I spent some time on the Through the Inferno PvE server flying the Harrier today. It was a hoot. The single-player Through the Inferno missions are good practice, but it’s a huge step up to the online version. The server spawns things automatically, based presumably on what’s in the air, so the picture is a lot more dynamic than it is offline. Throw in the semi-integrated voice comms—DCS Simple Radio Standalone, which uses your aircraft’s cockpit radio settings to pick a channel—and it’s one of my favorite DCS experiences so far.
I took off from the Tarawa with four Mavericks and two Sidearms, since there was a substantial friendly CAP up. The target was Goori, on the Iranian side of the Gulf. I got three of my four missiles away without much drama, before an OPFOR F-16 got in close in between parts of our CAP. I ended up diving away with one Maverick left. The F-16 turned cold, so I drove in on the deck back toward the target area, popped up, and let my last Maverick fly at the JTAC’s laser spot. As I was turning back around to head home, the F-16 turned back in, and by the time I noticed (the Harrier’s RWR audio is still broken; you only get infrequent chirps), I saw that most feared of RWR legends, ‘M’. (That is, missile, and since it’s on the RWR, active missile.)
I dove hard and managed to drive the missile into the ground, and spent a few seconds remembering where the air-to-air gun mode was. By the time I turned back around, though, the F-15 on CAP had plugged the Viper for me. Back home it was, for a nice low-drama landing.
Still blown away by the Hornet, but I’d like to take advantage of the current sale to pick up another piece of the DCS pie.
Currently have:
Looking at:
- Harrier
- Viggen
- F-5
- Nevada map.
I can swing one of those. I don’t mind early access if there is some assurance that development will continue through to polish. Perhaps foolishly, I have faith that Eagle Dynamics will eventually get there with their own modules. Do the third party developers seem solid?
Since I still have plenty of room to grow with the planes I have (eventually would like to catch em all) does it make sense to go with the terrain. Or in other words, is the Nevada terrain anything special, or is it sorta boring.
Appreciate the input.
I don’t know if RAZBAM has quite proven themselves yet. To a degree, it depends on how much you care about relatively minor issues. (There’s a long list of unfinished stuff on the Mirage, but a lot of it is of the form, “Wrong rivet pattern around the left main gear housing,” or, “Cockpit light dimmer has too few steps.”) I don’t think it’s indicative of a problem actually finishing projects, but you might take it as a warning sign. If you don’t, I think the Harrier is a good get. (I wrote that six months ago or so; they’ve finished more of it since then.)
If you do, the Viggen is something special. The work Heatblur has done on the design is hands-down superb. I think it has the best cockpit graphics, lighting, and sound of anything in DCS right now. The HUD symbology is very different. It puts me in mind of an X-wing, in a lot of ways—lines and arrows, very little text. The systems are interesting to learn, and although dumb bombs and rockets are its main weapons systems, it can do a lot with the more modern weapons in its kit. Either way, the mission profile is a blast. Most of the time you won’t have any reason to go over a few hundred meters.
Nevada isn’t bad. Vegas is nicely rendered, but there aren’t really a ton of landmarks in the modeled region. As third-party maps goes, I think it’s the winner in recent campaigns, but the Persian Gulf is going to overtake that pretty quickly, and is more interesting (to me, at least) as a mission setting from both a topographical standpoint and a geopolitical one.
Thanks for the feedback. Good point on Persion Gulf… fits in more with the theme I suppose and hearkens back to the early flight sims. I am concerned with req’s though. Looks like cards are coming down, but my 970 will have to last for a bit longer.
Viggen sounds like a winner!
I’m still stuck on an old Radeon HD6970, and I can play just fine on low settings. You should be okay. (It won’t look anything like the screenshots, but that’s the price we pay.)
Fun fact: you can find the real-life Harrier shipboard operations manual online. All you wanted to know and more about proper landing procedures.
(The link didn’t work, but copying and pasting into my browser address bar does. Edit again: and now it does work.)
www.f-16.net/forum/download/file.php?id=18071
I’d say harrier over viggen. viggen is awesome and a true work of art but shes also a bit of a one trick pony.
harrier will do anything while also being strange and quirky.
Editer
2849
I really love the F-5, but I guess if you already have the Hornet, the Harrier’s going to give you a more unique experience.
vyshka
2850
So for folks flying vr, is a hotas sufficient for all the bits on the fiddly planes or do you need keyboard as well?
not keyboard, but often mouse.
I wish there was something like a couple of rings i could wear on my thumb and index finger to twist knobs and flip switches in VR while using the hotas unimpeded.
