New guy needs start-up advice

[MJY65]

Hello everyone,

I've just started exploring DCS and am really overwhelmed.  Any help would be appreciated.   I'm not averse to technology by any means and love my gadgets, but don't have any experience "building" computers.   I do have real world flying experience PP-SEL.

My primary interest is current military jets.  I definitely don't mind spending the time needed to really learn the plane, but don't want to be frustrated by months (years?) of fooling around with hardware and settings to optimize.  Ideally, I'd like to purchase a turn-key set up that works as well as possible on day one.   

I've seen sim pits like those from ViperWing.  Beautiful, but I'm assuming very expensive and somewhat limiting for future planes and technology.   Is that right?  I know that it's easy to run up the costs building from scratch, too.  

Is there a company that offers advice and puts together kits for guys like me who don't mind paying someone else to work out the bugs and do the shopping?

Thanks,

Mike

[Sacarino111]

40 minutes ago, MJY65 said:

Hello everyone,

I've just started exploring DCS and am really overwhelmed.  Any help would be appreciated.   I'm not averse to technology by any means and love my gadgets, but don't have any experience "building" computers.   I do have real world flying experience PP-SEL.

My primary interest is current military jets.  I definitely don't mind spending the time needed to really learn the plane, but don't want to be frustrated by months (years?) of fooling around with hardware and settings to optimize.  Ideally, I'd like to purchase a turn-key set up that works as well as possible on day one.   

I've seen sim pits like those from ViperWing.  Beautiful, but I'm assuming very expensive and somewhat limiting for future planes and technology.   Is that right?  I know that it's easy to run up the costs building from scratch, too.  

Is there a company that offers advice and puts together kits for guys like me who don't mind paying someone else to work out the bugs and do the shopping?

Thanks,

Mike

Hi

For the PC, go nuts!. Lots of RAM, lots of VRAM. CPU, etc well, go as hight as possible, but the bottleneck will be mostly VRAM and GPU. SSD drives also, and if need be, use a pagefile size the same as the RAM.

For the cockpit: no need of any fancy setup (and I am a homepit guy myself). Enough space, good light and one or thwo monitors, so you can export MFD or similar.

A good HOTAS (WINWING, VIRPIL) and pedals, with toe brake.

Some head tracking (TrackIR is still the best option, but lots of workarounds). I don't have VR, so no advice here from me.

And minimum, a set of Thrustmaster's MFDs. 

With that, you are ready to embarc in a very nice flying and learning experience.

There are also the option of buiding your own gadgets, as UFC, ICP etc (my choice),  but that depends on your skill level and time availability. There are many threads in this forum about the matter.

All this is my approach, but most people fly with a normal HOTAS (pedals, always use pedals with toe brake), head tracking and the mouse. . That is enough to start, get a feeling on if you want to go deeper and then start adding MFD, and other combat panels.

On the module subject, if you invest some good quality time, you will soon get to be proficient with any of them. Just one at a time, and check YouTube videos for learning ( @RedKite is my favourite  https://www.youtube.com/@RedKiteRender), but lots of good material and tutoriasl out there.

And the comunity is a really good place, with lots of people wanting to share the knoledge and the experience, so use a lot the forum!

Any more advice, just ask.

Saludos

Saca111

Edited July 5, 2023 by Sacarino111

[Raisuli]

If you play from a desk make sure your ergonomics are at least reasonable.  A joystick on a normal desk will murder your shoulder (and my shoulder was already murdered).  If you're buying a rig for 'play' get a desk and a joystick mount so you can get it down to joystick level.  Throttle is a little less critical.

[MJY65]

25 minutes ago, Raisuli said:

If you play from a desk make sure your ergonomics are at least reasonable.  A joystick on a normal desk will murder your shoulder (and my shoulder was already murdered).  If you're buying a rig for 'play' get a desk and a joystick mount so you can get it down to joystick level.  Throttle is a little less critical.

I am planning to get a dedicated "pit" to attach hardware.   Maybe something like the Next Level Racing Boeing military set up.   

[SharpeXB]

For a PC there are gaming PC companies like Origin and Apex or Maingear which will do you a good pre-built gaming rig. Just stay away from consumer stuff like Dell, HP or Alienware. 
And if you don’t have an appetite for fooling with settings or hardware, stay away from VR. It’s madness in that regard. 
An actual “cockpit” isn’t really necessary but you do at least need an ergonomic setup which would mean desk mounts to put your stick or HOTAS at the right height and a race car style or gaming style chair which can support you and lock in the right recline position. 

[Exorcet]

7 hours ago, MJY65 said:

Is there a company that offers advice and puts together kits for guys like me who don't mind paying someone else to work out the bugs and do the shopping?

Thanks,

Mike

My current PC was built by iBuyPower and has served me well. There are other PC builders if you want to shop around. You can look up videos on YouTube of people running DCS with various hardware and decide what level of performance you want. My PC is running rather old i5-9600K and RTX2080Ti, but I still get good performance. Any modern performance oriented i5 level CPU or high-mid level 3000 to 4000 series GPU or their AMD equivalents should handle DCS fine on a monitor.

 

If you're looking for a fully built cockpit including PC, I can't offer much help. I've looked at some but haven't shopped them seriously.