towsim

The band path filters were not changed. Only the mask filter and the distance influence experienced a change. The distance does not have an influence if you are close together. What I assume are the different default configurations. Means, the configuration of the server is delivered to all clients at the begin of a mission or when they enter the game. If the server is started by different clients it can happen, that you notice a change in the quality. The configuration is stored locally at the moment when you press the send button. In a multiplayer game you will never have your local configuration. It comes always from the current server. We had a discussion yesterday night about the quality settings. I will work out a small report about the results how the quality will be managed in the future. The report will be posted here.

The mask modification was added to the suppported fighter jets.

The following types are supported directly: A-10C, Ka-50, UH-1H,F-86F, MIG-21Bis, P-51D, FW-190D9 These types can even use the cockpit switches to set frequencies and volume. The additional panel can be switched off in this case. All other types, inclusive all FC3 models, are supported with a standard 3 band radio set. Furthermore, combined arms vehicles can even use the standard 3 band radio set. Aries Radio uses an additional window to display the radio boxes. This implies, that the windows Z-order has to be controlled by Aries Radio. This is impossible in full screen mode. The additional window would be covered by the DCS window all the time. I will not initiate a discussion about the advantages of full screen mode versus windowed mode. I use windowed mode spread over 5 monitors and it works satisfactory. For the discussion about the receiver quality: A radio message in Radio is modified in two ways. The first is on the transmitter side. Here, the typical frequency band degradation, the mask modification and the type specific background noise is added. This includes even a hull modification which simulates a vibration in the pilot's voice because of rotor or propeller frequency. The second is on the receiver side. Here the distance, the horizon and the terrain between transmitter and receiver is measured. Based on the result, white noise, interruptions or complete cut off is generated. Since the receiver gets a already modified voice package over the internet, the modifications made by the transmitter cannot be suppressed.Only the modifications on the receiver side could be switched off. A user does not hear his own voice. Therefore the transmitter modifications do not impact him. He could only make useful changes if another player says "hey, speak into you microphone and not into your toilet drain". :D

For discussion: as attachment you find an audio file which contains a real conversation between a F15 and a F16. The communication is sometimes interrupted, probably caused by distance or terrain. This is what we call reception 'now and then' . The other remarkable situation is frequency block out while two parties speak at the same time. The overall real world quality seems to be worse than that in Aries Radio. But it is exactly what I had on frequency controlling fighter aircraft. What I can do for the community is to offer a wider range in the quality scale. For the moment it has 10 steps, which is obviously too less. The other question is, whether each client should set the quality for his own receiver. As soon as someone flies in a community he could set it to concert quality to have an advantage compared to other participants. If that is wanted... OK. http://ariescon.com/031903-acm.mp3

Your reports are welcome. As I said, we have a meeting this night. We will discuss improvements. All statements will be subject of discussion.

It is always hard to convince a normal TS3 user that concert quality is not that, what the aviators hear on a radio frequency. Even in our wing it took a while until it was accepted. The degree of distortion is another thing. I tried to construct it in a way, I heard it on my receivers over years. This experience , I have to admit, is not the newest. We used as backup the ARC34. The normal tower T/R were state of the art in the 90th. Beside that we used a independent T/R in our direction finding system. Surprisingly, the receiver quality was almost the same with each system. I observed differences with different frequency bands, different type of aircraft and whether a oxygen mask was used or not. We will discuss this topic with our team this night how to enhance the quality control. @shagrat Interesting idea. To implement a radio station should not be that complicated. It was planned in any case to have a ATIS frequency for each aerodrome together with Aries radar.

@paulrkiii on your push I am thinking on a function to calculate a ballistic trajectory for the seat, based on the aircraft parameter at bailout. So I could attach the transmitter to the seat.

