F-22A Raptor mod enhancement mod

[FlyingAlex]

I had built a Helios profile file for this mod.  As I have two mfd screen, I exported only the buttons of ICP, PMFD and the Center MFD along with the APU, L/R Gen switches which I export to two touchscreen.

Feel free to add the buttons you need yourself.  You may find the file on my GitHub.

https://github.com/kingDevGit/DCS-Helios-Community-Mod-Profile/blob/main/Helios_F22A.lua

Edited February 17, 2023 by FlyingAlex

[Nightstorm]

On 2/16/2023 at 7:57 AM, FlyingAlex said:

Ok tested with different altitude.

Reduce the factor to 0.35 did the trick. May still need to reduce the missile power. It’s so energetic 

 

I did quite a bit of testing today and from what I can tell, without any changes, the missiles are working exactly as before. 

My test mission has the F22 at 43k feet Mach 1.8.  Nose hot on a Tu-214 and Tu-22's at 40k feet so roughly co-altitude.  The Tu-214 is at about Mach .75 and the Tu-22's at Mach 1.6.

AIM-120B/D The AIM-120D replacement for the AIM-120B.  Max range ~84 miles.  Lofted and scored a hit on the Tu-214 fired at 82nm.

AIM-120D Lofted and scored a hit on the Tu-214 at 100nm.

AIM-120D-2 Lofted and scored a hit on the Tu-214 at 110nm.

Tu-22's were even easier to hit due to the closure rate, fired at similar ranges.

Testing with Mig-29A nose hot ~Mach 1.  Radar STT lock at 80 miles.  All missiles hit, same launch parameters.

[FlyingAlex]

6 hours ago, Nightstorm said:

I did quite a bit of testing today and from what I can tell, without any changes, the missiles are working exactly as before. 

My test mission has the F22 at 43k feet Mach 1.8.  Nose hot on a Tu-214 and Tu-22's at 40k feet so roughly co-altitude.  The Tu-214 is at about Mach .75 and the Tu-22's at Mach 1.6.

AIM-120B/D The AIM-120D replacement for the AIM-120B.  Max range ~84 miles.  Lofted and scored a hit on the Tu-214 fired at 82nm.

AIM-120D Lofted and scored a hit on the Tu-214 at 100nm.

AIM-120D-2 Lofted and scored a hit on the Tu-214 at 110nm.

Tu-22's were even easier to hit due to the closure rate, fired at similar ranges.

Testing with Mig-29A nose hot ~Mach 1.  Radar STT lock at 80 miles.  All missiles hit, same launch parameters.

Tested with old loft value. Missiles all fine with STT. Seems the lofting problem only exist on TWS.  It looks like a missile lost a lock and found it’s target again while pit bull

[Nightstorm]

Yes, all of my testing was done with STT.  TWS guidance works, but not as well in my experience.  I don't know if that can be easily overcome through LUA edits.

[mrjay]

Guys I have an issue with Saitek X56 switch button, the only one on throttle. Well not only ... custom build buttons panel have the same issue with switches that stay on or off.

When i start mission for example with switch on for battery on on f22 sometimes switch changes behavior. Switching On causes turn off battery and switching off turns on battery.

 

Is it known problem? Anyone have the same issue?

How to resolve this?

[Nightstorm]

22 hours ago, mrjay said:

Guys I have an issue with Saitek X56 switch button, the only one on throttle. Well not only ... custom build buttons panel have the same issue with switches that stay on or off.

When i start mission for example with switch on for battery on on f22 sometimes switch changes behavior. Switching On causes turn off battery and switching off turns on battery.

 

Is it known problem? Anyone have the same issue?

How to resolve this?

This happens because several control bindings are a toggle instead of a true ON / OFF separate binding.  So, if the physical control and the sim are not synchronized it will reverse the functionality.  If I'm doing a hot start for testing, I have to turn off the battery and generator controls on my Winwing panel for example because if they're on, it'll turn them off when the sim loads.

[mrjay]

1 hour ago, Nightstorm said:

This happens because several control bindings are a toggle instead of a true ON / OFF separate binding.

Yeah ... that must be it.

Is it F-22 mod thing or is it general dcs thing? I'm currently don't have how to test it as I'm not at home for next two weeks.

