DML - Mission Creation Toolbox [no Lua required]

[TCW_Rickske]

3 hours ago, cfrag said:

Currently, DCS does not allow you to spawn player-controlled aircraft dynamically, you have to place all player controlled aircraft with ME.

Thats a shame, thanks for the reply anyway! Was hoping DML was a way around it but alas..

 

[DD_Friar]

Salute @cfrag Happy Friday,

Quick question on the excellent new feature of the Bomb Range.

In the spec you mention that a player signing in can "wake up the bomb range" - by this do you mean enabling activity around the range for effects, like vehicles moving away or to actually make the range functionality start checking, i.e it is like in a "late activation" state before someone signs in.?

Regards

Friar

[cfrag]

37 minutes ago, DD_Friar said:

do you mean enabling activity around the range for effects,

Yes. For some missions it might be beneficial for the mission designer when to activate otherwise unnecessary stuff, or do other things that help to prepare the mission if you know that a player is inbound. It's a QoL feature for mission designers, nothing more 

[cfrag]

On 11/1/2023 at 4:58 PM, HanuXXL said:

Does it come to your mind any way to manipulate what liveries the script selects?

Full support of CAM and liveries is now implemented and will be fully documented with the forthcoming release. In short, look at the 'civil_liveries' (I'm a sucker for cheap puns) zone that defines which types to use with which liveries.

Note: the mission below requires that you have CAM (civil aircraft mod) installed, else you won't see much.

CAM and DML Civ Air.miz

[Sinclair_76]

cfxReconMode still returns altitude in meters and latlong even when MGRS and imperial is set to true. Is there a way to change it? 

Edited November 4, 2023 by Sinclair_76

[HanuXXL]

23 hours ago, cfrag said:

Full support of CAM and liveries is now implemented and will be fully documented with the forthcoming release. In short, look at the 'civil_liveries' (I'm a sucker for cheap puns) zone that defines which types to use with which liveries.

Thanks!!! Working perfectly!

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, Sinclair_76 said:

Is there a way to change it? 

The "imperialUnits" attribute in the "reconModeConfig" zone controls that. If you set it to true, elevation should be announced in feet and other silly units (knots for velocity, tablespoons for volume and whatnot  ). Can I trouble you to double-check that you are running the newest version of DML, and that you have set up the imperialUnits attribute to 'true' or 'yes'?

 

[Sinclair_76]

34 minutes ago, cfrag said:

The "imperialUnits" attribute in the "reconModeConfig" zone controls that. If you set it to true, elevation should be announced in feet and other silly units (knots for velocity, tablespoons for volume and whatnot  ). Can I trouble you to double-check that you are running the newest version of DML, and that you have set up the imperialUnits attribute to 'true' or 'yes'?

 

Yup latest versions and imperial as well as mgrs to true.

[cfrag]

If possible please post or pm the mission (sans any mods) so I can take a look, and I’m sure that we can resolve this quickly 

 

[Sinclair_76]

2 hours ago, cfrag said:

If possible please post or pm the mission (sans any mods) so I can take a look, and I’m sure that we can resolve this quickly 

 

My bad. I forgot the reconModeConfig. It is properly mentioned in the DML Documentation but not really in the DML Quick Reference.

[Sinclair_76]

Is there a way to randomize the position of FireFX in a zone?

[Panthir]

Hello Cfrag, 

I try to add more than the three SAM ACTIVATION options in your CFragms_Marianas_Proving_Grounds.miz with no success. It seems that CFragms_Marianas_Proving_Grounds v3.mizyou can add only for ITEMS A, B, C and D in radio menu. Is there any way to add more than 4 items?

Edited November 4, 2023 by Panthir

[cfrag]

3 minutes ago, Sinclair_76 said:

Is there a way to randomize the position of FireFX in a zone?

That's a great idea! Let me see what I can do (so, currently, the answer is "not yet"  )

[cfrag]

34 minutes ago, Sinclair_76 said:

Is there a way to randomize the position of FireFX in a zone?

