clickable radio communications

Question: I've already modded my menu.res per the mod section to increase the size of the menu so you can once again see the entire weapon loadouts. Does this mod do that as well, and if not, could it interfere with that mod?

I knew that I have forgotten something...:doh:.

to be honest: I'm at a point in my learning curve where I'm happy to RTB with both wings still intact after a mission... so I'm not focused in rearming my aircraft so often and I overlooked this. :P

Thanks for the reminder! +1

So your wish is my command:

Updated the files in post #45 and added also a instruction to set up a unique spawn point.

ReadMe:

Drag/Drop and Click-able Communication menu 1.1 for DCS 1.1.0.8

 

There a two versions and a backup:

 

 

1. Drag-Drop-Click tweaked layout

 

Drag/Drop and Click-able tweaked layout has a greater font, the Headline is green and the chosen option is highlighted with a Gray underlay.

(The gray underlay is very helpfull in a outside view - when you have a bright background and/or no visible mouse-pointer !)

Loadouts are now fully readable if you use a horizontal res. higher than 1440px.

 

2. Drag-Drop-Click default layout

 

Drag/Drop and Click-able default layout of the Communication menu without visual changes.

 

 

3. Backup

 

Backup of the overwritten files if you want to have the default non-click-able communication menu back.

 

 

Installation instruction:

 

Copy the contend of your preferred layout into your DCS A-10C root folder and allow to integrate/overwrite the folders and files.

 

Example: G:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS A-10C

 

 

Follow this link if you have annotations and/or questions:

http://forum.lockon.ru/showthread.ph...65#post1234565

 

 

 

 

How to create a unique spawn point of the Menu:

 

Edit the "menu.res" with a text-editor (I recommend Notepad++ -its freeware!: notepad-plus-plus.org )

in ...\DCS A-10C\FUI\Resources\Radio

 

You will have to edit line 20 and 32

 

Default line 20:

\coord{802, 25, 1024, 40}

read as

{802=Horizontal starting position, 25=Vertical starting position, 1024=Horizontal end Position, 40=Vertical end position}

-all values are drawn from left to right and top to bottom.

 

And you have to know that DCS will always create a grid of 1024x768 to position the menu on the screen - whatever your used resolution is.

 

An example using THE default values:

Lets assume you use 1600x1200px as your resolution, the Headline of the Comm Menu will spawn at 1253px horizontal (X) and

39px Vertical (Y) - because:

 

X:

1600 / 1024 = 1,5625

and

1,5625 x 802 =1253,125

 

Y:

1200 / 768 = 1,5625

and

1,5625 x 25 =39,0625

 

You will have to repeat this calculation for every value in the line 20 and 32 of the menu.res with your own resolution to get a spawning point that fits to your needs.

 

So you now understand that you have to do this edit yourself and it can't be included in this mod because the spawn point

depends on your unique resolution.

 

 

-PeterP-

2011/06/27

nice!

Great work! Is it possible to define reduced font size?

Great work! Is it possible to define reduced font size?

Yes, natuerlich! I have made it bigger so you can make it smaller:

I have made some annotations for exactly this question from you. (Yes- exactly! -just right before I want to press the "send button" I sometimes hear the voice of Obi-Wan talking to me... and asking if I have free up my mind for the things to come... :P )

Because when the screen is bigger - so will the font... and I had the strange feeling that this will be one of the first questions...

(I have optimised the size of the font for the use with a touchscreen. on a overall res of 3840x1536.

You can make your own annotations by separating them by a ";" .)

Here we go - Open the "command_list_box_item.res" in ...\DCS root folder\FUI\Resources\Radio with a editor :

\istext{1}

\fonttype{font_dejavu_lgc_sans_condensed_15} ; default {font_arial_10}
; fonts in ...\DCS A-10C\FUI\Fonts

\thickborder{1}
\xshift{0}
\yshift{0}
\drawitself{0}
\activating{1}
\pressing{1}
\sendparent{1}
\hasborder{0}
\alignmentleft
\elevated{1}
\isswitch {1}
\upclick{1}
\frameinactive{1}
\is3dtext{0}
\is3dtextdown{0}
\readonly{0}

look out

for this line:

\fonttype{font_dejavu_lgc_sans_condensed_15} ; default {font_arial_10}

; fonts in ...\DCS A-10C\FUI\Fonts

it contains already everything you need to know to do it by yourself.

go to ...\DCS A-10C\FUI\Fonts and copy the font-name you want to use without the file extension into the mentioned line above. That's all.

Reminder:

You can only use fonts that are already in the ...\Fonts folder - so if a font with a "10" at the ending is to small ,and "15" is to big - you have to choose something in between of the given fonts in this folder.

