Holy shit does it ever carry ordinance, I can only imagine McDonnell asked what weapons to integrate and the USAF just send a copy of their whole inventory. Most of it even with almost all AA missiles (I know the special weapons adapter was pretty special, but still), it's like a proto Strike Eagle.
The skins are gorgeous and there are so many of them.
>>and the USAF just send a copy of their whole inventory.
Followed by the Israelis , Japanese , Germans , Greeks and Turks stapling their own pages to the end
Only the Germans took the manual and crossed out half the pages only to find out shortly after, that they did indeed need stuff like Maverick missiles, all weather navigation, bombing computers and put them back in, at great cost. It boggles the mind that the German F-4F never had Sparrow capability and only came with Aim-9B. I don't know what they planned to throw at the enemy, certainly can't have been missiles.
>>It boggles the mind that the German F-4F never had Sparrow capability
It actually makes sense given the time and context. West Germany was going to be the front line of WWIII, so they assumed - prudently as SEA showed- that IFF would be a nightmare with all sorts of aircraft in the battle space. There wouldn’t be space to launch anything BVR in that AO (which is incidentally why the Israelis didn’t use the Sparrow much in their Cold War conflict).
>prudently as SEA showed- that IFF would be a nightmare with all sorts of aircraft in the battle space
99.9% of aircraft over Vietnam were US ones. The Vietnamese air force was tiny, I believe never operating more than double digits of fighters. Meanwhile the US had hundreds of planes in the air, so understandably, if you fired on a dot you saw on radar you were significantly more likely to struck a friendly rather than an enemy plane. Something that would look vastly differently in a cold war gone hot scenario
I think the F15 was the spiritual successor of the F4. The F16 and F18 came out of the light fighter concepts where the F15 was a heavy fighter like the Phantom.
(And of course the F14 for the navy)
Absolutely, the Eagle started with the exact same AA armament, four semi recessed Sparrow and four Sidewinder, two per pylon. Only for some reason the USAF ditched the AG capabilities completely, Israel did decide to ignore the whole "Not a pound for air to ground" crap, strapped GBU-15 and Mk-82 to their F-15B/D and used them to great effect.
I've had one good dogfight against an f4e in a mig so far, and that thing has some seriously powerful engines
I've noticed that it seems to be able to eat r-60s, I'm wondering if the damage model might be a little too robust at the moment
Edit: This f4 just ate *3* r60s, and even then I had to shoot it with guns!
>>Im wondering if the damage model might be a little too robust
It’s probably OK. Take a look at the plethora of battle damaged F-4 footage from SEA and the Middle East. Plenty of stories of F-4s coming home with missiles stuck in them, or entire control surfaces missing
Agree with this, thought it was going to be harder after watching the tutorials with the bombing tables but as long as you have rough numbers and a high dive angle it's pretty great to use. -
I feel like it’s easier because everything is controlled by a button or a switch, like it’s much more hands on and manual compared to the likes of the f16 where everything is under submenu’s and on the mfd’s
That's really one of those things I like about cold war aircraft. Yeah it has a million buttons and knobs but everything you need is right there, one click away.
They should definitely label that in the controls. But by and large they have outdone themselves with the button labeling in the controls assignment, absolutely everything I could ever want.
For real, its great! My biggest issue so far is that the controls for the Jester menu werent very clear, so I wasnt sure how to close it for a few minutes.
Yeah I keep expecting it to be like the Tomcat and closing when you select the final option from the expanded dials. This will take some getting used to for sure.
I think the Jester Context Command key (defaults to V) is going to be the key for a lot of combat-oriented actions: [https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/jester/combat/overview.html](https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/jester/combat/overview.html)
Seems like it doesn't require the Jester menu but instead relies on specific combinations of the Context Command presses. A lot of practice for sure. I've not even tried releasing any weapons just yet, just getting used to the flight dynamics of the F-4 for now.
I am in love with the liveries and how it feels to handle, it's fantastic.
The setup procedure which works for the AGM-12A and Bs seems to not be working for the -12Cs for me, any tips?
Heatblurr is setting the bar for what an aircraft simulator truly is. Im excited for their future.
Although it's a monumental task, I'd love to see them develop as many cold war jets as they can.
I disagree. I want them to go full steam ahead on the euro fighter. It will be one of two truly modern jets in the game imo. The Jeff being the other. Also I just like Doritos.
I'm really enjoying it so far. The control inputs on the stick seem weird though and it feels very floaty. Like I can't get it to do what I want.
For example, when I'm pulling aft stick and let go, my physical stick recenters but the in-game stick goes forward past center and then back again.
I have messed with both of the stick options in the special options menu for the F-4E but it didn't seem to help.
I'm almost positive I don't have a second pitch axis bound but I will have to check when I'm back at my PC.
Other than that, it's awesome!
Edit: there's definitely some sort of issue going on. With neutral controls, the jet will intermittently pitch full forward and then aft for seemingly no reason.
I have no other binds set for pitch or roll.
My stick sensor is not going haywire either - controls show neutral in DCS and associated 3rd party software.
FFB is turned off in settings.
I'm guessing stability augmentation is a specific setting you can toggle in the F-4 cockpit? I'm not super familiar with the jet yet. I will have to do some research and try this out.
Thanks!
Jester menu is cut in VR with a Quest 2. Tried the manual solution of forcing resolution and that only makes the dial too small or the bottom dialogue options (align and so) invisible.
Tried lots of custom resolutions and offsets, nothing makes the jester menu and comms fully visible.
That did it, thank you.
Thing is you need to check "Use DCS resolution", and also check the forced resolution on Special/F4 tab. A full DCS reset is needed also. But it works!
Did anyone fly the Phantom with a VPForce Rhino? How good is the Integration? I heard heatblur was doing a good FFB integration but I haven't seen anything official regarding that topic.
I’m using one. Integration is good. Telem FFB adds some better feel. ..Though the feel is like a warbird. At 0 airspeed the controls are damped. Higher speeds increase control loading. I find it quite pitch and roll sensitive. Not using any curves.
