Tacview 1.3 beta 1 is available!

[Vyrtuoz]

Just to let you know that the first beta of Tacview 1.3 is available. I still have a few things to fix before being able to publish the final release, but at least the registered users will be able to enjoy it before Christmas!

 

• ADDED New terrain engine to display a strategic view
  
• ADDED You can now display ANY Falcon 4.0 installed on your hard drive (see Data-Falcon4Theaters.xml)
  
• ADDED Chinese translation by 张炯 'Billeinstein' and 姚尧 '@6'
  
• ADDED Observer altitude is now displayed in the 3D view
  
• ADDED More objects to Tacview database
  
• CHANGED Restored previous camera behavior when selected object is destroyed, it does not look at the secondary object anymore
  
• CHANGED Minor tweaks and improvements to playback speed controls
  
• CHANGED Removed [Reduced Haze] option (it is now useless thanks to the infinite horizon offered by the new terrain engine)
  
• CHANGED Dropped support for Flaming Cliffs and all pre-DCS World versions of Lock-On
  
• CHANGED Dropped support for Open Falcon and FreeFalcon
  
• CHANGED Dropped support for Digital Fighters
  
• FIXED Bug in date/time loading in some rare cases (xml/csv files)
  
• FIXED Bug in CSV file loader (picking the wrong data column in some special cases)
  
• FIXED Trail size slider was not working properly anymore (regression)
  
• FIXED DCS World export script is now more resilient to wrong/incomplete installation
  
• FIXED Rare random crash at exit when saving preferences
  

Have nice flights!

Vyrtuoz

 

 

Edited December 14, 2014 by Vyrtuoz

[GGTharos]

Is there a list of changes? :)

[Vyrtuoz]

Done!

 

There a lot of tiny fixes and improvements, but the most obvious and the biggest one is the famous strategic view! Keep in mind that it took me a long time to code it. So many related improvements are going to follow in versions 1.3.x. (like longer trails to take just one example)

 

Is there a list of changes? :)

Edited December 14, 2014 by Vyrtuoz

[WildBillKelsoe]

what about real time analysis?

[Gaanalma]

Congratz Frantz!

[R34P3R]

Thanks m8.

[uboats]

looks awesome

[AceRevo]

Looks great cant wait for final release!

[Mowgli]

A MUST tool for DCS just got better:thumbup:

[Vyrtuoz]

Patience :D It is planned for Tacview 1.4

 

what about real time analysis?

[billeinstein]

Great

[Snoopy]

Outstanding, thanks!!

[HiJack]

Awesome! Installation worked fine and loaded a couple off test. Seems to work fine :thumbup:

[vicx]

I love Tacview but even this new version I went looking for the preferences panel and then went looking for the tacview.cfg file and of course there is not one these either.

 

And it is because I just want to be able to modify some settings.

 

Don't misunderstand me. A complicated UI is not my desire, I would be completely happy to hand edit xml.

 

• I want to be able to turn labels on and off for certain types of units. There probably isn't a default setting that will satisfy my requirements ... sometimes I want only one unit to be labeled, other times I want only a certain type and other times no labels.
   
  
• I like the idea of auto-scaling of unit meshes but I am rarely happy with the actual scaling done. I would love to tweak the settings.
   
  
• Longer trails you mentioned. Of course if this were configurable in an XML file, all the better.
   
  
• Configurable transparency and colors for all radar emissions.
  

 

Yes the more I consider it the more the list grows.

 

===

 

This new version runs fine for me. There are no bugs that I have observed so far. :thumbup:

 

I must agree with others that Tacview is a must have tool. Thanks for your work.

[aaron886]

Just purchased Home version, because I can't for the life of me figure out what "Strategic View" is. I hope I won't be disappointed when 21 days of Strategic View runs out. Anyone know exactly what that means?

[AceRevo]

Im still in the free version trial, havent yet decided to get the Home Version or the Pro version. As I see it, the Pro version will let you record tracks online but only if the server allows it! Most will disable this feature becouse you can watch the tacview live and with it you can see the whole battlefield and everything on it, while other players cant even see their teammates on the map (F10 view).

