How to set guns convergence in DCS P-51?

HI!

I didnt see where i could set guns convergence in DCS P-51? I see that default is little too far for me. In all my games i usually used ab. 150-200m for mgs and 150m for cannons. How to change it in DCS P-51?

You cannot.

You cannot.

:shocking:

Ups not good. Convergance is important for accurate shoting and should depend of pilot preferences. We know that WW2 pilots expecially experience one set convergance for much closier distance,

It is possible that such option will be implemented in future patches?

:shocking:

 

Ups not good. Convergance is important for accurate shoting and should depend of pilot preferences. We know that WW2 pilots expecially experience one set convergance for much closier distance,

 

It is possible that such option will be implemented in future patches?

I hope it will :thumbup:

convergence set @ 1000 feet according to instructor. That is almost 80% of the fixed reticle. I don't think we could set convergence though.

It was discussed earlier pretty deeply, try to search.

The result of that was that it is not as simple as it may seem. The convergence is not set to one point, but it is set to cover some specific pattern.

Edit: Here you go: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=95689&highlight=convergence :thumbup:

The main point of the thread Suchacz posted.

Yes, but having no accurate calculation and without careful investigation what pattern you want to have at the whole range of fire this option is almost useless.

I know that "custom convergence" is a bad habit gone from "Il-2" having simplified ballistics and the wrong idea that all borelines must be CONVERGED in one point instead of be HARMONISED as it was in real world.

1,000ft = 304 metres

150-200m is better for hitting power. There are some historical notes somewhere of pilots getting the ground crew to make adjustments, to their preference, as they found the official range settings were just not effective for combat. The drawings are good and the smaller dispersion pattern at 150-200m will be more destructive, as this is the whole idea - to get as many bullets into a smaller area. :)

Don't forget, that those Mustang pilots were soldiers. And for operation of every weapon, including plane, there are very strict rules, that are written by your superior officers and disobeying these rules can bring you more problems than profit. It can make you even standing in front the court-martial.

In war, you don't even have the certainty, that you will fly your mission with "your" machine. A situation can occur in which someone will have to use your machine and he does not have to be familiar with your convergence settings.

According to this link which explains boresighting the P51 they usually set the convergence to about 300ft / 100 yards / 91m (see pg. 359) but it also mentions 250-300 yards. It probably differed across units, pilots, etc.

http://books.google.ie/books?id=KuujDHr7uHwC&pg=PA358&lpg=PA358&dq=p-51+gun+convergence&source=bl&ots=n5TuqUK02Q&sig=TUtRBOyHQZXOjOjltj5GIKCmDQ0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vcQ9UZeTOYbD7AaFuoCwCA&ved=0CGoQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=p-51%20gun%20convergence&f=false

Some interesting (and relevant) info here.from Bud Anderson's "To Fly and Fight":

"...the K-14 would compute the range and angle and move the pipper to the proper aim point, and you moved the nose of the airplane until the pipper was centered on the target again and fired. It was a tremendous advantage. I got some remarkable hits with the K-14 gunsight but I always thought the new sights took some of the skill out of it. Of course we were in a war and the object was to shoot down enemy aircraft, not impress everyone with your shooting skill. The new sights with the guns in each wing set to fire a box pattern rather than converge on some point up ahead, made a lot more sense for the average marksman.

Once I got lined up behind a German airplane, put my K-14 on him, fired point blank- and missed him completely! I couldnt believe it! Then I realized that the way the guns had been set ,with the bullet streams not converging, I'd been so close that I fired around him...

...while the box pattern was helpfull to some, I always preferred the bullets converging. If you hit an opponent where the bullets converged you tore him to hell."

So, at least from this source, after the introduction of the K-14 the standard configuration was a fixed boresight that was optimal for the average pilot...to the dismay of some of the sharpshooters.

One only shoots at close to convergence... closer convergence is more effective, and even more so if the dispersion pattern is smaller.

One only shoots at close to convergence

Ok. So while you are fumbling around for 5 mins to get into the one range that your guns converge to, you are being drilled to bits by your opponents wingmen. Take your tactics online and experience the epic fail. ;)

Har Har.. you're kidding me... I've used this method for many years and it's an unmitigated success.. maybe you should try it

It's no good rambling on about how many a/c in the sky and who's doing who... What one needs is a single hard hitting burst that effectively disables (or downs) an aircraft.

Having a long range convergence is not efficient enough.. and you will still have the other a/c beefing your tail.

Har Har.. you're kidding me... I've used this method for many years and it's an unmitigated success.. maybe you should try it ;)

In a sim where there is only two damage states maybe, not in DCS. You gain much more from being able to hurt your oponent from a variety of ranges than to kill him instantly from one fixed range.

US Army Air Force take on fighter aircraft gun configuration: (Late 1940's)

Pattern Harmonization:

The best harmonization of guns is one which produces the largest pattern of a uniform lethal density over the entire effective range. Such a harmonization fixes the sight line approximately in the center of the projectile pattern throughout the effective range when the aircraft is flown at the basic harmonization speed. This relieves the pilot of the need to calculate the projectile drop within the limits of effective range. The most effective range for harmonization purposes is considered to be 2,000 feet.

And the US Navy perspective:

1. Since the advent of multiple-gun installations in fighters, considerable exploration has been carried out to determine what alignment of guns would enable the pilot to make the most efficient use of this increased fire-power. The practice of converging all guns at some one point along the path of flight, commonly referred to as "point bore sighting", although producing heavy concentrations of fire at certain ranges, produces excessive dispersion at other ranges. Furthermore, heavy concentrations of fire at the selected ranges were found to be undesirable in that bullet densities far in excess of the required lethal density were produced, resulting in inefficient employment of the fire-power available. In addition, it was found that limiting the fire coverage to a single plane (i.e. when all guns are aligned parallel to the flight path) penalized the average pilot by requiring refinements in aiming which militated against the pilot's chances of scoring effective hits.

2. The optimum arrangement of guns is that one which will produce the largest circular pattern of a uniform lethal density over the entire effective range.

Well, I hope the developers give the user options to select from a few ranges. This would go some way to satisfying more peoples preferences that suit their flying styles.

Yesterday online dogfights showed me that i just didnt hit enemy P-51 from short distances - ab. 100 m. When i was talking about these with my squadron friend he ask me about my convergence and then i realize that i didnt see convergence options in DCS.

Well flying about 10 years in combat sims tough me to shot from short distance - my usually convergence in WW2 sims was 150m (cannons) and 175-200m mgs - it usually work for me.

I know that WW2 aces teched to shot from very short distances and they set their convergance for such short distances.

It would be nice to have such options in DCS also.

Even if its not a custom setup a series of known convergences would be great, there were some very dodgy custom setups in il2 :huh:

This might help - it would be good to know which pattern is modeled (if any) and we should be able to adjust it to our preference.

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3568820.html

The above thread on this same subject was over in simhq a while back. EvilBivol mentioned that the gun convergence for each gun was set in the LUA files somewhere but didn't say where and that it also wasn't very straightforward. If it's something we could get put up here that could be copied in to our files it might be a stop gap solution until it's possible to do via the UI?