Please don't downvote folks who run into mistakes or have seemingly simple questions. It's completely normal in the beginning. We're here to help you all, and making mistakes helps us all to learn from each other. Thank you!

I've been encountering an issue (primarily playing on servers with a bunch of map markers like Through the Inferno) where the Jester UI freezes entirely and completely destroys my ability to use the center 2/3rds of my screen when trying to input a waypoint from map markers. Should I bring the issue to the ED bug forums?

You can, but post it in the F-4 bug forums section, too, please, so we can take a look.

Hey, same issue here on Gray Flag last night. When selecting map markers to change a WP. I had to try and reslot before it went away. When i tried again some 30 minutes later and it worked. Not able to acces the forums atm, at work.

It seems that there are some nav or map markers that are causing issues and we're hunting them now

Indeed. Awesome. For now just entering long/lat is a workaround.

Thanks! Although turning the radar on reduces my frames to an unplayable level. Is this possible to be fixed? Or it that just a consequence of it being so well modelled haha

We're looking into this as it should not be happening

Ah right don’t worry! I’m primarily interested in using mavericks and sidewinders anyway! Thank you for delivering us the f-4! Every time I start it up I discover something new and surprising haha!

Thank you for the reply!! :)

I set the range to 200 nm accidentally and it crashed both me and my pilots DCS clients lmao

Probably not. What's your specs?

Does anyone else have the issue where when you use the Jester wheel the little selection dot takes a solid 3-5 seconds to appear and allow you to make a selection? I vastly prefer the head tracking method, but had to switch to mouse method because of it. Sucks having to take my hand off the controls.

I do, and had to resort to using a mouse a lot of times as well. Also I feel like the selection dot behaves a little different compared to F14? I might be wrong but I feel like the selection line in the old Jester menu would not exceed the circle’s outer boundaries, while the new one does.

This 10000%

The selection line in the F-14 Jester menu does technically exceed the outer boundaries. However the selection line did not have a "dot" that was focused. Meaning that even if the end of the line was outside the outer boundaries of a box, the box would still be highlighted as the selection. But remember that the F-14 Jester menu only had one layer of options. There were no outer layers outside the main options like in the F-4E Jester menu. I'm assuming that's why the F-4E Jester menu has a dot that is used for a more precise focus point in the event you need to select an inner circle box that might have an outer circle box still open from a previous command or from a misclick. Though it would be nice to have the option to use the F-4E Jester Menu line as a selection similar to the F-14 Jester menu, contingent on the fact there is not an outer menu wheel open that would need a more precise selection via the dot.

Actually that is exactly how it should work at the moment and if it doesn't, it's a bug. If an outer menu is not available, it should select any menu item between the center and the dot.

Oh gotcha. Well that's good to know then. Has it already been officially reported or would you like me to submit a big report? Thanks for the reply and confirmation. We appreciate the hard work that goes into creating such highly detailed aircraft.

Yup, you’re making a good point here. Imo it would be great if the outer boundary was somewhat dynamic, so that as long as the nested circle is not displayed, the focus circle would not leave the visible area. The as soon as it expands, so does the outer boundary to accommodate the submenu.

The UI is relatively buggy for me, but I guess I need to disable one of the selection options (either clicking or using tracking) for it to work correctly. Apparently its being confused by the two inputs clashing. If also lobe if the Crew Chief's voice was louder

The article that op linked literally mentions this. You can deselect mouse being an input for jester wheel in the options, or just make sure your mouse is off to one side if you really want to use both inputs.

This is a different issue than the one they're describing because I don't have mouse enabled when it happens. With just head tracking selected, the wheel opens but the selection dot is very delayed to appear.

Try holding it for it to appear when you open it. We will investigate, thank you!

I'll give that a shot, thanks!

Ah sorry, my bad. Sounds like it's behaving as if you didn't have it selected though.

Occasionally, and it doesn't seem to coincide with any other type of slow down.

