Getting a good start and tips regarding PC specs?

Hi Pilots :pilotfly:

I'm considering giving DCS a chance, with this new awesome F16 plane coming up. I feel so lucky I got to sit in a real machine around a year ago, I thought the least I could do, was to try and get this bird up in the air virtually :joystick::helpsmilie:

1. Any tips for getting a good start? :book: Before the release? Or should I just hope for some good in-game introductions? Tbh, I'm pretty much a rookie regarding controls and understanding the plane mechanics, So I imagine, I would probably sit the first few weeks in the control options, trying to figure out what does what and to which buttons I should bind the different options (And hopefully not lose to my impatience :doh: )

2. Considering the current VR Status, and perhaps the latest VR optimizations, how likely would you mean I would need a spec upgrade for my 3 year old machine?

Current Spec: i7-6700k, GTX 1080, 32GB Ram, SSD, TM Warthog, Standard HTC Vive

3. Optional: Which map should I go for as a good starting map? Considering some of them are like - 50% atm with the summer sale

I would suggest you buy and learn the F/A-18 (which has lots of training missions) as prep for the F-16. The Viper should not be more taxing in VR than the Hornet, so you can check the performance as well.

I would suggest you buy and learn the F/A-18 (which has lots of training missions) as prep for the F-16. The Viper should not be more taxing in VR than the Hornet, so you can check the performance as well.

Thanks a lot ;)

I'll definitely consider that. I Have been following along a bit at Matt Wagners videoes and he got pretty similar spec setup (at least in the beginning).

The Hornet might be a bit much if you're completely new, I'd suggest getting something simple like the F-5 just to get your feet wet.

Don't get me wrong, neither the Hornet nor the Viper are difficult to learn, but it might seem a bit overwhelming if you don't already have a foundation to build upon.

Most modules have very good training missions that will take you through all the basics like start up, taxi, take off and landing. Once you've got that down you can move on to the more advanced systems like the weapons.

I've got very similar hardware and get between 35-45 FPS on avg with the Odyssey. Haven't played with the vive in a while but I would expect even better fps. Very playable with what you have, I don't think people are getting a whole lot more fps with even the latest and greatest hardware.

Sorry for the wall of text, I'll give you advise by making assumption that you don't know anything about aviation for this to-do list, so skip what you already know (even tho you can learn more than you already know about them too)

I'd advise you to download DCS World as you have two aircraft for free, a TF-51D Mustang and the Su-25T.

Start learning the basic with the Mustang, being a prop aircraft it will be challenging to takeoff at first, but it will teach you all the basics about aircraft mechanic while having a simple (and not hard to understand) avionic and instrument panel.

But first, start with learning the theory on Internet :

-The 4 basic forces.

-The instruments (how to read altimeter and how it work, vertical speed and turn sync indicator, the rest are pretty easy to understand, but still learn about them too).

-The basic controls and how aircraft react to control input.

-Then the secondary effects like how the roll induce yaw or how you need to use the rudder while turning.

-Then airspeed, AOA and trims.

-After that you can learn about stall and how to avoid/get out of it, then about spin.

-How the prop torque affect the aircraft and how the prop wash affect the takeoff.

-You can now learn about flaps, airbrakes, spoilers (both are different), and other aerodynamic devices line leading edge devices, vortex generators etc and how landing gear deployed affect the an aircraft.

-Now learn some terminology like runway, taxiway, flight level, angels, ASL/AGL, ground speed, airspeed, true speed and indicated speed, phonetic alphabet, the terminology and procedure used on radio with ground and tower, also what is the PAPI and the landing pattern.

-Now learn about how the radio work, with frequency and channels, then learn about VOR, DME, TACAN, ILS and even if you are curious also learn about the Transponder and the IFF even tho you won't use it at first.

-Also learn about Gs and its effect on the pilot and effect like G lock, greyout, blackout, redout, passout etc.

-Tho this is optional, learn about the various lights and when to use them.

Those are the basics, I might miss one or two but with all that you are clear to go to the second step :

-Learn the difference between a taildragger and conventional landing gear and how to turn/taxi with them.

-Learn the basic of how an engine work and the limits of the Mustang engine and the different gauges about the engines in the cockpit and the WEP.

-Then an important aspect for the Mustang is to learn about prop pitch and constant pitch propeller.

-Now this is time to get familiar with DCS itself, the interface, the options, the most important part is the controls and the settings of the axis and their curve to be comfortable, then other settings and the mission editor.

-Now learn the game mechanic (keys for radio, menus, ground crew, spawn etc).

-You are now almost ready for the Mustang, first you need to learn its cockpit and avionic and most of the controls.

I think the ingame tutorials will then be good enough for the rest, learn how to cold start, then to taxi, don't hesitate to create a simple mission where you spawn a controllable Mustang on an airport and experiment with taxiing after this mission to get a good feet of it as the tutorial mission is quite short, then get faster and add more power, don't takeoff yet, just learn how it react at speed and try to maintain a straight line.

