Tacview, the ACMI for DCS World – Official Thread

[Captain Orso]

Thanks for your reply. I see what I can do with the CAS :thumbup:

[Emmy]

Hey Vyrtuoz,

 

Just wanted to thank you for your hard work. Tacview is an outstanding tool.

 

Just as with the real life TACTS debriefs, one has to check one's ego at the door because the pixels don't lie!

[Vyrtuoz]

Thank you FlyingPhotog.

 

I am now working hard on two new features which should please instructors soon: real-time data analysis and a remote control!

[Vyrtuoz]

Tacview 1.5.3 beta 1 is available!

 

It is time to try the brand-new flight data recorder for DCS World: Improved performance, smaller files, more accurate and detailed telemetry as ever.

 

And this is just the first iteration: the following updates will export even more data especially for the main aircraft. Without talking about the new major features coming in Tacview 1.6.

 

http://tacview.net/download/beta

 

FEATURES & CHANGES

• Added support for X-Plane 11
  
• Added a warning when loading a file with null spherical or flat coordinates
  
• Brand new flight data recorder for DCS World
  
• Added mission name in DCS World flight recordings
  
• DCS World mission title, type, description, and briefing are now exported
  
• DCS World mission bullseyes are now exported
  
• DCS World exporter sampling frequency have been optimized to reduce produced files size
  
• DCS World exporter CPU load has been reduced from 10% to 4% CPU in loaded battlefield
  
• Local player vehicle magnetic heading is now exported for DCS World
  
• Local player vehicle change is gracefully handled by the new DCS world exporter
  
• Added an option to delay flight playback to prevent cheating when online with DCS World
  
• Added an option to generate one file per connected client to your DCS World server
  
• Added support for C-101 Aviojet (DCS World) advanced telemetry
  
• Improved advanced telemetry for many DCS World aircraft
  
• Added support for DCS: L-39 Albatros
  
• Added support for DCS: M-2000C
  
• Added support for DCS: SA342 Gazelle
  

FIXES

• Fixed crash when displaying bullseyes charts
  
• Fixed a rare crash when loading corrupted acmi 1.x files
  
• Fixed random online debriefing host crash when an obsolete client attempt to join the session
  
• DCS World mission date is now always correct
  

[mwd2]

Could it be, that the Beta 1.5.3 Beta 1 removed the script line in the Export.lua

 

With it, my acmi-File show a strange behaviour, is smaller (without resaved in TacView). All units jumping over the map.

 

Same mission, with different installation:

1.5.3 Beta 1 - 3MB

1.5.2 - 25MB

 

 

 

Do you need more information?

[Vyrtuoz]

Thank you very much for the feedback.

 

Yes, the 1.5.3 does not use the export.lua script anymore. This is normal to have the script line removed from export.lua. Like you have probably guessed, it is still possible to reinstall the old script by using Tacview 1.5.2 as a work around of possible bugs in the 1.5.3 beta 1 :)

 

The new files are smaller because the new data recorder is more efficient and compress the output data in zip format. This is an expected behavior. This means that you not have to resave the file using Tacview anymore (unless you want to shave maybe a few percent on the file size).

 

The bug you have found is an export or an import problem related to the anti-cheat system. I will fix it as soon as possible.

 

I did not have the time yet to talk about the anti-cheat system:

 

When you are playing online, by default, Tacview encode the recorded data so you cannot cheat by opening the file right away to know where the enemy is. After some time (by default 10 minutes), the decoding keys are written to the file, so you can “start” loading the file in Tacview until you receive the next key and so on. That ways the playback is delayed and people cannot use Tacview to cheat anymore. I will do a quick tutorial video to show how this works more in detail.

[Vyrtuoz]

Tacview holiday sale: 40% off on all Tacview licenses!

 

Tacview holiday sale has started!

 

From Dec 21st to Jan 4th, 40% off on all Tacview licenses including group buy.

 

http://tacview.net/purchase/

 

If you want to upgrade you Home edition to the Professional one, please send me an email with your name and current product key. I will return you a coupon to buy the upgrade at the reduced price.

