DCS Discussion

[JudgeDredd]

Started Mission 4 last night. Got to the IP and was taken out by "something" - I think it was a Mig.

Just left me wondering where the hell my CAP was - but also made me realise, I should do some situational awareness missions and watch some counter measure videos!


I did want to ask these questions though to anyone in the know - one about DCS and the other regarding real world...

• DCS question - Bug or not - The mission I was on specified waypoint times, which I took great care to write down. But when I got in the mission, I noticed the clock in the A-10 said 16:27:15 or something...is that a bug in the mission briefing or am I meant to reset the clock to whatever value (which I don't believe to be the case - but had to ask)
• Real world question - when I was looking at the mission, I was specifying upto 12000ft. With Offensive Air kicking around, as a ground pounder, should I not be weaving in and out the valley's? At 12000ft am I not a) a sitting duck and b) very, very noticeable on my way to the mission area?

Thanks

[Jarhead0331]

Started Mission 4 last night. Got to the IP and was taken out by "something" - I think it was a Mig.

Just left me wondering where the hell my CAP was - but also made me realise, I should do some situational awareness missions and watch some counter measure videos!


I did want to ask these questions though to anyone in the know - one about DCS and the other regarding real world...

• DCS question - Bug or not - The mission I was on specified waypoint times, which I took great care to write down. But when I got in the mission, I noticed the clock in the A-10 said 16:27:15 or something...is that a bug in the mission briefing or am I meant to reset the clock to whatever value (which I don't believe to be the case - but had to ask)
• Real world question - when I was looking at the mission, I was specifying upto 12000ft. With Offensive Air kicking around, as a ground pounder, should I not be weaving in and out the valley's? At 12000ft am I not a) a sitting duck and b) very, very noticeable on my way to the mission area?

Thanks

I don't know the A10 at all so I'll pass on question 1. On question 2, it depends on the nature of the surface to air threat.  Modern IADS are complex and layered. You need to know what's out there trying to kill you and what are its capabilities, both guidance and weapons. It will also depend on your mission and fuel state. For instance, you wouldn't want to fly super low if there was a heavy presence of AAA. They will shred you, unless you're really low, like 50ft low and you won't be able to engage your target hugging the earth like that, so eventually, you'll need to pop up. Also, flying low consumes more fuel so in most missions prolonged low level flight is not practical. At altitude, you need to know if you're facing short to medium range SAM threats, or longer range threats with higher engagement altitudes. Generally, when you can't fly low due to AAA, if there are long range SAMs searching for you, you'd fly high to avoid them. Like above 25,000ft high, and then at your IP strategize how to roll in on the target. With precision guided munitions these days, you can sometimes fly above the threat envelope for most SAMs and still engage and destroy the target. In real life you're also supported by electronic countermeasures, SEAD aircraft and other ships in your package.

Think about what the guys went through over north Vietnam. The deadliest, heaviest, most complex air defense network ever known to man. Early on, no SEAD. No RWR. No terrain avoidance radar. Mountains, fog, clouds. Brutally deadly. So many lost.

[Tripoli]

Not sure if ya'll have seen this yet.  Apparently A10 pilots are using DCS + VR for training:
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40620/a-10-warthog-pilots-are-using-the-digital-combat-simulator-video-game-to-train-in-vr

[Jarhead0331]

Looks like the wait for the Apache will end this week. Open beta patch announced for this Thursday. I must say, as awesome as this module looks, with a 365 page "quick start" guide, and watching the in-depth videos from Wags, I'm pretty confident this bird is just too complex for me to ever really learn it. I'll be able to start it, fly it and maybe use basic weapons, but the advanced avionics and the systems used by the cpg? It's going to be daunting.

In any event, this patch is also bringing another 240km to the Syria map with parts of Iraq, new features to the F-16 and a whole host of eagerly anticipated fixes and additions.

[Jarhead0331]

Hot damn!

[JudgeDredd]

Nice - they know how to make a video.

Here goes then...more swirling around uncontrollably 

[JudgeDredd]

I guess it is available.....

[Jarhead0331]

I am really enjoying the Apache overall. I've already spent more time flying it than I have all the other rotary modules combined. But I must say....if there is one thing that is going to keep me from really getting invested, it's all the damn time it takes to get from point A to point B. My God...just traveling 40km had me missing the speed of fixed-wing aircraft. You don't realize how fast 300 - 400 mph is until you've traveled a familiar stretch at 100 - 120....and even with trim, it's not an easy flight. There doesn't seem to be true autopilot in this helicopter so the work load on the pilot is always pretty heavy even when in simple transit. Other than that, though, I'm hard pressed to criticize the Helo or the module in any meaningful way.

