All Static Template Import - ASTI

[PB0_CEF]

ASTI is a tool to import static templates anywhere on any map of DCS WORLD with any
orientation.
Static templates created by users are always anchored to the map and a specific location.
It currently seems impossible to move, to reorient all these objects assembled to form scenes that
could constitute very practical settings or objectives to populate a mission.
With Miguel21 we decided to make a tool to change that.

To use it you will need to load and install the DCE_Manager that you will find here :

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/fr/files/3315285/

You can use ASTI  independantly to the DCE_Manager.

With the DCE_Manager setup file you will find a PDF to explain how to use ASTI. 

Feel free to ask questions and report bugs here !

With ASTI you will be able to :

- Place precisely one or several templates (simple or complex) with few clics on any DCS World map . 

- Change their localisation after a first placement any time you want

- Define their orientations and change them.

- Hide or show them

- Change their side (Red or Blue)

- Delete each template with few clics.

I hope it will help mission editors to make missions easily and perhaps create a library of small or large templates that are easily reusable on any map.

Edited October 1, 2024 by PB0_CEF

[PB0_CEF]

First few Static templates regrouped here :

 

[Rudel_chw]

Seems like a great tool, I will try it and then let you know how it goes, thanks a lot for sharing it.

[Rudel_chw]

On 10/1/2024 at 7:36 PM, PB0_CEF said:

Feel free to ask questions and report bugs here !

 

Hello,

I'm not sure if I'm using the utility correctly or it is a bug, but it seems the names of Units, Groups and Waypoints are not preserved when applying the Template .. for example I was testing with a Carrier fleet template, and after ASTI processes the mission I get this:

 

 

the names are now "DictKey ..." instead of the names used on the Static Template.

A second issue, is that the position of units that are linked to the carrier seem to not be rotated to the same heading as the carrier.

A third issue, is that the unit names are not preserved on the Advanced Waypoint Actions list.

 

Will keep testing, now with ground units, because in spite of these small issues, ASTI does show promise 

Cheers,

 

Eduardo

 

PS: to help with the debugging, this is the static template that I used above:

CAU - Blue - SuperCarrier Group CVN-71 Roosevelt (by Rudel_chw).stm

 

and this is the actual MIZ file from which this Static Template was created:

 

CAU - Blue - CVN-71 Roosevelt Carrier Group (by Rudel_chw).miz

 

[christopher m]

@CEF

THNX these are cool batteries to have to be able to drop any where, on any Map

I have downloaded the DCE manager and installed it and used the ASTI_ tool to install your Live-AAA Template Groups

and your Live-SA-2 protected Template Groups with and without the REF_ units to test missions.

I understand how it all works now but I am wondering if the Template Groups act NORMALLY in a Mission since you include the Static Units,

and Unit Grouping of Support Vehicles with the Unit Grouping of - Launchers, Guns and Radars?

COMMON DCS CONSENSUS contends that the Support Grouping's should be separate from the Weapons Grouping's and Static Units?

or am I behind the curve on this one? - also Statics mixed with Live Unit Groupings? does it work in a Mission? I'll have to test it?

I'll have to test this and see how well the ASTI_ installed Templates perform in a Mission.

THNX for your work and I'll report back my findings.
 

Edited October 5, 2024 by christopher m

[Miguel21]

10 hours ago, Rudel_chw said:

I'm not sure if I'm using the utility correctly or it is a bug, but it seems the names of Units, Groups and Waypoints are not preserved when applying the Template .. for example I was testing with a Carrier fleet template, and after ASTI processes the mission I get this:

Hi, there,

In fact, ASTI was mainly created to import large static sets where dynamic (simple) elements can be associated with them. (something that the DCS mission editor does very badly).

So it's true that we don't know how to import complex dynamic elements (such as aircraft with flight plans, aircraft carriers with associated aircraft, etc.) for the simple reason that the mission editor already does this very well.

Renaming elements and groups is mandatory.
If the user decides to import the same template 3 times, the names must be changed.
DCS does not support duplicate group.name, unit.name, groupId and unitId.

However, it's clear that I haven't taken into account the old DCS naming, I'll look into it.
In your case, the template calls the Dickey library, so it will call
 [‘DictKey_UnitName_7’] = ‘Roosevelt’,

I'll look into it, thanks for your feedback

PS: for the aircraft/static elements placed on an aircraft carrier, I hadn't planned that either, I'll check with Cef whether we're looking at that or not.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[Rudel_chw]

1 hour ago, Miguel21 said:

In fact, ASTI was mainly created to import large static sets where dynamic (simple) elements can be associated with them. (something that the DCS mission editor does very badly).