 

Do not worry if I do not answer right away, be assured that you will get a reply as soon as possible.

 

 

2017 may very well be the beginning of a new golden age for the whole flight sim community. Great products and features are coming for many of our favorite flight simulators. Long awaited features are coming to Tacview very soon!

 

The first improvements will be for the proud owner of the professional edition:

• With the real-time flight data recording you will be able to watch in real-time the battlefield. Handy for commanders and referees.
  
• As a bonus, you will get a free remote-control* to trigger failures, change the environment and controls up to four client simulators at once! Quite handy to reduce the workload of a friend learning how to fly and to test and improve trainees’ skills.
  

These two features will work first with all flight simulators which offer open export capabilities. A Falcon 4 version may come afterward if it is possible to do it.

 

Many more features coming this year to all Tacview users and for all flight simulators: Like improved terrain rendering, more advanced telemetry, improved cockpit view…

 

*Batteries Not Included

Edited December 21, 2016 by Vyrtuoz

[Vyrtuoz]

I have just published Tacview 1.5.3 beta 2 which fixes a few things. The most important one was the data from a network session which was not readable.

 

http://tacview.net/download

 

• Added support for DCS: Spitfire LF Mk. IX
  
• Integrated the latest Nevada map from DCS World (new airports will follow)
  
• Added RALT+B to save a bookmark in the flight recording while flying in DCS World
  
• Added Falcon 4 Pillars of Hercules theater
  

[mwd2]

My TacView record missing about 9min of playtime (at the end of the flight) under 1.5.3 beta2 - but have it under 1.5.2 (but coded).

I was client on a MP Server.

[GGTharos]

Regarding:

 

DCS World exporter sampling frequency have been optimized to reduce produced files size

 

 

Can we tune this?

[Vyrtuoz]

@mwd2

When you are flying in MP, if the server did not explicitly authorized data recording, Tacview exporter will delay the playback by about 10 minutes so you cannot cheat by looking at what is going on right away in Tacview.

 

The downside is that you must stay connected to the server 10 more minutes than the part you want to review.

 

A warning is displayed in the chat window and I am going to add another one in Tacview 3D view.

 

If you want to remove this delay, feel free to ask to the host to enable “real-time” data recording in DCS World Tacview option panel on the server side.

 

@GGTharos

The export frequencies are quite complex (dynamic and per object type) and are not tunable for now. They will be tweaked further in Tacview 1.6 to improve accuracy and file size.

 

Do you have example in mind when the current export frequencies are not appropriate with Tacview 1.5.3?

[GGTharos]

Not yet, I'm just thinking of 'science' output where you might want to output every frame for example.

[mwd2]

Ah, okay - he is running 1.5.2 - the option should not available for him (i think) - but good to know, thanks.

[sobe]

Vyrtuoz

I cannot seem to download the latest update from your site. The download button is grayed out. ???????

[grunf]

Vyrtuoz

I cannot seem to download the latest update from your site. The download button is grayed out. ???????

You have to first confirm that you have read and that you agree to the licence agreement by checking the box above the download button.

[sobe]

On my screen, the little box was black so I didn't notice it.

[DerWaldfuerst]

Hello there,

 

yesterday I installed Tacview 1.5.2. Recording and watching flights from DCS is no problem. But for some reason it is quite laggy, with frame rates down to 10, not "smooth" 10fps, but with stuttering. It also seems to slow down all the other open applications, like drop down menus open really slow, as well as in Tacview as in the other open applications.

Changing object sizes, tags, trail length or even the world textures to none and flat didn´t change anything. Neither did changing the compatibility mode to Windows 7 (my current OS).

 

So far I haven´t found anything low frame rate related regarding tacview, which I find a bit odd, I don´t think I´m the only one experiencing such problems (well, maybe yes).

 

Some more info:

Tacview: 1.5.2

DCS: 1.5.5.60565

System Specs: Lenovo Y70-70 Touch

Link for details: https://www.cnet.com/products/lenovo-y70-70-touch-80du-17-3-core-i7-4710hq-8-gb-ram-1-tb-hybrid-drive-80du0033us/specs/

(I have 500GB SSD instad of 1TB Hybrid though)

 

Thanks for your help in advance.

