wouldn’t say I’m talking about VR per sé. I understand it could attract a lot of simmers with the right equipment.
It’s just that I wonder why things like “parade” formation mode, new carriers, ATC, FAC for fleet strikes, aerial refueling etcetera, while all incredibly cool, make it into the game before more basic needed things make it in.
I still have good hopes for this sim, though!
Some new features coming up:
Tanking:
Updated Carrier:
More info at the dev’s blog here:
Alright…stupid question…but shouldn’t the probe deploy as the gear goes up instead of how it is currently modeled? Really nice though…
New carrier looks good too. Wonder if you can ride the elevator down and taxi into the ship…
I was thinking that very same thing.
And its in USAF markings. Why not just paint it in a JASDF or AMI scheme?
The KC-46 is not a repainted KC-767. Very different. We just had to create an entirely new model for our real-world sim.
-Jeff
Guys,
I am really interested in this sim. Without VR I will not consider any sim. My biggest concern is Steam.
Will Steam slow my machine down? I nearly got back into Lunar Flight but its only on Steam. So I hope you guys encourage me to get back on Steam.
I really like Steam for most things. For my DCS install I don’t use it…nor my X-Plane one…but for pretty much everything else I use it. As for CAP2 - it certainly is interesting, but I’d wait to see how it matures…again, $29.99 for where it is right now is a bit optimistic for where we hope it will end up.
@Maico long gone are the days the Steam client did anything- now a Chrome client bogs down more memory than the Steam Client.
Id’ say go for it, and never look back!
Steam is absolutely fine. I even use the overlay in DCS for when I want to take a lot of screenshots
I have a Logitech extreme 3D Pro, but i couldn´t kick off the aircraft
Thank you for the advice, I will get Steamed up this week
So recently CAP2 added air-to-air refueling to the training missions menu and tonight I had some free time and decided to go ahead and put on my Oculus Rift and give it a whirl in VR.
I have to say - short of perhaps just my first experiences with seeing a VR cockpit for the first time in DCS World - the air-to-air refueling immersion in CAP is just incredibly good and is the showcase for why VR is (and is going to be) so awesome for us as flight simmers.
So I’ve been doing refueling missions since way back in the day of F-15 Strike Eagle and all the Jane’s sims and Falcon 4…and yeah, it’s always hard-ish. The moment I fired up CAP2 and closed on the tanker I realized WHY it has always been so hard…and it is simply because you really don’t have any depth perception (other than the cues you practice, learn, and incorporate) when 2D simming. As I approached the tanker with about 2,000 lbs. of fuel, I was thinking - “OK…this is going to be pretty tough, because the probe is actually behind my left shoulder in the Harrier…” But as I sidled up to the starboard hose streaming from the tanker, I was simply awestruck at how I could instantly tell my horizontal, vertical, offset position, distance, and closure. It was as if all these decades a dirty trick was being played on me. With the Rift - tracking the drogue is so easy…and not in a TrackIR way. Again, it is very, very difficult to describe to a TrackIR user how the Rift is different…it just is. (And is way more natural).
As my probe started to close on the drogue, I could tell I was holding the drogue a bit too far inside toward my canopy…I could see the “depth” as it were of how far out my probe is from my cockpit, and putting it into the drogue was really intuitive. (Alright…cue sick jokes). Sim155’s modeling of the drogue is really quite good and the tolerances make it feel like you are hitting the right spot when it locks on. I feel the staying connected seems a bit generous…but it just looks and feels great.
It really was another one of those VR experiences that were like - wow…so this is how it always SHOULD have been! Unfortunately my FRAPS didn’t record any of the mission screen grabs…not that it’d really help translate the experience though. Congrats to @CAP2 for a great feature!
I concur 100% Chris. Having the depth perception that allows you to judge instantly your closure and drift from the basket is huge. Being able to naturally glance left to see the position of the basket in relation to the probe, and then glance forward to ensure your position is steady with relation to the tanker makes the whole process seem very fluid and natural.
The more I fly with the Rift (in any sim) the more I am convinced that this is the future of our hobby. And it is only going to get better as the technology improves.
I concur with both coments concerning the advantage of VR, with the observation that in DCS, it sometimes feels (appears) that you are flying through different air than the other aircraft around you. In other words, each aircraft seem to have some sort of programmed independent verticle up and down movement. I understand that they might move differently due to mass, aerodynamics, and pilot or autopilot input, but it still feels artificial to me. Stating the obvious, but there is also the lack of tactile (seat of the pants) feedback. Anyway, VR is a very big piece of thr experience.
