Flight Sim Anyone?

[BMWM3Wannabe]

Is anyone into flight sims? I play DCS World. It is a Military Flight sim but they incorporate ground units as well, tanks (that you can operate), AA guns, SAM sites, ground troops, APC's, the list goes on. The planes are designed not only to look like the real thing but the flight model is designed so that they fly like the real thing as well. They get documents that are in the public domain to create these modules. That is a fancy way of saying they use drag models and lift charts from actual testing of the aircraft from say: Boeing, Northrup Grumman, ect. to make the flight model so that the aircraft are modeled accurately. They also have subject matter experts (SME's) like pilots that flew / fly the aircraft that provide feedback. It is truly amazing the level of detail that they have in this game and the extents they go to, to make sure it is as real as it gets. You can download the game for free and it comes with 1 map and 2 planes for free. Other maps and aircraft "Modules" are paid for individually.

It really is not a game but a simulation. If you ever wanted to be a WWII pilot or a Jet Fighter Pilot this is as close as you can get without doing it for real. You have to bomb ground targets and engage in Air to Air dog fights and BVR engagements.

I really enjoy flying the A-10, F/A-18, F-16C and UH-1H Huey.

There are online multiplayer servers running 24/7 with missions people create and fight virtual wars. You can literally create anything you can imagine. Air to ground, Air to Sea, Dog fight both AI and human. You can take off from land bases, or, for naval aircraft, launch and land on Nimitz class Aircraft Carriers. Several aircraft (not all) are full fidelity with 100% clickable cockpits. If you just want to fly around this is probably not the game for you. But if you want a real simulation of what a military pilot does with correct implementation of weapons then this is it! They have training videos so you can learn the aircraft, as well as weapons employments. There also have single player missions that you can fly solo on your own.

Some of the aircraft they have are:
Fw 190 A8, F-16C Viper, F15C, F/A-18 Hornet, F14B Tomcat, A-10 Warthog, F-86F Saber, Mig-15, Mig-19P Farmer, Mig-21, Mig-29, Su-27, Su-33, Mirage2000C, F5E Tiger II, Christen Eagle II, Yak 52, AV-8B Harrier, AJS-37 Viggen, Spitfire, P-51D Mustang, L-39 Albatros, C-101 Aviojet, BF 109 K4, Fw 190 D-9 Dora, Su-25

Helicopters: SA342 Gazelle, UH-1H Huey, KA-50, Mi-8MTV2, the are working on the Mi-24.

The free map is the Caucasus but you can also purchase the Persian Gulf, Normandy 1944 and Nevada NTTA range. They are working on one or two more right now as well.

Here is the release trailer from the F-16C.

F/A-18C Release Trailer.

F-14B Release Trailer.

[Wheelwright]

I play exclusively WW2 IL2-Sturmovik simulator because I believe that WW2-style aircraft combat is more fun, than seeing a flashing pixel on your radar and pressing a button to send a rocket to it (I know there is much more to it, but you get my gist).

This is in sharp contrast to WW2 combat which is close range, visceral and above-all: skill and experience based. There is steep learning curve to aerial gunnery, and then once you reached a certain proficiency level, you have to keep practising it, or else you lose it. In this way it is akin to a shooting range, except infinitely more interesting, because your gun happens to be flying in 3 dimensions up to 800km/h and you sit inside it, with barely a chance to escape if things go sideways (fun trivia: Soviet fighters are basically flying coffins because their cockpit cannot open above 250km/h).

Also piloting a WW2 plane is orders of magnitude simpler than a modern military jet because there are no navigation computers, instrumental landing systems, radars, IR-pods, weapons management systems etc: etc: I think that's also an important consideration because not everybody has time/patience to learn a modern jet which is less like a plane and more like a complicated weapons platform: the exact opposite of a WW2 plane.

If/When DCS finally irons out the kinks from their WW2 module and adds more content to it, I will be first in line to buy it, but right now it has too many teething issues, so if you're into WW2 air-air and air-ground combat IL2-Sturmovik remains the default choice.

