How to start to fly in DCS World

Thanks, I will try it and let you know have thing go.

Oaktony, do you mind saying what your system specs are?

The combination of the X52’s profiling software and DCS’ control setup can be confusing . I would first try keyboard-only control mode . Disable SST ( i think that is the name of the Saitek profiling software ) in Task Manager . Then open DCS and check the control assignments in the keyboard column . Then try a free-flight instant action mission . If that works , it is time to check the SST profile . Note that you must select a Saitek profile to load before flight .
Also , it is possible to assign controls in “sim” mode , and then fly in “game” mode (or vice-versa) which will also cause control problems .
Finally , if you’re flying in VR , be sure you don’t have a “Window out of focus” message in the upper part of the view .
That will disable all control inputs . Alt+tab to bring DCS back in focus .

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thank you for your reply I will try that as soon as I get teh system reloaded. I uninstalled DCS and rebooted my system. The system is now downloading the new version of DCS. I will let you know how it goes, it may take up to six hours for the system to re install…

My system is a tower CPU Intel I5 4950, Socket 1150 LGA CPU 3.30 Ghz, Mem DDR3 32 GBtes
Graphic card NuDia G-force CT730 Mem 4GByte DDR3 Bus with 64bit One Monitor using X52 Pro and Standard Keyboard. A mouse with c: drive is 1 TG and D: is 4 TG Window Pro 10 64bit

I hate to be the barer of bad news, but IMHO that’s your bottleneck right there. I think that when the sim loads, it doesn’t have enough GPU memory to run and locks up. ← my layman’s understanding.

I believe that the minimum spec GPU that you can run is a GTX 760. Anyone else want to chime in?

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/downloads/world/stable/

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Sad but true. Somebody get this man a GPU, stat! :ambulance:

So the problem is I need a stronger graphic card. The one I have is not able to run the game? Can you tell me the best one to buy to get the job done? Or does anyone have a good one?

Assuming your monitor has no more than 1920x1080 (or x1200) pixels:
GTX 760 is the minimum and GTX 970 or 1060 should be good for medium settings. If you want to set higher settings, you could get a GTX 1070 or RTX 3050.
But I wouldn’t go higher than that on the GPU with this system on 1080p resolution

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Freak, I see that newegg has the RTX 3050 for $380. It’s PCI Express 4 though. I think most 1150 socket mobos are PCIE 3. Would that card be backward compatible?

Ooh good point, it might be bottlenecked by the lower bandwidth of PCI-E 3, better to go for a 900 or 1000 series then

EDIT: quick Google shows no big performance dip when using PCI 3 instead of 4 for the RTX3050:

I recall reading that the RX6500 does suffer a lot from running PCI 3 (since it has less lanes) so don’t get that one

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I don’t have anything to add except to say Welcome to Mudspike!

These guys will get you set up…they’re straight shooters.

And it’ll be worth it in the end, DCS is a pretty fun ride. :+1:t2:

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Oaktony, for your system, a GTX 3050 seems to be the best card. But it’s risky to recommend it because there might be some caveats, like your power supply might not have the right connectors, or the card might not fit in the case due to a conflict with another component. If you are someone that is comfortable repairing or upgrading a PC, you might be able to do it with little hassle. But otherwise, you may find yourself making multiple trips to the the local computer store looking for cables at a minimum. Worst case scenario is that would have to buy other parts like a power supply or a case, and then you are approaching the point where it may make more sense to buy a new computer.

Do you have a friend, family member, or local retailer who could get some eyeballs on your system to help steer you in the right direction?

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This is one good advice.

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I have a 400-w power supply. I have been thinking about getting a new card but have put it on the back burner, but now I guess I’ll have to look at a new one to get up and running. I have been with FSX for awhile and want to get into some best sim’s. So, again thanks for the help I will let you know how it goes finding a high end card with 8 G or more.

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Thanks to all of you I’ve been able to fly. I brought a GeForce RTX 3050 with 8G and installed it. I have been trying to figure out how to view the cockpit while flying. I don’t have a headset. I use a x52-Pro and I’m trying to bind a new profile. I understand that I have to have a profile. I want to get a VR headset but not sure which one will work the best. Again thanks for the help in getting started.

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Thanks, that the card I just got and installed. Now I can start to get some training.

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Glad you were able to get that GPU. You chose a very good time to get started in DCS, the past two years have been horrible for video cards but it’s just gotten a lot better last month.

If you had said that before, I would have recommended an RTX 3070 (or RX6800 if that one is cheaper) or better.
Although you might not be getting the performance to justify such a card anyway with that older cpu/motherboard combination.

Honestly, I fly DCS VR exclusively and while it can be a ton of fun, it definitely has its downsides.
And those downsides are worse to someone just getting started in DCS.
Namely:

  • need an even beefier pc
  • annoying when learning: I cannot easily read guides or follow video on tablet or second screen
  • need a ton of buttons mapped on HOTAS: no easy keyboard access while blinded by the VR headset.

So for now, I would recommend you to get some form of headtracking and keep it on the 2D screen: TrackIR 5 has been the standard for ages now, but the plastic is flimsy and the price high. Alternatives are DelanClip and Trackhat (both are lower cost than TrackIR, but same working principle) and FaceTrackNoIR (tracks faces, usually lower quality tracking but also cheaper and simpler to understand)

Then if you like it a lot, you can try VR but I would only do that after having reasonably mastered a module and being sure you want to do this for a while. With a new pc and a HOTAS with many buttons, it gets expensive fast.

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Pm sent

Did you fix this? If not, I posted here, as i had similar issues No one could help with, but I figured it out! If it helps you let me know! PM, and I’ll walk you yhrough it!(PST).

-Mongoose