Once you are good enough at it now you can follow the rest of the tutorial about takeoff (tho you can skip it and spawn a Mustang in the air to experiment how to control it before doing takeoff which is a better idea, and once you successfully takeoff if you do it first), you can experience with flight itself and try out various speed, climbing, rolling, yawing, stalling and recovering, trimming, gear up/down, flaps, don't fear to crash you are here to learn, and doing mistakes is an important aspect of learning.

Now go back to takeoff and practice it again until you can do it properly, which mean getting a good trajectory where you kept a straight line on the ground then don't deviate too much from the runway once airborne, don't have excessive bank angle, no need to be perfect, just having a good enough control to avoid crashing or being close to crash, you are good once you consistently takeoff safely.

Try doing aileron roll to learn the turn rate and the inertia when centering the controls, pull up violently to learn how it react to high AOA, pull some negative G (keep in mind that this aircraft can't do 0 or negative Gs for long until the engine get fuel deprived) and inverted flight (which is tricky at first) and experiment by yourself how the aircraft react.

-Now you can learn about gliding, finesse and ground effect and experiment flying low and slow over a runway to see the ground effect in action and get ready to land (try maintaining level flight over the runway while maintaining speed and avoid stalling) which is both a good exercise to master control over the aircraft and airspeed/power, keeping a level flight and also teach you about ground effect while preparing you to land.

-Then now you can try out the landing tutorial, then once done spawn a Mustang (on air to do it quickly or at ground cold and start if you want to do everything) and learn without the tutorial to land until you get a clean landing, don't aim for the perfect kiss landing, just good enough to consistently get the aircraft in one piece on the parking and ideally avoid bouncing (tho this isn't easy for rookies) and practice conventional and 3 point landings.

-Once you know how to takeoff and land, its time to do it for real by adding some wind and practice with it, no need to put hurricane level wind and start with a low wind speed and increase progressively.

-Now you can learn more advanced stuff like energy conservation, you would probably have done looping by yourself by now, but this is the ideal time to do it (again) to understand better the airspeed/altitude energy relationship, this is also a good time to learn how altitude affect your aircraft (engine power/efficiency, speed and maneuvers), you can also try to do proper barrel roll (not aileron roll) where you can try maintaining a constant G load, then you can learn the basic combat maneuver like Immelmann turn (which is a really basic one) but a good example to start.

-After that you can now learn one of the hardest thing on civil flight (dogfight, carrier landing and air refueling are harder), which is to maintain a good formation flight, start at a certain distance then progressively get closer, you can learn it on multiplayer but I'd advise you strongly to first make a mission with an AI aircraft following waypoints (far enough to avoid having it turning constantly as you will struggle at first to maintain formation flight during a turn), put a lot of waypoints so you have time to do it, you won't learn much if you constantly have to restart each time you were close to maintaining a good formation because the AI land.

Practice what you aren't good enough at, there is no secrets, just practicing to become better don't burn steps and don't try to learn too quickly.

Once you have done that with the Mustang you can now learn the Su-25T, since it have simplified avionic (no clickable cockpit), it will be a simple conversion, tho you will need to learn Russian style cockpit and instruments and adapt to the different units used (meters and kmph for example).

Also you will need to adapt to jet engine which are slower to respond than prop but you don't have torque anymore and during takeoff the aircraft goes straight (if you don't account for wind or asymmetrical load), also conventional landing gear make it easier, but the Su-25T can still be a little challenging to land at first and won't tolerate too hard landing, but the SU-25T flight smoothly and is easy to control in air, but this is easy to overspeed with it.

-Learn the Russian HUD and the rest will be covered by the tutorials.

-Once you've done the tutorials you can learn about the SPO and missile avoidance maneuvers including what are Flares and Chaff and the Fox1 Fox2 and Fox3 air air missiles and SAM (know your enemy) from both sides (US and Soviet).

-Now you can learn more about the tactics and procedures to combat solo or in MP and master the air ground armament of the SU-25T.

Once you've done that, I'd advise you to buy the A-10C, because unlike the Hornet it is completed (the Hornet still miss a lot of features and there are still bugs) which will help you getting familiar with the US air ground armament and the use of a targeting pod but also with modern avionic and HOTAS and MFD/MFCD and smart weapons while having a easy to control aircraft (which will help you focus on the avionic and armament, tho the A-10 lack power and dislike high AOA it is easy to use and the autopilot is really simple to operate) since a lot of the air ground payload he have will be found on the Falcon.

Also if you want to keep your Hotas Warthog it will fit well for the two aircrafts, at least for the stick, you can still try to find the throttle of the old Hotas Cougar (or one of the lesser known version or homebuild option).

Just learn how the MFCD work, get familiarized with the US style hud and the specific of the A10C hud, the RWR and it is now a good opportunity to learn about the ILS and follow the glideslope.

