DCS Newsletter discussion August 5th 2022 - Introducing DCS: Kfir | Infantry Animations | B-1B Texture Progress

[NineLine]

Newsletter discussion thread for August 5th.
 

DCS Newsletter discussion August 5th 2022 - Introducing DCS: Kfir | Infantry Animations | B-1B Texture Progress

[Dragon1-1]

I'll be the first to say it: nice B-1R.  

[pimp]

Thanks for the infantry news. Is ED able to provide what the plans are for the AI infantry improvements? I know you're improving the path finding, which is great news, but what about taking cover? Is that something that could be implemented with the current AI?

[Torbernite]

Which version of Kfir would we get? C2 or C7?

[St4rgun]

These AI animations are superb, but the actual AI behaviour will be the real thing. I'm afraid that's somehow connected to the multicore development: the AI pathfinding could be perfectly assigned to a separate CPU core, and I think none of them will be implemented without the other.

As I know there's not a trace of any ETA for the AI pathfinding, so as for the multicore development. I hope we have the opportunity to see them in this year (if only partially), it would be sad to wait another years for these fine features to deploy.

[WinterH]

Hell yeah for the Kfir from me! Been following them for years I think now, and glad to see it being good enough to get a 3rd party licence. The more aircraft like that, the happier I am! Bring on cool Cold War oddballs!

Infantry, I'm conflicted... on one hand I am rather happy to see things are being done for infantry. On the other hand, I'd much rather see more infantry models with:

- Machine gunners
- AT rockets
- ATGMs
- Older MANPADS
For all factions in the game, up to level of current insurgent models or Georgia M4 models. In this case I'd much rather preferred this kind of quantity over better looking nicer animating quality, but I suppose I can understand an argument along the lines of "we'd first have to lay the foundation for better looking/animated infantry and then do variants", even though my preferrance still lies closer to quantity side here. More varied and more intelligent infantry is very necessary for missions imo.

In any case though, happy to hear pathing improvements for infantry, and in general infantry being improved, and the Kfir!

[Eldur]

A Kfir? You're killing me...

1 hour ago, Бойовий Сокіл said:

C2 first then C7 and F-21 later on according to the developer's discord.

Was going to ask as well, but rather if it would be a C1 or C2 since the text was only talking C1/F-21A. Loved the C2 in Strike Fighters 2, glad to see it on the horizon of DCS, especially with several variants!

[Gierasimov]

I love the work and effort put into boots on the ground. I hope for dedicated JTAC soldier together with revamped 9line calls, but I guess I am pushing out luck here.

The Bone looks great! 

 

 

Edited August 5, 2022 by Gierasimov

[harv]

It's exciting to see developments taking place in regards to infantry behaviour.

 

I think this has become more important since the advent of the Apache; people don't want a firing range they want to go up against - at least the illusion of - a seemingly intelligent adversary who has the desire to survive under fire.

[DiCE81]

hace 55 minutos, Eldur dijo:

A Kfir? You're killing me...

Was going to ask as well, but rather if it would be a C1 or C2 since the text was only talking C1/F-21A. Loved the C2 in Strike Fighters 2, glad to see it on the horizon of DCS, especially with several variants!

C1 have small canards, and in development screenshots have big canards like C2.

[jojyrocks]

Hoping it is the Kfir C2 or C7 in development...

So far, it seems C2 from the development pics. I believe the C2 and C7 saw more action.

Excited to see the Kfir series being developed.

[r4y30n]

C2 first then C7 and F-21 later on according to the developer's discord.

Discord is a terrible place for developers to post announcements and I wish they would stop doing it.

[Rudel_chw]

12 minutes ago, r4y30n said:

Discord is a terrible place for developers to post announcements and I wish they would stop doing it.

In case anyone else is interested on visiting it, this is the link:

https://discord.gg/q3XkgUx

 

[Dragon1-1]

I like the Kifir, but I hope full-English cockpit will be an option. That Hebrew writing looks intimidating.  I can kind-of read Russian labels, but Hebrew? No dice.

[Blaze1969]

how cool is that? The Kfir will keep the cold war momentum building and will be a great fit for the game IMO. As far as a new aircraft announcement post Kola/Orbx partnership news, only a Tornado IDS would have gotten me as stoked as the news coming out of DCS lately..

