Pitch Part of HUD OFF Centre

When I fly F/A-18C Hornet especially after some tight turning I notice the pitch indicator on HUD is sometimes off centre (may drift to right or drift to left off centre) even when aircraft resumes being perfectly straight and parallel to ground. I am referring to the part of HUD symbology where pitch is indicated with 5,10,15,20 etc and -5,-10,-15,-20 etc with dead level in middle between these two plus/minus pitch ranges.

Not sure if this is a bug or I am just not understanding something here.

I would also like to know why this happens. I am sure it serves a purpose but very much interested in what is the idea behind it.

The pitch ladder will centre on the flight path marker which it's self will deviate left and right to indicate slip. You can cage the flight path marker using the cage/uncage HOTAS button although make sure to uncage again during landing as otherwise you won't get indication of a crosswind or your true touch down point.

When you cage you still get the ghost fight path marker, so you can keep it caged if you want to.

The reason you cage is so you can see the E bracket and climb and dive ladder well in the middle of the HUD during the crosswind leg in a case 1 pattern to control descent and AOA. It can disappear way off to the side on crosswind leg with a good wind set.

I always hit the cage button and uncage generally when coming into the groove.

Edit: A pic says a thousand words

What is happening in this pic is the wind is coming from left to right when landing, the velocity vector / flight path is showing where I'm really going with this wind pushing on me. As you can see I need a lot of offset left facing into this wind to fly "parallel" straight down the runway.

Below I have caged the HUD and can still see the ghost vector.

Playing around here with a huge crosswind

Very good explanation David OC. Thank you.

thx everybody ... when landing I cage the HUD and place the Ghost Velocity Vector/Ghost Flight Path marker on landing end of runway so to land accurately on runway. If I landed uncaged HUD situation where is crosswind using standard velocity vector/standard flight path marker I will not land on runway but to left or right of runway. Seems to be a system to compensate for crosswind circumstances.

I just love the detail in this game and one never stops learning. Is a good explanation of this stuff also in Chuck's F18 manual too. Thx again..Gary

Is there an indicator that the velocity vector is caged? Sometimes I hit the hotas control to cage/uncaged in a slight crosswind and then don't really know what state it's in, because it's not obvious by looking at the HUD.

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There is no indicator, apart from the ghost velocity vector. If you can‘t see it, the crosswind is, as you say, very negligible and cage/uncage won‘t make a difference.

The pitch ladder will centre on the flight path marker which it's self will deviate left and right to indicate slip. You can cage the flight path marker using the cage/uncage HOTAS button although make sure to uncage again during landing as otherwise you won't get indication of a crosswind or your true touch down point.

Not quite. Even a caged flight path marker will move left or right to indicate slip.

The difference between caged and uncaged is that caged will remove the effect of drift (across the ground) due to wind.

I come from the 1990’s combat flight sims (I.e. Janes F18, F15, and EF2000). When I first started playing DCS, I found this “HUD info drift” HUGELY annoying. Obviously the earlier sims did not model wind effect on the HUD and that was fine with me. Especially in a dogfight. Because constantly having to sacrifice my maneuver or moving my head around so that I can see what my speed and altitude is, is well...annoying. Or maybe, I just suck. Anyway I wish you could lock the entire HUD for all of the modules , because all this realism can sometimes get in the way of just plain old fun.

I come from the 1990’s combat flight sims (I.e. Janes F18, F15, and EF2000). When I first started playing DCS, I found this “HUD info drift” HUGELY annoying. Obviously the earlier sims did not model wind effect on the HUD and that was fine with me. Especially in a dogfight. Because constantly having to sacrifice my maneuver or moving my head around so that I can see what my speed and altitude is, is well...annoying. Or maybe, I just suck. Anyway I wish you could lock the entire HUD for all of the modules , because all this realism can sometimes get in the way of just plain old fun.

This makes no sense. Almost all of the HUD *is* locked, and the bits that aren't have the option to be via the cage function.

This makes no sense. Almost all of the HUD *is* locked, and the bits that aren't have the option to be via the cage function.

You're wrong sir. The only thing locked in the HUD when caged is the flightpath marker (a ghost marker is provided for your true flightpath). Everything else moves.

You're wrong sir. The only thing locked in the HUD when caged is the flightpath marker (a ghost marker is provided for your true flightpath). Everything else moves.

I'm pretty certain I'm not wrong.

