Flight Sim Mega thread: You had me at "longest shaft in the market"

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Flight Sim Mega thread: You had me at "longest shaft in the market"

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soggybagel: Aug 6, 2006; The official account of NFL Tackle Phil Loadholt.

Let's talk Football.

Lord Stimperor posted:

I wish you could dial in historic weather also, or spectacular storms

That would be cool.

You a Cessna pilot trying to land in the middle of Hurricane Andrew.

# ? Mar 26, 2021 19:26

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# ? May 24, 2024 21:42

Aero737: Apr 30, 2006

The funny thing with fs2020 weather is that winds at the surface and aloft as well as temperature and pressure seem to be spot on and almost always match the METAR. Clouds and precipitation are all over the place. There is definitely a lot going on with the weather engine since it seems to do a good job with generating clouds when winds go over mountain ridges and over islands in the ocean. It just sometimes seems to get the most basic weather completely incorrect. It also struggles with low level clouds and I almost never see MVFR or just IFR conditions. Its either LIFR or full on VFR

# ? Mar 26, 2021 19:56

soggybagel: Aug 6, 2006; The official account of NFL Tackle Phil Loadholt.

Let's talk Football.

Didn't they also kill updrafts or something? I remember reading that somewhere...was it in this thread?

I think the glaring issues becoming as glaring as they are with weather because it gets so much right but also looks really good.

# ? Mar 26, 2021 20:14

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

soggybagel posted:

Didn't they also kill updrafts or something? I remember reading that somewhere...was it in this thread?

I think the glaring issues becoming as glaring as they are with weather because it gets so much right but also looks really good.

For updrafts I think you might be thinking of the release month where the US had extremely messed up weather if you were using live. Something like there was no wind above a certain altitude so it was never gonna updraft.

Fly near a ridge with some surface winds now and you'll be suitably terrified. During that month of messed up wind it was eye opening to dick around US mountain ranges compared to the Alps.

# ? Mar 26, 2021 20:47

MrYenko: Jun 18, 2012; #2 isn't ALWAYS bad...

RangerKarl posted:

They're also plotting the release of Kiowa and Apache this year, so tbh it does worry me that they're stacking a a lot of helicopter modules up. I hope they've got Hind systems functional, at least to beta state.

Kiowa is apparently on indefinite hold. They allegedly released a bunch of media before consulting with Textron I guess, and their contract lawyers told them to eat poo poo and die.

# ? Mar 26, 2021 20:54

jammyozzy: Dec 7, 2006; Is that a challenge?

zedprime posted:

For updrafts I think you might be thinking of the release month where the US had extremely messed up weather if you were using live. Something like there was no wind above a certain altitude so it was never gonna updraft.

Fly near a ridge with some surface winds now and you'll be suitably terrified. During that month of messed up wind it was eye opening to dick around US mountain ranges compared to the Alps.

Can confirm, I am (slowly) working my way up the Andes in the caravan and crossing a ridge line can be a wild ride at times.

# ? Mar 26, 2021 22:28

DaitoX: Mar 1, 2008

Lord Stimperor posted:

I wish you could dial in historic weather also, or spectacular storms

You can do this somewhat, when you go to live weather you can select a time and a date and you should have the weather of that date.

I am not sure how far back it goes.

# ? Mar 27, 2021 01:28

GutBomb: Jun 15, 2005; Dude?

DaitoX posted:

You can do this somewhat, when you go to live weather you can select a time and a date and you should have the weather of that date.

I am not sure how far back it goes.

I don�t think it works like that. I�ve tried that but all it did was give me the current real-time weather with the lighting of the selected time.

# ? Mar 27, 2021 03:29

RangerKarl: Oct 7, 2013

MrYenko posted:

Kiowa is apparently on indefinite hold. They allegedly released a bunch of media before consulting with Textron I guess, and their contract lawyers told them to eat poo poo and die.

First I've read of this, got a source?

# ? Mar 27, 2021 04:00

Lord Stimperor: Jun 13, 2018; I'm a lovable meme.

DaitoX posted:

You can do this somewhat, when you go to live weather you can select a time and a date and you should have the weather of that date.

I am not sure how far back it goes.

