DML - Mission Creation Toolbox [no Lua required]

[cfrag]

From what I can see from the screen shots that you kindly provided, there is at least one issue: 

The little automaton you initially built relies on the fact that a cloner knows it's last spawn, and therefore, using the 'preWipe' attribute will, prior to spawning a new cycle, remove the old, then spawn a new.  This is not required when empty! fires since then we know that all previous spawns are removed. 

But we run into a problem when the first unit of cloner A reaches the end zone, and the randomizer then selects cloner B. Cloner B will pre-wipe its own clones, but not those that you intend to clone - the clones of cloner A. That will be at least one of the issues that you will need to resolve.

One way to do this is by using the wipe? input for the cloners that causes them to wipe their last clone. wire 'Convoy-Cycle' into them (all cloners), and all cloners will delete their current spawn when the signal is issued. This will clear out all spawns from all cloners.

Then, after a 1 second delay (using a delayFlag, can be stacked on the RND zone if you stop using 'f?' as input for both in the stack), run Convoy-Cycle' to the RND's 'rndPoll?' input (which you lazily call 'f?' ), and have it select a new cloner to spawn. The one second delay will help to safely separate the 'wipe?' inputs from the 'clone?' inputs and make the whole mechanism more robust.

Edited November 5, 2023 by cfrag

[DD_Friar]

@cfrag - Many thanks - now works like a charm. 

Just as an aside f? is still listed in documentation (yes, I am ACTUALLY reading it) as a valid parameter, but I note you are trying to move away from that concept. I will do my best not to use it any more.

Cheers

Friar

[DD_Friar]

@cfrag One final question on this - I have moved on to testing what if the units are all destroyed on route. 

When all the units are killed, the next convoy is started correctly as expected. The problem I am now having is that the old burning wrecks are still on the road.

I have tried "declutter" against the clone but the vehicles are outside the spawn zone so I guess that is why it does not appear to work?

Is there anything I can do about this?

[cfrag]

Just now, DD_Friar said:

The problem I am now having is that the old burning wrecks are still on the road.

That unfortunately is a DCS thing. Nothing we currently can do about. Hopefully that will change at some point in time.

[DD_Friar]

Salute @cfrag - Sorry to bother you again but I m having an issue with ASW. I can not seem to get any stores available for my Apache Helicopter for testing.

I have attached a screenshots below plus the mission.

Please do not worry about the configuration for the submarine, I have not turned my attention to that yet.

I wonder if you could give me a nudge as to where I am going wrong?

ASW-Test.miz

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, DD_Friar said:

I can not seem to get any stores available for my Apache Helicopter for testing.

Ah, this is one to grin over. It had me stumped as well until I noticed something:

• See the boundary of the ASW zone
• Note that it does not extend to the front of the Tarawa
• Guess where you are starting in the Apache? 
• You are outside the zone, and the chief thinks you don't get any asw outside his zone.

 

Remedy: Increase zone size to 1200, place it exactly on top of the Tarawa's center.

[DD_Friar]

@cfrag DOH! - I have been struggling with this pretty much all afternoon and the answer is as simple as where the plane is placed on the carrier in the editor is not the same as where it starts when you run the mission, and therefore outside the zone! 

</begin bang head on wall>

</end bang head on wall>

Many thanks

Friar 

[cfrag]

Version 1.5.0 - Major Update - 20231115

Those last were a couple of interesting weeks... Hot upon the heels of my Marianas Proving Grounds release (which is a pure DML build) an ardent user contacted me to report that they believed that something was off with the precision bomb range. Now, that bomb range of course is based on last release's marquee "Bomb Range" feature, and I was crestfallen to see that I slipped that badly while testing.
Now, it turns out that the 'bug' isn't so much a bug, but a knock-on effect of the conflux of separate issues: one is the result of the impact calculation with high-velocity projectiles. Invariably, the issue reared its head when we attacked a tank with Mavs or Hellfires that hit their target at around 400 m/s and an inclination of 30°-45° to the horizon. At those speeds and inclination, with bombRange's 30 samples per second the projectile still moved 9m across the ground per sample, and matching the calculated impact point to a precision zone failed at a disappointing 30%. And then there was another oddity: I saw evidence for (again high-velocity) missiles clearly hitting vehicles, but the bomb range code was unable to attribute the hit to a zone. After extensive testing we found that there was an obvious common denominator: this occurred in multiplayer set-ups. After setting up a dedicated server for better analysis we discovered something strange: It seems that while in singleplayer the client receives separate hit and kill events, a server could skip the hit event for a remote client and only send out the kill event. 

