DCS to TARGET converter

[Havner]

I wrote a simple program that converts DCS keyboard shortcuts to TM TARGET macros. It basically does what Sim2target was doing but works with current DCS and fixes few issues Sim2target had. Also I've tried the output to be as similar to Sim2target's as possible.

The LUA part is based on Sim2target scripts, C++ is written from scratch by me.

 

As I'm not really into GUI programming this is just a command line tool compiled using cygwin so there is little point to even post binaries. I think they won't work without Cygwin installed.

 

For the brave the sources are here:

https://github.com/Havner/dcs2target

 

For those of you who can't compile it, here are files generated using it on my DCS installation. I have most modules released (I miss Mig-21 and C-101):

http://vega.livecd.pl/~havner/dcs/dcs2target_output.zip

 

Two versions of macros are there. One using usb keys remapped to human readable form and one using directly raw USB codes. The non-raw version requires inclusion of lib-usb.tmh header included in the package.

 

EDIT (27.02.2017): The zip file has been regenerated and as of this date it includes all currently released modules.

Edited February 28, 2017 by Havner

[hansangb]

Interesting. Thanks for that! I've been meaning to build a universal profile; maybe this will motivate me!!

 

hsb

[Havner]

Mig-21 added to the file linked in OP.

[majapahit]

now, if only I could find time to get to know TARGET

[AKA_Clutter]

Havner,

 

I have just acquired a TM Warthog HOTAS and just starting to learn. Years ago I had the TM Cougar HOTAS and currently use CH gear. In both cases I found it beneficial to learn the profile method rather than just mapping the keys. As such, I do plan on learning TARGET.

 

The first question I have, is what does this program actually do? Does it simply read the various Lua script files for the controllers and make TARGET macro files?

 

IF so, do you run it once and then again only when there is a update to the modules that changes the key command profiles?

 

My guess is that you just need to do this for one flavor (DCS 2.0, 1.5 beta, or stock 1.5) and that can be used in any flavor once created. Is that correct?

 

TIA BTW

 

o7

[majapahit]

Havner,

 

Does it simply read the various Lua script files for the controllers and make TARGET macro files?

 

IF so, do you run it once and then again only when there is a update to the modules that changes the key command profiles?

 

My guess is that you just need to do this for one flavor (DCS 2.0, 1.5 beta, or stock 1.5) and that can be used in any flavor once created. Is that correct?

 

TIA BTW

 

o7

 

nope, TARGET is written to intervene all hardware output to the OS. Thus TARGET can make the HOTAS output anything it wants.

 

That’s wonderful for button shifted states, as many as you like, and programming ‘release’ state of buttons, this a much missed feature of the TM HOTAS driver.

 

Most present HOTAS switches do On or Not_On, and the Not_On cannot be programmed, unless you know and do this through the SDK, which DSC did for the Warthog.

 

To be able to do the Warthog definition as DCS did, but for any and all aircraft (or any simulator and any aircraft), and do a lot more with macros, you need TARGET.

 

Unfortunately, TARGET is horribly complicated in that the interface is terribly non-intuitive.

 

For the most basic operations other than ‘when switch do this’ you need to know all of TARGET, and that is a lot. And too much for most people, including myself, you need many many hours to even get through and past the basics.

 

(What a waste of all such possibilities, for most people)

[Havner]

When you install TARGET software, in its scripts are macro files for various planes from FC and old DCS that basically translate keys into names so you can use those names when creating your profile. Those files are very much outdated and there used to be a software once that could regenerate them but it doesn't work anymore. My program is just an update for that functionality.

 

1. Yes, it reads those LUA files from DCS and generates those macros.

2. Exactly

3. This depends whether there are any differences between 1.5 and 2.0. In most cases those 2 versions are updated pretty much together so I think doing this once (e.g. on 1.5) should be enough

 

Bear in mind that this is just a command line tool that requires cygwin to be compiled. It's not nice windows GUI application, that's why I actually generated those files and uploaded them. They have been done quite some time ago and I don't own all DCS modules so can't do that for every plane. If you won't be able to do this yourself give me a shout, I'll update them.

