cannot reproduce and missing track file No contacts on radar, intermittent datalink in mostly multiplayer

[PicklePicklePickle]

Hello,

 

I've been recently learning the F-16 and I have noticed a few things, I was wondering if they are user error or just the state of the module:

 

I often connect to the 162nd training server which has slight variations of the same mission. There is a group of enemy F-15's that usually come from the east. For some reason, on the F-16 I get no contacts on RWS or TWS. I have to wait until I am dogfight range and lock them in ACM. I have tried changing all the radar settings, the contacts just don't show up. In general, the radar seems to have a very hard time finding contacts in multiplayer. Often a momentary contact will show up(one dot in what should be a group of 4 bogeys) momentarily only to go away on the next radar sweep.

The second issue is that the datalink seems to come and go in multiplayer. The datalink symbols seem to show up randomly. I am aware that the INS has to be aligned for this to work and the coordinates have to be confirmed when doing INS NORM ALIGN, so this is not the issue.

 

In single player, the datalink seems consistent. The radar is better but still seems to have a hard time seeing contacts that are there. It is very different to the F-14 where once Jester finds a contact it rarely goes away(can't say the same for his locks of course). On the F-16 it seems unusual to get the same level of radar consistency seen on the F-14.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Florence201]

Ok, so Datalink first. The range at which the donor aircraft is from the contacts will have a massive affect on its ability to send tracks. If the AWACs can’t see primary radar, it can’t generate link tracks. It may be a distance thing

 

As for the radar not painting. Ensure your antenna elevation is correct for bogeys, use RWS in expand and see how many contacts you see there. TWS requires primary radar paints every 6.2seconds to create a system track. 

[PicklePicklePickle]

Thanks for the reply!

 

That's a good point about the datalink, i'll chalk it up to that for now. I think that I have seen it go away and then come back in straight level flight at high altitude, where the LOS should not have been interrupted, but i'll keep an eye on this.

 

As far as the radar, I have experimented a lot. I have adjusted the elevation and left it there for 1 minute or more. I have changed the BAR scan pattern. Even when i'm not experimenting for this issue, I use the information from AWACS to adjust the elevation such that the range shown next to the cursor contains the altitude for the bogeys as relayed by AWACS. Still no contacts or at most they pop on for 1 scan and disappear.

 

I am aware of the expand function, but I do not think this is the issue because most of the time I see the datalink bogey triangles and can see there are multiple aircraft there, yet no radar white dot/brick/etc. Very weird. I'm hoping there is a magic button somewhere i'm missing.

Edited March 10, 2021 by PicklePicklePickle

[SCPanda]

I can confirm the F-16 datalink is very inconsistent in SOME (very few actually) servers. In those servers, datalink is not visible most of the time and it will pop up for a short period of time. I am pretty sure it's not due to INS, LOS, or distance, because I had quite a few scenarios where both me and the bandit were relatively close to the AWACS and are on high altitude. INS is perfectly aligned as well. 

 

There was a post about this issue a year ago (https://forums.eagle.ru/topic/228425-viper-datalink-horrifically-inconsistent/?tab=comments#comment-229101）. ED said they cannot reproduce it, but I think the problem is probably due to those servers are running old 2.5.5 missile file. I believe this datalink issue is more likely mission/server related rather than module/user related. 

 

In SP and most MP servers, F-16 datalink works perfectly fine. Try switching servers, and see what's up. The servers I usually fly in do not have this datalink issue. When I get into a new server, if the datalink on F-16 doesn't work, I just switch server. 

Edited March 11, 2021 by SCPanda

[SCPanda]

Regarding the radar, I have not encountered the problem you described. I regularly play in the Growling Sidewinder's PVP server. The radar for the F-16 works perfectly fine. Does this radar problem also happen to you in SP? Try F-16's instant action mission, there is one called Fighter Intercept or Fighter Sweep (cannot remember the exact name). It is basically a quick BVR practice mission, it should let you try out the radar functions on the F-16. 

Edited March 11, 2021 by SCPanda

[PicklePicklePickle]

13 hours ago, SCPanda said:

I can confirm the F-16 datalink is very inconsistent in SOME (very few actually) servers.

 

Thanks for the feedback! That is exactly what I'm seeing with the datalink. I just happen to use the 162nd servers (usually the Training ones) a lot because they have such low ping times and usually have a lot of players on them. I will try other servers. The datalink definitely works fine in SP for me.

 

Regarding radar, from what I reacall it works much better in SP but I will check again. The SP missions I have played recently all have bogeys relatively close, so i'm not sure I have recently looked at how it works BVR in SP.

 

Just last night I was on the 162nd server for a long time. I downed 13 airplanes and for every one I had to go up to their face and use ACM mode, because again I -maybe- only get a momentary white dot for one airplane in the group and on the next scan of the radar it disappears. Azimuth set exactly to cover the altitude reported by AWACS. None of them even makes it to a system file. On the plus side, it is making me better at ACM.

