DCS -- What Would Make You Fly More Often?

[Scope]

So, our DCS attendance is lacking. Tell us what your participation is like right now, and how you think UOAF could cater to you personally to increase your participation.

[HellHound]

I have not attended a DCS event since the summer due primarily to real life obligations and will be unavailable for approximately the next month. Secondary factors include general dissatisfaction with early access combat abilities of the F-18 and general DCS-isms (missiles, sniper AA, the fact that DCS is a mile wide and an inch deep, technical issues - I have rebound my keys at least four times for the F-18 alone). I am not opposed to mods provided they don’t harm attendance.

[turkey]

So, our DCS attendance is lacking. Tell us what your participation is like right now, and how you think UOAF could cater to you personally to increase your participation.

 

 

I think that the DCS WORLD sessions take a lot more time to organize them, unfortunately it lacks dynamic campaign this Simulator, the only hope is that someone has a good practice with the editor and wants to play game master if he had the "Combined Arms" module, I would like to participate in this project sometimes

I think that the DCS WORLD sessions take a lot more time to organize them, unfortunately it lacks dynamic campaign this Simulator, the only hope is that someone has a good practice with the editor and wants to play game master if he had the "Combined Arms" module, I would like to participate in this project sometimes

Edited October 13, 2018 by turkey

[Wh1t3b0Y]

Time constraints are my issue, I usually have maximum participation while home but in the last 2 months I had twisted up rotations and some issues home side. I should be back in a solid 4 weeks rotation after carnival 2019

[turkey]

I think that the DCS WORLD sessions take a lot more time to organize them, unfortunately it lacks dynamic campaign this Simulator, the only hope is that someone has a good practice with the editor and wants to play game master if he had the "Combined Arms" module, I would like to participate in this project sometimes

I think that the DCS WORLD sessions take a lot more time to organize them, unfortunately it lacks dynamic campaign this Simulator, the only hope is that someone has a good practice with the editor and wants to play game master if he had the "Combined Arms" module, I would like to participate in this project sometimes

[DarkFib3r]

I am waiting to upgrade my system before diving into DCS more deeply. I just with the 1080 TIs would drop in price more :-)

[Chrisreb]

Time is the big killer for me. Unlike many I just do not seem to have the time to fly the events I want.

 

Also I need to tap up someone like Foxy in Euro daytime to have a check combat sortie or two to make sure everything is working. Don't want to spoil a mission for others.

 

I have Hornet, A10, FC3 and Black Shark. Trying to keep up to date on all of them is impossible

[Force_Majeure]

I have not attended only because I was out of town. When I'm not out of town, I have a work conflict. I think the botched F-18 release is the root cause to low attendance because we put our eggs in that basket as the "do it all" aircraft. This wasn't a mistake necessarily, the mistake was trusting the slavs. I think supplementing the current Hornet with other varieties is a good solution, but overall proficiency in EVERY module is lacking.

 

Impromptu red flag events are in order as a solution to improve flexibility and proficiency.

 

Force

[Gusy]

DCS for me is a low fps slideshow. When I build a new computer ill give it another shot. Also the unrealistic weapons and lack of dynamic campaign are a huge issue for me.

[Domestos]

I LOVE the DCS sessions, but sometimes I'm in work or have kid-related responsibilities. I know how much work even a simple DCS Meeshun is compared to BMS, you can't just jump in and fly. We could maybe jump into blue flag and collectively rape people as a break from mission editor grinding. 

Sadly, I get in a lot of DCS when you lot are in bed under your duvets. I appreciate Scope and Nhawks efforts though. I agree with Force, If the fucking Hornet/Harrier worked life would be a lot easier. And being good across a range of "study aircraft" is no joke.

Edited October 13, 2018 by Domestos

[neuro]

I fly as much as i can since i don't care too much for the bugs (also in viggen i trust), but i realise that some people are invested in the f18 and have been put down by the situation. I think in general the interest is there but we just don't have a critical mass for regular run events, i think planning/editing a few themed missions instead of a campaign (having a "bouquet" to choose from depending on attendance for instance) and running blueflag/dynamicdcs pickups as a fallback is an option until situation improves. I'm willing to set up semiregular eurofriendly sparring evenings if there's interest

[krause]

I recommend you make a survey (google form which asks multiple questions and lets you do conditional questions, dont use the shit on the forum), you'll probably get more useful information than the anecdotes in here. It would hit multiple dimensions of questioning.

Edited October 14, 2018 by krause

[Scope]

Honestly the anecdotes are super helpful. It's nice having context for people's decisions. But I see your point.

Thanks everyone for the feedback so far, keep it coming. For those of you discussing timing problems, could you also suggest alternative times that would work better?

[Foxy]

Even if DCS is lacking on some aspect and even if the mission making is difficult, I'm pretty sure we can have some fun from that sim.

 

For me the two main aspects that refrain me to fly DCS at the moment are :

• the fact that my computer is too old to make it run smoothly and
• the time of the event. It's not always easy to leave the gf two evenings in a row during a week end when she also expects me to spent some time with her (the BMS and DCS events are for me at 8:00 pm)

[DrSlaughterRex]

So far, All the biggest issues seem to be:

 

1. Timing

2. Hardware requirements

3. Just putting all our work into the Hornet, which isn't meeting standards.

 

It is kind of a big undertaking to create each and every mission in the current state, but I'm hoping CombatFlite can help remedy that somehow.

[ApeX89]

I would love to fly more missions during early weekend times like Fr. and Sat.

 

So far, attendance for me hasn't been a big issue.

 

I love what we have here.

[nighthawk2174]

in regards to performance this is what some testing has shown:

 

My system = 

CPU - 7500U - 2 core at 3.2-3.5 MHz

RAM - 16GB at 3200

GPU - GTX 1070

SSD - M.2 SSD

 

 

Inital settings all on low or off - average FPS around 95-105 

 

 

(all impacts are averages in a mission with a similar number of units to an average mission here at UO in the F18)

Textures

Med = -5fps High = -5fps

*Note slight impact on load times as you go from low to high

 

Terrain textures

High = -0fps  

*Note no impact on performance or loading time, just leave on high

 

Water

Med = -5fps High = -0fps

*Note High for some odd reason has no noticeable difference from low on performance so just keep it on high

 

Heat blur

*no impact on performance keep on high

 

Shadows

Flat = +10 to +20fps (lol wut?!?!)  Low = -25fps Med = -27fps High = -27fps

*Note should keep on high as it looks amazing unless you need frames, in that case test on flat and see if that helps out your fps, the boost to fps on my system could just be a DCS'ism on my system alone.

 

Cockpit Res of displays

-No impact unless in A-10 where there is about a 10fps drop when using the TGP and there are a lot of units/fires... for hornet and other jets nor reason to keep on 1024 every frame

 

MSAA

Low - 2x -5to-10FPS 4x = -15 to -20 fps

*Note keep off and use your graphics cards built in MSAA features to not have any noticeable FPS impact on your game but still have MSAA

 

SSAA 

1.5X = -15fps 2.0X = -15 fps 

*Note fps drop gets worse on high textures, not necessary for non VR users

 

Terrain object shadows

*No apparent effects on fps

 

Global cockpit illumination

*about a 5fps drop if shadows are on.

Edited October 22, 2018 by nighthawk2174