[Dang3r]

I'd bought DCS few weeks ago with F-14, Nevada and Flaming Cliffs. But hell, even if I am an experienced pilot I have my issues to get into the sim.
That'll need a lot of new practice to fly them like its meant to play.
Considered to buy a oculus rift VR goggle to make the cockpit navigation and the dogfight situations more simple than rotating with the coolie hat.
Using TM Warthog A10 stick and throttle set up and Saitek rudder pedals.

[BMWM3Wannabe]

Originally Posted by Dang3r

I'd bought DCS few weeks ago with F-14, Nevada and Flaming Cliffs. But hell, even if I am an experienced pilot I have my issues to get into the sim.
That'll need a lot of new practice to fly them like its meant to play.
Considered to buy a oculus rift VR goggle to make the cockpit navigation and the dogfight situations more simple than rotating with the coolie hat.
Using TM Warthog A10 stick and throttle set up and Saitek rudder pedals.

Buy a TrackIR 5 with Track Clip Pro for the time being. It makes it WAY easier. I did the whole look around with the coolie hat thing for a bit too and it sucks.

[Dang3r]

Originally Posted by BMWM3Wannabe

Buy a TrackIR 5 with Track Clip Pro for the time being. It makes it WAY easier. I did the whole look around with the coolie hat thing for a bit too and it sucks.

Had tried this together with FSX and were not very pleased with it, the same way you look into the direction of a pushbutton and aim with the mouse to it, the same time if you move your head a bit you'll miss. Couldn't not compensate this proper and sold it.

[MR_X]

Just getting started in DCS. Started with the Hornet as I'm familiar with its systems but trying to learn the F-14 right now. Definitely better if you have a RIO that knows what to do. Haven't gotten much into the multiplayer stuff yet, but once in a while I do. Same screen name as here.

[RMachuca3d]

Having 3 kids and a full time job, I get no time to sit down and enjoy the slow pace of sims.... so for the last 6 years I've been playing War Thunder, its a PVP online flight sim, initially it was ww2 aircraft only, but after so many years of development they are up to supersonic jets, hundreds of aircraft to fly out, and they've also added tanks and naval ships with the ultimate goal of having full battles air\land\sea.

[Wheelwright]

Originally Posted by RMachuca3d

Having 3 kids and a full time job, I get no time to sit down and enjoy the slow pace of sims.... so for the last 6 years I've been playing War Thunder, its a PVP online flight sim, initially it was ww2 aircraft only, but after so many years of development they are up to supersonic jets, hundreds of aircraft to fly out, and they've also added tanks and naval ships with the ultimate goal of having full battles air\land\sea.

From what I have seen War Thunder can be an amazing visual masterpiece, especially with the new graphics engine they recently implemented (including "global illumination" which drastically improves map lighting).

For the most-realistic flight/combat experience I would choose War Thunder simulator mode with a decent head-tracker & joystick & rudder combo as a minimum (for example: Track IR + VKB Gladiator + VKB Rudders). You can buy a separate throttle later for additional immersion.

I simply cannot overstate that using max-realism settings plus having real aircraft controls can help elevate "playing children games" into a meaningful historical hobby. Plainly put: it is time better spent. For me personally it was a springboard to learn about multiple aircraft technologies, both historical and still-relevant, like aircraft-trimming, constant-speed propellers, engine-governors, German WW2 Kommandogerät flight-computers (yes, in 1940s), etc: And because you get to experience how it all works in the sim, it becomes a truly engossing learning experience. I hight recommend it.

[Dang3r]

Originally Posted by MR_X

Just getting started in DCS. Started with the Hornet as I'm familiar with its systems but trying to learn the F-14 right now. Definitely better if you have a RIO that knows what to do. Haven't gotten much into the multiplayer stuff yet, but once in a while I do. Same screen name as here.

How did you manage to call the crew chief at starting your engines? Plus I can't remember that ALT and SPEED weren't displayed into HUD at the real stuff but I found no hint into the docs to activate, even into landing mode

[MR_X]

Originally Posted by Dang3r

How did you manage to call the crew chief at starting your engines? Plus I can't remember that ALT and SPEED weren't displayed into HUD at the real stuff but I found no hint into the docs to activate, even into landing mode

The Tomcat is really difficult to operate on your own using Jester. To call the crew chief, hit the coms ( \ ), F8 Ground Crew then ask for electrical power and air supply. Make sure your canopy is open. Usualy I just do the cheat because it takes a minute to go through all the switches and stuff. The cheat is LWIN+Home.

