homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation DCS World Eno's Firehouse and Crew's Hollo Pointe Server Lounge

It seems to me that the frame rate impact would be the same regardless of when the sub munitions exploded or the degree of dispersal. Here is a solution that has improved things for me. Try going here C:\DCS World\Bazar\Effects\expl\boom1.lua. Look for the line..NumParticles. Change that number from 400 to 100 and see what happens. You can always change it back if you don't see any improvement.

I'd read the same about the smoke particles as well actually- looking to resolve the crush on frames from multiple burning vehicles.

That would prolly help in Road Kill.

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A new 'The Highway-Save Gelan' is up on Hollo Pointe. Since rearming at the old neutral Gelen Airbase will now allow the cannon rounds to be replenished, I had to make a new ending to the original mission. The new version allows full rearming (strange how multiple Mavs will rearm here but not at Fulda Gap) at Gelen - and you are gonna need those Mavs, what with Novo getting a stream of armor and air defense reinforcements. Red cargo helicopters are bringing new units to Novo that could extend the mission into the night.

The route down the four-lane is the same, but with a bit more flak from the convoys - another armor unit in each convoy. Also a smattering of ZU-23 sites.

If Blue pilots can take out the Red cargo helicopters then Novo won't get the reinforcements. OTOH, if those cargo helicopters do get to Novo then they will help to reinforce that airbase against us Blue players (it is a COOP a/c mission) with nastys like Tunguskas and TORs. And those helios will drop off armor that will take the coastal highway to Gelen and attack it.

The mission is designed to last up to 24 hours - 0900-0900.

RDR cargo helicopters with reinforcements for Novo Airbase


Almost made it back to Gelendzhik


WC

TORS?! *gulp*

Hey... did we have a guy named Dozer in here a bit ago?

Dozer... if you're in here monitoring, can you send me a PM?

Looks REALLY awesome Crew... a great concept! Beans and I were talking the other night and he suggested raiding parties into Gelen that caught my attention. If I implement anything like that I'll put a KA-50 FARP at Gelen. Speaking of which, we were openly talking about this the other day... do we need to set up the FARPs individually anymore or can KA-50s be supported at the airbases? Can I launch KA-50s from Gelen immediately and let them go to work?

Also: I finally got "Sweetest" (My GF) set up on the family computer and bought another A-10 license. Imagine my dismay at having to pay almost 50 bucks for it because I missed the sales. Anyway- we're set up and went in through the Highway last night with a few of "the boys."

I had picked an older version of the highway because it had air starts and she wasn't having much luck with the ground starts. I couldn't remember / never knew any of the key commands so I figured- hey... highway has some air starts... let's go there. I'll just get her to fly low. Ummmmm.

We had to muck around with TS3 but eventually got it sorted out.

Anyway, we got through the highway without a scratch (probably the first time in my life- she didn't know what the big deal was and made our way to Novo. I figured it was the version where we had an hour before the Iglas showed up so we went for a quick pass... as I was scanning for targets with my MK.1 Eyeball I saw a T-55 sitting at an intersection... which means it was an updated version... which meant that Iglas are present from the get go!

Aw crap.

I told her to break right immediately and head out to sea... I started flaring all over the place and dove for the ground just as I got a missile launch warning... I was bat turning all over the place... trying to call out a course and she had no idea what direction she was going or how to tell... I got struck by a missile and it blew out my left engine and stripped off my tail feathers on that side... I couldn't take my hands off the controls or the rudder pedals as I needed to use both to control. I was missing an elevator so I needed to use some throttle for pitch control.

Anyway I did an emerg landing and "the boys" were kind enough to let me get squared away more or less off to the side- and I jumped over to her aircraft in F2. She was busy explaining to me that she couldn't see anything and the aircraft was sluggish. Half of her aircraft was missing or full of holes and that's about when I saw 2 more missiles hit her. We had GREAT fun in there together and I'm looking forward to introducing her to many of you guys... if you see us huddled together in a mission somewhere but not on TS3- we're probably on my TS3 server so if you just want to come in for a visit, come on in! However, I'm going to be going over a lot of the basics with her- so there will undoubtedly be a lot of banter back and forth.

We had a funny experience yesterday in Back to School as well...

