A few questions
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Hey,
Ive been flying BMS for a while now, but had a few questions I’ve been curious about I though the community might know.
1. Been looking into flying the FA18 - I know there is a WIP mod in progress to update the whole thing, but is there an easy way to use the F16 cockpit for the FA18 in the mean time? Not as realistic, but I’d rather have a fully functioning cockpit than a partially functioning one.
2. Steerpoint/target in HMCS - it seems like when attacking ground targets having either the radar location marker or steerpoint location show up in the HMCS would be helpful. Is there a real life reason this isnt implemented? or is it just clutter control?
3. Target aspect ratio and radar - might seem silly, but I know when a target changes aspect ratio, its hard for a radar to pick up. Is there an aspect ratio that (without changing) is harder for radars to pick up? I was just thinking of if I had to engage an air target and try to sneak up on it, would flying perpendicular to it reduce my radar cross section? or would it not reduce it enough to be worth it?
4. ULS and VSR(?) A/A radar sub modes - I know ULS is supposed to have a longer range, and VSR (or VS? cant thing right now) is supposed to be quicker at picking up closing targets, but it seems that in the sim RWS is just as good if not better at picking up targets in these flight envelopes at longer ranges. Are these A/A submodes implemented properly, ie should I even bother using them? I’m just trying to see if I should basically just stick to RWS and TWS for engaging Air contacts.
Thanks for the help, and happy flying!
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1. simply rename your F-18’s cockpit folder inside \data\art\… will make the game use the default cockpit (i.e. F-16) for an aircraft that lacks of its dedicated cockpit.
2. AFAIK, HMCS MARK exists but currently not implemented. dont know when it will be. At least the target locked by HTS pod will be displayed in HMCS IIRC. For current steerpoint, don’t know if it’s displayed in RL.
3. I guess there’s no anisotropic RCS setting in BMS. The only thing that may matter is doppler filtering, that means if you fly low and put the hostile abeam, they may be harder to find you. Other than that, i don’t know if there is any other factor.
4. i guess the VSR is not implemented properly or maybe i should RTFM more carefully. For ULS, i’m not sure if it has longer search range, need more tests. I used to consider ULS as a mode that only searches targets higher than myself (Up-Looking Search?), but i’m not quite clear about that and i don’t know why there is such a mode. Disabling doppler filter can increase search range?
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Regarding your second question about JHMCS whatch this video :
Helmet cam is, I belive, actually JHMCS. IMHO In BMS much of the functionality of JHMCS is lost due to not-modelling certaing “cues” (when you comapare it to real life).I read somewhere interview of F16 pilot explaining how JHMCS increased effectivnes of F-16 combat missions.He said that he spotted explosion and almost instantly slewed TGP with JHMCS to that area. In BMS it would take you several minutes to do that. -
Ok, thank you both for all the feedback.
In regards to my second question - I was only asking about the steerpoint as I know it shows up in NAV mode, just not AA or AG modes. AA mode shows all the radar contact you have bugged, but AG mode only shows things locked from the HTS pod, nothing if just using the A/G FCR modes. And Omi89’s right - if trying to do it visually it can take a very long time as you basically have to steer the aircraft toward something on the ground to get the radar location to show up on the hud if you are trying to hand off A/G weapons to your FCR visually. I was just curious if that was a RL limitation or not.
I would be interested to hear from someone who knows more about the implementation of the different CRM submodes - most of what I know about these two particular submodes (ULS and VSR) stems from my time when I was 12 yrs old playing Jane’s FA18 flight sim. Even the Dash-1 manual only says this about them:
If the FCR is in CRM the submodes are RWS (Range While Search), ULS (=LRS: Long Range Scan),
VSR (=VS Velocity Search), TWS (Track While Scan). -
I am no expert on this but as far as I am aware Velocity search is not implemented in BMS, it is a pretty useless radar system anyway. The long range scan mode I think is better at picking up larger aircraft at long range and from experience is also better at getting burn through on a jamming target, not sure if this is true in real life but from a small amount of testing have found it does in the game.
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Hey elmo81 have you any luck finding more info on VS (Velocity Search) and ULS (Ultra long scan, also know as long range scan, LSC) ?
in 4.33 is VS still not implemented in the game? -
VSR is an improvement on the older VS mode. VS uses HPRF signals for detection and closure determination but provides no ranging (HPRF range ambiguity). VSR adds a second MPRF scan per elevation bar contingent on the detection of something in the first scan (alert-confirm method). As such each bar scan can take up to 2 traverses. This automated second scan provides initial contact correlated ranging when needed and the contact is displayed on the scope normally. VS (as described in Falcon 4.0 manual) gives the contact scope position laterally by azimuth and vertically by speed (apparently positive closure only is detected).
ULS (UpLook Scan) is distinct from the normal ground clutter filtered downlook scan which has shorter range but look down capability. ULS either can’t detect targets in ground clutter (downlook) or isn’t optimized for it. There is/was a mode called LRS. Older BMS manuals show that LRS was relabeled ULS.
My semi-educated guess is that ULS was incorporated into RWS as an intelligent logic at some point in the real life development process or otherwise became redundant and was discontinued. The mode that is called ULS in BMS acts and should possibly be labeled LRS. The “ULS” mode in BMS operates as one would expect LRS to: higher power, more detectable(?), and slower sweep designed for the 80/160nm ranges and large RCS targets (e.g. Soviet bomber).
In the modern V9/10 unites all the tricks and benefits of RWS, ULS, VSR are combined into “ESR” so you don’t have to pick. I think VS(R?) was added (V)5 and LRS (V)7.
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wow! ok, that was very informative. I think I have a more clear picture now.
VS is detecting positive closure! thats cool actually because that would mean a great threat possibly… mmm -
1. simply rename your F-18’s cockpit folder inside \data\art\… will make the game use the default cockpit (i.e. F-16) for an aircraft that lacks of its dedicated cockpit.
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I find the concept of flying the Hornet with a cockpit we know intriguing. One question though, how would you control such things as (off the top of my head) wingfold ,right generator, and probably others I’m not thinking of? Do you just go with key commands and not go “in cockpit”?
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VS isn’t in BMS, VSR is and I don’t see it working at all like never gives a contact unless you started STT before you switched. ULS doesn’t seem to give range advantage against large targets possibly due to bubble size limitations. I had hits for a head on C-17 in A1B1 RWS at 67nm. Same setup ULS I got… 67nm. I tried a 2-ship A-50 Mainstay and got… 67nm. I downgrade from BLK52 to BLK15 (A) and… 67nm. Against a MiG-21 I got about 46nm for each. I didn’t extensively test uplook v. downlook situations.
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1. simply rename your F-18’s cockpit folder inside \data\art\… will make the game use the default cockpit (i.e. F-16) for an aircraft that lacks of its dedicated cockpit.
I’d appreciate a bit of feedback on the above. In the Art folder, I’m assuming the next step is ckpart. Is that correct? If so, then it’s a bit weird as I don’t _have_a f-18 or hornet folder in ckpart. I show folders for all the Viper varients,a10,av8,f22,auofont,TORN, and a whole bunch of numbered folders. Is the f-18 folder named something else?. It has to be in there somewhere, as in the jet I do have a hornet cockpit.
Also, am I interpreting correctly that if I rename whatever the folder is to say, Bob(:D) the Sim will default to a Viper cockpit?
Finally, where are cockpit set ups actually determined? In Config? What if I wanted the Hornet to have a specific variant cockpit?
Thanks in advance.