in roadmap DTC digital data catridge

[DarkStar]

@NineLine Have the team talked about this at all? Would be nice to have a (later in EA)/(after release) tag to the posts about DTC, JMPS and mission planning overall. If you don't plan on it, it would be nice to know that as well so we can move on in our lives  

 

Best, DS

[darkman222]

Is there a way to "hack" that at the moment? We have the "the way" tool, which seems to be broken at the moment and not working in vr. What it does is it takes the coordinates from the map and manually inputs in the ICP.

Can we just create a LUA file with our own waypoints and place it before starting on a MP server in the F16 directory?

I know that I can switch the LUA file for the countermeasurement while being active on a MP server. When I jump in a new jet and change the LUA file of the contermeasurements program before I jump in the jet it will be changed for this flight.

 

[Wing]

On 7/4/2021 at 10:35 AM, darkman222 said:

Is there a way to "hack" that at the moment? We have the "the way" tool, which seems to be broken at the moment and not working in vr. What it does is it takes the coordinates from the map and manually inputs in the ICP.

Can we just create a LUA file with our own waypoints and place it before starting on a MP server in the F16 directory?

I know that I can switch the LUA file for the countermeasurement while being active on a MP server. When I jump in a new jet and change the LUA file of the contermeasurements program before I jump in the jet it will be changed for this flight.

 

 

ED locked down the LUA files awhile back... so no joy with that one. DTC should have been a function from the get go, but here we are...

[Frederf]

It's a complicated thing to ask for. A lot more info is contained on the cartridge than I think most realize. Some of it is mission-specific like locations of all the waypoint destinations while other parts like CMDS programs and MFD night brightness and contrast preferences are more long term. Do you bake it into the .miz file? Do you put it on the special menu? Considering you probably don't want to set global values for steerpoint 1 lat/long, steerpoint 2 lat/long, etc. in the main menu before every flight but don't want your other settings dictated for you by the mission file it's desirable to merge from several sources piecemeal.

 

Sometimes you want the flight plan that the mission file has and sometimes you want to type it manually or click on the map or load a saved file from your hard drive. You want a user interface for all this which both allows both a quick and/or tailored experience and the full time-saving capability that persistent data allows.

 

Then when you go through all that work you want it to be applicable to everything else. A 1930s biplane might not have a data cassette but it could have things which are analogous, bending of trim tabs, etc.

[Terzi]

I think there should be 3 categories: global settings, mission specific settings, and the third category is what you prefer to be default, unless the mission overrides them. A primitive DTC implementation exist in JF-17 so why not the F-16 too

[FoxOne007]

I hope ED realizes some time soon they should drop any and all effort in the way to niche WWII stuff that nobody except a handful of people want and focus the people that are being wasted on that on the actual important aspects of DCS like the DTC/Mission Planner stuff

[Northstar98]

On 7/10/2021 at 4:31 PM, Frederf said:

It's a complicated thing to ask for. A lot more info is contained on the cartridge than I think most realize. Some of it is mission-specific like locations of all the waypoint destinations while other parts like CMDS programs and MFD night brightness and contrast preferences are more long term. Do you bake it into the .miz file? Do you put it on the special menu? Considering you probably don't want to set global values for steerpoint 1 lat/long, steerpoint 2 lat/long, etc. in the main menu before every flight but don't want your other settings dictated for you by the mission file it's desirable to merge from several sources piecemeal.

 

Sometimes you want the flight plan that the mission file has and sometimes you want to type it manually or click on the map or load a saved file from your hard drive. You want a user interface for all this which both allows both a quick and/or tailored experience and the full time-saving capability that persistent data allows.

 

I find how the other sim does it is absolutely fine, that saves everything to a persistent file and anything you want to change (like steerpoints) just get amended to the DTC file (or at least, I think that's how it works), the file gets read when you want to load the DTC in the aircraft (done via the DTE page in the F-16CM).

 

That sim also has a mission planner that allows you to edit pretty much everything before mission start - something that's kinda needed for multiplayer (as maybe an option for the ground crew, when the aircraft is cold).

 

If you want to amend your steerpoints before jumping into your aircraft, you can - all it does is amend the DTC file, it'll keep everything the same apart from whatever you've amended, regardless of what it is.

 

In DCS, it might be useful to be able to save multiple DTC files (with custom names), and then using the ground crew menu, be able to select which one you want to use (say if you've got multiple mission plans saved and you want to save time by using one you made earlier, rather than having to go into the mission planner and do it manually, overwriting the previous cartridge).

 

On 7/10/2021 at 4:31 PM, Frederf said:

Then when you go through all that work you want it to be applicable to everything else. A 1930s biplane might not have a data cassette but it could have things which are analogous, bending of trim tabs, etc.

 

Yeah, and this should be stuff that a universal planning tool (either available before spawning or preferably via the ground crew menu while the aircraft is cold), for things with DTCs with lots of configuration options like the F-16CM and F/A-18C there's more stuff to do. But for others you could use it to adjust default radio presets, countermeasure programs (think F-5E-3), trim tabs (think Yak-52), laser codes for LGBs, etc. Which I think would be a better way of doing it compared to being done via the kneeboard or just being available via the mission editor or through aircraft special settings.

Edited September 20, 2021 by Northstar98

[Rick1Penguin]

Hello, Before the latest open beta update we used to be able to edit the CMDS_47 Lua file for the countermeasure programs, but that now fails the integrety check, i'd would be great to have a special option, or a config file in saved games to be able to edit this without breaking integrity check, since having to edit it manually on the DED is really annoying. Disabling the integrity check for this specific lua file would also do the trick, since there is a mod called Dice by bailey that automaticly edits the file, via the special options menu. Thanks.

[Northstar98]

+1 It makes no sense for this to be protected or to fail the IC, it's only being used as a partial DTC stand-in.

[SCPanda]

5 hours ago, Northstar98 said:

+1 It makes no sense for this to be protected or to fail the IC, it's only being used as a partial DTC stand-in.

Yep. Without DTC, this is the only way we can edit CMS profiles for now. 

[darkman222]

Common ED really? Why? I also tried to edit the new LUA file that came with the update. Does not work either.

I like to fly on a dogfight server where you'd jump in a new aircraft every 5 minutes because you dont live for a long time.

It takes longer to program the CMS profile than actually having a missile dogfight.

Please unprotect that file until we have a DTC, honestly.

[QuiGon]

12 hours ago, SCPanda said:

Yep. Without DTC, this is the only way we can edit CMS profiles for now. 

 

That's not quite true. You can still edit them in the cockpit. I've been doing that all the time before the patch and it's still working now after the patch.

[SCPanda]

On 9/19/2021 at 12:38 AM, QuiGon said:

 

That's not quite true. You can still edit them in the cockpit. I've been doing that all the time before the patch and it's still working now after the patch.

Sure. But doing that every time you spawn in a new jet is a waste of time. Editing the lua file for one time it will save the CMS profile for you. Isn't that just much more convenient? 

 

And, if you try to do a fox 2 dogfight with a player in the dogfight sever, you just don't have the time to edit your CMS profile, since all those severs have air spawn and only 10 miles speration with 2 jets flying headon at each other. 

 

Letting us edit the lua file before DTC gets implemented is simply a better option at the moment. 

Edited September 19, 2021 by SCPanda