DrKamikaze

Hello all, A good number of months ago (apparently 9 months according to my Github history), I spent about a month messing around in some Java and Swing to work on a project that has always interested me, and something that is lacking in DCS - a Dynamic Campaign Generator. The tool that I created really encompasses 5 separate tools that, when combined, represent a sort of Dynamic Campaign that can be done by the player: Air Campaign Generator (Map/Initial Situation Generation) Air Campaign Simulator ("Turn Based Simulation" of Package Movement, ATO) Air Campaign Mission Simulator DCS Mission Generator (Translate a campaign encounter to DCS Mission) DCS Mission Results Interpreter (Translate a DCS Mission to campaign results) While I bit off significantly more than I can handle, I made some ok progress on (1), (2), and (4). The reason I come to the forums today is that I would like to pick up where I left off, see if anyone is interested in taking a look at the tool, and to get some community outreach, as I had a couple nagging issues that prevented me from continuing previously (and killed any momentum I had built up at the time). Really, I am looking for people knowledable about the .miz format and how to properly get DCS to read that file format. From my research, it appears that the file format is simply a .zip file that has been renamed. In that file there is a set of files and a folder structure that appears to be rather static (same folders/files in the same places). It seems it should be as straightforward as creating the proper folder structure and files, and zipping that folder as a .miz file. I know there are other projects that also do this successfully. The DCS Mission Archive generation is the worst area of the code at the moment and needs a rewrite, so anyone who can point to what DCS expects of this (.miz) archive, and where I can get logs/debug issues with mission loading, that would be greatly appreciated. Project for Reference: https://github.com/lesniakbj/JDCG Thanks preemptively for any help! -DrK

Ouch, you guys must be reeling after the MAC announcement then... Really though, MAC will be a boon for DCS; it allows for a much wider audience to get into the game.

Nothing spawns with weapons. Click Quick Mission and then open it in the editor to add the weapons you want. Pretty simple.

Got it, so... name 2 presets, say one "Normal DCS" and "VR DCS" (are they associated with the Slots at all, or is that more-so build management?). Before I go to launch, select "Normal DCS" and launch, I'll get my current set of presets and settings. And you're telling me, before I go to launch, hitting VR/ON, and selecting "VR DCS" will produce what would essentially be a clean config (or a copied config for me to work with)? Pretty simple, just never tried that.

Quick question Skate! When I play in VR, I frequently change many of the settings that I use in my Flat Screen setup. Does your utility support switching configurations depending on if VR is running or not (does the VR On/Off do this, I thought it just enables VR overall; I tried to figure it out with Custom Presets, but are not sure they are what I was looking for)? If it does, where can I find it (it might be obvious, and I could be missing it)? Anyway, love the Utility since I found it recently, awesome work.

I'm able to reproduce this 100% of the time, with both the 2D editor enabled and disabled. It appears like it's a concrete texture or such.

That's great. You just mentioned the work around that I have to do, so that's not really helpful. Did you try the attached mission? The moment I have 2 flights of 2 try to start from parking, both refuse to appear. This also appears to be happening on land as well when there are a large number of aircraft spawned a base (common in Caucus DCE campaigns); it can't determine where to park them and they all begin to spawn on top of each other, even though there are still valid parking spots.

This isn't an issue. They added static tankers around the map, as the PG area is known for having many super tankers traversing the area.

Is there any news on the fact that Aircraft refuse to spawn with AI on the flight deck? Or that the Player never spawns when there are AI/Statics on the flight deck? I still can't properly test my mission. The attached mission should still exhibit the issue.

What about the mirage III? .... /s They just laid out their plans, can none of you read?

So based on this it appears that the placement of the players aircraft is what is causing issues? 2 questions then: 1) Does the API provide a way to get a list of occupied spots at an airfield? 2) Can you delay creating the player until after all other flights have been created? I can envision a solution where all flights have an unassigned parking spot except the player, who is initialized based on where the other flights are placed. Just a thought, may not even be possible.

After today's patch: 1) The crash no longer happens! Hooray! 2) I still can't take off from the ramp on the Stennis in that same missions (ie. nothing happens, I can't take control of my flight), meaning that this wasn't completely fixed yet. Can you guys look into the same miz file and see why Takeoff from Ramp causes the planes to never spawn? Is the spawning/parking logic bugged? I ask this because DCE has been having issues with planes spawning on top of each other, and in my case my planes just never spawn in.

I already submitted a bug report related to one of my missions where spawning appeared to be the issue here: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=211888 Might be good to get one related to this though

I've been able to produce this issue, although I don't know the steps I have taken exactly to get it reproduced. It essentially came down to the fact that the save dialog would pop up but nothing would happen when you clicked save. The dialog would show when you exit the mission editor, or attempt to run your mission, but it would always ask you to save while failing to do whatever action you asked. Essentially freezes the editor. I think it has something to do with copying/pasting groups or a number of units but I am unsure. Note: I have had this issue for a number of builds now, so I don't think this is an issue that crept up recently. Just something that has persisted and is hard to track down due to the difficult reproduction.

I don't want to say don't spend much time looking, as it seems it would be beneficial to add to the DCE to prevent this issues in the future; but I do have personal missions that are no longer working (Cold Starts on Stennis w/ 4-8 aircraft, both on Caucus and PG) due to spawning/parking issues (usually my aircraft doesn't spawn in, and DCS crashes when you go to exit the mission). Hopefully it's addressed sim side.