A lot of code engineering ensued - and a trip to my basement to break out the dreaded Linear Algebra books that I hoped never would be needing again. 
Long story short, bombRange's code now contains significantly beefed up code to reverse-calculate a projectile's path, calculate the likely impact point to the *vehicle* (not ground), and then project that impact point onto local ground to see if it is inside a target zone. 
A lot of work for a little more precision, yes. Still it's a cool stretch of code, and even though I have a strong dislike of linear equations, I'm again reminded that they rule supremely over our everyday coding. So a stretch of sophisticated code has come to save the day.

Well, that, and the fact that the AI simply drove the vehicles out of the zones after the first hit (blush ). So yeah, cloneZones can now turn off AI on demand.

And while I was doggedly trying to beat two linear equations into submission while overlooking the true root cause for my issues, someone in my group asked me about an odd oversight in DML's modules: although there a many modules to detect stuff, there is none to blow stuff up. Sure, there's that artillery zone module, but if you want to really deal damage to something (say a scenery object like a bridge), there's nothing really in DML that'll do that for you. Well, now there is, with DML flourish to boot: you now can blow stuff up, and turn the entire trigger zone into hell: on the ground and above ground in a volue (in a very close approximation of WWII Flak fire) -- the groundExplosion module can, at the drop of a hat, produce explosions: one, many, small, strong, in the air, on the ground, immediately, over time, whatever. With more randomization options than you can shake a D20 at and triggered with a single flag. Ha - Boom, baby! (with apologies to Disney)

And since I was at it, I also re-engineered a relic from the very early DML days: the object destruct detector. It had a small yet annoying flaw: it could lose the object that it was attached to when the map was updated and the object IDs changed. No longer. ODD is now rock steady, and no longer silently fails when a new version of a map is released.

And... oh, yeah, civAir now supports different and custom liveries. And while at it, I added built-in optional support for one of the more popular MODs: CAM. Now, adding support for external MODs is something that I'm very hesitant to do, and in this case the link to CAM is non-dependent: if you activate CAM and the client did not install CAM, a big nothing happens: the mission keeps chugging along happily, there merely won't be those airliners cruising in the air that you picked from CAM's (impressive) library. 
  
Changes in detail:

Manual
    Main
        - significantly re-wrote RND flags chapter
        - overhauled pulse flags chapter
        - documentation for groundExplosion (new)
        - overhauled CivAir documentation
        - boom boom demo doc (new) 
        - tpyes and liveries demo doc (new)
        - pulsing fun demo (updated)
        - random Death / randfom Glory demo doc (updated)

    Quick Ref
        - groundExplosion (new)
        - other changes mirroring the manual updates 
        
Demos
    - Air Caucasus (upadate)
    - Boom Boom (new)
    - Civ Air International (update)
    - Object Destruct Detection (update)
    - Pulsing Fun (update)
    - Random Death (update)
    - civil liveries (new)
    - Virgin (Civ) Air (update)    

Modules 
    - BombRange 1.1.0
        - significantly hardened impact code, increased accuracy
    
    - Object Destruct Detector 2.0.0
        - no longer depends on ObjectID, no longer susceptible to map updates losing link to object, fully backward compatible
        - dmlZones OOP update 
    
    - CivAir 3.0.0
        - Liveries Support 
        - Default support built-in DCS "civ" plane liveries 
        - Optional support for CAM built-in 
        - Default support for all standard CAM liveries when activated 
        - new easy Mission Creator liveries access via 'civil_liveries' zones
    
    - cloneZones 1.9.1
        - new 'useAI' option to disable AI for ground and sea spawns

    - dcsCommon 2.9.6
        - new addToTableIfNew()
        
    - fireFX 2.0.0
        - dmlZones OOP 
        - new rndLoc for fire(s)
        - multiple fires in zone
        
    - groundExplosion 1.0.0
        - initial release 
        
    - pulseFlag 2.0.0 
        - OOP update 
        - full method support (blush)
        
    - raiseFlag 2.0.0 
        - OOP update 
        - full method support 
    
    - RNDFlags 2.0.0 
        - OOP Update 
    
    - stopGaps 1.0.10 
        - more verbosity (DML version only)
        
    - TDZ 1.0.0
        - release ready, undisclosed module 
        

This was a a big one. I hope you enjoy it!

-ch

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by cfrag

[dmatsch]

I'm a professional software engineer, and I would be hard-pressed to find the time to create a project such as this, let alone MAINTAIN and improve it.  I have ultimate hats-off to you and your feat of DCS reverse-engineering.  This is absolutely amazing piece of work.

<serious_question>

How in the holy hell do you find time to do this and keep a regular job, family and obligations? 

</serious_question>

[cfrag]

11 hours ago, dmatsch said:

How in the holy hell do you find time to do this and keep a regular job, family and obligations? 

"PLEASE" - (with apologies to Barney Stinson)

It does take a lot of time, and a lot more understanding and consideration from my loved ones. I'm truly lucky.  

Edited November 17, 2023 by cfrag

[Panthir]

Dear Cfrag have a good day.

