Basic Radar [example code]

[Nero.ger]

device: avSimpleRadar

 

So, since i am bad at explaining stuff i made a small package which should get you quickly started if you want to make your own radar for your MOD.

if both the Simpleweaponsystem and simplerader devices are present and working, you can fire SARH missles without extra coding(this does not work if you mix it with any FC3 avionics (or any other avionics) like the popular su25t).

Edit: to be more precise, you can mix the radar with the su25t avionics, but you will not be able to use any A2A missle besides HeatSeakers

 

heres how this should look like if it works(minus the HUD) :)

 

 

 

and the code package:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1334tCEQVcLXCqWmI7PmEPr6G3Z3TcpBb

 

 

other examples:

BasicRadar

Terrain Functions

BasicRWR

Edited January 7, 2019 by Nero.ger

[freebirddz]

Thank you very much Nero to share this goood job.

Bad news that it isn"t working with the FC3 :(

 

 

but still greate approche to understand weapon systemes in DCS.

 

 

What about the MOD for the Ka50 ? can you share it too.

[PeaceSells]

Hey Nero, that was so cool of you to share this... I will have to take a good look into it as soon as I can to see what I was doing wrong... Again, invaluable information in a few lines of code, thanks a lot for this!!

[fl0w]

Looks very nice and great to see that rather than saying "you absolutely need SDK" in order to do this, we have "it is out there and possible."

[al531246]

Not all heroes wear capes.

[razo+r]

Not all heroes wear capes.

 

Have you seen nero in real life yet? Maybe he does :P

[BR55Sevas]

Nero, do you know how to extract terrain data?

As I remember DCS mission script environment allow to get data for terrain elevation.

But does it work? Did you tried work with terrain to simulate signal attenuation from radar by mountains?

Edited September 22, 2018 by BR=55=Sevas

[Nero.ger]

Nero, do you now how to extract terrain data?

As I remember DCS mission script environment allow to get data for terrain elevation.

But does it work? Did you tried work with terrain to simulate signal attenuation from radar by mountains?

you can get terrain data(mainly Altitude and type) from specific spots in "Aircraft-enviroment" via a DLL call (Terrain.dll), and the avSimpleRadar itsself features Groundclutter (ill get back with an example for the terrain.dll later)

 

the issue is, getting terrain data many times a second or Frame slows down the simulation significantly. unless you prebuild your own "terraindatabase"

[BR55Sevas]

What about extract terrain data to some array,chunk, and then calculate everything you need without constant repeatedly polling simulation?

Probably this should work. Damn, I need go back to dcs modding, but I forgot almost everything.

Edited September 22, 2018 by BR=55=Sevas

[BR55Sevas]

Another question - does your radar works wih guided missiles?

If you locked target, does missile understand it as target?

Long time ago I have launch missiles with my mod with external fm, but missiles flies just through the straight line

As I remember there was something like launchstation(0) command.

[Nero.ger]

i am fireing aim7s in the video ;)

i think the trick is to "selectStation(x)" first and then "LaunchStation(x)"

unless its bugged in 2.5 the missle automaticaly follows the locked target (the video is from 1.5.8 )

[PeaceSells]

Jesus Christ, the radar is working!

 

The most valuable thing to extract from this example, IMO, is how DCS expects you to interact with the radar. As I understood so far:

 

The contact's data is contained the "RADAR_CONTACT_[number]_" param in conjunction with the "RANGE", "AZIMUTH", etc. params. Now I look in the strings extracted from the CockpitBase.dll (as indicated in this thread: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=182020 ) and I see strings like

 

RADAR_CONTACT_%02d_

RANGE

AZIMUTH

etc.

 

Now how on earth you discovered that those strings, among the zillion other strings in the same file, would be used as params (and after concatenating them) is what right now I can't understand. These params don't appear in the list when you call list_cockpit_params() from the cockpit lua environment... (unlike "RADAR_TDC_RANGE", "RADAR_TDC_AZIMUTH", etc.). I still have things to test and figure and this example is helping a lot... thanks again!

[Nero.ger]

you absolutly need the avSimpleElectricsystem, without that the radar cannot be switch on and you dont see the parameters. but you also dont get an error message.

also i think the file i read most was the dump of the cockpitbase.dll :-D

 

also confusing, some of the paramters (....TDC....) can be set while others are read only.

time and trail and error is the way to go here and i am pretty sure i havent discovered everything in regards to the radar

Edited September 23, 2018 by Nero.ger

[Nero.ger]

i realized i forgot some parameters in my orignal example:

so here is a full list:

 

RADAR_CONTACT_01_RCS_COEFF:0.334631
RADAR_CONTACT_01_VZ:-5.376554
RADAR_CONTACT_01_RANGE:3336.165527
RADAR_CONTACT_01_NOISE:0.000000
RADAR_CONTACT_01_NCTR:"Su-25"
RADAR_CONTACT_01_TIME:4.140000
RADAR_CONTACT_01_VY:-3.621754
RADAR_CONTACT_01_AZIMUTH:0.062180
RADAR_CONTACT_01_ELEVATION:-0.002366
RADAR_CONTACT_01_FRIENDLY:-1.000000
RADAR_CONTACT_01_RCS:7.000000
RADAR_CONTACT_01_VX:138.504089
RADAR_CONTACT_01_RND:0.630329

parameters are counted 01..02....98..99..100..101..

Edited June 2, 2020 by Nero.ger

[aspirin]

Does anyone know if this technique still works in version 2.7? Are there any newer examples of a custom air-to-air radar?

[Neoshot]

On 6/11/2021 at 9:53 PM, aspirin said:

Does anyone know if this technique still works in version 2.7? Are there any newer examples of a custom air-to-air radar?

yes it works

[Half Science]

Just spotted this thread now.  Nero.ger, many thanks for preparing this example and making this available!

[Half Science]

Just wanted to re-post my thanks to Nero.ger.  This post, and code example (from 2018!, only now spotted) solved an issue I have been working on.

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0qjdXJ2ces ) Thanks so much! 
 

[Sérvalpilot]

This is pretty nice!
There's one big problem though, avSimpleRadar can't track targets less than 300 m away and tends to unlock for no reason.

By the way, how awesome would it be if we could get other "simple" devices like a laser designator or camera?

[F-35 Guy]

@Nero.gerYou can mix FC-3 avionics with avSimpleRadar. A guy is making a mod that uses F-15C and custom radars.