Either WW2 or modern is fine, guns yes please!
Ok, in that case there are two big choices available and some minor ones. Both carry some significant jankiness, tho the ww2 offering less so. Both are amazing in VR.
For jets, get DCS (its free) and get a feel for the software and get it to work on your box. The sim comes with an unarmed P-51 to fly around with and a russian ground attack plane called the Su-25T.
If you like what you are seeing, pay for one of the āflaming cliffs 3ā entry level jets or the entire fc3 package. They are simulated to the standard of the Su-25T and do not feature clicky cockpits, so its all done via your keyboard and/or HOTAS. scroll up a little to see me enumerate what you get in the FC3 package. Get an F-5E, a MiG-15 or the Hornet if you want some serious aviation geekery to fool around with (they are more like the P-51 in the teaser but WAY more intricate). Be prepared to have to fiddle with it to get it all just right. Graphics settings need experimentation to get just right. You will also need to get intimate with the controls assignment screen. Iāll help with those if needed.
For WW2 go to https://il2sturmovik.com/ and get the package that appeals to you most. Iād reccomend the Kuban one. Il2 does not feature flying lessons like DCS does, so you will have to learn by experimentation, youtube, forums and perhaps a multiplayer flight or two. The planes in il2 are relatively simple to operate. Stick and rudder (if you let the computer take care of the engine) and a trigger will get you sorted. These old tail dragger need rudder input at takeoff and landing but IIRC the sidewinder stick has a twist axis, doesnāt it?
Anyway, good luck, and tell us what you got and how it went.
Oh one last thing, do not get these sims on steam. Almost a third of the money goes to valve, and these dev houses need every cent. It is one of the reasons these things are so janky because there is no money to pay for a dedicated UI guy.
I think itās time to get the Harrier and the Viggen.
Can confirm, the Harrier is a thing of beauty. :)
Hmm, I see Logitech updated/rebranded the Saitek X56 a couple months back, apparently fixing some of the common issues:
I see one for sale (relatively) cheap here, must admit Iām tempted. My Logitech G940 is still going but man the center is real sloppy and the force feedback cuts out now and againā¦
Anyone have any experience/cautionary tales with this new one? Iād prefer a brand new Logi design but I guess thatās too much to hope for. And I canāt really afford something higher end like VKB or Virpil.
Looks nice. I picked up the Thrustmaster T1600M last year when my x52 setup finally was showing its age, but if Logitech wouldāve had this out back then I might have grabbed it.
You got the HOTAS set or just the stick? Is it as good as they say it is? It is said to have the same sensors in the stick as the warthog, which would mean itās a big step above previous mid-range stuff in accuracy.
Cool, itās not often we get to hear about specific manufacturing improvements like that.
Thanks for the recommendations! Will try out DCS first.
Wow, good to see Logitech bringing Saitek back up to itās former high standards.
The set. It is pretty nice, and I definitely like the feel of it better than the x52.
Tacview is having a 50% off summer sale.
I just had the most amazing fight in the MiG-15. Its the single mission where you are to scramble against approaching fighters. If so much as a single bomb hits the airfield, you fail the mission. You get a single vector to the incoming bogeys and thats it.
So its a cold start. Luckily the Fagot spins up quickly and easily. two took a lot more time to get going than I did. I blasted it onto the runway almost at full throttle. Unlike western jets, migs steer by differential braking that is controlled by a paddle on the stick and the rudder pedals. weird.
Immediately after takeoff I retracted gears, flaps and activated all three of the guns. two hefty 23mm boys and their stupidly big 37mm daddy. I checked my heading and flew towards the mountains the enemy would be coming across. Two called he was rolling.
Just over the foothills I spotted four incoming in a dinger four formation. They were about 6k feet above me. No way was I going to catch them if they made best speed towards Beslan.
Luckily they didnt so I did. They spotted a single incoming MiGlet down below and decided fuck the mission, weāre fighter pilots! and the lead element dropped their eggs and dove to engage me. well fuck me I thought, with a 6k altitude disadvantage, slow and alone. At least its a mission kill.
I climbed up to them. running was not going to do me any good now. time to do some of that pilot shit! defensive against two in a machine that rolls worse than the adversary crates is hairy to say the least. I twisted. I turned. I kicked the rudder. I deliberately spun to spoil a shot. I made climbing turns to sap my pursuers energy. Two called wheels up.
