DCS-SimpleRadio Standalone

[dotChuckles]

First off, this is an absolute joy to use. Massively impressed, had it running on my server last night with zero problems. By far the best radio implementation I've used.

 

My one question though... we were using the intercom in the L-39C for some training, I've bound the intercom PTT from the cockpit to my HOTAS, but every time you click it, it pops open the interphone radio menu. I get the feeling that this is a DCS issue, but is there any way that you could give us the option to use the SimpleRadio PTT so that didn't happen as well as the current way of doing it?

 

Also as a suggestion, have you thought about bleeding a bit of the engine noise and some 400Hz AC into the audio? Maybe thudding of the rotors in helos. it's something that you hear a lot in transmission and intercom recordings. Could make it a user option of course.

 

Very much loving this, anything that kicks Teamspeak out of the signal path is a godsend. We will certainly be adopting this as our main communications tool.

[Looney]

Eagerly awaiting the ATC radios and radios for JTAC/GFC.....

[microvax]

Snip

 

Yep, it seems you fixed it !

 

:thumbup:

 

Only tested preview, but that worked FLAWLESSLY ! :D

 

Honestly you do not need to be shy of not beeing an entire development team. In the end you are more effective then an entire team. :D

[Coug4r]

Also as a suggestion, have you thought about bleeding a bit of the engine noise and some 400Hz AC into the audio? Maybe thudding of the rotors in helos. it's something that you hear a lot in transmission and intercom recordings. Could make it a user option of course.

 

Had the same idea, maybe it's possible to get the RPMs of the aircraft from DCS so you could even have different frequencies of noise and humming in the background. But perhaps we should let CiriBob have a night's sleep, once per week or so before asking for more :)

[Ciribob]

Ah, of course :doh:

 

Sorry - British :D

 

First off, this is an absolute joy to use. Massively impressed, had it running on my server last night with zero problems. By far the best radio implementation I've used.

 

My one question though... we were using the intercom in the L-39C for some training, I've bound the intercom PTT from the cockpit to my HOTAS, but every time you click it, it pops open the interphone radio menu. I get the feeling that this is a DCS issue, but is there any way that you could give us the option to use the SimpleRadio PTT so that didn't happen as well as the current way of doing it?

 

Also as a suggestion, have you thought about bleeding a bit of the engine noise and some 400Hz AC into the audio? Maybe thudding of the rotors in helos. it's something that you hear a lot in transmission and intercom recordings. Could make it a user option of course.

 

Very much loving this, anything that kicks Teamspeak out of the signal path is a godsend. We will certainly be adopting this as our main communications tool.

 

Glad it worked well!

 

Unfortunately thats a DCS thing as far as I know as even if you unbind the key and press it in the cockpit with your mouse it'll still trigger that menu.

 

However!

 

Its very easy to mod so you can use all the hotkeys instead of the incockpit controls for any aircraft with SRS.

 

This line: https://github.com/ciribob/DCS-SimpleRadioStandalone/blob/master/Scripts/DCS-SimpleRadioStandalone.lua#L821

 

Change to 0 like so:

 

_data.control = 0;

 

Save and done.

 

Eagerly awaiting the ATC radios and radios for JTAC/GFC.....

 

Working on it - There will be 6 and hotkeys supported for all as well as audio separation settings.

 

Decided 8 was overkill as you get:

 

4 UHF / VHF - 2 with 121.5 Toggle-able guard and 2 with 243.0

 

2 FM

 

the UHF radios support encryption as well so you can monitor up to 4 encrypted channels

 

 

 

Yep, it seems you fixed it !

 

:thumbup:

 

Only tested preview, but that worked FLAWLESSLY ! :D

 

Honestly you do not need to be shy of not beeing an entire development team. In the end you are more effective then an entire team. :D

 

Thats great news! Thanks for letting me know :thumbup: Not sure I'm more effective then a team... would be great to have one! :P

 

 

Had the same idea, maybe it's possible to get the RPMs of the aircraft from DCS so you could even have different frequencies of noise and humming in the background. But perhaps we should let CiriBob have a night's sleep, once per week or so before asking for more :)

 

As you and dotChuckles say I have actually been thinking about this. RPM can be quite easily exported and in theory used to control the loudness of a background audio that could be mixed in... :)

[Sierra99]

Hey ciribob

 

Just out of curiosity, are ya gonna implement the tones that occur when you initially turn on the KY-58?

 

Sierra

[Eddie]

Decided 8 was overkill as you get:

 

4 UHF / VHF - 2 with 121.5 Toggle-able guard and 2 with 243.0

 

2 FM

 

the UHF radios support encryption as well so you can monitor up to 4 encrypted channels

 

Good to hear you're progressing with this, but only 4 radios does worry me somewhat. Most AWACS and even ATC applications we've done so far have needed more than that (as thy do irl), especially when monitoring a VHF and UHF freq for each function. If I'm playing AWACS/GCI and controlling 2 strike packages, a fighter sweep, and CAP flights I'd be struggling with just 4. As each would need their own dedicated freq, and I'd be needing to monitor uhf and vhf guard as well.

