Track Files

[Cavemanhead]

Is there a "trick" to playing back the track files? I'm a noob and did my first flights last night, and wanted to view them using the F11 camera. But, when I viewed the track file, it was not the identical flight that I recorded... Sometimes it is different. I thought the track was simply a repeat of what was just recorded..

[Ironhand]

Is there a "trick" to playing back the track files? I'm a noob and did my first flights last night, and wanted to view them using the F11 camera. But, when I viewed the track file, it was not the identical flight that I recorded... Sometimes it is different. I thought the track was simply a repeat of what was just recorded..

In a perfect world, what you flew originally is what would happen every time you ran the track. Unfortunately, in this world, any number of things can break them including sim updates, too much going on, random events, the phases of the moon, the number of sun spots. You get the idea.

 

Originally they were far more reliable but as the sim changed and became more complex, the more fragile they seem to have become.

 

The system works by setting up the mission. From there, the AI does it's thing, the weather does its thing, etc and you fly your aircraft with all of your inputs being recorded. At playback, the mission is set up, the AI does its thing, the weather does its thing, etc and your aircraft is supposed to fly just as it did based on the recorded inputs. the most obvious fly in the ointment is that a version update can royally screw up the playback. But that doesn't sound like what's happened in your case.

[Art-J]

They're kind of "repeat", but not exactly as You think. Tracks in DCS work like tracks in old Il-2 Sturmovik series - they're not recordings, but mission files played again, with saved control inputs overlaid on them. Needles to say, the second and every next simulation of the mission never goes exactly the same way as it did before. There are always some differences. Unfortunately, for some reason, these differences tend to be quite big in 1.5 and 2.0 version of the game. Half of the tracks "replays" correctly, the other half gets broken.

[NineLine]

Is there a "trick" to playing back the track files? I'm a noob and did my first flights last night, and wanted to view them using the F11 camera. But, when I viewed the track file, it was not the identical flight that I recorded... Sometimes it is different. I thought the track was simply a repeat of what was just recorded..

 

What aircraft, I think all prop plane tracks are pretty much broken hard right now.

[Cavemanhead]

I'm in the 109.

 

Thanks for the response... Using the F11 external camera seems to screw with it more than usual... Same flight from insode the cockpit and nothing else changed at the end after the crash... Close, but a different flight... Then, same track and from another view point, it was more like the original flight... I hope they get this sorted out... I'm amazed at how cool this sim is. Absolutely amazing!

[dabomb]

As has been mentioned, unfortunately, when replayed, track files aren't always a 1:1 representation of a flight. You would think it would be an actual, static, recording of the mission you flew, but it isn't.

 

The best you can hope for is that it is accurate *most* of the time. I've also found that resisting the temptation to speed up (or slowdown) the playback can help with eliminating some of the weirdness. If the flight is long and boring and doesn't get to the "good part" for 15 minutes, sometimes it's best to just wait it out. I've seen my aircraft crash into terrain while speeding up the track playback trying to get the to the action faster. Tracks are weird that way...