Accuracy and Scope

Accuracy and Scope

Fox3 Academy is a tactics trainer for DCS gameplay. It is not a flight simulator and not a weapons simulation.

What it models

What a DCS player sees and uses: cockpit displays, key bindings, the in-game launch-zone numbers, RWR cues, jam symbols and burn-through, IFF replies, the datalink picture, the JTAC's radio calls, and which defensive moves work in the game. Radar, RWR, missiles, SAMs and air-to-ground weapons are gameplay abstractions tuned to reproduce DCS outcomes.

What it simplifies

• Flight: BVR pages fly a tactical autopilot (heading, altitude, speed, G, afterburner); the flying and attack pages give simple hand flying, not a flight model.
• Weapons: tuned to DCS launch-zone numbers and speed-over-time behaviour, not modelled from real weapon data.
• Sensors: jamming is one burn-through range per radar, IFF assumes every friend answers, the AWACS sees every aircraft in range. The A-10C II pod's fields of view, zoom factor and track gates are trainer values.
• Undocumented behaviour: a few DCS behaviours are not documented anywhere (for example when the AI JTAC clears you hot, or the AI's "ECM Using" default). The app labels them "simplified" or "not verified" instead of guessing.

Each lab has an Accuracy notes section, other pages a "Simplified here" note. The full list lives in docs/dcs-accuracy.md.

Where facts come from

Every DCS fact lives in src/data with a source in docs/research: module manuals, official documentation and reproducible in-game observations. Uncertain values are listed openly, and some are waiting for in-game checks (see the issues labelled dcs-accuracy).

Found something wrong?

That is the most valuable report you can make. Open a "Differs from DCS" issue with the jet, the page, what DCS does, and evidence (manual page, track file, Tacview capture, DCS version).

Hornet ATFLIR and GBU-12

The pod uses original 3D scenery and artistic IR/green filters. Camera FOV, slew rates, acquisition and obstruction are teaching abstractions. The GBU-12 run omits flight handling and ballistics; its 8/12-second countdowns, automatic-laser window and final-three-second success rule are arbitrary lesson pacing. The ED March 2024 guide supports the cockpit procedure; current-game observations are tracked in issue #88. See the research notes.