A couple newbie questions!

[Quixote]

Man, Black Shark is a blast. Got it late last night, flew around for about an hour, got up this morning and kept at it until stuff finally started exploding :)

 

I have a couple basic questions that popped up while I was messing around that I would really appreciate some help with -

 

1) Is there a way to control the head mounted gunsight with your mouse? I can't figure out which of the viewing options enables mouselook. I'm assuming that once I can get mouselook to work, I'd be able to aim the gunsight with my mouse (that would really help targetting :) It's a bit of a pain when you have to manually target everything using the HAT)

 

2) How do you guys engage air targets? I pretty much assume that my cannon is the only thing that will actually be able to hit them, but I haven't had much success in actually hitting any other helicopters with it. I can lock on, and my cannon aims at them, but I never see much damage as a result - is that a function of penetration power, or am I not aiming right?

 

3) Is there a way to manually aim the cannon? The lock on functionality is extremely handy, but there are times when I'd rather not take the time to lock on and would rather just shoot.

 

4) What do you guys find to be the fastest way to safely shed altitude? I see all of the AI flown choppers flying down at tree level, taking out targets, and I want to get down there too :) Naturally I can't target fast enough yet with anything but my rockets, but strafing targets with rockets is definitely a blast :pilotfly:

 

5) When I first started I had problems maintaining a hover while depressing my nose far enough to see and hit ground targets from medium to close distances. To solve that, I would set my trim so that at stick neutral the chopper would fly backwards, so that when I pushed the nose down, I'd be about hovering. This is a very inexact method, I can almost never set the trim exactly right to perform this. Is there an easier way?

 

6) Kind of dovetailing off of that, I'm having a lot of problems maintaining a low altitude and still popping off missile shots. Is there a trick to this? I imagine if I can master the hover with enough depression to see the targets, I'd be in better shape. Right now I almost always have to depress farther than my trim is set, which leads me to overshoot my target before I can hit it with anything.

 

Thanks to anybody who can help a newbie out! Time to go blow up vast quantities of stuff in the "Battle" mission :thumbup:

[Chazz_BMF]

Are you familiar with the autopilot yet??? You can autohover aswell and autoturn to targets...i would recommend going through the whole series of producers notes first (just grab a beer and a bag of peanuts to join you)

 

I would strongly recommend you to invest in this:

 

http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/

 

Welcome aboard

[159th_Viper]

Man, Black Shark is a blast. Got it late last night, flew around for about an hour, got up this morning and kept at it until stuff finally started exploding :)

 

Jolly Good!

 

I have a couple basic questions that popped up while I was messing around that I would really appreciate some help with -

 

1) Is there a way to control the head mounted gunsight with your mouse? I can't figure out which of the viewing options enables mouselook. I'm assuming that once I can get mouselook to work, I'd be able to aim the gunsight with my mouse (that would really help targetting :) It's a bit of a pain when you have to manually target everything using the HAT)

 

Got TrackIr? Slaving the HMS to the Shkval is the most effective way of engaging targets when you're in a hurry.......not that you should be ;)

 

2) How do you guys engage air targets? I pretty much assume that my cannon is the only thing that will actually be able to hit them, but I haven't had much success in actually hitting any other helicopters with it. I can lock on, and my cannon aims at them, but I never see much damage as a result - is that a function of penetration power, or am I not aiming right?

 

You're not Aiming right :D

 

A quick burst of HE Rounds will bring any Helo down.....well-aimed, that is. If you wanna go Gunzo as opposed to Vikhrs and the attendant munitions settings, the easiest way would just be to Boresight the cannon and shoot. Get close......and when you think you're close enough, then you're still too far. Get closer and then Shoot!

 

3) Is there a way to manually aim the cannon? The lock on functionality is extremely handy, but there are times when I'd rather not take the time to lock on and would rather just shoot.

 

Boresight - Assuming that you have the Master Arm toggles, just select cannons [C] and you'll see an Aiming Pipper in the HUD. Line up and Blast away :D

 

What do you guys find to be the fastest way to safely shed altitude? I see all of the AI flown choppers flying down at tree level, taking out targets, and I want to get down there too :) Naturally I can't target fast enough yet with anything but my rockets, but strafing targets with rockets is definitely a blast :pilotfly:

 

Drop the collective, Pitch forward and you'll soon drop like a stone.

 

 

When I first started I had problems maintaining a hover while depressing my nose far enough to see and hit ground targets from medium to close distances. To solve that, I would set my trim so that at stick neutral the chopper would fly backwards, so that when I pushed the nose down, I'd be about hovering. This is a very inexact method, I can almost never set the trim exactly right to perform this. Is there an easier way?

