DCS World Mission Editor | Draw Tool

[Grimes]

Via scripting you can sort of do it via markup functions: https://wiki.hoggitworld.com/view/DCS_func_markupToAll

It is worth noting that the Draw feature and what is available in the scripting engine are almost two different iterations of it. For instance the scripting engine has one set of outlines for shapes while draw has different options. Scripting can't draw an ellipse or icons. Some of the scripting functions can "rotate" the object but it is purely done via doing the corresponding rotation of points and drawing it that way. Also color for scripting is basically RGBA in values from 0 to 1 while the editor values for drawn shapes is hex. 

[TheTrooper]

ok that makes sense. I was thinking of simple two possible function. Turn visibility on and visibility off for a specific object.

[Backy 51]

 

 

[Rudel_chw]

Suntsag's made a nice tutorial for the Draw feature:

 

 

 

[DHesquire]

Can these be exported to a template/copied between missions in some way?  I've got FIR boundaries mapped out and some 'persistent' markers for a campaign, but the usual static template and copy/paste doesn't work 

[Rudel_chw]

27 minutes ago, DHesquire said:

Can these be exported to a template/copied between missions in some way? 

 

Not that I know of .. the concept of the Static Template is very powerful, I hope and wish that ED will expand it to include items like:

- Trigger Zones

- Action Triggers

- Draw objects

- Weather

[fargo007]

This technique might help in some way perhaps:

You can port a mission between maps easily by unpacking, changing the theatre file to suit, and then changing the "[theatre]" tag in the mission file as well.  Repack into a zip, rename .miz and then all your stuff will be in the exact same x/y coords as in the previous map.

You now have to move all the zones, aircraft, etc.

When I have to reproduce triggers, I snap off screenshots of each one in the source mission, and just manually rebuild them in the new one. 

[Rudel_chw]

17 minutes ago, fargo007 said:

You can port a mission between maps easily by unpacking, changing the theatre file to suit, and then changing the "[theatre]" tag

I wouldn’t exactly describe it as easy, since most of the time the missions units and statics will end up located on places hard to reach with the mouse, and moving them with the mouse can be tricky ir even impossible, and if you select a unit on the unit list and then attempt to cut/paste it into a correct location, any trigger condition that references the unit will dissapear.

[fargo007]

14 minutes ago, Rudel_chw said:

I wouldn’t exactly describe it as easy, since most of the time the missions units and statics will end up located on places hard to reach with the mouse, and moving them with the mouse can be tricky ir even impossible, and if you select a unit on the unit list and then attempt to cut/paste it into a correct location, any trigger condition that references the unit will dissapear.

I guess it depends on where you've put things. The far edges of maps aren't really popular places in my missions.

I've never had difficulty with this at all. Drag the units to suit and don't cut and paste them. 

It's still FAR easier than rebuilding the entire thing manually, especially if the time required to rebuild a giant trigger stack far outweighs the burden of moving the objects.

If your mission is much more unit-centric or script driven than triggers, there's no benefit here. If it's largely trigger-driven, this is the best choice I've found.

The right tool for the right job.  Nobody said mission building in DCS would be easy..... 

 

Edited November 22, 2021 by fargo007

[NineLine]

I have submitted a few new lines, and improvements to the current ones, as well as 100 plus new icons. So I hope we see those soon. 

Thanks.

[DHesquire]

On 11/22/2021 at 2:23 PM, DHesquire said:

Can these be exported to a template/copied between missions in some way?  I've got FIR boundaries mapped out and some 'persistent' markers for a campaign, but the usual static template and copy/paste doesn't work 

Thank you for the update, @NineLine!  If even just the basic Copy/Paste could be done for map markers, that'd be a massive help.  Ability to have them (and IP objects, maybe?) as compatible parts of Static Templates would be a bigger bonus!

I've managed to get around it by cracking the template's MIZ file open, and copying the [drawings] section from my into the MIZ of the flyable missions themselves.  Obviously this isn't ideal long-term as it has corrupted entire mission files for me before, but it's worked as an interim solution 

...just awaiting CombatFlite to be updated to 'merge' functionality (pull & push markers to/from mission editor) 

[gunterlund21]

Will it be possible now or in the future to change the color of a text box or line etc... Dynamically. So for instance if a zone gets captured the color changes

[Baaz]

Could someone tell me what I'm doing wrong, please.

Situation:

I will put a text box at an airfield with notations like those shown in Suntsag's video above (all credit goes to him for the idea).  However, while the box is rather small while zoomed in, the box becomes incredibly large the further I zoom out; to the point where multiple boxes start overlapping each other and become unreadable and ugly to look at.

Am I missing a checkbox somewhere, or am I glitched somehow?

[DHesquire]

On 12/13/2021 at 4:01 AM, Baaz said:

Could someone tell me what I'm doing wrong, please.