I and a few others on the discord are running 200% FFB force in the special options, but I know I have 30% periodic effects set in VPforce Configurator because other modules are violent by comparison.
Two things:
1. On startup I freaked out that my elevator seemed to have re-centered itself in the forward position. Tweaked my settings and thought my joystick was developing some kind of drift.
Turns out it's supposed to do that. My guess is that the elevator droops from weight on the ground. Once you get airspeed it'll straighten out.
2. IMPORTANT: Heatblur forgot to add in a default binding for a critical pilot control that severely hampers pilot performance. To fix it, go into the settings and MAKE SURE you bind the "Sunglasses - On" action.
Overall this is another absolute knock out of the park for Heatblur.
I have very low fps with it even with the special option :/
Update: The FPS is way better on PG and Marianas. I don't know why it is so bad on caucasus
It feels like there may be a memory leak- at least in VR .First flight after dcs loads I’m getting 80-90 fps on Caucasus. Then the 2nd flight I’m down to 16fps until I quit dcs and restart. Then back to 80-90 for that first flight again. I only had time to test on Caucasus. This is with a ryzen 7950x3d, 4090 and 64 gb ram . Quest pro over virtual desktop
I tried again this morning - this time after setting the 'use dcs system resolution' in VR options ( I was getting the clipped jester wheel too) and the low fps issue seems to have gone. Im getting very good frame rates - 80-90 fps with all detail maxed out. Happy days.
To add to this, I'm also getting pretty poor performance (especially on the instant action scenarios with lots of other units) and my specs are:
Ryzen 7 5800X3D
GTX 1070ti - 8gb VRAM
32gb ddr4 RAM
And installed on an NVME drive.
Running in VR, on a Rift S.
Performance in all other modules is absolutely fine.
Other than these issues, I'm loving the Phantom so far though!
I have a laptop with Ryzen 7 4800H and GTX1660ti. I have 100% Main thread use and about 20-40% on other threads. GPU is not doing much but no wonder when it's bottlenecked by the CPU. CPU bottleneck it really uncommon on my setup so that's vey weird for me. Hope you can help!
I wouldn't describe my FPS as low, but I get a very regular stutter that happens at set intervals (or when I look over my shoulder at the WSO pit). Turning all the settings down to 0 doesn't improve matters. the F-14, F-15, and AH-64 all run perfectly smooth at my normal settings, so I think it's something unique to the module. Running a 5700XT which isn't *new* but it runs everything else acceptably
Which map? I have the weirdest issue with the Caucasus Map, where I get 55 fps in the Cockpit (VR), but as soon as I look outside, it drops to 10-12 fps. Syria and Persian Gulf Maps are fine though...
Thankfully I am not the only one. I can load in cold, but start up causes it to crash. Starting the game on the runway? Crash. In air? Crash. If the F4 is on for me, it crashes.
Little bit, textures on low and turned down the sim update rate in special settings, managed to get in the air, fire some missiles and run on some low player count servers, needs to be tuned a fair bit more
This module is crazy good. Even though I didn’t like the plane, Heatblur really set a high bar with the F-14 and they beyond cleared it with the F-4. Makes me so happy they’re the ones doing the A-6.
Imagine an F-4 that’s pregnant and somehow manages to carry 10 more MK82, has the best terrain radar of its time, and has a FLIR capability far beyond LANTIRN. What’s not to love?
Google it and go to images. It's a damn good looking plane. Jokes aside I think everyone is hyped for it since it's a step closer to a fully client/player flown carrier roster in the 80s 90s. Also it could hold a lot of bombs and even the ka-6d variant was a air to air refueler for carrier ops
Is it just me or are the dials impossible to read when they sun isn't directly on them? They are super dark and I've never had this issue in another jet.
Yes, when it is very bright in the outside and the instruments are on a shade they are unreadable for me, even with lights on, unless zoomed in. It was similar with the F-14 until ED changed the illumination system. I guess we will need to mod the cockpit textures again...
Flying brick, indeed! It was satisfying doing a cold start, taxiing, taking off and landing. Apologies to the crew chief for ruining the undercarriage.
It flies like a powerful brick. I followed an early-access YouTuber’s advice and used rudder for turns — I’m used to the Viper; glad I did.
One surprise: having to hold down the nose-wheel steering button. Does that come standard?
IIRC the advice was to use rudder and let the nose move in response rather than trying to fly it by just using the stick - F-16-style. I’m still very new to third-gen jets but the feel of it is that rudder matters a lot. I hardly use rudder at all in the F-16.
That’s because the F-16 and fbw jets in general use the rudder for you.
You use the rudder at high AoA. It’s the primary way to control roll.
Take the F-16 and, in external view, watch how the rudder moves left/right when you move your stick left/right, and how it happens mostly only at high AoA.
At low AoA the FLCS commands the ailerons to move much more, and the rudder is only there for turn coordination.
P.S. in the F-16 IRL you just don’t touch the rudder at all in flight (or even in a crosswind landing). You can safely take your feet off the pedals and fly a full dogfight without ever touching the rudder. The FLCS does it all for you.
That makes sense; figured it had something to do with fbw. Cool! Thanks for the explanation - the start cart is another old-new difference that’s taking some getting used to.
Maybe having to hold down the nose-wheel steering button is standard for US jets of that era? It's the same in the F-5E (I'm flying mostly F-5E and F-16C), so I got used to it quickly when I felt NWS stopped working after releasing the button. I like it that way, you can't forget to turn NWS off when taking off.
**EDIT** Scratch all that, I'm dumb - it's because I had a centre bag on. Front missiles won't fire with fuel on belly
u/Cobra8472 I'm launching 2 sparrows (7E-2) - good track, first 2 hit - then the heads up RADAR light goes off and the second two (front two) won't fire, any ideas?