As far as I know, that clock doesn't do anything to the weather itself

# ? Mar 27, 2021 12:06

gnrk: Apr 1, 2008

I'm debating buying a proper monitor for my new PC or trying VR with FS2020. I was looking at the Oculus Quest 2 but hate the Facebook aspect. The PC has a 5600X and a 3070. What should I do?

# ? Mar 27, 2021 15:11

Vahakyla: May 3, 2013

gnrk posted:

I'm debating buying a proper monitor for my new PC or trying VR with FS2020. I was looking at the Oculus Quest 2 but hate the Facebook aspect. The PC has a 5600X and a 3070. What should I do?

Reverb G2 off of HP website directly.
https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-reverb-g2-virtual-reality-headset

Unless money is very tight, the quality of the image and the resolution of the G2 is immense, allowing you to read small gauges and text. To push it on high settings would be a stretch on your GPU and CPU, but you'll get middle settings level performance out of it. I run a 9600K and a 2080 Super, and it has a hard time, but I still would not use anything else again.

# ? Mar 27, 2021 16:07

GutBomb: Jun 15, 2005; Dude?

Vahakyla posted:

Reverb G2 off of HP website directly.
https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-reverb-g2-virtual-reality-headset

Unless money is very tight, the quality of the image and the resolution of the G2 is immense, allowing you to read small gauges and text. To push it on high settings would be a stretch on your GPU and CPU, but you'll get middle settings level performance out of it. I run a 9600K and a 2080 Super, and it has a hard time, but I still would not use anything else again.

The advantage for me of the quest 2 is that using some oculus debug tools you can force reprojection to run at 30FPS. Making FS2020 run at the resolution required to look good in a headset and maintain a higher framerate can be hard but 30FPS with reprojection makes FS2020 very smooth. The oculus software does some frame interpolation magic to make 30FPS smooth and appear as if it�s 90FPS in the headset. I have a 9900k and a 3080 and can�t maintain 45FPS but 30FPS is doable.

I know WMR and Steam VR have reprojection too, but they are less tweakable than the oculus one, and the image quality difference between the quest 2 and the g2 is minimal. You also get the benefit of having much better controllers if you want to venture into any other VR stuff.

But then there is the Facebook stuff.

# ? Mar 27, 2021 16:15

Vahakyla: May 3, 2013

GutBomb posted:

and the image quality difference between the quest 2 and the g2 is minimal.

Quest 2 has 1832�1920 and the G2 has 2160 x 2160, which is a fairly significant jump in resolution, I'd say. I don't really know much about the Quest 2.

# ? Mar 27, 2021 16:37

GutBomb: Jun 15, 2005; Dude?

Vahakyla posted:

Quest 2 has 1832�1920 and the G2 has 2160 x 2160, which is a fairly significant jump in resolution, I'd say. I don't really know much about the Quest 2.

It�s not THAT big of a difference, certainly not worth $300 more but that�s just my opinion

# ? Mar 27, 2021 17:18

MrYenko: Jun 18, 2012; #2 isn't ALWAYS bad...

RangerKarl posted:

First I've read of this, got a source?

quote:

"Dear community,
It has been a few months since we first publicly announced that we are working on the OH-58D Kiowa for DCS World.

For the past two years we have been working on the Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior. Back then we were not yet certain what flight simulator software we�d be building the OH-58D for but at some point we decided (again) on DCS world.
During the past 2 years we have been talking to a lot of individuals including people from Bell Textron, Eagle Dynamics and the US Army Cavalry community.

Bell Textron granted us a product specific license for the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior for commercial use, which means we were given permission to recreate the helicopter for game or entertainment purposes. Without this license a module for the DCS World environment would not be possible.

With the license also comes a responsibility. Anything related to the product will be subject to demanding quality control procedures. We recognize this as an opportunity and a benefit for the community, the simulation of the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior in DCS World and ourselves as a developing company. The license also grants us access to certain information otherwise not available to the public. Without it, it would simply be impossible to create a lifelike representation of the aircraft.

We are very thankful to our friends of the Kiowa community. These people are or were members of the US Cavalry and were and still are very helpful to us in many ways. They made sure we got in contact with the right people, got our facts straight and have been testing and providing feedback on the module from day one.

