Feedback Thread F-14 Tomcat - Update 10th March 2023

[IronMike]

Dear all,

we're happy to bring you this update with a few novelties and some significant steps bringing us closer to the full release of the Tomcat. Apart from multithred compatibility, the first iteration (or preview) of FORGE, adjustable mirrors and removable fuel pylons, a significant improvement most of you have been waiting for is the F-14A FM performance improvement and overhaul.

We will publish more detailed updates about the general state of development progress across Heatblur modules and in particular for the FM and performance later today.

As always thank you for your feedback and kind support and we hope you enjoy the update.


It is paramount that you add if you are running on ST (singlethread) or MT (multithreading) to your report please, everyone. Thank you!

 

 

DCS: F-14 Tomcat by Heatblur Simulations

• NEW: Added ability to remove fuel pylons.
• NEW: Cockpit mirrors can now be adjusted.
• NEW: Began adding dynamic cockpit (FORGE) elements.
   
• Major improvement and overhaul of F-14A FM performance characteristics:
  • Tuned F-14A level flight acceleration.
  • Tuned F-14A turn performance.
  • Tuned F-14A top speed and excess power across the flight envelope.
     
• Restored wing rock behaviour at high AOA (F-14A and B).
• Adjusted dead engine spin down rate (TF30 and F110).
• Updated entire F-14A/B codebase for multithread compatibility.
• Improved strength of formation lighting, especially at a distance.
• Corrected notch and default position of RIO ARC-182 radio knob.
• Corrected direction of refuelling probe illumination.
• Increased power of refuelling probe light.
• Adjusted default RoughMet textures to remove permanent fuel pylon shadow.
• Updated RWR threat library to version RD21: added Mirage F1, Ropucha and Fire Can.
• AIM-7 hot trigger now also depends on WCS transmit enabled.
• Fixed IMU sync error on own altitude entry during alignment.
• Fixed bomb fall line being inaccurate due to NAV error.
• Fixed RADALT not pegged at 5000 feet during RADALT warmup.
• Fixed Clock getting inaccurate after a certain amount of time.
• Fixed both glove vane and wingtip position lights illuminating with wing sweep aft of 25 degrees while nose gear down and locked.
• Airspeed indicator needle now comes alive earlier, below 80 kts.
• Fixed canopy not being repaired after canopy was jettisoned manually or by crew ejection.
• Fixed Warthog profile for keybinds (fixes duplicate multiplayer chat keybind).
• Fixed several typos in the keybind menu.
• Fixed fuel quantity indicator showing fuel quantity in the F-14A on cold spawn.
• Removed Op. Reforger I Supercarrier version.
• Fixed Chinese Localization (thank you Alphabet_Ghost).
• Fixed Chinese Localization for Op. Reforger I, The Final Hour and Training Day Quickstart missions (thank you Alphabet_Ghost).
• Updated Top Gun 114 livery by LanceCriminal86.
• Updated VF-1 Wolfpack liveries by Yae Sakura.
• Added (F-14A) 4x VF-301 Devil's Disciples liveries by Mach3DS.
• Added (F-14B) livery VX-4 XF-51 1988 by LanceCriminal86.
• Added (F-14B) livery VX-9 Vandy 41 (1995) by ben_der.

Edited March 10, 2023 by IronMike

[Tom Kazansky]

Thanks a lot!

[coreyhkh]

awesome

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

[Multithread] The TCS sends a completely black picture to the cockpit for me in video mode in STT. I tested it in several missions.
That is, the video feed is black. The symbology displays correctly.

Edited March 10, 2023 by Raven (Elysian Angel)
a bit more detail added

[IronMike]

8 minutes ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

The TCS sends a completely black picture to the cockpit for me in video mode in STT. I tested it in several missions.

MT or ST?


It is paramount that you add if you are running on ST (singlethread) or MT (multithreading) to your report please, everyone. Thank you!

[Despayre]

Running multithreaded, I have a couple of screens exported to the second monitor. Looks normal in the single thread (see attached), but gets completely unreadable when running multithreaded (see attached again ). (I moved from a horizontal to a vertical monitor stack, hence the pic differences) It seems like the instrumentation isn't refreshing properly, and it just continually writes over what's already showing, without removing it.

Also, there's some strange yellow and black behind the pilot's head in the mirror (see second pic for that as well).

