Recent air combat sim recommendations?

BrianRubin · 2014-07-13T17:28:25.000Z

Hey, does anyone have any notion as to how to get Jane’s IAF working on Windows 7?

scharmers · 2014-07-14T10:28:10.000Z

Brian Rubin:

Hey, does anyone have any notion as to how to get Jane’s IAF working on Windows 7?

Do not bother, at all, with trying to get Pixel Multimedia sims (IAF, USAF) running on anything past XP. (Hell – past ME, really). Worse than JFA.

JMR · 2014-07-14T10:41:59.000Z

I found this thread on SimHQ.

SimHQ Forums

Jane's IAF on Windows 7/8

Just a heads up for those who may have missed it, T4ckl3b3rry has been working his magic and has released a Win 7/8 64-bit compatibility patch for Jane's Israeli Air Force.I have been having a blast reliving that old sim on my Win 7 64-bit rig.Check...

BrianRubin · 2014-07-14T11:19:04.000Z

Aaww man, I love USAF too. Thanks JMR, I’ll take a lookie.

Pyperkub · 2014-07-15T15:39:30.000Z

Amazon has Combat Flight Simulator 3 Battle for Europe for $9.99. Is the WOFF pre-requisite?

BrianRubin · 2014-07-15T20:28:55.000Z

Pyperkub:

Amazon has Combat Flight Simulator 3 Battle for Europe for $9.99. Is the WOFF pre-requisite?

Yup, you need that for WOFF, but a used version for a few bucks less will work fine.

flyinj · 2014-07-30T07:48:22.000Z

FYI-

All DCS titles now have full Oculus Rift Dev Kit 2 support.

I got my DK2, going to give these a whirl tonight after work.

Istari6 · 2014-07-30T09:43:15.000Z

Wow. And they just released a paid alpha for the F-86F Sabre. I’ve been drooling at the prospect of getting back into flight sims (after a 5+ year absence) once the Oculus Rift is ready. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on DCS+DK2.

scharmers · 2014-07-30T14:42:28.000Z

Istari6:

Wow. And they just released a paid alpha for the F-86F Sabre. I’ve been drooling at the prospect of getting back into flight sims (after a 5+ year absence) once the Oculus Rift is ready. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on DCS+DK2.

Useless without a MiG-15 to fight against.

Fishbreath · 2014-07-30T19:27:32.000Z

There’s an AI MiG-15bis, and it’s in progress as a flyable.

Editer · 2014-07-30T22:57:17.000Z

Sabre is on my short list of favorite planes. Totally going to grab that.

Anxious for the final Oculus Rift for flight sim use. I’ve never been able to get TrackIR to work for me. (Desk configuration, I think, with shelves right above the monitor.)

flyinj · 2014-07-31T06:31:45.000Z

Ok, played DCS last night for a couple hours.

Started out in the UH1. Holy hell. I have never in my life experienced anything like this. It was absolutely stunning. The sense of speed, lift, and immersion was off the charts. The only problem is the frame rate was suffering a lot near the air base. Once I got away from that, I was getting a pretty steady 75fps, and it was smooth sailing.

The addition of 6DOF to the DK2 makes looking around the cockpit amazing. You feel like you are there, and that is not hyperbole. Leaning in to read gauges, looking out the windows… it’s the real deal.

Next I booted up the SU25. What immediately stuck me is how the actual cockpit is laid out. Before, you were always looking at a flat 3D projection. Once you are actually sitting in that thing in immersive 3D, you realize how cramped that cockpit actually is.

The sense of speed and lift flying around in this thing is crazy. My body actually felt like I was flying a plane. I have taken the controls of a twin engine prop plane when flying around with a friend, and this was damn close to that sensation.

I tried many things yesterday. I played Elite: Dangerous for about 2-3 hours before playing DCS. I couldn’t believe how amazing Elite was… then I tried this. Whoa.

For the record, I had a DK1 and tried a few flight sims. They were pretty good, but nothing like this. The addition of 6DOF and a higher resolution screen makes all the difference.

Istari6 · 2014-07-31T08:21:48.000Z

Thanks flyinj, that sounds incredible. Exactly what I’d hoped for. Are they still selling the DK2 or is the OR on hold until they’re ready for a consumer version?

sharaleo · 2014-07-31T08:42:21.000Z

Istari6:

Thanks flyinj, that sounds incredible. Exactly what I’d hoped for. Are they still selling the DK2 or is the OR on hold until they’re ready for a consumer version?

Yep, you can still order it, but it is likley to be months away as production trickles in.

https://www.oculusvr.com/order/

flyinj, you are NOT helping my wallet.

Initial stuff I had read was oddly not that positive on DK2. SDK is only young so support is weak, but screen door effect was still raised with black trailing and reduced FOV identified as a big issues.

What are your thoughts on that?

flyinj · 2014-07-31T10:05:46.000Z

sharaleo:

Yep, you can still order it, but it is likley to be months away as production trickles in.

https://www.oculusvr.com/order/

flyinj, you are NOT helping my wallet.

Initial stuff I had read was oddly not that positive on DK2. SDK is only young so support is weak, but screen door effect was still raised with black trailing and reduced FOV identified as a big issues.

What are your thoughts on that?

SDK is young. You need to jump through a lot of hoops to get stuff working right now. But, it’s only the first week of release. Once all games support “rift as primary display” correctly, it’s going to be even easier than DK1 to play games. I’m assuming that support is going to be in all DK2 supporting games in the next week as they just released the new SDK.

FOV doesn’t bother me in the least. It is slightly more narrow than the DK1, but barely noticable IMO.

Screendoor is greatly reduced, but it’s still there. It feels like you’re playing a mid-res game now… reminds me of playing a flight sim at 800x600. Before it was like playing something at sub 640x400 with black lines between the pixels. The resolution bump is substantial IMO.

I haven’t noticed any “black trailing”, and I’ve been looking for it.

sharaleo · 2014-07-31T10:07:19.000Z

Cheers! Keep us updated!

awdougherty · 2014-07-31T11:27:12.000Z

Just curious, is there anything in DCS World that gives you the Falcon 4 sandbox vibe? I know they have that mode that lets you control ground forces and such but I didn’t know if it actually gave you that open control of a battlefield the way falcon 4 did. Do any flight sims offer that option and allow coop?

BrianRubin · 2014-07-31T11:52:03.000Z

VERY few games offer the kind of dynamic battlefield that Falcon 4 offers, sadly. Wings over Flanders Fields is the closest modern equivalent I know of.

flyinj · 2014-07-31T11:53:39.000Z

awdougherty:

Just curious, is there anything in DCS World that gives you the Falcon 4 sandbox vibe? I know they have that mode that lets you control ground forces and such but I didn’t know if it actually gave you that open control of a battlefield the way falcon 4 did. Do any flight sims offer that option and allow coop?

Eagle Dynamics (Developers of DCS) are notorious for ignoring every request for a dynamic campaign. People have been begging for one since their very first sim, SU-22 I think? Back in the pre-Win95 days. They just don’t care. And it is a damn shame. They are purely rivet counters and that’s it.

You can, however, play co-op in some of the canned missions.

That said, playing Rise of Flight with a DK2 would be epic. I really hope they put support in for it.

awdougherty · 2014-07-31T12:05:41.000Z

Brian Rubin:

VERY few games offer the kind of dynamic battlefield that Falcon 4 offers, sadly. Wings over Flanders Fields is the closest modern equivalent I know of.

I figured Falcon 4 was still a rare gem but thanks for this recommendation. World War One could be a really interesting setting. Will have to look into it more. Thanks for this.