I mostly use the gaze-based interaction to flip and twiddle, which works really well once you kind of know what everything is. I have mouse buttons and scroll wheel mapped to the HOTAS to facilitate this.
It doesn’t work so well for controls to the extreme sides/rear though as they are more difficult to ‘look’ at accurately. This will be better next gen when we have proper eye tracking.
DCS has some level of evolving Touch support in some modules but I’ve yet to try it.
yeah in their latest newsletter they featured an E3 presentation of an outfit doing gloves for VR that used DCS for a showcase. They are stupidly expensive tho, as expensive as an oculus or full hotas set. i want something simpler, just a pointer really.
vyshka
2854
I need to splurge and get something like this flight stand one of these days:
http://www.nextlevelracing.com/products/next-level-flight-stand/
Yeah, I’m not sure how the different gloves will end up working out for flight sims. It will be interesting to see how the tech progresses though. If they can get prices down in a generation or two, they look like they have interesting capabilities.
the house I live in is a rental. it also has one room too few. when and if we ever move into a place where i can have about two square meters to myself I intend to DIY one helluva vr cockpit for myself.
I’ve long planned to totally geek out with a home-built cockpit once I’ve retired. I’m not sure how VR fits into that though. Kinda takes away the need for the external controls and cool structure when you can’t see them.
Of course to annoy the wife, sitting in a cockpit like that AND wearing VR goggles would really be something special…
vyshka
2857
I could see something like next level’s flight cockpit, which looks like a racing seat paired up with their flight stand, but a full cockpit mockup would be too much for vr (for me). Mostly for me it is about wanting the stick and throttle in the right place and anchored, and rudder pedals that are anchored. It would be nifty if someone came up with one where you could switch from having the stick off to the side, and having it in the center.
Yeah for me a DIY VR pit will bemostly a very comfy chair (a car seat perhaps?) modded to accomodate a stick positioned between the knees and a mounting for throttle in a position that mirrors the real one. Looks and other controls do not matter. A cup holder is an option tho. How the thing looks is completely irrelevant as it is a VR pit.
Tim_N
2859
@schurem replying to you here as I don’t want to clutter the civilian flight thread.
You’ve convinced me to get IL-2. Do you know for certain that I can buy stalingrad on steam and then add the later expansions to the account from their own web store? I have been trying to find info about that online but nothing yet, only that if you buy on their store you don’t get a steam key. I understand steam takes a cut, but as a selfish consumer I vastly prefer having the steam overlay / time tracking / refundability.
EDIT: Now that I have looked more I think I can buy the later expansions/planes from the store and add it to the steam game, that’s good.
I managed a bit of time last night to dig in a bit more into the Hornet.
Again I will say, early access be damned, this thing is verging on masterpiece.
Here is a thread on the ED forums gathering tutorial movies made by Navy Hornet pilots.
https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=213934
The thing that struck me most from these was that these pilots are training based on their experience in the real jet, rather than the sim. Their knowledge of aeronautics and memory of flight characteristics apply to the sim, and they have stated how impressed they were with the accuracy while pointing out areas for improvement. This included carrier landings; the pitching deck, wind and turbulence.
Their recommendations for setting up the various cockpit screens for navigation is coming from hundreds of hour in the jet, rather than the sim.
Although I’m a fast jet geek, I’ve always bounced off learning the most complex systems of say, BMS, because I suspected lots of that stuff was classified, and those hours would be spent learning a complex fantasy. Kinda like learning to speak Klingon.
I’m sure some stuff still is classified, but with this one, I am more assured that any learning efforts might apply to real-world, and in that inevitable day when the apocalypse comes around, and I find an abandoned Hornet camouflaged in the forest, I’ll be able to hop in and fly it.
Tim_N
2861
I’m having alot of fun with IL-2: Battle of Stalingrad, I appreciate the recommendation!
I didn’t find it too difficult to learn the basic mechanics. With realism set to ‘normal’ to take off you just need to worry about starting the engine with ‘e’ and lowering the flaps. Once in the air, retract landing gear and flaps, and vice versa when approaching to land. Even though it’s easy to know what buttons to press, it isn’t easy actually landing the thing, so practicing taking off and landing has been a blast (a couple of times literally a blast).
My first dogfight with the nazis I managed to get a hit on the enemy plane so it had a smoke trail behind it. I was hoping that would be enough to down the thing, as my ammo was very low, but it kept coming. Knowing I had one more chance to kill it before running out of bullets I turned to face it head on, fired everything I had to no avail, and then too late I suddenly realised I was in a game of chicken and the AI didn’t mind dying, so we smashed into one another.
The game does a great job with the sound and feedback to convince you of the speed of the plane and the force of wind. The graphics and performance is also great.