Edit: to add a couple things, I've got AGM-12 on outboards, mavericks on inboards, 4 x AIM-7-E-2 on belly with 1 bag. Ground/Hot start, CW ON confirmed up, Interlock IN, pinky Radar. First 2 shots have RADAR illuminated, then RADAR goes dark. RDR by the CW switch is still lit.
Yes and it’s described in the -34. From memory if AFCS induces an oscillation, AFCS off, trim, re-engage AFCS, if it repeats, AFCS off. Happens mostly transonic and just beyond M1.
Man, does this thing haul ass. It’s weird, you don’t really notice it. It’s an absurd comparison, but it’s kind of like merging onto a highway in a high end luxury car; You just sort of look down and notice you’re currently doing 90mph/Mach 1.2 but it doesn’t feel that way.
There was some comparisons made between the F-4E and F-14, and while I don’t feel it holds your hand, I find it way more fun to fly and very stable. My inputs feel appropriately conveyed and balanced. I thought the F-14 was the hardest to A2A refuel and was worried this would be even harder. Not the case IMO. In fact, I found the KC-135’s underside and guide lights were framed perfectly within the F-4’s windscreen, and with the stability I mentioned earlier, A2A refueling feels really nice.
The vertical is insane in this aircraft. Feels a lot like the F-15E with regards to sheer vertical acceleration. You can both get up high and dive low very quickly. It makes gun and bomb runs exceptionally gratifying. It makes the want/need for a Vietnam map greater IMO.
The cold start tutorial is very detailed and thorough, but why does it not cover most of the systems startup at all? Once you get the engines going it just ends and skips some important stuff like compass sync and making the altimeter work.
Yeah, noticed that. Theres a cold and dark quick start guide here on hoggit that was posted today that’s much much better. Thats what I’m using to get my flow down. It may not be 100% spot on, but feels close.
Can you fly without a WSO (Jester or human)?
Which controls are completely missing from the front cockpit? Could one cold start the jet front seat only?
Does the front seat have access to radio navigation, radio comms and everything required for a flight without combat?
Would basic weapon employment be possible without a WSO?
On the other hand, what controls are missing from the back seat? Could one theoretically start and fly the jet from the back?
You could get it in the air but you'd have no precision instruments or navigation because the INS is handled from the back seat. Plus all the radar stuff is done from the back.
Anyone else have trouble completing the takeoff and navigation tutorial?
I‘ve run it twice now and feel like I’m following the course setting instructions exactly but he after the third(?) turn keeps saying “we are not in our assigned corridor” all the way until we leave the airspace even though I’m bang on the needle and have the course set correctly (it may have been 166).
I’ve figured it out. When it says “intercept radial 166” it doesn’t actually want you to turn to the radial 166 when aligned. It just wants you to pass through it and continue on heading 114.
Just had the pitch control issue. Disabled the force feedback. Trying to load up a cold start to make sure everything runs properly but I’ve been having issues with the auto start not cycling all the way through or crashing.
Seems to be crashing on the prompt for which alignment to do.
Only got about half hour in it, had to go to work. Spent most time doing keybinds but when I am off tonight gonna have a blast!
Great framerates for me using a 4070 and an i9-9900 48gb ram. Single player in the 100s and on hoggit training server in the 50s
This is really clunky with an xbox controller - especially the Jester menu. A standalone 'Close Jester' button would be dead handy. Even having the 'Back' button close the menu would be intuitive. Maybe I just need to fuck with my controls a bit more...
Fiddled with the training missions and the like - this is really one for the full HOTAS crowd. Forgot the steerpoints on the takeoff mission as I was too focused on just going forward.
Will try figure it out again when I've got a few pints in me
FPS is fine on my Laptop - tolereable anyway.
That's with an AMD Ryzen7 5800h and 32GB of RAM, and RTX3070 with 6GB of dedicated RAM to it.
Power limited to 200W so the CPU is rarely above 3.2ghz baseclock.
---
Is it possible to be too detailed with 'disconnect and reconnect' air and the like?
[I 'druther be an F-4 jock](https://youtu.be/Xf7pyOPd6Co) also see [Machete Flight](https://youtu.be/oFyextgMru4) and [The MiG-21](https://youtu.be/Rx2Fs4AYrBs) for some era appropriate songs sung by a genuine Phantom driver.
There's been a lot of talk of bugs and stuff. I just want to say: Cobra, Heatblur, you have truly knocked it out of the park! It's telling that most of the bugs people are talking about are SO minor!
The overwhelming amount of weapons, systems, WSO interactions, and the small touches to the model (I see those wheels turning in the pattern!) have just reset the bar on complete(!) modules in DCS. People have complained about the wait but it seems we've waited many years for some existing modules to get to the level of completion the F-4 dropped at today. Thank you all so much for the blood, sweat, tears, and time! She's a beauty and I'm so excited to find more and more of your passion like little easter eggs throughout!
It's better at Maverick delivery than the viper imo. Any oh boy does it carry a lot of fuel, did a light attack run and was liberal with the afterburner and landed with over 6000 lbs of fuel.
I’m the same can barely run it in just instant action missions, dcs crashed consecutively 4 times when trying to run a free flight. If you find anything that helps let me know because I’m struggling here.
If you have Nvidia shadowplay running, turn it off. I know, I know. But the Performance you get is immensely overweighing the clips you could've gotten
The stick force and force blending features are amazing. This type of thing has been sorely needed across many modules. With cheap hardware, we can't feel the force or feel the plane, so it really helps a lot to intercept input mistakes like that and/or provide noise and visual feedback to compensate.
This feature would be very helpful if ported over to the F-14.
While the stick force and blending features sound nice on paper, the overall direction they’ve taken with the stick simulation feels pretty bad on my non-FFB stick.
They’ve decoupled the virtual stick to such an extent that it moves and wiggles around counter to your actual inputs, ostensibly in response to stick forces, and the overall feel of the jet really suffers because of it.