I don't know if you remember but in the past you had made for me a template mission of 3 zones with the following main objective. The coalition that would managed to occupy and hold all three zones for 2 minutes would be announced as the winner. A countdown of 2 minutes on the upper right corner was showing the remaining time and every time the occupation of all three zones was neutralized by even one enemy unit the countdown was resetting to zero and so on.

Unfortunately it seems that the latest DML updates affected the mission and I have now idea how to correct it. 

I attach you the missions with old and new DML.

3 ring circus Blue and Red 150.miz 3 ring circus Blue and Red v1.miz

[Panthir]

9 minutes ago, Panthir said:

Dear Cfrag have a good day.

I don't know if you remember but in the past you had made for me a template mission of 3 zones with the following main objective. The coalition that would managed to occupy and hold all three zones for 2 minutes would be announced as the winner. A countdown of 2 minutes on the upper right corner was showing the remaining time and every time the occupation of all three zones was neutralized by even one enemy unit the countdown was resetting to zero and so on.

Unfortunately it seems that the latest DML updates affected the mission and I have now idea how to correct it. 

I attach you the missions with old and new DML.

3 ring circus Blue and Red 150.miz 202.96 kB · 0 downloads 3 ring circus Blue and Red v1.miz 202.95 kB · 0 downloads

According to this template, we (Lock on Greece virtual sqn) had prepared a mission that now doesn't work anymore. I attach you a video and the mission file as well:

The video file https://we.tl/t-CuJTkJLd8w  

The mission file DSMC_Perseus_Sword_Template_DML_v4.miz

 

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, Panthir said:

I don't know if you remember but in the past you had made for me a template mission of 3 zones with the following main objective. The coalition that would managed to occupy and hold all three zones for 2 minutes would be announced as the winner. A countdown of 2 minutes on the upper right corner was showing the remaining time and every time the occupation of all three zones was neutralized by even one enemy unit the countdown was resetting to zero and so on.

Unfortunately it seems that the latest DML updates affected the mission and I have now idea how to correct it. 

Hey @Panthir, nice to hear from you. I do remember the little template I created for you, and the missions that you kindly included looks significantly improved over the little shabby one that I sent you

In any event, in DML 1.50 I updated "pulseFlag" and finally removed the "pause" and "pausePulse" attributes and harmonized them with the "onStart" attribute. So, if you want the a pulser to wait on their activation (you do ) set "onStart" to "no", and everything should work as before.

That being said, there was a slight issue with re-activating a paused pulser, this is fixed in the attached module.

I've also added the now working (original) 3 Ring Circus lifted to DML 1.50

 

pulseFlags.lua 3 ring circus DML150.miz

Edited November 17, 2023 by cfrag

[Panthir]

Cool thanx

[Panthir]

55 minutes ago, cfrag said:

Hey @Panthir, nice to hear from you. I do remember the little template I created for you, and the missions that you kindly included looks significantly improved over the little shabby one that I sent you

In any event, in DML 1.50 I updated "pulseFlag" and finally removed the "pause" and "pausePulse" attributes and harmonized them with the "onStart" attribute. So, if you want the a pulser to wait on their activation (you do ) set "onStart" to "no", and everything should work as before.

That being said, there was a slight issue with re-activating a paused pulser, this is fixed in the attached module.

I've also added the now working (original) 3 Ring Circus lifted to DML 1.50

 

pulseFlags.lua 12.34 kB · 1 download 3 ring circus DML150.miz 200.13 kB · 1 download

 

Well I tried to apply the new pulseFlag.lua and onStart attribute to the "3 ring circus Blue and Red.miz" and there are some issues.

a. Taking in account that the ownedZonesConfig is setup for numCap=2 and numKeeps=2, the first issue has as follows: If the units that are entering a zone are grouped, then the zone is taken when the 1st unit enters the zone, even if numCap=(higher than 1). Normally the zone will have to turn blue or red only when the second unit enters the zone, as well. If the numCap=5 and numKeep=5, the zone will have to be taken when right after the 5th unit enters the zone. It seems that numKeeps is working ok.

b. The two minutes countdown seems to work ok and reset for blue but it seems that it doesn't reset for the red coalition.

c. When the two minutes countdown ends the clock doesn't stop and the winner is not announced as it happen in the passed.

I attach you the mission and a small video to watch and I am sure that you will see what happens.3 ring circus Blue and Red DML150 pulseflag 201.miz

download the video 

https://we.tl/t-WWSmKRZFeZ

[cfrag]

40 minutes ago, Panthir said:

the first issue has as follows: If the units that are entering a zone are grouped, then the zone is taken when the 1st unit enters the zone, even if numCap=(higher than 1). Normally the zone will have to turn blue or red only when the second unit enters the zone, as well.

