ET1 Posted March 11, 2011 Posted March 11, 2011 To preface my question: Just bought A-10, and after many years it has rekindled my love of flight simulators! Truly a fantastic piece of work, and by far the best sensation of actually sitting in a cockpit I've ever experienced from a PC simulator. Now my question: I got as far as the LITENING pod training mission, and then hopped into Instant Action to practice my newly-acquired skills. But, I'm befuddled by the behavior of the pod, specifically after commanding the TGP to slave to the current steerpoint (China hat aft long). This puts the TGP in intertial (INR) mode. Typically, I then want to switch to POINT mode to lock onto, say, a vehicle near the steerpoint (TMS forward to toggle track mode). But most of the time when I try to do this, the pod just stays in INR mode. Meanwhile, if I manually slew the pod, it has no problem toggling from INR to AREA and POINT. I've also tried slewing the pod a bit after slaving it to the steerpoint, still no dice; it usually refuses to leave INR mode. I say usually, because confusingly, SOMETIMES it works. I just haven't been able to figure out the conditions under which it works. I've read the TGP part of the manual in detail, and tried doing the training mission a couple more times, but just haven't been able to figure out what I'm missing. Would be very grateful if someone could enlighten me! ...or en-LITE-en me, as the case may be :doh:
recoil17 Posted March 11, 2011 Posted March 11, 2011 If the TGP gets masked by your A-10, it will go into INR mode. If it is in POINT or AREA tracking when it gets masked, it will go into INR-P or INR-A, I believe. If you try and change the tracking while it is in INR-P or INR-A, it will go into INR. You can tell if the targeting pod is masked by a "M" on the HUD and on the TGP page. If the "M" is flashing, that means that the pod is about to be masked by the plane. 1 "Simultaneous selection of fuel dump and afterburner during high AOA maneuvering may cause fuel to ignite with resulting fuselage damage."
ET1 Posted March 12, 2011 Author Posted March 12, 2011 If the TGP gets masked by your A-10, it will go into INR mode. If it is in POINT or AREA tracking when it gets masked, it will go into INR-P or INR-A, I believe. If you try and change the tracking while it is in INR-P or INR-A, it will go into INR. You can tell if the targeting pod is masked by a "M" on the HUD and on the TGP page. If the "M" is flashing, that means that the pod is about to be masked by the plane. Aha, I believe that's it! What was confusing me was that the "M" is fairly restrictive, i.e. sometimes even when you can still just see the target, the pod considers itself masked. Having played around with it some more after reading your post, it does indeed seem that whenever the "M" is gone, one can switch modes no problem. Thanks very much! Alright back to the training missions. I believe guided bombs are next on the menu... :punk:
WarriorX Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 (edited) edited as to not confuse anyone... Edited March 13, 2011 by WarriorX [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] "Is that you John Wayne?.......Is this me?" Full Metal Jacket //My Mission Data Card//My Cold Start Checklist //Clearing a Hung Store Tutorial //CDU Offset//Asterisk Error Correction Procedure//JTAC UTM Coordinate Entry Tutorial//JTAC 9 Line Lat Long Coordinate Entry Tutorial
Insanatrix Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 Neg it's china hat aft long, your thinking of slave all to SPI that is china hat forward long.
WarriorX Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 Neg it's china hat aft long, your thinking of slave all to SPI that is china hat forward long. Wow, what a screw up that was...I will edit it out...thanks for the save. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] "Is that you John Wayne?.......Is this me?" Full Metal Jacket //My Mission Data Card//My Cold Start Checklist //Clearing a Hung Store Tutorial //CDU Offset//Asterisk Error Correction Procedure//JTAC UTM Coordinate Entry Tutorial//JTAC 9 Line Lat Long Coordinate Entry Tutorial
Insanatrix Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 Wow, what a screw up that was...I will edit it out...thanks for the save. NP man, too much stuff in this sim it all gets confusing at some point or another.