If it's F-22 thingy maybe we could talk to Grinelli and politely persuade him to open source compiled/encoded lua files ;).

Because lets face it ... Only Nightstorm with small exception[s] makes this mod up and running. With access to lua sources ... others  could contribute also.

[FlyingAlex]

Hi lads,

I want to share a simple personal work today which is a auto throttle (atc) mod for this mod.

ATC have two mode 

Cruise - Hold existing airspeed

Approach - keep AoA for landing

Here is a video I recorded for demo:

 

Now I am testing for a proper AoA for landing. It’s 7 degree in the video but I thought it should be around ~10 - 15 degree according to the real life F-22A landing video in YouTube.

@Nightstorm see if you are happy to include this to your enhancement mod

[mrjay]

3 hours ago, FlyingAlex said:

Hi lads,

I want to share a simple personal work today which is a auto throttle (atc) mod for this mod.

ATC have two mode 

Cruise - Hold existing airspeed

Approach - keep AoA for landing

Here is a video I recorded for demo:

 

 

Excellent feature to have FlyingAlex!!!

But I'm thinking it's in early stage. Don't be angry

Could it be done that thrust is controlled without moving throttle? Because it looks very weird with moving throttle like that ;).

Also i think it should be switched off when you move throttle from current position by for example ±5% - 10%.

Other than that, for me looks great :).

 

What do you think guys?

 

[FlyingAlex]

@mrjay

In F/A18C the throttle moves in ATC so I will keep it.

for the second suggestion, I have several disengage triggers  flaps position changes, touch down, engine failures…

what you suggest definitely is a will do.

[mrjay]

6 hours ago, FlyingAlex said:

@mrjay

In F/A18C the throttle moves in ATC so I will keep it.

 

So maybe make these moves more smooth and not so extreme? But it's only a suggestion and the feature is awesome.

 

6 hours ago, FlyingAlex said:

 

for the second suggestion, I have several disengage triggers  flaps position changes, touch down, engine failures…

what you suggest definitely is a will do.

Super :)

[Mike34]

Hello everyone.

Didn't know there were more crazy F-22s out there... If I may, I would like to create a profile for everyone who uses Helios. In some cases I've already started. MFD and UFC are done. Now I want to set up the viewports, but unfortunately that doesn't work. @Flying Alex, you already have the viewports active in your video, could you please upload the files I need for them? As soon as the profile is finished, I will of course make it available here.

Greeting 

Mike34

null

[Nightstorm]

17 hours ago, FlyingAlex said:

Hi lads,

I want to share a simple personal work today which is a auto throttle (atc) mod for this mod.

ATC have two mode 

Cruise - Hold existing airspeed

Approach - keep AoA for landing

Here is a video I recorded for demo:

 

Now I am testing for a proper AoA for landing. It’s 7 degree in the video but I thought it should be around ~10 - 15 degree according to the real life F-22A landing video in YouTube.

@Nightstorm see if you are happy to include this to your enhancement mod

This is very cool.  I'd be happy to include it in the mod.  PM me on the side if you like.

[FlyingAlex]

@mrjay As the original mod the creator bind the animation directly to the fc3 throttle bind. I need to create a new binding for throttle and point the animation to follow the new binding instead of FC3 throttle bind.  I thought it's done in engine.lua which is encrypted.  It can be decompile, not hard but it's time-consuming.  For now I could leave it as it be first.  Once I finished the new binding which is also mandatory for the throttle push/pull disengage trigger you suggested I may take a look. 

 

@Mike34 Good work! I need that ICP layout can you upload it  I'm too lazy to download software for extracting it.  Actually I do have helios profile showing on my screen while I was recording the video above. Just the nvidia software didn't manage to capture it.  Simple stuff, just add code at the end of the init.lua in the corresponding folder of the screen you wanna export.  Let's say center mfd:

cockpit/scripts/MFD_CENTER/init.lua add this

dofile(LockOn_Options.common_script_path.."ViewportHandling.lua")

 

try_find_assigned_viewport("F22A_MFD_CENTER")

In helios the viewport need to have the same name which is F22A_MFD_CENTER and click reconfigure monitor in helios.  All done  

However, if you need to get the buttons work without binding keyboard press to it, you need a custom DCS Generic profile which I mentioned before.  I don't know if you are already working on it so I just leave my repo link here so. you may use it if you need it. https://github.com/kingDevGit/DCS-Helios-Community-Mod-Profile.  Please be aware I have physical mfds for left and right mfd so I had only exported buttons for ICP, center MFD, PMFD, L/RUFD and startup related bind which those I exported to touchscreens.  Won't be hard to add yourself if you get the code meanings (They are well documented with comments ). If you could help to add left and right mfd buttons it would be great.  You may create a pull request on github so I could merge it.

