasons). Gigabyte makes great MOBO's but for gaming, try dumping the utility from your startup queue. Some ant-virus products can hurt frame-rate too. Bit Defender has a gaming mode that's supposed minimize impact while you play and I found MS Security Essentials good too. You could try turning off whatever you have while gaming. Check for any other stuff that auto-starts but you could as easily use by starting manually. Research this carefully as you do not want to dump anything the OS really needs. A lot of software you buy auto-starts, however, and some is very intrusive. (4) Here's the biggy ... I had a very fast SATA h/d but exchanged it for SSD. The system took off like I could not believe. If you go this route, get a premium SATA III unit. Not all SSD's live up to the hype. I got Sandisk "Extreme" SATA III which performs to the advertised specs. You should be able to find a 250 Gb for under $200 these days. You will never regret it. You can save cash getting a smaller SSD. Even 125 Gb is actually a lot of storage. Keep your h/d for data but have your OS and DCS etc on the SSD. You could try some over-clocking but I found this did not make a lot of difference. I get generally excellent frame-rate these days although it can drop a bit when flying within a couple meters of the ground, which is a seldom situation. FWIW

After 2 years flying this sim a lot I am still underestimating the depth of detail and accuracy. Anyway, thanks again to you and to Seikdel for the help and tips.

Quite brilliant on your part. Much thanks. For this mission I had specified variable weather with quite a strong, gusty wind. I would have thought the Vikhr more reliable in such conditions owing to the laser homing but at the speed it is going one can imagine a course correction suddenly required nearer the target having a strong possibility of being too late or that at any time it could be pushed off course enough it loses sight of the laser altogether in which case it simply goes AWOL as I have observed. From what I can tell the acquistion "cone" is not that large. When I turned off the wind Vikhrs became almost 100% accurate (only one near-miss out of the total which is reasonable) on each of three test flights. Of course, we would expect cannon rounds to be more affected because once in flight they are unguided. In summary ... a reality effect.

I'd appreciate any comments on this ... I build my own Black Shark missions and have a lot of experience with the editor. I recently put together a mission wherein my ship is outfitted with Vikhr's and rockets. I am used to the Vikhr being pretty reliable with only an occasional miss. In this mission only (others are fine using same loadout) I observe the following: (1) With good lock and target within constraints, the first 3 or 4 missiles release fine but within about 2 seconds they simply evaporate from view. I see the trail during that time and then nothing. (2) After that, a couple of shots simply miss as if I did not have a lock and they impact well to the side of the target. (3) Finally I get some hits when starting to run low on missiles. Similarly during onset of the engagement (against BMP's, Shilka's) the guided cannon is similarly inaccurate but later improves. When acting flaky all the rounds over-shoot the targets. These are mostly moving targets but Moving Target confirmed engaged and I am careful to keep the helicopter facing the target so as to keep the laser in position. Perhaps some "realism" effect is going on but if so would like to know what it is.

Well, I do all my own missions (single player) for somewhat the reasons you give. I especially enjoy a good story line based, in part, on real-world situations. Maybe I should upload few :~ The downside of this is that building a good mission takes a lot of time and by the time you are finished perfecting it you may be getting tired of all the test flights. It's hard work and can become tedious. I also find the DCS AI less than compelling. enemy units will sometimes refuse to engage, stop moving if one of their number is hit, etc. I would like more control over what they do in more situations.

OK. Thanks for confirming that. I am good to go with purchasing another one on my existing account and using that with the 2nd PC.

I already have DCS World and purchased a couple of aircraft modules. All running very nicely on PC"A". I would like to install all of this on PC "B". I realize I have enough license usages left to do this right now but would rather re-purchase the aircraft modules to get the additional license usages. So, the question is: If I use my existing account do the new licenses just go in there and if so is there a conflict? I'd hope the new licenses are in *addition* to the old ones. If there is a conflict, should I set up a different account with unique user information? I am happy to do that if necessary.

Thanks again to folks responding. Packaging the conditions as suggested by "Wrecking Crew" does the trick. Everything working now.

One must also beware the distinction between OR and EXCLUSIVE OR, the latter returning FALSE if both (or all) operands are TRUE. Anyway, the Mission Builder Guide is getting a bit behind the new features that keep getting added.