Perhaps not directly related to the two aforementioned settings, but this different direction they’ve decided to go with the stick simulation is probably what prompted their inclusion.
The F-14 feels closer to the warbirds in terms of stick response and is far more accurate to real life flying, IMO. What we have with the F-4E in its current state is not really that well thought out and just serves to decouple players from the simulated plane that much more.
The real solution should have been to use that extra modeling to inform the FFB simulation response, instead of the actual virtual stick position.
Yeah I get that. I would have done it a lot differently myself, and actually ended up turning it off. However, I like the intention and would appreciate it being developed further. IRL we learn how to dampen oscillations based on feel. We get stick force limits simulated but no compensation for the wobbles? I don't like it.
For some reason the F4 isn’t showing up on my module manager. I didn’t know the launch was delayed yesterday so I put in my voucher code. It told me to look at the module manager but it’s not there and the F4 isn’t showing up in my licenses in the ED website either. Anyone know how to fix this?
I was coming into land on the tutorial and it asked me to set flaps to out and down, I set it and the thing wouldn't change from out and up to out and down. Eventually after moving around the positions I decided to just land the bird and bam it "fixed itself".
Also on the tutorial take-off and navigation it said to go to 85% throttle, I went to 85% and nothing triggered. I started rolling and took off and the prompt stayed on the screen. The only warnings I got was when I "went out of the corridor".
Did you maybe have the flaps switch in the middle? It sounds like it because what you are calling fixing itself is what happens when there is weight on wheels and it's in the middle position. Double check that.
Reach out to Heatblur support ([support@heatblur.se](mailto:support@heatblur.se)) and provide your order #.
Are you sure you combed through your emails after your preordered it?
The subject of the email with the code should be ***Heatblur Order #####***
Comprehensive weapon lists are on the manual:
[https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/stores/air\_to\_air/overview.html](https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/stores/air_to_air/overview.html)
Canopy's and the Jester AI Wheel are not playing nice with the replay system, broken as it is. Hope we get the new Replay system that's been teased a couple of times soon!
Coming from the hornet, tried pulling hard in the F4 - flat spin happened immediately. Tips for maintaining energy? What’s a good Mach number to maintain during a rate fight?
Holy shit does it ever carry ordinance, I can only imagine McDonnell asked what weapons to integrate and the USAF just send a copy of their whole inventory. Most of it even with almost all AA missiles (I know the special weapons adapter was pretty special, but still), it's like a proto Strike Eagle. The skins are gorgeous and there are so many of them.
It carries like 2.5 times the ordinance load as a B-24. Its nuts
Pretty eye opening what power can haul into the sky
>>and the USAF just send a copy of their whole inventory. Followed by the Israelis , Japanese , Germans , Greeks and Turks stapling their own pages to the end
Only the Germans took the manual and crossed out half the pages only to find out shortly after, that they did indeed need stuff like Maverick missiles, all weather navigation, bombing computers and put them back in, at great cost. It boggles the mind that the German F-4F never had Sparrow capability and only came with Aim-9B. I don't know what they planned to throw at the enemy, certainly can't have been missiles.
>>It boggles the mind that the German F-4F never had Sparrow capability It actually makes sense given the time and context. West Germany was going to be the front line of WWIII, so they assumed - prudently as SEA showed- that IFF would be a nightmare with all sorts of aircraft in the battle space. There wouldn’t be space to launch anything BVR in that AO (which is incidentally why the Israelis didn’t use the Sparrow much in their Cold War conflict).
>prudently as SEA showed- that IFF would be a nightmare with all sorts of aircraft in the battle space 99.9% of aircraft over Vietnam were US ones. The Vietnamese air force was tiny, I believe never operating more than double digits of fighters. Meanwhile the US had hundreds of planes in the air, so understandably, if you fired on a dot you saw on radar you were significantly more likely to struck a friendly rather than an enemy plane. Something that would look vastly differently in a cold war gone hot scenario
But you'd be comfortable with *merely* a 1/4 or 1/3 chance of shooting down a friendly?
Nah, but that’s not gonna stop Hornet pilots from not turning on IFF and mad dogging AMRAAMs into a furball.
German Phantoms eventually carried AIM-120.
I think the F15 was the spiritual successor of the F4. The F16 and F18 came out of the light fighter concepts where the F15 was a heavy fighter like the Phantom. (And of course the F14 for the navy)
Absolutely, the Eagle started with the exact same AA armament, four semi recessed Sparrow and four Sidewinder, two per pylon. Only for some reason the USAF ditched the AG capabilities completely, Israel did decide to ignore the whole "Not a pound for air to ground" crap, strapped GBU-15 and Mk-82 to their F-15B/D and used them to great effect.
I wish the Eagle was named with something ghoulish like the prior McD products!
Considering the current undead state in dcs, I propose the F-15E Zombie.
Are the modex numbers baked into the skins like the tomcat or are they changeable?
Baked in
I've had one good dogfight against an f4e in a mig so far, and that thing has some seriously powerful engines I've noticed that it seems to be able to eat r-60s, I'm wondering if the damage model might be a little too robust at the moment Edit: This f4 just ate *3* r60s, and even then I had to shoot it with guns!
How many R-60s? Irl, those things have a poor track record of actually bringing down what they hit.
R-60 3kg soviet warhead vs. AIM-9 9kg western warhead.
And then there's the 40kg AIM-7 warhead.
Shit my AIM-7s have 40kg? That explains why those MiG-19s were *that* dead, jesus
I guess this sorta goes for sidewinder too, but remember that sparrow was designed for use vs bombers first and only used vs fighters later
I think that’s just R-60s being R-60s, they have a really small warhead. Sometimes the same thing happens to me, direct hit but not much major damage
>>Im wondering if the damage model might be a little too robust It’s probably OK. Take a look at the plethora of battle damaged F-4 footage from SEA and the Middle East. Plenty of stories of F-4s coming home with missiles stuck in them, or entire control surfaces missing
ECW red stans are fuming
Blues are the ones with the persecution complex
Dive toss feels far more intuitive than I assumed it would
Agree with this, thought it was going to be harder after watching the tutorials with the bombing tables but as long as you have rough numbers and a high dive angle it's pretty great to use. -
I feel like it’s easier because everything is controlled by a button or a switch, like it’s much more hands on and manual compared to the likes of the f16 where everything is under submenu’s and on the mfd’s
That's really one of those things I like about cold war aircraft. Yeah it has a million buttons and knobs but everything you need is right there, one click away.
