Browser-Based Multiplayer Mission Planner for DCS: World

[FSFIan]

Released v0.0.1-beta5 (Release Notes)

 

The mission planner should now work with any mission file you throw at it.

[FSFIan]

Released v0.0.1-beta7.

[Midnight]

Works like a charm, thanks for this Ian. Had a look on your website as well and was wondering if there is any way of tracking online flights of my DCS server trough the web browser...that will be awesome.

[FSFIan]

was wondering if there is any way of tracking online flights of my DCS server trough the web browser...that will be awesome.

 

What exactly do you mean by that? Something like what phpVMS does for FSX?

 

DCS would need to send position updates to the server, which can be done with a Lua script inside the mission and a minor server-side mod.

[Midnight]

On the nail mate, exactly what I had in mind. Even if it does not show position, only users plus the time spent on server would be enough. Maybe with mission name as well.

[FSFIan]

On the nail mate, exactly what I had in mind. Even if it does not show position, only users plus the time spent on server would be enough. Maybe with mission name as well.

 

While this could technically be added to the mission planner, it does not directly improve the playing experience itself, so I will probably not implement it in the foreseeable future (unless it is a "by-product" of another feature, like some of the ground command improvements that are floating around my head right now).

 

Pull requests are welcome, though (if anyone wants to implement this, it would probably a good idea to meet up on TS first and think about the best way to exchange data between a running DCS mission and a mission planner instance).

[gregzagk]

I might doing something wrong but with the new version I can't save the new mission file after editing it in the planner .

This happens only if I close the admin page once and then try to open it again from the admin tool.

 

It's entering in the admin tool ,I then select Connect to Existing Instance, and then the save function won't work again.

And if I upload again the same file the save function disables itself.

:helpsmilie:

[FSFIan]

I might doing something wrong but with the new version I can't save the new mission file after editing it in the planner .

This happens only if I close the admin page once and then try to open it again from the admin tool.

 

It's entering in the admin tool ,I then select Connect to Existing Instance, and then the save function won't work again.

And if I upload again the same file the save function disables itself.

:helpsmilie:

 

Thanks, this should now be fixed in the new v0.0.1-beta8 release, which also adds annotation labels and polygon annotations.

 

Please mention what browser you are using in future bug reports (didn't matter now, as this was a logic error affecting all browsers, but it might for other bugs).

Other than that, you did a good job of mentioning everything I needed to reproduce this!

[JayPee]

Will it be possible to implement more pre-set settings besides the WPs/routes in the future? For instance delivery planning by pre-configuring weapon profiles.

[FSFIan]

Will it be possible to implement more pre-set settings besides the WPs/routes in the future? For instance delivery planning by pre-configuring weapon profiles.

 

In general, the mission planner can be taught to do anything that is possible in the DCS Mission Editor (and whatever a mission designer can achieve by manually editing files in the .miz archive). When creating an instance, it has access to the mission file, so it can read any data it contains. When saving the mission, it has the opportunity to alter and add information.

 

Pre-set settings are problematic. I don't know about pre-configuring weapon profiles, so I'll use the Ka-50 ABRIS as an example, which I have already investigated.

 

Pre-set settings are loaded from a specific file in the mission archive (e.g. ABRIS/Database/ADDITIONAL.lua), which means they are the same for every aircraft of this type, regardless of coalition -- so they are absolutely useless in case they include "confidential" information and both sides have aircraft of this type :(

 

Apparently, ED never thought of multiplayer when implementing those.

I don't know if this can be fixed by a client-side mod (and I'd like to avoid requiring any client-side modding for the mission planner). It should be a relatively easy fix for ED, but someone would have to convince them to do it...

[FSFIan]

I have just updated the server. Because I switched to a new database format, all existing instances have been deleted in the process. I replaced the backend because the current one did not always persist data between server restarts (I probably used it wrong).

 

I don't think I need to do this again in the future -- the new backend is sqlite3, which I am already familiar with.

[Supersheep]

someone would have to convince them to do it...

You could PM a tester about that. Either they know who we need to pay at ED's, or they can decide if it is worty of a bug tracker entry (with whatever low priority).