 

@Nightstorm As I will keep updating this add-on.  I've put it on github so everyone including myself can trace what's updating.  I had minimized the files need to be replaced. 

I will add a remark to tell everybody no need to download on github again if they install your enhancement mod after you've merged it.  I will also add a branch to indicate which version you are using.

Feel free to tweak it and it would be great pleasure if you would create a pull request after you tweak the code so I can notice them   

FOR EVERYONE AS WELL ! if you cannot wait until nightstorm merge it to the enhancement mod.  Install it yourself.

AUTO THROTTLE MOD FOR F-22A

Link: https://github.com/kingDevGit/DCS-F-22A-Auto-throttle-ATC

Click Code->Download Zip 

Follow the installation instruction

Features:

Approach mode will keep the aircraft with AoA 12 degrees.  With this AoA the aircraft could land with the posture very close to real life (Nose up, cushion landing with left right wheels first).  So once you've engaged the ATC approach mode, slowly trim the plane pointing to the runway and the plane will keep an ON-SPEED AoA to land (around 150 knots in my test, 6 AARAM, 2 sidewinder, 610 gallons internal fuelcell).  Your plane should be in a flare posture on the touch-down, slow your plane with the brake and slowing put your nose down. The FC3 mod have a bug on the nosewheel, you will find your nosewheel getting into the ground if you hit the brake too hard so kindly tap the brake to slow yourself down. 

Cruise mode will try to keep your existing true airspeed.  Useful on AAR, cruise.  The plane in this mod could accelerate very quickly so it could prevent the aircraft from draining fuels.  Also because of the same reason (plane easy to go fast), ATC won't be useful on slow speed as even you pull the throttle all way down the plane can still keep the speed for quite a while or even accelerate if you point the nose downward.  That's also why you need the speedbrake to maintain AoA in approach mode tho IRL F-22A do use the speedbrake while landing so it's close to realistic. 

 

 

Everybody, if you have any questions, suggestions or improvement works please don't be hesitate to comment. You may also create pull request in the repo above so we can all contribute. 

EDIT: I missed a file in the repo. Just uploaded the missing file. If you tried installing this addon in the past few hours please try again 

 

 

Edited February 22, 2023 by FlyingAlex

[Mike34]

Hi

@Flying Alex Here the UFC. I had to edit the images again. But now they are original. If you want to have the 2nd (as in the picture above), I have to create that first and it can take a few days until I have the images ready. Just let me know. Thanks to your help, I now have the viewports up and running and will now get to work on the panels. Since I'm new to Helios, I've only had touchscreen with Helios in the pit for a few months. So please be patient with me if it doesn't go that quickly. Depending on the status, I would then post the status of the Helios profile here again and again if that were okay...

Images UFC.zip

Best Regards

Mike

Edited February 22, 2023 by Mike34

[FlyingAlex]

ATC add-on update

Due to my mistake on the MFD page config.  

The mfds were broken in my previous release. Thanks nightstorm for the testing.

Lesson learnt.  Would test with a clean build before next release.

add-on updated with fixs:

https://github.com/kingDevGit/DCS-F-22A-Auto-throttle-ATC

Edited February 23, 2023 by FlyingAlex

[Nightstorm]

11 hours ago, FlyingAlex said:

ATC add-on update

Due to my mistake on the MFD page config.  

The mfds were broken in my previous release. Thanks nightstorm for the testing.

Lesson learnt.  Would test with a clean build before next release.

add-on updated with fixs:

https://github.com/kingDevGit/DCS-F-22A-Auto-throttle-ATC

 

No problem, it only takes one little character in the wrong place to prevent a LUA file from loading!  I'm continuing to test, but will update both the single and multi-player releases shortly.  Most likely this evening after work.  Thank you!

