DCS 2.7 Discussion

[Phantom88]

Weekend News
12 November 2021

Dear Fighter Pilots, Partners and Friends,

We continue refining our AIM-120 AMRAAM with much improved velocity search and tracking algorithms. This development should be available to you in the next Open Beta 2.7.8 update.

In the new year, we plan to replace the entire line of pilot models for Russian aircraft and helicopters. This week we are pleased to share our progress on the ZSH-7AP helmet that will initially be available with DCS: Mi-24P Hind. Please check out the screenshots below.

We are currently working on the TADS/PNVS combined sensor and targeting unit. This is a vital component of the advanced weapons systems on board the AH-64D and we look forward to bringing you the next lesson in the DCS: AH-64D Tutorial Series by Matt Wagner, coming soon.

Thank you for your passion and support.

Yours sincerely,

Eagle Dynamics Team

AIM-120 AMRAAM

Development Progress

Thank you for your continued patience and support since the initial release of the updated AMRAAM model. This sophisticated weapon has demanded quite deep remodelling and debugging and we found several issues in the missile velocity search and tracking algorithms. We have also made substantial improvements to HOJ and visual modes. The next stages of development are realistic range gating modelling to enhance the missile’s onboard radar to contend with strong ground clutter returns.

Mi-24P Pilot

Development Progress

Progress on the new pilot model for the VKS and the Armed Forces of Russia is going well and the replacement of the entire line of pilots for Russian helicopters and airplanes in the early part of the new year is on track. In the screenshots presented, you can see the ZSH-7AP helmet for the MiG-29, Su-27 and Su-33 fighters with the KM-35 oxygen mask and the NVU-7 helmet sighting device. The helicopter version of the ZSH-7AP helmet is equipped with the DMSH boom microphone for the Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters.

AH-64D

Development Progress

The Target Acquisition and Designation Sight (TADS) is equipped with a stabilised daylight television camera, a Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera, and a laser rangefinder / target designator for targeting by displaying video to crewmembers’ Helmet Display Unit (HDU) or TEDAC Display Unit (TDU). It can also be displayed on the Multi-Purpose Displays. The TADS FLIR can also be used as a Night Vision Sensor for night flying by either crewmember. This allows the TADS to be slaved to the helmet line of sight of either crew member for nap-of-earth flying under near total darkness. The TADS cameras have multiple fields of view that allow the operators to see large areas for enhanced situational awareness or zoomed in for precise targeting at long ranges.

The DCS: AH-64D TADS FLIR camera is also being developed to showcase our new FLIR rendering technology that will provide a much improved and more realistic portrayal of the world as seen through infrared. This same technology will also be used for other FLIR sensors in DCS targeting pods such as the infrared-guided Maverick missiles.

We look forward to providing you with a preview of the current progress in the very near future. Stay tuned!

Thank you for your passion and support,

Yours sincerely,

[BeachAV8R]

Someone say new helmet?

[jross]

That’s nice. Still no mention of AI improvements.

PS: someone has to keep punishing that lifeless pony

[schurem]

I am 100% certain improved tactical AI is laid out in quite some detail on an internal ED wishlist/roadmap.

[jross]

I’ve read that too. Not convinced of its priority. My thoughts (from a YT comment I posted):

DCS is a very good sim: The AI is why it is not a great one, and never will be.

That assumes AI is important to you, the customer; if all you end up doing is human v human “air quake” then, eh, why bother with AI.

AI is a hard problem to solve; it’s not ‘pretty’ (it’s not a mesmerizing, shiny thing); takes up cycles (that can be used for pretty things).

If they’d just fix the AI “pilots” (alluded to in this video [the handling of the vehicle]) that would be a big step. You can script around the ground combat and likewise do some high-level stuff there in Lua.

I’ve been "wow"ed by DCS graphics, esp. in VR…I’d like to be “WOW”'ed by my wingman someday.

And I’d rather they fix this area than have a dynamic campaign (blasphemy, I know!). Just open up an API that lets me, more easily, save state to disk. Then I, or someone more talented, will “roll our own” DC. Op Liberation gave us a small taste of it.

