Beginner help and Controller Help

[Gomez Adams]

I tried to play this game a few years back and my system couldn't run it. Now I have a new system and it runs on High setting really well, so I want to get into playing it.

My problem: I think I'm in over my head. I've run through the tutorials on the SU25 and they're a bit buggy. By buggy I mean the first two are fine, but I can't get past the third one. I keep flying to waypoints but can't seem to get past it. It doesn't tell me what else to do.

Also, it is INCREDIBLY hard to fly. I'm constantly pulling up and down to try to level it out and the throttle seems to be an all or nothing proposition. I've got an old Logitech 3D Pro joystick and don't want to go dumping money into an upgraded one until I find out if I can actually play this game or not.

I did a search for "easy plane to fly in DCS" and found a whole bunch of ideas here and all over the web. One was that the F15 is actually a far easier plane to learn to fly and use than the SU25. If that's true, I'd rather go in 15 bucks to learn that way than sink multiple times that amount into a joystick.

I also don't know if maybe there are joystick settings I can look at to make it handle better.

Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[maximov]

32 minutes ago, Gomez Adams said:

I've got an old Logitech 3D Pro joystick

I've been agonizing with flying in the M-2000 for a long time, using Logitech Extreme. The plane went into an uncontrolled roll every second! But the other modules, like the F-18 and the Su-27 flew in a perfect straight line. I solved the problem by "roughing" the joystick settings. But after a while I got a Warthog from Trustmaster. The M-2000 became the perfect plane with this joystick!
Until now, I thought that cheap joysticks simply wore out faster. How wrong I was!

[Dscross]

Gomez Adams. There are a couple things you can do to make things easier, first, set some axis curves as one of the other posters suddgested. That's first. 

Second, go to the "user files" section of DCS home page (downloads) Search for "Su-25 English cockpit" (Assuming here that English is you first language, feel free to correct me.) 

Personally I could not get into DCS until I found something with an English cockpit and I started to figure out how the sim/ game worked. That's the big thing, just figuring out how everything works, from mission maker to landings and weapons systems. let me tell you what helped me the most, I downloaded the free A4 Community Skyhawk. This is a fantastic mod developed by the community. It has a clickable cockpit, predictable flight dynamics (I won't say it's easy to fly, as it has some personality, but it' isn't very difficult to begin with, mastering it however is a whole other matter and I let you know if I ever get to that point.) Oh and it's just loads of fun. I started with the A4, and I didn't fly much else for the first 3 months. Now I have 90% of the modules, a full Hotas... yeah, I found a sim I love. But I found it because of the wonderful A4, so give it a try. 

Third... and this is a big one. Find a community. Many groups of sim pilots in DCS welcome new players. We love brining the fun of this sim to others and watching them enjoy it as well There are sim squadron's, groups, all over the forums. Find one and ask for help. 90% of the people will be glad to share their knowledge of the sim with you. We all love airplanes/ helicopters and military tech, it why we're here. There are many groups you can find, and mine is just one of them, if you're interested, we'd be glad to share what we know with you. I'm sure others will do the same. Here's the link to our discord (Arrorian Imperial Navy.) https://discord.gg/WyJWTnhTkB drop by whenever you have questions and we'll do our best to help you out. 

Fourth. Let's be honest, you're frustrated now, but in a few weeks, you'll be a fully-fledged addict. A different joystick/ HOTAS will help. It's not required, and with enough patintece you can fly anything in this sim with a keyboard and mouse. But a really good quality stick and Hotas, with some sort of headtracking or VR will expand your enjoyment of this sim by leaps and bounds. No, it's not required, but it does make everything more fun. 

