Im starting to like this sim,but.........

[chaser]

After a few weeks and a bit of investment in a HOTAS and trackir Im starting to feel my way around a bit more and started to achieve something

But-there is always a "But!"

It can be so frustrating from mainly a tech point of view

HOTAS was working fine then installed the tracker IR5- HOTAS didn't work

Down loaded a trackir5 profile - center function didn't work, then the ir5 stopped working mid flight

Also have fad a few sim fails with not responding message coming up

Think its all sorted now

Had my first Tree kill today :) and managed to land

 

Any Rookies reading this I cant stress enough that you have got to make an investment in kit to make the sim work and enjoyable

 

Edited November 15, 2018 by chaser

[Svsmokey]

"Tree kill":megalol:

[SharpeXB]

Agree. When I was new to DCS and knew completely nothing about aircraft. At least I had a HOTAS and TrackIR which eased the learning curve considerably.

[swatstar98]

Greenpeace will chase you boy!

[Varis]

Went with just a $60 Logitech joystick for a while. Now I'm building up though... :smilewink:

 

Welcome to the fold! You'll be learning more and more in no time.

[MiG21bisFishbedL]

Went with just a $60 Logitech joystick for a while. Now I'm building up though... :smilewink:

 

Welcome to the fold! You'll be learning more and more in no time.

 

That's how starts. It's all down hill from here.

 

[David OC]

Can be a little overwhelming at first and to grab all the general fundamentals.

 

Then once you decide you really want to get involved and upgrade, Track IR / Good HOTAS, especially for the A-10C, harrier etc.

 

You sit back and go right, that's what I've been missing out on!

 

But then there's always more to upgrade, CPU, GPU I want more.:)

 

Just remember to enjoy the journey....

[Drag80]

:thumbup::lol::book:Whatever the case may be, please dont call it a sim. Its a world. DCS World.

[QuiGon]

Went with just a $60 Logitech joystick for a while. Now I'm building up though... :smilewink:

 

Welcome to the fold! You'll be learning more and more in no time.

I flew my first three years in DCS by using an Xbox360 gamepad. The Ka-50 worked alright. The Huey was pretty difficult to fly with the little stick of the gamepad at the beginning, but I got the hang of it eventually. The HOTAS system of A-10C was difficult to map onto the gamepad, but I got everything on it by using half of the gamepad buttons as modifiers.

As bad as this might sound I was pretty happy with this, which is why I didn't bother to buy a stick and a throttle for three years. And it wasn't all bad, because the sensor slew was much better with the second analog stick of the Xbox360 gamepad than it is now on my WH HOTAS throttle :D

[JumpinK]

I flew my first three years in DCS by using an Xbox360 gamepad. The Ka-50 worked alright. The Huey was pretty difficult to fly with the little stick of the gamepad at the beginning, but I got the hang of it eventually. The HOTAS system of A-10C was difficult to map onto the gamepad, but I got everything on it by using half of the gamepad buttons as modifiers.

As bad as this might sound I was pretty happy with this, which is why I didn't bother to buy a stick and a throttle for three years. And it wasn't all bad, because the sensor slew was much better with the second analog stick of the Xbox360 gamepad than it is now on my WH HOTAS throttle :D

 

 

DAMN! I can not even think about flying in DCS with an Xbox gamepad! :huh:

 

TM Warthog must have been a huge game changer to you...:joystick:

...but the fact that it is more difficult to use the sensor slew on your warthog is really funny! :lol:

[Fri13]

DAMN! I can not even think about flying in DCS with an Xbox gamepad! :huh:

 

I can... Terrible really. But when Valve released the Steam Controller, one of the first tries for complex bindings were to put a Su-25T operational with it. Easy to fly and operate. The gyroscope in the controller is your stick, makes very easy to control flying by just tilting the controller. The mini-stick in the controller was for the Skhval operations. And then physical buttons were shifts for left side touchpad to give different bindings. Right touchpad for the view changes, fancy as you got the free camera rotation from center and then binding to edge of touchpad a dedicated camera positions so you could quickly look at Shkval/HUD, HUD, whole cockpit and even outside to rear.

 

I got almost all binded very nicely to it, but something was lacking like a cockpit illumination and radio.

 

But wouldn't even consider it for the KA-50 :D

[boedha68]

After a few weeks and a bit of investment in a HOTAS and trackir Im starting to feel my way around a bit more and started to achieve something

But-there is always a "But!"