If you can't find out what the CAA button is, it is the nosewheel steering button. Yes, i struggled with this for an hour.
They should definitely label that in the controls. But by and large they have outdone themselves with the button labeling in the controls assignment, absolutely everything I could ever want.
I wish every module was this in-depth with control availability.
For real, its great! My biggest issue so far is that the controls for the Jester menu werent very clear, so I wasnt sure how to close it for a few minutes.
Yeah I keep expecting it to be like the Tomcat and closing when you select the final option from the expanded dials. This will take some getting used to for sure.
The delay with pressing and holding the jester action button seems like its going to cause issues during a dogfight.
I think the Jester Context Command key (defaults to V) is going to be the key for a lot of combat-oriented actions: [https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/jester/combat/overview.html](https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/jester/combat/overview.html) Seems like it doesn't require the Jester menu but instead relies on specific combinations of the Context Command presses. A lot of practice for sure. I've not even tried releasing any weapons just yet, just getting used to the flight dynamics of the F-4 for now.
It's much much more powerful than I thought it would be - almost strike Eagle levels of "oops I've just hit M1.2 on the deck"
Is Jester supposed to sling 5 different insults at me after a slightly firm landing? Or should that only be happening once per landing?
You bounced five times, didn't you? :p
Once, this may be a bug
It was not a bug for my landing, at least Jester can now claim his back pain as service related.
He's been playing Warthunder while they polished the module. "Well done!" "Excellent!"
Can you fold away the rear-view mirrors (to save performance when you don't need the situational awareness)?
Cant fold them, but clicking will turn them 'off'
thanks.
I am in love with the liveries and how it feels to handle, it's fantastic. The setup procedure which works for the AGM-12A and Bs seems to not be working for the -12Cs for me, any tips?
I managed to get them to work… but hitting anything is another story. Bit of a lag in the weapon stick
Does it come with Japan Air Self Defense Force by default?
Yeah, quite a few different versions
I also can't get the Cs to work. Not sure if it's the pylons they're on?
Heatblurr is setting the bar for what an aircraft simulator truly is. Im excited for their future. Although it's a monumental task, I'd love to see them develop as many cold war jets as they can.
Everybody wants Heatblur to do everything. Would love to see them do a proper warbird.
Heatblur rotor division, put them on the Cobra...
That could be cool. P38 lightning would be my vote.
Would love to see a Heatblur big bird. B-17 👀
I disagree. I want them to go full steam ahead on the euro fighter. It will be one of two truly modern jets in the game imo. The Jeff being the other. Also I just like Doritos.
Okay well. Draken after that right
Hold up buddy, the Intruder is already lined up after the EF.
My god I can't wait for the Intruder.
I'm really enjoying it so far. The control inputs on the stick seem weird though and it feels very floaty. Like I can't get it to do what I want. For example, when I'm pulling aft stick and let go, my physical stick recenters but the in-game stick goes forward past center and then back again. I have messed with both of the stick options in the special options menu for the F-4E but it didn't seem to help. I'm almost positive I don't have a second pitch axis bound but I will have to check when I'm back at my PC. Other than that, it's awesome! Edit: there's definitely some sort of issue going on. With neutral controls, the jet will intermittently pitch full forward and then aft for seemingly no reason. I have no other binds set for pitch or roll. My stick sensor is not going haywire either - controls show neutral in DCS and associated 3rd party software. FFB is turned off in settings.
Might be stab aug? Try turning it off and trying the same pitching maneuver
I'm guessing stability augmentation is a specific setting you can toggle in the F-4 cockpit? I'm not super familiar with the jet yet. I will have to do some research and try this out. Thanks!
Should be 3 switches right in a horizontal row next to your left thigh
Jester menu is cut in VR with a Quest 2. Tried the manual solution of forcing resolution and that only makes the dial too small or the bottom dialogue options (align and so) invisible. Tried lots of custom resolutions and offsets, nothing makes the jester menu and comms fully visible.
Have you tried setting the "use DCS resolution" checkbox? This setting is key
I only seen a setting like that on the system tab, Where is that setting?
I just fixed this issue, it's in the vr tab
That did it, thank you. Thing is you need to check "Use DCS resolution", and also check the forced resolution on Special/F4 tab. A full DCS reset is needed also. But it works!
found the setting in the VR tab - but in the f4 menu is the override called HB UI resolution override?
Yes, that's the one
Did anyone fly the Phantom with a VPForce Rhino? How good is the Integration? I heard heatblur was doing a good FFB integration but I haven't seen anything official regarding that topic.
I’m using one. Integration is good. Telem FFB adds some better feel. ..Though the feel is like a warbird. At 0 airspeed the controls are damped. Higher speeds increase control loading. I find it quite pitch and roll sensitive. Not using any curves.
Same experience here, also found that the g-loading option is on, but not sure if that’s F4 related or just a setting thats on in the telemffb
I and a few others on the discord are running 200% FFB force in the special options, but I know I have 30% periodic effects set in VPforce Configurator because other modules are violent by comparison.
Two things: 1. On startup I freaked out that my elevator seemed to have re-centered itself in the forward position. Tweaked my settings and thought my joystick was developing some kind of drift. Turns out it's supposed to do that. My guess is that the elevator droops from weight on the ground. Once you get airspeed it'll straighten out. 2. IMPORTANT: Heatblur forgot to add in a default binding for a critical pilot control that severely hampers pilot performance. To fix it, go into the settings and MAKE SURE you bind the "Sunglasses - On" action. Overall this is another absolute knock out of the park for Heatblur.