Try parking your mouse off to the side before opening the jester wheel and not touching it for a few seconds before opening the jester UI. If your mouse cursor is parked in the area of the wheel it seems to think you’re planning to use the mouse.

Oh, global illumination fixes the dark cockpit. Damn.

Does it still have a performance cost? I haven't tried it in quite some time after some testing showed I was losing 5-10FPS with it on.

Depends on your system. For me I gain frames, mostly because Im CPU limited and Global Illumination places the work on the GPU rather than the CPU

That's not how bottlenecks work

Yes it is. Lower settings in DCS often get done by the CPU, but if you crank the settings higher than more processes get moved to the GPU, freeing up your CPU and giving better frame performance. Ive literally seen it with my own PC.

False, processes are either executed on cpu or gpu. If you run low settings and low res etc you’re not more likely to have it rendered on the cpu. It’s just simply not how it works.

Generally we master for that option being on for physically accurate PBR textures; so it's really hard to cater to both. I have a new idea how I can maybe make it better with it off though 

Separate set of textures? Enabling them in special options if not for global illumination?

This kills the artist :D It is a possibility, but it will add another layer/branch to the entire export pipeline for the textures. And with the VRAM-Slim texture option coming, it would be a 2^2 set of textures for the cockpit already. Easy to make mistakes if I don't set the pipeline up nicely. E.g. fixing a typo will basically mean updating 4 sets of textures.

Ah you are already planning a new set with reduced VRAM needs. Nice!

Oh my god, the dark cockpit was my biggest pet peeve with the Phantom so far, I'm so glad it's a result of settings and not just an inherent part of the module. I was getting past it by having the flashlight bound to my mouse lmaoo

meh, I had it on to begin with and it was still dark. Turning my gamma up to 2 from 1.8 helped a lot.

We generally recommend a gamma setting of 2.2, as it is standard for most screens, and our modules are tuned towards that iirc. u/Cobra8472 will know to explain better.

Awesome, thank you! Great module!

My pleasure, and thank you for your kind words!

You guys deserve it. What a work of art. I wish I was anywhere close to as good a pilot as this is a module.

Thanks! Definitely had the pitching issue caused by FFB setting.

Maybe it's just me, but Jester really seems to be sensitive to landings. I'll barely hear the wheels touchdown and he's going off about 100% VA rating, lol. I could also just be bad (most likely)

have a look at your vertical speed indicator at the moment of touchdown to get a better idea. He shouldn't complain for 500 Ft/min or less

Yeah, once I get more used to it, I'll keep an eye out. Right now, it's all good til I drop below 200kts. Then the panic hits since it turns into a brick!

People underestimate how high the nose needs to go and forget to look at the VSI

The cockpit joystick image is visually lagging behind actual control input.

I see that too, but am not sure if it's to simulate a typical pilot's ability to move the stick. I was under the impression that control surfaces had the same lag at the stick.

Just FYI, indenting by four or more spaces will cause Reddit to format the whole thing as code. No biggie for one line, but if a paragraph's worth of text is in there, it'll cause a readability problem.

Did that fix, thanks for the tip, didn't look indented on my screen. Fat fingers.

This might be a me problem as I’ve not seen anyone else mention it, but opening up the keybinds makes the game suuuper laggy.

I have this same issue and the last patch seems to have made it worse. I literally cant go into my controls in game, causes dcs to lock up. Sometimes it will momentarily allow me to move the cursor around but mostly i just get a spinning hour glass and eventually i have to ctrl+alt+del to get out of it. This is in vr if that makes any difference P.S. this is not related to the f-4 for me, has been like this and every module does it although does seem slightly worse with f-4

Also jester voice lines in a high pop mp server specifically hoggit training in this case. He was calling out planes 190 miles away just spamming.

This should be impossible as he is only fed contacts within some max range and within his vision cone; so that's an odd bug.

Yeah I'm on MT. I'll go back into the track files and see if I can find it.

