HUD only view w/o LUA programming

[Boogie Mitchell]

In this age with lots of aftermarket companies like WinWing selling “affordable” MIPS and DDIs, it would be great to have viewing options just be checkboxes in an option menu.  Not having to resort to lua progamming, then crossing fingers it passes IC… it makes no sense to see these displays repeated on screen once you have then physically in front of you. Considering home pit building being more alive than ever, this ability is very surprising it’s not available to us. 
 

To be able to choose a HUD only view, check boxes for which DDIs to display (or none). Even be able to move WHERE the HUD info is displayed, up or down, would be amazing. 
 

Love the game and the work ED is doing. But this topic seems to have been requested for years now. 

[upyr1]

I don't think I'll use it since I do VR but it would be nice for the cockpit builders 

[MadKreator]

In SP I always use ovgme to disable the in-game displays. Definitely would be nice to have some built in options for those sort of things. Or at very least have the viewporthandling.lua excluded from IC check for MP. 

[Boogie Mitchell]

48 minutes ago, MadKreator said:

In SP I always use ovgme to disable the in-game displays. Definitely would be nice to have some built in options for those sort of things. Or at very least have the viewporthandling.lua excluded from IC check for MP. 

Would you elaborate on how this is accomplished, using ovgame to handle this?

I fly in a squadron with our own server, so I think passing IC would not be a problem.

[MadKreator]

4 hours ago, Boogie Mitchell said:

Would you elaborate on how this is accomplished, using ovgame to handle this?

I fly in a squadron with our own server, so I think passing IC would not be a problem.

In the viewporthandling.lua, somewhere around line 80 I believe, there is a line that’s says “render =purpose general” you just comment out that line and it will remove the in game mfd’s….I  will post a screenshot off the file path in my ovgme folder and also of the lua file and where to modify it, in just a little bit

Edited March 24, 2023 by MadKreator

[MadKreator]

@Boogie Mitchell in ovgme, create main folder for mod, call it what you like.. in that create folder Scripts, in that create Aircrafts, in that create _Common, in there Cockpit, and in that folder paste a copy of the ViewportHandling.lua (from your dcs main install) folder. open it( the one in your ovgme mod folder) and modify line 81, comment out render_purpose.GENERAL. save it.. enable it under your dcs core/main directory/path in ovgme... Doesn't work on the a-10c for some reason though.

Edited March 24, 2023 by MadKreator

[Boogie Mitchell]

Thanks! I'll give it a go today. Appreciate it.

[MadKreator]

not a problem! its really nice especially on night missions

2 minutes ago, Boogie Mitchell said:

Thanks! I'll give it a go today. Appreciate it.

 

[Boogie Mitchell]

OK< likely super dumb question here... but is it possible I don't have this viewporthandling.lua file yet?

Win11 search doesn't locate it at all. (Mac guy here  )

 

 

[MadKreator]

1 hour ago, Boogie Mitchell said:

OK< likely super dumb question here... but is it possible I don't have this viewporthandling.lua file yet?

Win11 search doesn't locate it at all. (Mac guy here  )

 

 

I think its always there… dcs main folder, scripts, aircraft, _common, cockpit… should be  in there near the bottom. IDK why it wouldn’t find it.. 

[Boogie Mitchell]

Yeah, don't have that file. Maybe it's created when the MIP is setup. I'll have to try again once that gear arrives.

[Ironhand]

13 hours ago, Boogie Mitchell said:

Yeah, don't have that file. Maybe it's created when the MIP is setup. I'll have to try again once that gear arrives.

That’s interesting. I have it and I don’t even know what you folks are talking about. So it should be there as part of the original installation.

Edited March 25, 2023 by Ironhand

[Boogie Mitchell]

I’m starting to wonder if Win11 has certain files or folders hidden. Maybe permissions or something. This computer is 3 months old and DCS is the only thing that it gets used for. 

[Ironhand]

Not sure why that file, of all things, would be hidden but… I don’t know how Win11 is set up but, if it’s anything like Win10, just set it to show hidden and system files. This might help: https://pureinfotech.com/show-hidden-files-windows-11-file-explorer/

[Boogie Mitchell]

Thanks, Ironhand. Yes, I've enabled all those "show hidden" options and still have no file. I was able to find one online and download it (NOW it finds that file in search), but I doubt that wouldn't have things in it not applicable to my setup.

 

For instance, I'm not in VR, but this is in that file:

    if LockOn_Options.screen.oculus_rift then 
        local ui_x,ui_y,ui_w,ui_h = get_UIMainView()
        w = ui_w;
        h = ui_h;
    end    

[MadKreator]

Its definitely weird, I run win 11. I do have show hidden files ON but I can’t imagine anything in dcs would be hidden by that. But I suppose its possible. Wonder if you do a slow repair to dcs if it will show back up. As far as I can remember its part of the core game, not something created when you do exports.. that only changes and creates a different monitor config file. 

[MadKreator]

18 hours ago, Boogie Mitchell said:

Yeah, don't have that file. Maybe it's created when the MIP is setup. I'll have to try again once that gear arrives.

 

13 minutes ago, Boogie Mitchell said:

Thanks, Ironhand. Yes, I've enabled all those "show hidden" options and still have no file. I was able to find one online and download it (NOW it finds that file in search), but I doubt that wouldn't have things in it not applicable to my setup.