If you are ready to buy more aircrafts before the F-16 is released then you can choose the F-15C (or buy directly Flaming Cliffs 3 for now or MAC when it will come out) to learn about air air combat weapons and strategy and get into dogfight, or do the same with the Hornet (or both FC3/MAC and Hornet if you can), both will teach you air refueling but the Hornet will introduce you into SEAD, air ground radar (when available), various radar modes, and tho both cover carrier landing, the Hornet is a totally different experience for that, also the Hornet have some other common air ground weapons with the Falcon that the A-10C lack.

And then you'll be 100% ready for the Falcon !

Also for your specs, your CPU is still decent, it is still one of the fastest quadcore, upgrading it mean aiming for 8 cores or more and I don't know in the current status if DCS prefer CPU speed or core count, but I don't think the 6700K will be a bottleneck.

The 1080 is still one of the fastest graphic card, the other options (TI or 2000 serie) are expensive for the performance gain.

32 gigs is good enough and Intel aren't as sensible at RAM speed as AMD is so you might be clear to go.

SSD only improve loading time not performances, this is just conform and not performances, and Warthog + VR headset mean you have everything (as long as you have a rudder).

If you want to upgrade your hardware it just depend on your budget, but your computer is already high end and upgrading it will be expensive regardless what part you want, even the CPU which is the cheapest part to upgrade will require a new motherboard.

If you want a new thing/god upgrade, when it will be actually working, you can buy one of the VR glove that DCS will support.

But at the end it is just a matter of how far you want to push graphics settings anyway.

The default Georgia map is great, but I think the Nevada is the most popular of the addon maps, considering it was announced (had a really old beta) and known a long time ago and buyers of the Beta of the A10C have it for free, Normandy is more for WW2 aircrafts and Persian Gulf is more for carrier based aircrafts.

Sorry for the wall of text, I'll give you advise by making assumption that you don't know anything about aviation for this to-do list, so skip what you already know (even tho you can learn more than you already know about them too)

 

I'd advise you to download DCS World as you have two aircraft for free, a TF-51D Mustang and the Su-25T.

Start learning the basic with the Mustang, being a prop aircraft it will be challenging to takeoff at first, but it will teach you all the basics about aircraft mechanic while having a simple (and not hard to understand) avionic and instrument panel.

 

But first, start with learning the theory on Internet :

-The 4 basic forces.

-The instruments (how to read altimeter and how it work, vertical speed and turn sync indicator, the rest are pretty easy to understand, but still learn about them too).

-The basic controls and how aircraft react to control input.

-Then the secondary effects like how the roll induce yaw or how you need to use the rudder while turning.

-Then airspeed, AOA and trims.

-After that you can learn about stall and how to avoid/get out of it, then about spin.

-How the prop torque affect the aircraft and how the prop wash affect the takeoff.

-You can now learn about flaps, airbrakes, spoilers (both are different), and other aerodynamic devices line leading edge devices, vortex generators etc and how landing gear deployed affect the an aircraft.

-Now learn some terminology like runway, taxiway, flight level, angels, ASL/AGL, ground speed, airspeed, true speed and indicated speed, phonetic alphabet, the terminology and procedure used on radio with ground and tower, also what is the PAPI and the landing pattern.

-Now learn about how the radio work, with frequency and channels, then learn about VOR, DME, TACAN, ILS and even if you are curious also learn about the Transponder and the IFF even tho you won't use it at first.

-Also learn about Gs and its effect on the pilot and effect like G lock, greyout, blackout, redout, passout etc.

-Tho this is optional, learn about the various lights and when to use them.

 

Those are the basics, I might miss one or two but with all that you are clear to go to the second step :

-Learn the difference between a taildragger and conventional landing gear and how to turn/taxi with them.

-Learn the basic of how an engine work and the limits of the Mustang engine and the different gauges about the engines in the cockpit and the WEP.

-Then an important aspect for the Mustang is to learn about prop pitch and constant pitch propeller.

 

-Now this is time to get familiar with DCS itself, the interface, the options, the most important part is the controls and the settings of the axis and their curve to be comfortable, then other settings and the mission editor.

-Now learn the game mechanic (keys for radio, menus, ground crew, spawn etc).

-You are now almost ready for the Mustang, first you need to learn its cockpit and avionic and most of the controls.

 

I think the ingame tutorials will then be good enough for the rest, learn how to cold start, then to taxi, don't hesitate to create a simple mission where you spawn a controllable Mustang on an airport and experiment with taxiing after this mission to get a good feet of it as the tutorial mission is quite short, then get faster and add more power, don't takeoff yet, just learn how it react at speed and try to maintain a straight line.