Bring on that Dynamic Campaign Update...

 

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

Kefir is an interesting aircraft. Wonder how it would compare with Mirage F1C.

[VIKBELL]

Nice looking B-1 bomber model.

[Fromthedeep]

Does anyone know what kind of avionics we can expect from a C2? HUD, INS, computed or manual bombing, self lasing?

[WinterH]

C2 won't have self lasing for sure, nor will the C7. Almost certain no HUD but a simple gunsight for the C2, don't know about the C7.

This was intended as a simple but high performance aircraft, and especially the C2 will be rather austere. C7 had more pylons and some upgrades, but don't quite know the extent of upgrades.

Think of Kfir as a Mirage III with a souped-up flight performance due to J79 and canards, but without a big radar in the nose.

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

How does the Kfir compare with F1?

[Rudel_chw]

Here is info about the Kfir, geared towards scale modelers, but it includes cockpit photos .. very interesting:

 

https://1drv.ms/b/s!Ai6cuX3YQI26hqJNAieWd-i-3ckCGg

 

[Bremspropeller]

50 minutes ago, WinterH said:

Think of Kfir as a Mirage III with a souped-up flight performance due to J79 and canards, but without a big radar in the nose.

Don't get too excited about the Kfir, though. The heat-shielding and additional installed drag (due to the required cooling-scoops) that had to be introduced to fit the J79 into the Mirage airframe, killed a lot of the percieved additional performance. Apparently the Cheetah C hits globally the same numbers with a weaker motor and better aero-refinements (Atar 9K50 vs. J79-17).

The Kfir is one of the prime examples for strapping a more powerful engine onto an airframe and not getting the hoped-for result. The J79 was chosen mostly, because they had access to it, rather than the Atar, which was embargoed at the time.*

 

Now, if you really want to see a souped up Mirage III, look for the IIIR2Z (actually operational) or the Avon-powered prototype of the Mirage IIIO.

___

*and they already had gotten away with fun and games with the Nesher, so this route would not work again

[WinterH]

7 minutes ago, Bremspropeller said:

Don't get too excited about the Kfir, though. The heat-shielding and additional installed drag (due to the required cooling-scoops) that had to be introduced to fit the J79 into the Mirage airframe, killed a lot of the percieved additional performance. Apparently the Cheetah C hits globally the same numbers with a weaker motor and better aero-refinements (Atar 9K50 vs. J79-17).

At the end though, it is still souped up compared to more vanilla Mirage III family even if not quite up to the level hoped for. Cheetah though, it definitely looks better than Kfir too... I'd love it too but I'm happy enough to see the Kfir added to the stable
 

[Bremspropeller]

13 minutes ago, WinterH said:

Cheetah though, it definitely looks better than Kfir too... I'd love it too but I'm happy enough to see the Kfir added to the stable
 

 

+1 and same here.

Any member of the Mirage family will be welcomed with great enthusiasm on my part - just make sure we're not forgetting about the originals.

 

[Fromthedeep]

1 hour ago, WinterH said:

C2 won't have self lasing for sure, nor will the C7. Almost certain no HUD but a simple gunsight for the C2, don't know about the C7.

 

Well, the C7 looks fairly sophisticated, with an MFD, a HUD, INS and so on. I've collected some pictures here: https://imgur.com/a/7mkw6c7

As we can see, some sources indicate that the C2 does in fact have a HUD (and it very much reminds me of the A-7s HUD), and even on the oldest looking pictures, there's some kind of UFC screen on both the, the ATAC agressor variant seemingly lacks the INS, but it does different screens (if I were to guess, the new screen above the UFC is a radio control panel, and the screen on the right is maybe some kind of GPS unit). There's a weapon selector dial for the C2 with multiple different settings and according to the CMO database, it does have a ranging radar. If assume that the HUD pictures are reliable, I think we can expect some level of computed bombing even for the C2.

 

Please be advised that these are images I've found randomly on the internet, so I cannot verify with a reputable source that they indeed depict the variant that they state to be depicting, take them with a grain of salt.