 

As I think of it now in theory I could do this for all planes, as I don't need to own them. I can download them without a serial. I won't of course be able to fly them, but the LUA files will be there.

 

Anyway, it's been some time since I've looked at this tool. Let me know if you need some help.

 

EDIT: but this program is not a must to create TARGET profiles in any way. It just makes them look nicer and easier to maintain when the key definitions change. You can just regenerate macros, don't need to hunt down your keys in the profile you made.

Edited May 21, 2016 by Havner

[Havner]

Most present HOTAS switches do On or Not_On, and the Not_On cannot be programmed, unless you know and do this through the SDK, which DSC did for the Warthog.

 

Not through any SDK but just by modifying LUA input files in DCS. There are threads on this forum that tell you how to do that. I've done that for a lot of switches myself for all the planes I own.

 

But this has nothing to do with the program in question anyway.

 

I myself use a mixed profiles. Some things done by TARGET, some other by modified LUA files.

Edited May 21, 2016 by Havner

[AKA_Clutter]

Havner,

 

A couple more questions

 

For brave the sources are here:

https://github.com/Havner/dcs2target

 

 

Why for the brave?

 

 

Two versions of macros are there. One using usb keys remapped to human readable form and one using directly raw USB codes. The non-raw version requires inclusion of lib-usb.tmh header included in the package.

 

Is there an advantage of one of these over the other, and if so what is it?

 

Thanks again

[Havner]

Why for the brave?

Because they require compiling them by hand in a cygwin environment and then running from a command line. Not everybody is keen on doing that :-)

 

Is there an advantage of one of these over the other, and if so what is it?

 

One set of macros will use numerical codes for the keys so you don't immediately know what key it is referring to. The others will use macros for them (e.g. USB[XX] vs USB_some_letter). If you just want to use those macros there is no difference. If you want to look at the macros and know what keys they are actually mapping there is.

[cichlidfan]

That last bit makes it so much better than Sim2Target. I have been hand building ttm files for years just so they were easily read.

[AKA_Clutter]

Havner,

 

I have more questions.

 

Because they require compiling them by hand in a cygwin environment and then running from a command line. Not everybody is keen on doing that :-)

 

OK, I did that and after a while I figured out I needed to download g++ and supporting files. After it was pretty easy. I ran both phase1 and phas2 without any problems. :)

 

Now to my questions.

 

I have additional modules beyond have you have. So I went into the lua parser and added lines for each of the modules that I have that wasn't in the list.

 

The .bat file runs fine, but the exe gives me the following error.

 

$ ./dcs2target_phase2

convShortcut(): 111: empty key shortcut

Edit: 5/23/16 - This error appears to be due to the fact that there are blnk commands in the C-101 default keyboard.lua file.

 

I did recompile the exe, but the same error occurred.

 

 

I edited the lua file with notepad++ so that shouldn't be an issue.

 

Any idea what I may be missing? Does the order matter?

 

Here are some of the lines in the parser with the ones I added.

 

'Mods/aircraft/A-10C/Input/',

'Mods/aircraft/Bf-109K-4/Input/',

'Mods/aircraft/C-101/Input/',

'Mods/aircraft/F-86/Input/',

'Mods/aircraft/FW-190D9/Input/',

'Mods/aircraft/Hawk/Input/',

'Mods/aircraft/Ka-50/Input/',

 

Edit: 5/23/16 - It appears that I did break something in either the batch file, or more likely in the dcs2target_parser.lua file.

Now back to digging and learning. :-)

Thanks,

Edited May 24, 2016 by AKA_Clutter
Update information

[Havner]

I have additional modules beyond have you have. So I went into the lua parser and added lines for each of the modules that I have that wasn't in the list.

You did that ok.

 

The .bat file runs fine, but the exe gives me the following error.

 

$ ./dcs2target_phase2

convShortcut(): 111: empty key shortcut

Edit: 5/23/16 - This error appears to be due to the fact that there are blnk commands in the C-101 default keyboard.lua file.

