Vaicom Breaking Viper Auto Start?

[MAXsenna]

Nice troubleshooting! Hmmm! Very interesting actually. Really hope @Hollywood_315 reads this if you find anything of interest!

 

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[Weegie]

Ok So I've been looking at what happens and it's above my paygrade and intellect.

 

As an side this may interest you if you don't know about it already a File Comparison plug in for NotedPad++ (my prayers were answered)

https://sourceforge.net/projects/npp-compare/

 

I haven't looked at every lua yet but it would appear that Vaicom puts a whole heap of code in after the conventional plug in code, I also noticed some changes to the Vaicom luas and the ED luas in the ED code itself, it's very strange but as some of it is in Cyrrilic so it's kinda hard to fathom

 

The problem is I don't know where the Vaicom luas are stored so I can't make changes. I'm thinking everytime Vaicom loads it may append these or even replace these particular luas, which sort of leaves me stuck for now.

 

However what I can do in the meantime is start an aircraft, then load Vaicom. So I can go onto Multiplayer in the meantime start my bird, then start Vaicom and away I go. When I want to start again I need to shutdown DCS run the OVGME and start again, in theory OVGME keeps the original files so no matter how many times I break it, I can just run the OVGME file and I'm good to AutoStart again.

 

I'll still look into this some more especially the Dx buttons and radio keys in the DCS profile and try running Vaicom/AutoStart in the stable version to see what's going on

 

I'm also going to look into building seperate start ups in Voice Attack as I prefer to have something that I'm not messing with all the time and isn't so dammed fragile that it breaks at the drop of a hat

 

Thanks again for all the help so far, I'll report back on the buttons and running in stable later

[MAXsenna]

Nice! Coding and Cyrillic ain't my cup of tea as well. Thanks for the NP++ tip. Using Ultra Edit/Ultra Compare myself, but other options are always welcome.

Seems you've got a fix, how ever cumbersome. Hopefully Hollywood reads this and might have some insights.

Cheers!

 

PS: It seems I owe you an apology that VAICOM couldn't possibly have anything to do with this. I stand corrected!

 

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[Weegie]

Oh forget that we all make mistakes me more than most.

 

The help is more than appreciated, it was just nice to get to some sort of resolution about what was going on.

 

My bet is that it's probably down to just one line of code in one of the luas and everything else is fine. However the whole thing is really fragile, which is annoying.

 

Perhaps when Hollywood brings out an update this might get fixed for me. It does intrigue me that nobody else seems to be experiencing this and it's just my setup.

 

Like you say I've got a workaround and I'll work on doing my own Autostarts with VA, however that's going to be a heap of work. Oh Bailey's profiles just use the DCS Autostart feature.

 

If I get them done I'll post up the profiles. The amount of work for the TACAN, ILS and all the radio frequencies was considerable alone and although Vaicom can do that too, it might be nice to share them so others don't have to go through all the pain of making up over a hundred commands to dial in an airbase and talk to the tower, or use the ILS and TACAN, in case Vaicom starts to play up, as it can do from time to time

[MAXsenna]

Awesome! Thanks!

 

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[sthompson]

Well, when VAICOM re-builds the export.lua, I think it puts a folder and a some files in the install folder of DCS. And that's why it breaks after every update/repair. And one has to go and either delete the export.lua or reset it in the VAICOM control panel, and then restart VA, so it can recreate those folders and files in the DCS install directory.

I think that's why you see such a "small" repair. Because it's just some Lua files. Basically text.

Hmmm

 

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This isn't completely accurate. First, for the most part VAICOM PRO edits the DCS files by appending new code to them rather than replacing them. Second, the exact code that gets inserted can be found by running the "Export" function from the editor tab and then looking in the Export folder that opens. All of this is well documented in the VAICOM PRO manual in the section that describes how to manually manage the DCS lua files yourself rather than using the automatic procedures.

 

When you run a DCS repair these modifications are detected and replaced with the original files. The backups that get saved (if you choose to save them) are the edited files, which are not the same as the originals, but are not entirely from VAICOM either.

[MAXsenna]

This isn't completely accurate. First, for the most part VAICOM PRO edits the DCS files by appending new code to them rather than replacing them. Second, the exact code that gets inserted can be found by running the "Export" function from the editor tab and then looking in the Export folder that opens. All of this is well documented in the VAICOM PRO manual in the section that describes how to manually manage the DCS lua files yourself rather than using the automatic procedures.

 

 

 

When you run a DCS repair these modifications are detected and replaced with the original files. The backups that get saved (if you choose to save them) are the edited files, which are not the same as the originals, but are not entirely from VAICOM either.

Aha! Do you know how it works, so @Weegie might be able to fix his issue?

 

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[Weegie]

RTFM Weegie......................Thanks sthompson

 

I tried contacting Vaicom but got the dreaded "Not Reproducable" reply although they did give me all the usual stuff to do nearly all of which I had completed already

 

The thing I don't understand is, I looked at the backup files that were saved. As I understand it these were the broken files,replaced files. What I did was take a note of their filenames. I then went into my repaired game and extracted the same repaired files in the game and placed them into OVGME. I could now do a repair for this issue by just running the OVGME mod I had made.

 

When I run Vaicom again then take the files as they have been ammended by Vaicom, I see some small differences in the ED code in the these files as well as the Vaicom additions. I have no idea why that happens but that's what I see.

 

I agree it makes no sense whatsoever, these files should not change apart from the Vaicom appended code but that's not what is happening. Further I'm at a total loss as to why it breaks the AutoStart/Stop it just makes no sense.

 

However the fault is completely reproducable for me. I run DCS without Vaicom but with VA after a repair or running the OVGME mod, no problem I can use the Auto Start. If I then start Vaicom (with or without the game running) BOOM!! AutoStart/Stop borked. If I then restart and replace the ammended Vaicom files with the Vanilla repaired ones, AutoStart/Stop works again.

 

I've just completed a Vanilla install of the Open Beta, by deleting both my stable and Open Beta then downloading the Open Beta from ED (what a pain that is it takes forever). What I'm now going to do is delete Vaicom and complete a fresh install of it as well. I'll remove all mods, not that there were that many, as well and take it from there.

 

Of course it may change nothing, I've had odd issues with other software before (not DCS related) where something happens that's just inexplicable and either a fresh install or it's years down the line I find the reason for the problem. My VKB software was a good example of this, but I digress

 

I have already started to make my own Auto Start VA files, but that takes a long time to do, especially for the modern jets. However I do think it's the way to go.

Edited September 12, 2020 by Weegie

[Weegie]

Ok I downloaded a fresh install & at first nothing just the same. However after a few times running the game, loading and reloading the luas etc: it started working. I then had the problem with Vaicom not recognising the Radios #1 & #2 well they clicked on then right off again but the Interphone and Aux were working as they should

 

I just messed with some of the profiles clicking between them then loading and reloading DCS and Vaicom and that came back too

 

I wish I had a decent explanation as to what I did, but it was all bit hit & miss loading and reloading the luas.

 

All I know is that it's working MAX many thanks for all your peresverence and help & sthompson for pointing me to the manual for the "manual" install, which I also tried but eventually went back to letting Vaicom do the work

[MAXsenna]

No problem!

So, it's consistently working now? Then I'm really happy for you!

Cheers!

 

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[Weegie]

Seems to be MAX time will tell of course

 

Much indebted for your assistance many thanks