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Originally published by The Escapist on 11 September 2026. Preserved here by the author for long-term access.
Getting into serious flight simulators can be intimidating. You don’t want to expend effort – and indeed cash on new equipment – for something you may not ever like. So you find yourself getting into Microsoft Flight Simulator because it’s on Game Pass, as it’s technically free. Then you soon find you have landed airliners. You have flown under bridges. You have probably crashed a Cessna into your own house in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Eventually, though, somebody mentions DCS World and suddenly you are watching a scary 40-minute YouTube video explaining how to start an F-16.
This is the point you should, if you have an ounce of sense, back away and load up Call of Duty again.
DCS World has a reputation for being complicated, expensive and populated entirely by people who know what every switch in an F/A-18 cockpit does. Some of that is deserved. DCS can be ludicrously complicated. It can also become an extraordinarily expensive hobby if you decide that what your office really needs is a replica fighter cockpit. Mine really, really does and I am busy using things like the Eufymake E1 printer (opens in a new tab) to print the wording on some of my bespoke F-16 controller boxes as we speak.
But you don’t need any of that to get started.
In 2026, DCS remains arguably the most convincing military aviation sandbox available on a home PC, and getting your first aircraft into the sky is nowhere near as intimidating as it initially appears.
What actually is DCS World?
DCS stands for Digital Combat Simulator, but it makes more sense to think of DCS World as the platform everything else bolts onto.
The base game is free and currently includes the Caucasus theatre, the Su-25T ground-attack aircraft and the unarmed TF-51D Mustang. There are then aircraft, helicopters, maps and campaigns available as additional modules.
And when DCS calls something an aircraft module, it’s not talking about the sort of DLC where somebody has added a new skin and changed a few stats.
The high-end “full fidelity” aircraft are effectively simulations within the simulation. You could certainly take an F-16 pilot in the real world, sit him in front of DCS, and he would be able to take off with no issue, although I’d probably not advise flying a real one if you have only played DCS. Probably best to leave it to Maverick and his pals.
Buy something such as the F-16C Viper, F/A-18C Hornet, AH-64D Apache or one of the more complex third-party modules and you are getting working cockpit systems, radar, navigation, weapons, radios and procedures. Buttons in the cockpit aren’t there merely as decoration. You can click them.
This is simultaneously DCS’s greatest attraction and the reason new players take one look at it and run away screaming. The important thing to realise is that you don’t have to learn everything at once.
DCS’s free aircraft give you somewhere to start, while the standalone version also has a useful trial system that allows eligible modules to be tested for 14 days. Once a trial expires, it becomes available to trial again after six months. That is a far better approach than spending £50 or £60 on an aircraft because it looked cool in Top Gun and subsequently discovering you hate flying it.
Steam or standalone DCS?
One of the first decisions is whether to download DCS World through Steam or directly from Eagle Dynamics.
Both work, and Steam is obviously convenient. Updates happen through the client, downloads can be quicker and everything lives alongside the rest of your library.
Personally, though, if I was starting from scratch specifically to get properly into DCS, I would go standalone, and indeed that’s what I did, and I buy maps and aircraft outside of Valve’s ecosystem as well.
Eagle Dynamics says standalone gives access to all modules as soon as they are released, whereas some content may appear later or not be supported through Steam. More importantly for somebody starting out, the free trial programme is tied into the Eagle Dynamics ecosystem.
Steam purchases can also be transferred across to an Eagle Dynamics account in many cases, although purchases made directly from Eagle Dynamics cannot simply be activated on Steam.
Whichever route you take, make some room on your trusty old gaming rig first. Lots of room.
Eagle Dynamics currently recommends 32GB RAM and around 500GB of SSD space for DCS at high settings, with additional modules potentially requiring even more. Nobody has ever installed DCS and thought, “Well, that’s hardly touched my SSD.”
An SSD should be considered essential in 2026. If you’re building or upgrading specifically for DCS, I’d also consider 32GB RAM the sensible starting point rather than a luxury.
Do I need a HOTAS?
Need? Technically no. Want? Almost certainly.
You can fly DCS using an Xbox controller, and there are people who are remarkably good at it. A basic joystick, however, transforms the experience.
You don’t need to immediately buy a £500 collection of military-looking controls and bolt aluminium extrusion to your desk. A decent entry-level stick with a twist axis for rudder will get you surprisingly far.