[Vyrtuoz]

This low fps issue is strange because your configuration should handle it without any problem (I had almost the same configuration one year ago).

 

Can you try one of the other versions of Tacview available at the bottom of this page?

http://www.tacview.net/support/reportbug/

 

Also, can you share me your dxdiag file and see if you have a resident HUD like program, like teamspeak trying (and probably failing) to display information like the frame rate in Tacview window?

 

Tacview is still running with the very old OpenGL 1.4 and should work on the most modest configuration without any problem (it is still working fine on old Windows XP system for example). Therefore, I am suspecting faulty graphic drivers and resident programs…

[DerWaldfuerst]

I´ve tried the other older versions, to no avail. Also the problem persists with the 32 and 64bit version of Tacview.

 

I´ve sent support an e-mail with dxdiag files attached. Lets see whether they find smth.

[pdmarsh]

This is not strictly for DCS, but I'd like to post some links in the event that this is useful to others. I have made sets of VFR and World Hi IFR texture tiles for Tacview for the states of California and Pennsylvania. I'll be making a few more sets for other states as well. The zip files in the links below contain SRTM1 and SRTM3 terrain tiles and VFR and IRF texture tiles for the given state. These are large downloads, but at least you don't have to go hunt for the SRTM tiles. Keep the texture tiles in their folders and just copy the files into Tacview. If you move them you might inadvertently overwrite and lose a set of tiles.

 

I am posting links as I don't want to use ED's storage as these really relate to other flight sims, e.g. X-Plane. Then again, maybe this anticipates the release of future theaters!

 

Finally, I have just about completed a lat-long matrix of the U.S. on a state-by-state basis to make it easy to see what tiles are needed for any given state. I'll post a link for that when it is complete.

 

Thanks,

Paul

 

Download links:

Tacview-CA

Tacview-PA

Edited January 13, 2017 by pdmarsh

[Gliptal]

I downloaded Tacview 1.5.3 Beta 2, and installed it alongside the 1.5.2 stable. Thing is, I can't seem to active the exporter for the former: there is no "Record DCS World" option in the menu, unlike the stable.

 

Am I missing something in the install process? Maybe something that has to do with having both version installed?

[Snoopy]

I downloaded Tacview 1.5.3 Beta 2, and installed it alongside the 1.5.2 stable. Thing is, I can't seem to active the exporter for the former: there is no "Record DCS World" option in the menu, unlike the stable.

 

Am I missing something in the install process? Maybe something that has to do with having both version installed?

 

The beta has settings in DCS itself. I have both installed with no issues.

[Gliptal]

The beta has settings in DCS itself. I have both installed with no issues.

Ah there it is. Thanks.

[Vyrtuoz]

Tacview 1.5.3 is available

 

Tacview 1.5.3 is out!

 

Download: http://tacview.net/download

 

Special thanks to DArt, Dojo and Mirknir for their invaluable ideas and feedback which have helped a lot to produce the new exporter for DCS World.

 

This new intermediate release brings a log of fixes and improvements for all your favorite flight simulators from Falcon 4.0 to X-Plane 11. At last, DCS World is the last flight simulator to get a brand-new exporter based on the new telemetry system which was introduced in Tacview 1.5. The new C++ exporter offers improved performance over the old LUA one (self CPU use is down from about 11% to 1.5% on average). More data is exported, recordings are much smaller, and you can even inject bookmarks while flying by pressing RALT+B!

 

Important Note: The old “Record DCS World Flights” option has been removed from Tacview. From now on, the new exporter is automatically installed at the same time as Tacview. It can be configured directly from the “Settings|Special|Tacview” menu in DCS World. See the attached screenshot bellow.