I tried to be as strict with errors or strange input as possible. Hence the program will give up when it encounters something that it doesn't understand not to produce a skewed macro. Almost every new module had something awkward. I've fixed it for all the ones I own. Can't remember right now (without looking at the code) what this error means exactly. I'll download the C-101 and the Hawk over the next few days and will try to fix that. Shouldn't be too hard.

I edited the lua file with notepad++ so that shouldn't be an issue.

Any idea what I may be missing? Does the order matter?

notepad++ is fine, order shouldn't matter.

 

Here are some of the lines in the parser with the ones I added.

That's fine.

[AKA_Clutter]

Hi Havner,

 

It's me again, and I am having problems. I have a small understanding of programing, an a little DOS, so I get the jest of these, but not the details.

 

If it is something simple, please just point me in the correct direction and I will try and figure it out.

 

Below is a wall of text. Sorry.

 

When I run the *.bat file, I get the list shown, and the Phase 1 directory shown. All the files that are listed on the screen output don't show up in the directory. Is there some DCS file format error that could be causing this?

Anyway, here is the screen out put.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Main-PC /cygdrive/c/games1/dcs/dcs_world/dcs2target-master

$ ./dcs2target_phase1.bat

C:\games1\dcs\dcs_world\dcs2target-master>rem set DCS_FOLDER=C:\Games\DCS

C:\games1\dcs\dcs_world\dcs2target-master>set DCS_FOLDER=..

C:\games1\dcs\dcs_world\dcs2target-master>set LUA_CPATH=..\bin\lua-?.dll;..\bin\?.dll

C:\games1\dcs\dcs_world\dcs2target-master>..\bin\luae.exe dcs2target_parser.lua ..

..\bin\luae.exe: dcs2target_parser.lua:150: attempt to concatenate a table value

stack traceback:

dcs2target_parser.lua:150: in main chunk

[C]: ?