The only thing causing most things on the HUD to 'move' is your point of view changing - i.e. if using either 6-dof TrackIR or VR. This is absolutely necessary because it's a function of the HUD optics (collimated to infinity) which make sure that the symbology - for example the artificial horizon - correspond to the outside world.

If you want the HUD to behave as it did in your favourite old-school sims, the solution is to disable whatever it is that allows you to move your head.

If you cage the HUD, everything stays central except the Ghost FPM and the angle of bank cursor. Everything else is centred, even the pitch ladder, however it will continue to indicate pitch and roll. In AoA greater than the threshold you should (from memory) have the FPM, Ghost FPM and Waterline all visible, the FPM will only slide vertical, the Ghost FPM will roam.

You need all of these things, and they're there not because they're complicated, if you took all other information off the HUD, you still know at a glance what the aircraft is doing. It's just another form of the standard 6 pack instruments you see from small GA to Super callsigns.

I'm pretty certain I'm not wrong.

 

The only thing causing most things on the HUD to 'move' is your point of view changing - i.e. if using either 6-dof TrackIR or VR. This is absolutely necessary because it's a function of the HUD optics (collimated to infinity) which make sure that the symbology - for example the artificial horizon - correspond to the outside world.

 

If you want the HUD to behave as it did in your favourite old-school sims, the solution is to disable whatever it is that allows you to move your head.

It is with great humility when I say, I stand corrected. This is my first experience with Track IR and obviously the older games did not have/use it. Hmmm...I guess I want the best of both worlds. Thanks for not thrashing me to bits (you certainly could've).

Cheers mate.

If you disable x,y and z axes in the trackir software you won’t have to worry about these things.

If you cage the HUD [...] the FPM will only slide vertical

Well that's not 100% true, there is also the case when you are in a (considerable) bank where the effect of gravity becomes lateral (instead of vertical) so the FPM gets sort of "freed" when the plane is banked, to show for the FPM's lateral drop due to gravity, plus its normal vertical movement, but the wind component is still left to the ghost vector.

Pitch ladder displays incorrectly on my HUD.

Practicing air to air refueling and I cannot see or to get the index number 10 display on the upper part of the horizon for lining up with fueling pod of the tanker.

I have check the control section to look for any option to adjust display on the HUD.

Anyone know how I can get the pitch ladder adjusted on the hud?

Attached is the default display of the pitch ladder.

Adjusting seat height and zooming does not help.

Thanks

Pitch ladder displays incorrectly on my HUD.

 

Practicing air to air refueling and I cannot see or to get the index number 10 display on the upper part of the horizon for lining up with fueling pod of the tanker.

 

I have check the control section to look for any option to adjust display on the HUD.

Anyone know how I can get the pitch ladder adjusted on the hud?

 

Attached is the default display of the pitch ladder.

Adjusting seat height and zooming does not help.

 

Thanks

Try also adjusting the seat position forward and back, then set the zoom level and save.

Try also adjusting the seat position forward and back, then set the zoom level and save.

Never really know about adjusting seat forward, just seat up and down. Control for seat forward and back and also save button please

Thanks

Hey David

Never really know about adjusting seat forward, just seat up and down. Control for seat forward and back and also save button please

 

Thanks

Make sure user snap view save is on

Pause track IR, recenter view Num5, center zoom NumEnter

Move the view back, forward, up, down and change zoom Num/ and Num*

Save

Press RAlt+Num0

Yours doesn't look to bad tho..

Here is mine at FOV 85 on a 27inch screen to get the scale close, 75 is more correct but to close, to see the FOV Left Ctrl + pause twice

All my view controls are on my HOTAS for easy zooming and view reset.

Make sure user snap view save is on

 

 

Pause track IR, recenter view Num5, center zoom NumEnter

 

Move the view back, forward, up, down and change zoom Num/ and Num*

 

 

Save

Press RAlt+Num0

 

Yours doesn't look to bad tho..

 

Here is mine at FOV 85 on a 27inch screen to get the scale close, 75 is more correct but to close, to see the FOV Left Ctrl + pause twice

 

 

All my view controls are on my HOTAS for easy zooming and view reset.

Your recommendations helped a bit, but I realized that when my air speed is low, (below 200knts, the pitch latter can show up to 15 on the upper side. Going at higher speed pushes the pitch ladder out of view.

I think the lower part of the pitch ladder takes a chunk of the space on the hud.