DCS World 2.7 Open Beta Amazing Option and Why You Need it!
What’s Included – New Features
DCS World 2.7 open beta has now released with an enormous amount of updates, revisions and new features. The list is extremely long so I wanted to touch on the most anticipated features now available.
Windows 7 & DCS World 2.7
There is one very important change that may still effect many gamers out there that love their Windows 7 and don’t have Microsoft Windows 10. You will not be able to update 2.7 if your still on Windows 7. Technology has moved on.
DCS World 2.7 Clouds.
The next DCS World 2.7 clouds are certainly a feature many in the community were waiting for with baited breath. I personally was not exited about the roll out of new clouds being less than impressed with the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 ones which also looked amazing impress releases but to me never came to fruition on my own system at least.
The release of the clouds in 2.7 have been a revelation. They are truly amazing in both 2D and in VR. Yes in VR flying close to the clouds is amazing and as realistic as I think possible with today’s amazing technology.
What Makes Clouds such a Game Changer?
What clouds like the DCS World 2.7 release bring a number of factors both visually and to the addition of factors in the actual game play. In the previous version the clouds on multiplayer servers the clouds were different in game for each player. This means you couldn’t sneak up in you BF-109 or P-51 to a target because to them there may not have been clouds where you thought they were.
This has changed so now you can and it was proven by Growling Sidewinder and Longshot in a recent video on his channel. What they did was while on a multiplayer server and fly very close formation and both took a screenshot and the clouds were identical.
The level of cloud cover is denoted by its name which converts to how much of the sky is covered by clouds. This starts at clear to lightly scattered to scattered to broken then up to overcast as well as overcast with rain. There is as previously options for fog close to the ground.
The quality of the clouds can be set from normal to ultra in the DCS Worlds graphics settings menu.
I found a 10 fps drop from clear to scattered with a further 7 fps to overcast. Surprisingly the most taxing setting I found was the broken preset. This dropped from 78 in clear to 58 fps. We will all get different results depending on system performance.
DCS World 2.7 Open Beta Cloud Varieties.
Eagle Dynamics have come up with a wide variety of preset cloud settings for DCS World 2.7 open Beta. These also have presets variations between category. THese also are defined as low and high level clouds in some settings offering a wide variety of options for especially cinematic creators to enjoy.
Planning missions you can make clouds an obstacle with laser guided weapons not useable in cloud your challenges can be gidden making strike packages have to think and plan on the fly.
Enabling clouds also has effects on weapons and search tracking systems. Missiles like the R77 and Sidewinders cannot see through cloud so well so diving into a thick cloud may save you from death.
Even More Updates to Open Beta 2.7 – New Campaigns.
Eagle Dynamics have certainly given us a lot to think about adding a number of new campaigns.
DCS: Black Shark 2 Pandemic campaign by Armen Murazyan.
DCS: A-10C Operation Persian Freedom by Ground Pounder Sims.
DCS P-47 Wolfpack Campaign by Reflected Simulations.
Campaigns are a challenge for sure but you much have the maps and aircraft to enjoy the hours of work gone into creating these new campaigns.
There has been talk of a dynamic campaign which is a real life breathing campaign that will vary on how effectively you strike ad protect the packages including ground units and flying missions to support ground troops as well as striking important targets. Currently Falcon BMS is the only fully dynamic campaign engine for flight simulation and that has been around on its own for a long time now. Getting a fully dynamic sim in DCS World will be truly amazing when it happens.
DCS World 2.7 – Radar Cross Section RCS
What is RCS? Radar Cross Section is the cross section of the aircraft that can be seen by a radar. Typically the RCS is smallest when heading nose to nose. Radar cross sections are the basis of stealth with computers enabling designs that deflect radar from an aircraft away from returning to the attacking aircraft. If the radar energy does not get back to the antenna then the aircraft wont be seen will its much much closer.
There have been improvements to the aircraft radar cross section RCS which dictates radar detection ranges within DCS World 2.7 to make them more realistic. This is a matter of trial and error as information on RCS is quite a secret so tuning the detection range is probably the best result over time.
The great diagram from www.airforcemag.com gives us an amazing insight to the radar cross sections of aircraft and how small big aircraft like the B-2 Spirit is compared to the F16 Viper. Yes that’s why you get detected at 50 miles for example where a B-2 may get to 5 or 10 miles before it may be spotted.
Smoke and Flame Effects – Damage Model.
Eagle Dynamics have now also given us some amazing smoke and flame effects when we have a bad day or fortunate to deal out some lead or missiles onto an opponent. These effects look amazing and a huge step forward from the previous damage effects we say previously.
You can see by the fire and smoke this BF-109 is having a bad day courtesy of Growling Sidewinder in one of his recent videos. The effects are fantastic and just the beginning. The effects in jets are equally great so be ready for some spectacular explosions in the air and on the ground with these graphical upgrades.
New Features in DCS World 2.7
Artillery Barrage Quadrangle Trigger Zones
The mission editor (ME) now has an interesting feature having added quadrangular trigger zones. If your not familiar trigger zones are used in the mission editor to make things start like a defensive fighter take off to defend an area from you and your attack force. It can be used to trigger artillery barrages so when you fly over an area it will look like downtown Baghdad during Desert Storm with tracer firing wildly into the sky.
Trigger Zones are already available in DCS World but were circular so covering a line of coastline was hard to do simply. The Quadrangular Trigger zones allow you to create a rectangle area but then remove points and leave a line where the defensive aircraft will react or AAA engage the attacking formation.
DCS World 2.7 Propeller
The new Propeller technology being implemented in DCS World 2.7 has made the propellers more realistic with speed and rotation as well as smoothing out transitions in pitch. It allows the sim to know where the prop is at any time.
This should make the cockpit view even more realistic than it was back in the 2.5 release. In addition there has been a lot of work done on missile animations so that the turning of missiles is more realistic.
Author
Brendon McAliece (Aka Gunnie) is a a military veteran with 23 years working on Jet Fighters, their weapons systems and ejection seat/module systems as well as munitions and R&D. Involved with flight simulation since the 1980s, he has flown all the major flight simulators over the years.
He is an Australian expat who has lived in Malaysia, UK, Saudi Arabia and more recently Thailand. He is a multi-lingual blogger who loves to share his life experiences here on LetsFlyVFR.com and DreamingGuitar.com, with his lifestyle and Travel experiences Blog plus his Dreaming Coffee website.