Elphaba Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 I'm learning night tanking in the F14, after being very successful in the F18 and for the life of me I can't find the probe light. Any help or is it still a missing feature? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
draconus Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 http://www.heatblur.se/F-14Manual/general.html#external-lighting The refueling probe light is used to illuminate the refueling probe and is automatically enabled with probe extension. All external light controls are located on the Master Light Control Panel except for the exterior lights switch on the left throttle (see Throttle) which disables or enables all external lights apart from the approach lights. Haven't tested lately but it might be less bright than you expect. Win10 i7-10700KF 32GB RTX3060 Rift S T16000M TWCS TFRP FC3 F-14A/B F-15E CA SC NTTR PG Syria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elphaba Posted September 21, 2020 Author Share Posted September 21, 2020 All external lights on (except probe). Cold start with Jester Probe extended, no light on external view anywhere near probe, and no light on ground from inside cockpit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sLYFa Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 The probe light is there, its just ridiculously dim and therefore useless 1 i5-8600k @4.9Ghz, 2080ti , 32GB@2666Mhz, 512GB SSD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viper2097 Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=241064 Steam user - Youtube I am for quality over quantity in DCS modules Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldcrusty Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 I don't have the cat so I can't compare. Check this RW vid: Start at 3:10 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronMike Posted September 23, 2020 Share Posted September 23, 2020 Sorry guys, I think I forgot to put down a tracker for it, I did now. We'll see if we cant fine tune it soon. Apologies for forgetting about it. Heatblur Simulations Please feel free to contact me anytime, either via PM here, on the forums, or via email through the contact form on our homepage. http://www.heatblur.com/ https://www.facebook.com/heatblur/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elphaba Posted September 23, 2020 Author Share Posted September 23, 2020 Thank you IronMike. I appreciate you reading these threads and replying. A+ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronMike Posted September 23, 2020 Share Posted September 23, 2020 Thank you IronMike. I appreciate you reading these threads and replying. A+ My pleasure, as always. :) Heatblur Simulations Please feel free to contact me anytime, either via PM here, on the forums, or via email through the contact form on our homepage. http://www.heatblur.com/ https://www.facebook.com/heatblur/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callsign JoNay Posted November 22, 2020 Share Posted November 22, 2020 I don't have the cat so I can't compare. Check this RW vid: Start at 3:10 I just started learning the F-14. I was going to come here and report the probe light problems, but it seems that the probe light is pretty dim in real life based on that video. That being said, I'm seeing zero illumination in the sim. I can see the light turning on in the external model, but no light actually illuminating the environment. Seems to be the exact same bug that plagued the F-18 for so long and was only recently fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callsign JoNay Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 I take it back, the probe light is working. But it seems to be pointing in a direction that's not very useful. You only see it reflect off the basket if you're about to connect but you miss high. Is this accurate to real life? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tech_op2000 Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 Refueling at night without using the nvg's is damn near impossible with that refueling light. it is crazy dim and not pointed in a very useful direction. That said, I would suspect it to be a poor design choice on the tomcat engineers rather than on heatblur. Here are some views of it: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon1-1 Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 It's there, but I noticed that it, like most lights in DCS, illuminates things at a far shorter range than they should. Aside from the alignment issue, I'm pretty sure that the real thing can actually illuminate a good part of the whole tanker at precontact. You shouldn't expect too much from a dinky red night vision light, but I don't think it should be completely useless, either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LanceCriminal86 Posted February 3, 2022 Share Posted February 3, 2022 Between talking to a couple of RIOs and reading some NATO AAR docs, the probe light isn't intended to be like a headlight on a car. The tanker itself has lighting (with the layout depending on the AC), and the probe light generally helped out to about ~20 feet from what I was told. Ambient light and lighting from the tanker obviously would +/- that, but it sounded like the visibility is somewhere in-between where it is now (practically in the basket) and what some folks want to see (totally illuminating out to precontact). So, aircraft like the S-3 and future KA-6, it's going to remain a challenge, but the probe light should help some there since you have to be in pretty close anyways tanking off of those jets. With KC-10s, British Tristars, KC-135s, and I believe KC-130s, some had illumination actually in the basket, while others had ambient lighting and spotlights underneath the aircraft to provide illumination of the basket and hose between the tanker and tankee. I don't know if we currently have it but depending on dates, some tanking baskets should have illumination, either illuminated strips like formation lights, or actual lights behind the basket that would make it "glow" a little. Heatblur Rivet Counting Squad™ VF-11 and VF-31 1988 [WIP] VF-201 & VF-202 [WIP] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GumidekCZ Posted January 20, 2023 Share Posted January 20, 2023 On 9/23/2020 at 7:19 PM, IronMike said: Sorry guys, I think I forgot to put down a tracker for it, I did now. We'll see if we cant fine tune it soon. Apologies for forgetting about it. Any progress there behind the doors? We started flying Tomcat in 2023 with this issue still unresolved. Still unable to refuel at pitch black night because of poor refuel light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uxi Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 When I do night refueling with my squadron, we generally turn the gamma up to compensate for the current state of lighting. Specs & Wishlist: Core i9 9900k 5.0Ghz, Asus ROG Maximus XI Hero, 64GB G.Skill Trident 3600, Asus RoG Strix 3090 OC, 2TB x Samsung Evo 970 M.2 boot. Samsung Evo 860 storage, Coolermaster H500M, ML360R AIO HP Reverb G2, Samsung Odyssey+ WMR; VKB Gunfighter 2, MCG Pro; Virpil T-50CM v3; Slaw RX Viper v2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diveplane Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 ed need to tune the lights better in this sim for further distances. https://www.youtube.com/user/diveplane11 DCS Audio Modding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustBelt Posted April 12 Share Posted April 12 On 4/4/2024 at 10:30 AM, diveplane said: ed need to tune the lights better in this sim for further distances. Been saying that since 2.5 dropped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Tau Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 F-18 has very nice and bright AAR light... Maybe too bright, but at least night AAR is possible... Tau's Youtube channel Twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/the0tau Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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