Route Tool Guide

[BIGNEWY]

Route Tool Guide

The new Route Tool will allow you to create your own flight routes when you are in multiplayer session. It allows you to edit and to create preset waypoints/steerpoints routes before spawning into the aircraft.

F10 map view


Select Role screen view


Route Tool window


Route tool window has familiar elements that you may have seen in the mission editor. Choose the waypoint you want to work with in "WAYPOINT" first field by using arrows or drop-down menu. You can set the waypoint name in the respective "NAME" field. Altitude and altitude type MSL/AGL also adjustable. Below that you can find ETA and input the desired time for that respective waypoint. ADD, EDIT and DEL buttons switching mode of interaction with waypoints. When ADD is active you can click on the map to add the next waypoint. EDIT allows you to choose a waypoint for edit by clicking on it on the map. DEL will delete the currently chosen waypoint.

You can save the currently created in route tool flight plan by pressing "SAVE" under the "PRESET" and name the preset. It will save this route preset for later use. You can find your saved presets in Saved Games\DCS\Config\RouteToolPresets in the .lua files named after terrains where you have saved these routes. You can share these files or just copy a specific route part from the terrain file and send it to your wingmen to paste on their side.

When you are done with the flight plan and filled in all waypoints you can choose to inject this flight plan in any aircraft you will spawn next in by ticking the box "USE THIS ROUTE ON NEXT SPAWN". After that you can close the tool window and choose any aircraft and proceed to spawn in its cockpit. The route you've created will be loaded in that aircraft. It will work with Flaming Cliffs 2024 aircraft too. Be aware that if you choose to use your created route from the root tool it will override the flight plan that was assigned to that particular aircraft in the mission from mission editor.

You can't use this tool to edit waypoints of the aircraft you already spawned in and already inside the cockpit. This tool sets waypoints only at spawn.

You can also use this tool from non-aircraft slots like observer or tactical commander to create presets for instance.

For any compatibility questions: treat this tool as if you would create this flight plan in the mission editor. The parameters you set in it will be treated by aircraft the same as you would set them in the mission editor.

[Squeaky_B]

Great addition to multiplayer.

Is this due to come to singleplayer at some point? As this was mentioned in the newsletter.

Quote

We are excited to present a new F10 map route tool. This tool will allow you to edit, create, and delete waypoints/steer points prior to spawning in your aircraft in both single player and multiplayer. Please stay tuned for the next update to try this yourself. 

Edited August 9, 2024 by Squeaky_B
linked newsletter

[104th_Crunch]

It would be nice to share your route with others on your team.

 

[FupDuck]

2 hours ago, Squeaky_B said:

Great addition to multiplayer.

Is this due to come to singleplayer at some point? As this was mentioned in the newsletter.

 

To use it for single player, couldn't you just select "start multiplayer server" when you start your mission from the mission editor, and then just play it alone?

2 hours ago, 104th_Crunch said:

It would be nice to share your route with others on your team.

 

In the post above it says that it saves the routes to a file in your saved games folder that you can send to your wingmen. Would that work?

[deadlyfishes]

5 minutes ago, FupDuck said:

To use it for single player, couldn't you just select "start multiplayer server" when you start your mission from the mission editor, and then just play it alone?

In the post above it says that it saves the routes to a file in your saved games folder that you can send to your wingmen. Would that work?

Yes you can, but hosting a server uses a bit more CPU resources and network bandwidth to run. You can use the MP Dynamic slots this way too, but a true solutions for singleplayer may require some iteration on ED's side of things.

I hope to see these features are truly supported and functional in singleplayer as well.

[Darcaem]

2 hours ago, Squeaky_B said:

Great addition to multiplayer.

Is this due to come to singleplayer at some point? As this was mentioned in the newsletter.

 

+1

A clear statement would be great I've been looking for it like an idiot on my singleplayer sandbox missions, since it was clearly mentioned in the newsletter...

[BarTzi]

15 minutes ago, FupDuck said:

To use it for single player, couldn't you just select "start multiplayer server" when you start your mission from the mission editor, and then just play it alone?

In the post above it says that it saves the routes to a file in your saved games folder that you can send to your wingmen. Would that work?

Not really. Routes are inserted into files that are named after the terrain (every route in Sinai for example will be inserted into a file called Sinai.lua). This makes it harder to share routes, since instead of just dragging a file into a folder, you have to copy a route into a file.

[FupDuck]

5 minutes ago, BarTzi said:

Not really. Routes are inserted into files that are named after the terrain (every route in Sinai for example will be inserted into a file called Sinai.lua). This makes it harder to share routes, since instead of just dragging a file into a folder, you have to copy a route into a file.