G’day

PS: I’ve heard the primarily MP crowd complain ED doesn’t work on it [MP] enough. And here I am saying they don’t work on AI enough. The PvE MP bunch (seems there 's enough of them) would benefit from better AI too.

I don’t envy ED.

[schurem]

Well put sir, I agree wholeheartedly. But it is what it is and it ain’t what it ain’t.

[EightBall]

BTW, someone on Reddit spotted a couple of C-RAM in that last pic.

[RedBravo65]

@jross

And I’d rather they fix this area than have a dynamic campaign (blasphemy, I know!).

I whole-heartily agree. Well said.

[EightBall]

Liberation 5.0 released!

Release 5.0.0 · dcs-liberation/dcs_liberation

Liberation 5.0 has been released! While there have been many changes and improvements made, probably the most noticeable is that squadrons are now persistent and will have home bases from which they operate from (you can transfer them to another airfield during the campaign as needed). These squadrons are preset by the campaign designer, but they can be altered if you so wish by simple edits to a plain text file.

This new feature may be confusing for those used to the old system, so I highly suggest having a read through the Liberation wiki, in particular the pages on Squadrons and Pilots, and Unit Transfers. Those who wish to alter the squadron settings (e.g. number of squadrons, squadron aircraft) may wish to read through Custom Campaigns for an explanation of the format and information on what to edit.

Those who still have questions after doing so, feel free to drop by the Liberation Discord server and we will do what we can to assist.

Features/Improvements

• [Campaign] Weather! Theaters now experience weather that is more realistic for the region and its current season. For example, Persian Gulf will have very hot, sunny summers and Marianas will experience lots of rain during fall. These changes affect pressure, temperature, clouds and precipitation. Additionally, temperature will drop during the night, by an amount that is somewhat realistic for the region.
• [Campaign] Weapon data such as fallbacks and introduction years is now moddable. Due to the new architecture to support this, the old data was not automatically migrated.
• [Campaign] Era-restricted loadouts will now skip LGBs when no TGP is available in the loadout. This only applies to default loadouts; buddy-lasing can be coordinated with custom loadouts.
• [Campaign] FOBs control point can have FARP/helipad slot and host helicopters. To enable this feature on a FOB, add “Invisible FARP” statics objects near the FOB location in the campaign definition file.
• [Campaign] Squadrons now have a home base and will not operate out of other bases. See #1145 for status.
• [Campaign] Aircraft now belong to squadrons rather than bases to support squadron location transfers.
• [Campaign] Skipped turns are no longer counted as defeats on front lines.
• [Campaign AI] Overhauled campaign AI target prioritization.
• [Campaign AI] Player front line stances can now be automated. Improved stance selection for AI.
• [Campaign AI] Reworked layout of hold, join, split, and ingress points. Should result in much shorter flight plans in general while still maintaining safe join/split/hold points.
• [Campaign AI] Auto-planning mission range limits are now specified per-aircraft. On average this means that longer range missions will now be plannable. The limit only accounts for the direct distance to the target, not the path taken.
• [Campaign AI] Transport aircraft will now be bought only if necessary at control points which can produce ground units and are capable to operate transport aircraft.
• [Campaign AI] Aircraft will now only be automatically purchased or assigned at appropriate bases. Naval aircraft will default to only operating from carriers, Harriers will default to LHAs and shore bases, helicopters will operate from anywhere. This can be customized per-squadron.
• [Engine] Support for DCS 2.7.7.14727 and newer, including support for F-16 CBU-105s, SA-5s, and the Forrestal.
• [Kneeboard] Minimum required fuel estimates have been added to the kneeboard for aircraft with supporting data (currently only the Hornet and Viper).
• [Kneeboard] QNH (pressure MSL) and temperature have been added to the kneeboard.
• [Mission Generation] EWRs are now also headed towards the center of the conflict
• [Mission Generation] FACs can now use FC3 compatible laser codes. Note that this setting is global, not per FAC.
• [Modding] Can now install custom campaigns to /Liberation/Campaigns instead of the Liberation install directory.
• [Modding] Campaigns can now define a default start date.
• [Modding] Campaigns now specify the squadrons that are present in the campaign, their roles, and their starting bases. Players can customize this at game start but the campaign will choose the defaults.
• [New Game Wizard] Can now customize the player’s air wing before campaign start to disable, relocate, or rename squadrons.
• [Plugins] Updated SkynetIADS to 2.4.0 (adds SA-5 support).
• [UI] Sell Button for aircraft will be disabled if there are no units available to be sold or all are already assigned to a mission
• [UI] Enemy aircraft inventory now viewable in the air wing menu.

