DCS Beginners Guide - GETTING STARTED

hello youtube this is cross-check and welcome to getting started with DCs world in the video description you will find a timestamp to the different topics that will be discussed here so you can easily access the information that interests you okay let's start by understanding what DCs world is this year's world is a very impressive combat flight simulator developed by Eagle dynamics a software company based in Moscow Russia it'll is to say these are really good news as Russians do know how to make great simulators of course not everything is sunshine happiness if you want to learn more regarding the history of DCs and listen to some serious rambling you should go and check out my video called DC is a beautiful mess link is in the video's description I would like to point out that I am very critical regarding DCs because I truly love this simulator if you ask me what simulator brings in this point of time the most joy out of me I would say DC has any heartbeat Decius is that good but it also makes me the angriest so do with that information which will moving on DCs self claims to be free to play but I personally think it is a bit deceiving the base package which is free to download can be seen as a extremely limited free to play software or like a really generous demo of it I prefer the latter but at the making of this video because of the current situation Eagle Dynamics has posted that this world will be truly free to play for a full month a brilliant move in my humble opinion the post has conflicting information on when it begins and when it ends but in worst case scenario it seems to be available from the 19th of April all the way to the 18th of May this of course in 2020 in case you are watching sometime in the future in this time frame you will enjoy unlimited access to all DCs aircraft maps and assets for you guessed it completely free also it is worth mentioning if you truly enjoy something during this period you will be able to keep it with a 50% discount off from the original price so this month is the perfect to give dcs a try if you have been in the veins or if you have any amount of curiosity military aircraft are absolutely awesome needless to say or if the free month is over but you are still interested in diving into this yes this video is still going to be of great value for you alright let's move on and dive into the requirements this software is Windows only at least you should have Windows 7 a Intel Core i3 at 2.8 gigahertz or a AMD FX processor 8 gigabytes of RAM 16 if you are looking for doing intense missions I would say at least a hundred gigs of hard disk space a GTX 760 or a AMD r9 280x video card and of course a internet connection the recommended specs are as follows Windows 10 core i5 at 3 gigahertz or a AMD risin processor 16 gigs of ram 32 if you want to go into heavy missions a solid-state drive with at least 120 gigs of free space a gtx 1070 or AMD radeon RX vega 56 with at least 8 gigs of BRM 8 horas a head tracking device and of course an internet connection if you are planning on via R&D CS you should at least have a gtx 1080 or a AMD Radeon rx Vega 64 video card as you may have noticed in the recommended specs I mentioned two things that normally you don't find in the system requirements these are the holders also known as hands on throttle and stick and a head tracking device as you may have already guessed it is not required to have all these things to play the simulator and to up to some extent enjoy it but most definitely they are extremely recommended they truly make a difference let's talk about the holders first as you may or may not know fighter aircraft are controlled with a throttle and a stick the pilot can complete many tasks without taking his hands of these controls this is possible because of the many many buttons available in these controls and trust me you will need all the buttons you can get modern military aircraft require many different inputs from the operator to be able to operate to the fullest of its capabilities so not having a hotel system will give you a serious disadvantage and will require you to get very creative with how you will operate the aircraft and its many different functions you may end up requiring to jump over to your keyboard and memorizing various different key lines if you own a simple joystick yoke or controller or if you don't own any even takeoffs and landings can prove to be incredibly challenging I don't even wish to imagine air-to-air refueling I do not mean to discourage anybody but it is good to realize from the beginning the handicap you will be facing if you do not own a proper HOTAS system if you do not own a hotel system but like a recommendation on a affordable one for DCs I would most definitely recommend Thrustmaster T 16 thousand M hotel system if possible the one which includes the routers in the package you may still require to add a modifier button to give extra functions to the rest of the buttons and the hotels but it is very manageable I am currently using this hotels now let's talk about the other hardware recommendation for dcs the head-tracking like many other games dcs requires you to look around in order to be effective normally this is done via the mouse but unlike many other games in these years the mouse is used to click all of the little pretty buttons inside your cockpit not really used to move your head around it is still possible but not recommended without a head tracking solution one of the best options you get is to utilize a head switch on your houses to move your view around and this can be enough for basic operations but once you start getting into air fights complicated approaches or air-to-air refueling you will start to feel quite limited let's be honest the hats which is better used for something like controlling the trim of your aircraft not Dieruff you so why not use the same equipment you use every day to look around yes your head or neck there are basically two routes on head tracking a infrared head tracker or AVR let's first discuss the infrared head trackers the most popular infrared head tracking hardware is track IR by natural point it will track head motions within up to six degrees of freedom you will still be using your monitor with this hardware but we'll be mounting a sensor probably over this monitor and we'll