With the manufacturers license secured we got in contact with Eagle Dynamics to discuss with them the plans we had for our next module. This started a long period in which possible contracts were negotiated. Negotiations like these are complex, especially when it involves a third party, in this case Bell Textron. In the end all parties have to agree to the terms and conditions.

In October 2019, a day before the Cosford Flight Sim Show, we got the green light from Eagle Dynamics to announce the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior as a possible DCS World module. Even though the contract had not been finalized, at that point we were at a stage in negotiations where it was very plausible all parties involved would come to an agreement.

Today we can announce that all contracts have been signed and finalized. The OH-58D Kiowa Warrior will be released as a DCS World module. We can�t reveal a release date yet. We�ve set our sights on a release in 2020 though.

A few days ago, Twitch streamer ThePaveHawker, rather unexpectedly got to try an alpha build of the module. This turned in to a livestream that went on for 14 hours and 40 minutes. Even though the stream was unplanned and a rather impulsive decision, it was well received. It also gave us the opportunity to answer many questions the community asked us during the stream.
Following up on this, we plan to have a dedicated streamer show the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior in planned events that we will announce to the community in the near future.

We also plan on releasing videos on various systems and procedures to get acquainted with the OH-58D Warrior before release.

Since the flight model of the Gazelle module has been the most controversial part of our products, we pay very close attention to the OH-58D flight model to make sure we get it right this time. We made the flight model and the code behind it our main focus for the better half of the past two years. Only adding avionics and systems later on in the process. Former Kiowa Warrior pilots have been testing and providing feedback on the flight model from day one and continue to do so until they are completely satisfied. When that is the case, the project will be handed over to Bell Textron and their quality assurance team.

You will find most systems operational and accurately modelled in the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior module with some exceptions. Systems not included are either classified or have no use in DCS World at this time. We will go into more details on the avionics in the near future.

In terms of weapons we have already included the M3P machinegun, the Hydra rocket pod with 4 different warheads; 10lb, 17lb, smoke and illumination. In addition we have added the APKWS laser guided Hydra rocket equipped with a 10lb warhead. Of course the AGM-114 Hellfire will be included as well.

With the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior module you will be able to self lase for any AGM-114 Hellfire missiles you have loaded on your helicopter. You can also lase targets for other OH-58D�s or any other aircraft capable of dropping laser guided munitions in DCS World.

Last but not least we did add the ATAS system, which is the name for the stinger block 1 anti-air missile, that was fully functional and integrated into the Kiowa Warrior until its retirement in the US Army. Not many were ever fired, but the system is very potent and gives the Kiowa Warrior a sting capability against fast moving aircraft.

As has been stated before in a number of articles, we initially planned not to include multicrew capability for the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior module. At the time these articles were published, ED had not yet announced their plans of adding multicrew capability to the UH-1 Huey module. We are awaiting the results and hope the new multicrew code will be part of the software development kit. If this is the case we will re-evaluate multicrew capability.

As mentioned before, we will talk more about the avionics in different sitreps or news in the near future, as we will also show features that we have already mentioned in this article.

Overall we are happy that we have the opportunity to bring such an iconic helicopter, a workhorse of its kind, to DCS World and have her live on in our community. We also want to thank Eagle Dynamics, Nick Grey and Matthias Techmansky for all the support and the trust they have in our team and that we will be able to properly produce this magnificent helicopter, which was the first to ever have a glass cockpit worldwide.

Now the big question, when will the community hear next news or see new streams or videos about the Kiowa. We are currently planning to have a scheduled stream with a few people available. What, when and who, will be discussed and announced in a few days. So stay tuned.

For now, the whole team wishes all the best and everybody a merry Christmas 2019

Your Polychop Team"

I can�t find a specific link, but if my memory serves, it was related to the bolded, unintentional alpha stream.

More recent Polychop posts indicate that they�ve worked the issues out, but I think it significantly impeded progress.

# ? Mar 27, 2021 17:37

azflyboy: Nov 9, 2005

Lord Stimperor posted:

I wish you could dial in historic weather also, or spectacular storms

That used to be possible with P3d/FSX, but Asobo have decided that they're not going to open up the SDK for anything weather related (I assume it's because of their contract with Meteoblue), so it's unclear exactly when REX Weather Force will actually have that capability, but it's apparently planned and shows up as a (currently disabled) option in the program.

