New old guy struggling with SA and visual target acquisition

[Raisuli]

2 hours ago, modsat said:

I have not yet looked into the mission editor. I used to make missions and mods for Arma2 and DCS mission editing sounds and looks a lot like the good old Arma days. Great community, lots of creativity and lots of frustrations . I setup one mission myself. Tried to spawn smoke on top of a building, realized that I apparently needed a whole script package to make that easy, and decided to hold back on mission editing until I can actually fly the jet 

All I want is an oval in the sky. But I totally understand if you aint got the energy or time. I have a ton of stuff going on becides flying. You can't be everywhere at once. If you get the time, you get the time. I appreciate your efforts either way.

I should charge by the gate.  See if this works for you.  Don't get lost in those green interchanges, though...

 

Pattern Training vR0.3.miz

[modsat]

26 minutes ago, Raisuli said:

I should charge by the gate.  See if this works for you.  Don't get lost in those green interchanges, though...

 

Pattern Training vR0.3.miz 21.71 kB · 2 downloads

Thanks man. It's great. Just did a few laps, and I find it very helpfull when I place myself just on top of the gates. Then they don't obstruct my HUD but provide constant reference points for how much I'm of course. Type your PayPal (here or in DM) and I will happily throw you a token of appreciation 

[Raisuli]

24 minutes ago, modsat said:

Thanks man. It's great. Just did a few laps, and I find it very helpfull when I place myself just on top of the gates. Then they don't obstruct my HUD but provide constant reference points for how much I'm of course. Type your PayPal (here or in DM) and I will happily throw you a token of appreciation 

No worries, glad it helps.  After two or three laps I was doing pretty good, and got the thing down fairly smoothly once I started to take the low road.  Not sure why the marker beacon was going off, but that's a problem for later.

[DimSim]

If not already linked, this video tutorial explains how to enter MGRS coords on the Viper. It is a bit more fiddly than other aircraft, but can be done...

DCS F-16C Viper - MGRS Coordinate Tutorial | Never Deal With LAT/LONG AGAIN! | 4K 60 FPS VR! (7 mins)

One thing I believe is either incorrect or obsolete is the requirement to pad out the Northing and Easting digits to 10 (5+5). Those are designed to represent precision based on supplied count. As long as they are an even count you should be able to enter 8 (4+4) or 10 (5+5) digits without appending zeros to each part.

Edited April 9, 2024 by DimSim

[RyanR]

10 hours ago, DimSim said:

If not already linked, this video tutorial explains how to enter MGRS coords on the Viper. It is a bit more fiddly than other aircraft, but can be done...

DCS F-16C Viper - MGRS Coordinate Tutorial | Never Deal With LAT/LONG AGAIN! | 4K 60 FPS VR! (7 mins)

One thing I believe is either incorrect or obsolete is the requirement to pad out the Northing and Easting digits to 10 (5+5). Those are designed to represent precision based on supplied count. As long as they are an even count you should be able to enter 8 (4+4) or 10 (5+5) digits without appending zeros to each part.

 

This tutorial is *amazing*! Thanks!

-Ryan

[modsat]

16 hours ago, DimSim said:

If not already linked, this video tutorial explains how to enter MGRS coords on the Viper. It is a bit more fiddly than other aircraft, but can be done...

DCS F-16C Viper - MGRS Coordinate Tutorial | Never Deal With LAT/LONG AGAIN! | 4K 60 FPS VR! (7 mins)

One thing I believe is either incorrect or obsolete is the requirement to pad out the Northing and Easting digits to 10 (5+5). Those are designed to represent precision based on supplied count. As long as they are an even count you should be able to enter 8 (4+4) or 10 (5+5) digits without appending zeros to each part.

 

This is a great tutorial. Unfortunately it did not work for me when I tried it. Started the mission (F16 - Home on the range) and followed the instructions (at least I think I did). But when I dobber right to 'sequence' (video: 1min40sec) the DED did not turn to grid. Any idea why? Could the game or jet be setup wrong, so that it won't work? I used autostart to get the jet running fast if that makes a difference. I'm away from my rig all week (working), so I'm not able to retest now. I've had a lot of tutorials give instructions that ended up not having the promised effect, so when it did not work I gave up, since I'm a bit overwhelmed by the amount of (mis)information out there.

