DCS: F-5E Remastered - First impressions

[Schmidtfire]

Let's start with the good stuff. Cockpit looks really nice and the texturing is great. External model looks good and up to modern standards. Pilot body seems fine, I usually don't fly with it on. Now on to the not so good parts...

Radar an clutter representation - Not Remastered. They didn't even try to tweak the textures into something more realistic.
Sounds - Not Remastered. Tbh, they are ok, except the cannon sounds.
Liveries  - Down to 7(!), mostly variants of grey. No Vietnam or Iranian liveries included out of the box.

These are my first impressions. The cockpit looks great and so does the external model. Do I consider it a true Remaster?
Sadly, no. It feels more like a polish.

[NineLine]

On liveries:

New liveries along with a new and more detailed texture template:
Standard neutral grey
Swiss Air Force, 2 tone grey
Austrian Air Force 2, Staffel
Norwegian Air Force 338 sqn 215
“MiG-28” Topgun black
Aggressor Navy blue camouflage VFC-13
Aggressor desert camouflage VFC-13

New liveries coming soon:
Vietnam 1970s
Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force
Imperial Iranian Air Force
Swiss Air Force demo team
Aggressor forest camouflage

The texture template for users to create their own should be available soon, and should be no later than the Christmas update.

As far as radar and sounds, we never stated these would change, but rather the 3D model of the interior, exterior and pilot and included textures were what the remaster was about. Thanks. 

[gulredrel]

Cockpit is really nice. Radar screen when off looks good too.  Maybe somewhere in the future, there will be a bit better radar representation.

Also positive thing: I didn't have to re-map controls. All were used from the previous F-5E

Question about the inspection panels as shown in the remaster release trailer. Didn't got them to work on my end. Not with the predefined toggle command and not with separate open / close bindings. Do I miss something!?

Looking forward to the skins that will be added.

[Schmidtfire]

19 minutes ago, NineLine said:

New liveries coming soon:
Vietnam 1970s
Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force
Imperial Iranian Air Force
Swiss Air Force demo team
Aggressor forest camouflage

Great news on the liveries! 
 

21 minutes ago, NineLine said:

As far as radar and sounds, we never stated these would change, but rather the 3D model of the interior, exterior and pilot and included textures were what the remaster was about. Thanks. 

I understand. It's just weird when you put 7000+ hrs into a DLC, but leaving the biggest avionic feature (the radar) totally untouched. Anyways, these are just my impressions...

[Kev2go]

it would be nice if the F5E got an updated radar simulation. I kept hearing Heatblur was supposed to offer thier pulse radar simulation tech to ED? So it could be adapted to ther modules like the F5?

 

With how the Swiss F5E model was shown off with the new dorsal antenna on the 3d model it was also speculated there would be additional features like Digital radio and INS. guess not. But it makes sense why the cockpit was not shown off until the release of the F5E "remaster", people would of realized they are only paying for a visual update, something you got for free with past modules like A10C or Ka50. ED used to only charge money if the "upgrade" included a new variation with some new extra features.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2024 by Kev2go

[hairbear29]

It would be helpful to see side by side comparison pics of the cockpit as I'm not seeing any real improvement but it is hard to tell from watching I video on a small screen ATM my credit card is staying in my wallet

[TLTeo]

3 hours ago, NineLine said:

As far as radar and sounds, we never stated these would change, but rather the 3D model of the interior, exterior and pilot and included textures were what the remaster was about. Thanks. 

I find statements like this to be extremely disappointing, and a large reason why I have stopped buying DCS and especially ED products. Your newsletter stated, I quote, "Fully modelled weapons and sensor systems. ", "Both the DCS: F-5E Remaster and the existing DCS: F-5E will receive many improvements and fixes including certain corrections to radar operation....and more", "Numerous bug fixes and tunings such as damage modelling, sensors, and avionics".

