Bruce_D Posted March 21, 2019 Posted March 21, 2019 I've managed! Tks! the problem was the distance and altitude to lock
Super Grover Posted March 21, 2019 Posted March 21, 2019 (edited) Some hints for using LANTIRN optical modes: - Make sure that "A/G" is displayed. - When using a controller to slew the sensor, ensure that it has enough dead zone in the centre. There is a 5% dead zone in the code, but for some noisy controllers, it may be not enough. If a constant input is detected, you will never see "AREA", and it will constantly be in "RATES". - Use WHOT to initiate tracking. - Both AREA and POINT are optical. It means that they require good visibility of the object or area you want to track. - Tracking won't engage if too far away. AREA can track at longer ranges than POINT. - You won't be able to use AREA when there are no contrasting elements in the camera, so you won't be able to use AREA on water except if there's a nice ship in your view that can provide some contrast. - POINT requires objects of an appropriate size - not too small and not too large. Usually, you won't be able to POINT track ground vehicles from more than 10-12 NM. - POINT requires higher contrast /better-defined shapes. If the view is cluttered with multiple objects, you may be unable to initiate or keep tracking. It means that you may be able to initiate POINT on a single tank in a field, but once it enters an urban area, you may lose the track. - When unable to initiate POINT, the pod will try entering AREA. - Don't try to POINT everything. Use it only for moving vehicles. Use AREA for non-moving objects. - Tracking will be terminated when your sensor gets into the area masked by your airframe. Keep the sensor eye indicator (the dot) inside the limits. - The max zoom (expanded view) isn't much more useful than the narrow view. It is just a 2x digital zoom so that it won't show more; it will just make the pixels two times bigger. Edited March 21, 2019 by Super Grover Krzysztof Sobczak Heatblur Simulations https://www.facebook.com/heatblur/
Spiceman Posted March 21, 2019 Posted March 21, 2019 Thanks Grover.... I think I had all those boxes checked except for the dead zone. Thanks for the tip and I'll check it out. Former USN Avionics Tech VF-41 86-90, 93-95 VF-101 90-93 Heatblur Tomcat SME I9-9900K | Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra | 32GB DDR4 3200 | Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe | RTX 2070 Super | TM Throttle | VPC Warbird Base TM F-18 Stick
Super Grover Posted March 21, 2019 Posted March 21, 2019 And as suggested above, if it still doesn't work after checking the points from my previous post, please check it with the default clear weather. The algorithm for visibility calculations have been tested in different conditions, but it's almost impossible to cover all scenarios. Also, the weather in DCS is continuously tuned and improved which may affect the LANTIRN too - some algorithms tweaked and tested a few months ago may be slightly unoptimized for the current conditions. If you find any weather-related anomalies, please let us know, and we will improve the visibility handling for the given conditions. Krzysztof Sobczak Heatblur Simulations https://www.facebook.com/heatblur/
fl0w Posted March 21, 2019 Posted March 21, 2019 Here is what I do, and works. - LANTIRN knob to PAO, wait 5 minutes. - Unstow the laser, change to FLIR mode. Wait ~45 seconds. - Toggle the LANTIRN mode to A/G. Do not forget this. - Arm the laser. - Aim the LANTIRN at the ground via. slewing controls - Use point track. Now it will stabilize to the ground. - Find a target, and then flip through the area and again point track modes. - Full action on LANTIRN and you will get a cue. From there you can either change the lasing to automatic (noted by an A letter next to the lasing code, default as 1 6 8 8 ) or keep it how it is. This step by step procedure seems to work for me without fail. It does appear that there is a certain distance, however. The two most important steps have to be the laser arming and A/G mode.