A-10C

A-10C_easy

Bf-109K-4

Bf-109K-4_easy

F-86F

F-86F_easy

FW-190D9

FW-190D9_easy

ka-50

ka-50_easy

MiG-21

Mi-8MTV2

Mi-8MTV2_easy

Mi-8MTV2_Gunner

Mi-8MTV2_TrackIR_Gunner

MiG-15bis

MiG-15bis_easy

P-51D

P-51D_easy

su-25T

TF-51D

TF-51D_easy

UH-1H

UH-1H_easy

UH-1H_Gunner

UH-1H_TrackIR_Gunner

Input

SU-25T: Mods/aircraft/Su-25T/Input/su-25T

MIG-15BIS: Mods/aircraft/Mig-15bis/Input/MiG-15bis

TF-51D_EASY: Mods/aircraft/TF-51D/Input/TF-51D_easy

KA-50_EASY: Mods/aircraft/Ka-50/Input/ka-50_easy

UH-1H_TRACKIR_GUNNER: Mods/aircraft/Uh-1H/Input/UH-1H_TrackIR_Gunner

BF-109K-4: Mods/aircraft/Bf-109K-4/Input/Bf-109K-4

P-51D_EASY: Mods/aircraft/P-51D/Input/P-51D_easy

UH-1H_GUNNER: Mods/aircraft/Uh-1H/Input/UH-1H_Gunner

A-10C_EASY: Mods/aircraft/A-10C/Input/A-10C_easy

UH-1H_EASY: Mods/aircraft/Uh-1H/Input/UH-1H_easy

MIG-21: Mods/aircraft/MIG-21bis/Input/MiG-21

UH-1H: Mods/aircraft/Uh-1H/Input/UH-1H

FW-190D9_EASY: Mods/aircraft/FW-190D9/Input/FW-190D9_easy

TF-51D: Mods/aircraft/TF-51D/Input/TF-51D

A-10C: Mods/aircraft/A-10C/Input/A-10C

KA-50: Mods/aircraft/Ka-50/Input/ka-50

P-51D: Mods/aircraft/P-51D/Input/P-51D

BF-109K-4_EASY: Mods/aircraft/Bf-109K-4/Input/Bf-109K-4_easy

MI-8MTV2_GUNNER: Mods/aircraft/Mi-8MTV2/Input/Mi-8MTV2_Gunner

MIG-15BIS_EASY: Mods/aircraft/Mig-15bis/Input/MiG-15bis_easy

F-86F: Mods/aircraft/F-86/Input/F-86F

MI-8MTV2_TRACKIR_GUNNER: Mods/aircraft/Mi-8MTV2/Input/Mi-8MTV2_TrackIR_Gunner

F-86F_EASY: Mods/aircraft/F-86/Input/F-86F_easy

CA: Mods/tech/CombinedArms/Input

MI-8MTV2: Mods/aircraft/Mi-8MTV2/Input/Mi-8MTV2

MI-8MTV2_EASY: Mods/aircraft/Mi-8MTV2/Input/Mi-8MTV2_easy

FW-190D9: Mods/aircraft/FW-190D9/Input/FW-190D9

 

 

After this I executed dcs2target_pahse2.exe and I ended up with the files. The exe files ends abruptly and I have to close the CGWIN window.

Phase1 & Phase 2:

1. A-10C_keyboard_default
   
2. F-86F_keyboard_default.txt
   
3. KA-50_EASY_keyboard_default.txt
   
4. KA-50_EASY_keyboard_default.txt.conflict
   
5. MIG-15BIS_EASY_keyboard_default.txt
   
6. MIG-15BIS_keyboard_default.txt
   
7. MIG-21_keyboard_default.txt
   
8. MIG-21_keyboard_default.txt.conflict
   
9. P-51D_EASY_keyboard_default.txt
   
10. TF-51D_keyboard_default.txt
    

Again, ay help will be greatly appreciated. Also, if you want to just point me in a direction, I will do some research. I have wanted to delve into programing but never did.

 

Thanks m

Clutter

[Havner]

Hi AKA_Clutter

 

I sat down to it.

 

The first issue with LUA failing was due to MI-8 having the same keys in multiple categories. I just picked the first defined in keyboard.lua, so a corresponding key will be in only one, but it will still be there.

 

I also installed all the modules there are (including ones I do not have) and remade the program a little to work for everything. The mod list in LUA file works a little bit differently now, as it doesn't specify a whole module but every single variant. In general you need to pass a directory that contains name.lua file. It will take the variant name from that file.

 

    'Mods/aircraft/Uh-1H/Input/UH-1H/',
   'Mods/aircraft/Uh-1H/Input/UH-1H_easy/',
   'Mods/aircraft/Uh-1H/Input/UH-1H_Gunner/',
   'Mods/aircraft/Uh-1H/Input/UH-1H_TrackIR_Gunner/',

I added all currently existing modules to the list and re-uploaded the generated ZIP file from the first post. github has been updated as well.

 

As to why your phase2 hangs I have no idea. It works for me without problems. If you still need to generate them myself in the future and you stumble upon this try debugging it. Compile with -g param and run through GDB to see what is going on. There are several tutorials on the net how to do that.

 

I added some output to phase2 so one can see what it is parsing at the moment.

 

Have fun.

 

Also please let me know if the generated TTM files work. I have no means to check that myself ATM.

[AKA_Clutter]

Havner,

 

WOW Thanks for the update. I wasn't expecting that, just hoping that you would point me in a direction. With that said, I may still try and debug. I need to lean stuff. :-)

 

As to the Phase 2, I think it was working OK as the contents of the directory matched that of the Phase 1.

 

Thanks again kind sir.

[Havner]

You're welcome.

 

Do the TTM files work?

[AKA_Clutter]

Havner,

 

Uh ... ... ...

 

I don't know yet. I have had my TM Warthog in a box for 6 - 8 months. So, I haven't yet tried to program them.

 

I am now at the point where I need to and this is the first stage.

 

I will let you know as soon as I get to that point. In looking at them, they look like they should.

[AKA_Clutter]

Havner - just got a chance to compile and run your update programs.

 

Worked like a charm. Hopefully I will get to point of using the ttm files later this week.

 

Thanks you again sir!

 

o7