 

Auto-Hover

 

Kind of dovetailing off of that, I'm having a lot of problems maintaining a low altitude and still popping off missile shots. Is there a trick to this? I imagine if I can master the hover with enough depression to see the targets, I'd be in better shape. Right now I almost always have to depress farther than my trim is set, which leads me to overshoot my target before I can hit it with anything.

 

Auto-Hover, recon with Shkval and take your time picking off the Targets. Will no doubt all come together with practice :)

[Quixote]

Unfortunately, I don't have TrackIR, nor do I have a hundred and fifty bucks lying around :(

 

Does that mean there isn't a way to control the HMS with a mouse?

 

 

Nice about the cannon :) I'm not sure what the Master Arm toggles are, but I'll dig them out in the control settings!

 

I've been playing around with autohover, it's great for locking on the shkval and blasting things, but I still often can't depress far enough. I bet that it just requires practice to be able to make the shark dance around low and slow enough to provide the really close in fire support.

[159th_Viper]

 

 

Nice about the cannon :) I'm not sure what the Master Arm toggles are, but I'll dig them out in the control settings!

 

 

My Typo :doh:

 

Supposed to be 'toggled', ie 'Switched On'.

 

And another thing - search 'Freetrack'. If, unlike me, you're mechanically inclined you can basically hammer together a functional 'TrackIr' very cheaply. Some even dare say it works just as well :D

[159th_Viper]

Here we Go

 

Freetrack

[slowhand]

hey bro i think if you hold dwn the o key with the helmet on will do what you need,the best way to find trgts keep your eyes moving.. your cockpit zoom will help try the mouse wheel for tht look for smoke trails, sam contrails... and the black dots..lol ..stay at it read up on wpns sys..you'll do alrt..the a/a switch look above the moving trgt button lt side panel 4 green/blue buttons....good hunt'n..5x5

[Boulund]

You can easily control the HMS with the mouse using mouselook. It's activated with LAlt + C.

With LAlt+C you toggle between mouselook and being able to use the mouse for activating switches etc.

[SSneg]

1) Is there a way to control the head mounted gunsight with your mouse? I can't figure out which of the viewing options enables mouselook. I'm assuming that once I can get mouselook to work, I'd be able to aim the gunsight with my mouse (that would really help targetting It's a bit of a pain when you have to manually target everything using the HAT)

 

Check if your mouse is setup in options-controls properly. LAlt-C enables mouselook, unless you messed with it in the options.

 

2) How do you guys engage air targets? I pretty much assume that my cannon is the only thing that will actually be able to hit them, but I haven't had much success in actually hitting any other helicopters with it. I can lock on, and my cannon aims at them, but I never see much damage as a result - is that a function of penetration power, or am I not aiming right?

 

- Make sure the lock-on frame is sitting on the target properly (not just snapping to target's tail).

- Make sure you are firing from correct distance, maintaining low angular speed and keeping your helicopter relatively stable -- otherwise you spray bullets all over the sky

- Make sure the correct attack mode is enabled on ПВР (don't know how to call it in English, see the panel here, you need to engage the ВЦ "air target" mode with the left-bottom button of the four square buttons in the bottom of the panel)

 

3) Is there a way to manually aim the cannon? The lock on functionality is extremely handy, but there are times when I'd rather not take the time to lock on and would rather just shoot.

The gun shoots at whatever Shkval is looking at, whether the target is locked or not.

Turn off Shkval, switch on cannon, and you will see an aiming mark -- it's the ballistically corrected point of impact (the correction takes into account your speed, height and movement). Aim and shoot, like unguided rockets.

[Quixote]

Thanks for the replies everybody! It's helped me get exponentially better over the past few days.

 

I have one last question that I'd really appreciate help with -

 

What's the fastest way to decelerate? I generally lower the collective and kick the nose up (So I don't gain too much altitude), I was wondering if there's a more effective method, as this seems to take quite a long time to actually do the trick.

[Harry Cockpit]

I just got my copy today, messed with it some, watched a couple of the tutorial videos. Which were not much of a tutorial at all, since most of what he was talking about, made no sense. Planning on reading the manual.

 

Do have it running nice, DcsMax helped me, and was quite noticable in the tutorial vids.

Edited April 20, 2009 by Harry Cockpit

[Safari Ken]

I just got my copy today, messed with it some, watched a couple of the tutorial videos. Which were not much of a tutorial at all, since most of what he was talking about, made no sense. Planning on reading the manual.

 

The thing to do is combine the info from the manual, with the tips and info you get here on the forum, with lots and lots of practice. Lots and lots of practice...

[Harry Cockpit]

No doubt, gonna order trackir pro bundle sometime tonight as well. Then see about replacing my joystick with a hotas. x52 or x52pro. Currently using a logitech force 3d pro.