 

 

This version is the last step before the long awaited real-time flight analysis! Tacview 1.6 Professional will – soon – enable you to review a flight currently in progress. A remote control will also enable you to control the local aircraft of the session you are connected to. This can be a handy feature to initiate your friends into your favorite flight simulator and to oversee in real-time a battlefield like Red-Flag operations.

 

These new features will be first available for DCS World, quickly followed by FSX and X-Plane, and perhaps even Falcon 4.0, if possible. Feel free to contact me if you think that you can provide me with any helpful information concerning real-time data export for Falcon 4.0.

 

I will soon produce several video tutorials to help you get the most out of Tacview.

 

Blue skies and happy new year!

Vyrtuoz

 

About DCS World online flights

 

New anti-cheat system

 

To prevent cheating, by default, the last 10 minutes of online flights will not be readable. This means that you may want to stay connected to the server 10 minutes after the end of your mission to get a full replay. This anti-cheat delay can be adjusted by installing Tacview on the server and setting the corresponding option between 0 (no delay) and 30 minutes. It is not necessary to record data on the server for this option to be considered. For example, you may wish to disable data recording to save CPU by using the dedicated Tacview add-in control panel in DCS World on your server.

 

One file per client server side

 

Using the appropriate option, you can now ask the Tacview exporter installed on the server to automatically create one file for each client session. Each file will be stored in a folder named after the corresponding pilot.

 

This great idea which comes from Dojo is going to be very handy for squadrons and public servers:

• For example, you can use this option to save precious CPU time on your clients’ computers by letting your server handling all the data recording work.
  
• You can also automatically share in real-time the generated data on a cloud service like Dropbox. Each member of your squadron will be able to access their own personal file right after their flight!
  

 

 

FEATURES & CHANGES

• Added support for X-Plane 11
  
• X-Plane data recorder now makes a distinction between fixed wings and helicopters
  
• Brand new flight data recorder for DCS World
  
• DCS World mission title, type, description, and briefing are now exported
  
• DCS World mission bullseyes are now exported
  
• DCS World exporter sampling frequency have been optimized to reduce produced files size
  
• DCS World exporter CPU load has been reduced from 11% to 1.5% CPU in loaded battlefield
  
• Added RALT+B to save a bookmark in the flight recording while flying in DCS World
  
• Local player vehicle magnetic heading is now exported for DCS World
  
• Added mission name in DCS World flight recordings
  
• Local player vehicle change is gracefully handled by the new DCS world exporter
  
• Added an option to delay flight playback to prevent cheating when online with DCS World
  
• Added an option to generate one file per connected client to your DCS World server
  
• Added support for C-101 Aviojet (DCS World) advanced telemetry
  
• Improved advanced telemetry for many DCS World aircraft
  
• Added support for DCS: L-39 Albatros
  
• Added support for DCS: M-2000C
  
• Added support for DCS: SA342 Gazelle
  
• Added support for DCS: Spitfire LF Mk. IX
  
• Integrated the latest Nevada map from DCS World (new airports will follow)
  
• Added a warning when loading a file with null spherical or flat coordinates
  
• Added Falcon 4 Pillars of Hercules 0.7.8.2 theater
  
• Integrated Balkans terrain and database for BMS 4.33 U3
  
• Updated Ikaros theater for BMS 4.33 U3 to version 4.0.0
  
• Added preliminary support for Ostsee Falcon 4.0 theater
  
• User settings WILL be preserved when updating to a new version
  
• Added support for laser beams
  
• Added command line option /DataCollection:off to disable anonymous data collection
  

FIXES

• Fixed crash when displaying bullseyes in charts
  
• Fixed a rare crash when loading corrupted acmi 1.x files
  
• Fixed random online debriefing host crash when an obsolete client attempt to join the session
  
• DCS World mission date is now always correct
  
• Reference time is now properly set to 2004-05-14 for all Falcon 4.0 flights
  
• Identical flight events are now properly loaded and stored separately
  
• Matra missiles are now stored with distinct names in DCS World acmi files
  
• X-Plane data recorder now better handles time travel using keyboard shortcuts
  

Edited January 26, 2017 by Vyrtuoz

[Gliptal]

Amazing work as always!