CommandT

Yeah if you could update that would be great. And yes, unfortunatly it's out of stock on both hp UK and System Active. No pre-order available. So I'll just havw to wait till a good deal comes up on ebay. Don't see another solution

Ah I see, cheers. You are right, it is cheaper but people are selling for much more on ebay. I uspect because they are out of stock on the hp website and I don't see any "pre-order" option

So there is no loss of head tracking even if you look directly behind? I wasn't confusing the head tracking with the controllers. The Valve Index is known for the best possible head tracking as it uses the towers. The Reverb does get criticised for head tracking and I have seen reviewers give up on it because the head tracking would just break, however this was not sitting down in a flight sim pit but rather standing up and moving in some sort of arcade game. So I wonder if it's adequate enough for someone sitting down in a pit. I mean I am almost certain it won't be an issue but I don't want to spend £800 to find out I've made a mistake. Thanks for the advice

Hi Folks, I've been on the VR sidelines since forever. I'm about to finally commit and have my sights set on the Reverb G2. I've stayed away from VR headsets as personally I've felt the resolution/ screen door effect has just not provided the visual fidelity I would expect before. I think the G2 might change this. However, I am curious to know if the head tracking will be good enough? I do a lot of dogfighting in DCS so it's really critical that there are no noticeable issues with tracking. I'm aware the Valve Index with it's towers is the best headset for this but I can't justify any headset unless the visual fidelity is there and I'm not convinced by the Valve. I've watched all the G2 vids out there but wanted to gather some more first hand experience from DCS users here. Cheers!

Hey folks, Is anyone aware of real life low level routes used on the NTTR for training? Would be cool to make a mission knowing this information. Cheers!

They've openly stated they don't have the resources to do what the "other product" does. You can forget about seeing anything even remotely similar to that. Not least because the current legacy engine will implode if they even try it. The best we can hope for at the very least are some more realistic looking clouds to replace the current ones with maybe more than 1 cloud layer possible and perhaps some variation of cloud types. That would be a good start. As far as complex weather engines go with thunderstorms, simulated up and down droughts and various changeable phenomena, I think unfortunately we we will be waiting quite some years before there's a totally new game engine here to handle it. Nonetheless, even just better looking clouds than the current ones will be great. A larger draw distance and different types of clouds in different parts of the map. That would be great already. Literally anything is better than what we currently have.

Ah fair enough. I didn't realise we are getting ground marshallers?! That's cool! I agree with what you mean about statics screwing up taxi flows for AI. I did many hours of experimenting with that myself and it's exceptionally difficult to get it right. Out of curiosity, is there a trigger to populate the carrier deck differently after a certain point in the mission? My idea is - after takeoff, use a trigger to populate the carrier deck for landing by having all static planes on the nose of the ship on cats 1 and 2, like they have in real life - so during recovery those cats don't get used so the nose of the ship could contain all the statics. Landing aircraft will never taxi to that part of the ship either so there's no conflict there. And also agree with the above about using the older F-18 models for that. They still look excellent and are super fps-friendly. I'm not sure I really care about seeing them in the right squadron colours or numbers or whatever. Not sure anyone does. And I think you could still have a crane and some tugs close to the bridge without affecting taxi flow. All just suggestions for immersion. I'm enjoying the missions over all :) Will there be anything for Syria with either the Harrier or F-18 or F-5? I have no plans to buy the F-16 any time soon :(

Do AI aircraft slot in at assigned times for a CASE 3 recovery? I just finished mission 10 in Raven One. Kissed off my wingmen about 60nm from the ship for a night Case 3 recovery. Commenced my decent within about 3 seconds of the allocated time. Landed and 4 seconds later an AI traps and goes right into the back of me...

New clouds feature in the new weekends newsletter again so let's see...

I realised what happens. So you do have the Navy skin but at a certain distance , for me at least, the navy grey reverts to an olive green shade. It must be a certain bug. It's not a big deal anyway. I do have one suggestions though. I see every time I land back at the carrier (I have completed 9 missions so far), the carrier deck is always completely empty. Now I understand that fps issues for most of us are probably the reason why you have done this, however it seems a bit too ridiculous to have it that empty - no deck equipment/ tugs/ cranes, nothing. That big crane and a few tugs plus maybe 2-3 stationary aircraft would be nice to have at least some sense of realism whilst keeping frame rates acceptable for most users. Otherwise I have nothing else to report. Enjoying the campaign :) P.S. Any plans for any Syria map campaign? Cheers!