I’ll have to take a closer look at the behavior of other aircraft in DCS World. Staying in formation when flying a helicopter can be a challenge as the AI will perform some pretty severe altitude changes to avoid terrain (where as a human pilot would generally be a lot smoother).
As for the seat of the pants feel, I think your brain fills in a lot of the gaps. Short of a full motion platform (expensive), I would imagine something like a “Buttkicker” would make quite a difference. I can’t quite bring myself to buy one though 
.
Great review!
[quote=“BeachAV8R, post:1, topic:2654”]
Water injection is included, and gives a distinct exhaust pattern in both the takeoff and landing modes, but I can’t say I noticed much change in performance … I tried testing my theory by setting the throttle to just under hover power, then hitting the water injection, and it had no effect that I could tell.[/quote]
I could be wrong but I was told that the water injection was to cool the jet exhaust so it wouldn’t burn the non-skid on a ship’s flight deck or the asphalt of a an airfield’s runway or ramp…or I guess to prevent brush fires when operating in the field…“Only You (and water injection) Can Prevent Forest Fires” 
So no impact on thrust level since the injection is into the exhaust after thrust has been generated.
Way back in the early 1990’s I was the Ship’s Intel Officer –the SIO–on USS GUAM (LPH-9). Part of our work-ups was to qualify our flight deck for Harrier ops.
The intel center, where I worked, was directly under the flight deck. In the overhead there was the base of a flight deck light mounted flush with the deck. Of course it was tightly secured and sealed with a special caulk. For an entire 6-month cruise–through the tail of a hurricane and many storms, there had been no leaks…then the Harriers came.
At first we heard the engine run up…and then it REALY got loud…and then it started raining in the intel center as the jet exhaust forced that water injection through the seal around the flight deck light!
So no burned non-skid but a slightly damp SIO. 
Well, the water injection may help with not burning non-skid deck surfaces etc, but the primary purpose is to allow maximum available thrust without causing damage to the turbine blades.
If the Buttkicker is not your thing, then perhaps a FFB cushion like the Gamtrix Jetseat will do the trick!! Works great with DCS and VR.
That seems like a purposeful decision by the Navy… 
Ditto on a CVN. And I don’t know about a Gator, but the VIP staterooms are right under the Jet Blast Deflectors.
…and this coming from someone whose stateroom was likely never above the 2nd deck?
Having lived-slept, ate, worked–several years of my life under a Navy flight deck, I can speak with some authority on the subject. On KENNEDY (CV-67) my stateroom was under the 3-wire. On GUAM, port side about amidships. On STENNIS (CVN-74) under a forward JBD (the overhead was lower in my room to accommodate the space cut into the flight deck that the JBD and all its struts, folds into when in the down/flush position).
USS GUAM was the worst. Why? Be cause it was a helo carrier…helos don’t taxi around a flight deck; they are towed, with big long hard steel tow-bars. Tow-bars that have to be maneuvered into position by hand by the green shirts or yellow shirts. Then, evidently, it is a requirement to drop the other end of the tow-bar onto the flight deck, from a hight of no less than 3 feet. The resulting sharp BANG is rather alarming. The dragging and dropping of tie down chains is also an annoyance. Of note, those of us who lived on that level were pretty sure that all the flight deck markings had nothing to do with helo ops, but were a special code for the flight deck crew, telling them where al the officer’s staterooms were.
KENNEDY was next worse. Living under the wires was much worse that living under the JBD on STENNIS. On KENNEDY, in the middle of a nice quiet night in the JO-Junkroom stateroom…you would have just fallen asleep when, without warning BANG! Wirrrrrrrrrrr! as the first plane landing in that cycle landed. This continues every minute until all the planes are on board…and your nerves are thoroughly jangled. Then, if there is still another cycle airborne, you have 90 minutes to try to get some sleep before the whole thing starts over again. Fortunately, most nights the last cycle recovered by 2 AM…so a whole 3 hours before I needed to get up…thank God I was young.
By comparison, under the JBDs is bliss. You awake little by little as the jet noise and creaking deck announces the first plane’s taxi onto the cat. There is a not unpleasant hydraulic whine as the JBD is raised. As the plane takes tension and goes to power, the noises are felt than heard–you are gently vibrated in your rack. The power builds…the vibrations increase… Then the cat shot…more of a release tan anything–you hear the steam whoosh and the jet nose rapidly fades until you hear/feel the soft thump of the pistons hitting the water-brake at the end of the cat stroke…and everything is restful again. It is almost like…well…um…lets just say a coital bliss-like experience.
That last was probably TMI…sorry.
