yeah its a re-release of the DCS-“lite” mods in one big pack. I hope they leave the F-5 and MiG-21 as they are but even so, very nice. By its very nature DCS is a rivet counters’ thing. most of its detailing is in the aircraft themselves and the outside world. AI and EW are relatively basic. DCS is very much about flying. And the flying is very good in DCS. One interesting detail about the new MAC thing is that it includes the L-39 Albatross. A two seater trainer jet much like the USAF’s T-38 except subsonic and cheaper. That module, if iots included as-is (and I suspect it will be) will include frontseat-backseat multiplayer, allowing me to be your instructor pilot. Cool beans.
as for the re-engining of rise of flight, yeah thats flying circus. VR alone makes that worth the price of admission. I dont mind if there’s hardly a game around the flying when the flying is as good as Il-2 is.
I did know about this, thanks! I probably struck it from my memory banks because I was pretty much done with RoF. But now I plan a PC upgrade, and I will want to do VR eventually. So I’ll probably have to get it at some point.
WWI would be perfect for vr. not a lot of controls to be messing with, just get up in the sky and kill things. I should try WOFF again. I can’t remember if I was just having issues with my old saitek gear or if I was underwhelmed with something built on top of CFS3.
I want WWI air combat in VR so much! What’s the deal with that Flying Circus? I see it was announced in 2017, but can’t find anything more recent.
I really liked ROF. Yeah, the campaign stuff was pretty lackluster, but I don’t think I’ve played anything else (outside of VR) that offered such a great sense of flight.
It’s part of DCS and you will be able to join MP with full fat modules. The map situation is less clear. You get preview bits that are strictly SP of nevada and the gulf but to play MP on those maps you need to buy them.
It also got confirmed the MAC pack will feature slimmed down versions of the planes that are currently available as full modules. They will not have clickable cockpits. So the MAC MiG-21 will be far easier to fight in than the full fat one, but you will be able to pull off some tricks in the latter you can’t in the former. (shooting A-10s with beam rider A-G missiles for example)
Speaking of clickable cockpits, one of the biggest challenges in VR is grabbing mouse and clicking said controls. DDI’s, MFCD’s (Radar screens, maps, nav, stores, etc.) require it.
I was thinking some of these might help. They could be mounted in a predictable place on the desk, or even somehow next to throttle / stick. Sort of a hybrid VR / Homebuilt cockpit setup.
The form factor would be pretty easy to identify needed button presses by touch.
I’m having enough fun in IL-2 that I have decided to do two things :
upgrade my 15 year old Microsoft sidewinder precision 2 to a thrustmaster t. 16000m with the throttle as well. Goodbye, old friend, you served me so well with Mechwarrior 4 mercenaries.
buy an El cheapo used Playstation 3 eye camera to get head tracking with FACETRACKNOIR. Was so excited to read you can get basic tracking for precious little money.
No doubt a great feature, but sometimes awkward. I’m thinking being able to hit a button will be faster, As long as it’s in a predictable location you can learn while wearing the goggles.
One thing I’ve found about this throttle is it tends to stick a bit. Fortunately, it is dead easy to open, just 8 easy screws on the bottom, and with a little silicon oil you can buy at any hardware store you can smooth out the rails. It now slides smoothly for minute adjustments.
I REALLY want a warthog, but can’t quite justify the 500. After that, the 16000 one is just about perfect. Has a ministick, paddles, rotary dial, plenty of hats… I like it better than my CH one.
I agree about the throttle, it’s something I noticed straight away. I’ll have to try the silicon oil on it sometime. Otherwise, I am very happy with the combo! So many different kinds of buttons, the stick feels very nice too.
Random Q for those who play IL-2: Is there any way to change the default zoom level? Every time I start the mission I have to zoom out several times to get a view that is reasonable.
Well I bit the bullet and bought a lightly used Warhog on ebay for $300. Of course as soon as I did I searched for all the reasons I shouldn’t and read a bunch of posts saying the mini-nub slew stick doesn’t work well. This works great on both CH and 16000 so now I’m a bit concerned, but everything else points to stellar piece of kit. It arrives on Thursday.
The main issue I’m having in DCS is identifying targets in VR. It is hard in a regular monitor and VR resolution really poses an issue. The situational awareness of the “being there” factor does help over a monitor, so I would say it is just a bit harder.
I read somewhere that you could edit labels in a .lua file. I’m thinking if it’s possible to make the label just a red dot with no text that might be a worthwhile helper. Regular labels aren’t so great because they completely obscure the actual target and are much bigger.
Now we are in PC master race hackery territory. Worth it for me though. Every time I jump into this thing I’m blown away at how realistic the flight is.
There are a few tutorials about labels like that on the ED forums somewhere—little dots of a color of your choice, which appear at a reasonable range.
At the end of the 1.5 branch, there was a BMS-like model expansion setting, which rendered far-off planes at a larger size, to match how easy it actually is to see traffic, but they got rid of that with 2.5.
Speaking of traffic, I had no idea that was a thing until recently. I ended up picking up the Persian Gulf map and was tooling around in free flight. I ran out of fuel. I decided to attempt a street landing. The sun had just gone down. Suddenly I realized below me were cars with headlights driving along the highway in both directions. Freaked me out and I ended up plowing into the road right in front of one of them. Alas, he drove through, rather than stopping or going around.
Still, I’ve never seen that in a combat sim before and thought it was very cool. Little touches like that make a huge difference. I read that they were adding cows. I’m all for it.
The Persian Gulf map is pretty great. One of the things it’s done for me is drive home how narrow the Strait of Hormuz is. “Oh, I’m already in Iran. Oops.”