I follow a channel in YouTube that has a lot of great tutorials.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZu...BbR2w/featured

He has all sort of tutorials in his playlist broken down by the module. I find him better than the tutorials in the modules themselves.

I quit flying the F-14 for now and mostly do F-18 and I just got the F-5. Really like those 2 the best at the moment. Want to get the F-16 but it is very similar to the F-18 so it should be an easy transition for me.

[Dang3r]

Anyone bought the new HOTAS F-18 add on stick for the Thrustmaster set?
Considering this, because the stock A-10 stick is metal made and on longer flights w/o AP hands get really colded out without gloves - no, Im not joking.
The F-18 is made with more plastic and should prevent this, but not sure if the available buttons / coolie hats are equal/same programable as the other one. Experiences so far?

[flybigjet]

So. Played around in my flight sim today.....

[Dang3r]

Anyone pre-ordered DCS Supercarrier? If not owning the F-18 it'll give you a very good discount at buying the bundle plus the SU-33. F-14 owners also got offered good conditions.

[BMWM3Wannabe]

Originally Posted by Dang3r

Anyone pre-ordered DCS Supercarrier? If not owning the F-18 it'll give you a very good discount at buying the bundle plus the SU-33. F-14 owners also got offered good conditions.

Yes I did the preorder.

[Wheelwright]

I bought HP Reverb a few days ago and still testing it (I have 30 days to decide if I should keep it, thanks to their no-hassle return policy, and I think it is worth a try for any sim pilot). Before that I was looking at large V-Sync gaming monitors to increase immersion and improve graphics smoothness, but those monitors cost upwards of 2000 dollars and the reverb was only 800 (in Canada), so it seemed like a no-brainer to me.

I only fly IL2-Sturmovik which is well suited to VR because there are only two dozen or so switches and buttons to blindly poke at while wearing VR helmet (I envy chimp-like dexterity of DCS pilots managing to blindly control hundreds of inputs, even with clickable cockpit partially alleviating some of the pain).

So when I finally fired-up the simulation: the biggest shock was the mind-blowing and awe-inspiring cockpit realism in VR, by which I mean that every switch, every panel, lever, etc: just sprang to life in vivid 3d detail.

It felt like a completely different game because I started noticing and appreciating details I never gave a second thought on a flat monitor. Also the incredible snugness of the cockpit literally wrapping around me made me feel literally like part of the machine I was flying.

On the other hand the biggest VR downside was how the outside graphics' crappiness became painfully obvious and magnified, because the way VR works is by enlarging view-scale to 1-to-1 in an attempt to make everything look as real as possible. The second problem was and continues to be motion sickness when flying, which is getting more manageable every day, yet I am still not entirely comfortable for longer periods (more than 20 minutes). I hope I can overcome this before my 30 days is up, if so then HP Reverb is probably the keeper.

[Dang3r]

I had made no decision until now which VR to buy, would use it only for DCS and just for this the Rift S seems to be more related to.

[Solidjake]

I used to play X-Plane 11 a lot but I shifted towards racing sims and sold my yoke/throttle quadrant.

My co-worker is into flight sims more than me and has the beta for FSX 2020

[Dang3r]

Now this a cool rig for DCS, ain't?

[BMWM3Wannabe]

That is a hell of an A-10 rig!

[MR_X]

There is a guy that literally build a entire replica of an A-10 or F/A-18 or A-10 cockpit with a 180 degree bubble screen. Have to look for it. It is pretty nice

EDIT: Found it

[335dlci]

Originally Posted by MR_X

There is a guy that literally build a entire replica of an A-10 or F/A-18 or A-10 cockpit with a 180 degree bubble screen. Have to look for it. It is pretty nice

EDIT: Found it

Mind. Fucking. Blown.

[Dang3r]

This!
Im glad that I'd preordered.