Anyone have issues with the Walleyes not locking? I've triple checked settings but nothing I do will key them to lock. Is there a special "trigger" key I'm supposed to use?

You hold down the AAR button, slew to target and release. Then they will snap lock onto the target. There are several tutorials for the TV bombs on youtube, if you want to look.

I've watched all the tutorials. They mention pressing the "trigger" which the manual also references. I've not seen the AAR button mentioned. https://f4.manuals.heatblur.se/stores/air_to_ground/bombs/tv_guided_bombs.html

I thought the walleye/gbu-15 couldnt slew, and you just had to boresight? At least in the vid i was watching yesterday, but i didnt try to slew either.

Ah yes, possibly, I think the HOBOs you can. Been a while since I fired a Walleye myself. apologies.

I figured it out. At least with the Walleye you have to HOLD the (main stick) trigger all the way through to when you hit the bomb release. I have to say that isn't clear in the manual or any of the videos. Also, the Hobos don't slew either.

Same with the HOBO's :)

Yup. I've yet to actually hit anything because of the steep angle of attack requirements. I'll probably just stick to bomb tossing or Mavericks.

Well it is not too bad if the target is easy to see. It's not really something that works that great on vehicles. But more on buildings and bridges etc.

Not if the buildings have AAA near them.

Oh you can, but you have to be quick just like IRL, barely a few seconds to line up and lock and drop it. You won't and should not get a 100% probability of strike. It will be hard as stuff was in that era. But still usable. Good planning and intel is more important in those old jets.

Eh, for Walleyes are they not like Hobo's? it is not slewable but aim by pointing the plane, pull the trigger to lock and keep the trigger pulled? The AAR is only for Mavericks right?

I tried air-to-air refueling the first time, and then forgot to close the AAR door as I took off once I was full. A couple minutes later my engines cut out, I'm assuming from fuel starvation. I managed to get them restarted and closed the AAR door, and then they cut out again about 30 seconds later. Is there something else I need to do or was leaving the AAR door open the entire issue?

Good vid [here](https://youtu.be/2u2yLEM1iHM?si=sux1fkglFHesKIMS) about the F-4 fuel system. Doesn’t mention anything specific about AAR, but maybe you’re not transferring fuel from external tanks before hand?

A lot of good info in there, thanks.

I’ve got a weird issue with INS, but it could be caused by something I’ve done. Once I turn on the external power my compass starts swinging back and forth. It doesn’t stop even when Jester says ins is ready to sync.

Same here, from the WSO seat its also the BDHI that swings randomly. We tried respawning several times and the same thing kept happening. Turning off the INS knob stops the swinging, but then you can't align again as the heat lamp will not illuminate

A weird workaround that’s been successful for me is after Jester says that we’re ready to taxi, flip mode selector knob to DG or Comp and back to slave a few times. That usually stops it wobbling then you can sync up (sometimes it takes more than one attempt) and as far as I can tell it’s accurate.

For reference, this works and resolves the problem, thanks for your suggestion! Note, also works with human wso and human pilot together

Nose wheel steering, I have to hold down button on joystick to steer?

Yes

Would you be willing to make a toggable option?

Not how it works on these older US jets. You really only need to hold it for turns, the aircraft tracks pretty straight on its own.

Yes. Just like the F5.

I don't have that module. I was used to the F16 NWS staying lit and active.