Once you are good enough at it now you can follow the rest of the tutorial about takeoff (tho you can skip it and spawn a Mustang in the air to experiment how to control it before doing takeoff which is a better idea, and once you successfully takeoff if you do it first), you can experience with flight itself and try out various speed, climbing, rolling, yawing, stalling and recovering, trimming, gear up/down, flaps, don't fear to crash you are here to learn, and doing mistakes is an important aspect of learning.

Now go back to takeoff and practice it again until you can do it properly, which mean getting a good trajectory where you kept a straight line on the ground then don't deviate too much from the runway once airborne, don't have excessive bank angle, no need to be perfect, just having a good enough control to avoid crashing or being close to crash, you are good once you consistently takeoff safely.

Try doing aileron roll to learn the turn rate and the inertia when centering the controls, pull up violently to learn how it react to high AOA, pull some negative G (keep in mind that this aircraft can't do 0 or negative Gs for long until the engine get fuel deprived) and inverted flight (which is tricky at first) and experiment by yourself how the aircraft react.

-Now you can learn about gliding, finesse and ground effect and experiment flying low and slow over a runway to see the ground effect in action and get ready to land (try maintaining level flight over the runway while maintaining speed and avoid stalling) which is both a good exercise to master control over the aircraft and airspeed/power, keeping a level flight and also teach you about ground effect while preparing you to land.

-Then now you can try out the landing tutorial, then once done spawn a Mustang (on air to do it quickly or at ground cold and start if you want to do everything) and learn without the tutorial to land until you get a clean landing, don't aim for the perfect kiss landing, just good enough to consistently get the aircraft in one piece on the parking and ideally avoid bouncing (tho this isn't easy for rookies) and practice conventional and 3 point landings.

-Once you know how to takeoff and land, its time to do it for real by adding some wind and practice with it, no need to put hurricane level wind and start with a low wind speed and increase progressively.

-Now you can learn more advanced stuff like energy conservation, you would probably have done looping by yourself by now, but this is the ideal time to do it (again) to understand better the airspeed/altitude energy relationship, this is also a good time to learn how altitude affect your aircraft (engine power/efficiency, speed and maneuvers), you can also try to do proper barrel roll (not aileron roll) where you can try maintaining a constant G load, then you can learn the basic combat maneuver like Immelmann turn (which is a really basic one) but a good example to start.

-After that you can now learn one of the hardest thing on civil flight (dogfight, carrier landing and air refueling are harder), which is to maintain a good formation flight, start at a certain distance then progressively get closer, you can learn it on multiplayer but I'd advise you strongly to first make a mission with an AI aircraft following waypoints (far enough to avoid having it turning constantly as you will struggle at first to maintain formation flight during a turn), put a lot of waypoints so you have time to do it, you won't learn much if you constantly have to restart each time you were close to maintaining a good formation because the AI land.

 

Practice what you aren't good enough at, there is no secrets, just practicing to become better don't burn steps and don't try to learn too quickly.

 

Once you have done that with the Mustang you can now learn the Su-25T, since it have simplified avionic (no clickable cockpit), it will be a simple conversion, tho you will need to learn Russian style cockpit and instruments and adapt to the different units used (meters and kmph for example).

Also you will need to adapt to jet engine which are slower to respond than prop but you don't have torque anymore and during takeoff the aircraft goes straight (if you don't account for wind or asymmetrical load), also conventional landing gear make it easier, but the Su-25T can still be a little challenging to land at first and won't tolerate too hard landing, but the SU-25T flight smoothly and is easy to control in air, but this is easy to overspeed with it.

-Learn the Russian HUD and the rest will be covered by the tutorials.

-Once you've done the tutorials you can learn about the SPO and missile avoidance maneuvers including what are Flares and Chaff and the Fox1 Fox2 and Fox3 air air missiles and SAM (know your enemy) from both sides (US and Soviet).

-Now you can learn more about the tactics and procedures to combat solo or in MP and master the air ground armament of the SU-25T.

 

Once you've done that, I'd advise you to buy the A-10C, because unlike the Hornet it is completed (the Hornet still miss a lot of features and there are still bugs) which will help you getting familiar with the US air ground armament and the use of a targeting pod but also with modern avionic and HOTAS and MFD/MFCD and smart weapons while having a easy to control aircraft (which will help you focus on the avionic and armament, tho the A-10 lack power and dislike high AOA it is easy to use and the autopilot is really simple to operate) since a lot of the air ground payload he have will be found on the Falcon.

Also if you want to keep your Hotas Warthog it will fit well for the two aircrafts, at least for the stick, you can still try to find the throttle of the old Hotas Cougar (or one of the lesser known version or homebuild option).

Just learn how the MFCD work, get familiarized with the US style hud and the specific of the A10C hud, the RWR and it is now a good opportunity to learn about the ILS and follow the glideslope.

