Sgt_Baker

Here's another one from 2015. https://ultramfcd.com/img/A10Clock.JPG

And it's not as if we've only considered square displays. What's the point in implementing a bezel when you can merely drag non-square items to any screen connected to your PC?

I'm sorry to disappoint, but any instrument where the bezel, surrounds or buttons aren't essential probably isn't going to get them. It's not that I don't enjoy hours of messing around in Blender, but you're essentially the only person to have asked for them (that I can recall) in the six-year lifetime of UltraMFCD. There are, of course, obvious exceptions in which case completely in-house 3D modelling is justified, but I hope you understand. :)

Have you watched the video on the front page of https://ultramfcd.com? I mean are you saying you do want the bezels or don't want them, because all instruments behave as if "touchscreen" wherever possible in order to maximise the display of information.

The answer is almost certainly yes, but what exactly do you mean?

Status Update Everything is essentially back to functioning at 100% in DCS 2.5.5. Things are however, how should be say... a little sketchy in DCS 2.5.6 Open Beta. This, of course, is to be expected. The historical approach to UltraMFCD's support for various DCS versions has been to find a "one size fits all" approach to the latest stable release and whichever Open Beta might be in the pipeline. A significant downside to said strategy has been that as DCS versions advance and UltraMFCD attempts to keep up, support for older versions of DCS have, invariably, been lost to the distant past. So, again, big changes behind the scenes/curtains/kilt which, at first glance, mean very little to the average end user. I've made the none-too-flippant decision to introduce explicit DCS-version-sensitivity to UltraMFCD's core workings. What does that mean in real-world terms? The bad: 1) UltraMFCD 3.0 isn't going to be released, even to internal/private testers, this week. The good: 1) Once UltraMFCD declares support for DCS version X.Y.Z, that support should, in theory, remain intact for the practical lifetime of that version of DCS, regardless of future advancements with either DCS or UltraMFCD. 2) It appears that a significant number of advanced/multiple mod users are stuck with older versions of DCS on account of their plurality of mods not supporting more recent versions of DCS. As of now, UltraMFCD should remain functional for those users for much longer than has previously been the case. 3) Ease of update. "One size fits all", as anybody who codes or mods DCS would know, is an extremely challenging position in which to place oneself. The new strategy makes it far easier for UltraMFCD to adapt to changes on DCS's end without breaking known-good functionality - particularly when it comes to the relatively fast-paced development in Open Betas. 4) Sgt_Baker can sleep more soundly. Hope this rambling missive makes sense. --Baker

Anybody remember the B61 in Falcon 4? At the moment of detonation the sim ground to a standstill while it dutifully destroyed or damaged every unit and building in the vicinity? Edit: B-61 -> B61

Not hours and not months. Owing to the rather large number of Earth's rotations around the Sun since last release (two? three? more than none), a large amount of rather tedious testing of everything is required. A stitch in time saves nine, they say.

Ah yes, durr. The only features that fail the integrity check are: 1) Colour LITENING CCD (presently removed for compatibility reasons) 2) DCS kneeboard export. UltraMFCD's kneeboard still works and, while also allowing dragging and resizing, displays all charts available on the standard kneeboard with the exception of the moving map.

What does "IC compliant" mean?

IC compliant? When UltraMFCD 3.0 is released it will support the F-15, just as previous (2.x) versions did. UltraMFCD 3.0 is an update whose principal purpose is to assert compatibility with latest versions of DCS. Most functionality will remain precisely as is was when uMFCD was first released back in 2014. :)

Mutual interests, eh? The next "great leap", as intimated previously, will be network streaming of any given display, along with any network device feeding display interactions directly back to DCS in real-time. While I'm now something of an "old soul" in terms of software development I can't test every possible combination of this or that personally, and it is obviously financially impractical to purchase every Windows/OsX/iOS/Android device on the market. Consequently we rely on you, the users and testers, to feedback what does and does not work. Or what does and does not make sense from the user's perspective. --Baker

And, to be entirely fair to ED, I wouldn't be too pleased with some random bloke messing around at the core of my codebase.

ED aren't interested in anything of that nature as of the latest of multiple attempts. But these exports (and the upcoming network streaming thereof) do not break MP with the exception of your entirely correct observation regarding the F-15's TEWS which, just because I had to, I created to "see how the other half life".

