Hey Frey, the CEM in CoD lays an excellent groundwork, IMHO, for more detailed cockpits such as A2A's Wings of Power 3 Spitfire and now DCS P51D. As FF said below, heat management is not simulated in DCS P51D, so less chance of frying a Merlin like you can do in CoD......or ESPECIALLY in A2A WOP3 Spits.

What I'm finding is that the DCS P51D is a torque monster. On take off there's no slamming the throttle WFO on this sucker without then putting it through the MacDonald's drive-through at your immediate 2 o'clock -- two blocks over. LOL.

Also, finding low level flight that greater speed is gained at full boost but prop pitch control backed off from 3000 rpms down to approx 2650 rpms. I have the luxury (for now) of not burning out Merlin's with this beta, so it's fun experimenting.

Then again, still working my way through the 183-page manual, so all this may be covered.

The Mustang never seemed difficult to manage, engine-wise, to me. Now the Thunderbolt! That turbo charger will mess you up if you don't handle it correctly.

Yep, it's interesting to compare to Cliffs of Dover. From only flying a bit, the P-51 beta is good, and here's my initial comparison observations:

- You need to map prop pitch, and manage RPM's more than throttle. Think 109's.

- AutoMix and not having to worry about temps is going to make Jack a Lazy Boy when they are added back in. Buy stock in Rolls Royce!

- The damage modelling is pretty good, not to the same (insane?) level of detail of CloD but very good. Wings always turning into BBQ's is a bit predictable, but there are lots of things to break.

- The AI ACM is ok, and I was expecting a lot more BnZ while it seems to want to do the same turn fight. Note: DO NOT use the quick flight '1 vs 1' mission to learn, as it's been set-up pretty harshly - the enemy P-51 starts higher than you and on your six. Welcome to Georgia!

- The ground handling torque with 0% help is harsh, although I'd imagine realistic with all the reference people/materials they have access to. 5 degrees right rudder trim and 'walking it up' the manifold pressure is the order of the day. The biggest wiggles come from reaching about 90mph and the air over the rudder now doing it's job, as it tends to lead to hard right torque followed by a nice lefty shifty. It's a bit like the Blenheim quick mission

- Landing is really nice and I spent a happy hour alone on touch and gos. The flight model feels very good.

- I *still* get those white square graphic artifacts on a ATI card. I was hopeful the new DCS World would sort that out, but no luck.

Good fun +

I won't swear on it, but I have a vague memory of this being a driver issue that ED has been trying to alert AMD to, apparently so far without success. You could try a different driver I suppose if it gets really annoying, but I don't recall for sure which drivers are less likely to exhibit this behaviour.

Which card and which driver do you use? I could try to crossref and see if I can find something.

Yes, CoD is woefully short on documentation, and if the modelling of engine management is simpler in DCS P-51 (while it is in beta) I can see those factors making a big difference. I'll definitely get the plane, tho I'll probably wait till it is out of beta. No fun flying a plane that cannot overheat! Any ETA on when the plane goes gold?

Thanks for your replies! I was banned from the CoD extended discussions forum, to see it I'll have to be logged out of SimHQ, so I'll just be a lurker on the site from now on, but I'm grateful for any info on a release date.

Not yet. Best I can give you is the standard "When it's done™".

The tutorial is excellent. I've never flown a "full switch" sim and I was taking off and landing pretty quick.

I'm surprised at the thoroughness of the manual.

I've had it for over a year I think, first on an ATI4980 2GB and then on a 6950 and now the 6970 series of cards.

The driver is the latest CC 12.4, but I think it's happened on all drivers since the 6950's came out with DCS - from memory, around about the 9.1 betas?). It's related to HDR and may be a bug in the driver, but obviously not something the other 180 PC games I play in that time struggle with

I don't mind it so much, as I just have to turn HDR off each time which is a shame but bearable. Punting the issue to ATI is probably the right thing to do technically, but unless ED has the clout/relationship with ATI then it might be worth considering work-arounds on the DCS side of HDR rendering got ATI. It could be a fair chunk (say, 10%) of customers impacted and, while it's not fair to ED since it's ATI fault, it's not uncommon to have to work around driver bugs.

I would be interested if you have a workaround or app setting that helps if you can find one though. There must be a few people with 6XXX series ATI cards that run DCS surely?

I have a ATI 6970 card also and I turned HDR off until a fix comes out. At least one person has been in contact with AMD and Their Tech support has acknowledged the issue and was going to escalate it up, but have not implemented a fix as of yet. I started a thread on the DCS Forums

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=77371 Post 86 is where the poster mentions AMD has acknowledged the issue as a driver problem