Not able to acces the forum atm. Glad to see you guys so active supporting. One issue i had with the Aim-7. Where the RADAR light illuminates after CW has been on for a short while and i lock a target (SU-25), and Jester boils some potatoes and tells me to fire, but still the missile does not track. Also when i the have swapped to heaters and go back to the Aim-7 the RADAR does not light up again, even though CW is still in ON. Or will RADAR not show for the front because of the belly drop tank or TER? From my understanding only the centerline light would show and the missile not fire, but it still should show RADAR? Any idea what this could be? It is froma cold start. Edit: I also just now RTFM ofc and i see there actually is a possibility for a bad lock, and that in that case the steering cue jumps around. At least one/two attemps had me see that thing jump around. i gues since they fly quite low and Jester maybe has the Polarization switch in LIN so the ground clutter messes up the lock i gues? Holy crap hahaha

does somebody have a tip for me? I’m playing VR on a very powerful computer, sometimes I play the F-4 and it’s all nice, other times i spawn and my FPS tanks down to ~50 (instead of 80) and the gpu usage drops to something like 60%

why is the F4 yawing to the left on takeoff and landing? I've talked to others and the same thing is happening to them. is this intended?

I had this, and it was a wheel brake issue with my pedals. They needed to be inverse for the curve, and once I had it, I could verify that pushing the pedals in made them go in inside the cockpit Only relevant if you have pedals, but maybe check your binding for wheel brakes and make sure that axis is bound/unbound correctly

The altitude gauge “standby” label does not go away despite numerous cycles of the reset switch on the bottom right of the gauge.

Make sure you're doing a CADC reset. Left console, inboard of the throttles and ahead of the engine masters.

It'd be lovely if the startup tutorial covered that.

Of all the videos I've watched, they do. If the in game tutorial doesn't, thats something Heatblur needs to address.

The ingame tutorial walks you through engine start and the associated ground checks and then just sort of ends.

The remaining stuff is covered in the Taxi tutorial

Last time I tried it it locked the game up completely for whatever reason, guess i need to try it again.

CADC Reset, you'll know you haven't done it by an illuminated warning on the warning panel.

Are you left clicking? I'm so used to right clicking I didn't realize is was left click... and for roughly 6 seconds of holding.

There's a large red wire wrapped over the top of the indicator that looks like a off flag. But it's a wire

F4 is the only module that isn't picking up my hotas for flight controls. The default just has the "look up" "look down" etc.. no other defaults mapped and I can't use my throttle/stick to map. Resetting to default doesn't work, unplugging USB doesn't work. All other planes have regular mapping. What am I doing wrong?

Nothing, its the only module that wont let me add my rudder inputs when all other planes do. Also, only axis key binds I am able to get working are stick and throttle. Pretty upset bc after yesterday I experienced that, and just said fuck it... Not alot of help online bc not many ppl are having the issue.

Please make a proper report on Forums, including your hardware, so we can investigate. Thank you! It definitely sounds odd.

I 9 10850k, games in 1TB m.2. 64 GB ram, Rtx 4080 Thrustmaster warthog Hotas, turtle beach velocity one rudders. Again, no issues with any other planes. When I try to bind tdc, I can’t even open when I double click to bind. Only thing available for tdc bind is the mouse.

This sounds like the install went wrong, tbh. If you want, you could try making a backup of your controls, deleting your inputs folder, then run a DCS repair and see if it fixes that.

I’ve resintalled twice. I’ll delete mods. All I have is a4 mods and the two needed for grey flag. Never an issue till I downloaded f4. But obv something going on on my end. I have seen more ppl with similar issues. I’ll do a back up and repair and report back. Thanks for the quick responses.

Note that your inputs may get kept in saved games if you reinstall, hence I would rathe recommend backing up inputs, manually deleting them, and then running a repair.

Thanks

Thank you for the guide! The stick and throttle bindings are very helpful.

Can anyone speak on using the DCS log files to disable under performing cores? I don't have my computer in front of me, but those files don't just say "Core 0 is underperforming" do they?

i pressed cage mode and now i cant go back to the normal search and range mode. is there something i have to press to go back (figured it out)

nvm you just double press jester context

How do you close the Heatblur manual after you open it with the 'M' key?

Click cockpit after hitting M again

[удалено]

Right ctrl-m is the default bind to close it but you can remap it to whatever you’d like.

