Minky’s kneeboards are good - they tell you where the switch is located in the cockpit
1 Like
Openkneeboard is an option - I only started using it recently for BMS, but it also works in DCS World - you can add pdf files and have the kneeboard magnified when you look at it.
I used it for the training sorties in BMS - very useful.
2 Likes
Some nice Skyraider shots in the newsletter. I’m really looking forward to it - might just get me spending more time in the sim again.
4 Likes
I’ve been away from DCS for a few months (silly life happening), great to see things are smoothing out with recent patches. Absolutely cannot wait for Kola.
4 Likes
With the up coming F4, A7 and the current MiG lineup( not to mention helps) there would be so much goodness to be had on a Viet Nam map.
4 Likes
Don’t forget the A-4!
Though a bit more distant, F-8, A-6, and F-100 are also in the works
3 Likes
Ach! True!
1 Like
A-7 was a real fave of mine as a young planespotter and modeller in the late 60’s/early 70’s. I’ve never seen one IRL, though, that I can remember, but built a few models back then.
I’ll have to give it a whirl, just for nostalgia and get those rose tints out. I used to love putting masses of iron bombs under the wings of my A-7 models 
2 Likes
Here’s another:
2 Likes
I just updated to the new stable today (planning to have stable & OB interchangeable once I’ve done some checking on it).
I expected a large update - 160GB it turned out to be and took around 2¾ hours.
I do really feel sorry for people with poor internet services and wonder how many have been put off altogether. I often see people posting about using older versions (which I do myself, but for other reasons) and wonder if this is a major factor.
Problem is, they ask advice on the ED forums and always get a line of responses trying to tell them/persuade them that they should be on the latest cos it’s so good - probably not what they want to hear!
Yes, they can do it in several sessions, but I don’t think that’s ideal. Maybe releasing huge patches in batches would be a better approach. Such as the main sim, then individual models, campaigns and terrains as all separate downloads. Some may be co-dependent, but it would be an option for those less fortunate souls.
Whatever - next is the OB download - that in itself took a couple of hours last time, so I won’t do it until I’ve had a good chance to test the latest stable and make sure my assignments still work.
1 Like
Working exactly in Flight Sim development I sadly must tell you that’s not possible. Or better not viable.
Too much effort would have to go in making sure that different updated versions would work together. Essentially it would mean maintenance of a silly large number of baselines.
Never going to happen. I do agree that’s a bummer but it is what it is - an infrastructural issue.
4 Likes
An own goal, in other words, if it means less people using the sim for this reason, then it means less sales, less recommendations etc etc.
Still, I see this sim as aimed at better off Americans in any case, so probably talking about the kind of people who wouldn’t have suitable internet connections.
edit - I just read that after posting and am sitting with a big frown… what I mean is, the people who have these sorts of issues are probably not the target customers.
Well I don’t know about all of that- having slow internet simply means it takes longer to update.
I know it can be a pain sometimes but… there’s a lot worse going on in the world, like, right now.
All things should be taken in perspective I guess?
Just to be clear - I don’t have slow internet, I’m talking about the many people around the world who do and bought the sim not expecting over 150GB patches.
It’s easy to just dismiss this kind of thought with “Oh there are more serious problems in the world”, but never mind, I can always discuss it with myself - I rarely disagree with me (though it can happen!).
PS - I was thinking about them because I read their posts on the ED and FS forums.
1 Like
No, yeah, I understand.
What I’m saying is, I do have 10 MBit Internet and … well the situation is not terrible when it comes to updates.
And even with slower internet, of course 150GB is a slow process, but it’s just a matter of time.
1 Like
Are the patches that large if you don’t own all the terrains?
1 Like
I understand your point @Johnny , but without a huge increase in maintenance burden, I don’t really see how DCS Updater could do this any better than they already do.
- downloads can be interrupted and are saved to the easily findable Program Files\DCS\.download folder.
- DCS Updater checks the files present and downloads only what it needs
- this means you could drive over to a friend’s house or receive a USB disk by post card to get (most of) the data you need
- DCS Updater can upgrade or downgrade to specific versions of DCS: you don’t need to be on the latest version to play, except if you want to join the big multiplayer servers (which presumes some quality of internet)
- The DCS Updater does not fry your graphics card by rendering a main menu at 1600 fps but runs quietly in the background.
Compare this to MSFS2020, which always requires you to be on the latest version to play, renders a main menu at high framerate. It even stops downloading when the window is not in focus (seriously, the only way I could reduce the framerate was to downclock my GPU, which I did when I last downloaded a big update) and is a lot less obvious with the filepaths it uses.
2 Likes
Very good points. DCS updater is definitely more user friendly than MSFS2020 (MS install).
One feature would make DCS updater even better: allow background download. Of course this would have an impact for the performance.
2 Likes
I don’t think that the downloader uses much performance, it’s mostly asynchronous IO with a bit of unpacking of compressed files that can be offloaded by the OS to other cores. Where it starts to get gnarly is that under Windows, you can not edit files of a running application. So the downloader would have to be modified to download to a temporary location and replace the files when the application is closed. This would require a lot of free disk space for large updates.
2 Likes
There’s no doubt, FS2020 is so much worse - although both can be “paused” and continued later, it’s still a big burden - but hey, I’m not going to argue or fight for those people, they do it for themselves in any case.
My own preference would be something similar to what UncleZam said - but to allow downloading patches on a separate PC to that which the sim is on and run it as an exe file or unarchive it to the sim. Didn’t they all use to be like that once upon a time? It could run on a low power PC (leaving my PC running for hours on downloads is one of my own dislikes about the patching system, as it uses a lot of electricity, even with every ancillary switched off) and would not prevent other use of the main PC either.
3 Likes