(meaning: if the first unit of a group is inside the zone, all units of that group are counted towards the total)

Yes, this is an intentional shortcut that I coded into ownedZones since otherwise every single unit on the map has to be tested against every owned zone on the map. If you have 20 groups of 5 units and 4 owned zones on the map, the code would have to check 20*5*4 = 400 units every second. If the code only checks the first unit per group (and assumes that the groups is bunching reasonably close together), that drops to 80 checks per seconds, saving performance.

There's an undocumented attribute 'fastEval' that defaults to true that you can change to false to turn it off and have every unit being evaluated against being inside the zone

40 minutes ago, Panthir said:

b. The two minutes countdown seems to work ok and reset for blue but it seems that it doesn't reset for the red coalition.

c. When the two minutes countdown ends the clock doesn't stop and the winner is not announced as it happen in the passed.

Yeah, lazy me didn't look at those because they weren't part of my slapped-together mission. I'll check it out.  

Edited November 17, 2023 by cfrag

[Panthir]

19 minutes ago, cfrag said:

(meaning: if the first unit of a group is inside the zone, all units of that group are counted towards the total)

Yes, this is an intentional shortcut that I coded into ownedZones since otherwise every single unit on the map has to be tested against every owned zone on the map. If you have 20 groups of 5 units and 4 owned zones on the map, the code would have to check 20*5*4 = 400 units every second. If the code only checks the first unit per group (and assumes that the groups is bunching reasonably close together), that drops to 80 checks per seconds, saving performance.

There's an undocumented attribute 'fastEval' that defaults to true that you can change to false to turn it off and have every unit being evaluated against being inside the zone

Yeah, lazy me didn't look at those because they weren't part of my slapped-together mission. I'll check it out.

Many thanks. We are dealing with a Swedish Sqn (Master Arms) to fly together a Sequential Mission Campaign and we need this concept (the three zone conquer mission) to work. I hope you will fix the countdown issue. Many thanx.

Edited November 17, 2023 by Panthir

[cfrag]

2 hours ago, cfrag said:

it seems that it doesn't reset for the red coalition.

It would appear that Base 3's redLost! output is misspelled. Unfortunately, DCS's flags are case sensitive. The pulser is looking at "stopRed", capital R

[Panthir]

7 minutes ago, cfrag said:

It would appear that Base 3's redLost! output is misspelled. Unfortunately, DCS's flags are case sensitive. The pulser is looking at "stopRed", capital R

Yes  you are right. I have tested it now and it seems to work ok. The only issue is that when the 2 minutes time passes it continues to countdown and doesn't announce the winner.

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by Panthir

[cfrag]

Just now, Panthir said:

The only issue is that when the 2 minutes time passes it continues to countdown and doesn't announce the winner.

On it right now  

Actually, the message "Blue Wins" appears. You might want to check the 'Message History' log. The reason you can't see it is because the screen is cleared by messenger when it shows the next time of the countdown.

Let's find out why the timer does not stop when it is done...

 

[cfrag]

So, all you need to do is shut off the messenger when blue or red won.

One method is to add a "mesageOff? = blueWon" attribute to "monitor blue countDown", and then do the same for red side.

Edited November 17, 2023 by cfrag

[Panthir]

13 minutes ago, cfrag said:

So, all you need to do is shut off the messenger when blue or red won.

One method is to add a "mesageOff? = blueWon" attribute to "monitor blue countDown", and then do the same for red side.

 

"mesageOff" or "messageOff" ???null

[Panthir]

It works. I have forgotten the ? at the end of message

Perfect

 

Have a nice Weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Panthir]

Dear Cfrag, 

While I was investigating the DML Recon, I wanted to ask you if you assess that it would be easy to add the following option: the detected enemy units to be depicted via F-10 marks only after a successful landing of a recce aircraft - helo in a “recceBase” zone (like it occurs with CSARBASE or scoreSafe zones). This option simulates the vast majority of the modern recce pods, as long as the recce reports are taken after landing. We could even set an attribute to specify the time needed by the recce personnel to analyse the taken pictures - video after landing. In this context, a recce mission would be simulated very realistically e.g the F-10 marks to appear 30 minutes after landing. 

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by Panthir

[cfrag]

8 hours ago, Panthir said:

detected enemy units to be depicted via F-10 marks only after a successful landing of a recce aircraft - helo in a “recceBase” zone (like it occurs with CSARBASE or scoreSafe zones).

Thant's an interesting idea, and one that requires an entirely new dynamic - I think that we can even extend (gamify) this mechanic to first drop off a group of soldiers, then have them reconnoiter the area, and then have them radio in their findings (i.e. after surviving 5 minutes in the area), so the helo does not have to stay in the same place for the entire time.

It would require a new module, or (given some crafty coding) could be an extension module to heloTroops.

I'm open for suggestions