Project Dynamism

Currently investigating application installer and auto-updater for release of version 1.0 Leaving beta status! Horray

Development Update The last weeks I was exporting interesting map objects from DCS World, classifying them, saving them into a database and grouping them into factory complexes, bridge compounds, etc. Currently I am working to link the map objects to the damage reported and persisted already by Project Dynamism. This will allow to track e.g. the status of a factory, whether important buildings were hit or only minor damage inflicted. Following a tutorial about Angular and Leaflet there is now a basic web app in development to visualize the map objects using military standard labels. Also I swapped the current database for a spatially enabled one (PostgeSQL + PostGIS). Now it is easy to test a location for containment, overlap and distance to some other area. One could think of modelling no-fly zones, engagement areas, country airpaces, territoral waters and much more. Have a look at the screenshots. Interesting times ahead!

Got both DCS + DCS Dedicated Server running locally on my machine. Could join as client, cause some destructions, switch and restart the mission and got all destruction properly recreated. So for me Project Dynamism is working as advertised. Will try a bit more trying to recreate the behaviour you reported ikaruga.

Hey ikaruga, This sounds not too promising. Will contact you about the details. Anyone knows how to run DCS + DCS Dedicated Server locally so I can test? Tried some days ago and failed to connect to the server running on the same computer. Is it mandatory to go over the internet or to run on two different machines?

Yes, pure backend update. No need to update/download the frontend. It all happens automatically. You should note the "News" section highlighted and the changelog for version 0.9.1 appearing there.

Hi grant977, For Snowplow the mandatory conditions to be met to proceed the campaign are: 1) be alive 2) be at home airport Nalchik 3) full stop, no speed This should yield a score of 50. Sometimes the triggers are slow, so give the plane some time to rest at standstill for the score to jump from 0 to 50. Only then exit the mission.

Hi all, Update v0.9.1 is out that fixes the floating tall objects reported by Spearzone and hopefully the multiplayer mission end problem reported by ikaruga. No need to do or download anything. Its pure backend update of the LUA scripts that are automatically refreshed.

Hi theGozr, You are welcome. Please download and install following the instructions in the first three posts of this thread: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=265608

Hi Spearzone, I experimented a bit with DCS Witchcraft and can reproduce this problem. Funnily it seems to occur only for tall objects like the comms tower and the TV tower. And even then it seems to occur only sporadically. Did you see it happen again? Anyone else? Also weird it helped moving the object to another location. Luckily I found a workaround by putting the spawn of the destroyed clone into a scheduled function call "timer.scheduleFunction()" with a minimum delay. Will deploy this fix soon. No need to change anything on your side. Will be automatically rolled out.

Hi Spearzone, Interesting find. Will have a look to make sure that the sequence of removing a destroyed object from the mission and spawning a "broken" representation at the location of destruction is working properly. For static objects position of the destroyed object and "broken" representation are in the same position, maybe in some circumstances they stack on each other. Perhaps the original object is still in the process of being removed / not yet fully gone before the new "broken" object is spawned. Maybe I can reproduce and play with the coordinates or the sequence of removal and spawning...

Hi Danguard, I discovered this in your log: 2020-04-06 13:59:38.840 INFO LuaNET: Dynamism.Hooks: Project Dynamism mod is disabled. Callbacks not registered Please enable Dynamism in the "Module manager" under "Installed" (restart of DCS World required). Then you should get the expected behaviour. Please disregard my PM reply asking for the log file from another DCS run. Not needed anymore.

Hi Danguard, Please try without the accompanying LUA file and a mission file name just starting with "Dyn -" e.g. "Dyn - Test.miz" That would be already sufficient in your case. If it still does not work you can PM me your mission and the dcs.log for review.

Hi Shepherd, I tested and the tool can handle network paths. Looking at it again I think the problem is just a wrong "DCS User Data Folder" selected. Instead of \\PROVISION-PC\Users\Provision\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Data It should just be in your case \\PROVISION-PC\Users\Provision\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta

@Shepherd The DCS user data folder icon to turn green on the settings tab is crucial. As this fails you get all the other problems you reported. Looks like the program can not handle network paths like in your case. I would guess it expects paths to start with a drive letter. So instead of \\PROVISION-PC\Users\Provision\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta it would need a path simolar to C:\Users\Provision\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta Not sure how you somehow could achieve that on your system. I will test on my side with network paths and try to adapt the exectuable for it. @Danguard In version 0.9 the tool can now differentiate single player, multiplayer and campaigns. The two test missions "Snowplow" and "Hailstorm" are in campaign format for historical reasons. In reality they are just single missions. You should have no trouble in using Project Dynamism for SP missions. Actually Project Dynamism was developed for SP missions first.

