I’ve been sandboxing this map for days. I flew the harrier breifly for the zoom-city-land-on-helipad tour. But after that it has been exclusively Huey slinging loads up into the hills of Oman in the rain. There is so much to see. Where the NTTR can seem dull and even a bit low-res, the Gulf is teaming with detail. In the villages there is mix of beauty (creatively decorated traffic circles for instance) and poverty. There is building debris and garbage everywhere. Adjacent homes show dramatic differences in quality. I’ve never been to the region but I have seen the same spectrum of beauty and broken in Palestine, Greece, Turkey and, ahem, New Jersey.
This is like exploring Chanarus or Altis, but 20 times bigger. If you are not into helicopters then you may find yourself unable to fully appreciate this map (just don’t read the awnings and signs on storefronts—I doubt “Fremont Ave” is so ubiquitous in Oman). I haven’t even been up to Iran yet. I am really looking forward to see if I can spot cultural differences in the towns. The F-18 can wait. There’s just too much to see low and slow.
Yeah,I have been doing short flights in The Huey in The Dubai outskirts,The detail and building variations are incredibly immersive,A RotorHeads Dream.
I agree… I think PG is much better then NTTR. I’m really excited to see how this map develops. I wish they can eventually expand it to include Qatar, eastern Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. One thing that I’ve found myself really enjoying in 2.5 is the way the ocean looks. In the PG map its gotten even better with the addition of color variation in shallow water. The wave effects are outstanding. I’d say DCS has the best looking ocean environment in any flight sim currently.
I just whipped up a quick mission busting tanks and artillery in central Iran with the Mirage. Brought back fond memories of Jane’s IAF! I can’t wait for some good campaigns to come out for this theater.
I got only two samples, but what struck me was how hazy the area was. A week ago the weather was a little cloudy and visibility was pretty poor. Yesterday the sky was clear blue and visibility still was just 20-30 km at altitude.
If you go to Qatar and zoom in… the airbase is not there but there is an outline, like a print on the ground where it should be. You can see it clear as day. Maybe someday…
The level of detail is undoubtedly some of the best available in the Sim (to my eyes Normandy is still quite the looker).
However, I’m not so sure about the lighting engine at this point as I’ve not been able to replicate the ‘murk’ you experience at certain times of the day.
Can anyone who’s a more proficient DCS photographer than me (so anyone really) come up with time and weather settings to match this early morning shot?
As mentioned in yesterday’s Hornet video, we are adding two, new airbases to the Persian Gulf Map – Shiraz International Airport (330 nm to Al Dhafra) and Kerman International Airport (380 nm to Al Dhafra). Both airfields have military ramps and facilities.
With the addition of these two airfields, it makes the Persian Gulf map about the same size as the Caucasus map (measured as distance between airfields). Both new bases provide many parking locations to support large missions (large and small aircraft). We think having these two large bases far inland will provide many more mission possibilities for both single- and multi-player.
Today, we have a few work-in-progress images around Kerman International Airport.
Once these are complete, we plan to add additional airfields and landmarks across the map.
These bases will serve as ideal home to many DCS World aircraft like the F-5E, Flaming Cliffs 3 Su-25 and MiG-29, Mi-8MTV2, and UH-1H. Get these and many other modules at 50% off until 5 July 2018 at:
