DCS World 1.2.3 Update now available

[Dr. Pain]

I found vision to be an issue in reading the radar in VR. But last night spending time in the F-15 was really good and it's more practice needed by me against maybe easier bots will be a better benefit. I'm still finding the best control layout for me that works across a few aircraft of the same era. Even PVP with you guys last week I was learning a lot. I'm very comfortable in my MiG-19 but there's nothing of that era to fight. But I will join for a laugh with you guys. The F-15 seems a good pick for that.

[hylas]

It was fun the other day with you blokes trying out some PVP.

The Aussie inferno server is ok but I've found I get quite bored of it quickly. They have colored labels on so it's easy to see who's a threat, and I think they have labels on the missiles too.
The hoggit server is much better for PVE I think. On hoggit, there's more air and ground targets so you're never really fighting other friendlies on who's going to get there first for the kill. There's more missions to do, enemies are harder difficulty but still nothing compared to the pvp conflicts. I have had a few people complain to me on hoggit though because of my ping and them seeing me warp around a bit but that's yet to cause any damage to anyone so I have just always ignored those complaints. It's not like I've kept my distance either, I've parked right next to others on the carrier and it hasn't caused issues yet.

The PVP stuff though, that's where the real fun is. I like that growling sidewinder server because it's usually got a lot of people online and both teams start pretty close to each other so you don't have to fly for 10-15min to get to the action, which is good when you're in the f18 as that thing goes through the fuel very quickly. It also allows all weapons so it's a good place to learn how to avoid many of the weapons that are usually banned on many of the other PVP servers (e.g. pheonix). The best way to analyze what you did wrong or what you could do better is to grab the tacview file and look at it in tacview. It's something I look at after every session, it's crazy to see them aim54's coming from 30nm out and getting kills. I hope that explains as to why we were generally turning cold on the f14's when they were 20nm from us.

The choice of plane is getting harder as there's a few options now. The FC3 stuff (f15, su27, mig29, etc) are all still viable. They have really good radar that's going to show you an enemy if it's within your radar scan. The f15 doesn't have datalink though so it's a bit harder to get a full picture of what's around you and the rest is russian so if you've never flown that, well it's a learning curve but generally all the fc3 content isn't that hard to get into.
The f18 is pretty good now that it has datalink. I'm watching my SA page just as much as my radar, if not more these days. The only thing that's annoying with the f18 is that it still doesn't have TWS so whenever you fire, they know what's coming and generally always go cold as you should. Because there's no TWS, I tend to push my luck and try get in closer then I would like, just to give the missile enough energy to reach a target that is typically going to turn as soon as I fire. Working as a team though, you can generally waste a missile by firing at a target and making them turn whilst having everyone continue to push forward, we've scored quite a few kills by overwhelming a target like this.

You're both right with VR though, there's pro's and con's to it, reading much of the cockpit can be hard. You both have VR zoom (In UI Layer controls) bound on your hotas yes? Sometimes I vr zoom onto the radar screen to confirm the numbers but mostly I can make out enough to get by. For example, when I'm moving my radar vertical scan range, I can make out the difference between the number 1 or 2 quite easily but 2 and 3 are usually hard to tell apart so I zoom in briefly if I need to confirm that.

You need to remember though, in PVP most people will stay low as contrails are a dead give away so I'm very rarely scanning above 25000ft. Most of the time, you will be fighting BVR so not being able to see a plane out your cockpit is not a big issue. If you do end up in a close fight then it would help a bit more but there are better ways of finding targets in close then by eyesight. I tend to use ACM vertical scan and do barrel rolls to scan within 5nm's quickly in all directions in front of me.

I'm not sure how you guys were making use of your radar the other night but I'll explain what I generally do with mine. I change the range depending on where the target is, but I tend to stick between 20/40/80. The f18's radar doesn't really work beyond 90nm so going to 160 is rather pointless. Also, I rarely go closer then 20nm as most of the time, if there's something that close, your either about to die or he is so if I don't have a solution on a target at that point I will be turning and running. The horizontal scan range is important, because we have datalink now in the f18 I typically never do full scans as I know which direction the targets are. I tend to leave it at either 40 or 60. I think corky generally always go with 60 but I like to stick with 40 mostly just so I can go through the boxes a bit faster and it makes going to 6 boxes more viable. Most of the time though I will be running 40nm range, 4 boxes, 40 degrees horizontal and like I mentioned just before I rarely move the vertical above 25000ft.

[Dr. Pain]

I do VR zoom and I have been going between 20/40 k range on the radar a lot. It's something I need more time with. But at the same time I do like strike aircraft so I might flip flop between that and air to air. I would have no problems flying my MiG-19 in any form of the game but a mid 50's jet up against 3rd or 4th generation will have a hard time. But I'll keep plugging away. I didn't look at tacview from PVP as I had bigger issues like having systems turned on to begin with

[DarrenM]

I'm fine with the cockpit and displays. It's keeping track of people visually when flying low through the mountains etc that's an issue. Lost track of people twice doing that in the server the other day. Sometimes you can get them back with vertical scan/bore sight mode or whatever they're called but they just disappeared this time.

Update on the 5th is supposed to have the VR optimizations. KA-50 is finally getting some work as well.

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/ ... 5-30_Heli/

[DarrenM]

Turns out they did release the VR update, only it's not working as planned. Some get a performance boost but others are worse off or see no improvement at all. I had bad fps last time I played so I might be in the worse off group. I'll have to try newer driver versions or something to see if it performs better.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=3952706

[Duke]

[Dr. Pain]

[Dr. Pain]

I got the Mil Mi8 today and thats a great VR experience! It's big and so many switches and such, it can feel over whelming at first but great fun. Had fun in the Huey today too. Slowly getting the hang of flying choppers in this.

[Duke]

Until May 18th, use discount code FROOGLESIM to purchase DCS World modules for 50% off with 10% of the net profit going to Second Harvest Foodbank.

[DarrenM]

A lot of content is free to fly until then as well. F/A-18C Hornet, F-16C Viper, A-10C Warthog, F-5E Tiger II, Persian Gulf Map and all DCS World War II products.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/223750/d ... 109842325/

[Dr. Pain]

I've tried a few things and I will get the Persian Gulf map. Still thinking about the WWII map plus assets and maybe a Focke-Wulf.

[Dr. Pain]

Supercarrier is out and I like it. I was online doing some take off's last night and it is so nice to have animated deck crew to guide you to a catapult. I didn't try landing as the server went down and I did other things.

[hylas]

Yeah I was reading the latest patch notes. I haven't jumped in yet but I'm more excited about some of the fixes to the viper and hornet and general performance fixes then I am about the carrier.

Performance fix for the hornet SA page & Fixed enemies being detected as friendly in the viper are hopefully completely fixed.

[Duke]

Stumbled across this in my YouTube feed
Didn't realise something like this even existed for DCSW

[smithcorp]

The new Syria map looks amazing - Wags has put out a few videos showing off different parts of it.