Anyone use Padlock?

[GrEaSeLiTeNiN]

I find it can help track the enemy in a dogfight but can also cause disorientation when tracking at extreme angles.

[shagrat]

Nope, as I use headtracking (TrackIR).

[Dauntless]

:thumbup:

[DrGarantia]

Can you lock on another aircraft with that? I only know about ground.

[Wizard1393]

Can you lock on another aircraft with that? I only know about ground.

 

Yes. I believe F5 is the "Closest Aircraft View" and it will padlock your view on the closest aircraft.

[GrEaSeLiTeNiN]

Yes. I believe F5 is the "Closest Aircraft View" and it will padlock your view on the closest aircraft.

 

Not at my game PC now but closest aircraft view is not a padlock but shows you externally your aircraft to the aircraft nearest. It's useful for SA.

 

I use 'padlock next' to cycle padlock aircraft within view in the cockpit. It's good for dogfight turns. Only thing is you have to have two conveniently mapped buttons to quickly stop padlock and re-centre to avoid disorientation.

[MPK]

Nope, as I use headtracking (TrackIR).

Do track IR and padlock actually work at the same time? Can you padlock something and it will ignore trackIR until you unpadlock it?

 

I use track IR as well but aircraft just blend in to the scenery so easily that I always seems to lose sight of whatever I am turning with, even when I am looking right at it.

[Eldur]

Yep, TIR gets overridden by padlock.

[VIKBELL]

No never ever use pad lock.

[Northstar98]

Nah did once or twice, I didn't think it very useful after getting Track IR

[Marcq]

What is padlock :dunno:

 

:D Marc..

[Squiffy]

I use it with Track IR. It helps when I raise my virtual seat to help with bullet drop in tight turns. But it can be a nuisance because of response lag when choosing a new target. I find that when you unlock a target, it takes a full second of so for the view to return to TIR-forward. Then when you are ready to re-lock, it locks on either the next aircraft of the flight you WERE following, or or some other one well removed from the one you spot close by. All the while, pivoting slowly with your VR head and almost making you blow chunks as you try to regain your bearings and re-sight the last bandit you wanted because the lag has let them get away of of sight. I also don't have much scale dialed in to my setup so I don't get a good 270+ view, especially up and down. My spikey stick makes for a general barnstormer freeforall anyway. :D

[sthompson]

I used to use padlock a lot back in the Flanker 1.5 days. However it was the combination of padlock with the mini-hud that made it useable, because the mini-hud always showed you where the nose of the plane was compared to the current view. This let you keep your padlock view on the bandit without losing spatial orientation. It also helped to use snap view forward during padlock. The snap view took priority over padlock so that you could see where the nose was pointing, and then the view snapped back to padlock when the snap view button was released. So you could glance forward and then have your "head" automatically turn back to the target without having to reacquire visually. It was a nifty setup, that does not work so well in DCS, in large part because the mini-HUD is non-functional in most aircraft.

[Subferro]

Bump - anyone have issues unlocking padlock? I’ve mapped it to my joystick but it seems like my view will still get stuck. Can’t pan or recenter. Not using TIR or any other head tracking.

[FOXFIRE TWOONE]

Bump - anyone have issues unlocking padlock? I’ve mapped it to my joystick but it seems like my view will still get stuck. Can’t pan or recenter. Not using TIR or any other head tracking.

 

 

Check or uncheck in ( gameplay )

[GrEaSeLiTeNiN]

Bump - anyone have issues unlocking padlock? I’ve mapped it to my joystick but it seems like my view will still get stuck. Can’t pan or recenter. Not using TIR or any other head tracking.

 

 

 

Yes sometimes it happens. I mapped two commands to stick - cancel padlock and then recenter to front (incase it doesn’t recenter after canceling or does something weird). Padlocks are best used in one on one dogfights where there isn’t another plane around to mess things up. Useless for ground stuff since they don’t differentiate between air and ground.

[Slazi]

I bought a 34" ultrawide (low res) especially for DCS. With TrackIR, it is so much better than my old 24" screen. I can actually see what I'm doing now.

[Subferro]

Yes sometimes it happens. I mapped two commands to stick - cancel padlock and then recenter to front (incase it doesn’t recenter after canceling or does something weird). Padlocks are best used in one on one dogfights where there isn’t another plane around to mess things up. Useless for ground stuff since they don’t differentiate between air and ground.

 

Unfortunately when it got stuck I couldn’t even get it to recenter. However the tip posted above by Foxfire Twoone has done the trick. I previously mapped my padlock commands under the individual aircraft controls, but mapping them under “General” rather than an aircraft specific menu has it working much more reliably!

 

Thanks for the tip!

[VZ_342]

What is padlock :dunno:

 

:D Marc..

 

Selecting padlock will lock your eyes on the nearest aircraft. It will always be in the center of your view, but it is very easy to forget which way your plane is facing during extreme angles...hence the need to quickly reorient your view to the HUD/forward view.

 

It’s a quick way of locating the hostile if you lose sight of him, which is easy to do given the limitations of video technology.

[jmarso]

Used it once or twice, generally do better with the 'Linda Blair' in TrackIR.

[FightingFalcon]

Can't get this to work. Can't you padlock a position on the ground? Im looking at the ground and pressing CTRL and Num. keys but it's doing absolutely nothing. And yes I have the padlock tickbox checked in options.

[Squiffy]

Hmm, I use it a lot, all air to air. In fact, the priority bias is kinda frustrating when you are in a furball and want to switch targets. You can clear it once or twice and try to select another but it keeps going back to the old target or toggle through in sequence to the remaining targets. It may just be that you have to clear it a couple times or wait for it to register. My buttons are programmed to the my old Cougar. Works fine there.

[Ironhand]

Can't get this to work. Can't you padlock a position on the ground? Im looking at the ground and pressing CTRL and Num. keys but it's doing absolutely nothing. And yes I have the padlock tickbox checked in options.

 

Do you have an A2G mode selected, when you try this?

[GrEaSeLiTeNiN]

Do you have an A2G mode selected, when you try this?

 

 

 

Oh is it suppose to work that way? Will have to try it although I think I recall it padlocking ground targets randomly sometimes even when I am padlocking air targets. Sometimes it also padlocks some empty space in the sky where I don’t even see a plane.

[DmitriKozlowsky]

There is a weird issue with padlock. It manifests itself when activated on high overhead angle view. If you padlock point  in sky overhead, you will not be able to un-padlockit. View will permanently snap view back to that point, and the only way is to end mission. I think its a bug.