Joe Kurr

This one does run Lockon, I've already used it to host a 6 player mission during last year's Flightsim Weekend, when it ran a single mission for 48 hours on end without any problems. My only concern is if it will still run without lag when 20 people are connected.

Most missions will primarily be human versus human (10v10), with the occasional AAA and SAM site, some cars and tanks driving around, and maybe a ship or two. Given the number of clients, there won't be any need for AI aircraft.

Does anybody know whether Lockon runs stable enough to host 20 player missions over a 100Mbit LAN? I have a small machine which I will use as dedicated server, with the following specs: AMD Athlon XP 1700+ 768MB Ram Onboard VGA It can run Lockon (limited to 5 FPS), I've already used it for some missions for our team, with up to 6 players online, running non-stop for 48 hours. I need to know this so I can plan the missions for the Lowland Tiger Meet 2008. If this machine doesn't support this many players, I need to put up another server, so I have 10 players on each.

GOZR, You need to add this after the last line in graphics.cfg to limit your FPS: MaxFPS = 5; So the end of your graphics.cfg file should look something like this: ObjectFogMultiplier = 0.6; CivilianRoutes = ".\\Bazar\\Routes\\"; AviFolder = "Movies/"; PilotNames = 0; [b]MaxFPS = 5;[/b] Groove, if you're running a dedicated server, just leave it in Theatre view (F10) during the entire mission. This reduces the rendering load significantly, and may get rid of your lag.

For Lockon it shouldn't make any difference if you're running XP Pro or 2003. I have a dedicated Lockon server here which barely can run the sim, but no lag at all. The only thing I changed in Lockon is the max FPS, I've set it to 5. About lowering the process priority for Lockon: This takes away CPU time from Lockon for other processes. So this may create even more lag, as Lockon has less CPU cycles available.

Do you have any lua scripts which are writing data to disk? During last year's LLTM we discovered that having TacView running on the server is a guarantee to get huge amounts of lag, because it records the entire flight to disk. At the start of a mission this isn't noticeable, but the lag gets progressively worse over time. Also check the size of other log files (e.g. error.log) If there is something wrong inside your export.lua, the error log may get quite large, slowing everything down.

Here's another one: http://www.lan4friends.de/cockpit/cockpit.html When he's flying, you can watch the action via his web cam :) And even better: he says he will bring it to the Lowland Tiger Meet 2008! So maybe I get a chance to take a ride in it :) If money isn't an issue, you can also try Desdemona at TNO in the Netherlands. (The commentary in the video is in Dutch, I'll try to translate it later this evening)

I started off with 2.0, which was the sim which got me addicted :) After that, I had 2.5, Lockon Alpha, Lockon, Flaming Cliffs (both Russian and English versions), and now patiently waiting for Black Shark. I have played several other sims in the meantime, but none could keep me entertained as much as the Flanker series does.

Besides flightsimming, which is just about the only type of game I play, I like to take pictures of aircraft, and programming. To keep fit, I often go for a spin in the woods with my mountain bike.

Thanks for the responses, I'll give sioc a go, and see where I'll end up :) I'm using VB.NET 2005 to build my application.

So if I understand correctly, you're creating a TCP client in lockon, which reacts to commands pushed to it from a server (e.g. my PDA)?

LAN, NATO, Tigers... The Lowland Tiger Meet is a LAN (Local Area Network) party. A LAN was originally invented to be used for boring things like file-sharing. But you can also use a LAN for more exciting things like multiplayer gaming. When we talk about multiplayer gaming, the biggest advantage with a LAN setup compared to the internet, is the huge available bandwidth. It offers a much higher connection-speed which results in less lag (if any at all). There are a lot of LAN-party organizations, but the Lowland Tiger Meet isn't just another LAN-party. The LLTM is the major European LAN-party (event) for various (military) flight simulations. In this respect the LLTM is an unique event that has no comparison with any other LAN-party or organization. The Lowland Tiger Meet event is inspired on the real life NATO Tigermeet. Fighter squadrons bearing the Tiger symbol in their patch come together to fight, learn and socialize. This is what the LLTM is all about. Brotherhood, flying and learning while doing it Reallife conversations & virtual confrontations Most virtual pilots fly their missions on a dark attic and never face their enemy or wingman in real-life. Well this is your chance. Your chance to meet your opponent, your wingman, your squadron leader. Meet him face to face, shake his hand. The social aspect of the event is one of the major goals. We want to make our hobby more socialized. Meet the face that goes with the voice. Forums, boards and all the MSN’s and ICQ’s out there, are good to keep in touch. But why not make your virtual friendship a real one? If this is your first ever LAN, do it. Go for it. You wont regret it. Your virtual world will not be the same anymore. It will have faces, memories, smells and friendships. Flight simulation isn't gaming. It's a simulation of real life actions and skills. And it doesn’t come easy. It’s not just fire-ring up the computer and taking it for a ride. There’s a manual that can weigh as much as 2 kilo’s with 500+ pages of need to know content. Tactics, maneuvers, procedures, weapons, mission envelopes, formations and more. And once you have mastered the flying, stuff start shooting at you. And then the fun really starts. A lot of Rookies (kittens) are struggling with the steep learning curve and tough manuals. We want to encourage them to join the meet. Because there's always a Tiger around to help you out. And what better place to see the aces in action or a real life pilot giving a full blown briefing. A LAN-connection with other (v) pilots gives us the opportunity to fly over a more stable network compared to internet flights. Massive multiplayer missions come within reach. And so we can strive for another goal, promoting our military flight simulators. Introduce a larger audience to the virtual Viper, Flanker, Messerschmitt or Hurricane. And last but not least the enthusiasm of our community. SHARE THE FUN ..... BE PART OF THE FUN! Have a look at http://www.lowlandtigermeet.com for more information and the possibility to sign up. At this moment we already have 100 participants, so be quick to sign up, as the space is limited.