Ah, understood. So by sharing that file, you're sharing ALL the routes you have saved for that map, and your wingmen would have to sift through it to find the desired route. I see how that could be a bit of a pain.

[BarTzi]

4 minutes ago, FupDuck said:

Ah, understood. So by sharing that file, you're sharing ALL the routes you have saved for that map, and your wingmen would have to sift through it to find the desired route. I see how that could be a bit of a pain.

Yeah. It's a shame every route is not a different file, sorted into folders named after the terrains.

[Se1ko]

Nice tool. It would be even better if it had a "speed" function in it that allows you to set a desired speed to fly on a particular leg and calculates/populates the TOT for you.

[Loophole]

I agree, its a very nice tool.  I think a neat enhancement down the track would be dynamic sharing of routes.  I'm imagining somebody playing in - say - a ground commander slot being able to sketch out a flightplan, save it as e.g. "ALPHA-01", then be able to tell a pair of players "load flightplan ALPHA-01".  I imagine that to achieve this there would need to be some sort of special pool of flight plans that are saved on the server rather than privately on each client. They'd need to be coalition-specific too.

[nickos86]

What about tools for F-15E? Allowing to set target points, additional routes (B/C) etc. ?

[HungryCoyote]

@Loophole I think you can do this with The Way. Also works with single player and you can use it while you are already in your aircraft.

[Mike_Romeo]

21 hours ago, Squeaky_B said:

Is this due to come to singleplayer at some point?

You already can create/edit flight routs in singleplayer missions when you click on "Mission planer" at the bottom of the briefing. Its opens a ME like window where you edit your routs and payloads

[Squeaky_B]

19 hours ago, Mike_Romeo said:

You already can create/edit flight routs in singleplayer missions when you click on "Mission planer" at the bottom of the briefing. Its opens a ME like window where you edit your routs and payloads

It can only be done before mission start and doesn't work with spots set to "client" only Player, so the route tool would be ideal for singleplayer sandbox missions.

If its not coming to singleplayer then fair enough, it is what it is, but the newsletter made me think otherwise is all

[Darcaem]

Exactly, would be great for singleplayer sandbox missions with different client aircrafts. Could we please get an answer about this, would it be available in singleplayer as it was stated in the newsletter, or not?

[shaji]

Why is the elevation showing 2000 meters for all the waypoints I create with this tool?null

Edited August 21, 2024 by shaji

[eighteen]

On 8/15/2024 at 2:21 PM, shaji said:

Why is the elevation showing 2000 meters for all the waypoints I create with this tool?

• 6,562 ft. roughly approximates to 2,000 m.
• The F/A-18C uses meters as its unit for elevation
• The route tool does not infer from terrain elevation data.

On 8/9/2024 at 3:52 PM, 104th_Crunch said:

It would be nice to share your route with others on your team.

It isn't ideal in the case of UX, but all route presets are saved within your Saved Games path and Config folder. Presets are saved per terrain/map and is an idiomatic Lua table with fields omitted when left blank:

presets = 
{
	["4YA FARP LONDON"] = 
	{
		[1] = 
		{
			["alt"] = 2000,
			["type"] = "Turning Point",
			["ETA"] = 900,
			["ETA_locked"] = true,
			["y"] = 69738.40625,
			["x"] = 189386.109375,
			["name"] = "RIVER",
			["action"] = "Turning Point",
			["alt_type"] = "BARO",
			["speed_locked"] = false,
		}, -- end of [1]
		[2] = 
		{
			["alt"] = 2000,
			["type"] = "Turning Point",
			["ETA"] = 1075.9200317096,
			["ETA_locked"] = true,
			["y"] = 76952.6484375,
			["x"] = 179263.359375,
			["name"] = "IP",
			["action"] = "Turning Point",
			["alt_type"] = "BARO",
			["speed_locked"] = false,
		}, -- end of [2]
	}, -- end of ["4YA FARP LONDON"]
  } -- end of presets

You can share either the preset definitions (e.g. ["PRESET NAME"] or etc.) or the whole file, whichever is most convenient for you.

Edited October 16, 2024 by eighteen
elevation reasons

[Gigafiga]

Adding this lua file inside the .miz, (that overrides the client) would be a very easy and quick way to share it for a server.

[Callsign Munch]

On 12/26/2024 at 11:54 PM, Gigafiga said:

Adding this lua file inside the .miz, (that overrides the client) would be a very easy and quick way to share it for a server.

Came here to say the same thing.