Erik "EinsteinEP" Pierce gets some hands-on time with the new open beta version.

http://www.simhq.com/_air13/air_460a.html

How was the performance on EinsteinEP's PC? That rig is something like what I have, I'd be curious what could I expect in terms of performance (even though it's just a beta and probably not as well optimized as the final will be). Also what OS was being used?

Thanks for getting a review out so quickly.

Thats me going to get the pre order beta. You should be ashamed of yourself, I was doing so good waiting for the completed product to be released and then I read your great review, highlighting exactly what would be my questions, now I will get no sleep thinking about it so I might as well go get it.
Thanks for an OUTSTANDING job of giving us a first look

Dear god, this looks sweet.

Not to pick, but this is a First Look special. You can count on more to come and a comprehensive review once the release version is out.

@Malleus

Performance is actually pretty poor on my machine: with low graphics settings, 1280x800, I get about 20 fps avg with regular drops to below 10, essentially unplayable IMHO BUT other beta testers have similar setups and are getting good performance. For example, ParaBellum has an E6750 and seems to be getting much better numbers. He's got 2GB more RAM and a GTX260 to boot. If you're good at tweaking your PC's performance (I'm not) you'll probably do way better than I.

As for me, I'm using this as justification to go get a new rig.

My vague impression from the Beta forum is that the sim currently struggles on older Nvidia cards and pretty much any ATI card. I'm in the latter bracket and get unplayable performance, but I'm hopeful that life will get better and better as the optimisations get underway.

@EinsteinEP
Well, my rig is an E5400 (2x2.7GHz), 2GB RAM and an HD5770 (which is only slighly weaker than a GTX260, or so they say, not sure how it relates to your SLI setup but AFAIK the 8800GT is significantly weaker). Judging by what you said, this could be okay. I'll think about this, thanks for the info!

My 5870 is doing fine with it. No idea about the ATI 4xxx series.


It's nice for DCS to release this now so everyone can update their Christmas list.

On my E6600 / 4GB (effectively 3.2GB) RAM / N460GTX / WinXP (32bits) it's playable - framerate between 15 on the ramp to 45 high in the air. It's also very smooth - no real stuttering.

I do have problems with object pop-up though - in a simple mission where I had placed a bunch of targets near a bridge - should be easy enough to find, right? - the bridge became visible at only a few kilometers distance - I was already within rocket range. Way too close for comfort, IMHO - you should be able to see huge objects like bridged from many miles away.

Great insta review. Thanks

w00t!

Propeller head.

I'm waiting for Dart's Hello Kitty camo scheme to show up on an A-10.. How can AAA shoot down such a beautiful machine?

If I was his wing man I'd shoot him myself for that.

Sounds like a challenge right up Dart's alley.


Wheels

we have to abandon DX 11 and go back to DX 9 to play install this? What about DX 11 compatable software. Is there a way to choose which we can use. I am not aware of anyway to do that. Info appreciated
jdam

Huh? Wah? No, you install some DX9 software that's missing in a "fresh install Windows 7 DX11" environment. It's done for backward compatibility and you're not removing/un-installing DX11. You will still be playing games with DX11 at the highest visual FX settings (i.e. Dirt2).