# ? Mar 27, 2021 17:59

Dr. Video Games 0031: Jul 17, 2004

We really do need another round of optimization for FS2020 VR to be more than a novelty, imo. Maybe they can add DLSS support to VR whenever they do their DX12 update? That could add a LOT of frames.

# ? Mar 27, 2021 22:51

soggybagel: Aug 6, 2006; The official account of NFL Tackle Phil Loadholt.

Let's talk Football.

Alert: Honeycomb Throttle Quadrant is in stock: https://www.mypilotstore.com/mypilotstore/sep/14107

I just ordered it.

# ? Mar 28, 2021 00:19

Imaginary Baron: Apr 14, 2010

GutBomb posted:

It�s not THAT big of a difference, certainly not worth $300 more but that�s just my opinion

I�ve used both in DCS at least and it�s certainly an appreciable improvement. Whether it�s worth double the cost is certainly a judgement call. The G2 has had some worrying quality control issues surface, potentially related to the headset cable, so that�s something to keep in mind.

But ultimately the G2 is a great headset when it works, and probably worth the money over a Q2 especially for a focus on sims where the weaker controller tracking of the G2 aren�t a factor.

# ? Mar 28, 2021 16:00

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

The Reverb G2 has an issue where you can accidentally fry the headset cable by plugging/unplugging things in the wrong order. I'd wait until that is fixed before getting one.

# ? Mar 28, 2021 16:19

Combat Pretzel: Jun 23, 2004; No, seriously... what kurds?!

How in the gently caress is that even possible?

# ? Mar 28, 2021 18:44

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

I guess there's an inline box that the power plugs into, and if you do things wrong, it kills that box.

# ? Mar 28, 2021 18:59

FunOne: Aug 20, 2000; I am a slimey vat of concentrated stupidity; Fun Shoe

Cojawfee posted:

I guess there's an inline box that the power plugs into, and if you do things wrong, it kills that box.

I think the implication was "how do you gently caress up so bad as an engineer that could even happen?"

# ? Mar 28, 2021 19:08

sigher: Apr 22, 2008; My guiding Moonlight...

Ahhhh gently caress; I sold mine to a friend and he told me that the Headset stopped working... He probably did that himself, what's HP doing about it?

# ? Mar 28, 2021 19:18

Dr. Video Games 0031: Jul 17, 2004

Cojawfee posted:

The Reverb G2 has an issue where you can accidentally fry the headset cable by plugging/unplugging things in the wrong order. I'd wait until that is fixed before getting one.

I've seen that the cable is very prone to damage from bending, but I haven't heard about this. Do you have a link to a post or article about this? I'd like to not kill my headset cable if possible.

Dr. Video Games 0031 fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Mar 28, 2021

# ? Mar 28, 2021 21:12

DaitoX: Mar 1, 2008

GutBomb posted:

I don�t think it works like that. I�ve tried that but all it did was give me the current real-time weather with the lighting of the selected time.

Lord Stimperor posted:

As far as I know, that clock doesn't do anything to the weather itself

Seems like I was mistaken and it only really changes the lighting indeed as mentioned.
Kinda wonder why they also let you change the date in that case. Could have just made a sun position slider.

Oh well.

# ? Mar 28, 2021 21:40

uvar: Jul 25, 2011; Avoid breathing
radioactive dust.; College Slice

Because the sun position depends on the date, so you'd need just as many sliders anyway but they'd be virtually incomprehensible. You never noticed that it gets dark earlier in the winter?

# ? Mar 28, 2021 21:47

DaitoX: Mar 1, 2008

uvar posted:

Because the sun position depends on the date, so you'd need just as many sliders anyway but they'd be virtually incomprehensible. You never noticed that it gets dark earlier in the winter?

Sure but if the date and time do nothing but change the sun position, why not just change the sun position directly?

# ? Mar 28, 2021 21:50

Combat Pretzel: Jun 23, 2004; No, seriously... what kurds?!

Because you'd still get two sliders regardless. Elevation and azimuth instead of date and time.