The next step is HOTAS – Hands On Throttle And Stick – which gives you a separate throttle and usually a collection of switches, hats and buttons.
This becomes particularly useful once you move into combat aircraft. Taking your hand off the controls to hunt around the keyboard while somebody is firing a radar-guided missile at you tends to focus the mind on why real fighter aircraft have so many controls within reach.
If money is limited, my upgrade order would be joystick first, head tracking second and throttle third.
Yes, head tracking before the throttle. I’ll get to that shortly.
What about rudder pedals?
Rudder pedals are nice, but for most fixed-wing beginners I wouldn’t put them at the top of the shopping list. If your joystick has a twist rudder, use that while you learn.
Helicopters are a different matter. Once you start becoming serious about the Apache, Huey or other rotary-wing aircraft, pedals become much more important because you are constantly working the anti-torque controls.
Proper pedals also make taxiing, crosswind landings and warbirds much nicer. But again: you are trying to get into DCS, not give them any more reasons than they probably have already to divorce you.
You can add them later when they have gone.
Head tracking is the upgrade nobody tells you about loudly enough
This is the bit I wish was made clearer to people approaching flight sims for the first time. If you aren’t using VR, get head tracking.
Seriously. Being able to physically turn your head and have the view move around the cockpit sounds like a relatively small improvement until you actually use it. Afterwards, going back to a hat switch to look around feels like somebody has put your neck in plaster.
It is especially important in DCS because situational awareness in a dogfight is as important as you probably expect it is.
During a dogfight you need to keep sight of the aircraft you are fighting. When landing, you naturally want to look towards the runway. In a helicopter you are constantly looking through different parts of the cockpit. Even mundane things such as glancing down at an instrument become far more natural.
The trick is that the movement isn’t one-to-one. You don’t physically need to turn around and stare at the wall behind you. Software curves mean perhaps 20 or 30 degrees of real head movement can translate into looking over your shoulder inside the cockpit while your eyes remain on the monitor.
Once your brain adjusts, it becomes remarkably natural.
DelanClip Fusion Pro mini review – the DCS accessory I’d buy before pedals
TrackIR is probably still the name most people associate with this type of tracking, but it isn’t the only option.
The DelanClip Fusion Pro (opens in a new tab) takes the same basic infrared tracking idea and, for DCS, it works brilliantly.
The package combines DelanClip’s wireless Fusion infrared emitter with its DelanCam1 camera. The clip attaches to the side of your headphones and contains three infrared LEDs which the camera tracks, with OpenTrack translating that movement into six degrees of freedom – looking left and right, up and down, tilting, and physically moving your viewpoint around.
The important bit is the wireless part.
Older head-tracking clips often leave yet another cable dangling from your headphones. That doesn’t sound particularly annoying until you already have a joystick, throttle, headphones, keyboard, mouse and approximately 4,000 other wires attempting to breed underneath your desk.
The Fusion weighs around 60g and DelanClip rates the battery at about 16 hours, with USB-C charging and the ability to continue using it while charging. The bundled DelanCam1 runs at 60fps and doesn’t require a special driver.
Setup revolves around OpenTrack, which is free, and there will probably be ten minutes where you find yourself looking slightly insane while staring at a diagram of three dots and repeatedly moving your head from side to side.
The most important part of setting up any head tracker is getting the curves right. You want a dead zone around the centre so tiny head movements don’t make the cockpit wobble constantly, followed by a smooth acceleration towards the edges. DelanClip provides starting profiles for DCS, and from there it is mainly personal preference.
Once sorted, the tracking is smooth enough that you stop thinking about the hardware. That’s probably the biggest compliment you can give it.
There are cheaper routes. DelanClip sells the emitter separately, and enthusiasts have been modifying old PlayStation Eye cameras for infrared tracking for years. You can also experiment with webcam-based face tracking before spending anything.
But the Fusion Pro bundle removes most of the faffing around.
At the time of writing it costs around £90 directly from DelanClip, which puts it into that awkward category of accessory that initially looks expensive until you compare it with virtually anything else aimed at serious flight sim players.
For DCS on a monitor, I’d argue it is far more useful than spending the same money adding another fancy button box to your desk.
The downside is that you need to have the clip attached to something, generally a headset or head strap, and there is still a camera sitting on your monitor. If you hate having anything attached to your head, camera-based face tracking or something such as Tobii may be more appealing.