We just tested this item and we can confirm, that it is a Aries Bug. It seems, that uninitialized objects are cleaned up on exit. We will work on it. For the frequency issue I have to inspect the source code. I will post the result here in. Thanks for the report

@Kaiza The Cipher will be integrated next for the CA radio and even a encryption key upload. To have Gunfire or something similar in the background is complicated because DCS does not publish position information for CA vehicles or for a commander and even no type information. Aries Radio assumes a CA condition every time if DCS stops publishing position information. This can be observed if someone changes to the spectator view to change the aircraft. In that moment Aries Radio changes to the standard CA frequency setting. The problem with the quality setting will be observed.

Version 1.954 of Aries Airborne Radio Dear Aries Radio users, Version 1.954 of Aries Airborne Radio is ready for download. It took a bit longer than normal for this version because of basic internal changes and a lot of new features which were described in post #443 of this thread . I have to say 'thank you' for the contribution of 10th Gunfighters during the development and test phase and even to some forum members who helped with some tips and hints. The installation package contains a ReadMe.txt file which should be read before you install the new version. It even contains a list of known bugs (nothing serious, as far as we could test it out). The new version is available on the download page of Aries Wings: http://ariescon.com/index10.html

From the technical point of view, the beacon is attached to the aircraft and is initiated if the ejector seat leaves the cockpit. Once the aircraft crashes on ground, the beacon is destroyed and stops. The pilot (at least in western aircraft) have a walkie talkie stored in their live west. If they land on ground , they can use it to communicate with SAR . SAR can measure a bearing to the transmitter to find the pilot on the shortest way. DCS has some limitations. One is the missing coordinates of the pilot. There a no location information published which could be used to calculate a bearing. The other is, that DCS does not know about the locator beacon. Therefore it cannot produce a bearing. Some tests have shown, that it is possible to set a bearing in the HSI. But as soon as a new frame is calculated it is overwritten by DCS with its own bearing. So I am afraid, that the current locator beacon support cannot be enhanced. Mission scripting could be a solution. But I find it too complicated for normal users to include a script in their missions. On the other hand, I am open for all suggestions.

In the coming release, mask modification is available for A10C, F86 and MIG21. Moore Typs weil be supported there after. The locator beacon is subject of investigation. I need to findout, which types are equipped with a locator beacon. All informations are welcome.

The buttons can be assigned directly in DCS. The axes are a bit complicated. They do not produce any joy stick signal. First you need a piece of software, interfacing the Space Mouse. 3dconnexion has a small description how to interface the device programmatically. You can use the HID support in the Windows API. On this way you get the axis and position signals. Now you can feed it into DCS. There are two ways. One way is to use the export.lua to poll your interface software periodically. The second way, which I use, is to generate Keyboard signals out of the axis signals to move the camera in the cockpit. It works perfect. I personally would not use the space mouse to control the aircraft. But this is up to the user if he feels well with that.

