DML - Mission Creation Toolbox [no Lua required]

[cfrag]

57 minutes ago, negrete said:

Thanks a lot cfrag working like a charm now!!!!!!!!!

Well, now that you (meaning: this is all your fault ) forced me to look more closely into "Wiper", I discovered a potentially silly side effect wipers can have with cloners if you follow the manual. It's nothing big, but it can affect performance, and it bothers my sense for engineering. You see, Wiper modules home in on the "wipe?" attribute, which defines a zone as as wipe zone. Unfortunately, goldfishbrain me also allowed "wipe?" to be a legal attribute for cloners. It doesn't endanger any existing mission (obviously, or I would have been made aware much earlier), but it is a stupid design flaw. 

So I've updated both cloneZone and wiper to look out for this, and produce warnings. I've now deprecated 'wipe?' for cloneZones. If you want to trigger a despawn in a cloner, please use 'despawn?' or 'declone?' from now on. Using "wipe?" in a cloner will produce a warning. Oh yea, a gazillion of your cloners are affected by this, sorry  

 Will be part of the next update, here are pre-release versions of cloneZone and wiper.

 

wiper.lua cloneZone.lua

[cfrag]

17 hours ago, Chess96 said:

If I understand the module correctly that should now mean that if I destroy an asset that has the name "oilrig" anywhere on the map, I should get the point associated with this asset

I can confirm and reproduce this issue in PlayerScore. It seems something has changed in DCS, and it no longer get the relevant events to track map object kills.

Let me see if and what I can do to make DCS bend to my will  

[cfrag]

18 hours ago, Chess96 said:

If I understand the module correctly that should now mean that if I destroy an asset that has the name "oilrig" anywhere on the map, I should get the point associated with this asset

This one had me started questioning the meager remains of my sanity - until I recalled that I'm dealing with DCS. - meaning that "though shalt never assume". Now, usually a scenery object's internal TypeDesc matches exactly what you are shown in the "assign as..." definition. Here, it would be "oilrig", and that's what you (correctly) put into the type score list. And that's what playerScore uses to match against the game-internal TypeDesc attribute of any map object that was killed. Unfortunately (and this seems to be map-individual), the typeDesc returned for oil rigs is not "oilrig" as we assumed, but "OILRIG", upper case. And yes, Lua is a case-sensitive language, so the match fails. Why there is a case mismatch for object names in Syria, I don't know. Maybe it now happens across all maps...?

I'm now reworking ALL checks in player score to be case IN-sensitive. In the mean time, your mission will work if you simply changes "oilrig" in playerScoreTable to "OILRIG". The update to playerScore will ensure that something this silly won't happen again, and from now on, all groups, types, and unit names, as well as map object names will be case INsensitive, so playerScore works correctly across all maps.

Thanks for making me aware of this oddity.

[Chess96]

4 hours ago, cfrag said:

Why there is a case mismatch for object names in Syria, I don't know. Maybe it now happens across all maps...?

Ha ! Good catch ! And it would explain quite elegantly why it didn't work for me.

Also, what I failed to mention to you when I made my initial post is that, I, too, was fearing for my sanity and though that maybe it had something to do with the map not being developped by ED. So I went into Caucasus and tried the same procedure with various oil tanks scatered around the map and got the same non-result. So it does seem to be the case on at least these two maps.

Now, does that mean that if I wanted to count the oil derricks as valid target and have them allow points as well, I shoul put their name in full caps in the Score Table ? Are all the scenary objects typeDesc upper case ? If I wanted to check that on my own and not bother you where would I be able to check it ?

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, Chess96 said:

Now, does that mean that if I wanted to count the oil derricks as valid target and have them allow points as well, I shoul put their name in full caps in the Score Table ? Are all the scenary objects typeDesc upper case ? If I wanted to check that on my own and not bother you where would I be able to check it ?

Well, it seems to me something changed inside DCS with the last release or so. Best simply use the updated playerScore that should fix things (I'm still regression testing, so if you run into issues, please let me know)

 

playerScore.lua

[negrete]

Hi cfrag or DD_Friar

Sorry to bother you again but I think Im running into a DCS limitation and maybe there is a solution.

Are the radio menus in DCS limited to 12 slots I mean F1 to F12, and there is only one other page?

Cause Im missing some radio menus random at mission start, and I think i have to many, can I group them?

For example I have 2 menus to spawn sams and each spawn 4 different SAMS. SAM OLD, and SAM NEW.

Could I make one menu Called SAMS and inside SAM OLD,SAM NEW and then each spawn, there 4 sams?

 

Thanks for the help again.

[cfrag]

Just now, negrete said:

Are the radio menus in DCS limited to 12 slots I mean F1 to F12,

Yes. And what is worse, there is no built-in menu-management in DCS's API that handles overflow.

Just now, negrete said:

Cause Im missing some radio menus random at mission start, and I think i have to many, can I group them?