If you are ready to buy more aircrafts before the F-16 is released then you can choose the F-15C (or buy directly Flaming Cliffs 3 for now or MAC when it will come out) to learn about air air combat weapons and strategy and get into dogfight, or do the same with the Hornet (or both FC3/MAC and Hornet if you can), both will teach you air refueling but the Hornet will introduce you into SEAD, air ground radar (when available), various radar modes, and tho both cover carrier landing, the Hornet is a totally different experience for that, also the Hornet have some other common air ground weapons with the Falcon that the A-10C lack.

And then you'll be 100% ready for the Falcon !

Wow, So 4 Word Pages later, I got it handed down like this:

PILOT SCHOOL – INTRODUCTION (A WAY TO GO) – by Demongornot (DCS Forums)

 

Quick note:

I'd advise you to download DCS World as you have two aircraft for free, a TF-51D Mustang and the Su-25T.

Start learning the basic with the Mustang, being a prop aircraft it will be challenging to takeoff at first, but it will teach you all the basics about aircraft mechanic while having a simple (and not hard to understand) avionic and instrument panel.

 

1. But first, start with learning the theory on Internet:

-The 4 basic forces.

-The instruments (how to read altimeter and how it work, vertical speed and turn sync indicator, the rest are pretty easy to understand, but still learn about them too).

-The basic controls and how aircraft react to control input.

-Then the secondary effects like how the roll induce yaw or how you need to use the rudder while turning.

-Then airspeed, AOA and trims.

-After that you can learn about stall and how to avoid/get out of it, then about spin.

-How the prop torque affect the aircraft and how the prop wash affect the takeoff.

-You can now learn about flaps, airbrakes, spoilers (both are different), and other aerodynamic devices line leading edge devices, vortex generators etc and how landing gear deployed affect the an aircraft.

-Now learn some terminology like runway, taxiway, flight level, angels, ASL/AGL, ground speed, airspeed, true speed and indicated speed, phonetic alphabet, the terminology and procedure used on radio with ground and tower, also what is the PAPI and the landing pattern.

-Now learn about how the radio work, with frequency and channels, then learn about VOR, DME, TACAN, ILS and even if you are curious also learn about the Transponder and the IFF even tho you won't use it at first.

-Also learn about Gs and its effect on the pilot and effect like G lock, greyout, blackout, redout, passout etc.

-Tho this is optional, learn about the various lights and when to use them.

 

Those are the basics, I might miss one or two but with all that you are clear to go to the second step :

 

-Learn the difference between a taildragger and conventional landing gear and how to turn/taxi with them.

-Learn the basic of how an engine work and the limits of the Mustang engine and the different gauges about the engines in the cockpit and the WEP.

-Then an important aspect for the Mustang is to learn about prop pitch and constant pitch propeller.

 

2. Get started with DCS itself:

 

-Now this is time to get familiar with DCS itself, the interface, the options, the most important part is the controls and the settings of the axis and their curve to be comfortable, then other settings and the mission editor.

-Now learn the game mechanic (keys for radio, menus, ground crew, spawn etc).

-You are now almost ready for the Mustang, first you need to learn its cockpit and avionic and most of the controls.

 

Jump In further, try the Mustang (Free)

 

I think the ingame tutorials will then be good enough for the rest, learn how to cold start, then to taxi, don't hesitate to create a simple mission where you spawn a controllable Mustang on an airport and experiment with taxiing after this mission to get a good feet of it as the tutorial mission is quite short, then get faster and add more power, don't takeoff yet, just learn how it react at speed and try to maintain a straight line.

Once you are good enough at it now you can follow the rest of the tutorial about takeoff (tho you can skip it and spawn a Mustang in the air to experiment how to control it before doing takeoff which is a better idea, and once you successfully takeoff if you do it first), you can experience with flight itself and try out various speed, climbing, rolling, yawing, stalling and recovering, trimming, gear up/down, flaps, don't fear to crash you are here to learn, and doing mistakes is an important aspect of learning.

Now go back to takeoff and practice it again until you can do it properly, which mean getting a good trajectory where you kept a straight line on the ground then don't deviate too much from the runway once airborne, don't have excessive bank angle, no need to be perfect, just having a good enough control to avoid crashing or being close to crash, you are good once you consistently takeoff safely.

Try doing aileron roll to learn the turn rate and the inertia when centering the controls, pull up violently to learn how it react to high AOA, pull some negative G (keep in mind that this aircraft can't do 0 or negative Gs for long until the engine get fuel deprived) and inverted flight (which is tricky at first) and experiment by yourself how the aircraft react.

-Now you can learn about gliding, finesse and ground effect and experiment flying low and slow over a runway to see the ground effect in action and get ready to land (try maintaining level flight over the runway while maintaining speed and avoid stalling) which is both a good exercise to master control over the aircraft and airspeed/power, keeping a level flight and also teach you about ground effect while preparing you to land.