clip some reflectors or IR LEDs depending on the kwid that you are acquired to a baseball cap or into the frame of your headphones the setup is quite straightforward and you can configure the sensitivity of your movements via curves as the amount of movements of your head translates into the desired movement in the virtual world you want your eyes to be able to look into the monitor the entire time so your head movements will be subtle but the movements in the simulator will be quite more dramatic it actually is quite easy to get used to after a couple of hours of use and oh man it really improves immersion and your performance as a virtual pilot that being said track IR is not exactly cheap it is worth mentioning that there are cheaper options out there and even di my options but I cannot recommend them as I've only have experience with track I are actually this in the background is some footage of me flying with track AR there are some cons of course the build quality does not reflect the price of the unit speaking about track I are also other light sources may cause issues with the tracking and there is certain drift on the tracking so you are going to have to recenter quite often but this can be configured to be reset with a single click of a button of your choosing so it's it's ok that is pretty much all I can complain about but in this point in time if you have a VR capable computer I would even dare to suggest that you don't bother with tracker yarr and jump straight into VR for what it delivers the value is just so much higher in AVR than in track IR and something like the oculus rift s is not very far away from the price tag of the track ir and holy cow it is so much better so now that we mentioned VR let's dive into this option in my experience VR is simply the best way to experience this es hands down the immersion is just incredible you feel like you are actually inside your favorite fighter aircraft keeping track of everything that is going on around you just feels natural you are in a fighter aircraft after all things are happening extremely fast around you and this is the best way to keep up with everything takeoffs landings flying information enter to Air Refueling landing in the carrier all these things are just so much easier to accomplish the fact that you can actually see the depth of the objects and world around you give you a better sense of your presence your speed your size your altitude it is a game changer I need to repeat myself now it is just amazing the cheapest has said I would recommend as a VR option for DCs right now would have to be the oculus rift as it is extremely practical and the resolution is currently in a sweet spot where the car are readable maybe sometimes do require a bit of soon to read without eye strain and the performance is good as you know the higher the resolution the better the readability will be but the worst performance you will get best of this hazard is the value as of now it really can't be compared against anything else in the value Department great quality very comfortable quite affordable and the touch controls are pretty darn great so if you want to play other VR games this VR kit will not let you down so this is a no brainer right VR is the way this year should be experienced well not exactly as always not everything is perfect speaking about the oculus rift as the audio solution is just awful but I fix it with a cheap pair of cos port pro headphones they are light comfortable sound great and easy to permanently mount into the headset with a couple of zip ties of course but the worst thing about the oculus rift s is that oculus the company is owned by Facebook and as we all can agree Facebook is absolute garbage amazing that they can do such amazing VR headsets now speaking about the cons of VR in DC s DC s is not exactly the most optimized piece of software for VR even if you have a beast of a machine you can expect to have performance issues now then I personally had to tweak so much in DCs and in my computer to get a acceptable performance and even after trying to optimize everything that was optimized of all the performance in DC s multiplayer servers is pretty bad you can get used to it for sure but then it really bums me out and VR in general has also a couple of cons when you are inside the virtual world well you are kind of outside the real world if you plan on using your keyboard and grab something in your desk this task can be interesting you need to rethink how you play these years to make it work in VR settings must be changed the physical layout around you must be reconsidered I personally think all of this is worth it but it is not as simple as okay you buy it you plug it in and you just enjoy it does require some some planning some work if you are going for the VR route be sure to check out the video on this video's description regarding VR optimization for dcs okay so my biggest problem with VR was because it's not a problem anymore that I would get motion sickness very very fast and very very hard how hard you may ask like not being able to get up from bed for hours bad and feeling sick for the next 24 hours and I love this pain and suffering just because I did a left turn while taxing an aircraft it was absolutely pathetic I had to train for VR for an entire month to be able to fly comfortably I started with 15-minute sessions a day off really slow turns while taxiing and flying no rolls no loops no fast head movements and as soon as it would start feeling a the tiniest sick I would stop but every single day I was exercising my VR legs I really thought I was not going to be able to enjoy flying in VR and would have to end up selling my VR headset but every day I was being able to last a bit longer in VR to do turns a little faster to move my head around a bit more fast forward a couple of months and I can dogfight for hours with no issue so if you experience motion sickness in VR do know you can get rid of it it will require time and dedication but you can fully get rid of it just follow these two steps number one do VR every day possible you can start with five minute sessions if you want and do your best to increase the time in VR each day and increase the activities in VR each day little by little number two if you start feeling this light its sake stop just stop have a cold glass of water take a sit