[FSFIan]

Released v0.0.1-beta10.

 

Compared to -beta8, there are several new features:

• Using scripts/getlivery.vbs (thanks to HomeFries94), you can create a file that lists the available liveries for each aircraft type. (You can edit that file by hand to make the selection smaller.) That file can be uploaded using the admin tool to enable the livery to be selected from the mission planner.
   
  
• New annotations and waypoints will no longer show up for the opposite coalition.
   
  
• If you create a trigger zone in the DCS Mission Editor and name it "MPMAP_RED some text", "MPMAP_BLUE some text" or "MPMAP_BOTH some text", an annotation labelled "some text" will show up for the red coalition, the blue coalition, or both in the mission planner.
  

[Home Fries]

Folks,

 

Here's the lowdown on the getlivery.vbs script:

 

By merely double-clicking, it will create a file called DCS_Liveries.txt in your Saved Games\DCS folder.

 

If you wish to use it with the DCS World open beta, or you wish to change the filename (or relocate the output file) you will need to use command line parameters.

 

Proper command line usage of this script is:

getlivery [-beta] [filename]

where the -beta argument will parse the DCS World Openbeta main folder and user folder and filename is the name of the output file. If no path is specified, the file will be output to the DCS user folder (main or openbeta depending on -beta argument). If no filename is specified, the output will be DCS_Liveries.txt in the DCS user folder. If you want the filename created in the same folder as the script, use the following line:

getlivery [-beta] .\filename

IMPORTANT: if you use the -beta argument, it must come before the filename.

Edited March 13, 2014 by Home Fries

[Rivvern]

Keep up the good work!

 

It works as intended. A bit more polishing and features would be great.

 

Its awesome for creating dynamic missions where package lead can task the available assets.

[FSFIan]

The issue tracker on GitHub lists the features I will work on next in what little time I have to work on this project right now.

 

Could you elaborate on what you mean by "more polishing"?

[FSFIan]

Released v0.0.1-rc1.

 

• After creating an instance, the admin tool will now show spectator URLs for both sides. When connecting to a spectator URL, all edits will be rejected.
  
• When the DCS: World map is not locally installed, the mission planner will now fall back to an online version.
  
• Ground units can be displayed on the map
  

 

You can override the visibility of ground units for a specific group by prefixing the group name with "MPMAP_RED", "MPMAP_BLUE" or "MPMAP_BOTH".

[FSFIan]

Released v0.0.1-rc2

* Fix #26: Waypoints were not saved when admin tool was closed in between

 

I have decided to stop working on the Mission Planner for now. I will continue to maintain the project.

That means:

• I will continue to run the "official" server at dcs-mission-planner.combined-ops-group.com
  
• I will still fix bugs that are found in the current version. If I get no new bug reports for a while, I will release the current version as v0.0.1.
  
• I will continue to accept pull requests (also, since this is open source, anyone is free to continue development over on their own fork, of course).
  

 

The reason I have stopped working on the program is that I'd rather do other things with my free time. Development on the mission planner was motivated by the desire to approximate the dynamic campaign feature of Falcon BMS. I have determined that I cannot come even close to that with the current lack of manpower and limitations of the DCS engine.

 

Thanks to everyone who provided feedback and for your awesome bug reports!

 

I sent a PM to Matt Wagner asking for permission to use the unit icons from DCS: World in the mission planner and whether ED would be interested at all in working together to remove some of those limitations. While he said that using the icons would be fine as long as I didn't charge for the software, I received no reaction at all to my other question.

 

Although at this point I doubt it will happen, here are reasons that may make me resume active development of the mission planner:

• If the DCS: World engine is improved so that some of the current limitations no longer exist (allow Lua scripts access to enough information to properly save the mission state, allow things like Ka-50 ABRIS additional info to be different for each aircraft, and allow us to change the waypoints and other info of a player aircraft while the mission is running, for example by allowing the player to select a "data cardridge" .miz archive that is simply overlaid over the existing mission file).
  
• If someone comes up with ways to work around (some of) the limitations mentioned above.
  

[Furia]

I was desperated for this tool

 

This is really interesting. :thumbup::thumbup:

 

Thanks Ian and Xcom.