Now there is, DML style:

New Attributes:

• rndLoc - if true, position of fire(s) in the zone is randomized. When more than 1 fires (see 'num'), is automatically set to true. Defaults to false
• num: a number (e.g. "3") or range ("2-7") of fires to place inside the zone. When you supply a range, the number of fires and their locations are randomized inside the zone when the fires are started. All fires are started and stopped at the same time. If more than 1 fires possible, rndLoc is automatically set to true. Defaults to "1"

See accompanying miz. Will be part of next release after I conclude regression testing (i.e. code seen below is pre-release and might still change)

 

fireFX.lua fires bruning bright.miz

38 minutes ago, Panthir said:

you can add only for ITEMS A, B, C and D in radio menu

That's currently the limit, yes. Adding more is tedious, and I'm lazy. Maybe I'll get around to doing that, but the code that does that is really, really inelegant (which I blame on some DCS idiosyncrasies, not me being lazy )  

[Panthir]

Many thanx Cfrag!!

[Sinclair_76]

17 hours ago, cfrag said:

Now there is, DML style:

New Attributes:

• rndLoc - if true, position of fire(s) in the zone is randomized. When more than 1 fires (see 'num'), is automatically set to true. Defaults to false
• num: a number (e.g. "3") or range ("2-7") of fires to place inside the zone. When you supply a range, the number of fires and their locations are randomized inside the zone when the fires are started. All fires are started and stopped at the same time. If more than 1 fires possible, rndLoc is automatically set to true. Defaults to "1"

See accompanying miz. Will be part of next release after I conclude regression testing (i.e. code seen below is pre-release and might still change)

 

fireFX.lua 7.49 kB · 1 download fires bruning bright.miz 153.89 kB · 0 downloads

That's currently the limit, yes. Adding more is tedious, and I'm lazy. Maybe I'll get around to doing that, but the code that does that is really, really inelegant (which I blame on some DCS idiosyncrasies, not me being lazy )  

Might I suggest another improvement?

The effects themselves are all the same.

n

Sure after fireFx in the zone description you can enter the required size. Would it be possible to enter "r" or "rnd" in the description so that DML then randomizes effects (fire / smoke), effect sizes (S/M/L/XL) and smoke density?

To develop it further combine it with spot zone destruction. So you have randomized smoke/fire and combine it with say 60% (user changeable) of the objects at the fire/smoke destroyed?

This would quickly add a lot of grittiness to scenario's that is randomized. 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Sinclair_76

[DD_Friar]

Salute

Can someone advise me please on the module to use to delete a plane or ground unit when it arrives at a destination. I have looked through the docs for the correct module but nothing has come to mind.

 

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, Sinclair_76 said:

This would quickly add a lot of grittiness to scenario's that is randomized. 

Indeed, I initially implemented that, and ran into human interface issues: being able to control which fire size  and smoke densities would be part of of the randomizer (make size a range?, make density a list?, randomize with or without flames with a percentage?), resulting in a truly messy interface, with little added benefit.

A better alternative is to layer multiple fire zones above each other, and then have each zone randomize a smaller number of specific fires. That way you can have tight control over fire size and smoke densities, have even some smoke without fire, under tight control - all something that a fully randomized zone can't offer with similar tight control.

 

[cfrag]

41 minutes ago, DD_Friar said:

the module to use to delete a plane or ground unit when it arrives at a destination

In DML, you can brute-force that with the Wiper module. Be advised that DCS itself doesn't deal with individual units, but groups, so you'd usually remove the entire group, not just individual units. And just to cover all bases: player-controlled units can't be easily removed in single-player, and only with some helper tools in multi-player.

Other than that, removing units can be made easier with DML if you use spawners or cloners to create them, because these modules possess the ability to remove their last instance of created objects, so it also depends on your particular mission designs.

So, if you describe your set-up I think that we can quickly come to a working solution

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, Sinclair_76 said:

To develop it further combine it with spot zone destruction. So you have randomized smoke/fire and combine it with say 60% (user changeable) of the objects at the fire/smoke destroyed?