For example I have 2 menus to spawn sams and each spawn 4 different SAMS. SAM OLD, and SAM NEW.

Could I make one menu Called SAMS and inside SAM OLD,SAM NEW and then each spawn, there 4 sams?

I strongly recommend that you ask your parents if you may have some psychic abilities. I just completed a major expansion of DML's radioMenu abilities (will be in next week's update) that allows you to use a new 'attachTo:' attribute to cascade radioMenus and group them together. If you are interested how that works and want to know NOW!!!!one, head over to the Marianas Proving Grounds mission, and see how simple it is to group related (existing) radioMenus.

("Proving Grounds" and "Expansion" currently are my DML showcases where you can see how I put modules together to save myself a lot of mission creation work  )

So, once I finish documenting this new feature and complete a demo, you can do exactly what you are looking for (I hope)

 

[negrete]

Thanks a lot Cfrag

You are the boss!!!! I was going to try expansion as I saw it a few days ago but did not know about Proving Grounds, its a similar thing of what im trying to create, thats great ill check them both out.

Have a good Sunday!!!!

 

[DD_Friar]

@cfrag - Combining Zone Functionality?

Sir, just been looking at your all whistles and bells sand box.

Looking at the bombing range, which I know is not new tech, but one thing struck me that I had not considered before, and would defiantly make mission design neater, is have you combined the function of two zones into one set of parameters (see the attached image), where I note the bombing range and cloner details.

Mind blown..

DD_Friar.

null 

 

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, DD_Friar said:

have you combined the function of two zones into one set of parameters (see the attached image)

It's one of the more convenient albeit advanced DML abilities, and I call it 'stacking' - you can stack multiple modules on the same zone, creating little automatons with it that you then can copy/paste around the map. That is why DML supports 'local zone flags' - where you can have stacked modules communicate with each other with flags that are not readable outside the zone, and do not pollute the flag naming space. If you stack a pulser and a cloner on the same zone, and have the pulser's output change the flag named "*doClone" (note the asterisk "*"), and the cloner clone? input connect to that local "*doClone" flag, you can copy/paste the entire stack without having to create separate flags for "*doSpawn" as they always remain zone-local. You can read more about this in the "Attribute Synonyms" and "DML Flags: Named, and Local Flags". It's a very powerful  concept (and where DML reveals that it, unlike DCS, has received a modicum of good engineering) that you can use to supercharge your mission design. It's also a bit abstract, so few people use it.

[DD_Friar]

@cfrag so is that two zones physically put exactly on top of each other or one zone with the parameters reflecting the stacked zones as per my screen shot?

[DD_Friar]

2 hours ago, cfrag said:

you can stack multiple modules on the same zone,

Sorry, just re-read your post.

[Panthir]

Dear Cfrag, 

I used tacan module and I found that “Y” mode is not working. Moreover, is there any way to set up tacan module to work with moving ships and tankers (KC-135 etc), like it happens with NDB (linkedUnit attribute)?

 

[shinobi61]

Hi Cfrag and everyone, been a while since i was on DCS and even longer since i used DML, its expanded alot i see, time to dive in for a kiowa mission
Looking forward to it, amazing stuff! Beware some questions inbound i think lol

interested to see if there is any fancy stuff that can be created using drones, L2MUMs, fire missions and such features in the kiowa

 

Edited June 7, 2024 by shinobi61

[cfrag]

Version 2.2.5 - Multi-Feature Update 

It's been on my to-do list for a *very* long time. Now, after implementing a number of new modules for "Expansion", I saw that this module wasn't nearly as problematic as I feared, and within a few days I had the newest addition to the DML Family: "Reaper". It allows you, with next to no configuration, to place Reaper (or Predator) type drones on the map that automatically lase targets in range.

But the reaper module is only the small update. I'm currently working on two DML showcases, and it's making DML better almost by the hour: The "Marianas Training Grounds", due to a severe overflow of cool things that players can do, forced me to re-cut one of the DML crown jewels, and required me to finally put into reality changes to a module that I had been thinking of for ages:

One of DML's crown jewels, the radioMenu module has just become exponentially more powerful: it now allows one level of indirection, allowing you to group multiple (up to ten) radioMenus under a single radioMainMenu - while retaining coalition/type/group granularity! Booyah! Not only that - a host of purpose-built modules like CSAR Manager, scribe, reaper (yes, reaper!) and some others can also tap into the radioMainMenu fun!