 

Hello, thanks a lot for clarifying this, it helps me to understand where I can employ ASTI in a more effective way, like for setting up FARP, AAA or SAM sites.

 

1 hour ago, Miguel21 said:

Renaming elements and groups is mandatory.
If the user decides to import the same template 3 times, the names must be changed.
DCS does not support duplicate group.name, unit.name, groupId and unitId.

 

OK, understood.

 

1 hour ago, Miguel21 said:

However, it's clear that I haven't taken into account the old DCS naming, I'll look into it.
In your case, the template calls the Dickey library, so it will call
 [‘DictKey_UnitName_7’] = ‘Roosevelt’,

I'll look into it, thanks for your feedback

 

You are welcome .. I did in fact employ as a test subject an old Caucasus Static Template, I wanted to convert it to use on the Kola Map  

 

1 hour ago, Miguel21 said:

PS: for the aircraft/static elements placed on an aircraft carrier, I hadn't planned that either, I'll check with Cef whether we're looking at that or not.

 

Ok, hopefully it can be overcome, as the object "link" feature is used a lot on naval templates

Best regards,

 

Eduardo

[PB0_CEF]

13 hours ago, christopher m said:

@CEF

THNX these are cool batteries to have to be able to drop any where, on any Map

I have downloaded the DCE manager and installed it and used the ASTI_ tool to install your Live-AAA Template Groups

and your Live-SA-2 protected Template Groups with and without the REF_ units to test missions.

I understand how it all works now but I am wondering if the Template Groups act NORMALLY in a Mission since you include the Static Units,

and Unit Grouping of Support Vehicles with the Unit Grouping of - Launchers, Guns and Radars?

COMMON DCS CONSENSUS contends that the Support Grouping's should be separate from the Weapons Grouping's and Static Units?

or am I behind the curve on this one? - also Statics mixed with Live Unit Groupings? does it work in a Mission? I'll have to test it?

I'll have to test this and see how well the ASTI_ installed Templates perform in a Mission.

THNX for your work and I'll report back my findings.
 

 

Well I’m used to make Sam batteries with support incorporated and it seems that it worked in previous DCE campaigns …

ASTI is a new tool so I didn’t test it yet but I used templates before with both static and  "live" units and as soon as SAMs are together in the same group with the radar it worked

Please tell me if your tests work too … as soon as possible I will test it with ASTI but I’m confident

[PB0_CEF]

2 hours ago, Rudel_chw said:

Ok, hopefully it can be overcome, as the object "link" feature is used a lot on naval templates

I thought that it was the only example where templates can be imported on carriers … 

ASTI after being used generates always a different oriented template but all objects in it can be oriented again as desired changing ASTI_ marker orientation … perhaps can you try it to orientate your carrier template as desired ? It could be only one stage more to do ? 
as soon as possible I will make a test

Edited October 5, 2024 by PB0_CEF

[Rudel_chw]

6 minutes ago, PB0_CEF said:

perhaps can you try it to orientate your carrier template as desired ?

 

ok, I will try that 

[PB0_CEF]

11 minutes ago, Rudel_chw said:

 

ok, I will try that 

Using a REF_ unit in the template could help you to place it precisely I think ! 

Edited October 5, 2024 by PB0_CEF

[PB0_CEF]

Of course it should be possible to make a complete template with CVN its escort  and on board planes to put it anywhere with ASTI  !

[PB0_CEF]

7 hours ago, PB0_CEF said:

Of course it should be possible to make a complete template with CVN its escort  and on board planes to put it anywhere with ASTI  !

I tested it and if you don't put a waypoint at your naval group the template works perfectly with objects staying at the good place on the bridge with the links to the CVN !

You can add waypoints later after importing and orienting correctly your task Force template

[Miguel21]

On 10/5/2024 at 1:40 AM, Rudel_chw said:

the names are now "DictKey ..." instead of the names used on the Static Template.

I rewrite the part to take into account the old name (Dickey_) and I realize that I could not recover everything, indeed, it seems that when you pass from the file .miz to the template, part of the original names disappear

[Miguel21]

On 10/5/2024 at 2:23 PM, Rudel_chw said:

Ok, hopefully it can be overcome, as the object "link" feature is used a lot on naval templates

Thanks again,
And thanks again for the tests.

Well, this time we have taken into account the ‘link’, also tried to take into account the orientation of the ship and the names in the dictionary.

You can also use the .miz directly as a template (no need to transform it)

Having said that, to make sure it works, also name the template's ship group ‘REF_’.

However, I haven't been able to do any testing, and my regular tester (Cef^^) won't be around for a few weeks.
 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2024 by Miguel21

[Rudel_chw]

23 minutes ago, Miguel21 said:

You can also use the .miz directly as a template (no need to transform it)

that is a big convenience, to avoid confusion with standard static templates 

I will test them during the week-end and get back here with my impressions.