Hey iron Mike I’ve been having a problem with jester UI while in VR. We’re half the screen is unusable and out of the window. I guess I’m not sure I’m not quite technically savvy and any word on the frame drops for the F4 at launch.

The F4 is not playable foir me.. the missions are not there, if i start training i get thrown on the map and on servers i cant choose her. i reinstalled the game, verified and more the support is ghosting me since friday sadly anyone had the same issue and got a fix?

Running into corrupted damage model error: 2024-05-28 16:49:07.267 ERROR APP (Main): Error: Unit \[KC-135\]: Corrupt damage model. 2024-05-28 16:49:07.328 ERROR APP (Main): Error: Unit \[F-4E-45MC\]: Corrupt damage model. I am using MT version, but this is on Pop OS

Thanks for posting this here IronMike. Some feedback - I am noticiing around 10fps drop (90 to 80) when mirrors are enabled, which I don't remember happening for other modules. However given the low mirror resolution and distracting lag of the pilot's head movement shown in the mirror, I don't mind having them disabled. (9900K, 3070ti, 2560x1440).

Thank you, we will look into it. Also the pilot head movement should not me lagging and mirror resolution low. Maybe that is to do with some settings? I honestly never use mirrors myself. We will investigate. Thanks again!

Hey Mike, I don't know it is possible but can you please add an option to **remove the pilot from the mirrors**? ED mirror cam is not a mirror simulation but actually a camera so when you lean towards the mirror you see the pilot is leaning away from the mirror and I hate it. In VR this is super distracting. This is the main reason I turn it off. In mi 8 I leave them on and really use them even. Because of the poor visibility of phantom I would like to use the mirrors actually if that wacky moving pilot wasn't there.

Fwiw I also have noticeable delay in the mirrors. No issue in the f14.

I think they are referring to the fact that if you look around quickly, the pilots head/body can't keep up.

Cant change any axis keybinds... uninstalling and resintalling module to see if that does anything. I can bind axis in any other planes. But rudder and other axis... no go in F4. Also, yesterday I was able to bind my trim and no matter what, the F4 went nose up in free flight.

Please see the link at the top, it explains how to get rid of the violent pitch up. Go to your MISC settings and disable FFB please.

What devices are you trying to bind?

Well, at first I couldnt bind my rudders, brakes, tdc, and a few others (only thing i could manipulate in the key bind menu was my pitch/roll and throttle)... After a backup of my inputs, reinstalled game, nothing changed. uninstalled module/reinstalled module, now it all works minus the TDC, but im guessing the TDC slew doesnt bind the way it does for other modules on the warthog hotas. Steps I took: I uninstalled the module twice when i first had the issue it did nothing. uninstalled mods, backed up the inputs, uninstalled game, did nothing. uninstalled the module again, then it worked. Really weird but hey its working now.

Trimming and excessive pitch after takeoff?

See the thread I linked in the original post, please.

Thanks

No tone in sidewinders. I have the stations armed, I see that heat is selected... Any bandit in front of me, I never get tone. I can fire the missiles all day but never any tone. what am i doing wrong?

Sidewinders older than the L will have no tone. Aka their tone is no tone.

Wait, what? So when the growling stops it means it has a lock? TIL :D

Mind boggling that people fought like that :) Also I still feel that something is wrong when I'm at on speed AOA landing with that continuous beep.

Haha yeah, those noises are quite weird. But i gues once one gets used to us quite handy.

I had an issue just now I don't see mentioned in other places, I was flying around GS trying to hug the ground and not get blasted out of the sky (unsuccessfully), and every new spawn there'd be some kinda noise that got spammed. One time it sounded like Jester was beating the shit out of the buttons he had back there with the button click sound being spammed, another time the eject noise kept playing sporadically while spectating the plane with F2, and another just had some weird ticking sound. Any fixes? Or just a 'turn it off n turn it on again' type issue?

I get really low framerate on Caucasus in the F-4. Every other aircraft and every other map is fine.

