Modern air combat flight sims?

[Burning Bridges]

Nope, but it looks like they are now really working on it.

 

[J_C]

The main reason I could no longer wait is the huge step up in graphics the latest version brings. Some recent footage from DCS 2.1 and Normandy is looking like a brand new flight sim. Showing 1.5's now 10 year old technology. Plane models have amazing specular maps and looking absolutely gorgeous (and with the exception of the Mig 21 the new effects are working most of the time). Lighting at different times of day is simply amazing, FPS us rock stable even over Las Vegas (I enable vsync and it seems stuck at 60)

May I ask what are the specs of your PC? And does this mean that 2.1 is better optimised than 1.5?

 

[Burning Bridges]

i7 4790K 16 GB DDR3 CL8 and GTX 1070 OC. I also installed DCS on a SSD, which helps with those stutters when quickly turning view.

From what I see even people with much older i7s can run the game, and with one of the latest Ryzens or popamole i7s + a GTX 1080 the sim should run fluid as fuck.

As to better optimized, it has a more modern graphics engine and imo DCS has always been well optimized. Remember that a lot of the code originally had to run on a Pentium IV and Athlon, and think of the sheer amount of stuff you see on the screen.

 

[Burning Bridges]

This is a screen I took at a near constant 60fps and its sort of my test session. And if I can run the outside view without any fps dips, I will never have any problem in the cockpit.

This is less an issue of the graphics settings (qwhich are practically maxed out) but everything that costs processor time and bandwidth. I also had to turn down civilian traffic to medium, it was sort of an unecessary complication that costs me more than it is worth.

 

[Burning Bridges]

The also have put up images of the upcoming AV8B/N Harrier

 

[Burning Bridges]

Unfortunately not the Falkland version, but a new one with a popamole cockpit otherwise I would be violently masturbating right now.

 

[Burning Bridges]

October 13 - 23 and it's a big autumn sale

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3266109&postcount=113

Most modules are reduced by 50% the newer ones 40%.

I'm already more or less decided on the Spitfire LF Mk IX which is simply gorgeous. They also have most of the tried modules like the Bf109 or Mig 15 for 25$ - which is just slightly higher than the "collector" planes in IL2 PoS. If you should just want 1 plane this is the lowest price point they offer them, and you should get much more out of them than from any other sim.

The only stupid thing is that due to their separation they do not really make the Normandy and assets pack more attractive. They have been on offer for 60$ but they call that a permanent sale - but no one really takes that serious, it's the real price of the Normandy map which of course needs the assets.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Got the Normandy + Assets in the sale and for the first time my WW2 planes can be flown in a WW2 environment.

First impression is mixed but positive. I get excellent framerates but image quality varies a lot, with trees flickering in certain angles, shadows and light. It is not the graphics porn that they show in the videos and requires a lot of setting up before it looks right, a lot more than Nevada actually.

Ground strafing is already great fun, that mean if you find some target which is hard because there are practically no missions.

The map is big but still in a criminally early state and as you can see in the next screen, only about 1/4 the map is really used. The rest is water or faceless copypasta without houses and villages.

This would not be so bad if I didnt knew that this may never be fixed, Caucasus was also such a patchwork of greatness and unfinished business - since 2004 when the game was still under Ubisoft

Je ne regret pas - as a change from flying ww2 jets in Nevada this is really welcome.

 

[Runciter]

They censored the swastika too?

 

[Burning Bridges]

Some skins have the swastika, some don't. I don't give a fuck either way tbh.

 

[Burning Bridges]

The Spitfire arrived. It's a beauty, but even harder to fly than the Bf109

I now actually manage to get the Bf109 a few times in the air. By the right combo of rudder, wheel brakes and ailerons I can somehow keep it a few meters off the ground for the few seconds it needs to pick up enough speed to fly.

After a few days with the props getting into a jet now feels like an arcade game ..

 

[Burning Bridges]

The Spitfire is cool and all but really strange to fly. Compared to the Messerschmitt, which I can now fly pretty well, it feels like a totally different game. When you solve the initialy problems (for example a special curve for the pitch axis) at least the Messerschmitt behaves admirably and is very hard to crash. But the Spit buffets around like a paper plane and bites me whenever I move the stick, in fact the only way I could make it flyable was to hugely reduce the axis sensitivity.

Some people actually use stick extension as this is apparently an inherent problem - warbirds were not flown with joysticks but with long control levers.

Anyway. I got yet another one while the sale lasts

Now that I got all the planes I wanted based on cool factor I realized I should have a trainer craft. I looked a bit around for some time and decided it can only be the L-39. This one is made by ED themselves, the 2 other trainers by external devs are apparently pure shite.

Now whenever I flipped the Spitfire on it's head 20 times I can jump into this masterpiece of Czechoslovakian aircraft engineering and feel like a pilot again. There is not much to not like about it. Very nice cockpit, with excellent visibity (you can switch off the gunsight in the main menu). It flies wonderfully popamole when you come directly from a Spitfire. I take off almost on rails, turn a few rounds and land the thing in one piece. In the Spitfire or Messerschmitt the only thing I can ever do is crash land.