 

I need to grab a track, I will try to do this I have never done it before.

[SCPanda]

14 hours ago, PicklePicklePickle said:

 

Thanks for the feedback! That is exactly what I'm seeing with the datalink. I just happen to use the 162nd servers (usually the Training ones) a lot because they have such low ping times and usually have a lot of players on them. I will try other servers. The datalink definitely works fine in SP for me.

 

Regarding radar, from what I reacall it works much better in SP but I will check again. The SP missions I have played recently all have bogeys relatively close, so i'm not sure I have recently looked at how it works BVR in SP.

 

Just last night I was on the 162nd server for a long time. I downed 13 airplanes and for every one I had to go up to their face and use ACM mode, because again I -maybe- only get a momentary white dot for one airplane in the group and on the next scan of the radar it disappears. Azimuth set exactly to cover the altitude reported by AWACS. None of them even makes it to a system file. On the plus side, it is making me better at ACM.

 

I need to grab a track, I will try to do this I have never done it before.

My pleasure mate.

 

Yeah I guess then it might be the 162nd server/mission causing the datalink being inconsistent on the F-16. I guess you like to play PVE? I recommend you try out the [4YA] servers. Just search 4YA you will see them. Their servers have all the maps (2 severs for each map actually) and are all PvE stuff. A lot of players in them as well. The missions are pretty fun  since they have both A2A and A2G. You basically have to capture all the airports on the map. Once you destroy all the ground units in an airport, you capture it and you can also spawn there. Pretty neat stuff! Also, I don't think Ping is a big problem since I usually get 150-250 (depends on the server) in 4YAs, I can play smoothly without a problem. DCS is not a FPS so I think below 300 ping you should be fine.

 

Regarding the track file, you can find all your MP tracks in your C drive/Savedgames(I think)/DCS/Tracks. For SP tracks, you have to manually save them each time after you finish your mission. Cheers! 

 

 

Edited March 12, 2021 by SCPanda

[PicklePicklePickle]

I went back and tested both the radar and datalink in SP and they work fine. I started to see TWS targets showing up in the middle of the 120 mile page on the FCR and was able to get system targets on all and cycle through them.

 

I have attached a track of the issue on the server. On this mission I attacked some ground targets first and then went for the enemy F-15's. They mostly don't show up on FCR(only a few sporadic dots) as I described before, and then I get shot down immediately after getting into ACM range

 

So pretty clearly it is a server problem of some sort. Thanks for your help!

Official_Training_Mission_V168 Winter Night-20210312-110529.trk

[WHOGX5]

I fast forwarded your track for 15 minutes and didn't even see you spawned in so I gave up. It can depend on many factors; elevation, aspect, distance, etc. About the link, it's very dodgy. It seems to interfere with TACAN so if you have assets using channels 1-36 & 64-99 it may interfere with D/L. Also link seems to be degraded if you fly on red team in an F-16 even if you have an E-3 supporting you, but I haven't had the time to verify that, it's just a hunch at the moment.

 

So if you ccould post a shorter track file, just you in SP air spawning and trying to lock something, that'd be much more helpful.

[PicklePicklePickle]

Ha! Yes this is my first time posting a track so i should do some more reading on how it works. In the track folder there are a lot of files for all the MP sessions, but many are the same size (around 2MB) which I thought looked weird. Not surprising it is not what I thought it was. Once I had the problem, i left the server, quit DCS and grabbed the file. Not sure why it doesn't have the data in it...

 

Unfortunately I don't have the issues in SP at all, only MP.

[WHOGX5]

On 3/13/2021 at 6:13 PM, PicklePicklePickle said:

Ha! Yes this is my first time posting a track so i should do some more reading on how it works. In the track folder there are a lot of files for all the MP sessions, but many are the same size (around 2MB) which I thought looked weird. Not surprising it is not what I thought it was. Once I had the problem, i left the server, quit DCS and grabbed the file. Not sure why it doesn't have the data in it...

 

Unfortunately I don't have the issues in SP at all, only MP.

Ah ok, gotcha. The issue with track files is that you can't choose to view a specific part of the track. You have to watch it from beginning to end and at which speed you can fast forward is dependent on how much performance your PC has. My PC ranks somewhere between obsolete and antique so I gave up before I got to the good parts...

[Lusitani]

I have exactly the same issue as 3xPickle, in both singleplayer and multiplayer. I can see datalink contacts  if there is an awacs available but no contacts (friendly or not)whatsoever provided by the F-16 radar no matter what I do. Now, until recently I never had any issue with it...and neither do the guys I fly with. If I switch to ACM mode I am able to lock on to whatever is close to me but nothing shows up in RWS or TWS.

 

UPDATE: For future reference, reinstalling DCS seems to have solved the issue.

Edited May 12, 2021 by Lusitani