 

My Virtual squadron is about to launch a PvP dynamic Campaing and we were desperate for a fucntionality such this one. Specially the option to save the match surviving units and place them in their new possitions.

 

All in all this tool may become essential to any "PvP dynamic Campaign"

 

We are going to test this extensively to see if we can use this tool into our Campaign.

 

Thanks a lot guys. Keep up the great work! :thumbup::thumbup:

[Rivvern]

I hope they improve DCS so that the development of your mission planner can continue.

It works as it is now which is good. Thanks for you work!

 

Just want to show my interest in this mod. Subscribing to this thread.

[xcom]

I'd like to update here on a dynamic campaign that we are already having with this amazing tool.

 

Me and 373rd Greg have been hard at work on creating the first dynamic PVP campaign to use the mission planner tool.

We've created a campaign which follows the lines of the Georgia-Russia war on 2008 which we have the Israeli community and 373rd Squadron flying TVT with more than 30 participants.

Obviously there have been some compromising on the areas of operations on each side, the planes/choppers/vehicles also, this is to accomedate all the participants.

 

So the procedure we are doing -

1. Create the initial positions of all the vehicles and spawn points for airplanes/choppers with the DCS Mission Editor.

2. Load the mission into the Browser Based Planner.

3. 5 Links are generated - admin, 2 editor links for both sides, 2 spectator links for both sides.

4. Each side commander enters his editor link and select the targets he wants to attack.

5. Each side commander gives his editor link to the flight leaders of his side and issues the targets he select to each flight lead.

6. Flight leaders go into the edit links and create their WPs to hit the targets given to them by the side commander.

7. Side commanders update each other once done and then the mission is saved and played.

8. Once the mission is done, the save state is uploaded and then going back to stage 4.

 

 

We've implimented -

1. CSAR script, gotta rescue downed pilots, until they are rescued that slot would be disabled for the rest of the mission.

2. Capture zones, added zones that would grant more supplies if are captured.

3. Counter of losses, each side has a decided amount of planes and choppers, the amounts of destroyed targets are counted from mission to mission.

4. Troops transport, Troops can be transported with the Uh-1h or Mi-8 to push units forward and help capture zones.

 

There are numorous more additions and we keep working on new things such as statistics pages and some kind of supply system.

 

I can say for sure that after flyin mission by mission in DCS, this is a whole new simulator and the immersion and motivation you get from mission to mission is crazy.

DCS is now on the right route for me to do large scale campaigns.

[Home Fries]

Thanks, Ian, for all that you have done thus far. I know the feeling when you hit the proverbial brick wall that needs somebody else's bulldozer for you to move forward. I look forward to your continuation as soon as ED's bulldozer arrives on scene.

 

xcom, what you have done sounds amazing. Do you have plans to share your FoF mission framework? I would be very interested to see how this is set up.

[xcom]

xcom, what you have done sounds amazing. Do you have plans to share your FoF mission framework? I would be very interested to see how this is set up.

 

Yes, me and Greg from the 373rd are hard at work on trying to get this campaign stick to the real war but at the same time accommodate all the current modern DCS modules for both sides so both sides can invite all their squadmates to attend.

 

Also, it is a big project to get this campaign balanced, as some side could have better Air to Air and some side better Air to Ground.

At the moment this is the first campaign we are running and therefore there are several conclusions we are learning while going through it because we want the campaign to be challenging for all parties, it's quite a challenge in itself to get it balanced.

[Rivvern]

What file am i supposed to upload as Mission State?

 

Could you also explain how to use the the Livery List.

Edited April 15, 2014 by Rivvern

[xcom]

What file am i supposed to upload as Mission State?

 

The mission state file that is being saved when you run the save script triggers.

 

Could you also explain how to use the the Livery List.

