a mixed bag of newbie questions

[GuntiNDDS]

hi,

 

first off, as of yet i am very unexperienced with flight simulators. the last time i played one was on the amiga 500 :P - After watching some videos i became very interested in the dcs simulator.

 

so here are my questions:

 

1) Regarding the printed manual available soon:

 

a) Will it be available as localized version in german, or only in english ?

 

b) Will it be purchaseable through retailers like amazon ?

 

 

2) Regarding Devices:

 

a) Does the TrackIR System come with a Cap to mount the thingy on or do i have to provide my own cap ? If I have to provide my own, does it fit on all caps ? Is the length of the "front-thingy" on all caps the same ?

 

b) When i purchase some combo like the "Saitek X52 Pro Flight System", will it work out of the box and all buttons be automaticly assigned, or do i have to assign everything on my own ? are there downloadble profiles or something for that ?

 

3) Regarding System Specs:

 

a) Through reading this forums i got the feeling, that my CPU might not be able to handle this simulation very well. I got an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ which clocks at about 2.2Ghz per core. What CPU could i upgrade to, to get a significantly better performance without having to change my motherboard ? I believe the socket is AM2 but i am not entirly sure.

 

b) I have an external audio device aswell as my mouse and my keyboard which all connect through usb. now adding the trackIR and the Saitek stuff, that would add anohter 2 usb connections. Maybe even another one if i would buy pedals aswell. what kind of power supply is recommended for so many usb connections, and are there other factors i need to consider with so many usb devices going on ?

 

 

Thanks for your answers, i appreciate them :P

[rld1]

a) Does the TrackIR System come with a Cap to mount the thingy on or do i have to provide my own cap ? If I have to provide my own, does it fit on all caps ? Is the length of the "front-thingy" on all caps the same ?

 

 

I use it with visor, works well & lighter/cooler then a full cap.

[GuntiNDDS]

is the visor included or does it need to be purchased seperatly ?

[FADM Stern GNSF]

I am not an expert, but I can try to answer a couple from experience.

 

1 a and b, Im sure the development team can answer.

 

2b - The X52 Pro (I use it) will require a profile to map all the different function to each game it connects to. The cyclick (joystick part) and collective (the throttle part) thenselves will work and require no programing out of the box (also the trigger is the same). The X52 has a lot more buttons, but they must be programed how the USER wants them. There are profiles people have made for BS (i got one from this forum and added a bit myself), or you can do it the way YOU want it. I guess thats the price of flexibility :-)

 

3 My system is very similar to yours, with the same processor. I have yet to experience any problems running the game.

 

As for the USB, I have 6 USB ports used on mine and am running a 580W power supply. I have never had an overheat problem, and have yet to see the case fan come on for more that a few seconds in the summer.

 

 

Hope that helps a little bit.

[rld1]

Any visor...nothing special, but mine is plain black didn't know if something bright could effect it.

Edited February 16, 2009 by rld1

[rapid]

Hi and welcome, i can answer some of your questions:

 

1) printer manual will be available soon.

 

2) it will be in English and i believe other versions

 

3)amazon already sells the game Cant say who will be selling the manual

 

A) TrackIR will fit any baseball cap if you buy the Pro version you get the Baseball Vector clip and the headphone Pro version that has a clip that fits any headphones

 

B) the X52Pro will work out of the box if you asighn the keys using the SST software and set up your axis points

 

A) specs wise here is the minimal secs required to run BS:OS: Windows XP, Vista; CPU: 2 GHz; RAM: 1 GB; Graphics: 256 MB ATI or nVidia, DirectX 9 compatible; Sound card; 4 GB of free space on HDD; Copy protected, requires internet activation.

 

You will require a USB hub of some sort if you do not have enough ports for TrackIR, rudders and X52Pro on your current pc. Mine plugs in my pc.

[ZEbbEDY]

the printed manual is gonna be the best thing ever for reading on the toilet

[sobek]

the printed manual is gonna be the best thing ever for reading on the toilet

 

In case you sh** yourself because of awesomeness? I agree. :D

[GuntiNDDS]

thanks for your replies so far.

 

FADM Stern GNSF, how is your performance with the cpu in regards to fps/hickups and graphical detail ?

 

thanks.

[Pavlos]

GuntiNDDS, I have the exact same CPU (s939) with a somewhat old graphics card (7600GT AGP). With medium settings it runs OK at 1024x768. Depending on the objects I can get anywhere from 20 to 60 FPS, but if there are many objects it may go as low as 10.

 

As another person in this forum said...get the game, worry about the upgrades later :)

 

As for the USB power draw, do not worry too much. USB works with the 5V rail and a common joystick will draw less than 0.5 A of current. I've got a simple Logitech Attack 3 one and it needs 0.5 Watt to run. For 10 joysticks you need 5, let's exaggerate and say 10 watts. I'm pretty sure your PSU can provide that, but if you want to be sure, open up your computer case and check the current rating for the 5V rail, then calculate the power draw of your USB devices (if you turn them upside down, they usually list it there), and you'll know for good :) But don't worry about it.

Edited February 16, 2009 by Pavlos

[WynnTTr]

Take note that TrackIR doesn't like USB hubs at all. It needs to go directly into your pc.

[AlphaInfinity]

Take note that TrackIR doesn't like USB hubs at all. It needs to go directly into your pc.

 

I found this out the hard way. The good news is that if you have the track IR and track clip pro, both will use only one USB port because of the y-adapter that comes with the track clip pro.