-Then now you can try out the landing tutorial, then once done spawn a Mustang (on air to do it quickly or at ground cold and start if you want to do everything) and learn without the tutorial to land until you get a clean landing, don't aim for the perfect kiss landing, just good enough to consistently get the aircraft in one piece on the parking and ideally avoid bouncing (tho this isn't easy for rookies) and practice conventional and 3 point landings.

-Once you know how to takeoff and land, its time to do it for real by adding some wind and practice with it, no need to put hurricane level wind and start with a low wind speed and increase progressively.

-Now you can learn more advanced stuff like energy conservation, you would probably have done looping by yourself by now, but this is the ideal time to do it (again) to understand better the airspeed/altitude energy relationship, this is also a good time to learn how altitude affect your aircraft (engine power/efficiency, speed and maneuvers), you can also try to do proper barrel roll (not aileron roll) where you can try maintaining a constant G load, then you can learn the basic combat maneuver like Immelmann turn (which is a really basic one) but a good example to start.

-After that you can now learn one of the hardest thing on civil flight (dogfight, carrier landing and air refueling are harder), which is to maintain a good formation flight, start at a certain distance then progressively get closer, you can learn it on multiplayer but I'd advise you strongly to first make a mission with an AI aircraft following waypoints (far enough to avoid having it turning constantly as you will struggle at first to maintain formation flight during a turn), put a lot of waypoints so you have time to do it, you won't learn much if you constantly have to restart each time you were close to maintaining a good formation because the AI land.

 

Practice what you aren't good enough at, there is no secrets, just practicing to become better don't burn steps and don't try to learn too quickly.

 

Go on, and do the Su-25T (also Free)

 

Once you have done that with the Mustang you can now learn the Su-25T, since it have simplified avionic (no clickable cockpit), it will be a simple conversion, tho you will need to learn Russian style cockpit and instruments and adapt to the different units used (meters and kmph for example).

Also you will need to adapt to jet engine which are slower to respond than prop but you don't have torque anymore and during takeoff the aircraft goes straight (if you don't account for wind or asymmetrical load), also conventional landing gear make it easier, but the Su-25T can still be a little challenging to land at first and won't tolerate too hard landing, but the SU-25T flight smoothly and is easy to control in air, but this is easy to overspeed with it.

-Learn the Russian HUD and the rest will be covered by the tutorials.

-Once you've done the tutorials you can learn about the SPO and missile avoidance maneuvers including what are Flares and Chaff and the Fox1 Fox2 and Fox3 air air missiles and SAM (know your enemy) from both sides (US and Soviet).

-Now you can learn more about the tactics and procedures to combat solo or in MP and master the air ground armament of the SU-25T.

 

Then Go Buy the A-10C and get familiar with the modern jet and Air to Ground unit.

 

Once you've done that, I'd advise you to buy the A-10C, because unlike the Hornet it is completed (the Hornet still miss a lot of features and there are still bugs) which will help you getting familiar with the US air ground armament and the use of a targeting pod but also with modern avionic and HOTAS and MFD/MFCD and smart weapons while having a easy to control aircraft (which will help you focus on the avionic and armament, tho the A-10 lack power and dislike high AOA it is easy to use and the autopilot is really simple to operate) since a lot of the air ground payload he have will be found on the Falcon.

Also if you want to keep your Hotas Warthog it will fit well for the two aircrafts, at least for the stick, you can still try to find the throttle of the old Hotas Cougar (or one of the lesser known version or homebuild option).

Just learn how the MFCD work, get familiarized with the US style hud and the specific of the A10C hud, the RWR and it is now a good opportunity to learn about the ILS and follow the glideslope.

If you are ready to buy more aircrafts before the F-16 is released then you can choose the F-15C (or buy directly Flaming Cliffs 3 for now or MAC when it will come out) to learn about air air combat weapons and strategy and get into dogfight, or do the same with the Hornet (or both FC3/MAC and Hornet if you can), both will teach you air refueling but the Hornet will introduce you into SEAD, air ground radar (when available), various radar modes, and tho both cover carrier landing, the Hornet is a totally different experience for that, also the Hornet have some other common air ground weapons with the Falcon that the A-10C lack.

And then you'll be 100% ready for the Falcon !

Thanks a lot for your huge effort Demongornot! I know it may be a copy/paste, as I'm definitely not the first one, exited, to start up with DCS after have seen some awesome plain or YT video ^^ But yeah, there is definitely no easy way around.

I think I will combine that with a handfull of youtube Videos, as I have never realy been a very bookwormish person, and learn best through pictures and How To, videoes. But it has definitely given me a lot of tips for what to search for and a good approach! ;) Thanks! ;)

Also for your specs, your CPU is still decent, it is still one of the fastest quadcore, upgrading it mean aiming for 8 cores or more and I don't know in the current status if DCS prefer CPU speed or core count, but I don't think the 6700K will be a bottleneck.

The 1080 is still one of the fastest graphic card, the other options (TI or 2000 serie) are expensive for the performance gain.

