SayIntentions.AI ATC - SimAPI could be used for DCS

[thetford569]

Hello,

i have been a subscriber to SayIntentions.AI for ATC in another Flight Simulator for over a year and its great.  I’ve really been hoping it could one day be used in DCS and now it’s possible with their SimAPI.  I am posting here because I am not a programmer and it is my hope that someone with that knowledge could check out this video and write an adapter to connect DCS.  This would offer VFR and IFR ATC powered by AI for DCS.  

 

I’m not associated with their company.  I am just a satisfied subscriber who would love to have this in DCS especially for the NTTR map.  I’m not here to start or get into a debate about their subscription fees and what not.  I am just trying to get this out there in the hopes that someone can help make this happen.  Additionally I believe that the Nellis departure and arrival procedures can be programmed into the AI to make it even more realistic.  Here is the video announcement from today:

 

[Uno]

Using SI as well and it is really great. Never had something, which comes as close to realism as Say Intensions.

Would like to have it too in DCS but unfortunately I am also no programmer. 

[Darcaem]

OMG! It does sound great! I've just saw the video and barely read the documentation page index titles... I've never actually used SI on "that other sim", so I am a bit green about how it actually works, but I will definitively test it with DCS as soon as I have some time. We can export our own telemetry from DCS, but how would SI know, for example, if a certain runway is being used for another aircraft???  (EDIT: nevermind, I just read they say "Traffic Injection and Traffic Awareness" is not suported)

Will report here eventually if I do manage to do something useful

 

EDIT2: null so... I was going to register for the trial and just read this... (see screenshot) XD is it considered terrorism or bomb threat to announce you are inbound from the south for a strafing run, or "bombs away" over the radio?

Edited April 5 by Darcaem

[thetford569]

15 hours ago, Darcaem said:

OMG! It does sound great! I've just saw the video and barely read the documentation page index titles... I've never actually used SI on "that other sim", so I am a bit green about how it actually works, but I will definitively test it with DCS as soon as I have some time. We can export our own telemetry from DCS, but how would SI know, for example, if a certain runway is being used for another aircraft???  (EDIT: nevermind, I just read they say "Traffic Injection and Traffic Awareness" is not suported)

Will report here eventually if I do manage to do something useful

 

EDIT2: null so... I was going to register for the trial and just read this... (see screenshot) XD is it considered terrorism or bomb threat to announce you are inbound from the south for a strafing run, or "bombs away" over the 

15 hours ago, Darcaem said:

OMG! It does sound great! I've just saw the video and barely read the documentation page index titles... I've never actually used SI on "that other sim", so I am a bit green about how it actually works, but I will definitively test it with DCS as soon as I have some time. We can export our own telemetry from DCS, but how would SI know, for example, if a certain runway is being used for another aircraft???  (EDIT: nevermind, I just read they say "Traffic Injection and Traffic Awareness" is not suported)

Will report here eventually if I do manage to do something useful

 

EDIT2: null so... I was going to register for the trial and just read this... (see screenshot) XD is it considered terrorism or bomb threat to announce you are inbound from the south for a strafing run, or "bombs away" over the radio?

That is asking you not to simulate hijackings, bomb threats, etc.  This was originally made for civilian flight sims.  I’m not sure about any changes when being used with DCS.  We can’t just export our own telemetry for it.  It’s not made for DCS yet.  Someone who can program needs to make an interface between DCS and their API.  If that’s what you’re trying to do I would encourage you to get ahold of them for more information.  Hopefully someone will be able to make an interface so we could use this with DCS and have some of the best ATC currently available outside of real humans.

[Hallsy]

SI is amazing. After using it since its release on MSFS, the prospect of bringing it to DCS is a dream come true. Sadly, I am no coder, but I hope someone much smarter than me can figure out the API. If there is any way I or discord full of pilots can do to support, please reach out! This is a GAME CHANGER and would fill a massive void in DCS.

Edited April 7 by Hallsy

[Darcaem]

So I am just testing an export lua file to build the structure that needs to be stored on the %localappdata%\SayIntentionsAI\simAPI_input.json file. I do not know how to get these values (so far):

"WHEEL RPM:0"

"WHEEL RPM:1"

Variable: "WHEEL RPM:1" (INT)
Required: Yes  [Required. Used to tell if the aircraft is in motion while on the ground.]
Description: Current speed (in revolutions per minute) of any other wheel.  (This can be the same as WHEEL RPM:0 if you want).

 

also, the frequency currently selected on the radios (this should be easy, I'm 99% sure frequencies can be exported, but I don't know yet how )

I'm looking in this wiki: https://wiki.hoggitworld.com/view/DCS_Export_Script

 

The other values I think I can write them.

 

Any ideas?

 

EDIT: can we calculate the wheel rpm value maybe? I mean... knowing ground speed and the wheels radius of a certain aircraft we could get rpms but... ([personal comment] what a weird way of using this value XD wouldn't it be easier to just use ground speed instead??? why on Earth do they need wheel rpm??)

