The Top of all Questions we Sim Pilots have!

[Swiss-Sim]

I always hear and read the one question: How accurate DCS World is. And i understand the question very well, because i always asked me about this topic and even searched many Sim Videos, where real Pilots flew in DCS and talk about this topic. Then i was trying to understand the position of real Pilots, when we ask them about those questions. Even if i am not a pilot, i did some simply comparison from my life. 

Here we go: I drive a BMW 523i F10 and i know how the car feels, where all the stuff is and all those buttons. How it feels when i drive, the engine sound etc. You got my point. Now there is a Car Simulator and they added a Mod BMW 523i F10. Now those who never drove this car, they would ask me, if this Car in the Simulator is accurate. 

Even if everything is animated and looks like the real car, now imagine that: I drive this car in my Computer, i see the accurate visuals provided on the screen, but thats all. If you ask me, how accurate it is, i can only say " well, the 3D model looks very accurate and the sound is almost the same... " But i cant say to you, how real it is, because i have 0% feeling from that simulated car. There is no point at all, because you dont feel the car.

Then i realized, how real pilots feel when we ask them to confirm how realistic DCS is. DCS is the most impressive Sim i ever played and i love this Sim. I fly 99% F-18 and i love how "real" this 3D Model looks like, the functions, the systems and for sure they use real data for all that stuff. At this point, DCS is one of the most realistic Sim ever made, but even if DCS simulate all that stuff, at the end we cant feel how it is. And that is the point here: The question of how accurate DCS is, is nonsense!

But at least DCS World give us the opportunity, to be a Fighter Pilot, even if its not real, we can taste some % how it is to be a military pilot.

 

[razo+r]

10 minutes ago, Swiss-Sim said:

Even if everything is animated and looks like the real car, now imagine that: I drive this car in my Computer, i see the accurate visuals provided on the screen, but thats all. If you ask me, how accurate it is, i can only say " well, the 3D model looks very accurate and the sound is almost the same... " But i cant say to you, how real it is, because i have 0% feeling from that simulated car. There is no point at all, because you dont feel the car.

You don't necessarily need to feel it. If you measure the performance of your car, and if you are able to replicate in the exact performance in a simulator, you can say with high confidence, it is realistic, even without feeling it. Or a different example, what use is your feeling if you say, "okay, it feels realistic", but from a performance perspective, it performs way too different than what it would in real life. The main focus should be on data that can be realiably measured and replicated in the software, not feelings. But of course, feelings add to the experience, but they don't necessarily make it more realistic.

Overall, DCS is only as realistic as the user wants it to be. The aircraft itself set a certain base % of realism, and then the user adds the remaining % of realism with the mission and environment itself.

[Dragon1-1]

Unfortunately, in terms of overall "pilot experience", DCS is fairly bare-bones. If you fly a realistic campaign by Reflected, it gets pretty good if you can ignore AI flying like a-holes (trying to work with large formations is especially annoying). With the upcoming changes to FM, that's supposed to be sorted, but it still leaves out a lot of mission planning that's hard to do in DCS, but pretty much mandatory IRL. Actual combat is pretty great, especially with mature modules, VR and other aids to enhance immersion. Putting the fight in context of a proper battlefield, though, is much harder and takes designing a complex mission using DCS' ridiculously brittle scripting system. Even then, it doesn't work right due to lack of control over AI, including things that you definitely can and do brief with an IRL pilot. You also have very limited ways to interact with ATC, AWACS and other aircraft, at least unless the mission designer manually scripts that.

It's pretty great at replicating performance, switchology and procedures in real aircraft. When it comes to replicating a historical combat environment, it's somewhat lacking, but it's slowly getting better. Still, in a world of flying iPads and UAVs, it might one day be the only way anyone could experience being an actual fighter pilot, and not a mini-AWACS operator with some missiles strapped on.

[MadMax-87]

vor 8 Stunden schrieb Dragon1-1:

Unfortunately, in terms of overall "pilot experience", DCS is fairly bare-bones. If you fly a realistic campaign by Reflected, it gets pretty good if you can ignore AI flying like a-holes (trying to work with large formations is especially annoying). With the upcoming changes to FM, that's supposed to be sorted, but it still leaves out a lot of mission planning that's hard to do in DCS, but pretty much mandatory IRL. Actual combat is pretty great, especially with mature modules, VR and other aids to enhance immersion. Putting the fight in context of a proper battlefield, though, is much harder and takes designing a complex mission using DCS' ridiculously brittle scripting system. Even then, it doesn't work right due to lack of control over AI, including things that you definitely can and do brief with an IRL pilot. You also have very limited ways to interact with ATC, AWACS and other aircraft, at least unless the mission designer manually scripts that.

It's pretty great at replicating performance, switchology and procedures in real aircraft. When it comes to replicating a historical combat environment, it's somewhat lacking, but it's slowly getting better. Still, in a world of flying iPads and UAVs, it might one day be the only way anyone could experience being an actual fighter pilot, and not a mini-AWACS operator with some missiles strapped on.

I saw a post where they showed an aircraft without pilot inside. They said, without the pilot the jet can handle more Gs and for longer time. The pilot was sitting in a container with joystick lol. It has pro and contra for sure, and that is the point you said: it might one day be the only way anyone could experience being an actual fighter pilot! 

Edited July 4, 2023 by MadMax-87

[Dragon1-1]

It's already the only way one could experience actual combat in WWII aircraft, or fly the F-14 off the boat, like it was intended to be flown. Soon, it'll bring us the classic F-4, which is also gone from active service, the only ones in use today are heavily modified (that said, you can book a flight in a vintage one, though it won't involve dogfighting). Flying a fighter back then was a very different thing than today, much more hands-on, and bombing accurately was a lot harder, with a bigger role played by CBUs, guns and rockets. DCS is already the only way you can experience that environment.