Didn't know I needed it, but loving the adjustable mirrors!

nullnull

[Dannyvandelft]

Adjustable mirrors are awesome, thank you.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

1 hour ago, IronMike said:

MT or ST?


It is paramount that you add if you are running on ST (singlethread) or MT (multithreading) to your report please, everyone. Thank you!

Yes, MT sorry... I edited the original post.

Edited March 10, 2023 by Raven (Elysian Angel)

[ShinyMikey]

Loved the new liveries, especially Vandy41

[LanceCriminal86]

2 minutes ago, ShinyMikey said:

Loved the new liveries, especially Vandy41

[ThorBrasil]

1 hour ago, IronMike said:

Dear all,

we're happy to bring you this update with a few novelties and some significant steps bringing us closer to the full release of the Tomcat. Apart from multithred compatibility, the first iteration (or preview) of FORGE, adjustable mirrors and removable fuel pylons, a significant improvement most of you have been waiting for is the F-14A FM performance improvement and overhaul.

We will publish more detailed updates about the general state of development progress across Heatblur modules and in particular for the FM and performance later today.

As always thank you for your feedback and kind support and we hope you enjoy the update.


It is paramount that you add if you are running on ST (singlethread) or MT (multithreading) to your report please, everyone. Thank you!

 

 

DCS: F-14 Tomcat by Heatblur Simulations

• NEW: Added ability to remove fuel pylons.
• NEW: Cockpit mirrors can now be adjusted.
• NEW: Began adding dynamic cockpit (FORGE) elements.
   
• Major improvement and overhaul of F-14A FM performance characteristics:
  • Tuned F-14A level flight acceleration.
  • Tuned F-14A turn performance.
  • Tuned F-14A top speed and excess power across the flight envelope.
     
• Restored wing rock behaviour at high AOA (F-14A and B).
• Adjusted dead engine spin down rate (TF30 and F110).
• Updated entire F-14A/B codebase for multithread compatibility.
• Improved strength of formation lighting, especially at a distance.
• Corrected notch and default position of RIO ARC-182 radio knob.
• Corrected direction of refuelling probe illumination.
• Increased power of refuelling probe light.
• Adjusted default RoughMet textures to remove permanent fuel pylon shadow.
• Updated RWR threat library to version RD21: added Mirage F1, Ropucha and Fire Can.
• AIM-7 hot trigger now also depends on WCS transmit enabled.
• Fixed IMU sync error on own altitude entry during alignment.
• Fixed bomb fall line being inaccurate due to NAV error.
• Fixed RADALT not pegged at 5000 feet during RADALT warmup.
• Fixed Clock getting inaccurate after a certain amount of time.
• Fixed both glove vane and wingtip position lights illuminating with wing sweep aft of 25 degrees while nose gear down and locked.
• Airspeed indicator needle now comes alive earlier, below 80 kts.
• Fixed canopy not being repaired after canopy was jettisoned manually or by crew ejection.
• Fixed Warthog profile for keybinds (fixes duplicate multiplayer chat keybind).
• Fixed several typos in the keybind menu.
• Fixed fuel quantity indicator showing fuel quantity in the F-14A on cold spawn.
• Removed Op. Reforger I Supercarrier version.
• Fixed Chinese Localization (thank you Alphabet_Ghost).
• Fixed Chinese Localization for Op. Reforger I, The Final Hour and Training Day Quickstart missions (thank you Alphabet_Ghost).
• Updated Top Gun 114 livery by LanceCriminal86.
• Updated VF-1 Wolfpack liveries by Yae Sakura.
• Added (F-14A) 4x VF-301 Devil's Disciples liveries by Mach3DS.
• Added (F-14B) livery VX-4 XF-51 1988 by LanceCriminal86.
• Added (F-14B) livery VX-9 Vandy 41 (1995) by ben_der.

 

How to enable?

• Began adding dynamic cockpit (FORGE) elements.

Thanks!

[Tomcatter87]

Is there a way to influence which dynamic cockpit elements are shown (or not shown)? 

[JupiterJoe]

First of all let me say thank you for continuing to improve this incredible module.  It has brought a tremendous amount of joy to my life.

