Helios 1.6 - Official Thread

[derammo]

Hi Community!

 

Following up on BlueFinBima's very successful Helios 1.4 releases,

we are happy to annouce Helios 1.6, a significant step forward for

Helios. BlueFinBima, myself, and the team have moved to a new

github home at https://github.com/HeliosVirtualCockpit/Helios.

 

This new version of Helios aims to make Helios much more usable,

especially for new users of Helios who just want painless installation

of available profiles. As such, a lot of features allow profiles to

carry more information and do more tasks for you, replacing many

manual installation steps of copying files and writing configuration

with point and click interfaces.

 

The current release of Helios 1.6 is always available at

https://github.com/HeliosVirtualCockpit/Helios/releases/latest.

 

It replaces Helios 1.4, and so there will not be any more releases of 1.4.

To this end, we will prioritize any bugs reported that result from upgrading

of unusual profiles or situations. If you do find any bugs, please file

an issue at https://github.com/HeliosVirtualCockpit/Helios/issues/new and

it will be worked on right away.

 

The full release notes are extensive and are found at

https://github.com/HeliosVirtualCockpit/Helios/wiki/Change-Log#helios-16-changes-from-14.

 

Highlights include:

 

* New Feature: Interface Status

* New Feature: Control Center Console

* New Feature: Preflight Check

* New Feature: Multiple DCS Locations to Update

* New Feature: DCS Interface support for Capt Zeen export modules

* New Feature: DCS Monitor Setup

* New Feature: DCS Additional Viewports

* New Feature: Helios Plugins

* Falcon BMS Support Features and Fixes

* Control Center UI Changes

* Profile Editor UI Changes

* Version Check re-engineered

* New Interface: Control Router

* Changed Control: all Rotary Controls

* Changed Control: all Image Controls

* Changed Control: Text Display

* Changed Control: Potentiometer T+R

* Logging and Status Reporting Changes

* DCS Export.lua Changes

* Installer Changes

* New System Requirements

* Many bug fixes

 

 

Download "Helios Installers" from here

 

Get help / file a bug

 

Look for new Helios 1.6-ready profiles from Capt Zeen!

 

 

Cautions / Known Problems

 

* If you have an anti virus that does so called "ransomware protection" it may disallow writing to Documents\Helios where we store all our stuff. So you will have to give permission to Control Center and Profile Editor to write to this folder. How you do that depends on the exact anti virus. I am collecting information about the various ones right now. If you have helpful details, let me know. One thing to keep in mind: the install location of Helios 1.6 is different from Helios 1.4 so any permissions you may have given to Helios 1.4 do not apply. You have to give permission again to Profile Editor and Control Center in their new locations.

Edited October 13, 2020 by derammo

[Capt Zeen]

Hello everyone!

To celebrate the release of the new Helios 1.6, I ported the twelve most used profiles, and are ready to download on my site http://www.captzeen.com

 

Some of them got new features, so chek it out!

 

 

..

[sobe]

Great news, but of course I have a question. How can I keep 1.4 while starting to use 1.6?

[derammo]

Great news, but of course I have a question. How can I keep 1.4 while starting to use 1.6?

 

1.6 is an upgrade against 1.4. So it is not a separate product. In other words, it is also the next version of 1.4, so installing it at the same time is not supported.

[PSYKOnz]

Will 1.4 profiles work with 1.6?

[derammo]

Will 1.4 profiles work with 1.6?

 

If you mean Capt Zeen profiles, then I recommend upgrading to his 1.6 profiles. They add new features and fix lots of bugs.

 

If you mean your own 1.4 Profiles, then yes they will work. However, 1.6 will tell you to configure what export scripts to use, so it can inter-operate with other profiles and so it can make sure everything is installed correctly. This video demonstrates how to do that:

 

If you have a completely custom export.lua, then you need to tell 1.6 not to generate export.lua at all and just use the one you have.

 

Sorry for the tiered answer, but there are several cases.

Edited July 29, 2020 by derammo

[PSYKOnz]

If you mean Capt Zeen profiles, then I recommend upgrading to his 1.6 profiles. They add new features and fix lots of bugs.

 

If you mean your own 1.4 Profiles, then yes they will work. However, 1.6 will tell you to configure what export scripts to use, so it can inter-operate with other profiles and so it can make sure everything is installed correctly. This video demonstrates how to do that:

 

If you have a completely custom export.lua, then you need to tell 1.6 not to generate export.lua at all and just use the one you have.

 

Sorry for the tiered answer, but there are several cases.

 

Ok cool, the profiles I have are modified capt zeen one’s, mostly cropped and resized from his ones to better fit with my cockpit set up.

 

I have no custom .lua’s or anything just his profiles with the images cropped and resized, everything else in Helios 1.4 is completely stock.

 

If I understand what your saying that should mean I can just upgrade to 1.6 and keep using is as Is until I can modify his new profiles, is that correct?

[derammo]

Ok cool, the profiles I have are modified capt zeen one’s, mostly cropped and resized from his ones to better fit with my cockpit set up.

 

I have no custom .lua’s or anything just his profiles with the images cropped and resized, everything else in Helios 1.4 is completely stock.

 

If I understand what your saying that should mean I can just upgrade to 1.6 and keep using is as Is until I can modify his new profiles, is that correct?

 

Yes, with a tiny amount of work. You would need to at least configure the exports in Helios Profile Editor. The video I linked in my previous post shows this step.