Well, that is very interesting indeed - grouping the "AND"s in that way. I will try later today and report. Thanks.

I have used the Mission Builder a lot and am mostly comfortable with it but having a problem with one of the elements. Suppose I have a trigger and under "Conditions" I specify: UNIT INSIDE MOVING ZONE(KLINDAR, SHIP-MOVINGZONE) FLAG IS TRUE (1) [OR] GROUP ALIVE (GROUP-02) I am Klindar. Now envision me flying my Ka-50 into that moving zone. My understanding is that this should happen: If FLAG 1 is true then the trigger is tripped regardless of the state of GROUP-02. OR Regardless of the state of Flag 1, the trigger is tripped if GROUP-02 is alive. If I leave out the "[OR]" and "GROUP ALIVE (GROUP-02)" lines the trigger behaves as expected based on the state of FLAG 1. If I have those two lines in there conditions for the trigger to trip are NOT satisfied if GROUP-02 is still alive, regardless of state of FLAG 1. (I have tested this carefully and confirmed GROUP-02 is alive.) This is the first time I have attempted using [OR] so, perhaps, I misunderstand its function. Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks. Don't know how I could not have seen the version numbers under the icons but it happened :~

I seem to be on a roll here with dumb questions ... I have DCS World 1.2.3 up and running just fine. My aircraft modules are presumably still at 1.2.2. For example, there is now a Ka-50 1.2.3 available for download. If I download this and attempt installing will it simply update or replace my 1.2.2 for free? ... or should I buy the 1.2.3 ... which is OK by me but would like to know anyway.

OK. Got the update working. Thanks again.

Hi Lange, Much thanks. I will try that later today. Re Win 8 my advice to anyone considering it is to ignore most of the reviews which are strangely unfavorable. If you like Win 7 then you will feel very at home with Win 8. Some things have moved or look different but took me less than an hour to sort it all out. Unusual for me, I was an early adopter and among the very first to use it. It has proved 100% reliable since day-one. It becomes more responsive with time. Apparently it analyzes your behavior/preferences and optimizes for that. It's very noticeable. Access to my favorite applications and files has become essentially instant with passage of time. A lot of little things like that add up to an excellent user experience. Just the same, if you are happy with Win 7 (which I also like a lot) there is no urgency to switch unless you have, or plan having, MS mobile devices. I did it mainly because I enjoy computers for their own sake and like to experiment. All my DCS stuff works perfectly. Even the Saitek FCS installed trouble-free and this can be a problematic device. MS provides an upgrade adviser you should run to spot any incompatibilities. This is quite rare but it can happen. You could potentially have some device for which no Win 8 driver (although in that case usually the Win 7 driver will work) or some s/w might have a problem and you will have to download a Win 8 version (vendors have proved on-the-ball). I had 4 or 5 of the latter. It turned out the Win 7 versions worked anyway when tested so not sure what that was all about but best to do it.

Actually, I am surprised how good Windows 8 is and especially so for gaming. A lot of people - the reviewers especially - misunderstand it. If you click the "desktop" icon it takes you to a desktop just like Windows 7 and after that most things are very familiar. I don't understand how so many reviewers say MS has abandoned the conventional desktop when, in fact, they have improved on it with many useful features. The so called "Metro" GUI it opens with is - so far as I can tell - an alternate interface mechanism enabling you to integrate your desktop computer with your mobile Windows devices (which I don't have) and granny apps and tempt you to buy something at the "MS Store". But Hey! No one is forcing you. I just ignore Metro although the way it tiles everything makes it faster to jump straight to your "real" applications like DCS. I do a lot of gaming and have found Windows 8 better than XP or Win 7. Not a big difference but I have measured slightly better fps and file performance. It is a smaller OS and noticeably faster - on my big machines anyway. Backwards compatibility is excellent. I like the "granny" comment but Win 8 ain't just for grannies :).

