interesting
2 Likes
But Wait!!!..Thereās More!!!
5 Likes
Ooof. Depending on how soon, coming soon is, looks like I will need a graphics card updateā¦ soon!
2 Likes
One lives in hope that these graphical improvements will be accompanied by improvements in the efficiency of the engine so we can at least get the same performance (if not better) with most of the new features turned off.
I mean, I expect to be disappointed in that, but we can live in hope right?
9 Likes
3 Likes
I wonder what else is under the hood? Optimizations would be outstanding!
4 Likes
Just a SWAG but, assuming the clouds are mostly the same as now (and I really like them), then moving them shouldnāt be a big deal performance-wise. Randomly setting the wx with some control over how it progresses throughout the mission would be nice; start out CAVU and land with lumpy, bumpy, icky stuff. Or the other way around.
3 Likes
I think theyāve already stated the new graphics engine will be 3.0, I donāt remember where, thoughā¦
2 Likes
Good to see some progress on the core again.
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Looking forward to the proposed changes, but wish theyād add something to give it life. ATC, etc.
5 Likes
Soon, very soon (just not from ED)
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Is there something in your oven mayhaps?
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afaik, never concrete,
the most that was said, is itād likely be a major version and not a subversion
3 Likes
Yes. The last 10% is kickin my arse.
The ATC part will be simplified. Iām covering things outside the Tower and Marshal - cus ED says theyāre going to improve this (I think) - thereās a whole world outside those two entities.
Itās giving me the combat flight simulation environment Iāve always wanted, or close to it. Now, whether or not anyone else likes it remains to be seen. Likely will only appeal to 10%. But Iām okay with that.
And my wife keeps wanting to travel, taking me away from the project for weeks at a timeā¦
The āofficialā part of my [volunteer] fire fighter training is starting (long story - there was a need for bodies, even old ones, so I felt compelled to help) so thatās eating into the clock; came home to the wife at 0330 last week after a house fire, smelling like a campfire gone haywireā¦
The back porch screening project is waiting for me as I type this.
So many excuses 
Feel free to skip all this below as Iām just thinking out loudā¦
Trying to create a system that supplies varied CAS missions (the DCS JTAC is supported too) is complicated.
*The challenge is keeping it from bogging down DCS yet provide enough āstuffā to make you feel like youāre in a world where things are going on around you. All by simply downloading a campaign and hitting āflyā. Everything is self-contained. *
DCS provides a lot of depth in most areas, but is lacking in others, at least in Single Player. If I was to graph it:
Flight Modeling ---------------------------------------
Aircraft systems -----------------------------------
Visuals/graphics ----------------------------
āAtmosphereā ----
Itās that bottom bar Iām trying to raise (or lengthen), for me.
The āvoice actingā is generic because what happens is never, exactly, the same - there is a 400 word (and counting) āvocabularyā that is used to build āsentencesā. This allows it to be dynamic and not static.
Iām a bit ānervousā about the communications interface (how you talk to the various AI entities) as Iāve had to do what I feel is a āhackā to get it to work, using the existing DCS menu system or Voice Attack.
Getting your briefing in the cockpit isnāt ideal but hopefully EDās new Ready Room/Briefing Room thing helps here. The dynamic weather will be nice assuming a few things.
*Your AI wingman is more useful now. Throughout the last 12-18 months of this project Iāve noticed some improvement from ED here - more like they donāt do crazy things as much; for pre-planned strikes they will actually hit the target. And there is a way to get them to attack groups (vehicles; tanks, APCās, etc) you, the player, have visually acquired, if you have your options set correctly. *
So far on my 6-year old PC the lua code (after loading, which takes some time) percentage and simulation percentages have all remained low - below ~4% on average.
The ATC part isnāt going to be complex for various reasons but the communications mechanism to expand on it is in place. Just need content, which takes time. It will, as of today provide:
- Initial altitude (normally a block as is/was SOP) on departure while enroute to the AOR
- ATIS and either a Visual or instrument approach choice on RTB. Very generic here for now; for Super Carrier it just gives you the weather, expected BRC and hands you off to the DCS Marshal/CATCC.
As for missions it will dish out either pre-planned coordinated strike missions with other AI flights; give you āon callā CAS (to include a āKill Boxā - like armed recon mission). What you are likely to get depends on what phase of the war (campaign) you jump into.
** Pre-combat - you arrive, do some familiarization flights, etc. Then we go to warā¦*
** Air superiority*
** Interdiction*
** CAS
The campaign will progress along these phases with targeting based on such.*
The aircraft you are flying will dictate things: the AV8 is the first version so no Air Superiority phase for you (sorry). The multi-role versions (Hornet, Viper, Tomcat) will provide access to all the above.
I wish I could have put them all into one mission but you have to make it multi-player to do so and this, for reasons only known to ED, breaks the AI wingmanā¦took me some time to narrow that one down. So each type of aircraft will have to be a separate campaign. *
Then finding willing victims to test.
Keeps me out of trouble.
6 Likes
Happy to help if i can
2 Likes
Thanks, Iāll keep it in mind. Taking the wife out for a 10-day road trip so be a bit until I can get back to it.
1 Like
Hey, before I go, have you any knowledge of writing 'hookās, normally (required?) in this folder?:
C:\Users\USERNAME\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Scripts\Hooks
If not no Biggy, Iāll dig through the single example I have while on the road.
Issues is: I donāt want to touch the MissionScriptin.lua settings (āosā, āioā, ālfsā)
But there appears to be a way to read/write a simple text file. I donāt plan to save the entire state of the sim on exit just some high-level stuff; basically table keys off the top of my head.
Looks like an answer may lie around the following but havenāt had time to play with it.
I assume that in single player that instance of the game is the server?
If I understand it correctly, ālfsā is available āoutsideā the sim in this manner - it just requires the following file to be placed as shown.
Example:
hookit.lua in āScripts\Hooksāā¦
local function loadStuff()
supporting functions
Can I declare & define a global variable here, accessible during runtime?
local handler = {}
function handler.onSimulationStart()
do something useful, like load a string from a text file, parse the string, etc
end
function handler.onSimulationStop()
save a string to a text file
end
DCS.setUserCallbacks(handler)
end
local status, err = pcall(loadStuff)
if not status then
net.log("Something bad happend: " .. tostring(err))
end
1 Like
