New Found Respect for DCS!

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October 19th, 2019, 17:48
rvn817j

New Found Respect for DCS!

Two months ago I started accumulating bits and pieces for a computer upgrade. The reason was the new Ryzen's were released. So, I snagged a Ryzen 7 3700X at Newegg (saved a couple bucks, but not much). A couple weeks after that I picked up a 570X chipset board for $20 off, an M2 SSD, some standard SSDs and, of course, some DDR4 memory. I pulled the guts out of an FX8350 build I had (sold the CPU on eBay, gave my son the AM3 socket motherboard and still have some DDR3 memory listed on eBay). The case, hard drives, power supply AND Win10 operating system are being used in my "new" build. (Getting the Win10 license moved over is another story, so if anybody goes this route and has questions, send me a PM.)

You may ask, what about the graphics card? Good question. Last week on my almost daily email from Newegg, the ASUS reference RX5700 was on sale for under $300 (along with a $20 rebate and Ghost Recon Borderlands digital d/l). A cracking deal!

I finally got everything up and running today. I've only done F-18 Case I carrier landings so far, but the performance and graphics are fantastic. I finally have something that looks and feels like "Wags" information videos (at a cost the "penny pinching" me accept).

Those of you that aren't there yet, don't give up. The new AMD gear is almost affordable!

I have also been working on a project to save the rudder pedals from my G940 setup using an arduino board as the controller. I have not gotten it working yet, but if I do I will report my success here!

P.S. I'm going to insert a link to a good article at Guru3d about the 3800X CPU, but it also mentions the "value" winner 3700X. Lots of good information about this new CPU and how to go about getting a value performance "beast". https://www.guru3d.com/articles-page...-review,2.html
October 20th, 2019, 13:36
Mach3DS

The reason the the AMD CPU and 570 chipset are so amazing, is that the CPU is stays cooler with a modular design, and it offer access to PCIe 4.0. Which basically doubles the bandwidth available....You can now open the flood gates from the CPU to a video card that can handle it.
October 20th, 2019, 16:32
Phantom88

:jump:Excellent !! Great to hear you have a Rig that can run DCS at a enjoyable rate
October 20th, 2019, 16:38
Victory103

Welcome, I had to do the same last year with a new gaming rig allowing me to run both DCS and P3D. Immersion is key and even without VR yet, just Track IR I love taking the Tomcat to the boat and having to re-learn USAF style tanking in the F-16.
October 21st, 2019, 04:36
rvn817j

Quote:

Originally Posted by Victory103

Welcome, I had to do the same last year with a new gaming rig allowing me to run both DCS and P3D. Immersion is key and even without VR yet, just Track IR I love taking the Tomcat to the boat and having to re-learn USAF style tanking in the F-16.

I did the same with my Track IR. Pulled it off the shelf about a month ago and have been using it for Case I boat approaches.

I'm waiting on the VR stuff. Still trying to understand how you can "see" your controls (HOTAS) so that you can use them without memorizing the "feel" of the buttons and such. Ideas and comments about experience welcome.

(I don't think this is due to my better performing graphics, but I finally beat one of those MIG-29s in a BFM duel! I didn't shot him down, I out-lasted him in a descending spiral and he crashed. A win is a win!)
October 21st, 2019, 06:45
scotth6

Hi Jay,

Re using your controls when using VR, it is really a combination of things, for me. I use a HOTAS Warthog controller, so it really is just muscle memory for the most part, which is what the HOTAS was designed for IRL. The HOTAS Warthog is ergonomically fantastic, so every button is reachable without adjusting your hand position too much, or at all in most cases. Then you have clickable controls in DCS, so no need to look outside the headset for that. Of course, when it comes to sims, the keyboard will always be used for some things, particularly if you are using IL2 sims, or even DCS with FC3 aircraft or FSX/P3D/X-Plane. Even with fully clickable cockpits I still need to use the keyboard occasionally for gear, view changes, and comms. For me I just see a little gap at the bottom of the headset, so if I need to I can just peek down and see the keybaord when my head is in the right position. After a while it all just works naturally. I have had issues in the past, if I needed to find something new, but that just takes a little practice.

I had a funny experience recently. I signed up and took part in an online 1V1 guns only dogfighting tournament (Fight For Honor), which was the first time I had done anyting remotely associated with multiplayer in DCS World. During the first round, the organiser/controller was on a channel with us and verbally told us when the fight was on, and both competitors pressed "Fly" at the same time to start the mission/fight at the same time. I made it through the first round, and then then next morning, with about 2 minutes to go before the second round, the controller decided to tell us that because he was commentating online we needed to use the in game chat to type "Ready" when we were ready to start. He would then type in "3,2,1....Fights On" in the chat.

Well, I had never used the multiplayer functions of DCS, so I had no idea what keys to use to initiate the chat function. On top of this, I had just started using my new Oculus Rift S headset, and was still getting used to it, so couoldn't really peek down as I could with my older Rift, as I had it too tight. The organiser was starting to get annoyed with us both because we wouldn't type in the chat, so in the end he said, well at least one of you needs to use chat, so I told my competitor when I was ready, and he would type in that we were both ready to go. It was funny, as when I was watching the replay, you could hear Moltar (the commentator) saying "I don't know what the hell is going on, neither of these guys wants to talk to me in chat". Kind of a frustrating experience, but we got there in the end.
October 21st, 2019, 10:16
rvn817j

Scotth6 - I watched some of the 1v1 flights on Youtube and found them very entertaining. You're a trail blazer! I'm going to try and get myself in shape to do it next year. I'll stick with my TrackIR for now, but your experiences sound about what I expected.

What I would like to see is a "touch sensative" HOTAS that shows your hands on your controls right in the VR headset and as you touch buttons / switches on the HOTAS that appears in your VR headset. What would also be very helpful is just a small fingertip "thingy" that could be used for pushing buttons / flipping switches on the cockpit panels in the VR headset (i.e., get rid of the bulky handset things). No more peeking out of the headset!
October 21st, 2019, 12:57
DaveWG

Quote:

Originally Posted by rvn817j

What would also be very helpful is just a small fingertip "thingy" that could be used for pushing buttons / flipping switches on the cockpit panels in the VR headset (i.e., get rid of the bulky handset things). No more peeking out of the headset!

Sounds like you want one of these:
https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=218861
October 21st, 2019, 16:42
rvn817j

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveWG

Sounds like you want one of these:
https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=218861

Yes, the same concept. I'm going to keep an eye on those and see how they develop. That guy has a good idea and I bet he ends up getting bought by a VR headset company!