Fifth. I would personally recommend buying the Flaming cliffs three pack. You'll save money on jets you'll end up buying anyway, and you can experiment with different types of aircraft to find out what you like. personally, I find the F-15 easy to fly, but a little touchy on landing if I haven't flown it in a bit. However planes like the Su-33 (included in FC3) and the A10A are about as easy to fly as you'll find. they have robust landing gear and are just loads of fun. I would highly recommend buying the FC3 pack and downloading the Community A4 mod. Give those all a try, find some group to help you learn the basics of the sim, and prepare to join the rest of us in this obsession. 

Oh, and welcome to DCS. Drop by my discord anytime, and I'm sure others will tell you the same. Welcome. 

[draconus]

14 hours ago, Gomez Adams said:

Also, it is INCREDIBLY hard to fly. I'm constantly pulling up and down to try to level it out and the throttle seems to be an all or nothing proposition. I've got an old Logitech 3D Pro joystick and don't want to go dumping money into an upgraded one until I find out if I can actually play this game or not.

Waypoints automatically change to the next one when you pass them but they have a limit (500m?) you have to fly within. If you miss one, just press "next waypoint" binding - default is Lctrl+"~".

What to do is usually told in the briefing (before starting the mission or Ralt+B?) or in the messages of the tutorial. Listen and read carefully - you can look through the messages history when you press Esc.

I myself started with F-15C because it was fast and easy to fly. You can test it for free for 14 days: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/personal/licensing/trial/

It doesn't need trimming and the power it wields cuts you some slack which in the end makes flying very forgiving. But it won't teach you how to really fly. Taming aircraft such as Su-25 will make you better pilot. It will teach you how to trim (you very much need it) and fly carefully on the edge.

In the controls settings, choose the aircraft, change category to axis, click pitch or roll binding (usually Y and X axis), then click axis tune. There you can setup some curve to it. What it does is it gives you smoother and more precise control near the center of the stick movement but it takes away those in the outer area - so it's a compromise which can help you starting out but you might want to go back to linear response when you get a feeling for the stick. It is hard to set the right power without the additional throttle control range but learn to control it almost constantly.

Anyway it doesn't happen overnight - practice, practice, practice and you'll get to it. It really helps to read about general flying, the specific aircraft you fly and watching how good pilots do it. Take it slowly, one bit at a time and have patience. Good luck.

[Gomez Adams]

Thanks for the tips, guys. I'll check them all out.

[Convexrook]

As for the nature of the joystick try playing with the curves to get s smoother transition. In the controller settings right-click the axis bind you want to tune and select tune axis. I usually start with curve of 20. Good Luck

[Gomez Adams]

Does anybody know if there's a way to snap the view back to center on the hat?

Explanation: The hat on top of the stick you use to look around - it sticks wherever you're looking so you have to manually guide it back to center. Is there a way to set it to where it snaps back to center when you release it? (Logitech 3D Pro)

Playing with curves now on the A4. No matter what I do the plane always wants to drift to the left. Left on its own it would fly in a long, left handed circle without me touching the stick. Is that normal?

[CBStu]

Do you have button on your stick set to adjust trim? If not I 'think' there may be keyboard buttons you can use. I suspect you just need some right trim. Also be sure you have a small dead zone in your stick settings for left/right and up/down. As I understand it some sticks will put out a very slight signal even when you let go of the stick and it centers itself. So a small dead zone gets rid of that problem.

I understand that you want to be sure you will go further before you spend more $ but I will say that once I got TrackIR5 my flying world went to another level.

TrackIR5 - In Depth | TrackIR (naturalpoint.com)

BTW you do NOT need the TrackClipPro. I have both the standard reflector and the clip and I prefer using the standard reflector.

[Gomez Adams]

3 hours ago, CBStu said:

I understand that you want to be sure you will go further before you spend more $ but I will say that once I got TrackIR5 my flying world went to another level.

TrackIR5 - In Depth | TrackIR (naturalpoint.com)

Wow! That is cool! I have never even heard of that before.

I'll be learning this thing for years.

[Dscross]

 

26 minutes ago, Gomez Adams said:

Wow! That is cool! I have never even heard of that before.

