A status update on DCS: F4U Corsair and other DCS items

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It’s the weekend and that means its time for another DCS World Weekend News update. The update contains a bit of information about a hotfix pushed out for the sim but the big news is that we’ve got something of a status update on the DCS: F4U Corsair. Is early access for it finally around the corner? Let’s have a look.

The Corsair news

Previously released screenshots of this long in development project show the kind of visual fidelity we can expect.

DCS: F4U Corsair has been in development for quite a long time. The DCS World update reports that it’s been in the works by the team there since 2017 but one of the developers from Magnitude 3 has said in another forum that it’s much longer than that from the very beginning of the project. Either way… we’ve been waiting for the Corsair for a long time.

According to the update, few items remain on the development list. One of those items is the ASM-N-2 “Bat Bomb” which was among the first guided weapons to be employed.

There’s also a quote from the team about flight model work:

While perfection is an elusive goal, we do not claim our Flight Model (FM) to be flawless; we acknowledge that there is always room for further refinement and improvements. However, the current FM has been thoroughly validated and closely mirrors the real aircraft’s behavior, surpassing the realism of any previous Corsair FM developed for flight simulators.

Magnitude 3 LLC

Of note is a list of early access features ranging from systems modeling (electrical, hydrualic and pneumatic) to carrier capabilities. The standard array of machine guns, HVAR rockets, and bombs are part of the early access list too.

The team are also including the USS Essex as well as eight Japanese army units that include trucks, AAA, and armor. The Essex and the vehicles will be available to all for free to ensure compatibility.

Hopefully this mention of early access means that this module is nearing the end of a lengthy dev process and will become available sooner than later. Perhaps it will be timed with other DCS WWII Pacific theatre content such as Eagle Dynamics own F6F Hellcat and various other Pacific assets.

Other news items

Eagle Dynamics has also pushed out a hotfix intended to solve excessive CPU usage at the menu, add a random skill setting for the Quick Action Generator and fixing the regenerate button not regenerating missions when clicked.

There’s also some information about the Pimax VR system and a video with Matt Wagner about how VR is shaping flight simulation. There’s also a great community highlight about DCS 4 Disabilities talking about the community there that aims to help people with various disabilities still enjoy the sim.

Read it all over on the DCS World Weekend News.

13 responses to “A status update on DCS: F4U Corsair and other DCS items”

  1. jp Avatar
    jp

    F4U EA by 2034

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      It’s been a long road with this one. Maybe 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

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  2. boxcarleader Avatar
    boxcarleader

    This first thing i have heard recently that has made me consider opening DCS again… that an curiosities about some soon to be revealed mods but F4U carrier ops .. what a challenge

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  3. G Bent Avatar
    G Bent

    Unless I missed it, there was no mention of an AI A6M Zero coming with the initial release of the F4u, for all the hints we’ve seen from ED. Maybe we will have to wait until closer to release of the F6f module for clarity on a period/theater appropriate adversary.

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    1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      It was part of the conversation at one point with Magnitude 3 and their Corsair. It seems to have dropped off their radar, however, ED have mentioned one so hopefully there’s a content release plan that includes a bunch of aircraft including that.

      Having nothing for the Corsair to shoot at would be disappointing.

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  4. NEVO Avatar
    NEVO

    Corsairs can always shoot at Mustangs .

    Football War

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. flying_mandau Avatar
      flying_mandau

      yes, what is most interesting use of the Corsair for me is as a Korea/colonial 1950s/60s ground pounder

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
        ShamrockOneFive

        You make an interesting point that I hadn’t considered. The F4U does have a Cold War era presence that takes us beyond even Korea.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Popsypops Avatar
    Popsypops

    However, the current FM has been thoroughly validated and closely mirrors the real aircraft’s behavior, surpassing the realism of any previous Corsair FM developed for flight simulators

    These are substantial and rather broad claims 🙂 Considering all the physics and systems are spot on, there simply is no way to mirror the aircraft’s behavior accurately with a fixed office chair, a wide range of different joysticks, a flat screen and so on, the standard sim setup. Adjusting the curvature of the stick will alone greatly affect the “feel” of the aircraft, it’s behavior. There simply are too many restrictions, and too many odd sim configurations/set-ups to get anywhere close to mirroring the behavior of the aircraft.

    In the best FMs, the best sims, this is recognized. Further tweaking and modifications, subtle ques, are added and so on. This is kind of black magic, trial and error to make the perceived behavior believable. The best one can hope for is a “standard sim behavior” that is good and believable, get accustomed to that behavior, and then get the relative differences between different aircraft types roughly correct. It’s not so much about the FM of one single aircraft, but the relative and often subtle differences between different aircraft types and versions.

