*** Official DCS World Thread ***

Man of Honour
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Nice.

I've got to get to the end of this month before I can look at buying it, let me know what you think though!


My initial thoughts having spent a couple of hours in it. Do bear in mind that the first 15 mins was just setting up the controls and getting a feel for the inside, both front and back).
- Crashes the game completely when you open the kneeboard. Somewhat annoying, but probably an easy fix, so not a big deal. My guess is that it’ll get fixed in the next week.

- Looks utterly stunning. The various developers just seem to keep pushing the boundaries on just how stunning some aircraft look, I assume as they learn new “tricks” on how best to use the game engine and it’s lighting. Both the F14 and Mig19 look amazing

- It’s a VERY analogue feeling aircraft. No fly by wire system and pretty primitive electronic. The displays are clearly cathode ray tubes and they’ve even modelled the low refresh rate of the head up display. It feels positively vintage when compared to the F18. If anything, when I first started looking around the pilot’s seat, almost felt Russian with the seeming number of buttons and dials. It was only afterwards that it struck me that no it’s not Russian, as the panel layouts seem to have been thought about and are in logically grouped areas, unlike some Russian aircraft, which seem to start with grouping, then realise they’ve missed a bunch, and haphazardly throw them into random blank spaces.

- Relatively straightforward to take off, once it’s been started, though clearly it needs a good deal more manual handling than the far more automated F18. For that matter, landing wasn’t that difficult either.

- Start up from “cold” is going to take some practice. There’s quite convoluted and complex process to start. It will be MUCH easier when I can bring up a kneeboard to check what’s next to do. Hence why I didn’t focus on that last night.

- It’s FAST. With no afterburner, it was happily cruising just about mach 1 when on full military power and the wings swept back. Most aircraft struggle to do that. Haven’t tried any real speed tests yet. Assuming it’s inline with reality (which it should be), the rate of climb was only on par with the F18 due to the additional weight of the F14. Making up for that, the F14 has a good deal more outright power and better aero. So it’s max speed is something like 0.7 mach faster, which is a BIG difference. Also has greater range due to bigger tanks.

- They’ve done something new in DCS, which is to provide an automated “AI” (don’t really like calling it that, as it’s just well scripted) RIO (back seat). No other aircraft currently has this, although some of the other aircraft allow players to sit in the 2nd seat (which can also be done in the F14). I have to say that I had some serious doubts about this last year, as I could see it just being a big mess, being new functionality. In practice, seems to work extremely well. They’ve had a real pilot “voice” the responses to your requests and to warnings and similar. So when close to the ground, he’ll warn you, and when you ask for him to do something (e.g. re-tune the radio), he’ll let you know once finished. They’ve even included “checklists” with him, so I believe he’ll talk you though the cold start procedure. Whilst I expected this to be the biggest risk and probable “let down”, they’ve really done an amazing job on the RIO capability and it’s brill.


In summary, it’s highly “characterful”, is going to require some real learning to get the best from it, has some unique capabilities (probably one of the best interceptors in game, despite it’s age), looks amazing and I see being a pleasure to fly regularly.
So for me, I'm a very happy bunny!
 
Soldato
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This probably won't be news to most people in the the thread, but Voice Attack control of radio in DCS is perfectly usable and super immersive. Particularly in VR. Saying "AWACS, picture" sure beats trying to feel the \ ,F7, F5 keys while squinting through Oculus nose slit :)


F-14 looks great too, shame it's full simulation only, I only just have enough time for FC3 stuff now :(
 
Soldato
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if you go to F10 map view, click add marker, then try to enter any text in the marker, you have to Alt + Tab
then then kill DCS as it will lock up

Also lots of crashes being reported to do with the F-14
 
Man of Honour
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if you go to F10 map view, click add marker, then try to enter any text in the marker, you have to Alt + Tab
then then kill DCS as it will lock up

Also lots of crashes being reported to do with the F-14

I’ve had none whilst flying my F14.
Good spot on the map marker. Only really affects the Viggen, but worth knowing.
 
Man of Honour
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Check this comment, as posted today by Wags:



Originally Posted by Wags
Hey everyone,

Earlier we mentioned that we have been working on DCS VR optimization. I have good news today! After much investigation and work, we traced the issue back to the terrain engine. We have since adjusted the terrain engine, and this has resulted in a 50% increase in VR performance! We will continue to test and optimize this further, but we hope to have this great improvement to you soon.
 
Associate
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Check this comment, as posted today by Wags:



Originally Posted by Wags
Hey everyone,

Earlier we mentioned that we have been working on DCS VR optimization. I have good news today! After much investigation and work, we traced the issue back to the terrain engine. We have since adjusted the terrain engine, and this has resulted in a 50% increase in VR performance! We will continue to test and optimize this further, but we hope to have this great improvement to you soon.
HFS! this is good news
 
Soldato
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HEADS UP guys, there is a DCS sale on right now

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Associate
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not for me, ill be keeping my warthog with nipple upgrade from ed forums, do have the virpil warbrd base with warthog stick tho, It is way more precise. could never go back to the warthog base now
 
Man of Honour
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It's been an interesting few weeks.
The I16 Octopus has arrived. Early war WW2 warbird. Apparently very charismatic, but an odd choice, as it was outclassed by a 109 "E", don't mind about the 109 K that we currently have.
The FW190 A8 is due in the next 2 weeks. From what I've read, a slightly slower D9 (particularly at altitude), but with better turn capability.
I can't say either of the above really excite me.

The F16 has been announced and is available for pre-order, with an expected delivery in what appears to be September (this year). That does excite me, so my paypal account has already been debited.

ED have stated that they have a new VR enhancement inbound, and it sounds like we'll get it either this week or next, with a suggested 50% improvement in frame rate. That IS big news. They've stated that initially the enhancement will be released for the Caucasus and Gulf, with NTTR following on.
As I received my Rift S last week, that's ace news.

Talking of the Rift S, yes, it really is much sharper in DCS. No, it's not even close to "retinal resolution", but it does made reading gauges and similar much easier and when using the same settings, doesn't seem to have taken any genuine hit to performance.

The planned Syria map was shown off with the F16 video. Looks good. My personal issue is that it's made by Ugra, the group who made Normandy. You may have noticed that it wasn't mentioned for the VR enhancement. ED have seemingly washed their hands on the subject and stated that it's up to Ugra. Can't say I'm impressed.

ED have announced a new carrier will be incoming. Heatblur are already making one for general use by anyone, as a bonus from the F14. The ED carrier will be additional, and apparently it's going to be a good deal more advanced, with deck crew, better controls, specific viewing positions etc. On a positive note, they've decided last week that this won't be an "asset" that if installed on a multiplayer server will require all server joiners to have, though it does look like they'll stop players landing or taking off from it unless they own it (which makes sense).

In addition to the above, this year we're supposedly getting the Mosquito, P47, the Falklands map, and 2 free maps.
Exciting times...

For anyone interested, I was browsing through the open multiplayer server list last night and couldn't help but notice that most are aimed at the "typical" player, i.e. Caucasus map, good weather etc. That makes perfect sense as after all, if you want good numbers to join your server, hit the easy market.
What did strike me was that there were few catering for the slightly more nuts players. As such, on the 631 Squadron server this week, I'll be running a night time scenario set in the Persian Gulf. It's definitely a different challenge. I was out in my F14, F18 and Ka50 last night and plan to work my way through several more "night capable" aircraft this week during the evening, including the A10C, Harrier and the Gazelle (i think that has night vision capability). The server will be running most evening's this week it you want to take a look.
 
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