DCS:- Black Shark English Version Released!

Soldato
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In which case I would suggest you leave it. This is LOMAC in a helicopter; nothing has fundamentally changed as far as I can tell so far... apart from the fact they've removed all the other flyable aircraft. :-/

The Ka-50 is undoubtedly a remarkable bit of modelling, don't get me wrong. The cockpit's probably worth the money all on its own for hardcore flight sim geeks. And I'm sure I'll have some fun learning to fly in a straight line... if I ever manage to take off by flicking switches randomly. :) But I've only bought it in the hope they'll eventually get round to updating the Su-27. I like my flying metal to have afterburners, not a gearbox.

It would help if this engine had a dynamic battle environment like EECH, but LOMAC/DCS is a long way from having a world which feels genuinely alive. Hopefully they'll get there one day, and that's why I reluctantly bought Flaming Cliffs and now Black Shark. After all, anyone interested in flight sims has little choice but to support the few developers still working.

Andrew McP

Have you tried the campaign yet?, it's not Falcon 4, but it isn't sterile like LOMAC. The overhaul of the mission editor to include a trigger system, and the phased campaign system are light years ahead of Lomacs dull environment.

Nate
 

Sel

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If it's not dual care enabled on XP which is still the majority according to Steam I won't be getting it until it's sorted.
 
Soldato
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If it's not dual care enabled on XP which is still the majority according to Steam I won't be getting it until it's sorted.

You will be waiting a long time then, i suspect. It was never supossed to be Dual Core, in fact the program is set NOT to run dual core by the Developers, in lomac this used to cause all sorts of problems with performance, it's just as luck would have it Vista does something the XP doesnt and for some reason, it works.

From the FAQ.......
Q: Does DCS: Black Shark take advantage of multi-core processors?

A: DCS: Black Shark uses a modified version of The Fighter Collection Simulation Engine (TFCSE), which was not originally designed to take advantage of multi-core processor technologies. Nevertheless, such systems do generally provide better game performance as a result of their native capabilities.

11/20/08 EDIT:
You can try manually setting the core affinity for DCS to all of the CPU cores, which may boots your game performance. To do this, Alt-Tab out of a running mission, set the CPU affinity for DCS and Alt-Tab back in. You will have to do this every time you run the sim.

Nate
 
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Think I'll wait for the boxed version. This is a game I need to play with the manual open next to me.

Can't wait though. This harks back to the days of Microprose flight sims, with manuals you could use to beat whales to death :D
 
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Nope, for some reason this performance advantage is only obtainable in Vista, maybe in a future patch.....

Nate

hmm, well I ticked both cores in task manager and I do get an increase in FPS at first glance.

Edit: Just sat parked cold at an airfield, 1 core I get 38 FPS, 2 cores I get 46-49 FPS. So it does increase performance.
 
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Soldato
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hmm, well I ticked both cores in task manager and I do get an increase in FPS at first glance.

Edit: Just sat parked cold at an airfield, 1 core I get 38 FPS, 2 cores I get 46-49 FPS. So it does increase performance.

<sprints off to fire up Black Shark>

EDIT:- No improvment :( Solid 30fps. Are you using vista?

Nate
 
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Soldato
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It would help if this engine had a dynamic battle environment like EECH, but LOMAC/DCS is a long way from having a world which feels genuinely alive.

How is the radio chatter? Do the ATC, wingmen e.t.c sound natural or is it still a robotic monotone? English, Russian, either?

I heard a rumour that you can't crash into trees. Is this true? :eek:
 
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<sprints off to fire up Black Shark>

EDIT:- No improvment :( Solid 30fps. Are you using vista?

Nate

Nope, windows XP.

Im telling you I get an improvment.

Solid 30? Are you sure its not being limited by something?

I just flew the deployment campaign mission, Im not going to be able to remember any of that, they need to make some sort of top down map with the landmarks and towns on it. And Ive still not shot anything yet unless you count the civilian vehicles and the train I rocketed on an MP game last night :p.

edit: Just got shot down by a T-72's main gun :/
 
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Soldato
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Nope, windows XP.

I'm telling you I get an improvement.

Solid 30? Are you sure its not being limited by something?

I just happens to be the FPS as i enter the cockpit on the Quickstart mission thats all.