I built a simple touch-buddy like application on my PDA, to test the possibilities of the script I posted earlier. I haven't put any energy in making a nice interface, it's just a series of tabs with a bunch of buttons on them, but it works very well :) There is a slight delay when I push a button on my PDA, which is partly due to the lua script posted above only listening once every 0.1 seconds. The whole application can be set up using a simple xml file, making it very easy to add tabs and buttons. Here are some 'screenshots' of the first test: The next step will be to try exporting flight data to the PDA, and rendering it there.

I first got this idea when we started work on our cockpit project, but at that time, I only knew how to export stuff from lockon via the export.lua script. After studying the lua language a little, and searching the net, I found out that it is also possible to use export.lua as an import script :) To try this out, I created a small program to run on my PDA, which functions like TouchBuddy in a way, but much simpler (at the moment, it has only six non-programmable buttons). It communicates with the PC via a TCP socket, using port 10309. On the PC, I was first planning to create a small server, which would translate the commands it received from the PDA into keystrokes for Lockon. But since Lockon has the LoSetCommand() function in the export.lua script, I wondered if it would be possible to create the server using a lua script. After some tests, I had a perfectly working server script, which handled all my commands, but it was running outside of Lockon, and since it used an endless loop, this might be a problem. Time to learn coroutines :) After a couple of hours of programming and testing, I finally managed to create a script, which runs inside Lockon, and listens on TCP port 10309 for incoming commands. It then translates the received commands into the numeric command codes listed at the end of the export.lua script, and calls the LoSetCommand() function. By using this script, I can now control my aircraft from any type of application, even via a script from a web browser :D As I'm still in the early stages of learning lua, maybe some of you can comment on my script to make it better. Here's the lua script: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- TCP Listener script for controlling Lockon from an external program -- -- Author: Bas 'Joe Kurr' Weijers -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- dofile "lua.lua" -- Listener settings -- By default, the listener binds to port 10309 on all local network interfaces local host = "*" local port = 10309 -- Command list -- Send these commands from your application to execute the corresponding functions in Lockon -- The numbers here correspond to the commands at the end of the original export.lua script local commands = { view_cockpit = 7, view_external = 8, view_flyby = 9, view_ground_units = 10, view_civilians = 11, view_chase = 12, view_navy = 13, view_air_combat = 14, view_theater = 15, view_airfield = 16, chat_allies = 50, chat_common = 57, acs_altitude_toggle = 59, acs_autopilot_toggle = 62, acs_thrust_toggle = 63, mech_gear_toggle = 68, mech_hook_toggle = 69, mech_wings_toggle = 70, mech_canopy_toggle = 71, mech_flaps_toggle = 72, mech_flaps_down = 145, mech_flaps_up = 146, mech_airbrake_toggle = 73, mech_airbrake_open = 147, mech_airbrake_close = 148, mech_wheelbrakes_on = 74, mech_wheelbrakes_off = 75, mech_chute = 76, refuel_on = 79, refuel_off = 80, refuel_probe_toggle = 155, mode_nav = 105, mode_bvr = 106, mode_vs = 107, mode_bore = 108, mode_helmet = 109, mode_fio = 110, mode_ground = 111, mode_grid = 112, kobra = 121, engines_both_start = 309, engines_both_stop = 310, engines_left_start = 311, engines_left_stop = 312, engines_right_start = 313, engines_right_stop = 314, master_power_toggle = 315, lights_toggle = 175, jettison_weapons = 82, jettison_fueltanks = 178, radar_toggle = 86, eos_toggle = 87 } Coroutines = Coroutines or {} CoroutineIndex = CoroutineIndex or 0 local serverRunning = 0 local origStart = LuaExportStart local origStop = LuaExportStop function run_server() local socket = require("socket") local sck = socket.try(socket.bind(host, port)) if (sck ~= nil) then addr, prt = socket.try(sck:getsockname()) logtofile("Listener started") while (serverRunning == 1) do socket.try(sck:settimeout(0.01)) conn, err = sck:accept() if conn ~= nil then msg, err = conn:receive() conn:close() if (msg == "END") then stop_server = 1 else logtofile("Received: " .. msg .. " --> " .. commands[msg]) LoSetCommand(commands[msg]) end -- if end -- if coroutine.yield() end -- while sck:close() logtofile("Listener stopped") end -- if end -- function function start_server() logtofile("Starting listener") serverRunning = 1 CoroutineIndex = CoroutineIndex + 1 Coroutines[CoroutineIndex] = coroutine.create(run_server) LoCreateCoroutineActivity(CoroutineIndex, 0.0, 0.1) end function stop_server() logtofile("Stopping listener") serverRunning = 0 end function CoroutineResume(index, tCurrent) coroutine.resume(Coroutines[index], tCurrent) return coroutine.status(Coroutines[index]) ~= "dead" end function LuaExportStart() origStart() local file = io.open("./Temp/commander.log", "w") if file then io.output(file) end start_server() end function LuaExportStop() logtofile("End") stop_server() origStop() end function logtofile(message) io.write(message .. "\n") end --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- End of lockon-commander.lua -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The sending application makes a connection each time a button is pressed, sends the corresponding command, and closes the connection again. If this doesn't happen, the lua script will wait until the connection is closed before continuing, thus effectively pause the mission in Lockon. Question to the devs: I found that there is a function to toggle the gear up and down (command 68 ), but are there also separate commands for lowering and raising the gear? I found that there are separate commands for the airbrake and flaps.

