Labels On/Off

[dresoccer4]

Quick q: before I had to reinstall DCS, I had it set up so pressing the "all labels" button would either turn on all of the labels or turn off all of the labels.

Now after reinstalling DCS when pressing "all labels" it cycles through 4 different modes, all labels, distance, name, dot (or something like that). This adds a bunch of extra unnecessary button presses as I just want labels either on or off. 

How can you set up DCS to achieve this? I know it's possible as it's how I used to have it. I don't want to have to cycle all the label mods, I just want them all on or all off.

Thanks!

[silverdevil]

@dresoccer4 generally these files are an LUA on your system. probably modified from default by a mod or hand done. did you keep a backup of the other folders or overwrite? i have my labels to DOT. each time i update though, it does a backup of the files changed from default and replaces with the default. 

Quote

C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\_backup.000\Config\View\Labels.lua

Quote

C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\Config\View\Labels.lua

 

Edited December 31, 2021 by silverdevil

[silverdevil]

oh forgot to mention that it is preferred to put them in saved games instead.

Quote

%userprofile%\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Config\View

 

[dresoccer4]

10 hours ago, silverdevil said:

@dresoccer4 generally these files are an LUA on your system. probably modified from default by a mod or hand done. did you keep a backup of the other folders or overwrite? i have my labels to DOT. each time i update though, it does a backup of the files changed from default and replaces with the default. 

 

 

no my old SSD broke so I couldn't salvage any of the modified DCS files so I'm having to get DCS back to the way I like it and my old age isn't helping my memory. i have modified the labels.lua file so I can see the labels further away, but i hate having to cycle through all the modes. i just want on or off

[silverdevil]

@dresoccer4 i will have to look a little more how to do that. i use only dots in my setup. they appear and get more opaque as i close in on the target and then disappear when close enough to actually see the target. the LUA has information within it to help in the edits.

[silverdevil]

@dresoccer4 - i looked through general keyboard commands and there are a few hot keys / combos for labels.

Quote

LShift - F2    Aircraft Labels
LShift - F10    All Labels
LShift - F6    Missile Labels
LShift - F9    Vehicle & Ship Labels

you would have to look at your controls to make sure they are the same as mine. to my knowledge i have not changed these from default.

[dresoccer4]

2 minutes ago, silverdevil said:

@dresoccer4 - i looked through general keyboard commands and there are a few hot keys / combos for labels.

you would have to look at your controls to make sure they are the same as mine. to my knowledge i have not changed these from default.

yes these are the same. the "All Labels" is the main one folks use as it turns all of the labels on, then also cycles through the 4 different label types. Whereas there's a way to press "LShft + F10" to have all the labels turn on and then all the labels turn off. As it is now you have to cycle through the 4 different types each time you simply want to glance at the labels. It's pretty time consuming if you're in a tight spot

Edited January 1, 2022 by dresoccer4

[silverdevil]

ah i see. i guess since i use only dots, i never need to toggle. i personally do not like the full info labels. but i feel like i cannot see targets that well and i am sure the AI does not have that issue. its only fair that i use labels to see them too. but i also like to get up close and ID the type. if i figure anything out i will come back. maybe someone else with chime in. good luck and clear skies! 

[Vekkinho]

On 1/1/2022 at 5:56 PM, silverdevil said:

ah i see. i guess since i use only dots, i never need to toggle. i personally do not like the full info labels. but i feel like i cannot see targets that well and i am sure the AI does not have that issue. its only fair that i use labels to see them too. but i also like to get up close and ID the type. if i figure anything out i will come back. maybe someone else with chime in. good luck and clear skies! 

Yeah, it's the "Level of Detail or Draw distance issue" known since the days of LockOn:MAC. In real life you'd be able to spot a flanking fighter sized aircraft from a ~10NM distance but in DCS it's not possible. I messed around with this subject back in LOMAC days, I'd place two fighters facing eachother and observe what happens. Apparently it has nothing to do with your visibility range setting, general resolution you play with or zoom/FOV setting. Once you spot another aircraft in the skies it would magically disappear as you close on it and it used to drive me crazy. Flightpath of an AI is easy to read and it doesn't suddenly reverse when it goes "stealth" but if you're up against a human in some PvP engagement one of you might exploit this issue by repositioning and giving the other side a hard time to spot you in other part of the screen. I also though that going from 1024*768 resolution to 4K that most of us run these days would solve this issue but it doesn't. Being unable to spot KC-135 or IL-78 while trailing 5 NM behind it can be frustrating.

So even as unreallistic as they are I encourage the players to use dot labels to maintain tally. It's not perfect as dot labels are of the same size for MiG-21 and C-17 and dots are either blue, red or white so you have Mark 1 eyeball IFF but hey it's better than nothing. 

You can also edit your Config/View/labels.lua to have Red, Blue and Neutral coallition labels appear as grayish dot so you can't tell who's who out there.