"anyone know how to fire weapons" Says USER
"try ctrl e times three" Replies SOMEONE
"Mean old X-*** :)" someone ELSE says after the user ejected.
"i have just been trolled" USER says, in very good nature- a credit to him.
"oh man, I'm sorry" SOMEONE (rhymes with gama ray) insisted
"didn't think you'd try it" he continues...
"oh its fine im just falling" USER says "im new lol so obviously i am xD"

I must admit we were ALL feeling smug after- but the guy took it REALLY, REALLY well and saw the humour in it. I have to admit up front that I had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with it- and I most certainly did not even make the suggestion out in the open TS3... anyone claims otherwise and I'll deny deny deny. My word is still worth SOMETHING in here, isn't it?

My point in the above is I have ALWAYS recommended that people at LEAST get through the training material available. The community in the Firehouse can help to polish off some of the more advanced knowledge required to get the most out of the sim- but if you need help from someone to put your canopy down or to pull the trigger to fire weapons... you're welcome to join but you can't always expect that guys in the middle of a mission are going to be able to accommodate you. You HAVE to help yourself before you can expect others to do the same.



On a so-so side... I had the Playground up for pretty much the whole day today and at one point had over 15 guys in there... unfortunately with the volume too come smackatars... I'm thoroughly unimpressed with the whining b1tches that are coming in there and crying every time they don't get their way or because something isn't to their liking. I'm certainly not speaking for crew when I say this- but if you want to just sit in the room and honk on the mission... GTFO. I peruse the logs afterwards and if someone just can't seem to "let it go" then I'll toss him into the ban list.

If you've just had a bad day and were ragging on everyone and feel bad- I have no problem taking the ban off but people have to come clean in here (you know how to find me- send me an IM if you'd prefer) and knock that crap off in the future. Mods... You all know the community of guys who have grown with the server and the style of play we have fostered... if you get a bad feeling about someone, get rid of them. If they want to plead their case, they can come do it in here and talk to me but I trust your judgment 100%.

But let's also work at making sure we all know how to apply the remote ban / kicks. I've seen a couple guys try but they're not quite getting the commands right. We can work on that...

Anyway- enough ranting... we're heading in to fly!

HAHAHA.... ahem. Although I hear that mean user did try his best to help the guy out after that... shame he was in an SU-25 so we didn't know many of the commands.

Also:


Remember that? I was pretty annoyed at Saitek.

So annoyed... I thought I might do something about it. I could hear Saitek sneering at me from their tower of skulls. Laughing as I trawled the net for a solution.
Well... I FOUND A SOLUTION.

BAM!

WHAT NOW, SAITEK?!

Yeah! I made my own Armament HUD Control Panel over the weekend. It's all thanks to two people:
While I was trying to find a program solution that would make the Saitek panels work, I stumbled across TigersharkBAS's youtube channel, specifically a walkthrough on building your own switch panels.
Then, the real problem was finding components in Japanese... I knew precisely zero of the electronics words & phrases used in Japanese, but after hours of searching for and rejecting possible USB controller boards, I found the blog of a guy who flies a 757 simulator he put together in his apartment. The PCB he used looked perfect... and cheap!
So, big thanks to both those guys!

Everything on the panel is functional except the ALT SCE and NORM/STBY switches (I only had 12 inputs to work with on the PCB, and I never use those two switches anyway). Check out the mid-progress pic:


First time I picked up a soldering iron since high school, and even then it was only once or twice. The moral of this story is, if I can do it, so can you!
Seriously! Less than a week from idea to execution, and I am such a dunce with everything technical. Try it try it try it!

Uh, wait a minute... what are these switches doing on my AHCP?




Edit: I got too carried away showing off up there, and forgot to mention that Eno, it's awesome your GF is getting into the sim. I asked my wife the other day if she'd like to give the A-10 a spin... never have I seen her refuse something so fast^^

Where'd you get THOSE switches!?

hah! X- those switches are awesome!

Does she have a sister? I need one of those types of GFs.....

I'm going to change the name - 'The Highway - Save Gelen' is not catchy enough Maybe to 'The Highway-M4'; that looks to be the real name of the highway between Krasnodar and Novo. Wow - looking at Google Maps for Gelendzhik - Gelen's airfield is much larger than Novo's - and Novo looks to be turned into a parking lot - prolly for all the Red RDR vehicles prepping for the attack on Gelen!

There is some work to do to save Gelen from the attacking armor columns out of Novo. When those attackers are threatening, we will have Red Smoke and a message to warn us.

Gelen is really tough on landings - the runway is soo short, and it seems to be sloped downward to the bay. I ran off the end - typical - and for some reason could not Repair - I don't know if I was just too far from the base facilities - but I was able to Rearm and Refuel - need to test that some more. The new LAlt-' is the way to go for Rearm and Refuel.

