Hornet TACAN database

[Corsac]

Hi,

I've started flying on CW:Germany with a date before GPS, so having to rely only on INS navigation. There's obviously some drift after a while and the advice from the manual is either to update position using a waypoint over a recognizable feature, or use the tacan database.

It seems that the Tacan database is only populated on Caucasus and unpopulated on all the others I could test (Cold War Germany, Marianas, Persian Gulf, Sinai). Manually adding a TACAN at the beginning of each flight will rapidly become old, so is there a way to populate that database differently? I assume at some point there will be a DTC interface for that but it's not yet the case.

I can see the maps have a Beacons.lua (or beacons.lua) file defining those so I'm unsure what would be needed. It'd be really useful for those CW scenarios.

[MAXsenna]

The in game airfields will only have TACAN according to their real world counterparts. No TACAN in real life, no TACAN in game. You also won't have TACAN on civilian airports IIRC. Hence the lack of TACAN in The Marianas/Persian Gulf. Sïnai? Not many NATO countries there.

[Tholozor]

What he means is that the Hornet in DCS has a TACAN database page in the HSI submenus that is populated with the TACAN stations on the Caucasus map (which IRL doesn't have TACAN stations in Georgia), but not the other maps.

Edited Saturday at 11:24 PM by Tholozor

[MAXsenna]

What he means is that the Hornet in DCS has a TACAN database page in the HSI submenus that is populated with the TACAN stations on the Caucasus map (which IRL doesn't have TACAN stations in Georgia), but not the other maps.

Ah, I see. Thanks!

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[Minsky]

17 hours ago, Corsac said:

is there a way to populate that database differently?

I presume it should auto-populate this list with TACAN and VORTAC entries found in a map's "beacons.lua" file.

However, this feature seems broken or was never finished. The only two maps where it "works" are Caucasus and Nevada, and only because their beacons were manually added into this file:

(DCS)\Mods\aircraft\FA-18C\Cockpit\Scripts\Computers\MC_No1.lua

My attempts to add other maps to that file were unsuccessful.

[Scotch75]

Hopefully, this will integrate far better into the mission computer as the DTC is fleshed out more.
Cheers!


Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk

[Corsac]

21 hours ago, Minsky said:

I presume it should auto-populate this list with TACAN and VORTAC entries found in a map's "beacons.lua" file.

However, this feature seems broken or was never finished. The only two maps where it "works" are Caucasus and Nevada, and only because their beacons were manually added into this file:

(DCS)\Mods\aircraft\FA-18C\Cockpit\Scripts\Computers\MC_No1.lua

My attempts to add other maps to that file were unsuccessful.

Thanks for the pointer to that file, I'll take a look as well.

[Corsac]

So, thanks @Minskyfor pointing me to that file. I investigated a bit and initially reproduced your issue trying to add any other map than the ones currently in it (Caucasus and Nevadat). It turns out that it's because the file uses 

get_terrain_related_data("name")

to get the current map name, and apparently it only works on Caucasus (and I guess Nevada), not on any other map I have (it returns NULL). The problem was actually identified in 2021 and a workaround was found (see 

 by using:

get_terrain_related_data("id")

If I do that and use the id found in the terrain entry.lua file (check for the self_ID field) then I can enter specific TACAN inside the database. I'm not really sure I can attach my MC_No1.lua (for IP reasons) but you should be able to reproduce easily locally (feel free to ask if needed). Obviously it breaks IC but on SP and PVE servers I think it should not be too much of an issue. Still it'd be nice to have it fixed/supported directly in DCS Hornet.

In the end I think there's a bug (either in DCS core or in all the external maps) where get_terrain_related_data("name") doesn't work. And if it's on purpose then I guess MC_No1.lua should be changed to "id". And then maybe a wishlist thread for adding relevant beacons for relevant maps.

[Minsky]

1 hour ago, Corsac said:

get_terrain_related_data("id")

Yeah, tried this in Syria and Germany, worked like a charm.

1 hour ago, Corsac said:

I'm not really sure I can attach my MC_No1.lua (for IP reasons)

I wouldn't worry about that, people post modded files all the time.

Here's mine with Syria and CWG added as an example:

\Mods\aircraft\FA-18C\Cockpit\Scripts\Computers\MC_No1.lua

-- 1. Ensure that the line 23 below has "id" instead of "name".
-- 2. Get self_ID value from \Mods\terrains\(map name)\entry.lua, e.g. "Syria".
-- 3. Open \Mods\terrains\(map name)\beacons.lua, search for BEACON_TYPE_TACAN and BEACON_TYPE_VORTAC and grab their beaconId values, e.g. "airfield44_2".
-- 4. Copy & paste the whole "elseif" section below and populate it with the self_ID and beaconsIds values.
-- Note that the Hornet will only display the first ten beacons in its TACAN database.
-- Thanks to Corsac and JTFF_Gemini for figuring this out: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/380541-hornet-tacan-database/#comment-5708106
local gettext = require("i_18n")
_ = gettext.translate

device_timer_dt		= 0.05	-- 20 Hz
need_to_be_closed	= true	-- lua_state  will be closed in post_initialize()

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- TACAN Data Stored in Memory (only for T4) ----------------------------------------------------
local fileName =  get_terrain_related_data("beacons") or get_terrain_related_data("beaconsFile")
if 	  fileName then
	local f = loadfile(fileName)
	if    f     then
		  f()
	end
end

theatre          = get_terrain_related_data("id")	-- Changed from "name" that didn't work

