How much for the setup?

[TheCr33pur]

I havent gotten into this just yet, curious how much do i need to spend to get this up and running? I use to have this old thrustmaster stick, but i think it was damage and i threw it out. So i dont have a flight stick atm, my pc should be fine running this, wouldnt hurt to double my base memory (16GB atm) and i also do have this Vive Cosmo VR sitting in the box somewhere, but i cant really use it due to motion sickness and the doc told me not to use it.

[startrekmike]

Without knowing your exact system specs, we can't even begin to guess how much you would need to spend.

[LeapingRodent]

You can get by on something pretty inexpensive like a Thrustmaster t-flight hotas which is about £40. Aslong as you set up deadzones and curves to your liking. If you want to fly choppers though, a twist rudder is doable but really you will want some dedicated pedals. All stuff you could look into down the line if you do get into it proper.

[bingbean]

At the begining you will by fine with thrustmaster T 16000M FCS HOTAS (100-150Euro) and some DIY headtraking (cca 30Euro). Not sure how you can handle head tracking on flat screen , if you have motion sickness in VR. When I tried freetrack for the first time, I felt a little dizzy and after a few minutes I had to rest. Over time, I got used to it and now I can fly for hours without any problems.

[Richardus]

Depends on what you want. In terms of HOTAS, spending more gets you much more ease of use.

For <$25 I would suggest looking for secondhand options if you have a reliable platform to buy from. These sticks will allow you to control your plane and use the stick for basic functions but you will have to use your keyboard a lot for everything else. (Trim, TDC control, etc.)

- Thrustmaster T-Flight or T-Flight HOTAS
- Logitech 3D Pro (I've had one, good stick but after 2 years some buttons stopped working)
- Saitek Cyborg/AV8R (I've used the AV8R, not really recommended unless you want a WW2-themed stick for cheap)

At the $50 mark your only real option would be the Thrustmaster T16000M. Its sensor is better than 90% of options out there and it can be expanded with a seperate throttle that gets you a very solid package. The only drawback would be the lack of buttons/hat switches. Until you get the seperate throttle you will have to use your keyboard as described above.

For ~$75 and a bit of luck you may be able to get a secondhand HOTAS unit that gives you a lot more buttons/switches so that you won't have to use your keyboard (or only minimally). I do not recommend spending more than $75 for these, as they generally develop issues over time this would be a "stepping stone" until you can get something better.
- Saitek/Logitech X52 (I found it very pleasant to use, the stick can be adjusted for hand size. Be sure that your seller is reliable as they often have issues)
- Saitek/Logitech X55 (Huge amount of controls, I can basically control the entire plane without taking my hands off the stick and throttle quadrant. Not very ergonomic unless you have large hands and the sliders tend to develop jitter)

For ~100 I would suggest looking for a lightly used T-16000M HOTAS pack (stick+throttle). It is a little sparse in the HAT-department on the stick, but the throttle should still give you enough options to control a plane (almost) completely without a keyboard.

For ~$140 and above there is only one real option: VKB NXT stick. Superb layout, excellent sensor, blows every option listed above out of the water. If you get a seperate throttle (thrustmaster throttle should be around $80 or so) you pretty much have the best possible setup for DCS.

Above the NXT+TWCS combo there are the real premium brands like Virpil, Winwing and the high-end VKB systems, but expect to pay close to $1000 for a set.

In regards to your PC:
16GB is good as a minimum, 32GB is recommended. It solves a lot of stutter issues on missions.
We don't have info on the rest of your PC.

[TheCr33pur]

I use to love playing that ol Falcon 3.0 and older series and didnt really put much efforts into 4.0. I do have extra ram, but not compatible with this new rig i got from Dell. Awhile back i had a good deal with them until they beef up the price tags on those systems. So i would have to contact them about getting extra ram or simply get another mainboard.

The new rig is Wins64x, 16GB, i7 series with 8 cores around 3Ghz, Nvidia GF RTX 3060ti with 8GB and latest Sound Blaster Zseries that support headphone hub, etc. Also SSD of course, esp if you need up load those high resolution textures.

I can run No Man's Sky on ultra settings at 4k resolution, looks really nice. But dont have much experience with flight sticks, i will look around and see what i can find.

[startrekmike]

On the PC side, I would take a look at the recommended requirements listed on the store page (or DCS's site itself) as something perhaps closer to a realistic minimum. If you are running at 1080p with a normal monitor, you could reasonably expect something like a GTX 1070 to be a good place to start where you don't need to make a ton of settings compromises to get okay performance. I will say that putting DCS on some kind of SSD is absolutely essential if you want to avoid some pretty nasty stuttering. Likewise, 32 gigs of RAM really is the minimum if you want to avoid performance problems across single player campaigns and multiplayer.

Beyond the PC, we gotta start having a realistic discussion about peripherals. Keep in mind that I am approaching this topic as someone who started playing DCS with a very old $5 Microsoft Precision Pro that I got at a Salvation Army store, a homemade IR head tracking setup that I made with some $2 IR LED's, a old web cam, and some parts I had around the house. Eventually I worked my way up from that to a reasonable entry level setup and then into something in the higher end of things.

The first thing that needs to be said is that Eagle Dynamics really is making these modules with at least a entry level HOTAS and some kind of IR head tracking in mind. They may not say it outright in the minimum requirements (which is smart from a marketing/business perspective) but trying to get into DCS without a entry level HOTAS and some kind of head tracking (which doesn't have to be expensive by the way) will not be a great experience. Some will tell you that they "do just fine" with less but I would be very curious to see what "do just fine" actually means.