On top of that you even have a second seat, from which you can fly the aircraft, and apparently join up with with other pilot in multiplayer. Or just masturbate without the other guy seeing it.

 

[Blaine]

There's still no F-4 Phantom module.

This is absolutely unacceptable.

The F-4 Phantom has been announced recently https://belsimtek.com/news/1787/

Considering it is done by Belsimtek who imo made some of the best modules besides ED themselves (they seem to be sort of an inhouse third party group), I am actually looking forward to it. It's a two seater meaning two individual cockpits have to be modeled, so I think it will be at least another year before this gets into our hands. But it could potentially become one of the most popular planes, at least in this era. The Mig 21 has all that too but has too many small problems to really call it successful.

Sweet, I only had to wait 27 years for this!

 

[Burning Bridges]

As it looks now you will get it in another 2 years. Maybe 3 or perhaps even 4, but probably not more than 5.

There is by the way a Phantom for Prepar3D

 

[Blaine]

Well, at least it'll be out before Star Citizen.

 

[Burning Bridges]

From what I know about Belsimtek they could actually finish the Phantom in 2018. They seem to be directly associated to ED (what exactly this means is not clear) and are known to talk less about their modules, and instead get them done. But the screenshots look too early to start fantasizing - especially as the F4 seems to have pretty high complexity.

There is a new wave of popamole planes coming to DCS pretty soon: F14, F18, Harrier. So if you want to go the murrican route there is something coming for you either way.

Modern Migs are not possible, the company seems to have some sort of legal moratorium with Russian planes. So no full fidelity updates on the MiG29, Su27 etc certainly. This seems to be no problems in terms of American planes, which is funny.

I expect more in terms of old fashioned MiGs. A MiG 19 is in the works, and though the 19 was considered a dog it has the most beautiful cockpit ever.

 

[Blaine]

The F-4E Phantom II was pretty much the coolest jet in Chuck Yeager's Air Combat, which was the first flight simulator I had as a kid and one that I played very extensively... also, it's just a damned cool jet all-around.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Here are also some images from a Mig 23. Apparently the same guys who actively work on the Mig 19 currently and if all goes well, I think they are planning this as their second project.

The 23 has a special place in my heart because I actually saw them flying over my head in the mid 80s. There was a NVA airdrome quite close and we could see green/brown MiG 23s almost every day. They looked pretty cool back then.

EDIT: CANCELLED

 

[Burning Bridges]

The F-4E Phantom II was pretty much the coolest jet in Chuck Yeager's Air Combat, which was the first flight simulator I had as a kid and one that I played very extensively... also, it's just a damned cool jet all-around.

I can remember that one very well. It was one of the rare examples where the developers understood that flight sims need to have a high frame rate at all times.

While other sims were slide shows this was actually running butter smooth on a 386DX and shooting down other planes has never been more fun. I mostly flew the Mig15 because it had this overpowering cannon.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Back to the topic of the Spitfire.

I still can't figure out that flight model tbh. Some people say it's very realistic, then either the other planes are not or I dont get the full picture.

To me there is still a very problematic transition between the Bf109 and the Spitfire. After I have flown it for some time, the Bf109 seems stable in all flight regimes, but the Spitfire feels more like a model plane to me. I must remind myself not to move the stick more than a few millimeters, otherwise I get into a very dangerous situation immediately. I've seen in a dive the wings torn off just by puilling the aileron .. is this even possible?

Perhaps this video illustrates this, does this look right to you?

 

[Burning Bridges]

The Harrier can now be preordered, shouldn't be long now (end of November)

Still no news from the new Caucasus, though they keep showing screenshots so it should happen within the next 6-24 months.

 

[Burning Bridges]

They now release a new teaser every week .. this time Straights of Popamol

Meh

Why not Iraq or Afghanistan. Why this shit?

 

[Runciter]

Looks like Nevada with water

 

[Burning Bridges]

That's probably why they chose it. Desert and water means less work. One should not forget that they set the standard incredibly high by modeling practically every building 1:1

But I still dont get why they did not go for something like Afghanistan that people actually demand. And if large populated areas are a problem I would have been fine with unpopulated areaws like Patagonia or Iceland, but this micky mouse architecture already pisses me off.

Lastly this will be another squib because there are no fitting planes. Nore are there any to be expected. The most modern planes they have are early 90s at best, and even they are not even released (Harrier, F-18 etc)

 

[Turjan]

I haven't looked at this game in a long time. Looks like you had lots of fun with a MiG-21 last year. I still remember those and some MiG-15s or MiG17s (can't really tell for sure; Wikipedia lists both for the airfield) which I could watch from my grandparents' house. That house was situated a bit awkwardly at the end of a runway. The runway was 2500 meters long at that time, and the house stood 500 meters straight behind the end of it (says Google Maps). Depending on the start direction, you could either look directly into the engine, or you had the plane come towards you. They usually let the engines run at "high speed" at the start point for quite a while before they loosened the brakes. When they started over and slightly next to the house, you could easily see the pilot in the cockpit, as it was only a few meters away.

The noise was of course incredible. Also, those planes flew from 4 am till 10 pm. I didn't understand why my grandparents stayed there. It was their house though, so I guess they didn't have a choice. Fortunately, the pilots didn't land like you.