This weeks DCS World Weekend News update has a reminder on the sale that is on-going, a note about a new BuddySpike competition and then some simulator news with word that the team are making progress on a new INS system for the Ka-50 Black Shark III.

Upgrading a classic

Black Shark and then DCS: Ka-50 Black Shark 2 helped usher in a new age for DCS World with the first clickable cockpit and higher fidelity system modelling. Eagle Dynamics have upgraded the Black Shark 2 module over the years, however, we’ve known for a while that the team were busy upgrading this now classic module to a newer standard.

One of the components of that newer standard is higher fidelity systems modeling and that’s what this week’s update is all about.

In it, Eagle Dynamics talk about their efforts to add a more detailed INS (inertial navigation system). In the Ka-50 the system is based on dead reckoning with aircraft acceleration measured by accelerometers located on a gyro-stabilized platform.

INS systems like this one tend to drift over time and the upgrade here is a newer mathematical model to realistically accumulate those errors.

As a result, the INS-derived location can only be determined with limited accuracy. The error in the calculation of coordinates accumulates at the rate of several kilometers per hour and when starting the INS, it will be necessary that the helicopter remains stationary throughout the alignment procedure. Otherwise, a less accurate alignment will lead to an accelerated accumulation of errors. Three different alignment options will be available: “fast” allows you to take off rapidly but it provides low-accuracy during the flight; “normal” and “precise” provide better accuracy with greater alignment times.

The goal here of course is additional realism and fidelity. A common goal on all DCS modules.

Read the full update here.