I'll be learning this thing for years.

Gomez, I 100% agree on TrackIR. 

It completely changed the sim. I can glance left or right to see my wingman, down to look at a target as my bombs hit, and glance at gauges and instruments. Personally I use TrackIR5 pro, I know people who use trackIR regular, and I play with a guy who uses a system called TobII which tracks eye movement. Also one guy I fly with uses VR, and there are a few who don't use head tracking or anything. Headtracking is worth it. The people I know who dont' have it, want it and are going to get it. Makes a world of difference. 

My buddy gave me this link to his tobii. I haven't used it, but he insists it's the best head tracking he's ever used, and I trust his judgment. https://gaming.tobii.com/product/eye-tracker-5/

Here is the link to TrackIR, which I use, and I love it. Seriously, I wouldn't fly without it now. (or at least some headtracking.) https://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/

As to the A4 flying in a circle. As someone else said, check your trim. Second, and this is probably part of it. Check your axis tune and see if your stick is centering properly. If it's not you might need to put in a little bit of a dead zone. (Axis Commands/ Tune Axis, all under adjust controls tab) The stick you're using, and several others will develop that problem from time to time because of the internal design. It's no big deal, just a little axis tuning, and a dead zone should fix it.  Oh and retrimming your jet as most airplanes won't fly perfectly level without any trim. If you change the power, fuel load, altitude...etc, you'll need to trim. (wind... etc) 

Edited March 1, 2022 by Dscross

[draconus]

7 hours ago, Gomez Adams said:

Does anybody know if there's a way to snap the view back to center on the hat?

I used to have a separate key (button) just for view centering. Try to bind one.

I recommend some headtracking if you want to get deeper into simulation and immersion. TrackIR is not cheap but there are some fine alternatives like Delan clip or other custom IR clip with modded old PS3 Eye camera. It then runs with opentrack software. I used one of these in DCS with success.

[Gomez Adams]

In every other flight sim I ever played, it automatically snapped back to center when you let go of the hat. This is the only game I've ever seen where you have to push a separate button to do that.

[draconus]

4 hours ago, Gomez Adams said:

In every other flight sim I ever played, it automatically snapped back to center when you let go of the hat. This is the only game I've ever seen where you have to push a separate button to do that.

You can bind snapviews to hat positions and the view will be centered when you release it.

For the smooth movement and return you'd need analog hat.

[CBStu]

23 hours ago, Gomez Adams said:

In every other flight sim I ever played, it automatically snapped back to center when you let go of the hat. This is the only game I've ever seen where you have to push a separate button to do that.

It's been 2 years since I used buttons to look around so I may be wrong. But I remember there were several different ways to assign buttons for moving the view. I 'think' that what you mention is in there somewhere. When I run into a button assignment problem I actually make notes of my changes. I also take a cell phone pic of the assignment screen before and after I make a change. I went too far one time and lost track so since then I do the above. Keep asking questions as we all started somewhere and I am sure it will be worth it to you once you are over a few teething problems.

[Gomez Adams]

By default you push 5 on the number pad. It's sort of a pain though. As I mentioned before, every other game it centers automatically when you release the hat and it pops back to the center. War Thunder and IL2 Sturmovik both do it by default. This game apparently isn't capable of it for some reason.

Edited March 3, 2022 by Gomez Adams

[draconus]

1 hour ago, Gomez Adams said:

By default you push 5 on the number pad. It's sort of a pain though. As I mentioned before, every other game it centers automatically when you release the hat and it pops back to the center.

It's by design and it's good that way. You can choose between fast or slow head movement. You can also choose instant snapviews which do return to center. But I see you're not into solutions here.

Edited March 3, 2022 by draconus

[Gomez Adams]

Not sure what your problem is, pal. I've asked if it was possible several times to set it up a certain way and been told pretty much "no" unless I have an analog setup. I was done with the conversation. Feel free to let it go yourself.