But purely in terms of accurate, responsive DCS head tracking without paying TrackIR money, the DelanClip Fusion Pro is extremely easy to recommend.
What about VR?
VR is the other answer, and DCS in VR can be astonishing. Sitting inside a full-sized fighter cockpit and naturally looking around it is one of those PC gaming experiences everybody interested in simulation should try at least once. The first time I let our boy put on a Pimax Crystal and fly around in DCS his jaw was literally on the floor, it’s that good. It’s also that expensive.
It also solves the head-tracking problem because your headset handles it automatically.
Besides cost, the other price is performance.
DCS is demanding enough on a normal monitor. Rendering it at the resolutions and frame rates required for modern VR adds another substantial load. Eagle Dynamics’ recommended VR specification currently calls for 32GB RAM and a graphics card with 16GB or more VRAM.
If you’ve already got a capable gaming PC and VR headset, absolutely try it. Would I tell a newcomer to buy a VR headset specifically to begin playing DCS? Probably not.
A good monitor and infrared head tracker provide much of the freedom of looking around a cockpit without the performance hit, expense or inconvenience of spending three hours wearing a small television strapped to your eyeballs.
Which plane should I buy first?
This is where DCS advice tends to get tribal. People will tell you the F-16 is easier. Somebody else will insist you need the Hornet. Someone will appear from a dark corner and explain that anything with a multifunction display is cowardice and you should learn the MiG-21.
My advice is much simpler. Buy the aircraft you think is cool. The Warthog is cool. It all kinda depends on what kind of military jobs you want to get done in your imagination.
You are going to spend hours learning it. You will watch tutorials about it. You will read documentation. You will repeatedly sit on the runway, wondering why the engine isn’t starting.
Your enthusiasm is a better weapon than somebody else’s idea of which plane has the easiest radar.
If you grew up obsessed with the F-14 Tomcat, get a Tomcat. If you’ve always loved the Apache, learn the Apache. If modern combat aircraft are your thing, try the F-16 or F/A-18.
Use the trials before committing where possible.
And don’t buy six aircraft simultaneously during your first DCS sale. You will. Everyone does. But I’m telling you not to anyway. I also bought a couple of maps. I’d just been to Dubai on holiday, I came back, and I bought Dubai so I could buzz the Burj Khalifa.
You don’t have to learn the whole aircraft
This is probably the single biggest mental hurdle with DCS. YouTube makes it look as though you need to attend ground school with Goose before pressing Play. You absolutely don’t.
Learn how to start the aircraft, or use an assisted/autostart option initially. Learn how to take off. Learn how to navigate somewhere nearby. Learn how to land.
Congratulations. You can now fly your aeroplane. Even if you were only off the floor for a few minutes, that’s further than a lot of people get. Rinse and repeat a few times.
Now add one weapon. Learn how the gun works. Then perhaps an infrared missile. Then radar. Then something air-to-ground.
DCS becomes much less intimidating when treated as a collection of little things to learn rather than one enormous exam you have forgotten to revise for.
There is an absurd amount of depth waiting for you when you want it, but nobody is standing behind your chair marking your startup procedure. Although actually, for realism...
The DCS starter setup I’d recommend in 2026
If somebody asked me today what they actually needed, I’d keep it simple.
A capable PC with 32GB RAM and plenty of SSD space. A reasonable joystick. Your normal keyboard and mouse. A headset. And, if you’re playing on a monitor, something like the DelanClip Fusion Pro.
That’s your lot. A minimal expense. Don’t treat this as a new game, treat it as a new hobby. And hobbies cost money.
Add a separate throttle when you know you’re sticking with it. Add pedals if you start flying helicopters or want more precise rudder control. Buy VR if you have the hardware to drive it and fancy disappearing completely down the rabbit hole.
Eventually you may wake up surrounded by replica MFD panels wondering whether £300 is a reasonable amount of money to spend on a force-feedback joystick base. At that point I’m afraid we can no longer help you and you have outgrown us.
But getting into DCS World doesn’t have to start there.
Download it for free. Plug in a stick. Get the Su-25T off the runway – it’s a finicky plane to learn and resembles a tin can, but it’s a great starter point, if only to see how your PC handles things.
Then, inevitably, start looking at fighter aircraft modules at two in the morning. That’s how it gets you.
If you got this far, we apologise for what is about to happen in your life.