No problem :)

Just tried the new version. Just to let you know when the MiG lands and taxies off the runway it crashes into the fire truck or whatever truck it was that was driving down the taxiway and the truck goes on fire, the MiG just gets stuck there. Otherwise not bad but I'd definitely add some statics and atmospherics. I mean I can do that myself but just to have a more polished mission. Perhaps an F-117 can land and taxi to stand 17 whilst you're starting up or something. Also, I've deleted the clouds in my version. I think it looks much more realistic without them. Because they are set at such high level, the low draw distance of the clouds looks a bit unrealistic when you see they are so uniform all the way around you and all end at the same distance. Plus it's not like the middle of Area 51 would have so much cloud cover anyway lol. Anyway, overall I love the way you managed to create simulated fights without having either plane get shot down. That's really cool. It's a shame the AI suck so bad at dogfighting. I mean you are not really flying the mission for any sort of dogfight challenge, more so for the atmosphere of a realistic simulated mission they might do in real life. Have you ever considered doing a Red Flag scenario using the exact same approach? Perhaps once aircraft get "shot", they can RTB instead of actually crashing. At least there is a good challenge with BVR fighting lots of AI unlike dogfighting which is ridiculously easy.

Ah this is maybe why I see an olive green Blackhawk supporting the carrier? Maybe you had a Navy skin for it but it reverted to the olive green.

Hi Sedlo, I've just flown this mission. As always, great job! If I may, just some suggestions (these are not criticisms as I still think you make some of the most realistic content in general). 1. Would be good to use the MiG-29A that has an older livery without "VVS ROSSII" (in Russian) on the tail as these markings are only from around the last 8-10y or so (minor point) 2. Might be good to have the fight at higher alt as you are fairly close to the mountains and in real life I guess there would be a hard deck below which you can't fly. 7000ft maybe?? The fight starts at 10000ft. 3. Would have been good to add a little more activity around the base. Perhaps a couple of flights coming in or out. A few interesting static aircraft (I put an F-117 in between 2 hangars just for some cool immersion). I felt like the base and the surrounding area was a little empty. I guess Groom Lake is not always bustling with activity in real life so this is not too big a deal but could make it a bit more interesting. 4. This is really nit-picking but for some reason SOUND 1's voice seems like he is in an echo'y room rather than an oxygen mask. I think generally your characters make a decent impression of speaking into an oxygen mask/ mic, SOUND 1 felt like he was about 2 feet away from the mic in an echo'y room. lol. Again, please don't take it the wrong way. I only mention because the rest of the comms are so real feeling for the most part :) But otherwise, it was cool. Interesting plot twist with the ejection in the end!

Actually quite a lot is "cool" about these clouds. 1. They looks considerably more realistic 2. You can see different layers of clouds here (at least 2) unlike the single layer we have currently. 3. The draw distance here looks like it's almost all the way to the horizon. Currently it's about a third/half of that.

I thought this about every news letter for the last 6 months...

They are working on new ATC and AI comms. Or at least have plans for revamping the whole system. I agree though that if energy should be spent somewhere it should definitely be weather, Vulcan, better AI intellect etc. If we are talking about rending pilot bodies and whatnot I think what really would add a huge amount of immersion and realism is if the pilot did various hand gestures when he taxies out or points at ground crew and that kind of stuff. That would be epic. I mean also from when you are sitting inside. It could be a togglable option in the options menu "pilot does hand signals/ gestures". For carrier launches he could place hands on the hand rails etc. But again I don't think this should be a priority. I can't stress this enough but WEATHER and new cloud layers and effects are so desperately lacking.

yep, it's enabled. Not sure I notice any difference between it being on or off though.

For some reason OB DCS isn't updating to the new version? I'm still stuck on the old version. Maybe needs some more time?

I don't think it's been officially announced but various interviews with ED mentioned it was in the to do list depending on whether they can get access to enough detailed info about it. So I think it's more of a "highly likely" than "announced" module.

Heatblur showed off an AI A-6 Intruder module on youtube 2 years ago. It looks pretty much finished... 2 years later, nothing...

Tried to recreate a realistic scene in Hmeimim, Syria, Russian Air Force Ops:

Well, re-installed the software, same thing. Basically it's like the LEDs and their position is too sensitive. I just need like a microscopic dead zone for any movement given position. And no combination of LED brightness and other settings seems to yield this result. So frustrating. I'm considering buying a new trackir tracker "box" - maybe this one is just faulty? I've literally never seen anyone have this issue in youtube videos!

I see, well, if it stays there I will just re-install the software if the profiles remain stored :)

So you re-installed and the profiles were there? Interesting.