DCS or War thunder

[oscarc1234567]

I am looking to get into DCS but none of my friends are bothered about flight sims, I've been learning on the A4 but am looking to get and learn either the f14 or f18 at some point. I also play War Thunder if thats something anyone would be interested in, I play America with rank 7 jets and rank 5 tanks.

[Parsivan]

If you are still looking for teammates and ok with a noob i can play war thunder?!

 

Also do you need VR or any other specific controllers for DSC?

[trufret]

While it's possible to play DCS with just a mouse and keyboard, to get an enjoyable experience for most people you would want at minimum:

A PS/Xbox gamepad or Logitech 3d Pro Joystick, some kind of head tracker for looking around (SmoothTrack phone app or webcam combined with Opentrack software on the PC.

This setup still has some shortcomings but it's usable.

 

For a more complete setup you'd want something like:

A HOTAS (joystick and throttle) with stick twist for rudder axis or decent rudder pedals if you have a decent budget.

Thrustmaster T16000M FCS Hotas would be good if you want to keep costs down or the VKB NXT stick and Stecs throttle if you have the budget and want to minimize using modifier keys to double map buttons. (Virpil, VKB Gunfighter, or Winwing once the addiction takes hold)

along with Track IR or some other active IR based head tracking for more precise head tracking.

 

VR is super immersive but you will need a rather high end PC to get relatively good performance in DCS (Think war thunder is a lot better optimized on this and you can get away with a more modest PC) but I'd still recommend starting with Free camera based head tracking or TrackIR while learning as you will likely be referencing manuals and youtube tutorials.

 

Save VR for when you're already comfortable in the plane and have all your critical controls bound to your HOTAS so you don't have to look for them.