It may not be an outright statement that you would bring the radar up from the standards of 10+ years ago but surely you can see why users would have that expectation upon reading that announcement no?

Edited December 4, 2024 by TLTeo

[VZ_342]

1 hour ago, hairbear29 said:

It would be helpful to see side by side comparison pics of the cockpit as I'm not seeing any real improvement but it is hard to tell from watching I video on a small screen ATM my credit card is staying in my wallet

The new one looks quite...aged. Which I don't mind, it is well done, but I noticed the red covers on switches is more like a dark red/maroon-ish color. Sunlight reflections are kind of bright, as well.

 

It'll take time to adjust to this new "reality." Bindings are all there, yay!

[Bucic]

Great update and finally the fixes for long-outstanding issues are pouring in. Really great job!

The external model is excellent! I highly recommend pointing your tail to the sun and see into the engines. Or go belly up before you retract the landing gear as the LDG bay doors open egain prior to retracting the whole assembly.

The pilot model and animations - WOW! You can even tumble him around by causing rudder oscillations.

 

I for one don't particularly like the cockpit update in its current state. It's often the case I like the old one better (with Yemet's Recovered roughmets mod). Apart from some overdone metallic effects the main gripe (issue 1) I have is something akin to artifacts. First I thought it's only insufficient mipmaps (especially on the RWR panel!) causing lot's of shimmering even with MSAA x4. But then I noticed something more. There seem to be lot's of instances where certain components have contrsting outlines.

Issue 2 is: (it also compounds the issue 1)

Vast majority of cokpit panel labels are done as "engraved almost filled with white paint." That's not how any panels in real F-5E are made. The letterings are raised, not lowered, if anything.

I'm not saying it's a lost cause because I assume some tweaks are going to be made.

You can take a look how a default cokpit looked like with Yemet's Recovered fixes here in my farewell flight with the old DCS F-5E.

https://youtu.be/VoiYRuzIeGY?t=172

 

Edited December 4, 2024 by Bucic

[Madpie]

Yeah, I think they encrypted the files so we can see them in Modelviewer so now we cant use it to make sim pits? I can't open this edce file.
Damn that landing gear handle looks like frozen dog water

Edited December 4, 2024 by Madpie

[hairbear29]

53 minutes ago, VZ_342 said:

The new one looks quite...aged. Which I don't mind, it is well done, but I noticed the red covers on switches is more like a dark red/maroon-ish color. Sunlight reflections are kind of bright, as well.

 

It'll take time to adjust to this new "reality." Bindings are all there, yay!

Thanks for the reply

[Oesau]

For the price (used some miles) I’m happy with it - wasn’t expecting anything other than cosmetic changes with this update (I get what people are saying about the amount of hours invested in it and what was produced - there’s got to be some incorrect estimates with that)

[dotolwi]

I don't understand why the F-5 is priced higher than the Mirage 2000 when there is still no content. It used to be a good aircraft to recommend to beginners due to its price, but now it's not even worth it.

Edited December 5, 2024 by dotolwi

[Oesau]

4 hours ago, gulredrel said:

Cockpit is really nice. Radar screen when off looks good too.  Maybe somewhere in the future, there will be a bit better radar representation.

Also positive thing: I didn't have to re-map controls. All were used from the previous F-5E

Question about the inspection panels as shown in the remaster release trailer. Didn't got them to work on my end. Not with the predefined toggle command and not with separate open / close bindings. Do I miss something!?

Looking forward to the skins that will be added.

RShft RAlt and H ` for the inspection panels

[Beirut]

I like the upgrade. It didn't knock my socks off, it's kinda subtle, but it's nice. Nothing stands out a whole bunch, but when you're flying you definitely feel like the plane is a fancier and bit more interesting. That works for me. On the other hand the skin selection isn't impressive. I'm sure ED could have asked a few skin guys to put together something cool and have their names listed along with the release, but that was not to be. 

 

Upgrade - good! Skin selection- meh!