do some other tasks and when you feel completely normal jump back in and those are pretty much all of the issues I have encountered with VR in general and with DCs but for me at the end of the day VR has been absolutely worth it I actually cannot go back to a flat screen anymore it's just that good okay so by now we know what dcs is what we can expect from it what are the minimum and recommended requirements if you truly need a holders or a head tracking system now you are ready to start your adventures in dcs what aircrafts you do start with it is important to first understand there are two types of aircraft this simple model aircraft and the full fidelity aircraft the main difference between these two aircrafts are number one the depth in the simulation of the systems and the flight model and number two the clickable cockpits it is quite easy to see if an aircraft is full fidelity or not just head over to the module store and throw the model you want into the shopping cart visit your shopping cart I proceed to inspect the total to be paid at this moment pull out your wallet if you can hear your wallet complaining about some discomfort or pain in the arm or a shoulder area that means your wallet is having a heart attack this confirms that this module is indeed full fidelity you now should probably consider calling an ambulance so now where should you begin should you start with a simple module or a full fidelity one there are three schools of thought regarding where to start the first one is by the aircraft you like the most any aircraft you choose will require a great level of dedication for you to become proficient on it so it is best to start with something you are really interested in as the interest will be the force that will power through the steep learning curve this is a very romantic and beautiful school of thought and it makes perfect sense but it didn't work out for me I bought the aircraft I like the most and it did not meet my expectations then I bought the second aircraft I liked the most and I ended up with a broken aircraft which I had to wait years for it to be enjoyable but still not complete so I definitely do not recommend this school of thought the second school of thought is start with a simple model aircraft they are cheap and the systems are much simpler so in theory it is much much easier to get the hang of and you can avoid giving your wallet a heart attack all of this while you see if this yes is right for you again it makes perfect sense on paper but this didn't work out for me neither the first module I bought was the f-15 which is a simple model aircraft there is another f15 coming that will be full fidelity but at the time being the only a-15 available is simple model I bought it because who doesn't love the f-15 and as mentioned it turned out to be a simple model aircraft sounds like a knock two birds with one stone here I get a cheap simple aircraft which happens to be my favorite aircraft and well as mentioned before my expectations were not met I came from flying pmdg aircraft in fsx so clickable cockpits were the way to roll for me and also I find much easier to memorize what a labelled switch or button I am looking at thus then memorizing what a bizarre key find in my keyboard or hot has does I like my hardest to have the same functions the real aircraft holders has other than that I want as less things to bind or to remember key binds I don't want a key line to close my canopy I just want to press the button in my cockpit that says closed canopy I don't want to have a key bind for my external lights I want to rotate the external light knob inside my cockpit yes full fidelity aircraft have more procedures that you need to learn but in my opinion these procedures are easier to do by creating a flow inside the cockpit that makes sense and is correctly labeled so the second school of thought is a no-no for me and we end up with third one get a full fidelity module that is not real and bugs that the features you desire from it are complete and that matches the level of complexity or simplicity that you desire and go for a multi-role aircraft this way you can experience more type of missions and are not limited to a particular role you may end up enjoying more a role you thought you were not going to pursue following this school of thought I would recommend three aircraft each for a different type of person my first recommendation would be the f16 Viper if you are a regular on this channel it may come as a surprise that I recommend this aircraft given that I have given him such a hard time for the absolutely pathetic state it was launched in currently it is in early access like it shouldn't cost more than twenty dollars early access it's pretty early but this actually can be a good thing for someone completely new to the simulator because there are not so many systems to learn obviously this means it is quite limited at the moment it also looks absolutely stunning and it is a joy to fly this module I have recommended to friends of mine that are new to DCs and are well slow learners and they are loving it absolutely loving it I don't think there would have been a better aircraft to suit them it is very capable very sexy and very easy to jump into so if you are worried about being overloaded with information or as in my friends case a little slow or you just want to start nice and simple this aircraft is in my opinion your best bet now let's jump into my second recommendation the second aircraft I would recommend is the fa-18 Hornet if you are into carrier operations well this is the aircraft to get it is in a much better state regarding completed features than the f-16 so there is much more to learn landing and the carrier also requires more skill so if you want a challenge this is also something this module provides the systems aren't quite intuitive and easy to understand as mentioned more features are complete in this module so much more interesting ordnance at your disposal if you are interested in utilizing many different ordnance and dominating h1 this model is a much better fit than the f-16 but also as the f-16 this is still a early access module so there are many things missing and many things are not working as intended there will be a point where you will hit the early access wall and we'll have to start waiting for new features to be released