# ? Mar 28, 2021 21:58

Dr. Video Games 0031: Jul 17, 2004

DaitoX posted:

Sure but if the date and time do nothing but change the sun position, why not just change the sun position directly?

Date and time are how we laypeople define the earth's position relative to the sun. Why wouldn't Asobo use them to control that in the sim? This is a confusing thing to take issue with.

# ? Mar 28, 2021 22:07

DaitoX: Mar 1, 2008

Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:

Date and time are how we laypeople define the earth's position relative to the sun. Why wouldn't Asobo use them to control that in the sim? This is a confusing thing to take issue with.

I mean I wasn't really taking issue with it, it was just a random thought that has had to many posts dedicated to it by now :P.

Something else, is anyone here playing with SkyPark and if so how has the progression of that early access been going? There seems to be not a lot of info about it, but I read that they will have a subscription model too so I am kinda wondering when and what kind of features will be locked behind the subscription.

I did see they added multileg missions last month and I guess it hasn't been that long since early access started. But any direction yet on what you can do with the levels and money you earn?

# ? Mar 28, 2021 22:55

Sagebrush: Feb 26, 2012

the modders are keeping up with current events

# ? Mar 28, 2021 22:59

Mokotow: Apr 16, 2012

Sagebrush posted:

the modders are keeping up with current events

Loving it

# ? Mar 28, 2021 23:12

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

DaitoX posted:

Sure but if the date and time do nothing but change the sun position, why not just change the sun position directly?

Combat Pretzel posted:

Because you'd still get two sliders regardless. Elevation and azimuth instead of date and time.

Besides its a full astronomical work up of the sun, moon, and stars. In case you are, I don't know, navigating by star charts when you get way off you VFR bush trip. People took a field trip of neat astronomy days when the game came out.

# ? Mar 28, 2021 23:55

skooma512: Feb 8, 2012; You couldn't grok my race car, but you dug the roadside blur.

Sagebrush posted:

the modders are keeping up with current events

EverGiven, exit runway when able

# ? Mar 29, 2021 17:28

soggybagel: Aug 6, 2006; The official account of NFL Tackle Phil Loadholt.

Let's talk Football.

Just seeking some clarification here to make sure I remember this correctly.

In Flight Simulator 2020 there are 3 types of mapping for buildings and terrain.

The first is just using the pre-existing generic assets it will auto populate a city or town or whatever. The second is photogrammetry which in conjunction with the map info it uses actual aerial photography to map the "correct" textures onto a given building. And the third and final is simply handmade assets that will be the most accurate and highest res. But whether its generic or photogrammetry unless you pre-download its always going to be streaming in that information as you fly. Just was trying to explain how they did this to a friend and then I was second guessing myself.

# ? Mar 30, 2021 01:26

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

There's true, there are also different LOD levels. The closer to the ground you get, the higher detail it will stream in. Also there is a cache you can change the size of. If you revisit sav 8 area that's in the cache, it just loads it.

# ? Mar 30, 2021 01:39

Shipon: Nov 7, 2005

Got around to buying the CRJ and trying the tutorial fight from Paderborn to Munich. Took about an hour to figure out how to start and set up the thing, and the ILS glideslope tried slamming me straight into the ground, but I managed to land in one piece! Also, the thrust reversers really do not like the X52 config - I had to hold down the F2 key on the keyboard to avoid turning off the thrust reversers on landing.

Hell of a lot more involved than the A320, that's for sure. Also, glad that they rolled back that horrid performance issue from the recent update. It's still not great but I'll take a solid 35 FPS at 1440p ultrawide ultra settings instead of 10 FPS.

# ? Mar 30, 2021 04:17

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# ? May 24, 2024 21:42

uvar: Jul 25, 2011; Avoid breathing
radioactive dust.; College Slice

I've never bothered to try playing offline and the question above has me wondering - does it fall back to old-fashioned tiled autogen or are buildings still in the right positions, just without real imagery beneath them?

(Answered my own question via youtube videos - buildings match, and seems like most of the roads carry over too, it looks surprisingly decent.)

uvar fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Mar 30, 2021

# ? Mar 30, 2021 06:28

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Flight Sim Mega thread: You had me at "longest shaft in the market"

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