Lantern Zoom

[DmanGIV]

Is there a way or command that will have Jester zoom in the Lantern picture? I would love a key bind personally. I love using the Q eye control to find targets on the ground, but sometimes without zooming.. it’s a guess to what I’m seeing. 

[The_Tau]

+1

[av8orDave]

+1

[Digitalvole]

I don’t understand why we don’t have this. Please HB, pretty please…

[bonesvf103]

If you have VAICOM Pro, if you tell Jester, "Toggle view," he will zoom/unzzom the view as needed.  Albeit for a short time until he brings it back to a view he needs to do his work.  But you can tell him to toggle it again.

v6,

boNes

Edited February 27, 2023 by bonesvf103

[Callsign JoNay]

1 hour ago, bonesvf103 said:

If you have VAICOM Pro, if you tell Jester, "Toggle view," he will zoom/unzzom the view as needed.  Albeit for a short time until he brings it back to a view he needs to do his work.  But you can tell him to toggle it again.

v6,

boNes

 

He never leaves the zoom where I ask him to leave it, even when I've taken direct head control. I think the Vaicom function is bugged.

[bonesvf103]

It might be, but it also might be that he is zooming it to where he needs it to do his work in the back.  After all, it's the RIO that is performing LANTIRN work, and the pilot only pickles, he just follows what the RIO tells him to do until then and after.  It's not really up to the pilot to tell the RIO how to zoom the image since he's not controlling guidance and tracking, unless the pilot needs to see something specific.

 

v6,

boNes

[Digitalvole]

I really don’t want to sound confrontational, but I feel the need to point out isn’t basically every function we have with the radar (as the pilot using the Jester wheel) something a real RIO would be doing on his jack jones?

I see LANTIRN zoom the same as TID Range. Wouldn’t the RIO be taking care of that too? But for us singletons we’d be having a pretty hard time if we couldn’t tell Jester to set the TID range.

This is ofc just my opinion, I’m truly not trying to sound rude or argumentative.

[RustBelt]

No you’re correct. Jester can’t make real mission decisions, but short of running some external Jester replacer software that gives you complete control of the back seat from the front, Jester is needed to run the back. Which puts him in conflict when thinking has to be used.

The LANTERN is really not a single pilot usable thing unless you learn how to trust Iceman which, you can’t he’s worse than opponent AI. 
 

Regular TCS CCRP (it’s called something nonstandard) and buddy lasing is all you can reasonably do single pilot to actually accomplish missions or in sandbox.

Edited February 27, 2023 by RustBelt

[Callsign JoNay]

6 hours ago, bonesvf103 said:

It might be, but it also might be that he is zooming it to where he needs it to do his work in the back.  After all, it's the RIO that is performing LANTIRN work, and the pilot only pickles, he just follows what the RIO tells him to do until then and after.  It's not really up to the pilot to tell the RIO how to zoom the image since he's not controlling guidance and tracking, unless the pilot needs to see something specific.

 

v6,

boNes

I don't know why you're looking at it that way. I tell Jester to use RWS vs TWS vs STT all the time. I manage his TID range, his az/el, I am the one who shoots the missiles, etc.

You would have a point if I asked Jester to search for ground targets or something, but once I've taken direct head control it should be my LANTIRN not Jester's.

[bonesvf103]

20 minutes ago, Callsign JoNay said:

I don't know why you're looking at it that way. I tell Jester to use RWS vs TWS vs STT all the time. I manage his TID range, his az/el, I am the one who shoots the missiles, etc.

You would have a point if I asked Jester to search for ground targets or something, but once I've taken direct head control it should be my LANTIRN not Jester's.

It doesn't happen when I have head control, because, well, I have head control.  But once I give control back to Jester, it's his decision unless I tell him over and over to zoom.  Now in real life I could tell him to zoom in and keep it there, but really, as the pilot, I'm not the one trying to hold a valid lock in the LANTIRN for a weapons drop, it is the RIO.  So if I tell him to zoom in all the way and he needs to zoom out based on his ability to keep the target locked or for procedure or whatever, he's going to ignore me and do what HE needs to do to keep the target locked not what I'm telling him to do.

v6,

boNes

 

[Callsign JoNay]

1 hour ago, bonesvf103 said:

It doesn't happen when I have head control, because, well, I have head control.

