External Cargo Indicator Not Showing

[Gabreil]

Can anyone offer any assistance on how to get the green square showing "External Cargo Indicator".    By default it never showed on my screen.  I read a post where editing the dcsworld/mods/aircraft/ch47/cargoindicator/cargoindicator_page.lua changing one of the lines to a figure less than the current aspect ratio.. I tried it got it working once and then it disappeared again.

if anyone has expereinced this or knows of a working solution then please help!

 

Edited August 14, 2024 by Gabreil

[Hotdognz]

It doesn't work in VR also.

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[ARM505]

R Ctrl R Shift P?

[Gabreil]

I'm not flying VR, just standard..  I've re-mapped the keybind from the default but tried both.   I dont think its the fact its not working, its just that i cant see it... and in relation to where its positioned on the screen when i press the key to display it.  

[dahui]

Just to confirm: You did choose the cargo to pick up and red smoke is coming off the choosen cargo?

[Hotdognz]

53 minutes ago, ARM505 said:

R Ctrl R Shift P?

Dose nothing in VR

[Gabreil]

4 hours ago, dahui said:

Just to confirm: You did choose the cargo to pick up and red smoke is coming off the choosen cargo?

Yes.   I've tried in the default mission - Comms menu, All cargo, select the contianer,  red smoke emits from container take off, hover close by and hit the keybind i have for the External Cargo Indicator.. Nothing appears.  (just for info, no problem with the controller indicator.. that appears bottom left).    All i get is the voice commands left/forward etc.

And the same result if a load a mission that uses the CTLD menu.    No green box.   

Edited August 15, 2024 by Gabreil

[red23]

Works fine for me in VR. you have to have the hook set and have the all cargos/choose cargo/ the cargo you want to "lift" from the list of cargo selected. then and only then does it show up.

PS i would double check you binding. i had it set to a button on my throttle and had to switch it to a different button to get it to work. 

 

Edited August 15, 2024 by red23

[Gabreil]

I've tried all sorts of bindings.   Defaults via the keyboard, binding it to a button on different panels and joystick etc.      Pretty sure its not a binding problem.   When you say hook set.   I thought the only hook available is the central hook at the moment, and only need to flip the switch on the overhead to reset after dropping cargo so you can re-hook.

The default instant action mission starts you off hot, and i'm not making any changes to the hook operation.

[Gabreil]

So, finally getting somewhare with it.   The problem i was having does seem to be related to the Cargo Indicator not showing due to where its being positioned when i hit the keybinding.. i.e its somewhere, just not on my screen.   Found an old post with some creative google searches and found someone who had a similar issue with the controller indicator.   So, using that logic, i applied it to the CH47..

In the file location. dcsworld\mods\aircraft\ch47\cockpit\scripts\cargoindicator - cargoindicator_page.lua

There is a line that reads...   base.init_pos ={aspect-box_width,1.0-box_height}

I then opened dcsworld\mods\aircraft\UH-1\cockpit\scripts\controlsindicator - controlsindicator_page.lue

Found the line that reads... base.init_pos = {0,(1 - 1.3*size)}

Copied the whole of that line and pasted into the CH47 carogindicator_page.lua

Actually found a much easier solution:

Open file.... dcsworld\mods\aircraft\ch47\cockpit\scripts\cargoindicator - cargoindicator_page.lua

Edit line that reads...  local aspect = Lockon_Options.screen.aspect

Change to local aspect = 1

Save restart DCS..  

Fired up the instant action sling load operation mission and as soon as the cargo red smoke released, the green hover box was visible!

It now shows the green box  with the "All Cargo" option in the comms menu.   But i use CTLD and have cargo spawn in front of me - then it still does not show up.    

Not the end yet.. Where as this moves the green box, the moving circle, red dot and the height bar are not in the green box, so a bit more playing around to get them into the green box

 

 Hopefully this might help others.    For reference, this was the post that i found that got me on the right track - Last post from Slicker55
 

 

Edited August 15, 2024 by Gabreil

[Slippa]

Well done for clocking it. Very intuitive.

I’ve yet to have a game of conkers with the Chinny so don’t know if I’ll get the indicator or not. I know I don’t fancy editing bits of code if I can’t see it though so I’ll wait til they’ve sorted it out. Helpful for those more confident with the fiddling.

[Gabreil]

I've just edited my post as its not fully functional.. greenbox yes, the circle and height.. thats still somewhere off screen!    In theory,  once i've got it all sorted, it should be a case of uploading my .lua file and doing a replace of yours for it to show...  Check back a bit later to see if i've cracked it or not!

 

[jonsky7]

Had to change mine to

local aspect = -1.34

works a treat, thanks

[BluFinBima]

The code for this control seems to be the same as the UH-1H and the Mi-8 and there are some posts relating to this problem on those aircraft.  

 

In my particular case, I believe the problem is seen because the monitor I use for DCS is to the left of my windows main display so that in Windows terms, this is a negative offset.  Anyway, the solution in this thread seems to match the solution in the earlier threads (going back to 2014), so it might be nice for ED / Belsimtek to address this issue in the cargo indicator.