DCS FAQs / How To's

[rvn817j]

(Can Admin please "sticky" this thread.)

I don't know much about DCS at this point (other than it is great for a number of things like getting shot down and practicing carrier landings / crashes), but I have some questions and maybe we should create an FAQ (if for no other reason than to help me...lol).

1. How do you EASILY add munitions to Aircraft after starting in "free flight"?

2. How does one install 3rd party created skins and / or change to different skin supplied by DCS? (I may have answered my own question here, but it looks like you install skins to C:\Users\ [your user name] \SavedGames\DCS.openbeta\Liveries\ [Aircraft Name] \ [Livery / Skin Name] .)

[SH427]

1. If you're starting in the air, you're stuck with whatever's under your wings.
If you're starting cold and dark on the ramp, Hit the Ground Crew Radio (\) then (F8) and then (F1) for rearm and refuel, which will pull up your stores screen with the ability to hook up whatever you'd like on your pylons or there's a drop-down menu with presets available.

2. Skins can also be chosen from that rearm menu. But the critical thing to remember is that the engine will only find skins if the folder for the aircraft is properly named to a T. So Viggen skins have to be in a folder called "AJS-37" and nothing else will do. Some folders will have the skins pre-installed in a proper folder. Your path location os correct, naming the folder is always the hard part for me. :encouragement:

[Phantom88]

This is a pretty straightforward video that explains a lot of things DCS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrfjI9hH9vg

[rvn817j]

1. If you're starting in the air, you're stuck with whatever's under your wings.
If you're starting cold and dark on the ramp, Hit the Ground Crew Radio (\) then (F8) and then (F1) for rearm and refuel, which will pull up your stores screen with the ability to hook up whatever you'd like on your pylons or there's a drop-down menu with presets available.

2. Skins can also be chosen from that rearm menu. But the critical thing to remember is that the engine will only find skins if the folder for the aircraft is properly named to a T. So Viggen skins have to be in a folder called "AJS-37" and nothing else will do. Some folders will have the skins pre-installed in a proper folder. Your path location os correct, naming the folder is always the hard part for me. :encouragement:

Thanks for that information. I also noticed that you can bring up re-arming window with LAlt + ' when you are sitting on the tarmac. Many, many things are in the "Adjust Controls" window when you hit Escape. The important thing is to know the name of the thing you need to adjust.

Is there nose wheel steering on the F-16? I can't find that in the controls.

[Phantom88]

Here's another good one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdZnoPcpqKM

[rvn817j]

Phantom - That last video is exactly what I'm talking about! This sim is so full of "stuff" I've barely scratched the surface with flying the aircraft. Good thing the MN winter is long, I have a lot of work to do!

[Phantom88]

Thanks for that information. I also noticed that you can bring up re-arming window with LAlt + ' when you are sitting on the tarmac. Many, many things are in the "Adjust Controls" window when you hit Escape. The important thing is to know the name of the thing you need to adjust.

Is there nose wheel steering on the F-16? I can't find that in the controls.
The control should be on The Stick marked ​NWS

[rvn817j]

From 000rick000 - LALT+'

This brings up the armament menu for fueling and arming or rearming with munitions. It can only be done on the ground with WoW. For some FC3 aircraft like the Eagle, your engines must be off and the Battery off as well. This is the same key command for every module. Not just Viper. This is also the place you can change your aircraft paint scheme from the drop down as long as the paint is part of the country you set the aircraft to in the mission editor matches the countries listed in the paints' description.lua file.

[Mach3DS]

RSHIFT+H = NVG ON/OFF for all aircraft.

[Mach3DS]

How to change time and weather? If must be set in mission editor. There is a a little Sun/Cloud Icon on the Left most bar in the mission editor. Click this to bring up the weather Menu on the Righ side of the screen.

The Time of day and season can be changed via the Clipboard looking icon in the mission editor. NOTE: For full moon and beautiful night lighting under moon conditions you must use actual dates that correspond to full moon.

[scotth6]

Great idea for a thread. There is heaps I don't know about DCS World too. I cneeded NVG the other day in a mission set at night,but could not for the life of me remember whatit was, nor could I find it in the controls menu. I was in VR so did not have access to the net at the time. In any case I made do with the sensors, which worked OK.

I would also suggest anyone willing to learn more about DCS to check out some tutorial videos on the mission editor. It can be very rewarding to creat eyour own misisons, even if it is just setting up some targets for practice, and once you know the basics it is not all that difficult. On the other hand, it is a very powerful tool, and you can make some extremely complex missions if you want to.

Here is a good video I watched a while ago:

Part 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kChfnSusmIo

Part 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnUpOcJaLck


and another one from the Grim Reapers, who have lots of great tutorial vids on all things DCS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIHCCA1gfh8

[rvn817j]

Scott, you are right! Grim Reapers has a large number of DCS training videos. The YouTube home page for Grim Reapers is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZuXjkFY00p1ga3UyCBbR2w/featured . Many DCS topics / aircraft covered.

[scotth6]

Another Youtuber who made some great DCS World videos is Bunyap Sims. Unfortunately it looks like it has been a while since he posted anything new, but he has a huge collection of DCS Videos for various aircraft on his channel. I just (FINALLY!) learned how to create a new waypoint using L/L or MGRS coordinates with the CDU in the A-10C.


https://www.youtube.com/user/4023446/videos


Another few Youtubers I have been watching lately for Tomcat and Hornet stuff are RedKite, Jabbers and Spudknocker. They are also doing some F-16 stuff now too.



https://www.youtube.com/user/RedKiteRender/videos

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXXUrGCF3wV3bbZ6pFQ00g/videos

https://www.youtube.com/user/Spudknocker1/videos