32 gigs is good enough and Intel aren't as sensible at RAM speed as AMD is so you might be clear to go.

SSD only improve loading time not performances, this is just conform and not performances, and Warthog + VR headset mean you have everything (as long as you have a rudder).

If you want to upgrade your hardware it just depend on your budget, but your computer is already high end and upgrading it will be expensive regardless what part you want, even the CPU which is the cheapest part to upgrade will require a new motherboard.

If you want a new thing/god upgrade, when it will be actually working, you can buy one of the VR glove that DCS will support.

But at the end it is just a matter of how far you want to push graphics settings anyway.

 

The default Georgia map is great, but I think the Nevada is the most popular of the addon maps, considering it was announced (had a really old beta) and known a long time ago and buyers of the Beta of the A10C have it for free, Normandy is more for WW2 aircrafts and Persian Gulf is more for carrier based aircrafts.

Thanks for the advice, yeah, we have a similar setup, and I think I just start with trying out the Free Planes for a starter, and see how that handles, with and without VR, before I even think of upgrading. But it feels good, with a confirmation, that it will at least run ;)

My setup is fine:

and yes, I also got a set of rudder Seiteks ;)

Guess my only concern is my patience (tbh, though I just could jump in F-16 and do the ingame tuts, and after a couple of months be fine). Think I take Agg advice and try the F-5E, just to get my feet wet, else I probably die of boredom :megalol::megalol:

But thanks for the contribution, to everyone!

Yea you should be fine in VR - I have a gaming rig with no screen installed anymore - 100% VR for flight sims now. Would never go back to a flat screen!

The F-5 is a nice basic aircraft to start with, standard U.S instruments, no HD thou so that will be a move once the F-16 comes out.

Personally I would recommend the Harrier as a great stand-in till the F-16 arrives. Also has the standard instruments/weapons/systems etc (as opposed to say the Mirage) and the added simplicity of no radar. So you get used to using the HUD and the 2 MFD's, Targeting Pod, U.S weapon systems like Dumb bombs, Mavericks, GBU's, and Rockets. The A-A is pretty limited but it has some Aim-9's and a gun to have a play with.

It is a pretty simple aircraft but still very capable, and it is up to you how much of the VTOL capability you use - can purely be flown as a conventional jet if you like till you become more adept at VTOL ops.

The A-10 is good, and handy as you have the HOTAS for it, but the systems are rather complicated for a new pilot, and it is a certain 'type' of slow loitering aircraft, as opposed to a multi role jet like the F-16 which is a completely different style of flying. Hence why I say the Harrier is probably a bit closer.

I am also eagerly awaiting the F-16 release after 1,000's of hours in Falcon 4.0 and derivatives.

In so far as a good additional map, personally I have the NTTR and PG maps, don't have Normandy. But if I had to pick one it would be the PG map, as you have your desert/water covered, and then the forest/water covered in the Caucasus map. NTTR is just a 100% desert map.

Thanks a lot for your huge effort Demongornot! I know it may be a copy/paste, as I'm definitely not the first one, exited, to start up with DCS after have seen some awesome plain or YT video ^^ But yeah, there is definitely no easy way around.

 

I think I will combine that with a handfull of youtube Videos, as I have never realy been a very bookwormish person, and learn best through pictures and How To, videoes. But it has definitely given me a lot of tips for what to search for and a good approach! ;) Thanks! ;)

Your welcome, and well I actually wrote it for you, I haven't been active for a while on this Forum, and I may still be consider as the guy with bad English who complained about everything about DCS :megalol:

I am glad this motivate you to start virtual flying, well you can still just spawn an aircraft in the air and learn yourself, but you won't know what really happen and you might get some misconception about some things, so better learn properly.

As you say, this isn't a tutorial by itself, this is just a list of what to learn, I think you are more than qualified to find those informations by yourself, and you can choose from what support you want to learn (video, images or text) with that, I tried to list every important point/things that you might miss like Trims or PAPI that beginners probably ignore while this is an important thing to know !

Thanks for the advice, yeah, we have a similar setup, and I think I just start with trying out the Free Planes for a starter, and see how that handles, with and without VR, before I even think of upgrading. But it feels good, with a confirmation, that it will at least run ;)

 

My setup is fine:

and yes, I also got a set of rudder Seiteks ;)

 

Guess my only concern is my patience (tbh, though I just could jump in F-16 and do the ingame tuts, and after a couple of months be fine). Think I take Agg advice and try the F-5E, just to get my feet wet, else I probably die of boredom :megalol::megalol:

 

But thanks for the contribution, to everyone!

Your welcome, yep, it would be sad if you were to upgrade a rig which is capable to run DCS with the settings you want, I hope you are not prone to motion sickness, and if you are, you better prioritize performance (FPS and fluidity) over visual quality, personally when I got my Oculus Rift I still had my old HD7970 Lightning BE which was quite potent in his time but not for VR and I ran DCS with around 15 fps, but I was still able to fly like a maniac without getting sick, while other person might require at least 45 fps or more to avoid motion sickness, so there is no definite settings/rig to have, it all depend.