Before that I was talking to another guy in TS who passed on the mission because of Gelen landings and because it takes so long to get to Gelen. So I added some A-10C slots that activated 12 hours into the mission - at 2100 - that started off the coast where the four-lane ends. That did not make sense. So I changed those A-10Cs to start at 0900 when most everything else starts. Then took that a bit further by adding in P-51Ds and Ka-50s in the same place - these new slots have 'Feet Wet' in their names.

I left the F-15Cs in at the top of the lake above Krasnodar - but since there are no enemy jets there is not much for the F-15s to do.


Because the mission will go another 12 hours before timing out, more highway convoys were added. I was not too surprised to find that a bunch of the existing convoys had no triggers to activate them - scheesh! All that stuff is fixed, plus better Win/Lose logic.

I did put some FARPS around Gelen to support the Feet Wet Ka-50s - but the Ka-50s don't start at Gelen - I think that would be too close to Novo for a Blue advantage. Having FARPs at airbases is more important when AI helicopters are present, to prevent those helicopters from occupying a Client spawn point. As a general rule I will have a FARP at an airbase for any helicopters.

The Ka-50s, F-15Cs and P-51Ds at the top of The Highway now have added fuel to (hopefully) allow them to make it all the way down to the coast.


It bothers me that I can Rearm with six Mavericks at Gelen but cannot in Fulda Gap.

WC

That's great news about the feet wet slots Crew! Kinda wish I had thought of suggesting it in retrospect. I like the idea, for me at least, because it gives an option to play the whole route if I'm in with a group, or if it's early in the day here on the east coast and nobody is on and I'm just up for 30 mins or so of playing it lets me play one of your missions without having to fly too far to start raining destruction.


Was anyone able to confirm the particles number adjustment's impact on FPS?

Hello,

I enjoyed my time on your server very much in the free flight mission you host. I thought I would suggest having some alternate KA-50 routes saved into the mission to go along with the different target areas available. I am all into adding depth and this would be a great training option for KA-50 pilots in your map. The routes would be saved using the Prepare feature of the ME. I'd even be happy to do the work myself when I learn the map a bit more.

thanks for consideration and hosting.

isnt the point of the highway the flight through all that?


Spice up the mission some more?

Add a Enemy ship.. lol... so not only do you have to take the airbase back, but you have Naval re-inforcements coming in.


Maybe a completely New Highway, 100% over water, with Ships firing at you, hahaha

Sometimes my point is to blow stuff up. Having the option to do so or fly THEN do so would be interesting for me at least, I was just saying Crew had a good idea when he added it.

And yes, ships would be interesting. Maybe make an Ocean Highway for our Hornets when we get em!

This isn't your father's Highway, anymore.

The intensity level just went waay up over Novo. Having to go all the way down The Highway and land at Gelen for weapons in order to attack Novo takes a while... I suppose that the a/c at the start of The Highway *could* have a Mav or two...

But I digress... going all that way only to fall off the end of the runway at Gelen can be a bit frustrating.

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After some conversation over at DCS, the old scenario of not being able to rearm the cannon but allow repairs is not going to come back any time soon. And with Eno's and other's comments on this mission, it needed more spice at the end. This new one sure did turn into something much bigger than the original.

But I just couldn't bring myself to add Red AI fighters for the F-15Cs to battle, because if no F-15Cs in at the time then the Red jets would eat the A-10Cs for a snack.

Do let me know how it 'feels' - it is still subject to change.

WC

I'd put AI Fighters, with 1 or 2 of them being human slots, if no one joins, fine.

TBH, the F-15s should take off and provide cover when trying to capture Novo. and have it setup that novo spawn some Air To Air Threats.


I can still do gun runs in the F-15C :0

^---THAT would rock.

It c-o-u-l-d be possible to spawn some Red enemy AI fast movers out of Anapa or Krymsk as the F-15Cs go feet wet. I don't want to turn this into a H2H, though - it is a Blue COOP mission.

And the BUK coverage is extensive - so those FC3 F-15Cs drivers prolly would not know how to react, and all of us A-10C pile-its would get shot down by Red AI.

WC

i wouldnt mess with highway too much, it's an awesome mission as is.

But just saying having a mission where you'd have to fly formation with F-15s to cover you would be kinda fun.

So at mission start, 2 A-10Cs and 2 F-15s take off, enroute, AI Fighters intercept, F-15s Peel off to engage, A-10Cs go for ground.

or something along those lines.