BTW: is there an easy way to switch to WP 21-25? Seems weird to have to push the up-arrow on the UFC more than twenty times, so figure I'm most likely missing something as usual.

Edited April 10, 2024 by modsat

[RyanR]

33 minutes ago, modsat said:

This is a great tutorial. Unfortunately it did not work for me when I tried it. Started the mission (F16 - Home on the range) and followed the instructions (at least I think I did). But when I dobber right to 'sequence' (video: 1min40sec) the DED did not turn to grid. Any idea why? Could the game or jet be setup wrong, so that it won't work? I used autostart to get the jet running fast if that makes a difference. I'm away from my rig all week (working), so I'm not able to retest now. I've had a lot of tutorials give instructions that ended up not having the promised effect, so when it did not work I gave up, since I'm a bit overwhelmed by the amount of (mis)information out there.

BTW: is there an easy way to switch to WP 21-25? Seems weird to have to push the up-arrow on the UFC more than twenty times, so figure I'm most likely missing something as usual.

 

 

Sadly, there's loads of mis-info.

Just hit "steerpoint" (STPT).... #4 on the UFC/ICP? It's right under #1. Type in the steerpoint you want, and enter.  I found the attached file for the "grids".

Once you get it to work once, it works OK. It's just really hard to type in the 8-digit MGRS code before the radio messages disappear. I really need to map my keyboard's number pad to the ICP.

Tonight, I found a simple mission someone made for an A-10, and I swapped it out for an F-16. Attached. I put some Mav's and some GBU's on it. It's a ground start, so the MAV's aren't boresighted.

JTAC's seem to be pretty sketchy. The JTAC's for the quick mission builder seem to be especially sketchy.

-Ryan

 

MGRS.pdf JTAC_Training_Mission_UTM.miz

[modsat]

@RyanR I can just type in the steerpoint on the ICP? Lol, why did I not think of that. I'm sure I just did something wrong in the mission. I will figure it out when I get back to my rig. 

Great find with the grid map! I appreciate the training mission as well. I will give it a go as soon as I'm back at my rig. Good idea mapping the numpad to the ICP.

Thinking about it, I think my problems locating targets are also partly because I suck at judging distance from the air. I can't tell if the spot I'm looking at is 5nm or 20nm away. I hope I will develop a feel for that with time, and hopefully that will make it easier to know where to look and narrow down the search for ground targets.

 

Thanks for the help

[RyanR]

8 hours ago, modsat said:

@RyanR I can just type in the steerpoint on the ICP? Lol, why did I not think of that. I'm sure I just did something wrong in the mission. I will figure it out when I get back to my rig. 

Great find with the grid map! I appreciate the training mission as well. I will give it a go as soon as I'm back at my rig. Good idea mapping the numpad to the ICP.

Thinking about it, I think my problems locating targets are also partly because I suck at judging distance from the air. I can't tell if the spot I'm looking at is 5nm or 20nm away. I hope I will develop a feel for that with time, and hopefully that will make it easier to know where to look and narrow down the search for ground targets.

 

Thanks for the help

 

The ICP works the same with UHF/VHF radios. Once you get used to it, it makes a lot of sense.... but it's taken me a month to really even get comfortable with it.

Finding ground targets is just not easy. I dunno how many times I've overflown the bad guys.... the bad guys that I put in a spot in a mission I made!

-Ryan

[modsat]

10 hours ago, RyanR said:

Finding ground targets is just not easy. I dunno how many times I've overflown the bad guys.... the bad guys that I put in a spot in a mission I made!

Haha, it's good to know that I'm not the only one struggling. I think I will setup a mission where I start in the air at different altitudes and place easily identified structures at specific ranges (5nm, 10nm, 20nm etc.). I'm thinking that will help me better judge distance when up high.

[unlikely_spider]

Is there a way to use the TGP when using guns A-G? Once i've exhausted my other munitions, it seems since the TGP is "tied" to either VIS or CCRP in order to use it (inexplicably), it just decides that it wants to ignore the steerpoints/markpoints once I don't have bombs or Mavs left.