 

For instance, I'm not in VR, but this is in that file:

    if LockOn_Options.screen.oculus_rift then 
        local ui_x,ui_y,ui_w,ui_h = get_UIMainView()
        w = ui_w;
        h = ui_h;
    end    

 I think the ViewportHandling.lua is a pretty generic file, I honestly couldn’t say what anything in the file actually does lol Its probably kind of a blanket to cover a variety of things.. I asked one day about getting rid of on-screen mfd’s and someone replied with what I showed you.. Thats literally all I understand about it… But I would still do a slow repair ( or verify file integrity if on steam) of dcs and see if it got corrupted or something weird.  I don’t use vr that much mostly 2d , but it is definitely possible that some of the code in there is obsolete and not used anymore 

Edited March 25, 2023 by MadKreator

[Ironhand]

56 minutes ago, Boogie Mitchell said:

Thanks, Ironhand. Yes, I've enabled all those "show hidden" options and still have no file. I was able to find one online and download it (NOW it finds that file in search), but I doubt that wouldn't have things in it not applicable to my setup.

 

For instance, I'm not in VR, but this is in that file:

    if LockOn_Options.screen.oculus_rift then 
        local ui_x,ui_y,ui_w,ui_h = get_UIMainView()
        w = ui_w;
        h = ui_h;
    end    

If you haven’t already, it’s probably time for a slow repair as MadKreator suggests. Prior to doing it, though, I’d rename the file you downloaded in the hope that the repair would generate a new “pristine” file for you.

[Boogie Mitchell]

Revisiting this thread with an additional question. (and yes, i found the file I wasn't able to locate previously). So - I've got the HUD only view working now, with one issue. While the 3 DDI's from Winwing work fine while using this HUD only view, the center UFC does not. It stops syncing with DCS whenever I use this HUD only view. If I switch back to the normal view, it returns to being fully functional.

I've read elsewhere that may be because when it's been removed it doesn't have anywhere it getting data from, and that the solution to this problem is to not 'remove' the instruments from the HUD view, but just 'relocate' them off the main screen. This way, they are not being shown, but their data is still present. 

Wondering if anyone has any experience with this.

 

 

[Harley]

Yes. An answer to this would be handy. I see quite an issue with why we can't choose an option checkbox for that. Would it really break integrity for this to be a selectable option?

[Boogie Mitchell]

Another “checkbox option” I’d love to see is “HUD with canopy bow only”. 
 

Ive found that, while flying in a HUD only view is beautiful, not having any horizontal or spacial reference point ( like the cockpit or the canopy bow), it’s much harder to get a feel for the planes attitude. Not to mention when refueling the probe doesn’t show up at all, making that harder/impossible.
 

So sadly, while I have much of the Hornet cockpit replicated in an actual pit I’m sitting in, I still fly with a single monitor and head tracking. And still have to see the cockpit duplicated in screen. 
 

Sigh…

[marit92]

В 16.03.2023 в 20:09, Boogie Mitchell сказал:

In this age with lots of aftermarket companies like WinWing selling “affordable” MIPS and DDIs, it would be great to have viewing options just be checkboxes in an option menu.  Not having to resort to lua progamming, then crossing fingers it passes IC… it makes no sense to see these displays repeated on screen once you have then physically in front of you. Considering home pit building being more alive than ever, this ability is very surprising it’s not available to us. 
 

To be able to choose a HUD only view, check boxes for which DDIs to display (or none). Even be able to move WHERE the HUD info is displayed, up or down, would be amazing. 
 

Love the game and the work ED is doing. But this topic seems to have been requested for years now. 

 

The streamlined interface ensures simplicity, making it accessible for users without coding expertise.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 20 by marit92

[Heling]

 

I don't remember how many years after every update I had to remove the MFCD views from the Alt-F1. It's time, dear DCS developers, to reduce all this work to one button in the options. At the moment I can't get these annoying ads out of my field of vision. I waste hour after hour. Something could finally be done, especially for SimPit owners!

[Archangel44]

On 3/24/2023 at 3:44 PM, MadKreator said:

@Boogie Mitchell in ovgme, create main folder for mod, call it what you like.. in that create folder Scripts, in that create Aircrafts, in that create _Common, in there Cockpit, and in that folder paste a copy of the ViewportHandling.lua (from your dcs main install) folder. open it( the one in your ovgme mod folder) and modify line 81, comment out render_purpose.GENERAL. save it.. enable it under your dcs core/main directory/path in ovgme... Doesn't work on the a-10c for some reason though.

 

 

Hot Damn, fire and a book of matches.

I've been wanting to do this for over a year now...Thank you Thank you Thank you..

Question, I noticed on your screen shot of mods you have HUD thickners for planes. Where can these old eyes of mine find those?

[Archangel44]

After trying this out, The F-16 in "Cockpit view" has blank MFD screens. The F-18 seems to be not affected.

Indeed in the "Hud Only View" the MFD's do not show up but in the F-16, the MFD's are black'd out like there is no power to them.

I followed your instructions to the letter as far as I know. Am I doing something wrong here editing the Lua file or has ED updates caused an issue?

I too wish that ED would create a check box to get rid of these large MFD boxes in the "Hud only view" as I'm considereing to get the external Winwing MFD's.

 

Thnaks you,