    The point is, this requires some kind of standardization of the aircraft’s behavior. The first sim that got this fairly correct (despite a simplistic, but good FM) was probably the original WarBirds. Then Aces high and some others. This has been greatly perfected in the GB series with a superior FM, and I can’t wait to see what Korea feels like. X-Plane should be mentioned here. With a “standard” FM using more or less first principles physics, the relative “feel” between aircraft becomes very spot on (as long as third party developers don’t mess it up with too much external FM quirks 🙂 ) X-Plane got no damage model of course, which is also a very important aspect here, particularly for warbirds.

    DCS is a bit an oddball in this respect. There appears to be no “standard behavior” except perhaps for aircraft made by ED. I therefore take claims like the one above with a big grain of salt, and then some 🙂

    When/If it ever comes, I think it will be popular. It is the quintessential late war “Über-plane”, more like Griffon powered Spits.

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    1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      I’m not sure but you may be reading into the statement a little more deeply than maybe is strictly necessary. I viewed the comment more of a marketing turn of phrase to mean that they think they’ve done a really good job on their flight model. It sounds bold but, as you say, its rather broad as well.

      Most DCS World aircraft do have fairly engaging and interesting flight models that make me “feel” like I’m flying on my home PC. But it is much harder to model the full behaviour as you’ve laid out.

      It’ll be interesting because after a long drought of Corsairs to fly in combat flight sims, we’re probably going to get two from IL-2 Korea and DCS World within a matter of a months or a year potentially. Hopefully both will be good and interesting experiences! 🙂

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      1. Popsypops Avatar
        Popsypops

        Marketing for for sure, but still. A claim is a claim. As it stands it’s unsubstantiated.

        I have never, ever felt like a desktop sim is like flying a real aircraft. The physical differences, the realities, are too far apart. It’s a difficult to explain, but immersion and getting used to a particular “high fidelity” aircraft in a sim, is not the same as realism.

        DCS, MSFS and X-Plane all have what we would call “study sim” modules. Aircraft that are painstakingly modeled in every detail including all the systems, every button, the graphics and the sounds. Feeling 100% at home in such an aircraft take lots of time. Probably 100s of hours, roughly the same time it would take a pilot to feel really at home in the real aircraft. This says nothing about the realism of the FM. Now, the brain is a highly adaptive sensory device. During those 100s of hours, it get adapted to the FM, independent of how good or bad it actually is. Since the systems in the aircraft are very close to reality, the brain also interprets this as the “feeling” of the aircraft behavior will be close to reality. This simply is not the true though. The actual FM is pretty much irrelevant as long as it is somewhat sound regarding the basic physics.

        The ailerons might as well be reversed. The brain would still adapt to it eventually, and the experience would become “as the real ting” subjectively.

        It’s trickery, and there’s nothing wrong with that. To trick the brain into a feeling of “realism” Is one of the main objectives after all. If it does, it’s a good sim.

        I have never felt, with a few exceptions, that the FM is what makes DCS a great sim. What makes it great is the “study” aspects, the details. I think this will be the case also for the F4U. Just think about it. What are the chances of a third party with zero previous experience getting the behavioral aspects correct, even on a subjective basis? pretty slim IMO. I would love to be proven wrong though 🙂

        It will be interesting to see what IL-2 Korea comes out with for the F4U. Time will tell, but I’m positive that the Korea version will be more correct vs the Mustang, than what will be the case for the DCS versions.

        Anyway, no big deal any of this. For me the FM only needs to be physical and “believable” on the edges of the envelope to be “good enough”.

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  6. Urgent Siesta Avatar
    Urgent Siesta

    Of ALL the warbirds, it’s this one I’ve wanted MOST in a combat flight sim. And so, Luck of the Irish, it’s the one that has/is taking the LONGEST 😉

    Though I do really like all the others, not having a single well modeled carrier-capable warbird is a crying shame.

    Hopefully this one SOON.

    But I’ll make do with the ED Hellcat if that happens to come along first 🙂

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  7. TapHeart Avatar
    TapHeart

    All make good points. I would say that with the work these dev’s put into all apects of flight simulators, we should applaud their efforts to expand the range of experiences available to us and withhold judgement of unsubstantiated claims until the product has been tried. I am a private pilot, and I have found others who swear that certain planes in certain Sims are the pinnacle of reality, when I found them to be at best an “Arcade” experience.

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