The online racing simulator
it looks awesome! when it's released, I am so downloading it. Wait, is it a free download?
It's released now and it's certainly not free - $49.99
Quote from GrIp DrIvEr :oh that sucks! oh well!

I can't believe everything isn't free! Terrible. How can everyone be so selfish, no?

Buy the full LFS first
Who from LFS has bought this Sim?

If anyone has, does it have good missions to fly offline and what is it like for online use with others?

===========
great article about it HERE
I'm waiting for the DVD version to be released later this month.
yeah, I just read that today. I remember reading something a while back about there being gigs and gigs of scenery upgrades you can download. I can't find anything on that now. Any thought?
Quote from StableX :yeah, I just read that today. I remember reading something a while back about there being gigs and gigs of scenery upgrades you can download. I can't find anything on that now. Any thought?

Are you sure that you're not confusing this with Plane X? There was a (pretty long) thread about that a while back, where there was indeed mention of several DVD's worth of scenery that you could purchase.
Quote from obsolum :Are you sure that you're not confusing this with Plane X? There was a (pretty long) thread about that a while back, where there was indeed mention of several DVD's worth of scenery that you could purchase.

never heard of PlaneX to be honest so I don't think so... could be but I remember reading something about this I thought :O
Yeah, the talk of gigs and gigs of scenery was in reference to X-Plane.

DCS are planning on releaseing lots of upgrades though, in which new scenery and theatres will be a part.
Quote from StableX :Who from LFS has bought this Sim?

If anyone has, does it have good missions to fly offline and what is it like for online use with others?

===========
great article about it HERE

I have it. If your interested in the learning curve, I can tell you this much, I bought it around xmas and have been properly learning it for about a month and half now. It took me about a week to learn/memorise how to start up the helo and take off. Yesterday, I fired my first cannon round. and that was only in a training mission.

I have not flown any missions offline or online yet, just training and more training. The complexity of this sim is mind blowing and I love it . One day I played it for about an hour and a half and never even started the engine. I was sitting on the helo pad playing with the ABRIS moving map display system.

Online should be good, the community is very helpful and has a nice atmosphere. I wouldnt think there would be loads of servers but there will be a few.

About the gigs of scenery, there is an active modding scene going on for ground textures, skins, sound packs. Most where originaly designed for lockon and are being transfered to BS, or the guys making them are still working on them for BlackShark. The only mod Im using is a Runway replacment texture. But there is a ground terrain mod in development that looks really nice.

To download BS, there are 2 files, one 900mb and one 1.3gb.

Supposedly the printed manual will be around the time of the DVD boxed version, It would be really handy to have a paper manual near by when learning to fly.
Quote from DratsaB : It took me about a week to learn/memorise how to start up the helo and take off.

One day I played it for about an hour and a half and never even started the engine. I was sitting on the helo pad playing with the ABRIS moving map display system.

^^You know your a computer geek when^^
Hehehe Nice one Seany
lol :nerd:
WoW... thanks for that post Sean.... that sounds exactly what I was hoping, though no manual..... you're a masochist, though we know that from your driving style
Seems the DVD version is almost there and coming very soon:

Quote :The following is the latest news of the release into retail shops of “DCS: Black Shark”.

This message will be updated as appropriate.

German version – Release date 7th March 2009
French version – Release date 16th April 2009
European English – Release date 3rd April 2009
North America – Release date mid April 2009
Spanish version – Release date mid April 2009
Italian version – Release date mid April 2009
Australia/NZ/AsiaPac - Release date late April 2009

In the retail box, there will be two coupons, depending on country:

• Natural Point: Offer to buy TrackIR 4 at $115. Conditions of purchase can be found at www.TrackIR.com/BlackShark .


• Matrox TripleHead2Go: Offer for a $20 discount, limited to North America and Europe. Conditions of the offer can be found at www.matrox.com/blackshark.

Investigations are continuing regards distribution of the English language printed manual.

In addition, there's a fantatic interview with Matt Wagner, who is the Producer at Eagle Dynamics.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.co ... tt-wagner-on-black-shark/
Question for the people that play this: what do you use for controller input. Will your average joystick suffice, or is it recommended to spend a bit more on a more advanced one. I have no idea what kind of joysticks are out there currently, hence my question.

Also, I assume that you could use the pedal set of the G25 as well? I'm not sure exactly what they do, but you've got pedals in a real helicopter as well. I'm guessing for rudder control? Only drawback would be that you've got two different pedals with different resistance and travel (throttle & clutch).
Any joystick that also has axis for throttle and rudder will be enough to play the full sim. If you're planning on playing it with the arcade sliders turned up, then a pad or two-axis stick will be fine.

The pedals are used as the rudder, yes (actually it's not the rudder on a helicopter, but it has the same effect, yawing the nose from side to side). Car pedals will work, although it's not quite right as aircraft pedals are connected so that when you push one forwards, the other goes back. With car pedals, you can push both in at once - the game will treat this as centred pedals if both are pushed to the same extent.
Quote from Crashgate3 :Any joystick that also has axis for throttle and rudder will be enough to play the full sim. If you're planning on playing it with the arcade sliders turned up, then a pad or two-axis stick will be fine.

Although it looks fabulous I'm not really planning on playing it any time soon as it seems to require a lot of time and dedication, and I don't have that at the moment. Maybe in a year's time when things have settled down again and I have enough room to setup my computer properly...

I've got a Saitek joystick with rudder and throttle axis in a box somewhere. Haven't unpacked it again yet since I moved house a little over a year ago. I sure would like to have a go with this sim, though
Quote from obsolum :Although it looks fabulous I'm not really planning on playing it any time soon as it seems to require a lot of time and dedication, and I don't have that at the moment. Maybe in a year's time when things have settled down again and I have enough room to setup my computer properly...

I've got a Saitek joystick with rudder and throttle axis in a box somewhere. Haven't unpacked it again yet since I moved house a little over a year ago. I sure would like to have a go with this sim, though

Cool mate... I am going to try it some point soon but I agree, I know its going to take a good few months just to understand the cockpit properly...
Nice to see they finally got a release date for the boxed version, I'll definately be going out and buying it
I managed to get a copy, but I think I'll buy the boxed version just for the manual!

I watched the tutorial on the startup sequence intent to remember it all but got lost a 1/3 of the way through. Thats just flicking all the different switches on, let alone knowing what the hell they do! I then took control after and managed a quick wobbly flight and even landed without crashing.

Yep I defiantly need a manual!
Quote from RossUK :I managed to get a copy, but I think I'll buy the boxed version just for the manual!

I watched the tutorial on the startup sequence intent to remember it all but got lost a 1/3 of the way through. Thats just flicking all the different switches on, let alone knowing what the hell they do! I then took control after and managed a quick wobbly flight and even landed without crashing.

Yep I defiantly need a manual!

It's worth buying. All you have to do is see the startup video to know the amount of work that's gone in to this. For the manual, all you need do is register on their website and then click on FILES to dload the manual for free!
So DCS is now out in the USA on DVD and is ready on pre-order in the UK. I found it on www.game.co.uk where it's currently got a 10 pound discount for pre-order before the 10th April. Alaso comes with free delivery too

Bargain at 24.95 pounds
Insta-purchase.

The 'LFS of flight sims' has a release date
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