It can be so frustrating from mainly a tech point of view

HOTAS was working fine then installed the tracker IR5- HOTAS didn't work

Down loaded a trackir5 profile - center function didn't work, then the ir5 stopped working mid flight

Also have fad a few sim fails with not responding message coming up

Think its all sorted now

Had my first Tree kill today :) and managed to land

 

Any Rookies reading this I cant stress enough that you have got to make an investment in kit to make the sim work and enjoyable

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the club! Flying for 5 years now. Still learning. Now flying with a decent joystick and throttle and coming from trackir to the oculus rift. All huge gamechangers that makes the experience far more easier and enjoyable. Invest and you get fines things back from DCS World! :D

[Home Fries]

chaser,

 

We all start somewhere. The way to eat the proverbial elephant is one bite at a time, and DCS is a huge elephant! That you have HOTAS and TrackIR is huge, as you will not need to "relearn" the most fundamental things on your inevitable upgrade/improvement path.

 

The first big takeaway in eating this elephant is the controller settings in the DCS options menu. It is about as user friendly as Microsoft Excel (it is pretty much like a spreadsheet), but with this complexity comes an extraordinary amount of flexibility, as well as the ability to independently adjust all of your controllers without interfering with each other. The most important thing to remember is that each column (representing a controller) is independent of all other columns, and when you import or export (load or save) a controller setup, you are only doing it for that column, not for the entire page. In other words, if you have a separate stick and throttle controller, you will need to save your settings for both the stick and throttle separately by selecting the column you wish to save, then saving. Same thing for the TrackIR if you tweak your settings in DCS. Of course, what this also means is that your TrackIR should not interfere with your HOTAS at all, unless you have axes assigned to both (e.g. if you have both a slider and your TrackIR Z axis assigned to Field of View Zoom).

 

Finally, whenever you download someone else's profile (like you did for TrackIR), you may need to do some additional work. If it doesn't recenter, it's likely that the profile builder changed the centering command from F12. This is even more likely in DCS since F12 already has a default view function (I changed my center command to CTL+SHIFT+F12). Go into your TrackIR settings and see what is used for the center command, then adjust your other settings and programs accordingly.

 

Hope this helps,

[Txshooter38]

Down loaded a trackir5 profile - center function didn't work, then the ir5 stopped working mid flight

 

 

 

 

 

Something to keep in mind is that there is a "freeze" function with track ir. By a certain keystroke you can make it "freeze" and stop functioning. You may want to check your keybinding. Also on my setup the lights on the front of the Track ir sensor change color when you "freeze" tracking. May have been the problem...maybe not...just thought this may help.

[Svsmokey]

A tip for TiR users . It is not necessary to bind "center" , "pause" etc to a key or key combination that may conflict with DCS . You can bind functions DIRECTLY to your HOTAS buttons in the TiR profile .

[BitMaster]

I think I started 2012 and still consider myself a Rookie for 90% of the aircraft I own, quite a few, considering the level of expertise a RL Pilot has when operating those aircraft.

 

 

The gear will come part by part, I (re-)started with a MacBookPro and a Logitech wireless Stick/Throttle/Twist thing. Worked very good until I wanted a Hotas again, the full thing but with TiR and now even VR.

 

 

Give yourself time, take breaks if you need to, DCS is a long term binding.

 

 

I take it slowly with flying these days, maybe once a week for 1-2h. When time sget better it can easily be 20-30h per week, if possible.

Enjoy it as it comes, don't ask for what isn't in the box and you will get happy.

The approach to DCS is best done s l o w l y but STEADILY :book:

[Sadist_Cain]

After a few weeks and a bit of investment in a HOTAS and trackir Im starting to feel my way around a bit more and started to achieve something

But-there is always a "But!"

It can be so frustrating from mainly a tech point of view

HOTAS was working fine then installed the tracker IR5- HOTAS didn't work

Down loaded a trackir5 profile - center function didn't work, then the ir5 stopped working mid flight

Also have fad a few sim fails with not responding message coming up

Think its all sorted now

Had my first Tree kill today :) and managed to land

 

Any Rookies reading this I cant stress enough that you have got to make an investment in kit to make the sim work and enjoyable

 

 

True, but don't be afraid to look into the cheaper solutions, i.e. opentrack over trackir, been using mine for over a decade now, evolved from a logitech quickcam to the ps3 eye and the trackclip pro.

 

Headtracking for 35 quid, even has built in neck displacement. Tis a bit more functional than trackir in my eyes:D

 

Invest in your kit but don't be afraid to get inventive with it.