Edit: (before the question rise...)

If you want to have a smaller Head-line or change the color :

open the menu.res

and start to look around at line 23:

\begin
   \tag{2}
   \coord{512, 25, 1024, 40} ; edit here for unique spawn point
   \color{200, 200, 200, 50}
   \drawitself{0}
[b]  \fonttype{font_dejavu_lgc_sans_condensed_15} ; default {font_arial_13} the fonts are in ...\DCS A-10C\FUI\Fonts
   \fontcolor{18, 255, 0, 255} ; default white = {255, 255, 255, 255} -green = {18, 255, 0, 255} blue = {0, 0, 255, 255} yellow = {255, 255, 0, 255} red = {255, 0, 0, 255}[/b]
   \alignmentleft
   \caption{}

I have also included the RGB values for white,green,blue,yellow and red in the annotations.

Great! Dankeschön!

Awesome work Peter! Glad I could contribute in some small way. :) IMO, ED should take note of this and include it in a future patch and give options to position and font size via the options menu to make customizing easy.

Thanks!

Just to keep you up to date:

Planning in modifying the mod to add the option to have bigger Log text:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1244397&postcount=22

I was happy how it is now - as I said before I made this mod first for my own to have quick access to the comm with a touch-screen... and I always used successfully my ears to get all the info and relied that the JTAC would include all critical info in a text massage that I could look up in the MFCD and put it in the CDU.

But I'm interested in your opinion and would like to invite you to test for debugging.

This looks great, but very intimidating to implement. Might I suggest a new post listing exactly how to install, use and tweak the mod, in a step by step, easy to understand matter? I'd definitely use it if you did and I'm sure many others would too.

This would fill pages!

That's why I made this mod- including different layouts and easy to install and revert. All to give a wide range a of people a satisfying layout of the radio-menu without to edit it at your own.

If someone asks for special solutions I will answer as good as possible (like I already often did).

Please have look at my readme and this post and this again.

And than please tell me exactly what you want to change? -than I can answer you. :)

Edit: and if you don't try - you will never know what you are missing.

Wow, great tool!!

Wanted to send some rep, but I was not allowed to add to your rep!! Dunno why...

edit: now it worked. Rep inbound!! :thumbup:

Great find and although I have managed to get the Radio comms to spawn where I want, I cannot get the options, in particular the Rearm ones that are really long, to reveal. I get about 40 characters max even though the "box" for the text extends to the edge of the screen. If I set a border on the multicolumnlistbox it shows as expected to the edges of the coords but not the text within.

I noticed on your example the Header text, \static ?? was also truncated.

Anyway to extend that to include the whole text?

Disregard I found it over Here

Should have looked harder.

But also found that you can do the same to the Header text as that is called "captionMaxLength" in the same file (CommandMenu.lua)

Hi, the tweaked files does not work anymore with patch 1.1.0.9!

Hi, the tweaked files does not work anymore with patch 1.1.0.9!

Thanks for the heads-up!

Still downloading full 1.1.0.9 via torrent. Will provide a update the coming week (if possible...)

In the meantime: Could you be more precise - what is broken - how does the comm-menu look after coping my files ? (screen-shoots/code of the default 1.1.0.9 files..ect.)

When reinstalling your files (which I customized for 1.1.0.8 ) , the complete com menu disappeared.

When reinstalling your files (which I customized for 1.1.0.8 ) , the complete com menu disappeared.

oh-oh - that sounds bad....:music_whistling:

edit: Please post/upload me your customization so I have it while testing and - don't have to ask you after I installed 1.1.0.9 - so I get the full picture while debugging.

Hi Peter,

attached you find my customization. Hope you can fix it. We all love your clickable menu!

Best

Shark

1. Drag-Drop-Click tweaked layout.zip

Drag/Drop and Click-able Communication menu 1.2 for DCS 1.1.0.9

Updated the Mod to v1.2 - now works with 1.1.0.9

Main problem was that the file structure of the CommandMenu.lua in root\Scripts\UI changed.

Great work!

Thanks for all!

Greez

Shark

Thanks to PeterP for your files and tutorial. :thumbup:

Finally the radio menu spawns at my 2nd monitor.

But I need some help with the space between the lines.

The 2nd monitor is a touchscreen and sometimes i miss the right line.

Which parameter do I have to change that there is more space between them?

Thanks for your help!

Hammer out

My menu.res

Attached is my menu.res

maybe someone will find the solution

Thank you

-Hammer out-

menu.zip

Excelent, thanks for the info..!