And them I took a burst. lady fortune smiled upon me as my engine kept humming at full power and the exhaust temperature remained constant. The canopy was holed and my gyro sight had died . I clicked up the backup iron sight, gritted my teetj and called two to get the fuck over here fucking pronto.
Just as two called bandit sighted, I managed to blast a crossing sabre with a lucky snapshot. Those big guns hit hard. Now it was three against one. soon two. The shot left me in a horrible position, slow, nose high and with a very angry ameeican sitting right at my six, aiming his 6 fiddy cals at my noggin.
I spun it, desperately recovering just above the trees. watched and cheered as two made a slashing attack and dragging one of the bandits up and away.
I flew a tight circle just above and around a mountain peak. the sabers could not keep up. little by little they lost angles. I did not join them in reversing, knowing their kites roll better and getting im a two circle is advantageous to me, gaining angles steadily and having a far heavier weight of shot.
And my chance came. my shot went horribly wild tho, without the benefit of a reflector sight. I patiently worked to get another chance while also twisting in my chair to keep track of his buddy, the ground and mountains and my own wingman and his dancepartner.
Blamblamblam. this time I did get him. just at that time, two called his kill as well. getting the last one almost felt like a formal training 1v1. Elated I ordered two RTB and flew home.
The landing was hairy, with a crosswind and it turned out my airspeed indicator was on the fritz too. I bumped and bopped but held it together and taxied to the tower for vodka and medals.
Tomorrow iāll see if i can make youtube out of this for yāall. i feel sierra fucking hotel right now :D
Looking forward to that!
I had a bit of a hairy landing in the Harrier just now.
The water injection system, which boosts engine thrust by cooling the innards and allowing for a bit of extra jet pipe temperature before things start melting, is automatic. This is good. The Harrier is enough of a handful on landing as it is without another switch to flip. (In the standard recovery, you start to the carrierās right at 350 knots and 800 feet. You crank around to your downwind leg. Between the break and the turn to the groove, you have about five seconds to set the VSTOL master mode, set the nozzles to 50-60 degrees, set the flaps to STOL mode, and descend 200 feet.)
The automatic water injection, however, turns on in response to high jet pipe temperatures, which in turn result from high throttle settings. As I neared the carrier, I found that my planeās weight was just enough to be too much for dry thrust, but too low to really need the RPM bump from water injection. So up and down I went, and it spoiled what was otherwise a good approach. I still put it down on the centerline, but I was a planeās length back from where I wanted to be.
One more thing to watch out for. Thatās the Harrier for you.
thanks for the heads-up. At 12 bucks, I canāt let that go.
Sadly the track of last nightsā flight is no good. Things do not go in the track like they went in the flight. So its no good. The last kill never happens as the planes are in a wildly different position than where they should be. Odd.
Does it need to have its scripts installed at the time of the flight to record the info it needs, or can it work retroactively with save files? I know it has some settings listed under special (I think) in the options. I havenāt had a chance to try it yet. Spent some of the evening reading the manual for the F-15C.
Edit: and yeah at 50% off it seems like too good a deal to pass up if you are into flying air combat sims.
Oh man that tacview thingie is awesome, I should have started using that a LONG time ago. I replayed two short 1v1 BFM rides with it and found multiple ways to up my game. I love how clearly it shows things. Very much worth the price of admission.
I think Tacview can get the data it needs from playing back a track after its scripts are installed, but otherwise it has to be live. I havenāt used it in a while.
Re: tracks, thatās just another thing that DCS developers and fans protest is a hard problem, despite everyone else having solved it years ago. DCS tracks are super-simple: the mission file, plus a record of all control inputs. Playback just plays the game again, so itās extraordinarily easy to get desyncs. āBut Fishbreath!ā you protest. āWhy not just stick a keyframe in every five or ten seconds, with a record of platform positions?ā Beats me.
Because they also have to: give the hornet amraams and harm. fix the A-10C cockpit lighting. Fix the Ka-50 cockpit lights. get new clouds and humidity models working. fix the weird flickering on the MiG-15s fuselage when seen from the cockpit. give the hornet a TGP and guided air to ground munitions. fix VR for combined arms. optimize it to not shit itself after you ran two missions in a row. et cetera ad nauseam. Iām sure making tracks work better is on a list somewhere.