 

FM however isn't all that useful/used by ATC or AWACS, so would only be helpful if playing JTAC.

 

It there going to be any facility for controllers to communicate directly with each other (using the intercom function perhaps)?

[Ciribob]

Good to hear you're progressing with this, but only 4 radios does worry me somewhat. Most AWACS and even ATC applications we've done so far have needed more than that (as thy do irl), especially when monitoring a VHF and UHF freq for each function. If I'm playing AWACS/GCI and controlling 2 strike packages, a fighter sweep, and CAP flights I'd be struggling with just 4. As each would need their own dedicated freq, and I'd be needing to monitor uhf and vhf guard as well.

 

FM however isn't all that useful/used by ATC or AWACS, so would only be helpful if playing JTAC.

 

It there going to be any facility for controllers to communicate directly with each other (using the intercom function perhaps)?

 

Ah OK I can bump that up easily! Would 10 do - 8 UHF and 2 FM just in-case? Each UHF / VHF will also allow you to listen to guard at the same time as well so you get in effect 12 with the two differing guard frequencies.

 

Intercom for ATC to ATC is an interesting idea. If I enabled it you'd be able to talk to everyone in spectator slot or a non aircraft slot via it. Intercom is done by UnitID and unless you're in an aircraft you dont get a Unit ID. Would that be OK or too annoying? I guess you can always mute if needs be...

Edited September 24, 2016 by Ciribob

[Bushmanni]

Maybe you could add "room number" to intercom. Zero would be your your own aircraft (default) and the rest would be rooms where each attendee would hear each other. So you could have room 1 for AWACS and room two for ATC etc.

[Ciribob]

Hey ciribob

 

Just out of curiosity, are ya gonna implement the tones that occur when you initially turn on the KY-58?

 

Sierra

 

At some point but im not sure how best to do it at the moment. Do you know if you have to press the PTT for the specific encrypted radio to stop the tone or will any PTT do?

 

Maybe you could add "room number" to intercom. Zero would be your your own aircraft (default) and the rest would be rooms where each attendee would hear each other. So you could have room 1 for AWACS and room two for ATC etc.

 

Yes I was thinking something similar as a bodge of the UnitId as that already works. Need to pick a unit ID above anything that'll DCS will ever use to stop conflicts but should be possible.

 

On call today so here's what an hour or so work gets you -

 

Beginning of the Awacs Panel - Hotkeys and sound separation config are in for all 10 radios :)

 

[Eddie]

Ah OK I can bump that up easily! Would 10 do - 8 UHF and 2 FM just in-case? Each UHF / VHF will also allow you to listen to guard at the same time as well so you get in effect 12 with the two differing guard frequencies.

 

That would be perfect if practical. I get that we and the 132nd are likely an outlier case, so if it can be done it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Intercom for ATC to ATC is an interesting idea. If I enabled it you'd be able to talk to everyone in spectator slot or a non aircraft slot via it. Intercom is done by UnitID and unless you're in an aircraft you dont get a Unit ID. Would that be OK or too annoying? I guess you can always mute if needs be...

 

Aries had a system for the ATC panel which replicated fixed "land lines" that could be preconfigured, essentially additional channels usable by people using the ATC/AWACS panel. I think one channel that could be configured (I like the room number idea) would be a great solution.

 

All it needs to be is a way for ATC and/or AWACS/GCI controllers to communicate without using radios. Of course you could do this with TS etc. but not having to use TS would I guess be nice given removing TS etc. from the equation is a major purpose of this whole project.

[Eddie]

Just another thought, sorry if it's already come up, is there any reason why each of the 10 radios can't be either FM or AM with a button to select with modulation is being used? That way any radio can just be set to whichever frequency and modulation is required.

 

EDIT:

 

How will it all work when people aren't running DCS, which is the case for ATC/AWACS/GCI? Given all the locations etc are pulled from DCS at present, is there going to be a way to set a location for range/terrain limitations?

Edited September 24, 2016 by Eddie

[Ciribob]

For now its a requirement that DCS has to be running for the Radio to work as thats the only way I can do Line of Sight as I use the DCS map directly via DCS. In theory you could just be in singleplayer and it'll work fine to save a bit of processing power.

 

Going to implement a hard line / sat comm link where you pick the "number" (1-30 but could be 1-1000 if you guys want) and can speak to someone as long as they have to same number dialled in. It'll use the intercom hotkey for selection.

 

The frequencies on the AWACS / GCI panel can also be typed in for speed and maybe (much much further) down the line i'll implement channels that are saved. For now the typing should be good enough hopefully as it is quick. You can also use the frequency buttons as normal as well. Opacity and always on top is also done for the AWACS Panel.