Need some help guys,

I d/led this great mod and installed the "Drag-Drop-Click tweaked layout." I use two monitors left to right both 1920x1080 for a total of 3840x1080. I did not tweak any files. My radio menu is now in the middle of my screen, I would like to get it more to the right as it use to be, any help would be greatly appreciated. I d/led the mod from DCS A10 user files.

EDIT: I tried to use the instructions for a unique spawn point, but the game will not launch.

Menu.res:

\dialog

\begin

\tag{-1}

\coord{0, 20, 1024, 310}

\color{50, 50, 50, 50}

\musthavecursor{0}

\drawitself{0}

\acceptmouse{1} ; default {0}

\fixedposition{0}

\dontinflate{12} ; default {4}

\onmainview{4}

\layer{1000}

\bordercolor{255, 255, 255, 255}

\hasborder{0}

\end

\static

\begin

\tag{2}

\coord{692, 35, 1024, 50} ; edit here for unique spawn point

\color{200, 200, 200, 50}

\drawitself{0}

\fonttype{font_dejavu_lgc_sans_condensed_15}

\fontcolor{18, 255, 0, 255}

\alignmentleft

\dottail

\hasborder{0}

\caption{}

\end

\multicolumnlistbox

\begin

\tag{3}

\coord{690, 60, 1024, 310} ; edit here for unique spawn point

\defaultitem{Radio/command_list_box_item.res}

\columnswidth{334}

\marker1{Radio/command_list_marker.res}

\bordercolor{255, 255, 255, 255}

\visiblescrollbar{0}

\hasborder{0}

\readonly{0}

\end

FIXED:

Keep it simple stupid is what I need to be thinking about!

\dialog

\begin

\tag{-1}

\coord{0, 20, 1024, 310}

\color{50, 50, 50, 50}

\musthavecursor{0}

\drawitself{0}

\acceptmouse{1} ; default {0}

\fixedposition{0}

\dontinflate{12} ; default {4}

\onmainview{4}

\layer{1000}

\bordercolor{255, 255, 255, 255}

\hasborder{0}

\end

\static

\begin

\tag{2}

\coord{902, 35, 1024, 50} ; edit here for unique spawn point

\color{200, 200, 200, 50}

\drawitself{0}

\fonttype{font_dejavu_lgc_sans_condensed_15}

\fontcolor{18, 255, 0, 255}

\alignmentleft

\dottail

\hasborder{0}

\caption{}

\end

\multicolumnlistbox

\begin

\tag{3}

\coord{900, 60, 1024, 310} ; edit here for unique spawn point

\defaultitem{Radio/command_list_box_item.res}

\columnswidth{334}

\marker1{Radio/command_list_marker.res}

\bordercolor{255, 255, 255, 255}

\visiblescrollbar{0}

\hasborder{0}

\readonly{0}

\end

VAC

Cause some commands don't fall in the same key sequence (context sensitive), or for example depending on how many Jtacs, are and how close they are, its impossible to map all commands to single phrases. But many can be,

So best solution for the rest is to have a 'catch' all, eg O P 1, or Option 1 or Menu 1 all = F1, and map those which have constant key sequence to a phrase. Also, because the first menu layer appears to be constant, e.g. A T C can always be F5, they can be mapped to appropriate phrases.

Also recommend using multiple phrases for same command, eg, Two Close formation, Two Return to formation, Two form On Me, etc, so you don't have use same phrase, and it feels more natural, and your likely to remember one. Vac is well able to handle these without a sweat.

I also like to use my radio switch to activate the menu. Let Vac take over from there

And finally, using the mouse for menu activation, does not bode well for trks. Game does not seem to be able to remember all in correct sequence. With VAC its like hitting the key, and VAC comms sequences play back flawlessly.

my 0.02c.

Gave this a try today and so far it works almost perfect. Only the 1024 grid thing pisses me off. Not that I wouldn't do the calculations right - it turns out the rules stated in the readme only apply to the main viewport defined in the monitor lua.

There are several layers to consider:

1. In windows I run Eyefinity 3+1 (6036x1080 + 1920x1080)

2.) in DCS I have the total resolution set (7956x1080)

3.) the 3D viewport covers the the 6036x1080 area and the touchscreen gets the exported gauges and MFCDs. Key is the FOV of the overall screens in the options.lua and the correct FOV of the 3D viewport in the monitor.lua

I tried to make the radio menu spawn on the second screen, i.e. outside the 3D viewport. If

i set a x-coordinate to 1024 it will spawn on the right edge of the 3D viewport. If I set something higher than 1024 it will not render at all! Funny thing is - once the menu is displayed anywhere, I can drag it with the mouse to the second screen and all is well for that particular session. It's not that much work and can be done during preflight but I'd rather have it spawn in the correct location right away. Does anybody know how to accomplish this?