I can see what you did there. :megalol: --Baker

At present uMFCD 3.0 supports the following (copypasta): A-10C MFCDs ,A-10C CDU, A-10C RWR, A-10C CMSC, A-10C Clock, Kneeboard (both uMFCD and DCS), KA-50 ABRIS, KA-50 SHKVAL, Su-25T SHKVAL, Su-27 & Su-33, Mig-29A/G/S, F-15C Radar, F-15C TEWS, A-10A LITENING, F/A-18C L&R MDI and F/A-18C AMPCD. Haven't even downloaded F-16 yet, but assume integration will be on a par with that required for the F/A-18C. As you can probably tell from this screenshot, where certain displays are clearly out of position, it's not a simple matter of fixing the fundamental workings of uMFCD. Every time ED makes changes to DCS's rendering internals we need to go through every single display tweaking stuff and ensuring they work and appear as intended. It's been quite the effort in this instance. Now, as for "beta" status, it all depends how desperate you are. I could release 3.0 tomorrow although it would be functionally identical to previous versions with the addition of F-18 and radio logging support. I'll gladly accept money (with a massive caveat emptor**) from whomsoever wishes to part with it, and indeed now have all the in-house infrastructure in place to do so without relying on janky third-party solutions like Patreon. It's not a massive amount of work to de-beta uMFCD, but wouldn't have occurred in the instance rushed release in the next few days. Finally, I've made an important strategic decision with regards the manner in which uMFCD interacts with DCS's core rendering engine. To cut a long story short, graphics settings (Motion blur and SSLR spring to mind) that ED are still actively developing have a tendency to completely break uMFCD. 90% of the effort to keep uMFCD working involves keeping up with minute changes to the latest rendering technologies and techniques implemented by ED. Historically this has massively complicated uMFCD's coding and rendered it far more fragile than I would like. In order to simplify things and render uMFCD more robust I've taken the decision to require that graphics settings that are essentially in "beta" on ED's end be disabled until their development and behaviour are stable and predictable. --Baker (** Caveat Emptor - may the buyer beware: Any monetary transactions related UltraMFCD shall be performed under the mutual understanding that Eagle Dynamics might, at any time, make changes to DCS that render UltraMFCD inoperable and that it may ultimately prove impossible to restore UltraMFCD to a functional state.)

There's perhaps another day or two of work to bring uMFCD back to the state it was in previously. Obviously this would include the F/A-18C with support for the three main displays, with secondary (RWR, Engines) instruments to follow.

However there's vast difference in a multitude of .lua files. For example I wrote the Lenta hook for current DCS just last week. To my non-surprise it was completely different in Open Beta, which I downloaded today. Not a massive problem on my end, yet for most modders the alteration of this or that mechanic within DCS causes a reversion to null in terms of their efforts. :)

Internal builds of uMFCD 3.0 also work in DCS 2.5.6 Open Beta.

Getting there... (In case you're wondering it is a spicier version of the JSOW training mission. Added three Tor and three Tunguska to the S-300 site such that all friendly missiles are intercepted. The aircraft are there merely to verify that colours are consistent across all three F/A-18C displays.)

CORRECTION: Your mileage may vary, yet at the moment you absolutely must switch off the "Colour LITENING/Shkval" option.

This is just how it rolls with DCS, unfortunately. Take it from me - I really feel the pain, yet there's no choice but for modders to maintain constant vigilance and update their various assets where possible. Far more cumbersome than it could be, from the modder's perspective, but there we are.

As it stands the public versions of UltraMFCD (2.7.0) released, what, three years ago should be assumed to be wildly incompatible with the latest versions of DCS - hence work on uMFCD 3.0, which is most certainly compatible. Have just now got around to hooking up MDI buttons for the F/A-18. Sorry 3.0 isn't arriving any faster than it is. :)

As it so happens this is entirely doable without much tedious (window positioning is boring) work on this end. You're probably aware that each and every display has a "small, medium and large" size/position memory. Perhaps that was incorrect nomenclature on this end. Consider instead those memories to be Position 1, Position 2 and Position 3. It's relatively easy to implement hotkeys to switch ALL displays to Position 1, 2 or 3. Thus you would be granted easy, hotkey, access to any one of three distinct all-displays-position setups. Does that make sense? --Baker

That's been supported since 2016. UltraMFCD doesn't care how many screens you have connected or how they are configured. Providing you have them set up within Windoze such that you can drag content to secondary, tertiary etc screen, UltraMFCD will literally go there.