[Mike34]

Hi

Yes Sir, many thanks.

Update to F22 profil.

Helio's profile is up and running now. I have now inserted the left UFD and the viewports are working as well. The ICP is also functional and all buttons have their bindings set. When I wanted to do the first test flight, I unfortunately had to find out that the SMS display on the left MFD was not displayed correctly. Also, only the arrows are displayed on the PMFD. The RWR is missing on the right MFD. I then tried to get it all working, but without success. Does anyone have an idea how I can get the ads? The help in various tutorials didn't get me any further after many hours of research...

                                                           Good.                                                                                           SMS, Radar and RWR failed...

      

 

@Flying Alex

One more question, how did you make the ad in the ICP?

Do I have to add an extra viewport and which lua is required for this?

I am thankful for every help.

I'm currently on the left panels and trying to implement all the switches. At the weekend I will then tackle the right panels... ;-))

Greetings

Mike34

Edited February 23, 2023 by Mike34

[FlyingAlex]

@Mike34

Bad news are RWR, SMS page won't be exported successfully. This is FC3 limitation.

 

Good news is, you come into this thread in a right time. 

I am making a custom Weapon Bay page which can correctly show the payload.  It's in progress but can show you a screen.

I started the work yesterday and told nightstorm this morning. I'm happy the way I expected to figure it out working and the progress going fast.

In the screencap, green dots are pylons with weapon, white dots are empty pylons, red dot is the weapon you are selecting.

What I have to do is add the weapon name / abr  on the screen.  this custom weapon bay can show all the name of the weapon f22 can carry correctly

 

 

updated

 

Not bad for me, really sick of fc3 avionics as I want to export sms and rwr page too…  this weapon bay page is not yet finished. And it need some new binding to replace the olds.  

I will try to see if I can make a rwr on my own. Seems possible. 
 

For the ICP, please export ICP page

 

Edited February 23, 2023 by FlyingAlex

[Nightstorm]

@Mike34 I added the additional information to the ICP by editing the page_1.lua file located in .\Mods\aircraft\F-22A\Cockpit\Scripts\ICP.

I'm not sure that it can be exported, but good luck!

@FlyingAlex I am absolutely loving the additions your making.  I was about to suggest having the empty missiles be just a green circle with the black center and then continued to scroll and saw your second screenshot.  This is awesome!

I'll tell you this.  Two things that I've wanted to implement and haven't figured a way are a true HSD type of display.  Horizontal Situation Display that could show AWACS data.  I created a page for it on the PMFD, but for now it's only got navigation related information.  The other is a true moving map for the map pages.

I welcome your input and anyone else's for that matter.  As a community we can continue to improve this awesome mod.

Thank you!

And for the amusement of all, I'll share part of a PM I sent to @FlyingAlex this morning.

"And I'm loving this by the way.  Well done.  Funny story, the first time I was testing the ATC APPROACH I had this odd drift to the right, I kept correcting for it and kept the velocity vector on the end of the runway.  I touched down, heard a crunch sound and the nose slammed into the runway.  I then realized that I had forgetting to LOWER THE GEAR!  LOL.

Point is, it successfully landed the Raptor even in a gear up configuration!  I just skidded to stop with the master caution flashing at me."

Edited February 23, 2023 by Nightstorm

[Nightstorm]

Everything appears to be working well for both the Single Player and Multi-player version.  I just want to confirm with @whisky.actual that it's ok to include this code ported from the JAS-39C Mod.  FlyingAlex told me that he'd contacted him, but I've learned to "trust but verify" and I want to ensure that everything is out in the open for all to see.

Thanks!

[FlyingAlex]

The atc contains some code from the JAS 1.8.0 which was released to public on GitHub years ago.  Since I talked to Whisky_actual on discord only, if whisky_actual you are reading this thread yeah this is my DCS forum account

@Nightstorm I believe the moving map is a doable stuff with some precise calculation as we can have the aircraft coordinate through api. And a more proper map image of course. getting waypoint on it seems not possible. But we can at least put the airport on the moving map.  We should be able to get awacs call data on our client export but have to find a way to communicate with the mod. Not sure possible or not.