kungfoo Posted April 7, 2011 Posted April 7, 2011 I've just been wondering about the same thing right now. Sometimes I just could not get the TGP out of INR mode and into AREA or POINT mode. Confuzzled me like hell. Sometimes it worked. So the approach is: - Get the M away, by turning the aircraft somewhat. - Switch to any mode you like. Is that right? 1
bartleby Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 One issue with masking constraints is that in reality they can be changed for different loadouts. In the sim they can't, so I don't know if it just applies one that might be overly constraining or it automatically calculates masking. I've just been wondering about the same thing right now. Sometimes I just could not get the TGP out of INR mode and into AREA or POINT mode. Confuzzled me like hell. Sometimes it worked. So the approach is: - Get the M away, by turning the aircraft somewhat. - Switch to any mode you like. Is that right? Yup, that's it. Or, you could follow my style and flop the plane around while mashing TMS fwd until you're unmasked, but I doubt that's the best practice. DCS Wiki! :book:
Baggy MacDouche Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 I'm going to ask another of my million and one dumb questions. Can you set a SPI while the TGP is masked? Or let's say that I am orbiting and I've gone into point mode on a target but have not set it as SPI before it starts getting masked. Will TMS-U-L still work, or do you have to wait until the mask is clear. Also, it seems like some times there is a M on the TGP, but I can still see the target just fine and no part of the plane is visible. What's going on there? Corsair Graphite 780T / ASUS Maximus VIII Hero / i7-6700K@4.5GHz / Corsair H110i / 32GB DDR4 PC-2666 / ASUS 1080 Strix / EVGA 850 Pro / Samsung 950 Pro M.2 SSD / Win10x64 / Samsung UN48JU7500 4k / Logitech G910/933 KB/Headphones / Razer Naga Epic Mouse / MFG Crosswinds / TM HOTAS Warthog / HTC Vive
RodBorza Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 I'm going to ask another of my million and one dumb questions. Can you set a SPI while the TGP is masked? Or let's say that I am orbiting and I've gone into point mode on a target but have not set it as SPI before it starts getting masked. Will TMS-U-L still work, or do you have to wait until the mask is clear. Also, it seems like some times there is a M on the TGP, but I can still see the target just fine and no part of the plane is visible. What's going on there? When the TGP is about to be masked the M starts flashing to indicate that.:thumbup: This is an amazing sim! 'Nuff said!:pilotfly: YouTube: SloppyDog
nomdeplume Posted April 8, 2011 Posted April 8, 2011 I'm going to ask another of my million and one dumb questions. Can you set a SPI while the TGP is masked? Or let's say that I am orbiting and I've gone into point mode on a target but have not set it as SPI before it starts getting masked. Will TMS-U-L still work, or do you have to wait until the mask is clear. Should be able to. When you're setting the SPI, you're really designating which sensor is providing the SPI, not a particular point on the ground. That's why once the TGP is providing your SPI, you can move it around to different targets and you don't have to keep TMS-U-L-ing. Also, it seems like some times there is a M on the TGP, but I can still see the target just fine and no part of the plane is visible. What's going on there?As others have said, the TGP uses some stored data as to where stores are located, shape of the aircraft, etc. to determine when it will be 'masked'. It's not actually reporting "there's something in my field of view". The mask profiles aren't changeable in-game, so I think it basically uses a very permissitic 'worst-case' configuration. Additionally, it's better for the TGP to erroneously report that it's masked than to erroneously believe that it's not; so it errs on the side of caution. Which is to say, I don't think I've ever seen it fail to report it was masked when its view was obstructed. It will often report it's masked when it's not.
Baggy MacDouche Posted April 10, 2011 Posted April 10, 2011 Thanks for the info guys. I guess I hadn't quite grasped how the SPI worked. I have been under the notion that I kept having to TMS-U-L every time I wanted to designate a target or a spot on the ground, etc. I didn't realize that info was continually being updated. Makes sense now, duh. :) Corsair Graphite 780T / ASUS Maximus VIII Hero / i7-6700K@4.5GHz / Corsair H110i / 32GB DDR4 PC-2666 / ASUS 1080 Strix / EVGA 850 Pro / Samsung 950 Pro M.2 SSD / Win10x64 / Samsung UN48JU7500 4k / Logitech G910/933 KB/Headphones / Razer Naga Epic Mouse / MFG Crosswinds / TM HOTAS Warthog / HTC Vive
delta9856 Posted April 10, 2011 Posted April 10, 2011 I was wondering this too, thanks everything is much clearer now :) Oli 'Scarecrow' Lusk Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit Intel Core i7 3930K @ 4.20Ghz ASUS Rampage IV Extreme Motherboard 16GB DDR3 RAM EVGA Geforce GTX 680 4GB
nemises Posted April 10, 2011 Posted April 10, 2011 best indicator is to watch your TAD whilst slewing the TGP as SPI around.. You'll see the wedding cake symbol move around as you slew. Same goes for if you designate the HUD as SPI and slew the HUD target designator It won't, however follow the TAD target designator around if it the TAD is SPI..the TAD can only hook "symbols" and use that as SPI designation.
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