[Rudel_chw]

2 hours ago, Rudel_chw said:

I will test them during the week-end and get back here with my impressions.

 

My first test was with a Template type that I believe will benefit the most from ASTI, a SAM Template. I created the template on the Kola map, with a bunch of both vehicle groups and static elements, the selected (white) unit is the ASTI reference cone:

 

 

This is how the template looks on its original map,

 

 

it is based on the Group Templates created by @Stuka 

 

I then create a new mission at Persian Gulf, and add the template marker, with the proper ASTI_ name, just for kicks I rotated it to 90°, like this:

 

 

I then process the mission through ASTI:

 

 

ASTI makes this change on the disk-stored mission file, if I have the mission currently open on the ME, I need to load it again (without saving first). I get then the placed template:

 

 

On a running mission the template looks like this:

 

 

 

To summarize, on simple templates like this it seems to work nicely, and the fact that we no longer need to pass by a Static Template first simplifies the process a lot, besides having a neater StaticTemplate folder.

 

On the next test I will add some moving elements, like patrols or guards, to check if their routes are preserved.

Greetings,

 

Eduardo

[Miguel21]

nice, thanks

[Rudel_chw]

10 hours ago, Miguel21 said:

Having said that, to make sure it works, also name the template's ship group ‘REF_’.

 

Hi,

I found this not to be necessary, for me it was better to keep using the M92 cone as reference unit, on fleets it sinks to the sea bottom and so cant be seen at all

 

 

On this last version, ASTI maintains the link attribute perfectly:

 

 

This is a Template that I made on the Caucasus Map, placed by ASTI on a Kola Mission ... really a huge time-saver  

 

 

Will keep testing it a bit more, Cheers!

 

Eduardo

[Rudel_chw]

7 hours ago, Rudel_chw said:

On the next test I will add some moving elements, like patrols or guards, to check if their routes are preserved.

 

Hi,

Did a quick test by adding a patrol vehicle to the SAM template, and the vehicle route is preserved by ASTI when applying the template on a new mission, but on the ME the vehicle route looks odd, as it is missing the connecting lines of the route only the waypoint circles being shown ... it does not seem to affect the vehicle movement.

 

 

Will keep testing a bit more with other cases, like a FARP .. but that's all for today  

 

 

Eduardo

[Miguel21]

thanks for these tests, they're great

We hadn't thought about the vehicle routes either ^^.

So it's normal for there to be inconsistencies, because it's trying to stick its path (certainly) on an existing road.

There, I could only put ‘offroad’, I don't see any other solution.
The paths are written ‘hard’ in the DCS code, we won't have access to them, apart from the ME.

[Lt.Turbo]

I was testing this morning and noticed that when trying to add multiple static templates (using the same template) at the same time I am getting several templates, one on top of the other. I tried adding 3 templates to one mission. Each marker had the correct ASTI_ prefix and were numbered -1, -2, and -3. For each marker, it added the template, plus the suffix number so I ended up with 2, 3, and 4 templates at each of the markers.

[Miguel21]

1 hour ago, Lt.Turbo said:

I was testing this morning and noticed that when trying to add multiple static templates (using the same template) at the same time I am getting several templates, one on top of the other. I tried adding 3 templates to one mission. Each marker had the correct ASTI_ prefix and were numbered -1, -2, and -3. For each marker, it added the template, plus the suffix number so I ended up with 2, 3, and 4 templates at each of the markers.

ha, interesting
can you push me your basic mission (with the asti prefixes already added) and the template(s)?
If possible?

[Thomas_GER]

I can't help but for me it seems that the installation of the DCE Manager is buggy as well as the afterwards usage of ASTI.

After installing the DCS Manager I got the message that DCS Manager has no access to an options file that is in my documents folder cause another process is using it?!

When I use the ASTI tool (which is great - really) I can process everything as described in the manual. But when I return back to ME and want to load the miz-File I get an error message.

I can see also that the file seems not to get closed properly by the ASTI tool.

[Miguel21]

3 hours ago, Thomas_GER said:

After installing the DCS Manager I got the message that DCS Manager has no access to an options file that is in my documents folder cause another process is using it?!

When I use the ASTI tool (which is great - really) I can process everything as described in the manual. But when I return back to ME and want to load the miz-File I get an error message.

I can see also that the file seems not to get closed properly by the ASTI tool.

the post above has been resolved by updating the version of DCE_Manager.

Try it with this one:

If the bug persists, can you post me the original files (miz and template) and the final mission (.miz)?
thanks

 

 

Edited October 21, 2024 by Miguel21