 

Love the community idea. The reason for me doing this was just want to get rid of fc3 avionics and for now make anyone happy would be a bonus for me

Edited February 24, 2023 by FlyingAlex

[FlyingAlex]

 

As I found that I’m exploring on and on.  The works I planned for F22A modding is growing so there are things I want to state first.  I like the way @Nightstorm has stated with this enhancement mod.  This is a community works and everyone should be encouraged to contribute.   Thanks  nightstorm for it. The changes I’ve made would continue to release as add-on and they will stick to this thread as I want to avoid any drama that would happen.  We are all here for fun.  No need drama. And keeping things in one place is good.

 

As a software developer myself in real life, I always upload my code on GitHub for better documentation and versioning.  It would enable others to contribute in a much easy way too. Github along with git are great and common platform/tool in the world of software development.  I recommend it for everyone who code and willing to share.

 

I want to give more information on the Weapon Bay page I'm making while it's in progress if I may.

 

As you all may know, there is no way to obtain data from the FC3 module in a straight way.  Everything is workaround and hacky trick here.   The weapon bay page can have all the payload in the beginning of the mission in a straight way.  However, it’s much more complicated to trace which weapon the user choose and which of it was released.  For now it’s matching my control style but I need to think of every cases before shipping it.  I’m thinking to rework the logic of entering each of the hud mode and selecting weapon as well.  It will be a big changes of files actually so I’m still looking for the best solution for this.  This weapon bay will be released once I thought it’s stable enough for everyone normal flight.  It may take some time.

 

In addition, for the funny landing story from Nightstorm ,here is my reply in the chat with Nightstorm

Every landing you can walk away of is a good landing 🫡 but a expensive landing it is. I think it somehow prove that the AoA for landing now is ok.  Actually I think it’s very close to the feel land a FA18C with ATC. You may try a F2 view and compare with real life video 

Next time anyone who broke his gear in the mission like Maverick in Top Gun,  ATC approach for a hard landing may be a solution.  However, ATC would be disengaged if there is Master Caution in my recent update.  I don't know is there master caution if your gear broken tho  

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by FlyingAlex

[Mike34]

Good morning

First of all, thank you very much for the tips I received from you. I think it's great when people have a common goal and work in a team to achieve it. I myself am already of an advanced age and am happy about any support and if I can also make a small contribution, so much the better. Unfortunately, I am not a programmer now, but if I can then use the Helios profile to make the flight experience a little more pleasant for all users, I would like to continue to participate in the further development of the F22 in terms of the profile in the future.

Thanks to Flying Alex and Nightstorm.

It's just awesome what you do here for the community. Maybe one day "Grinelli" will decide to let us take control of the Thrust Vector...;-))

I think the Su57 mod had implemented that?

Unfortunately, the mod was lost on my part through carelessness. (Hard drive with DCS and all mods broke...L) If anyone else has the mod, I would appreciate a download link. Unfortunately, the DCS forum no longer has it.

F22 against Su57 has something…

I hope that in the course of the next week I'll be through with the Helios profile so far that I can make a first test version available. Should I then upload them to Github or here in the forum?

@ Nightstorm

The ICP works as you can see in my picture, but it was probably a mistake on my part. Flying Alex placed the ad on the left side, i.e. the viewport there. If I pull the viewport over both sides, the font gets too big and you can't see it anymore.

So all good, thanks for your info.

Ps. One more comment maybe.

I only do the landing of the F22 manually. Since I've been a VFW pilot for a very, very long time, I might like to give you a tip. AOA 4-5*, 150Ktn, Airbrakes, Gear Down, only hold AOA with thrust, no more yaw stick movements. Then the “touchdown” is smooth as butter…;-)

If the AOA is greater than 6*, you touch down with the rear. So that's how it appears for me.

Best regards

Mike34

[GUSBUS123]

Hello everybody,

I got this mod a day ago and just want to say you guys are doing an amazing job keeping it alive.

My personal top three things I would like to see in the future as a consumer is definitely DataLink, waypoints for precision bomb strikes, and a moving map.

I love the community working together to do this and I would help if I was a coding genius, but sadly I can't do more than editing values.

Thank you and keep up the good work!

GUSBUS123 

 

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by GUSBUS123