[RyanR]

13 hours ago, unlikely_spider said:

Is there a way to use the TGP when using guns A-G? Once i've exhausted my other munitions, it seems since the TGP is "tied" to either VIS or CCRP in order to use it (inexplicably), it just decides that it wants to ignore the steerpoints/markpoints once I don't have bombs or Mavs left.

 

With guns, just like the FCR, the TGP is doing ranging for the sight to predict the impact point of your rounds. Everything is just slaved straight ahead.

-Ryan

[unlikely_spider]

1 minute ago, RyanR said:

 

With guns, just like the FCR, the TGP is doing ranging for the sight to predict the impact point of your rounds. Everything is just slaved straight ahead.

-Ryan

I see, thanks.

But what if someone points you to a very specific target among some clutter and you'd like to positively identify it before a guns run in? (A situation I encountered last night)

That's what TGPs are for - being better than your eyes at identifying a target at a distance. Removing its ability to do so just because your current weapon availability is different than a few minutes ago is nonsensical to me. There's no way to get the TGP to look at a mark point when no hard point munitions are remaining?

[RyanR]

2 minutes ago, unlikely_spider said:

I see, thanks.

But what if someone points you to a very specific target among some clutter and you'd like to positively identify it before a guns run in? (A situation I encountered last night)

That's what TGPs are for - being better than your eyes at identifying a target at a distance. Removing its ability to do so just because your current weapon availability is different than a few minutes ago is nonsensical to me. There's no way to get the TGP to look at a mark point when no hard point munitions are remaining?

 

Gah! This rings a bell as having been a problem.

Can you set a mark point in NAV mode? I can't remember.... 

-Ryan

 

[unlikely_spider]

4 minutes ago, RyanR said:

 

Gah! This rings a bell as having been a problem.

Can you set a mark point in NAV mode? I can't remember.... 

-Ryan

 

I will have to see. The ability to create a mark point may not matter though if I can't point the pod to it. I remember that sometimes the TGP has CZ available, which typically moves it back to the active mark/steerpoint, and other times the CZ option is not there when I need it, and the pod just wants to look straight ahead. And as someone whose got more hours in the Hog and Hornet, where the pod's available features are not directly tied to the munitions, getting used to this context-sensitive operation is a bit of a curve.

[RyanR]

6 hours ago, unlikely_spider said:

I will have to see. The ability to create a mark point may not matter though if I can't point the pod to it. I remember that sometimes the TGP has CZ available, which typically moves it back to the active mark/steerpoint, and other times the CZ option is not there when I need it, and the pod just wants to look straight ahead. And as someone whose got more hours in the Hog and Hornet, where the pod's available features are not directly tied to the munitions, getting used to this context-sensitive operation is a bit of a curve.

 

I like using the pod to sleuth stuff out, mark it, and then set it as a steerpoint. It's nice to follow the target with the HCMS while setting up to run in with guns.

-Ryan 

[Vee.A]

It's very hard to do much of anything in DCS if you don't know the basics of aviation and flying in general. It's like trying to learn calculus without knowing arithmetic.  I'd recommend reading the resources I've linked

https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/phak
https://www.boldmethod.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@flightinsight9111
https://www.youtube.com/@TheOpsCenterByMikeSolyom

And this guide covers some of the basics of DCS and links to some other good resources.

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3326416/

 

Edited April 15, 2024 by Vee.A

[modsat]

@Vee.A thanks

[RyanR]

FWIW, as a DCS newbie, I really enjoy(ed) the Red Flag 21-1 campaign.

-Ryan

[modsat]

On 4/5/2024 at 3:59 AM, diego999 said:

Have you tried these?

Viper Quick Practice & Proficiency Missions - v. 3.0; Current mission count: 76; Last updated: 12/3/2023.

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3328191/

I downloaded these when I saw your comment, but have only just gotten around to trying them out. What a gold mine! I've been going at them for hours now  Thanks a lot for sharing!

[void68]

I admit I haven't read through all postings very thoroughly, so perhaps it already has been posted, but for better SA there's a helpful command for VR players, and even the Crystal (I can tell as I use the 8KX) will benefit from it. There are two VR zoom steps somewhere in the settings, put them onto your HOTAS and you can spyglass the area you want. This zoom even "cracks open" the dot into the 3D model.