That's an interesting concept that I've put in my backlog. Currently Lua scripting does not (AFAIK) offer access to scenery destruction similar to the way that ME does with Scenery Destruction Action. Should that API be opened to Lua Scripting, I'll be all over it  

 

[DD_Friar]

Salute @cfrag

My scenario is I have a need for example to have a plane take off at an airfield (mainly for eye candy and to make the airfield look busy). It takes off then flies into the distance out of harms way and is then removed from the mission.

I also have a need for spawning convoys as ground target fodder. If they reach their destination I have no need for them to stay on the map so would like to remove them. They may not all make it of course if they are attacked on route.

Using the old triggers I would have placed a zone called something like "Delete Bomber". Then when set up a trigger that said if unit entered zone, selecting "Delete Bomber" zone and unit being my eye candy plane then the action would be to DEACTIVATE GROUP to remove it from the map.

Will wiper give me the same option?

[cfrag]

1 minute ago, DD_Friar said:

My scenario is I have a need for example to have a plane take off at an airfield (mainly for eye candy and to make the airfield look busy). It takes off then flies into the distance out of harms way and is then removed from the mission.

If it's eye candy only air traffic, perhaps also consider using the CivAir module that lets you do that with a lot more pizzaz with a few clicks. 

Generally, though, the pattern of producing player fodder like convoys (and flights into the blue yonder) is easy to accomplish with just two modules: cloner and unitZone:

1. Create a convoy at the original location and lay out it's path
2. Put a cloner on top of it
3. set it to preWipe 
4. connect it's clone? input to a unique flag that you name yourself, like 'startConvoy'
5. connect it's empty! output to  'startConvoy', so a new convoy is started whenever the old one was completely destroyed 
6. Add a unitZone at the last waypoint that triggers on the convoy (using name matching, so cloned groups are recognized), and connect the enterZone! output to the 'startConvoy' flag. Once the first convoy unit enters the unitZone, it sends a signal on the 'startConvoy' flag. The cloner sees the signal flag connected to the clone? input, and starts a clone cycle. Since preWipe is active, it wipes the currently active convoy for it's current location, and then creates a new one at the initial location.

Does this work for you?

[DD_Friar]

@cfrag Thanks I will give it a go. My scenario is further complicated by my idea of having maybe 3 different types of convoy that are selected by random but I guess it is just a case of replicating the above logic to re-loop to the rndFlag control so it picks the next convoy.

The plane I want to use is military and do not want any extra mods so I will use the logic for my plane(s) as well.

kind regards and thanks again and your time to reply so quick.

Friar

[cfrag]

2 minutes ago, DD_Friar said:

The plane I want to use is military and do not want any extra mods so I will use the logic for my plane(s) as well.

Understood. CivAir does not use any mods, and can be quickly reconfigured to use any type of plane. I've just used some civilian-looking planes (most are mil transports, as DCS does not really have a lot in civ planes) as default since that is what people want. Simply alter the types to use, and you can have eagles and flankers and hogs. But the spawn & wipe cycle usually works even better, the civ's module'sstrong suit is randomizing flights and destination

 

[DD_Friar]

@cfrag I have built what you suggested, at least I think I have. I have a problem if a convoy gets to the unitZone in tact. I get double spawns (at the moment I have two convoys) and then when they reach the unitZone further spawns just start flashing in and out!

I would rather not make my mission public at the moment (do not want my squad seeing other surprises I have for them) so have attached, what I hope are clear pictures for my log at the moment.

The scenario is kicked off by a bus (the item starting half way down the road). This is a testing tool and will be removed for some other mechanic kicking off the process.

The bus enters the unit zone, it has the same name structure as the main convoys so is matched in the HH-Convoy* criteria and then turns right to park out the way.

This then triggers the first random spawn, which works ok. As I am testing this convoy gets to the unitZone with no issue. It is from here that the problems start.

Any advice / nudges would be much appreciated.

* The length of the journey is only this short for testing.

Many thanks

Friar