 

Do you have any plans to change how this work, like make it so that we cant watch it live or something? :)

 

Edit: Grammar

[Vyrtuoz]

The new strategic view is the view you can see from high in the sky like in the screenshot attached to my post. Plus more improvements which are coming in the following 1.3.x versions like NATO icons, very long trails, automatic de-clutter, and all that kind of stuff.

 

As for the options, this is just that it takes time to improve everything step by step. For instance the trails size is already configurable (it was not working in 1.2.8 ) and soon, you will be able to filter labels per object type.

 

Vicx, can you elaborate about radars colors? Like doing a fake screenshot of what you would like to see?

 

For now, because of LUA I have no idea on how I could prevent real time flight recording during network flights. It would be almost free for anyone to change the script to disable any protection I would try to put in it. That’s why for now we have to rely on the (too) strong DCS protection system or the honesty of other players…

 

Do not hesitate to post all you whishes right away. It is always better if I have all of them as early as possible so I can integrate more at once while conceiving new versions.

[WildBillKelsoe]

Can you incorporate a lift vector extension?

I would like to see where my lift vector is pointing in relation to bandit.

[AegisFX]

Will it ever be possible to show every target a unit has locked in its radar? or even display a radar cone from its nose? With fighters able to launch and track on more than one target, it's an unfortunate situation that we can only see the primary target any unit is tracking.

 

I actually assume this is more of a limitation with DCS than it is with TacView.

 

Another feature of interest is perhaps bookmarking a specific timeframe, and inserting typed comments to go along with it. For example, I select a dogfight that involves one plane pulling a really stable high-g turn. I can type something like "notice the pull at x time", and when the viewer gets to this time it displays said message, or a list of messages could be presented like the flight log. Click on comments to view their respective snapshots.

 

 

And when's online debriefing gonna launch!!!

[AceRevo]

A indicator of some sort to show a units jammer is turned on (music, as its called) would be a nice feature.. and today, you can only see your own radar and where its pointing, will we be able to see all or other units radars in a future? Edit: Im talking about radar lock.

[vicx]

Vyrt, I probably will make some fake screenshots. It will probably take me a few days to post one or two here. I hope other people will take the opportunity to make some mocks of what they would like to see as well.

 

NATO icons :suspect: I admit that I only use Russian icons now because they rotate on the map to show the heading of a unit. Yes, the poor usability of NATO icons is all it took for me to defect.

 

Aegi, I think it will require a bit of work in Tacview and in the exporter to get radar locks working. I am finding that there are ways you can be a LOT more creative with exports out of DCS but getting unique entities rendered in in Tacview wasn't supported the last time I tried to get tricky.

 

I'm using Tacview with CA so lets say I want to visualise in Tacview all destroyed ground units as persistent black meshes. I don't want destroyed tanks to just disappear in Tacview anymore. I would like for tanks to go from a red or blue mesh to a black mesh and to stay rendered. Well this is an interesting example for me to pick just now, because with some cursory reading I think this is something I can do right now.

 

I can give coalitions specific color {Red, Green, Blue, Grey, Orange, Yellow, Brown, White, Black, Purple} ... so I can make a coalition for DEAD units (black) and then I can edit the Tacview ACMI exporter to spawn a DEAD/black unit when a RED or BLUE coalition unit is destroyed. So this is a case where Tacview, ACMI and DCS are flexible enough to support what I want to do.

 

So what about something harder? Say I want to visualise the performance of an integrated air defense network I am scripting in a mission and I want to watch the individual radars going hot and cold in response to central command and control. This is harder because I need a visualization element in Tacview that will change color or turn on and off in response to events in the ACMI log.

 

My main problem is that Tacview does not support rendering and moving around arbitrarily named "things". It likes things to be known "types" but there is no way for me to add my own "types". I have to stick to known NATO units and ordinance but this is a little bit restricting.

 

At the most basic level I just want to reference a new "thing" in the log and and add my own mesh for it. I guess this is where I'm hoping that Tacview can become more of a visualisation sandbox in addition to being an ACMI playback tool.