 

Making the radio switchable between FM and AM is surprisingly tricky due to how the radio sync is done but check out the screenshot below and hopefully that's enough radios :)

 

The top row has UHF guard selectable and the bottom VHF guard selectable with FM in the middle top and bottom. The top row also supports encryption.

 

For location - Currently any slot thats not an aircraft slot I don't get a position so no LOS of Distance limitations apply. What I'm thinking of doing is allow you to type in an MGRS or Lat long that'll then be converted into a DCS position and used for distance limitations but again much later down the line. I'll probably have a prefilled list of Airfields in Nevada & Caucasus for ease.

 

Edited September 24, 2016 by Ciribob

[dotChuckles]

Its very easy to mod so you can use all the hotkeys instead of the incockpit controls for any aircraft with SRS.

 

This line: https://github.com/ciribob/DCS-SimpleRadioStandalone/blob/master/Scripts/DCS-SimpleRadioStandalone.lua#L821

 

Change to 0 like so:

 

_data.control = 0;

 

Save and done.

 

Legend! I will try this tonight.

 

Honestly, this is the number one solution for radios as far as I'm concerned.

[Eddie]

For now its a requirement that DCS has to be running for the Radio to work as thats the only way I can do Line of Sight as I use the DCS map directly via DCS. In theory you could just be in singleplayer and it'll work fine to save a bit of processing power.

 

If it can be made to not need DCS in future it would be a big help, as there are already controllers we have who don't actually have DCS and/or use laptops that won't run DCS when using LotATC.

[Kozmyk]

SR independent of DCS

 

A while back there was a Twitch discussion between us, a bunch of DCS heads, and a group who regularly fly elsewhere than DCS.

SR already does what they were looking for in terms of dedicated channels.

If we could get them using SR in their current battles, it would be a step towards encouraging them to spend more time in DCS.

And when they did they'd already be familiar with SR.

[HiJack]

I hope later on that SRS will be connected to LotATC and then AWACS/TOWER/GCI use line of sight from there, possible?

[ESAc_matador]

As far as I know it already has LOS.

[DArt]

I hope later on that SRS will be connected to LotATC and then AWACS/TOWER/GCI use line of sight from there, possible?

 

It could be done I think...

[HiJack]

As far as I know it already has LOS.

Only if you are in DCS. We are talking about ATC that may not even have DCS but have LotATC.

[Ciribob]

It could be done I think...

 

Thats encouraging DArt! I'll PM you soon and maybe we can have a quick discussion? :)

 

For now I'll focus on getting SRS finished in DCS before trying to make a SimpleRadio Standalone - Standalone from DCS :P

 

The line of sight interface that I use as I said in an earlier post uses the DCS terrain via DCS as I don't really want to have to have a relief / shadow map as part of SRS. If I could use the existing relief map in LotATC via a network interface (for ease) then DCS wouldn't be needed as you say.

 

For those that are interested - The LOS interface I built is very simple but seems to work well!

 

I send a UDP packet containing a limited number of positions (to not overload DCS or a UDP packet) and a client ID to DCS in JSON format:

 

[
{"id":"abc123",pos:{x=1,y=2,z=3}},
{"id":"abc125",pos:{x=1,y=2,z=3}},
]

 

DCS then does Line of sight checks for each positions at various height offsets (currently up to 100m) to my aircrafts last known position so I can see how far off line of sight we are to simulate radio waves refracting around the edge of a terrain object.

 

It then just returns a single UDP packet with the results. Line of sight is given on a scale of 0 to 1.

 

0 being FULL Line of sight with no obstructions.

1.0 being no direct line of sight or line of sight at an offset and therefore full signal loss.

 

[
{"id":"abc123",los:1.0},
{"id":"abc125",los:0.0},
]

 

SRS handles the scheduling of the packets as well as the chunking of the requests to ensure DCS isn't overloaded and that packets aren't too large.

 

Whats handy is this means any terrain loaded by DCS is supported with no modification required from SRS.

Edited September 25, 2016 by Ciribob

[zaelu]

Maybe later you could make those land positions be linked by hardlines to land towers (existing or place-able by mission or heli drops)

 

LOS will improve and keeping those towers alive would be a resource in mission.

[DArt]

The main advantage with LotAtc line of sight computing is that it is very very fast (it is needed because it is called hundred or even thousands on some mission time on each seconds on server side to check all units vs all radars ). The code is also available on client side, so I can provide an interface to you certainly...

[Ciribob]

The main advantage with LotAtc line of sight computing is that it is very very fast (it is needed because it is called hundred or even thousands on some mission time on each seconds on server side to check all units vs all radars ). The code is also available on client side, so I can provide an interface to you certainly...

 

Wow thanks DArt!!!

 

I'm away most of this week and some of the next on work trips but if you like, add me on Skype ( ciaran_fisher ) and we can arrange a time to talk?

 

Thanks again for the offer! :)

[Eddie]

This conversation pleases me. :D