Changes in Detail 
Manual 
    Main
        - radioMenu: updates for radioMainMenu 
        - reaper (new) 
        
    Quick Ref
        - radioMenu (update)
        - reaper (new)
    
Demos
    - reaper, man (new)
    - what's on the cascading menu (new)
    
Modules 
    - bombRange 2.0.0
        - support for radioMainMenu (attachTo:)
        
    - cfxZones 4.3.4
        - better zone bounds calculation 
        
    - cloneZones 2.3.0 
        - new cWipe? attribute 
        - deprecated wipe? attribute 
        
    - csarManager 4.0.0 
        - support for radioMainMenu (attachTo:)
    
    - dcsCommon 3.0.8 
        - new clone code to work around cyclic structures 
        
    - flareZone 1.2.0 
        - new rndLoc attribute 
        
    - groundTroops 2.2.1
        - reduced verbosity 
        
    - guardianAngel 3.0.6 
        - code hardening for targets that don't have a group 
        
    - jtacGrpUI 3.0.0 
        - support for radioMainMenu (attachTo:)
        
    - playerScore 3.3.0 
        - support for radioMainMenu (attachTo:)
        
    - radioMenus 3.0.0 
        - new cascading menus 
        - new radioMainMenu 
        - attachTo: for radioMenus 
        
    - reaper 1.0.0 
        - Initial version 
        
    - scribe 2.0.0 
        - support for radioMainMenu (attachTo:)
        
    - williePete 2.0.3 
        - hardened player update code 
        
    - wiper 1.3.0 
        - warns when detecting possible incompatibility with cloner 
        - warns if zone is polygonal (not supported yet) 

 

Enjoy,

-ch

Edited June 7, 2024 by cfrag

[shinobi61]

@cfrag wow perfect day for me to start looking at this stuff lol, awesome work bro!
I have noticed one thing regarding WP arty module seems to not be working with Kiowa 2 versions of smoke rockets.

Gonna check out this reaper module

[CidTheViking]

Hello fello DCS fans,

cfrag, thank you so much for all this. Makes casual mission designers like myself more inclined to make missions with simple trigger zones and way less coding.

I don't know if there is a feature request area but I was wondering if it would be possible to introduce some sort of dismounts script into all this to make factories create apc that will automatically dump out soldiers under 20kph and have them defend the vehicle and mount back up when driving over 20kph. Similar to this.

This would make factories a bit more, versatile and able to move troops at a more rapid rate.

Still a lot to digest for me, I'm slowly working on a COIN mission on Cyprus just need to figure out zone ownership and factories.

Thank you
Cid

[cfrag]

6 hours ago, CidTheViking said:

I don't know if there is a feature request area

There is - you have found it  

6 hours ago, CidTheViking said:

dismounts script into all this to make factories create apc that will automatically dump out soldiers under 20kph and have them defend the vehicle and mount back up when driving over 20kph

I'm looking at a 'convoy' module with similar properties, but so far I never got it to work in a good way. I need this or something similar for one of my current projects ("Expansion"), so I'll keep trying at it.

[cfrag]

20 hours ago, shinobi61 said:

I have noticed one thing regarding WP arty module seems to not be working with Kiowa 2 versions of smoke rockets.

Awww shucks. I should have known that the Kiowa uses its own WP. I'll look into it asap. Thanks!

[Sinclair_76]

Great update! Especially thrilled by the new radio menu. With one level of indirection, does that mean you can do

F10 other / A-G / CAS / X1, X2, X3 (X1 through 3 being the different options (ITEM-A through ITEM-C) etc...)

and not

F10 other / A-G / SEAD / LR / SA2, SA5, SA10?

or can you go as deep, with as many layers as you want?

Edited June 8, 2024 by Sinclair_76

[cfrag]

20 minutes ago, Sinclair_76 said:

can you go as deep, with as many layers as you want?

Yes, but the code currently bails after 20 levels (reason: you can unwittingly create loops in your menu structures, and the code checks for this and draws the line at 20 iterations before calling it quits and complaining bitterly). 

[shinobi61]

53 minutes ago, cfrag said:

Awww shucks. I should have known that the Kiowa uses its own WP. I'll look into it asap. Thanks!

Lol i think i found the last one too ages ago with the coloured gazelle smoke rockets lol, i'm having a slight issue with sounds too for some reason im trying to get a sound to play with actionSound for the reaper module just doesn't sound off at all, i have put it into the DML sound library is there something else i need to do regarding the file itself, ofc its short, small .ogg
oh and another one is formations for attackingFormation from a factory it wont recognise my attributes i found in docs for one module Vee, EchelonR, EchelonL etc but throws up a error when they produce!

thanks!

Edited June 8, 2024 by shinobi61

[cfrag]

Just now, shinobi61 said:

is there something else i need to do regarding the file itself,

Yes. you must create a trigger action that plays that sound (say, 9999999 seconds after mission start). The reason for this is if you don't DCS's "smart" optimizer removes the sound file, and it's not included with the miz. Not in the miz = no sound at playtime.

[shinobi61]

awesome thanks! i seem to remember that from before but couldnt find in the docs

[Sinclair_76]

5 hours ago, cfrag said:

Yes, but the code currently bails after 20 levels (reason: you can unwittingly create loops in your menu structures, and the code checks for this and draws the line at 20 iterations before calling it quits and complaining bitterly). 

Thanks! I figured it out. Any 'passthrough' menu option needs the radioMainMenu attribute.