To give you a practical example to support my take. When I first got into DCS, it was back when the A-10C and the Blackshark were the only high fidelity modules and all I had was that basic stick that I talked about before. I could technically "get by" in the sense that I could fly around and do stuff but in order to bind everything that needed binding, I had to use a lot of modifiers and even with a lot of practice and a lot of careful planning, it was still a very slow process to get anything done. On top of that, certain things simply were not possible due to lack of precision (especially refueling). Something that would take someone with even a pretty average HOTAS less than a minute would take me a few minutes because I had to deal with clumsy, awkward compromises in terms of controls.

The problem with entry level stick solutions is that they often only have on hat switch and if you go into DCS with just that stick, your hat switch will need to control your view (rather poorly), your various HOTAS hat functions (for the A-10C, that means setting it up with modifier keys so your one hat switch can control TMS, CMS, DMS, China hat, boat switch, mic switch, and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ switch, and potentially other functions depending on the module. It makes operating the HOTAS functions really slow compared to having all those functions on separate controls.

I don't say this to tell you to buy something expensive. I am saying this to make sure that you have a realistic set of expectations depending on the setup you opt for. It is possible to "get by" with a basic stick but it will make the learning process harder and will mean that you will always be a few steps behind in missions just because your controls take longer to manipulate. You can still have fun but this is going to be one of those cases where you get out of the hobby what you pay into it.

I kinda approach DCS setups like I approach guitar. It is possible for a new player to get by on a $100 guitar but that will be a tough setup deal with as they get better and more into the hobby. This is why I tell new players to seriously consider just how much they are able to spend (or save up for) and don't just get the cheapest thing just because they are new. Sometimes you save money by getting the right thing the first time as opposed to something you are just going to put in a closet to collect dust when you get something better later.

One unfortunate thing you will have to deal with right now is the price inflation issue. Even entry level flight sim stuff is a bit more expensive than it usually is due to a combination of COVID supply issues, the release of Flight Simulator 2020 causing a big rush to buy stuff, and some scalping. As crazy as this might sound, it is actually easier to pay "MSRP" on the high-end stuff made by small companies than it is to get the stuff made by larger companies like Thrustmaster.

[Thorn]

I'm enjoying it with a generic XBOX One controller. Took awhile to find the binding setup I liked best for it though.

I use a combo of the XBOX One controller (for flight controls), Keyboard (for a few basic options), and mouse to look around the cockpit and click on things. Works good enough for me. Can land well on a carrier with the F/A-18c, Super Carrier, and Persian Gulf DLCs, and Raven 1 Campaign.

[Randy Lahey]

VKB Gladiator NXT premium and TWCS throttle is a nice, fairly cheap combo that has more than enough buttons for even the F18/A10C, and has a twist stick that can be disabled. I paid $109 CAD for the TWCS, which has since gone way up in price and can be hard to come by. The NXT is always the same price and is usually in stock.

I sold my Saitek X45 after 22 years of use and that is also a really good option that will get you a stick, throttle, and paddle rudder for VERY cheap.

I have MFG Crosswind pedals, but as others have said, you don't 'need' them, they're just nice to have. If you fly a lot of helicopters and WW2 planes (IL2) as I do however, I think rudder pedals are essential. Throw in a Trackhat clip for headtracking, and you are good to go:

https://vkbcontrollers.com/?product=gladiator-nxt

[startrekmike]

While I generally kinda agree with others here that rudder pedals are not outright required. There are certain modules that are going to be a lot harder to handle comfortably and accurately without them. A twist stick does fine in many cases but certain aircraft require a level of fine input you can't really get from the small range of movement a twist stick provides. You can get by without rudder pedals but there are going to be some compromises that come with that.

[Maki Nishikino]

I use a VKB Gladiator NXT (Premium, which I do think is worth it for DCS), Thrustmaster TWCS and TrackIR5, really enjoy it. Also important is your rig, I have a solid rig myself (on my profile) and DCS is super fun and runs quite well. Way, way better than my past rig which for most other games is still a solid rig itself.

[Troll Norris]

Hi. It depends on how much you want to put in. Good PC and some decent stick is the basic. The anything else is not such important. Yes, the things like stick lenght extension, rudder pedals and specially the head tracking device will make things better but those are not essential.

[Sizigmund]

You can start with "Logitech 3D Extreme Pro" or "Thrustmaster T.16000M FCS". Even without the throttle handle they can do the job pretty well. You can even fly a helicopters with one of these sticks, just need to enable the "Rudder trim" and choose the "Trim with back to center" in a special options of the specific helicopter. You will have to use the keyboard and mouse alongside with these sticks. It may sound complicated, but it is not. Just need time to get used to it. But of course, a better controls will bring you a better performance. But for a start these two can do a nice job, until you realize which controls setup you really need.

[TheCr33pur]

Cool thank guys, i will keep looking. Still hanging out in my old game atm and when i feel i need a break from it, then i will check this out. :)

[Hippothing]

Originally posted by Thorn:

I'm enjoying it with a generic XBOX One controller. Took awhile to find the binding setup I liked best for it though.

I use an Xbox controller too - it works pretty well (or at least it did until I bought the Hind helicopter).

I use the d-pad for looking around, the X-button to centre the view, the LB/RB buttons to change the throttle, the right analogue stick for the rudder only, and the left for pitch/roll. So far, I haven't found the analogue triggers (LT/RT) useful at all - they are a bit crap really. For the left and right analogue sticks I go to "axis tune" and make the response very curvy (i.e. fairly flat for small and medium changes but eventually going all the way up to maximum).

Since moving to VR I now use the d-pad for trim. For everything else I either click on the cockpit using the mouse or hit "active pause", lift up the goggles, and hunt around for the relevant the key on the keyboard.

Since buying the Hind helicopter however it is clear this approach won't work at all...

[Troll Norris]

@Tenko - Even the aircrafts does not have springloaded stick. The centering forces are made by aerodynamics.