[Safari Ken]

TrackIR is so cool I won't even try to describe it. As for the HOTAS, I have the X52 and like it fine. Whichever one you choose, you'll really appreciate the ultra-fine adjustments you can make with the full-size throttle, as opposed to the tiny one on most joysticks. Not so big a deal for fixed wing planes, but makes a huge difference in the rotorcraft!

[hyperfighter]

focus on the trim options and autopilot first, once you master those the other systems like weapon nav and abris arent so hard, usually when things get up close and personal, i find the main workload to be flying first and foremost.

trimming doesnt come close to aircraft trimming, and u should know there are different modes for different flying eg enroute mode for auto-navigating, adf mode for acrobatic flight, different modes mean u need to trim different as well, in adf you set a good flight path and can deviate heading without u fighting the autopilot for example, while in the other modes the ap will try to return to original heading (if heading hold is on) really on the ap alone i could write 20 pages, i strongly recommend completing training first, then watch the producers notes on youtube (esp 10).

i very good tip is to use "right control" + "enter" so u can see what happens when u trim. basically for big inputs hold trim change heading/speed stabilize on new heading/speed, release trim + stick. for small inputs change heading/speed, trap trim and imediatly release stick.

now if u seriously focus the training missions should get u flying (rightwin + home is auto startup), dcs is a study sim and comes pretty close to the real thing (as far as sims go), otherwise you might like the arcade mode over full real.

 

btw: i agree with above tir + x52 rocks (i use it myself ;P)

Edited April 20, 2009 by hyperfighter

[Harry Cockpit]

Dude, I havent even found trim yet. Ive read alot about it on the site and the forums. And from what I've read, trim and auto-hover are key elements when flying and engaging targets.

 

did manage to cold start and take off after watching the "cockpit systems" tutorial, didnt know how to close cockpit at the time though.

Edited April 21, 2009 by Harry Cockpit

[Sharkster64]

I just got my copy today, messed with it some, watched a couple of the tutorial videos. Which were not much of a tutorial at all, since most of what he was talking about, made no sense. Planning on reading the manual.

 

Do have it running nice, DcsMax helped me, and was quite noticable in the tutorial vids.

Unless you know how to read russian, the manual isn't going to help you to learn this chopper more than the producers notes. The producers notes explains how to utilize all the tools in the cockpit much better than the manual. Yeah, you are going to be able to learn a few basics from the manual, but trust me you will learn a heck of a lot more from the producers notes, than you will the manual. As far as I'm concerned, the producers notes are the manual. I can't read russian after all. When I found out that the manual that they were going to be releasing in North America was the same as the PDF file, (with Russian Labels), I decided that I am definitely not buying the manual. :music_whistling:

[Harry Cockpit]

I've yet to check the manual, thanks for the heads up. Where are the producers notes? In-game tutorials?

Edited April 21, 2009 by Harry Cockpit

[Sharkster64]

On the main website under files. It is in the videos.

Edited April 21, 2009 by Sharkster64

[Harry Cockpit]

Thanks, I'll watch them.

[nemises]

^^ +1 for the producers notes...absolutely invaluable...I musta whatched each one 20 times while waiting for the game to come out, and as a result, found I was able to control the bird pretty well pretty quick!

It's definately worthwhile learning the coldstart, as you never know when you ned to troubleshoot in the cockpit, it is very useful to know where all the interesting switches are!

 

As for closing cockpit door, it is right ctrl + C ... it must be RIGHT ctrl though, as it differentiates between the two.

[hyperfighter]

sharkster, the manual is in english, i cant read russian either.

here's the link to english manuals ^^

 

http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/index.php?end_pos=2199&scr=products&lang=en

[hyperfighter]

^^ +1 for the producers notes...absolutely invaluable...I musta whatched each one 20 times while waiting for the game to come out, and as a result, found I was able to control the bird pretty well pretty quick!

It's definately worthwhile learning the coldstart, as you never know when you ned to troubleshoot in the cockpit, it is very useful to know where all the interesting switches are!

 

As for closing cockpit door, it is right ctrl + C ... it must be RIGHT ctrl though, as it differentiates between the two.

 

hee u gave the +1 to the wrong guy :music_whistling:

[Sharkster64]

You are right, they are in english, but if you look at all the pictures of the cockpit switches and knobs, they are still in russian, which you kind of need to know. I just think that the Whole manual should be in english, with english cockpit pictures and english labels. After all, I bought the english version, not the Russian version. I find it hard to read when vital pieces of information are in Russian.

[hyperfighter]

hmm never really seemed to need the manual that bad to be honest, figured out most of the stuff after training, the rest on missions and googling stuff i got stuck on..for the datalink i learned most from online players. i love flightsimming, and been at it for at least 10 years, so that might have helped a bit.

but i guess u would be right about the manual, id advise keeping tooltips on and just learn what a few knobs do every time you fly until you know what all are for.

Edited April 21, 2009 by hyperfighter