Situation:

I will put a text box at an airfield with notations like those shown in Suntsag's video above (all credit goes to him for the idea).  However, while the box is rather small while zoomed in, the box becomes incredibly large the further I zoom out; to the point where multiple boxes start overlapping each other and become unreadable and ugly to look at.

Am I missing a checkbox somewhere, or am I glitched somehow?

I've noticed that too - it seems the scaling is done relative to the screen space rather than the map it overlays, so it stays a fixed size on your screen but obvs as you zoom out it becomes (appears) 'bigger' relative to the map and its neighbours

[doedkoett]

Is there any way to copy/paste drawn elements? If I want 10 circles the same size or if I want all textboxes to follow the same style. Ctrl-c ctrl-v does not seem to work. 

[NineLine]

Its requested, but not added yet, sorry.

[XCNuse]

How does one do a line break in the text box?

I know it's possible as I've seen it done before; but does it require going into the .miz file itself and editing a file by hand?

[Andartu]

On 12/13/2021 at 5:01 AM, Baaz said:

Could someone tell me what I'm doing wrong, please.

Situation:

I will put a text box at an airfield with notations like those shown in Suntsag's video above (all credit goes to him for the idea).  However, while the box is rather small while zoomed in, the box becomes incredibly large the further I zoom out; to the point where multiple boxes start overlapping each other and become unreadable and ugly to look at.

Am I missing a checkbox somewhere, or am I glitched somehow?

 

On 12/22/2021 at 1:27 PM, DHesquire said:

I've noticed that too - it seems the scaling is done relative to the screen space rather than the map it overlays, so it stays a fixed size on your screen but obvs as you zoom out it becomes (appears) 'bigger' relative to the map and its neighbours

So is it possible to turn that text scaling off while zooming in and out? If not not it is really needed. 

[DHesquire]

On 2/22/2022 at 12:36 AM, Andartu said:

 

So is it possible to turn that text scaling off while zooming in and out? If not not it is really needed. 

I don't think so - if there is I certainly haven't found it.  One for @NineLine to consider/feedback 

[CoconutCockpit]

Is there a way using scripting to get the points of a drawing done in the Mission Editor? For example, if I draw a line in the ME, can I somehow find the (x, y)-pair of the two points while the mission is running?

[dark_wood]

On 3/12/2022 at 12:09 PM, applepiefrost said:

Is there a way using scripting to get the points of a drawing done in the Mission Editor? For example, if I draw a line in the ME, can I somehow find the (x, y)-pair of the two points while the mission is running?

You can take this data from 'mission' file inside .miz:

- change .miz to .zip

- extract the file called "mission"

- open it with Notepad++ (optional - set Language to JSON in order to expand/collapse objects)

- search for ["drawings"], then scroll to  ["layers"]

- you will see something like this:

[1]

....

[4] = 
            {
                ["visible"] = true,
                ["name"] = "Common",
                ["objects"] = 
                {
                    [1] = 
                    {
                        ["visible"] = true,
                        ["colorString"] = "0x000000ff",
                        ["lineMode"] = "segments",
                        ["mapY"] = 612784.67632253,
                        ["primitiveType"] = "Line",
                        ["style"] = "solid",
                        ["closed"] = false,
                        ["thickness"] = 5,
                        ["mapX"] = -365817.09247666,
                        ["layerName"] = "Common",
                        ["name"] = "GerogeBound1",
                        ["points"] = 
                        {
                            [1] = 
                            {
                                ["y"] = 0,
                                ["x"] = 0,
                            }, -- end of [1]
                            [2] = 
                            {
                                ["y"] = 26571.240587333,
                                ["x"] = -7049.5128088843,
                            }, -- end of [2]
                            [4] = 
                            {
                                ["y"] = 82967.343058407,
                                ["x"] = -271.13510803401,
                            }, -- end of [4]
                            [8] = ...

Bolded x and y are your points coordinates, you can access it with LUA, something like:

local testPointX = env.mission.drawings.layers[4].points[1][x]

local testPointY = env.mission.drawings.layers[4].points[1][y]

You will need a for loop to parse all the points.

Hope it helps

 

Edited March 24, 2022 by dark_wood

[CoconutCockpit]

Oh right, I was trying to get to the `mission` table but didn't realize that was in the `env` table. Thanks man!

[buur]

Is there a change that we get a scripting possibility for the icons? It will be very helpful if we can set them via scripting.

[dark_wood]

10 hours ago, buur said:

Is there a change that we get a scripting possibility for the icons? It will be very helpful if we can set them via scripting.

https://wiki.hoggitworld.com/view/MIST_markerDrawShape

[buur]

vor 10 Minuten schrieb dark_wood:

https://wiki.hoggitworld.com/view/MIST_markerDrawShape

Thanks for the link, but I mean the military symbols as icons.