The attached images are from the 'Night Hunter (Top Secret)' mission, using Multi-Thread.  I use this scenario as a probe light test because the bad weather and absence of moonlight means it's very dark. The Patch notes mention improvements to the refuelling probe light.  I'm still finding the basket is only illuminated immediately in front of the aircraft.  As the F-14's fuel probe is significantly off-set to the right, I tend to look above and right of the canopy arch (as seen in the image below) and the basket remains in near total darkness.  IRL the basket and part of the tanker should be bathed in red light, making night AAR at least possible without NV goggles.  This is not the improvement I was hoping for. 

The above image shows the basket almost directly in front of the probe.  Surely it should be illuminated in this position?  The image below shows the basket almost directly inline with the ADL.  It being illuminated in this position is not of much use.  Were the probe light improvements included in the MT version?

 

On another matter, the shadow of my plane at Nellis seems to be a little bugged (also using MT of course):

Edited March 10, 2023 by JupiterJoe

[IronMike]

Thank you for the reports, guys. MT sure has some flaws still, we will iron them out - if our side, and work with ED to fix what is DCS side.

I agree, the refuel probe light needs more boost, but that is more involved than just "turning it up", unfortunately we were not able to go beyond this increase for this patch.

Shadows, shader related issues (like TCS), etc is likely DCS side, but we will investigate it all, ofc.


How is the performance for everyone? I hope you see some significant improvements there.

Forgot to mention: FORGE elements are dynamic/random for now - once we are done with FORGE, you will be able to put together "your jet" fully.

[JupiterJoe]

Thank you IronMike.  I think I may have spotted two dynamic cockpit elements in the B:  

Spoiler

I have Sellotape over my Gun Rate, SW Cooling and Missile Prep buttons and a darker Asymmetric Thrust/Engine Mode Unit.  Cool! 

 

Edited March 10, 2023 by JupiterJoe

[markturner1960]

So what are the dynamic cockpit / forge elements please? Can you explain this? Is it why I had some black string tied across between screws in the up front console just now? If so, what’s the point of this ? Sorry if I am missing something!

Adjustable mirrors……. I am flying in VR and was able to move them quite slowly and not very much, by clicking and using my mouse wheel. they don’t however show what the guy above picture does, I get no pilot reflection, just some what look like reflections of some circuit breaker panels, in a kind of sepia tone. 
 

I am running MT

[Callsign JoNay]

+1

I'm not seeing any probe light improvements in MT.

[grant977]

Jester is not visible in he rotary menu center. I’m on MT.

[Quid]

Congratulations on the latest release.  The frame rates are wonderful in VR!  I've noticed a potential bug:  In Multithread mode, there appears to be a shadow artifact in the F2 view when the camera is between the sun and the F-14 (specifically noticed with the F-14B).  It seems to flicker a bit and almost seems as though the camera is casting an F-14 shaped shadow on the player's Tomcat.  Please see attached pictures.

[Hector45]

Such a great patch guys, thanks so much for the hard work!!!

[Q3ark]

12 hours ago, markturner1960 said:

So what are the dynamic cockpit / forge elements please? Can you explain this? Is it why I had some black string tied across between screws in the up front console just now? If so, what’s the point of this ? Sorry if I am missing something?

the thread below should answer some of your questions 

 

 

[Schmafuzius]

16 hours ago, Despayre said:

Running multithreaded, I have a couple of screens exported to the second monitor. Looks normal in the single thread (see attached), but gets completely unreadable when running multithreaded (see attached again ). (I moved from a horizontal to a vertical monitor stack, hence the pic differences) It seems like the instrumentation isn't refreshing properly, and it just continually writes over what's already showing, without removing it.

Also, there's some strange yellow and black behind the pilot's head in the mirror (see second pic for that as well).

Didn't know I needed it, but loving the adjustable mirrors!

nullnull

 

 

It seems to a general problem with the MT patch.. not only the F-14 screen export is bugged now.. There is a thread with some solutions to fix it but unfortunately not for the F-14 so far since it uses an different data modell than the F-16 / F-18

Hope there is a solution soon

[BubiHUN]

anyobody able to adjust the left mirror? For me only the right and top one works

[IronMike]

Small PSA/FYI for everyone,

we will publish the major update and performance update likely tomorrow, we decided to give a bit room for the MT update, as the majority of pilots is concentrated on that atm.

Thank you for your kind patience.

[ben_der]

1 hour ago, BubiHUN said:

anyobody able to adjust the left mirror? For me only the right and top one works

Left Mirror Adjustment works for me.