little by little but honest if you are new the wall is pretty daughter'd far away you will be learning and mastering this module for a long time okay let's now talk about the third and last of my recommendations and this is the one I would have chosen if I was starting in DCs myself the jf-17 aka the Jeff this is a weird one especially if you dive into its politics which I will not do because they bear no importance in the experience that this module offers inside DCs this is a new s module in the DCs family this is the first dcs module created by their developers the DECA ironworks team it is the most modern aircraft in DCs and their launch was the most impressive launch in DCs I have ever witnessed this was a unknown developer team developing a aircraft I didn't even know it existed launched their module in DCs with little to no advertisement needless to say I was extremely skeptical of the module but having a flight simulation YouTube channel I said hey what the hell let's just try it out I mean this is kind of what I do and oh my god the state the module is in I don't think the EFA 18 will achieve in two years time or the f-16 in about seven years the thing was 90% complete on launch something you really don't see anymore the aircraft is actually quite beautiful I even like it better than the f-16 I am NOT saying that this sign is better I am just saying I like more how the Jeff looks it fights really good it is a small airframe so if you load her up real heavy well you aren't going to notice it let's just say that but it is a fantastic little aircraft it being the most modern in DCs it sports the biggest and best screens in the cockpit the systems are quite simple and intuitive I just can't overstate what a good little aircraft this is all on the Ordnance it packs quite an amazing ordnance I won't get into detail but trust me it has amazing ordnance it really can gear up for any occasion so it is a multi-role aircraft but it is a small aircraft so it can't do many things at but it can do one thing extremely well on each sortie and it can drastically change gear for the next sortie to fulfill a completely different role it truly can do it all there's not at the same time so who is this aircraft for well this aircraft is for people who want the most modern aircraft people who don't want to be hitting a early access wall people who want pretty much all the features available in every system they dive into no weird surprises where you realize that the issue you were encountering is just an incomplete feature or a lacking feature also for people who like to kick serious butt in the underdog it is the underdog not because it is not capable which it most definitely is it is the underdog because most people don't understand what a brilliant little machine this is of course nothing is perfect it does have its couple of issues setting out the radios is a pain in the ass you can get used to it but it's pretty annoying also if you want datalink you must sacrifice a radio which if you are new to dcs it's really not a problem other annoyance is the air-to-air refueling probe it can be removed in the ground but if you take it with you do know it is static does not fall down or anything fancy of the sort and it is placed in a position where it blocks visibility quite a bit lastly in this aircraft is where I personally get the worst performance in VR it is still manageable but I am hoping for better optimization on this aircraft soon hopefully what I'm trying to say here is this is my favorite module in these years and I think it is a brilliant module for the beginner that checks the marks I previously mentioned this is not a hard module this is actually quite easy to learn it's just that there is a lot to learn so that is it for my recommendations any of these three aircraft are amazing for beginners in summary f-16 is great for people who just know they learn in a slow pace or just people who don't want to be overwhelmed they just want to keep it simple because let's be honest not everybody wants to punish themselves the f-18 is for the ones interest in in naval operations and they very capable challenging and on aircraft the jf-17 is for the ones interested in the most modern aircraft big punch in a small package amazing ordnance to play with and an aircraft developed by a truly amazing team that does not stop to amaze not only they threw an amazing release but the updates sense of humor and their care for the clients has been nothing short of fantastic ok so by now you should be able to choose an aircraft does not have to be one of my recommendations of course but you should be able to better have an ID on what to look for an aircraft to buy after you buy it it is time to learn the aircraft and hautboy where to start before you do anything it is very important to map the required key lines for your aircraft in your controller preferably under holders do know each aircraft is very different and each aircraft requires its own key binds you may be lucky and be able to find any profile for the aircraft you have for your controller or line if so you just need to download the file save it somewhere you can navigate into and inside the dcs controls menu load that profile in the corresponding column and voila if the profile utilizes a modifier you will have to set it manually if you are not so lucky you will have to create the key binds yourself if your controller has less buttons than what you wish to configure remember you can set a button as a modifier this will create a extra layer of beer 12 buttons so basically each physical button you have will have two functions the normal ones and the ones when the modifier button is held pressed you can if you wish set the modifier as a switch instead of a button but I am a button type of guide myself so okay where do we start the easiest way to start this process is to go ahead and download the modules official manual and also the modules Chuck's guide it's quite easy Google is your friend here if chucks guide is available for the selected module I prefer starting with it Chuck's guys our guides created by a gentleman called Chuck and he is out there doing God's work just for the love of it so throw a coin at him if you find those guys useful so open the guide or manual and locate the hardest page this will show you the aircraft real holders set up it is