I shouldn't be having this problem at my experience level but here it is: I have DCS World 1.2.2 (and also BS2). The auto-update alerted me to 1.2.3 but I like to download and keep files so manually downloaded DCS 1.2.3. When I try to execute it sez I aleady have DCS installed so no go. It recommends "Repair" or "Update". Fine - but where do I find those commands? I am on Windows 8 so instead of going the START/ALL PROGRAMS/EAGLE DYNAMICS/DCS etc. route (which you do not have in Windows 8 so I used the equivalent "Search" feature to look for an Update function in the EAGLE DYNAMCS section but it's not there. I tried DCS_update_apply.exe and DCS_updater.exe from the DCS World\Bin folder but those doesn't work either (I am using Admin mode). Evidently I am overlooking what needs to be run. So, thought I would just let the auto-update run from DCS startup but it now does not go out and look for updates - just goes straight to the game - and I am stuck on 1.2.2 (which is, after all, pretty good). I could use a suggestion how to invoke an updater and point it to the files I downloaded. Thanks. JH

mmaruda, Thanks for that response. It's appreciated and I value your input. I especially agree Trim is not broken although stick with the way I use it, which works great for me. There may be an element of "art" at work. Trim is a subtle control and you have to work at mastering it. It allows for more than one way of usage IMO. I agree with everything else including your assessment of BS in general. Once you master this it is very comfy indeed. It seems like part of you. Too Good.

It took me months to become really good. Now I can do anything - "Funnel" maneuvers, land gently as a leaf, sneak around amongst buildings at 2 meters altitude - the works. This is not bragging, just a fact and to assure you it can be done. It is a matter of practice, practice, practice. Apart from that general advice, the following are from the Ka-50 page I am preparing on my web site (not yet ready for posting): 01 - Learn to hover without using Auto-Hover. Manual hover forces you to learn a lot of other basic skills useful elsewhere. I never use Auto-Hover anymore. 02 - Somewhat counter-intuitively (to me anyway) is you need to work more at mastering fine control of the Collective than the Cyclic. Keep an eye on rate of ascent/descent during a complex maneuver and make fine adjustments to the Collective to maintain a desired altitude rather than tipping the nose up or down with the Cyclic (just one example). 03 - Trim often - whenever the helicopter is in desired configuration. I prefer the "Center Mode OFF" option. Hold Trim down, adjust the aircraft attitude with the Cyclic, release Trim and immediately let the Cyclic center itself before doing anything else. The trimmer is tricky but that style of deployment works perfectly for me. 04 - Anticipate. For example, gradually begin turning before you get to the point where you really want to turn. It takes time for the aircraft to respond owing to its mass. Similarly, begin gently easing out of a maneuver such as a turn before you want it completed. Do everything gradually, starting out very slowly then progressing to a more aggressive control input and, finally, finishing with a gradually slowing action. Over-reaction is your greatest enemy. 05 - Monitor rate of ascent/descent constantly. I find the round gauge below the HUD easier to read than the HUD display, especially during combat maneuvers. 06 - Landings are very difficult at first. Approach by burning off altitude primarily with Collective while pulling back on the Cyclic to reduce speed. Be sure to maintain some forward speed or that weak Collective input will drop you into the vortex. Maintain some forward speed and a slightly nose-up attitude just before contact, pulling back on the Collective to reduce rate of descent. Make numerous fine Collective adjustments. Practice with a simple mission where all you do is "touch and go" on the runway. Discipline yourself to pick a precise landing spot at a distance and then land exactly there. A specific FARP landing pad is a good objective. 07 - If you do get caught in the vortex you are done for at low altitude. Otherwise, increase the Collective and push the nose down with the Cyclic until you recover control. That's about all you can do. You get caught in the vortex by descending too quickly with low Collective input and too low forward speed. 08 - If you have used Auto-Hover, it turns on Altitude Hold in the auto pilot section. When disengaging Auto-Hover, you must manually turn off Altitude Hold. If you don't you will experience control problems. 09 - Similarly, if you have used the SKVAl to designate a target and are using Auto-Turn, this causes the helicopter to automatically face where you last pegged the designator. If you have not reset the targeting system or turned off AUTO-TURN after completing your engagement, the helicopter will fight your control settings as you fly away. 10 - Finally, a trick from the psychologists. In learning any complex task you will come to a "learning plateau" once in awhile where you will practice for a long time and not improve. Take a long break like a couple of weeks. When you return you will find your brain has been reviewing the process behind the scenes and you will be miraculously improved. 11 - Make sure you have helpful Axis Control curves for your Flight Control System. I like curves shaped like a flattened "S" rotated 90 degrees clockwise. This gives a fairly flat slope around center, getting steep at the extremes. This helps avoid over-reaction.