Jester holds your requested FOV zoom level when you are using head control and Vaicom? And when you are Qing to waypoints?

[bonesvf103]

I think so.  Then again, maybe I haven't actually tried to see if he does or not because I was satisfied with the zoom level her had.  I'll have to try it purposely next time.

But what I mean is that when I have head control, he doesn't change the zoom back to what he had or wants, because I have head control. 

v6,

boNes

[ebabil]

we should have lantirn zoom button and mouse control instead frickin headbang 

[near_blind]

On 4/10/2023 at 7:07 AM, ebabil said:

we should have lantirn zoom button and mouse control instead frickin headbang 

https://www.heatblur.se/F-14Manual/general.html#controls-and-displays

[ebabil]

6 hours ago, near_blind said:

https://www.heatblur.se/F-14Manual/general.html#controls-and-displays

What’s that? I am talking about pilot zoom not rio 

[near_blind]

3 hours ago, ebabil said:

What’s that? I am talking about pilot zoom not rio 

You said we should have zoom and slewing control. I posted where you can find them.

[ebabil]

Nope. Pilot slew controls are done by head movements. and it is hard

[draconus]

On 4/12/2023 at 10:10 AM, ebabil said:

Nope. Pilot slew controls are done by head movements. and it is hard

Then don't - it's not realistic. Go RIO for full controls.

[bonesvf103]

On 4/12/2023 at 3:10 AM, ebabil said:

Nope. Pilot slew controls are done by head movements. and it is hard

This may be a bit subjective.  I don't use head control much but when I do it isn't hard to get the target in sight and designated.  One thing I learned is that when you do use head control, it is still the LANTIRN target reticle that you put on the target, not the head control (red dot) one.  It didn't occur to me what I was doing wrong until a little later and I was like, duh!  Why would the LANTIRN care where I put the red dot, it only cares about what's in its reticle.

v6,

boNes

[2circle]

Not sure if this is the best thread for this question, but perhaps someone can help out.  After I cue the LANTIRN to the target using the JESTER menu, the pod works as intended.  I then use the menu to designate target (in this example a static aircraft parked on a ramp).  Jester tells me the laser is on, and although I get good azimuth info in the LANTIRN repeat (VDI), he never commands me to turn left/right in order to center up steering, nor does he tell me when to release ordnance.  The videos I've watched reflect that this should be essentially automatic.  Does anyone have an idea what I might be doing wrong?  Is there some other setting I need to adjust (bomb mode, laser code, etc.)?  Thank you!

[draconus]

9 hours ago, 2circle said:

Does anyone have an idea what I might be doing wrong?

Jester menu: select AG weapons > GBUs

Pilot master mode: A/G

Stick weapon select: Off (ORD on HUD)

Master ARM: ON

Edited May 18, 2023 by draconus

[2circle]

8 hours ago, draconus said:

Jester menu: select AG weapons > GBUs

Pilot master mode: A/G

Stick weapon select: Off (ORD on HUD)

Master ARM: ON

 

Thanks Draconus.  Here are my specific settings: GBU-12 selected (and displayed on the LANTIRN, with ORD in HUD), A1688, A/G mode, AREA track, CMP/PLT bombing mode, SGL, N/T fusing.  I wonder if you only get those cues from Jester if you allow him to acquire the target using the menu interface?  I was able to get some guidance from him finally (though not consistently) on targets that he acquired using the JESTER menu, but if I manually slew the pod using head tracking (from the JESTER menu), and subsequently designate the target (also using the menu), I get no guidance or timing commands.  Unless I'm doing something wrong, this seems like a substantial shortcoming.  How would one attack a building for example (or any other map object)?  It seems like you'd have to hop into the RIO position to do this, but I'm reading about people complaining that once they do this and jump back into the front cockpit, JESTER slews the pos off someplace else...Thanks again!