 

This is required because 1.6 actually takes control of the export scripts again, since it is now compatible with Capt Zeen modules. So you would reuse the exact module file you were using, but let Helios take over the main export scripts.

 

Alternatively, you can configure Helios 1.6 to not write the Export.lua file at all (in "DCS Export.Lua Output (Advanced)" settings section for the DCS interface.) I don't recommend that, because then you are running the old export scripts and not getting any of the new features. But of course if you really want to do that, that's fine too :)

 

----------------------------------

Einigkeit und Recht und Hornet

Edited July 30, 2020 by derammo

[Fakum]

Just a simple thank you for all your work guys,, greatly appreciated!

[Rickety]

Just a simple thank you for all your work guys,, greatly appreciated!

 

+1.

[Talvid]

I need help getting helios connected to DCS, I'm at the point where I need to add the Helios folder and export.lua to my Saved games/Scripts folder, but I can't find those files anywhere to download them.

[derammo]

I need help getting helios connected to DCS, I'm at the point where I need to add the Helios folder and export.lua to my Saved games/Scripts folder, but I can't find those files anywhere to download them.

 

You don't have to do any of that yourself. You no longer download scripts either in version 1.6. Each profile will come with any export module that it might need embedded in the profile. Helios will guide you through configuration and install the files for you.

 

Here's a video showing how you install a Helios 1.6 profile.

 

If you need more help, please join the Helios Support Discord, because it is much easier to answer questions there: https://discord.gg/qtvdVWc

[Talvid]

oh, thank you, this is great, I was able to place MCFD screens on my 4th monitor.

Edited August 2, 2020 by Thalvid

[Mercury_1965]

Great work!

Thanx

[derammo]

The second release of Helios 1.6 is available. This is the "immediate follow up" release to roll up bugs that were discovered during the first release. Right now it is marked as a pre-release so that it does not push automatically to all users. If you want to help out, please install it and make sure it works well, before I set it to push to all users in a few days.

 

https://github.com/HeliosVirtualCockpit/Helios/releases/tag/1.6.3104.0

[fenmonster]

Hi Gang,

I was just wondering if Phidgets or other lighting systems interfaces will be added in the future.

Keep up the good work!

-Thanks,

Fenmonster

[sobe]

So far the update is working nicely, including the export.lua changes.

[derammo]

Hi Gang,

I was just wondering if Phidgets or other lighting systems interfaces will be added in the future.

Keep up the good work!

-Thanks,

Fenmonster

 

Helios has always had a Phidgets 2.1 interface but I think it rusted / decayed a bit. I don’t know if it currently works but it’s in there.

 

I wrote my own Phidgets 2.2 interface as a plugin. It is not currently distributed but I am open to collaboration.

[taichi]

Just a question: I need to manage the profiles with the OVGME ?

 

Next time I will install a new DCS Patch , What will happen to profiles ??

[ilikepie]

I'm using 1.6 release version and exports etc work as intended, fine work by everybody involved, it been amazing to see what Helios started as and what it has evolved to.

 

Found an issue ( for me anyway) in using SRS. the new helios overwrites the export LUA and it removes the SRS line (hook) that is required for SRS to work in game. is there a way to manually add this through the profile editor?

 

I have added the line to the export LUA that SRS needs and everything seems to be working as normal. This is mearly an FYI if others encounter this problem, but also if there is a trick I'm missing for the adding of the hook.

[derammo]

Just a question: I need to manage the profiles with the OVGME ?

 

Next time I will install a new DCS Patch , What will happen to profiles ??

 

1.) No. Profiles are just documents in your Documents\Helios\Profiles folder and Documents\Helios\Images folder.

 

Anything written to the DCS folders will be written by Helios, no need to use OVGME unless you have other, unrelated mods.

 

2) Nothing happens. Helios will detect DCS overwrote some files and patch them again.

 

Sometimes DCS changes too much and you will have to wait a couple of days while we push out some new patches to fit. But hopefully that will be very infrequently.

[derammo]

I'm using 1.6 release version and exports etc work as intended, fine work by everybody involved, it been amazing to see what Helios started as and what it has evolved to.

 

Found an issue ( for me anyway) in using SRS. the new helios overwrites the export LUA and it removes the SRS line (hook) that is required for SRS to work in game. is there a way to manually add this through the profile editor?

 

I have added the line to the export LUA that SRS needs and everything seems to be working as normal. This is mearly an FYI if others encounter this problem, but also if there is a trick I'm missing for the adding of the hook.

 

Thanks for reporting this. I agree the code as it was in 1.4 and also in the first 1.6 release wasn't very good.

 

That's why I added a feature to preserve Export.lua when possible, even if you don't use Helios to manage it.

 

https://github.com/HeliosVirtualCockpit/Helios/wiki/DCS-Interface#exportlua-generation

 

You can have this feature now by upgrading to https://github.com/HeliosVirtualCockpit/Helios/releases/tag/1.6.3104.0 or you can wait a few days and it will be pushed to all users.

[JCae2798]

Nice job guys. Really great job enhancing the existing software even further!

[gunterlund21]

Highly recommend this. Works Great!!

[_Lion_]

Why I have the problem with DCS additional Viewport? (Status: The pathes to install additional viewports are not compatible with yhis version of DCS. You will need a more recent version of Helios or additional pathes files.) I deleted previously Helios!

Thanks in advance for any help.