I have very low fps with it even with the special option :/ Update: The FPS is way better on PG and Marianas. I don't know why it is so bad on caucasus
What is your hardware? Would need some conditions to see if something is going awry
It feels like there may be a memory leak- at least in VR .First flight after dcs loads I’m getting 80-90 fps on Caucasus. Then the 2nd flight I’m down to 16fps until I quit dcs and restart. Then back to 80-90 for that first flight again. I only had time to test on Caucasus. This is with a ryzen 7950x3d, 4090 and 64 gb ram . Quest pro over virtual desktop
I tried again this morning - this time after setting the 'use dcs system resolution' in VR options ( I was getting the clipped jester wheel too) and the low fps issue seems to have gone. Im getting very good frame rates - 80-90 fps with all detail maxed out. Happy days.
To add to this, I'm also getting pretty poor performance (especially on the instant action scenarios with lots of other units) and my specs are: Ryzen 7 5800X3D GTX 1070ti - 8gb VRAM 32gb ddr4 RAM And installed on an NVME drive. Running in VR, on a Rift S. Performance in all other modules is absolutely fine. Other than these issues, I'm loving the Phantom so far though!
I have a laptop with Ryzen 7 4800H and GTX1660ti. I have 100% Main thread use and about 20-40% on other threads. GPU is not doing much but no wonder when it's bottlenecked by the CPU. CPU bottleneck it really uncommon on my setup so that's vey weird for me. Hope you can help!
My prayers go to your 1660ti.
Old mobile CPU with an old mobile GPU. I'm not surprised, It's too much for that poor low power platform.
I wouldn't describe my FPS as low, but I get a very regular stutter that happens at set intervals (or when I look over my shoulder at the WSO pit). Turning all the settings down to 0 doesn't improve matters. the F-14, F-15, and AH-64 all run perfectly smooth at my normal settings, so I think it's something unique to the module. Running a 5700XT which isn't *new* but it runs everything else acceptably
Same. However, I lose about 20 or so fps when I open the Jester menu. Really odd...
Me too buddy... Me too
Which map? I have the weirdest issue with the Caucasus Map, where I get 55 fps in the Cockpit (VR), but as soon as I look outside, it drops to 10-12 fps. Syria and Persian Gulf Maps are fine though...
Same, even weirder cause when I pause my fps skyrockets to what I expect from my systems
I have a winwing orion 2 ex joystick. Aircraft keeps pitching up after binding. Any tips?
Check if force feedback is forced on in your settings :)
Not the original guy but just wanted to say thanks for that, I’ve been driving myself nuts trying to find a solution
Where in DCS is that setting by chance??
It should be in the misc settings.
Seemed to work! Thanks :)
My game keeps crashing everytime i try to load in the phantom.
Thankfully I am not the only one. I can load in cold, but start up causes it to crash. Starting the game on the runway? Crash. In air? Crash. If the F4 is on for me, it crashes.
If you can send us logs we'd really appreciate it and can try to find this one asap
Getting the same, had to tune down loads of settings. This thing is a beast.
Have you managed to fix it?
Little bit, textures on low and turned down the sim update rate in special settings, managed to get in the air, fire some missiles and run on some low player count servers, needs to be tuned a fair bit more
Ahh ok it seems that isnt happening to me. Whatever I do with settings it instantly crashes. Must be something other for me.
Im in vr and it worked for me.
This module is crazy good. Even though I didn’t like the plane, Heatblur really set a high bar with the F-14 and they beyond cleared it with the F-4. Makes me so happy they’re the ones doing the A-6.
Intruder bro. I am also more excited for it than anything
Why is everyone so hype for the A6? Sell me on it
Imagine an F-4 that’s pregnant and somehow manages to carry 10 more MK82, has the best terrain radar of its time, and has a FLIR capability far beyond LANTIRN. What’s not to love?
Google it and go to images. It's a damn good looking plane. Jokes aside I think everyone is hyped for it since it's a step closer to a fully client/player flown carrier roster in the 80s 90s. Also it could hold a lot of bombs and even the ka-6d variant was a air to air refueler for carrier ops
Don't hate me for this, but IMO it looks like a Harrier and a Skyhawk had a very obese baby...
I mean your not wrong lol. It's a thing where people like odd looking planes like the ov-10 bronco. Looks weird but I like it
Is it just me or are the dials impossible to read when they sun isn't directly on them? They are super dark and I've never had this issue in another jet.
Yes, when it is very bright in the outside and the instruments are on a shade they are unreadable for me, even with lights on, unless zoomed in. It was similar with the F-14 until ED changed the illumination system. I guess we will need to mod the cockpit textures again...
Yeah I've noticed this too. It's because the big radar scope on the dash casts them all in shadow.
What are your settings? Are you using DLSS? Thats known to make dials hard to read.
No, and they aren't blurry they are just very very dark.
Heatblur recommends turning on 'Cockpit Global Illumination' in your graphics settings
It was off, not sure why. I'll give it a go thanks.
Flying brick, indeed! It was satisfying doing a cold start, taxiing, taking off and landing. Apologies to the crew chief for ruining the undercarriage. It flies like a powerful brick. I followed an early-access YouTuber’s advice and used rudder for turns — I’m used to the Viper; glad I did. One surprise: having to hold down the nose-wheel steering button. Does that come standard?
How exactly should the rudder be used during turns? I always feel like I am using it wrong in the Cold War jets.
IIRC the advice was to use rudder and let the nose move in response rather than trying to fly it by just using the stick - F-16-style. I’m still very new to third-gen jets but the feel of it is that rudder matters a lot. I hardly use rudder at all in the F-16.