TACAN_Data = {}
if beacons then

	local beacons_by_id = {}
	for i,o in pairs(beacons) do
		if (o.type == BEACON_TYPE_TACAN) or (o.type == BEACON_TYPE_VORTAC) then
			beacons_by_id[o.beaconId] = o
		end
	end

	local getTACAN = function (id)
		local res = {}
		res.Channel		= beacons_by_id[id].channel
		res.Elevation	= beacons_by_id[id].position[2]
		res.Latitude	= beacons_by_id[id].positionGeo.latitude
		res.Longitude	= beacons_by_id[id].positionGeo.longitude
		return	res
	end
	
	local theatre_ = theatre or "none"

	if theatre_ == 'Caucasus' then
		TACAN_Data = { 
			getTACAN('airfield22_2'),	-- BTM
			getTACAN('airfield24_4'),	-- KBL
			getTACAN('airfield25_3'),	-- KTS
			getTACAN('airfield29_9'),	-- GTB
			getTACAN('airfield23_4'),	-- TSK
			getTACAN('airfield31_4'),	-- VAS
			--getTACAN(''),	-- 
			--getTACAN(''),	-- 
			--getTACAN(''),	-- 
			--getTACAN(''),	-- 
		}
	elseif theatre == 'Nevada' then
		TACAN_Data = { 
			getTACAN('airfield1_4'),	-- IndianSprings
			getTACAN('airfield2_2'),	-- Groom_Lake
			getTACAN('airfield4_1'),	-- Nellis
			getTACAN('airfield18_4'),	-- Silverbow
			getTACAN('airfield3_4'),	-- LasVegas
			getTACAN('world_5'),	-- Daggett
			getTACAN('world_19'),	-- PeachSprings
			getTACAN('world_14'),	-- BryceCanyon
			getTACAN('world_12'),	-- WilsonCreek
			getTACAN('world_18'),	-- Coaldale
		}
	elseif theatre == 'Syria' then
		TACAN_Data = { 
			getTACAN('world_13'),	-- GHI
			getTACAN('airfield44_2'),	-- Akrotiri
			getTACAN('airfield16_0'),	-- INCIRLIC
			getTACAN('airfield46_5'),	-- Pafos
			getTACAN('airfield64_1'),	-- PrinceHussein
			getTACAN('airfield30_1'),	-- RAMATDAVID
		}
	elseif theatre == 'GermanyCW' then
		TACAN_Data = { 
			-- Hornet's database is limited to ten items so comment out those you don't need:
			getTACAN('world_0'),	-- Hamburg
			--getTACAN('world_1'),	-- KIR
			--getTACAN('world_3'),	-- WSR
			--getTACAN('world_5'),	-- WRB
			getTACAN('world_10'),	-- Nattenheim
			--getTACAN('world_13'),	-- BKD
			getTACAN('world_14'),	-- Fulda
			--getTACAN('world_15'),	-- HLZ
			getTACAN('airfield200_2'),	-- Bitburg
			getTACAN('airfield235_0'),	-- BUCHEL
			getTACAN('airfield11_1'),	-- Fassberg
			getTACAN('airfield163_6'),	-- Frankfurt
			getTACAN('airfield159_0'),	-- Giebelstadt
			getTACAN('airfield16_1'),	-- Gutersloh
			getTACAN('airfield155_0'),	-- Hahn
			getTACAN('airfield232_0'),	-- Pferdsfeld
			getTACAN('airfield165_2'),	-- Ramstein
			getTACAN('airfield156_1'),	-- SEMBACH
			getTACAN('airfield162_4'),	-- Spangdahlem
			getTACAN('airfield28_6'),	-- TEGEL
			getTACAN('airfield29_1'),	-- Tempelhof
			getTACAN('airfield170_1'),	-- Wiesbaden
			getTACAN('airfield32_1'),	-- WUNSTORF
			getTACAN('airfield158_0'),	-- Zweibrucken
		}
	end
end

-- Failures
F18_MC_FAILURE	= 0

Damage = {	
	{Failure = F18_MC_FAILURE,	Failure_name = "Failure_Comp_MC1",	Failure_editor_name = _("MC 1 FAILURE"),	Element = 4,	Integrity_Treshold = 0.7, work_time_to_fail_probability = 0.5, work_time_to_fail = 3600*300},
}

 

[Corsac]

My changes are basically the same except I used:

	local theatre_ = theatre or get_terrain_related_data("id") or "none"

and then a different selection :

elseif theatre_ == "GermanyCW" then
		TACAN_Data = {
			getTACAN('world_0'), -- HAM (Hamburg)
			getTACAN('world_10'), -- NTM (Nattenheim)
			getTACAN('world_14'), -- FUL (Fulda)
			getTACAN('airfield200_2'), -- BIT (Bitburg)
			getTACAN('airfield235_0'), -- BUE (Buchel)
			getTACAN('airfield163_6'), -- FFM (Frankfurt)
			getTACAN('airfield16_1'), -- GSO (Gutersloh)
			getTACAN('airfield165_2'), -- RMS (Ramstein)
			getTACAN('airfield29_1'), -- TOF (Tempelhof)
			getTACAN('airfield32_1'), -- WUN (Wunstorf)
		}