If you want to use a monitor, you might want to invest into a TrackIR or cheaper option (homemade version) or webcam face tracking software.

Rudder with brakes axis are a must have, it is like the clutch and H shifter in Sim Racing, I personally have the old Saitek PRO Flight Rudder.

The A10C and Hornet are the best option to get ready for the avionic of the F-16C, but the F-5E is really good at giving you a taste of modern US style cockpit and fighters world and aircraft with afterburner.

But honestly, the more module you can buy, the better it will be anyway, tho you won't have the time to master many modules before the F-16C Beta is out, but even if you love the Viper, from time to time you might want to try out another aircraft, but you just need to listen to Dos Gringos to quickly get back to the Viper spirit :D

@Demongornot : Really appreciated that write-up. Lots of good advice.

Your welcome, and well I actually wrote it for you, I haven't been active for a while on this Forum, and I may still be consider as the guy with bad English who complained about everything about DCS :megalol:

I am glad this motivate you to start virtual flying, well you can still just spawn an aircraft in the air and learn yourself, but you won't know what really happen and you might get some misconception about some things, so better learn properly.

As you say, this isn't a tutorial by itself, this is just a list of what to learn, I think you are more than qualified to find those informations by yourself, and you can choose from what support you want to learn (video, images or text) with that, I tried to list every important point/things that you might miss like Trims or PAPI that beginners probably ignore while this is an important thing to know !

 

 

 

Your welcome, yep, it would be sad if you were to upgrade a rig which is capable to run DCS with the settings you want, I hope you are not prone to motion sickness, and if you are, you better prioritize performance (FPS and fluidity) over visual quality, personally when I got my Oculus Rift I still had my old HD7970 Lightning BE which was quite potent in his time but not for VR and I ran DCS with around 15 fps, but I was still able to fly like a maniac without getting sick, while other person might require at least 45 fps or more to avoid motion sickness, so there is no definite settings/rig to have, it all depend.

If you want to use a monitor, you might want to invest into a TrackIR or cheaper option (homemade version) or webcam face tracking software.

 

Rudder with brakes axis are a must have, it is like the clutch and H shifter in Sim Racing, I personally have the old Saitek PRO Flight Rudder.

 

The A10C and Hornet are the best option to get ready for the avionic of the F-16C, but the F-5E is really good at giving you a taste of modern US style cockpit and fighters world and aircraft with afterburner.

But honestly, the more module you can buy, the better it will be anyway, tho you won't have the time to master many modules before the F-16C Beta is out, but even if you love the Viper, from time to time you might want to try out another aircraft, but you just need to listen to Dos Gringos to quickly get back to the Viper spirit :D

I appreciate every f word of your mouth! You are a true French Gentleman, sir! :thumbup:

One thing I'm confused by though:

What does it mean that This version is not compatible with Steam? Does it also mean, Im not able to play it with Steam VR?

There is probably a way around, right?

I appreciate every f word of your mouth! You are a true French Gentleman, sir! :thumbup:

 

One thing I'm confused by though:

 

 

 

What does it mean that This version is not compatible with Steam? Does it also mean, Im not able to play it with Steam VR?

 

There is probably a way around, right?

Just means that you can not load the module into Steam if you manage your games via steam. If you have DCS World as stand alone, you won't have any issues including using Steam VR.

Just means that you can not load the module into Steam if you manage your games via steam. If you have DCS World as stand alone, you won't have any issues including using Steam VR.

Ah okay, like that! ;)

Thanks

Hi Dermongornot and FlyingVamp,

I have been in the community on/off for a long time, and now been away for almost 2 years. Now i want to come back in and start up again, and this thread was just perfect for planning my return to DCS and the upcoming Viper!

So thanks a lot FlyingVamp for the thread and Dermongornot for the helpfull answer, this is one the thinks there makes me smile everytime i come to DCS forums, people are serious in friendly and helpfull way..!

Hope to see ya in the Vipers or just in the skies..

What possessed you to go and start squeezing buttons on the stick? Did you yank on the eject handles too?

What possessed you to go and start squeezing buttons on the stick? Did you yank on the eject handles too?

Oh relax, the Jet was off. Its pretty much expected when they let people have a sit in the cockpit.

What possessed you to go and start squeezing buttons on the stick? Did you yank on the eject handles too?

If the aircraft is set up in a way that allows average joe access to the cockpit, great measures are put in place to prevent any stupidity, including making the seat cold.

Looks to me like the image was pretty close to the ground. I'm guessing he was actually in an egress trainer. The quick pan of the camera looked like someone standing right next to the pit.

Possibly even the “Recruiting Viper” that goes from air show to air show by truck...