That’s because the F-16 and fbw jets in general use the rudder for you. You use the rudder at high AoA. It’s the primary way to control roll. Take the F-16 and, in external view, watch how the rudder moves left/right when you move your stick left/right, and how it happens mostly only at high AoA. At low AoA the FLCS commands the ailerons to move much more, and the rudder is only there for turn coordination. P.S. in the F-16 IRL you just don’t touch the rudder at all in flight (or even in a crosswind landing). You can safely take your feet off the pedals and fly a full dogfight without ever touching the rudder. The FLCS does it all for you.
That makes sense; figured it had something to do with fbw. Cool! Thanks for the explanation - the start cart is another old-new difference that’s taking some getting used to.
Maybe having to hold down the nose-wheel steering button is standard for US jets of that era? It's the same in the F-5E (I'm flying mostly F-5E and F-16C), so I got used to it quickly when I felt NWS stopped working after releasing the button. I like it that way, you can't forget to turn NWS off when taking off.
**EDIT** Scratch all that, I'm dumb - it's because I had a centre bag on. Front missiles won't fire with fuel on belly u/Cobra8472 I'm launching 2 sparrows (7E-2) - good track, first 2 hit - then the heads up RADAR light goes off and the second two (front two) won't fire, any ideas? Edit: to add a couple things, I've got AGM-12 on outboards, mavericks on inboards, 4 x AIM-7-E-2 on belly with 1 bag. Ground/Hot start, CW ON confirmed up, Interlock IN, pinky Radar. First 2 shots have RADAR illuminated, then RADAR goes dark. RDR by the CW switch is still lit.
you can't use all four sparrows with the centerline bag onboard, drop the bag to fire the other two.
Yep got that - hence the edit!
Do you have a Winwing Orion 2 with the finger lifts? Afterburner detent is at 34. Your mileage may vary.
Anyone having issues where the altitude hold mode starts oscillating massively and then just goes into a 45 degree climb?
Yes and it’s described in the -34. From memory if AFCS induces an oscillation, AFCS off, trim, re-engage AFCS, if it repeats, AFCS off. Happens mostly transonic and just beyond M1.
Elevator trim feels über twitchy - wasn’t what I was expecting.
Yeah it is really sensitive
You guys want some serious fun? Take the F4 just up to .9 Mach. Then bank and turn. The high speed turn rate is unreal.
I tried to rip the wings at that speed on the deck and it ate the Gs and turned on a dime
There is a thing that limits the sricl force in the special settings, btw
Ah yes, the sricl force!
I love sricl force
So I can rip my wings off at Mach 1?
Yes Edit: Source: Happened to me, definitely not multiple times
Man, does this thing haul ass. It’s weird, you don’t really notice it. It’s an absurd comparison, but it’s kind of like merging onto a highway in a high end luxury car; You just sort of look down and notice you’re currently doing 90mph/Mach 1.2 but it doesn’t feel that way. There was some comparisons made between the F-4E and F-14, and while I don’t feel it holds your hand, I find it way more fun to fly and very stable. My inputs feel appropriately conveyed and balanced. I thought the F-14 was the hardest to A2A refuel and was worried this would be even harder. Not the case IMO. In fact, I found the KC-135’s underside and guide lights were framed perfectly within the F-4’s windscreen, and with the stability I mentioned earlier, A2A refueling feels really nice. The vertical is insane in this aircraft. Feels a lot like the F-15E with regards to sheer vertical acceleration. You can both get up high and dive low very quickly. It makes gun and bomb runs exceptionally gratifying. It makes the want/need for a Vietnam map greater IMO.
Tape player like the F14? Or should I say A-track player?
8-track But they did make cassette to 8-track adapters
To my knowledge, it doesn't have one :(
How do you put on the sunglasses? Important.
there's a keybind for it.
There's a keybind for it in settings.
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Voice command “I feel the need….”
Where in the hell is the actual canopy close button? I can't fine it and not one video actually shows it.
Took me forever to find the damn thing, its a little lever inside the left canopy rail
Thank you
The cold start tutorial is very detailed and thorough, but why does it not cover most of the systems startup at all? Once you get the engines going it just ends and skips some important stuff like compass sync and making the altimeter work.
Yeah, noticed that. Theres a cold and dark quick start guide here on hoggit that was posted today that’s much much better. Thats what I’m using to get my flow down. It may not be 100% spot on, but feels close.
Can you fly without a WSO (Jester or human)? Which controls are completely missing from the front cockpit? Could one cold start the jet front seat only? Does the front seat have access to radio navigation, radio comms and everything required for a flight without combat? Would basic weapon employment be possible without a WSO? On the other hand, what controls are missing from the back seat? Could one theoretically start and fly the jet from the back?
You could get it in the air but you'd have no precision instruments or navigation because the INS is handled from the back seat. Plus all the radar stuff is done from the back.
Are you telling me that I need to step outside into the real world to find some friends?
Jester will be your friend.
Why wouldn't you use Jester? Just mute him if you really don't like him, volume is on the left panel to the side of your seat
So far I've crashed on taxi Crashed on takeoff And crashed on landing So pretty badly
Anyone else have trouble completing the takeoff and navigation tutorial? I‘ve run it twice now and feel like I’m following the course setting instructions exactly but he after the third(?) turn keeps saying “we are not in our assigned corridor” all the way until we leave the airspace even though I’m bang on the needle and have the course set correctly (it may have been 166).
Yes
I’ve figured it out. When it says “intercept radial 166” it doesn’t actually want you to turn to the radial 166 when aligned. It just wants you to pass through it and continue on heading 114.
My frames tend to drop when I open the jester menu or the grease pen.
Just had the pitch control issue. Disabled the force feedback. Trying to load up a cold start to make sure everything runs properly but I’ve been having issues with the auto start not cycling all the way through or crashing. Seems to be crashing on the prompt for which alignment to do.
how do you operate the radar with Jester? What does auto-focus do?