Dear Aries Radio user, we are about to release a new version of Aries Radio for DCS. We need only a final test to check three minor bugs. As soon as the new version can be downloaded, it will be posted here. The new features are: Squelch support The squelch switch can be used in situations, where the communication is interrupted because of distance or terrain. Communication break offs are suppressed and the voice is probably still audible in the white noise. A-10C The activation and selection of the radios can now be controlled from the cockpit. The switches on the intercom panel are evaluated and synchronized with the Aries Radio Panel. Some audio effects are added for power on/off. The 'Squelch' switch is supported for all three radio boxes. A detailed description can be found in the user manual, chapter 'A-10C radio communication'. KY-58 Encryption System The switch logic of the KY58 encryption system was reworked. Some functional bugs are repaired. Furthermore, a set of audio signals are implemented to indicate the mode of operation. A detailed description can be found in the user manual, chapter 'A-10C radio communication'. MIG-21Bis MIG-21Bis is now supported. The aircraft has only one radio box available. There is no possibility to set frequencies manually. There are 20 preset channels available, starting at channel 0 up to channel 19. The channel frequencies have to be defined with the mission editor. The 'Squelch' switch is supported KA50 The 'Squelch' switch is supported for R-800 and R-828. The volume for R-828 can be controlled from the cockpit. UH1H The 'Squelch' switch is supported for UHF and VHF FM. The volume for VHF AM, UHF and VHF FM can be controlled from the cockpit Receiver Power The influence of the terrain, the horizon and the distance is now calculated along the natural algorithm. The effect is a wider spread of the 'now and then' reception before the communication breaks down completely. The default voice degradation was changed to: 7 for VHF AM 8 for UHF 6 for VHF FM 27 for background noise strength These values are the result of multiple test sessions accepted by the participants. Locator Beacon The A10C is now equipped with a locator beacon. This additional transmitter is activated as soon as the ejector seat is used for bailout. The locator beacon transmits a wail on 243.0 MHz until the aircraft is dashed on ground. To use this feature, all A10 pilots should set the UHF radio box to 'BOTH' as a standard. This configuration enables listening watch on 243.0 MHz, while the normal work frequency remains active. Therefore, as soon as a pilot ejects from cockpit, everybody who listens to 243.0 MHz will notice the bailout wail. Mask Modification A fighter aircraft pilot normally uses an oxygen mask. This creates a typical voice modification, caused by the small volume of air in the mask. Aries Radio simulates this situation by an additional Band Path filter. The mask modification is set automatically for the following types: A-10C F86 MIG21

It would be important to know, how you disable the plugin. There are two ways: You can remove the checkmark from the' Aries Radio' via the menu Settings/Plugins or you use the menu entry Plugins/Aries Radio/Export.lua entry on/off. I would recommend the second procedure. It removes the entry in Export.lua so, that TeamSpeak has no connection to DCS anymore.

v1.941 fits together with TS3 3.0.16. TeamSpeak changed the API with 3.0.14. The change was incorporated in Aries Radio Version 1.931.

The new version is almost done, including the MIG 21. We have still troubles while ending a mission. DCS hangs at mission end. We are working on it...

Probably my fault. I was thinking from the developers point of view. The switch has 3 positions. 1, 2 and 3, reporting 0.0, 0.09876 and 0.2. BTW the 0.09876 caused the switch error. It was rounded down to 0.0 in C++. P.S. When do you guys sleep? It should be any what around 07:00 in the US and around midnight in Newzeeland.

At the moment I evaluate the information I got. Once the sound for the different situations are in place, I will implement it. For JTAC operations I have to modify the radio panel. Since there is no space in the GUI at the moment, I have to rework the design. But that should not be that difficult.

Thanks...

@Kaiza and Dusty Thank you for this valuable information. I will implement it as soon as possible. It will not come with the next update because the version is already under Test for release. But the version after. Another question would be: Is a non encrypted transmission audible while the KA58 is set to an encryption mode for the given frequency band? @paulrkiii The switch logic was repaired today. It was a LUA issue. One of the DCS function returned a imprecise number. For confirmation, the DCS flight manual says UHF encryption for crad 1, VHF encryption for crad 3 and no encryption for crad 2. Your advice says VHF FM encryption for crad 1 and UHF encryption for crad 3. Is that correct ?

@Kaiza If you have a description or an example, it would be welcome. Especially the KY58 is a mystery. The current functionality in Aries Radio bases on the DCS flight manual only.

@Kaiza You may replace the file [program location]\TeamSpeak 3 Client\plugins\AriesRadio\click.wav with a WAV file of your choice. If the original file was not damaged or exchanged accidently, I can only say, this is the click I have heard over 25 years in my tower.

Since I did not find a possibility to define channel frequencies for the A10 in the ME, I tried to define the channel presets in the configurator. This would override any other definition. Unfortunately, there is a bug in DCS, which prevents the programming of presets. This even confuses the switch logic in normal use. I had not the time to check whether the bug is solved with the latest DCS version. If it is solved, the configurator defined frequencies will be set into the corresponding boxes.

The presets out of the configurator were deactivated globally with the DCS VHF preset bug. It will be available again with the next release. Sorry...