Spiceman Posted March 21, 2019 Posted March 21, 2019 And as suggested above, if it still doesn't work after checking the points from my previous post, please check it with the default clear weather. The algorithm for visibility calculations have been tested in different conditions, but it's almost impossible to cover all scenarios. Also, the weather in DCS is continuously tuned and improved which may affect the LANTIRN too - some algorithms tweaked and tested a few months ago may be slightly unoptimized for the current conditions. If you find any weather-related anomalies, please let us know, and we will improve the visibility handling for the given conditions. Grover, yep that was it... with either dust or fog enabled, can't Area or Point track, even if the sliders are at 0. Clouds are fine, but the dust or fog, no can do. Thanks.... Former USN Avionics Tech VF-41 86-90, 93-95 VF-101 90-93 Heatblur Tomcat SME I9-9900K | Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra | 32GB DDR4 3200 | Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe | RTX 2070 Super | TM Throttle | VPC Warbird Base TM F-18 Stick
SandMan23 Posted March 21, 2019 Posted March 21, 2019 Yep - Disabling Dust / Flog even with slider to 0 worked for me as well. Hopefully this will be adjusted, but at least I can use the Lantirn now. Thanks
Looney Posted March 22, 2019 Author Posted March 22, 2019 Grover, what are the limitations of the LANTIRN pod with respect to weather? are clouds OK or not? Apparently, fog and dust are not OK, up to which conditions can we expect the LANTIRN pod to area track / point track? [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Commodore 64 | MOS6510 | VIC-II | SID6581 | DD 1541 | KCS Power Cartridge | 64Kb | 32Kb external | Arcade Turbo
Super Grover Posted March 22, 2019 Posted March 22, 2019 It should work that only when you see ground you can go AREA or POINT (remembering all additional conditions for POINT). Even fog and dust should work correctly (I tweaked that some time ago), but apparently something has changed. I'll take a look soon. Clouds will block the view, so they also won't let you engage tracking. Krzysztof Sobczak Heatblur Simulations https://www.facebook.com/heatblur/
Eldur Posted April 16, 2019 Posted April 16, 2019 I first tried this out yesterday and ran into some issues, probably just because I'm new to it. Except for Iceman not doing his job... I was glad to have put the LANTIRN controls to my pilot's section for the time being, so I did that the mod way instead. Had no problems getting into Area Track, mission starts at 0800 local and weather is CAVOK. But I couldn't get Point Tracks on those "shield cars" as close as 4nm. Just worked out once and I didn't know what I did to get there. As I'm reading this thead now, I get some assumptions though... Ah that might be it. Once I have replaced my now dead gfx card, I'll look into it, thanks! Must be quite hard to get another VIC-II nowadays... Some hints for using LANTIRN optical modes: - Make sure that "A/G" is displayed. - When using a controller to slew the sensor, ensure that it has enough dead zone in the centre. There is a 5% dead zone in the code, but for some noisy controllers, it may be not enough. If a constant input is detected, you will never see "AREA", and it will constantly be in "RATES". - Use WHOT to initiate tracking. - Both AREA and POINT are optical. It means that they require good visibility of the object or area you want to track. - Tracking won't engage if too far away. AREA can track at longer ranges than POINT. - You won't be able to use AREA when there are no contrasting elements in the camera, so you won't be able to use AREA on water except if there's a nice ship in your view that can provide some contrast. - POINT requires objects of an appropriate size - not too small and not too large. Usually, you won't be able to POINT track ground vehicles from more than 10-12 NM. - POINT requires higher contrast /better-defined shapes. If the view is cluttered with multiple objects, you may be unable to initiate or keep tracking. It means that you may be able to initiate POINT on a single tank in a field, but once it enters an urban area, you may lose the track. - When unable to initiate POINT, the pod will try entering AREA. - Don't try to POINT everything. Use it only for moving vehicles. Use AREA for non-moving objects. - Tracking will be terminated when your sensor gets into the area masked by your airframe. Keep the sensor eye indicator (the dot) inside the limits. - The max zoom (expanded view) isn't much more useful than the narrow view. It is just a 2x digital zoom so that it won't show more; it will just make the pixels two times bigger. I'm amazed of the LOD here... I mean, DCS just locks to entities that have some "hey you can lock me up" flags in a database and even the Hornet doesn't have a better model yet while it's in development and then Heatblur comes around the corner, puts the Tomcat with it's contrast locking LANTIRN implementation on the table as just sais: "Hold my beer." And I guess I couldn't get into Point Track due to using BHOT mainly. This might be the much better contrast for me, but as opposed to that, it probably isn't the same for the pod... I was able to shack them in Area Track anyway since they weren't moving around. the only issue I had was that I pickled 3 GBs at one press even though I was in STP SGL. I guess the world needs to see another FFB stick very soon as my buttons seem to start wearing out. After 15+ years. I have a spare one though... just need to get it out of where I packed it to. But as this happens so rarely, I'll probably endure one or two failures in 2 months or so. Logitech mice are worse, they do that after half a year already After all I had lots of fun with the thing. Will try out more of course and probably be able to nail it down.
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