in your best interest to bind all of the buttons present in the real-life holders to your controller as many of the most important controls are located here chucks guys go the extra mile and give you a recommendation of the key binds you should have after setting these ones up the rest of the key binds I may want to have in my controller I will be adding them as the need for them arises so I expect to buying some more stuff later on as you start to understand your module and start developing a aircraft workflow just as a heads up when setting up the controls make sure you are setting them up in the correct aircraft if you want to set up a axis click on the axis assign button you can also tune the axis as to have the desired sensitivity curve and that zone in case you require one be sure to save your profiles when finished and upload them into the cloud so in case something happens you don't have to repeat all of this process again after all of this you can continue and actually start learning the module however you want if tutorials in dcs are available you can try them out you can also search for youtube videos on your aircraft there are plenty out there you could also go with the Grim Reaper's for individual classes they will read you Chuck's guides for about $20 the hour it is an amazing deal I am joking of course please don't throw your money away like that or if you really want to throw it away feel free to throw it in that direction of my patreon wink wink or chucks but yeah I want to recommend even the tutorials from the Grim Reaper's there are some good ones but I think there are more really crappy ones than good ones so try to stick to someone like red kite he is absolutely brilliant anyway the most effective way to learn a aircraft in my humble opinion of course is to start with Chuck's guides they are extremely simple it's mostly pretty pictures only the necessary text you can be inside the aircraft training while you go through this guide of course this is not possible in VR so leave VR si for now after I finished with Chuck's guide I like to understand a little deeper the aircraft so I will bring the official module manual to bed with me and give it a good read every night until I fall asleep it's actually pretty nice and romantic and if I want to quickly refresh something up I find Chuck's guides to be the most effective way to find exactly what I'm looking for and freshen it up and that is pretty much it you get a power through this process read watch ask test as much as you can it is a pretty rewarding experience okay so now you feel you are ready to take your new knowledge to the skies there are two ways to do this single-player or multiplayer single-player is the best place to make mistakes and to get the best performance out of the simulator so it may be a good idea to start here some aircraft come with some quick missions that can help you get the hang of different systems in your aircraft the module may also include a campaign you can enjoy or you may also be able to buy campaigns for your module just make sure to check that the campaign is working correctly with your current DCs version you can also create missions with the mission editor this also applies for multiplayer missions but the mission editor is quite a complex beast quite capable but complicated nonetheless basic things are not as simple to do as one would hope for so yeah if you want to dive into the mission editor you're going to have to do some research on it now that we manage multiple Aitor there are two very important things you must know first of all you need to understand very well how the IFF in your aircraft works this is a friend or foe identification system it is crucial that you are able to distinguish between a friendly or a enemy aircraft make sure not to shoot down friendlies accidents happen just be sure these are not frequent occurrences second of all do you know there are two versions of DCs the stable version this is the one you download by default and the open beta one this is the one it has the newest features and the one the multiplayer community uses so basically if you want to fly multiplayer or you just want the latest updates going on your best bet would be to opt into the open beta version of the game again if you are not sure how to do this a simple Google search will solve this issue quite quickly now another tip for those interested in flying multiplayer the best place to start in multiplayer is the Hoggett training server accidents are more understandable here and the server is set up in a way which makes it easy for you to test your developing skills after getting the hang of things it would be a good idea to move into the other Hoggett server the real one George at war this is great because it is a PvE server this means you won't get your ass kicked as badly as a PvP server more info regarding the Hoggett servers down in this video's description after these multiplayer experiences you should be ready to venture on your own so good luck and fly safe ok some extra notes be sure to fully understand that air combat is made up by many very complex moving parts to fully understand what is going on around you you are going to have to amass great amounts of information regarding various different topics this includes how the air density affects you and the missiles flying around you how radars work what ordnance is available to you what ordnance is available to your enemy how to defeat every single possible threat landing procedures navigation beacons the list just goes on and on and on so don't beat yourself you are having trouble understanding what the hell is going on everybody started as confused or even more than you will be just enjoy the ride and be ready to never stop learning I will leave a link to a great video that helps you understand air-to-air combat in this video's description be sure to check it out in aviation you can literally never stop learning if you enjoy this video and you found it helpful be sure to leave a like if you want more stuff like this be sure to subscribe happy flying cross check out you

Channel: X-CHECK

Views: 363,494

Rating: 4.9039445 out of 5

Keywords: DCS, Getting Started, Beginners Guide, Tutorial, How to, World, 2020, n00b, noob

Id: S5TG0aXTqps

Length: 34min 10sec (2050 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 19 2020