Nice screen. Too bad it has such a low resolution.

You might take a look here. It's a joystick interface using the AVR AtMega8 microcontroller. With this you can have up to eight analog axis, and up to 28 buttons. If you're into electronics, it'll take about two hours to assemble and program, and the parts cost about 25 euros in total (here in the Netherlands, that is)

Hmm, sounds interesting. Have you also thought about buttons and rotaries/sliders, etc? I would like to know what kind of interface you're using. Although it's a bit quiet of late, our project is still going as well :)

They don't have to be grounded to be zapped, just imagine what happens when two of those wires hit the chopper simultaneously. Although all three wires carry 50 kilovolts, there is a 120 degrees phase shift between each, so you get quite a jolt when you connect two of them, either via a helicopter, a river, or directly :) At the MLM (Dutch Airforce Museum) there is a Bo-105 which hit a power line. On the outside, the only noticable thing is a big gap in the antenna on top. But on the inside, all electronics are fried. That doesn't mean the Apache suffered the same, but there is a big chance it has, considering the damage to those power lines.

Thinking in the line of our current government, it will probably be prohibited by law to fly your helicopter against any stationary ground objects :doh: I don't think the AH-64 is OK though, It's been zapped by the power lines, and the pilot had to perform an outside landing. If the helicopter would be OK, he would have returned to Gilze-Rijen immediately to have it checked. Considering the time it usually takes to put up a power line across a river, the people affected are lucky that they were reconnected after just two days. This kind of maintenance usually takes months, and usually won't even be attempted with the current high waters in the river.

It's an Alenia C-27J Spartan, based on the Aeritalia G-222 transport aircraft, and yes, it can do a barrel roll :D Here's a video of it performing at the Czech International Air Fest, Brno in 2006. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4LfrmjM9hw And here you can see what happens when you land it on its nose wheel first... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW04A9nDygM&feature=related

I hope you're right with this diagnose. If possible, try exchanging your RAM with another PC and see if it still gives errors in MemTest. If the communication between the CPU and the memory is faulty, buying new RAM won't solve your problem.

Not neccessarily. I thought that too, when my PC started giving BSODs. I ran MemTest86+, which detected memory errors, but only with CPU cache switched on. Since my CPU cooler had had some problems the weeks before, I thought it to be the CPU which died on me. Exchanged that, but the problem still existed. Bought new memory, still the same problem. In the end it turned out to be a bad motherboard... So if you start looking at bad hardware, be sure to do a better diagnostic than I did, it will save you money ;) BSODs can be caused by any number of errors, from hardware failures to damaged drivers, even some combinations of software can cause this. You can find out where to look if you write down the numbers as Groove pointed out. Post them here, so we can help you in your search for the problem.

Jabs, I've searched a bit and found these pages, which might be helpful: http://www.avast.com/eng/win32-virut.html http://www.grisoft.com/doc/virbase/us/crp/0?nam=Win32%2FVirut Please download the latest virus definitions and run a complete scan, and see if you have any other files which are infected by this virus. If you have this virus on your computer, it may be infecting the files while you are installing them. Please let us know the result of the scan, so we can help you further.

Dutch Flanker Display Team Country: the Netherlands Status: active Not a formation team yet, but slowly getting there... :) (very slowly.......)

Which virus is found in the exe then?