Hi all, Instructions on how to share your Project Dynamism content have been added to Post #3 https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=4235405&postcount=3 Please feel encouraged to share your work with fellow DCS players. I will try to publish them on a regular basis in the download library. Thanks

Hello HiCKS, The error messages indicate two problems: Improper Integration into DCS World (due to 'dynamism' not defined) - Please make sure that your DCS user data folder is correctly set in Dynamism Connector and that the icon of the "Pick" button is green. - Please also consider that there might be different DCS user data folders in case you have both DCS stabe and DCS open beta installed. The one set in Dynamism Connector should match the DCS release you start. - On start of DCS the brown Dynamism mod icon should appear on the starting screen amongst the airplane module icons. - In DCS module manager the Dynamism mod should be installed and be enabled. Outdated Campaign (explicit calls to 'dynamism.OnMissionStart' and 'dynamism.OnMissionEnd') - Please redownload the 'Hailstorm' campaign (and any other) from within Dynamism Connector by clicking on the green 'Download' button. - In DCS World please restart the 'Hailstorm' campaign (and any other downloaded Dynamism campaign) by clicking the 'Restart' button in the DCS campaigns section's Dynamism module. (This seems to be important due to some weird DCS behaviour. Looks like it takes the next campaign file to play not from the CMP file but from the (now outdated) player's logbook. Hope this helps and you can start enjoying. If not then please PM me the dcs.log and I will have a look what the cause is.

Hello HiCKS, This means that somehow the entered password is wrong. So the program tries to register you as new user but complains about username and email being already taken. Make sure to completely remove the old password and try to copy-paste it from the reset mail. Will try later today as well. Maybe I made some mistake updating the database... should automate this procedure :music_whistling: UPDATE can reproduce... must have made a mistake on my side... investigating UPDATE 2 stupid mistake on my side... resending you the reset mail right now

Hello, @ikaruga Thanks for the error details. I will look into it and report back. To play a dynamic mission in multiplayer, I would expect onyl the host to need Project Dynamism. Maybe the error stems from also players having it installed? For sharing missions/campaign I will post an extra instruction soon. Thanks! @HiCKS-BB15 Thanks for reporting. I reset you password and sent you a mail with instructions. Interesting the porting of the settings from one version to another does apparently not work (anymore). I had the same impression, even though it is implemented. Will try to improve.

Hey ikaruga, Glad you enjoy the new version. To help analyse the multiplayer problem, could you PM me your DCS.log from right after the the close of the server without saving manually and getting that error message you described? Will try to test and find out what is going wrong there. Thanks

Hi, in case you experience this (harmless) warning after playing a non-Dynamism mission and you are annoyed by it (will disappear after next DCS World update by itself) DCS: Mission script error: : [string "if dynamism ~= nil then dynamism.OnMissionEnd() end"]:1: attempt to call field 'OnMissionEnd' (a nil value) stack traceback: [C]: in function 'OnMissionEnd' [string "if dynamism ~= nil then dynamism.OnMissionEnd() end"]:1: in main chunk To get rid of it you can either disable Dynamism in the "Module manager" under "Installed" (restart of DCS World required) if you do not want to use it or preferably remove the following lines from "C:\Programs\DCS World 2\Scripts\MissionScripting.lua" (depending on your installation folder, no restart of DCS World required) that are there from version 0.8 dynamism = {} dynamism.baseurl = 'http://localhost:9000/' dynamism.basepath = lfs.writedir()..'Mods\\tech\\Dynamism' dofile(dynamism.basepath..'\\Scripts\\DynamismExport.lua') Sorry for this, Slipped through my tests :music_whistling:

Dear all, Thank you for your interest in testing Project Dynamism. I'm happy to announce the release of updated version 0.9 with the following improvements: [FIX] Crash on mission download with no DCS folder set. [FIX] Battle damages written with respect to persistence type. [FEATURE] DCS World integration via Hooks script. [FEATURE] Mission integration without triggers, instead naming convention. [FEATURE] Download into single, campaign and multiplayer folders. [FEATURE] Build-in multiplayer support. [FEATURE] Communication channel set via settings tab. [FEATURE] Check for mod being disabled in DCS World. [FEATURE] GUI improvements. [FEATURE] User credentials can be changed. [FEATURE] Intermediate save of battle damages via F10 radio menu. [FEATURE] Reset of battle damages for whole campaign via F10 radio menu. [FEATURE] Battle damages associated to player's pilot. Therefore I would like to invite you to download the new version and check out the added features. download: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3308298/ instructions: https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=4235403&postcount=2 Please download and overwrite the existing application with the new version. Your settings should be ported over. Please re-download the campaigns and - to be on the safe side - reset them in DCS World by clicking the "restart" button. The main changes are: Hooks integration -> No more need for admin rights. No more monitoring of integration and renewal on every DCS World update. -> Automatic integration of script actions at mission start and end. No more triggers in mission needed. Works now also automatically for multiplayer. Activation via naming convention -> Mission files must now have prefix 'Dyn -' to work with Project Dynamism. Basic parameters are taken from file name convention or sensible fallbacks are used. -> For most cases no LUA scripting / triggers are needed anymore for making use of Project Dynamism in a mission. -> Advanced options like reserves are available by placing an accompanying *.lua file next to the *.miz file. F10 radio menu actions -> 'Save' command is intended for intermediate saving of the battle damages. Its use is not needed as this is done automatically at mission end. But if you are worried about your internet connection or that DCS crashes... Note for porting missions made for version 0.8 Add prefix 'Dyn -' to mission file name. Remove triggers and actions dynamism.OnMissionStart() and dynamism.OnMissionEnd() from within Mission Editor. If needed add mission_number and persistence_type to mission file name according to convention. If reserves were used with dynamism.SetReserves() define them in an accompanying *lua file which has the exact same name as the *.miz file. Also the base features will be kept free of charge. Let's see how far we get with donations and possibly paid for advanced features that still need to come (moving towards Dynamic Campaign). Please feel encouraged to share your missions and campaigns. Let's fill the mission library with some life! I'm sadly delayed of publishing my Su-33 campaign. Since DCS 2.5.6 the wingmen fall into the ocean on carrier start... need to adjust payloads and fuel... and test everything... again... Happy weekend, Happy flying Project Dynamism

Alright ladies and gentlemen, In time for the weekend there is a new version 0.9 of Project Dynamism ready and released. Please refer to the posts #1 and #2 at the beginning of the thread for updated installation and usage instructions. Basically you should download and overwrite the existing application with the new version. Your settings should be ported over. Please re-download the campaigns and - to be on the safe side - reset them in DCS World by clicking the "restart" button. For me only then DCS World actually went back to the CMP file to pick up the correct MIZ file in the campaign. Will post a more detailed changelog / instructions in a while. Have fun!

Hi Spearzone, You are perfectly right. Thanks for pointing this out. Good to have testers :thumbup: It stems from me wrapping sequences of missions directly into a campaign and then relying on the "restart" feature of DCS to reset all destructions for all missions in that campaign. Or having "single mission campaigns" as the demo ones included. So I didnt come across this yet. Currently I am preparing for release v0.9 of Project Dynamism. Will put it as a high prio task to also include a F10 radio entry for resetting the whole mission sequence, not just mission by mission. Later I would think of a means to reset the mission sequence / campaign from the Connector GUI. So no need to fire up the mission within DCS just for reset and then restart. Probably I will opt for release of v0.9 with this feature rather than hot-fixing the v0.8 now. Hope you can wait a little bit.

Hi Spearzone, Regarding 1) Project Dynamism takes destroyed player or client units into account for the reserves depletion calculation but makes sure that those special units are NOT destroyed on next mission play. For example if you make a campaign starting with 4 slots of client aircraft and another 4 in reserve. You lose one in the mission. This will deplete one of the reserves. Losses later accumulate to 6 aircraft (which exceeds the reserves). Still, the four client slots will be available, regardless in reality there should now only be two. No reserves - which could be AI units - will be there anymore though. Regarding 2) You do NOT need to define all units already with the first mission. Neither the reserves. You can always add in new ones later or make them reappear after a while. Project Dynamism keeps track of the destroyed and damaged beyond repair objects. At mission start it will try to remove the objects if actually present (based on name, no matter whether unit or static object). It adds wrecks to the correct places for all destroyed objects regardless of a respective unit/static being in that mission. Reserves only count for the mission where they are defined. For example you want to have an AWACS available in Mission 3 but not in 1 and 2. You put the AWACS unit then simply into mission 3 where it gets shot down. Mission 4 does not have AWACS support planned, but mission 5 does. So you put an AWACS unit with the exact same name like in mission 3 into mission 5. It wont't be available as it was shot down earlier. If it would have survived mission 3 the player would see the AWACS fly in mission 5.

Hi ikaruga, Yes that will be possible (in the future :) ). Complication are waypoints and the assigned actions. The script must be smart enough to determine the general travel direction to avoid the unit travelling back to WP 1 that it had potentially passed already. Currently Project Dynamism is not changing the mission file but makes destroyed units/objects disappear and spawns a destructed clone at the place of destruction/impact/crash. For your suggestion I would rather opt for moving the waypoint coordinates and deleting already passed waypoints. To my knowledge this will require mission file edits before game start.