Fixes

• [Campaign] Naval control points will no longer claim ground objectives during campaign generation and prevent them from spawning.
• [Campaign] Units aboard sunk cargo ships will now have their losses tracked properly.
• [Mission Generation] Mission results and other files will now be opened with enforced utf-8 encoding to prevent an issue where destroyed ground units were untracked because of special characters in their names.
• [Mission Generation] Fixed generation of landing waypoints so that the AI obeys them.
• [Mission Generation] AI carrier aircraft with a start time of T+0 will now start at T+1s to avoid traffic jams.
• [Mission Generation] Fixed cases of unused aircraft not being spawned at airfields as soon as any airport filled up.
• [Mission Generation] Fixed cases with multiple client flights of the same airframe all received the same preset channels.
• [Mission Generation] F-14A is now generated with stored alignment.
• [Mission Generation] Su-33s set to cold or warm start on the Kuznetsov will always be generated as runway starts to avoid the AI getting stuck.
• [Mission Generation] Fixed AI not receiving anti-ship tasks against carriers and LHAs.
• [Mods] Fixed broken A-4 support causing no weapons to be available.
• [UI] Selling of Units is now visible again in the UI dialog and shows the correct amount of sold units
• [UI] Fixed bug where an incompatible campaign could be generated if no action is taken on the campaign selection screen.

[boomerang10]

@EightBall

BTW, someone on Reddit spotted a couple of C-RAM in that last pic.

Think they also added in Waldo that wasn’t in the original . Or a clown, I can’t tell.

[EightBall]

Yes, it’s Waldo. I might be responsible for that

[BeachAV8R]

That’s some funny stuff right there. I think ED needs to consider making a Waldo figure that you can put in all of your missions - the goal - complete the mission of course…but also…find Waldo!

[EightBall]

What a brilliant idea!

[BeachAV8R]

Oh great…now I’m gonna have to search the entire Roki Tunnel on every mission…

https://media1.giphy.com/media/5q2b8ecoUkb0hGJoDb/giphy.webp?cid=8d2e674adkv69qe178v89cwb1fj33pvfxxyfffoo900x4d9s&rid=giphy.webp&ct=g(image larger than 1 MB)

[BeachAV8R]

I’m gonna need a second cup of coffee. And some reading glasses.

[EightBall]

@BeachAV8R

ED needs to consider making a Waldo figure

Waldovich, with the white and blue tshirt of the russian navy

@BeachAV8R

I’m gonna need a second cup of coffee. And some reading glasses.

[jross]

Big update list.

I finally found a GPU, and with all the parts I’ve assembled, might be able to run it. Had some luck running it on a ded-server so this should help even more.

Does it still require you to purchase units? Un-regard, I’ll check it out again.

[b0bl00i]

You and me buddy…I’ve been asking like three times a year the last ten years. These days I just get forum warnings for beating that dead horse.

[JediMaster]

C-RAM, C-RAM, C-RAM, C-RAM
C-RAM, C-RAM, C-RAM, C-RAM
Lovely C-RAM, wonderful C-RAM!
Lovely C-RAM, wonderful C-RAM
C-RAAA-AAA-AAA-AAA-AAAA-AAA-AAA-AAM
C-RAAA-AAA-AAA-AAA-AAAA-AAA-AAA-AAM
Lovely C-RAM, wonderful C-RAM, C-RAM, C-RAM, C-RAM, C-RAAAAAAAM!

[smokinhole]

I had to look up C-RAM. (…and found Waldo)