Nieldo perhaps you could post your findings over in the DCS forum in this thread http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=33715&page=5

If we could get this working in XP like you have a lot of people will be very happy.

edit: Just got shot down by a T-72's main gun :/

I was online today flying a mission called valley of death, I was creeping up on some T-55s lining up for a few cannon bursts, and i see him firing his main gun on my SKHVAL, wondering to myself "who's he firing at? Theres no friendly ground unit arou...... oh........*******)

Cue helicopter confetti falling from the sky.

Nate
 
Soldato
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I was online today flying a mission called valley of death, I was creeping up on some T-55s lining up for a few cannon bursts, and i see him firing his main gun on my SKHVAL, wondering to myself "who's he firing at? Theres no friendly ground unit arou...... oh........*******)

Cue helicopter confetti falling from the sky.

Nate

Happened in the real world with Iraqi T-72s very recently ;) (Apaches being the target)
 
Soldato
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mm may be worth putting Vista 64 on my system as dual boot eg. Xp - Vista 64 just to play this game at a nice frame rate > nice boost from 27 fps too 44 fps i think some bod said using dual core trick.
 
Soldato
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Have you tried the campaign yet?, it's not Falcon 4, but it isn't sterile like LOMAC.

I'll be impressed if they've moved it forward much from LOMAC. The rest of what I've seen of the world outside the cockpit so far isn't that promising. I mean, according to the forums they haven't even made improvements to the AI of the ground vehicles... and they're the main targets you're supposed to be hunting in the Ka-50. You'd think that would have been a priority.

I will say though that I did have a brief period of almost sim Nirvana yesterday. Brief because I changed a few settings to try and get my wheel's pedals working for yaw control (instead of my X45's rocker) and now I can't get any missions to run for some reason (maybe unrelated). I have to debug that later... or, annoyingly, use up an uninstall/reinstall cycle.

Anyway, the first thing which impressed me was the 3D effect using TrackIR. Now, I'm not a big fan of trackIR, despite having bought two versions (3 & 4) while trying to find a version & settings which suited me... intellectually I'm sure it's wonderful, but my brain refuses to settle down and enjoy the experience. So this is the first outing for the TIR for about a year (in fact I found it dangling, covered in dust, down the back of my desk after a long hunt!), but despite my continuing uneasiness using it, the effect in BS's 3D cockpit is rather impressive. Very impressive indeed, in fact. I may persevere this time... though I suspect my brain is just anti-TIR.

That leads me to the more impressive thing. I blew caution to the wind (ok, and about £650) earlier in the year, buying a Triplehead + 3*1680x1050 setup. I was nervous about it, despite the fact the whole lot cost less than I paid for a 17" CRT 14 years ago (and for the 19" which followed a few years later), but in racing sims like iRacing, GTL, and rFactor I've found it to be worth every penny.

BS is the first flight sim I've run since getting that screen setup and without the TIR running it is a real joy to fly (and frame rates are surprisingly good at max detail without FSAA, with a GTX260). The peripheral vision, as in racing sims,takes immersion to a totally different level. Throw in the TIR as well and... well, the jury's still out. I think both together is probably overkill.

Anyway, it's inspired me to reinstall LOMAC & Flaming Cliffs later. That peripheral vision *needs* to be moving at Mach1. None of this pansying about at 100kph... sideways, then backwards, then spiralling into the ground. Deliberately, obviously. ;)

Andrew McP
 
Soldato
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I heard a rumour that you can't crash into trees. Is this true? :eek:

Trees are virtual only, sadly. It is a real Achilles heel in this hover-based release. The original aim of using that licensed system for 'real trees' (I forget the name) appears to be dead & buried.

No doubt they have plans to add something better later, but ED's history is littered with the corpses of things they were 'going to do'. You just have to take what you get with Russian programmers. No point wishing for stuff you'll only ever see in your dreams.... like the Su-27 with FC-level flight modelling I've been waiting for since Flanker1! :)

Andrew McP
 
Soldato
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Get this though, remember ED promising to do AI flying with true AOA for "Flanker Attack"? It finally appeared. In a helo sim no less :) Thats what.... 10 years or more ?

As for the ground AI, the use of scatter tactics and smoke grenades it being touted for a future patch.

From the Sim HQ interview with Matt Wagner........
"Most of the items we first want to flesh-out are improved ground AI. We’ve already been working on ground unit scattering when under attack and using smoke grenades. We intend for the ground units to be less cooperative when trying to be killed."

Nate
 
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black shark.

im not far from selling my dell 3007 30 inch monitor.
im wanting to buy the tripple head matrox and 3x lcd monitors.
any1 here recomend and cheap n cheerfull lcd displays to do the job.
thx in responce.
 
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