 

Example of a correct livery list file -

 

{
   "A-10C": ["104th FS Maryland ANG, Baltimore (MD)", "118th FS Bradley ANGB, Connecticut (CT)", "118th FS Bradley ANGB, Connecticut (CT) N621", "172nd FS Battle Creek ANGB, Michigan (BC)", "184th FS Arkansas ANG, Fort Smith (FS)", "190th FS Boise ANGB, Idaho (ID)", "23rd TFW England AFB (EL)", "25th FS Osan AB, Korea (OS)", "354th FS Davis Monthan AFB, Arizona (DM)", "355th FS Eielson AFB, Alaska (AK)", "357th FS Davis Monthan AFB, Arizona (DM)", "358th FS Davis Monthan AFB, Arizona (DM)", "422nd TES Nellis AFB, Nevada (OT)", "47th FS Barksdale AFB, Louisiana (BD)", "66th WS Nellis AFB, Nevada (WA)", "74th FS Moody AFB, Georgia (FT)", "81st FS Spangdahlem AB, Germany (SP) 1", "81st FS Spangdahlem AB, Germany (SP) 2", "A-10 Grey", "Australia Notional RAAF", "Canada RCAF 409 Squadron", "Canada RCAF 442 Snow Scheme", "Fictional Canadian Air Force Pixel Camo", "Fictional France Escadron de Chasse 03.003 ARDENNES", "Fictional Georgian Grey", "Fictional Georgian Olive", "Fictional German 3322", "Fictional German 3323", "Fictional Israel 115 Sqn Flying Dragon", "Fictional Italian AM (23Gruppo)", "Fictional Royal Norwegian Air Force", "Fictional Russian Air Force 1", "Fictional Russian Air Force 2", "Fictional Spanish 12nd Wing", "Fictional Spanish AGA", "Fictional Spanish Tritonal", "Fictional Ukraine Air Force 1" ], 
   "F-15C": ["106th SQN (8th Airbase)", "19th Fighter SQN (AK)", "390th Fighter SQN", "493rd Fighter SQN (LN)", "58th Fighter SQN (EG)", "65th Agressor SQN (WA) Flanker", "65th Agressor SQN (WA) MiG", "65th Agressor SQN (WA) SUPER_Flanker", "Ferris Scheme" ], 
   "F-15E": ["335th Fighter SQN (SJ)", "492d Fighter SQN (LN)", "IDF No 69 Hammers Squadron" ], 
   "ka-50": ["Abkhazia 1", "belgium camo", "belgium olive", "belgium sar", "canadian forces", "denmark camo", "Denmark navy trainer", "France Armee de Terre 1", "France Armee de Terre 2", "France Armee de Terre Desert", "georgia camo", "german 8320", "german 8332", "Israel IAF camo 1", "Israel IAF camo 2", "Israel IAF camo 3", "Italy Aeronautica Militare", "Italy Esercito Italiano", "Netherlands RNAF", "Netherlands RNAF wooded", "norway camo", "Russia Demo #024", "Russia Demo #22 `Black Shark`", "Russia Demo `Werewolf`", "Russia DOSAAF", "Russia fictional desert scheme", "Russia Fictional Olive Grey", "Russia Fictional Snow Splatter", "Russia Fictional Swedish", "Russia Fictional Tropic Green", "Russia New Year", "Russia Standard Army", "Russia Standard Army (Worn)", "Russia Worn Black", "South Ossetia 1", "Spain SAA Arido", "Spain SAA Boscoso", "Spain SAA Standard", "Turkey Fictional", "Turkey Fictional 1", "Turkey fictional desert scheme", "Turkey Fictional Light Gray", "uk camo", "ukraine camo 1", "ukraine camo 1 dirt", "Ukraine Demo", "us army", "us marines 1", "us marines 2" ],
   "su-25": ["Abkhazian Air Force", "broken camo scheme #1 (native). 299th oshap", "broken camo scheme #2 (native). 452th shap", "field camo scheme #1 (native)", "field camo scheme #1 (native)01", "field camo scheme #2 (native). 960th shap", "field camo scheme #3 (worn-out). 960th shap", "forest camo scheme #1 (native)", "petal camo scheme #1 (native). 299th brigade", "petal camo scheme #2 (native). 299th brigade", "`scorpion` demo scheme (native)" ], 
   "su-25t": ["af standard", "af standard 1", "af standard 101", "af standard 2", "su-25t test scheme" ], 
   "su-25tm": ["Flight Research Institute  VVS"]
   }