 

------

Also, although this is kind of a "tomorrow problem", I do not understand the simAPI_output.jsonl file. In SI documentation it seems the values written in this file would be the ones I need to pass to DCS... but... what for? Is this some kind of autopilot that automatically changes my radio frequencies and squawk codes? If that is the case, right know I have no idea how I could do these, but this must be doable with DCS-BIOS (since you can change your radios with a phisical external device)

Edited April 7 by Darcaem

[thetford569]

I have no idea how to help you but I appreciate you taking a stab at this.  I know that I talked to the dev a few days ago and VHF and UHF frequencies should be possible for DCS.  He mentioned that currently the UHF freqs are stripped out for the civil flight sims but they could be put back in for DCS so both radios should be able to work.  I also discussed with him after this gets working being able to add departure and arrival procedures for Nellis and it sounded like that was definitely possible.  I'm talking the procedures like the Flex North and West departure and recoveries from the ranges and not the published stuff.

[prestonflying]

@Darcaem I am also looking into this and writing an adapter using the newly released SimAPI for SI as a DCS Export LUA Script. 

I agree with the "WHEEL RPM:0" question, seems like SimAPI just needs to know if we are moving on the ground or not, thus a simple function of speed + wheel radius should do. 

re- how do I read/change radio freqs? You can use the "Device" for the VHF radio in the lua export script to interact with the VHF Radio Device.
Example for UH-1H

local VHFRadio = GetDevice(20)
local freq = VHFRadio:get_frequency()

-- Setting frequency to 121.5 for VHF radio in DCS
VHFRadio:set_frequency(121500000)

 

[prestonflying]

Got a repo up with a DCS adapter, it is an export script you add to your Scripts/Export.lua. Let me know if you have any issues or feature ideas. 

https://github.com/papiplanes/sayintentions-dcs-adapter/tree/main

[Hallsy]

On 4/13/2025 at 10:13 PM, prestonflying said:

Got a repo up with a DCS adapter, it is an export script you add to your Scripts/Export.lua. Let me know if you have any issues or feature ideas. 

https://github.com/papiplanes/sayintentions-dcs-adapter/tree/main

Preston, this is some AWESOME work. I was looking through the Github at your examples, does it just need the module name to call? I saw in the hornet example, you have weight, balance and such. I would love to start contributing for the Cold War aircraft but want to make sure I am doing it right! I was also thinking, dumb question, but for the UHF only equipt aircraft, can you still use AI at towered airports with only VHF freqs in the charts? Thanks! 

[prestonflying]

@Hallsy

Thank you! I set up the lua DCS export so new additions only require creating a new <AIRCRAFT_NAME.lua> file and filling out the required methods to extract data from the cockpit of a given module (since each module has unique ways to access this data).

Re hornet weight: This can be hardcoded to a resonable number like 40000lbs, I just got carried way and tried to account for Fuel and stuff. SayIntentionsAI just needs a handful of fields to know where you are and what freq you are on. 

For UHF only aircraft, it is possible we could do something like subtract 200hz from a UHF to get a proper VHF channel inside the export script for a given module (hacky, but would work).
SayIntentionsAI requires a VHF (110-150hz) radio channel to communicate with the airports. And these radio channels are set inside the cockpit. Another solution would be having the SayIntentions desktop application set the radio frequencies, the DCS-SI lua adapter would capture those radio frequencies and store the current COM1 value and use that instead of the value in the cockpit. This solution would mean the pilot would not be able to set the radios from the cockpits, and instead the export script would handle all radio communications.

As for adding more modules, the biggest limitation is I do not own all modules (I have hornet, huey, tomact, viper, ch47). So adding more modules will require someone with those to implement them. But anyone with super basic DCS lua knowledge will be able to add these modules.

I added an example template file if someone wants to try to add their own

Edited April 17 by prestonflying

[Hallsy]

1 hour ago, prestonflying said:

@Hallsy

Thank you! I set up the lua DCS export so new additions only require creating a new <AIRCRAFT_NAME.lua> file and filling out the required methods to extract data from the cockpit of a given module (since each module has unique ways to access this data).

Re hornet weight: This can be hardcoded to a resonable number like 40000lbs, I just got carried way and tried to account for Fuel and stuff. SayIntentionsAI just needs a handful of fields to know where you are and what freq you are on. 

For UHF only aircraft, it is possible we could do something like subtract 200hz from a UHF to get a proper VHF channel inside the export script for a given module (hacky, but would work).
SayIntentionsAI requires a VHF (110-150hz) radio channel to communicate with the airports. And these radio channels are set inside the cockpit. Another solution would be having the SayIntentions desktop application set the radio frequencies, the DCS-SI lua adapter would capture those radio frequencies and store the current COM1 value and use that instead of the value in the cockpit. This solution would mean the pilot would not be able to set the radios from the cockpits, and instead the export script would handle all radio communications.

As for adding more modules, the biggest limitation is I do not own all modules (I have hornet, huey, tomact, viper, ch47). So adding more modules will require someone with those to implement them. But anyone with super basic DCS lua knowledge will be able to add these modules.

I added an example template file if someone wants to try to add their own

Thank you again for the reply. When I get some time off tomorrow evening, I will plug away and try to help you out. The insight into the UHF is brilliant, I am thinking especially about the F1(has VHF) but also the F4. I do have access to most modules, let me know if you need anything!

Edited April 17 by Hallsy

[thetford569]

This is great!  Brian at SI did mention to me that they could probably support the UHF frequencies for DCS so I think if he does that you could make the UHF radio work correctly.  He said they strip those out for Flight Sim but he could add it back in for DCS after someone made an adaptor.

[prestonflying]

@thetford569 Awesome, once SI SimAPI supports UHF I will update the modules to begin emitting those.