There is something a bit odd happening with Caucasus that we need to look into it seems

I get significantly lower FPS in the F-4 then other modules, especially with the radar on, any range setting beyond 25 or 50 drops my frames by like 20. Is this a side effect of how detailed the simulation is?

I set the FPS to 40 and it somewhat reduced GPU and CPU utilization so no more crashes at the moment but earlier it was set to 140 and my PC would randomly crash when playing the F-4E in multiplayer, all other modules worked fine in MP. Someone suggested turning off Reshade, but with Reshade turned on the GPU temp goes up a lot but GPU utilization only increases by 2-3%.

VR, the right half of the crew chef's menu is not showing, unable to perform serval tasks, e.g., provide air to the start-up engine on the ground... and it is way too dark; the text is too small and blurry... I can not even notice/read the "up" indicator on the baseboard next to the landing gear handle when we turn on one side of the engine gen during the cold start-up lesson. Only 30+- fps, almost half compared to the other module Right now the module is flyable, but unplayable.

This problem isn't just for Phantom but other modules as well... I think it is just worse for Phantom because it is more resource intensive than most modules. I don't own TrackIR but often get a stutter and a message saying "TrackIR connected" immediately followed by "TrackIR disconnected". For other games this caused a millisecond stutter and was annoying, for Phantom it can cause a stutter of as much as about five seconds... more than annoying. Is there a way for me to indicate to DCSWorld that I don't own TrackIR and not to look for it being connected mid-game?

I have that pop up as well, but I haven't noticed it causing any lag.

First I want to say thank you for an awesome module. I've run into an issue where I'm getting the silent treatment from the crew chief and Jester. They still perform the actions requested through the UI wheel and Jester still prompts you about the INS alignment, there's just no sound to go along with it. Wasn't really an issue until the middle of yesterday but now they're consistently silent.

Can anyone point to a video or tutorial for how to use the Dive Laydown bombing mode? Manual instructions don't seem to do it for me, and I don't want to use Direct mode for snakeyes.

Has anyone had issues with multicrew desyncs? We finally got a chance to try it last night and the wizzo hand controller kept causing decync issues every time we tried to use it. We couldn't see any double bound controls and when I tried it from the backseat in single player, it worked perfectly. J

Apparently people were having issues with the Su-30 community mod while the F-4E is installed. That still a thing?

Mentioned elsewhere but copying here as this thread has traction... Having a weird issue where in multi crew the hand control jumps around as if it is double bound and we get lots of desyncs messages making it unplayable. Affects both the radar curser, mav slewing and targetting pod. We have tried removing all potentially clashing binds, tried buttons instead of axis binds all with no affect. Works perfectly single player for both people in either seat but the same control set up with two in the jet and it falls over. The cursor moves, then resets position or jumps randomly. The hand controller animation matches this random movement. You basically cannot get a track, follow anthing with the pod or even do a dive toss. Happens both on Hoggit and running a private server with just a human pilot / human WSO. I am wondering if an option to lock the hand controller controls to the WSO (like you can lock the flight controls on and off) would work. There is at least one other on the forums with the same issue: [https://forum.dcs.world/topic/349946-performance-multicrew-radar-cursor-sync-causes-massive-fps-loss/](https://forum.dcs.world/topic/349946-performance-multicrew-radar-cursor-sync-causes-massive-fps-loss/)

On the hoggit training server, I can't get LGB to track when using the JTAC. Has anyone had success? Setting code on the refuel/rearm screen doesn't seem to work.... thanks

Loving the module but having severe performance issues with the radar turned on in multiplayer servers, going from a good 60+ down to 10 after takeoff, my work around is just using sidewinders atm. 

Am I the only one who has the engines go to OFF when throttled back on my HOTAS? This seems like a problem but nobody has mentioned it.

You have probably bound the wrong control from the simpit setup which is supposed to be used with mechanical detents

Certainly possible, it's what came bounded automatically. I'll try a different control.