 

 

[Mad Dog 762]

1 hour ago, TLTeo said:

I find statements like this to be extremely disappointing, and a large reason why I have stopped buying DCS and especially ED products. Your newsletter stated, I quote, "Fully modelled weapons and sensor systems. ", "Both the DCS: F-5E Remaster and the existing DCS: F-5E will receive many improvements and fixes including certain corrections to radar operation....and more", "Numerous bug fixes and tunings such as damage modelling, sensors, and avionics".

It may not be an outright statement that you would bring the radar up from the standards of 10+ years ago but surely you can see why users would have that expectation upon reading that announcement no?

I'm not going to pardon my son. 

[RUNEofORM]

Was the pilot in first person not their before? I also never use it as it gets in the way of seeing things. But I do not have the remaster and I now have first person pilot model. I was getting the impression that that was going to be a remaster thing. 

[MadKreator]

I understand it was a graphical upgrade but I do agree, fully, that they could have at least tweaked the radar symbology a bit. Not even a radar re-work, just tune the values a bit so everything isn’t just a solid fat block. And thin out the fat sweep line ( not sure what you really call it). It’s one of my favorite aircraft, so $10 was fine for it, but the radar symbology is one thing thats always seemed very “unrealistic”. Knowing full well there wasn’t going to be any added features per say, making the one part that is always glaring you right in the face look a bit better, would have been the icing on the cake for me. 

[Annelid]

ROC livery gone?

 

[RUNEofORM]

I am going to backup my old F-5 folders to other drive before getting the remaster so I can compare things better. I want to take a look at FM entry and art files before and after remaster. Ill take some same position screen shots before and after also. I see a lot of people just showing off the new cockpit without a old one to compare to. 

[Tom P]

$60 for an F5.... and if you already own it, $10 just for a visual upgrade. 

[VZ_342]

1 hour ago, RUNEofORM said:

I am going to backup my old F-5 folders to other drive before getting the remaster so I can compare things better. I want to take a look at FM entry and art files before and after remaster. Ill take some same position screen shots before and after also. I see a lot of people just showing off the new cockpit without a old one to compare to. 

That'd be my advice as well. I went in with full trust thinking "ooh man, this is gonna be great!" but afterwards...eh, I like the skins I had (and still have them, but no way to use them)

 

Back up your original F-5E-3 files!

[Madpie]

I don't think they changed any of the 3d dimensions to reflect the real dzus measurements or instrument sizes. Its more just a texture and detail update rather on the old bones. However after mucking around with the F-16 model over the past week with irl measurments and the P-47 blueprints before that, I realise that nothing is accurate and it's not worth getting upset on the internet about it. Everything is just good enough to look ok and thats fine.

I am saddened that the files are locked out modelviewer. It's a great resource when making sim pits or panels for DCS. At least in this case we can use the old f-5 model but I fear for the access for future modules. I'd love to potter around the mig-29 cockpit when it comes.

[SilentOtto]

I bought the f-5 on sale for $25. Now I paid $10 = bought the art team 2 coffees. Thank you team.
The price and quality completely satisfy me. Skins? New ones coming soon. Lots of people waiting for their moment of glory .

And please do not take this post as criticism of a different perspective on the update.

On the side: joystick + throttle = 400€, VR = 500€, Next Level Racing Frame = 500€ plus low-end PC (Ryzen 5800x3d, 4070Super, 64GB, M.2 1GB + M.2 2GB) > 1000€ + 32' display 300€ versus 10$ (ten bucks).

Edited December 5, 2024 by SilentOtto
Resolved

[Ala12Rv-Tundra]

55 minutes ago, Madpie said:

However after mucking around with the F-16 model over the past week with irl measurments

Could I ask you something about the viper cockpit? what´s the actual distance from left edge of the seat till throttle arm base? because im having issues installing my winwing stuff, and keep hitting my left elbow witht the backseat, making going to idle very very uncomfortable.