 

AceRevo, it isn't impossible that you coud get this working, BUT after all the custom export scripts are written, you will still have to rely on the server to do the recording and then for that server to make the log available. When ED release a dedicated server this stuff might get easier to do as more people start running servers.

Edited December 16, 2014 by vicx

[aaron886]

The new strategic view is the view you can see from high in the sky like in the screenshot attached to my post. Plus more improvements which are coming in the following 1.3.x versions like NATO icons, very long trails, automatic de-clutter, and all that kind of stuff.

 

As for the options, this is just that it takes time to improve everything step by step. For instance the trails size is already configurable (it was not working in 1.2.8 ) and soon, you will be able to filter labels per object type.

 

Vicx, can you elaborate about radars colors? Like doing a fake screenshot of what you would like to see?

 

For now, because of LUA I have no idea on how I could prevent real time flight recording during network flights. It would be almost free for anyone to change the script to disable any protection I would try to put in it. That’s why for now we have to rely on the (too) strong DCS protection system or the honesty of other players…

 

Do not hesitate to post all you whishes right away. It is always better if I have all of them as early as possible so I can integrate more at once while conceiving new versions.

 

 

Thanks very much for the answer! Does that mean the maximum view height will be the same as previous versions?

 

Here's some requests while I have your attention...

• Ability to change threat bubble opacity for very cluttered missions
  
• Ability to set label opacity "falloff" for very cluttered missions. I don't know if it's possible, but it would also be nice to be able to group ground unit labels into battalions/divisions to reduce clutter.
  
• Automatic stepping to next spawning aircraft with same username (In case I die during repeated dogfights, or use a merged track, for example)
  
• To win developer of the year, add TrackIR support in the cockpit view! ;)
  

It's a great app, Vyrtuoz! Really one of the best ever made for flight sims. I'd be happy to purchase a key even if I got no additional features.

[71st_Mastiff]

display problem at 900,000ft

[Vyrtuoz]

This one is not a bug, this is the way the terrain is in DCS. I filled the gaps in the beta 2 to make it nicer.

 

display problem at 900,000ft

[Vyrtuoz]

Lift vector is added to my list

 

The ECM display depends on what is available in DCS. It will probably be available in 1.3.x.

Multiple targets radar lock and radar cone are planned for Tacview 1.4 (or 1.3.x) it will depends on what data is available from DCS.

 

The bookmarks and comments are coming soon. Probably in Tacview 1.3.x.

 

The online debriefing may be for 1.4+

 

Vicx, this is a good remark about NATO icons. But don’t worry; we can do whatever we want about them… so I will probably incorporate some kind of nice arrow displaying the unit direction.

 

I could also keep dead units on the battlefield if you want. I’m going to think about how to do it nicely (yeah, black objects seems to be a good idea).

 

Thanks for your remarks Vicx this is helping me a lot to develop the brand new export system planned for the 1.4. I have already planned some kind of universal way to export stuff without relying too much on objects types. If you have suggestions about how to export hot/cold radars and all this sort of thing from LUA, please let me know.

 

Aaron886, about the strategic view: Yes and no :D

• For free and home users, the maximum view altitude is going to be the same. However, with Tacview 1.3 there is no horizon anymore, so you can (or will) notice that you can see as far as you want which is already a huge improvement over the old terrain engine limited to about 120 km.
  
• On the other hand “Professional” users have now the possibility to zoom-out as much as they want, so they can see the whole earth at once. This can be handy to get a nice strategic view of the whole battlefield spanning over several countries.
  

 

I will see how to offer you ways to tweak the opacity of things. Note that the way objects are currently displayed may change a lot in Tacview 1.5 and may not require any more such options.

 

Jumping from one aircraft to another with the same pilot name was available. But I had to disable this feature because it was triggering some unexpected ergonomic issues. Anyway, Tacview 1.4 should natively support objects respawn so such option would not be required anymore.

 

TrackIR support is planned since Tacview 0.94, I’m going to see what I can do about it ;)

 

I hope this answers some of your questions.