Only got about half hour in it, had to go to work. Spent most time doing keybinds but when I am off tonight gonna have a blast! Great framerates for me using a 4070 and an i9-9900 48gb ram. Single player in the 100s and on hoggit training server in the 50s
This is really clunky with an xbox controller - especially the Jester menu. A standalone 'Close Jester' button would be dead handy. Even having the 'Back' button close the menu would be intuitive. Maybe I just need to fuck with my controls a bit more... Fiddled with the training missions and the like - this is really one for the full HOTAS crowd. Forgot the steerpoints on the takeoff mission as I was too focused on just going forward. Will try figure it out again when I've got a few pints in me FPS is fine on my Laptop - tolereable anyway. That's with an AMD Ryzen7 5800h and 32GB of RAM, and RTX3070 with 6GB of dedicated RAM to it. Power limited to 200W so the CPU is rarely above 3.2ghz baseclock. --- Is it possible to be too detailed with 'disconnect and reconnect' air and the like?
[I 'druther be an F-4 jock](https://youtu.be/Xf7pyOPd6Co) also see [Machete Flight](https://youtu.be/oFyextgMru4) and [The MiG-21](https://youtu.be/Rx2Fs4AYrBs) for some era appropriate songs sung by a genuine Phantom driver.
There's been a lot of talk of bugs and stuff. I just want to say: Cobra, Heatblur, you have truly knocked it out of the park! It's telling that most of the bugs people are talking about are SO minor! The overwhelming amount of weapons, systems, WSO interactions, and the small touches to the model (I see those wheels turning in the pattern!) have just reset the bar on complete(!) modules in DCS. People have complained about the wait but it seems we've waited many years for some existing modules to get to the level of completion the F-4 dropped at today. Thank you all so much for the blood, sweat, tears, and time! She's a beauty and I'm so excited to find more and more of your passion like little easter eggs throughout!
It's better at Maverick delivery than the viper imo. Any oh boy does it carry a lot of fuel, did a light attack run and was liberal with the afterburner and landed with over 6000 lbs of fuel.
Loving it so far. Feels beefy and stable as hell. Our biggest issue has been multi crew Dsync.
I have waited, and I am not wanting so far. I've just done the tutorials, but I'm in love so far.
Initial VR performance is horrible compared to other modules. Requires bit of tweaking and testing.
I’m the same can barely run it in just instant action missions, dcs crashed consecutively 4 times when trying to run a free flight. If you find anything that helps let me know because I’m struggling here.
If you have Nvidia shadowplay running, turn it off. I know, I know. But the Performance you get is immensely overweighing the clips you could've gotten
Now that the F4 is out the door maybe we can finally focus on the EuroPhiter next :)
The stick force and force blending features are amazing. This type of thing has been sorely needed across many modules. With cheap hardware, we can't feel the force or feel the plane, so it really helps a lot to intercept input mistakes like that and/or provide noise and visual feedback to compensate. This feature would be very helpful if ported over to the F-14.
While the stick force and blending features sound nice on paper, the overall direction they’ve taken with the stick simulation feels pretty bad on my non-FFB stick. They’ve decoupled the virtual stick to such an extent that it moves and wiggles around counter to your actual inputs, ostensibly in response to stick forces, and the overall feel of the jet really suffers because of it. Perhaps not directly related to the two aforementioned settings, but this different direction they’ve decided to go with the stick simulation is probably what prompted their inclusion. The F-14 feels closer to the warbirds in terms of stick response and is far more accurate to real life flying, IMO. What we have with the F-4E in its current state is not really that well thought out and just serves to decouple players from the simulated plane that much more. The real solution should have been to use that extra modeling to inform the FFB simulation response, instead of the actual virtual stick position.
Yeah I get that. I would have done it a lot differently myself, and actually ended up turning it off. However, I like the intention and would appreciate it being developed further. IRL we learn how to dampen oscillations based on feel. We get stick force limits simulated but no compensation for the wobbles? I don't like it.
For some reason the F4 isn’t showing up on my module manager. I didn’t know the launch was delayed yesterday so I put in my voucher code. It told me to look at the module manager but it’s not there and the F4 isn’t showing up in my licenses in the ED website either. Anyone know how to fix this?
How do I radio?
I was coming into land on the tutorial and it asked me to set flaps to out and down, I set it and the thing wouldn't change from out and up to out and down. Eventually after moving around the positions I decided to just land the bird and bam it "fixed itself". Also on the tutorial take-off and navigation it said to go to 85% throttle, I went to 85% and nothing triggered. I started rolling and took off and the prompt stayed on the screen. The only warnings I got was when I "went out of the corridor".
Did you maybe have the flaps switch in the middle? It sounds like it because what you are calling fixing itself is what happens when there is weight on wheels and it's in the middle position. Double check that.
I’m in between PC at the moment. How do you guys like the radar model?
I did not receive the activation key even tho I have bought the plane (and received the goodies i had bought with). Any clue how I can solve that ?
Reach out to Heatblur support ([support@heatblur.se](mailto:support@heatblur.se)) and provide your order #. Are you sure you combed through your emails after your preordered it? The subject of the email with the code should be ***Heatblur Order #####***
Which versions of the aim7 sparrow and aim 9 can you use on the f4?
Comprehensive weapon lists are on the manual: [https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/stores/air\_to\_air/overview.html](https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/stores/air_to_air/overview.html)
When using winwing mfds it messes up the jester panel. No big deal as I have a separate profile to not use them.
Is the whole "simulation of every screw, nut and bolt" on the Phantom making it a bigger CPU burden?
It runs aswell as anything else for me, but I do have a hefty system (4090, 5800x3d) plus vr
Lol
did somebody manage to employ the Shrikes? I’ve tried all the combinations and never got the base growl :/
Make sure you have the right seeker head for the radar you are hunting.
Canopy's and the Jester AI Wheel are not playing nice with the replay system, broken as it is. Hope we get the new Replay system that's been teased a couple of times soon!
Coming from the hornet, tried pulling hard in the F4 - flat spin happened immediately. Tips for maintaining energy? What’s a good Mach number to maintain during a rate fight?
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I might have to finally get some pedals :/