I did have one strange tech issue with the module where it was tanking my fps. I had to reduce textures from high to medium to sort that out. It's definitely a bug since my i9-12900k, 3080ti, 64gb ram system should not have been struggling with this single module. In addition, my 5900x, Radeon 6900xt, 64gb ram rig did not have the same problem.

Otherwise, I haven't flown a jet since the module dropped. It's really well done.

[Skoop]

My only knock is the george AI is meh so far.  I can't get him him to spot or shoot for shit.  Part could be operator error and part is that there's going to be a ton of fine tuning with the AI crew as we go on.  Cool thing is you can fly from the cpg seat and do it all yourself, but seat switching in MP isn't quite done yet.  It was one of the most requested features since the f14, and the Apache made it a priority.  The controls are the biggest hurdle for me, trying to map eveything for flight and cpg is tough.  Might have to look for some guides or get a cpg replica stick.  The cpg sticks are clickable though so might just use that for now.

[Jarhead0331]

My only knock is the george AI is meh so far.  I can't get him him to spot or shoot for shit.  Part could be operator error and part is that there's going to be a ton of fine tuning with the AI crew as we go on.  Cool thing is you can fly from the cpg seat and do it all yourself, but seat switching in MP isn't quite done yet.  It was one of the most requested features since the f14, and the Apache made it a priority.  The controls are the biggest hurdle for me, trying to map eveything for flight and cpg is tough.  Might have to look for some guides or get a cpg replica stick.  The cpg sticks are clickable though so might just use that for now.

Agreed on the control challenges. I ordered the Winwing Orion F-16EX to help with this. The stick has a staggering 5 x 4-way hats, 1 x 8-way hat and 11 push buttons. I figure that, plus the Warthog throttle and the Virpil Hawk-60 Collective will be sufficient. Now, if only I had an extra pair of hands.

[JudgeDredd]

Yeah - the Apache is by far the best flight experience I've had in a helicopter in DCS.

It seems much easier to control on take off and flying around - by that I mean quite stable and very nimble - which does have a draw back as noted by JH. I haven't landed without feeling like I've got a 3 ton elephant in the front seat mind...very heavy on the undercarriage.

I only took it up for the first time yesterday and the experience left me feeling alot less frustrated than when trying to fly other helos.

JH - true on the 100mph...it really makes you miss jets...but fun overall. Also, I had a drop in FPS when first getting in the cockpit. Lasted about 2 minutes or something then settled down. I didn't notice any whilst flying around - the Caucacus map I think.

[Jarhead0331]

Any of you VR bubbas try the OpenXR mod? I was skeptical, but on my Reverb G2 rig, it worked wonders. Image is clearer, sharper and more vibrant than ever before and frames are steady at 60 with no stutter. It looks more beautiful than ever before.  Basically, it lets you run DCS without steamVR and the performance improvement is amazing. It shows just how much of a killer steamVR is...at least with DCS.

Check it out. 

[Rekim]

After a quick glance at the configuration menu for my Vive Pro 2 I can't see an option for bypassing SteamVR, so might not be feasible for HTC users to try that.

OpenXR is likely to work with my Vive. I speculate this part of the mod is providing the vast majority of the performance boost you're seeing JH. I saw similar results with OpenVR. I still use it along with ReshadeVR and am happy with the results.

I noticed in the YouTube video that bin/openvr.dll is replaced (this is the OpenXR VR API I believe). As discussed previously, this file gets clobbered with each DCS update. So keep a copy of the good one handy.

[Jarhead0331]

After a quick glance at the configuration menu for my Vive Pro 2 I can't see an option for bypassing SteamVR, so might not be feasible for HTC users to try that.

OpenXR is likely to work with my Vive. I speculate this part of the mod is providing the vast majority of the performance boost you're seeing JH. I saw similar results with OpenVR. I still use it along with ReshadeVR and am happy with the results.

I noticed in the YouTube video that bin/openvr.dll is replaced (this is the OpenXR VR API I believe). As discussed previously, this file gets clobbered with each DCS update. So keep a copy of the good one handy.

Yes. I'm familiar with the bin/openvr.dll as I used the OpenVR FSR modification prior to this. I saw some good results with it, but this OpenVR mod drastically improves my clarity without impacting performance whatsoever.  It's impressive. i wish it work with my Pimax, but I do not think it will. 

[Jarhead0331]

It's almost like you're there.