WIP DCS A-10C and Teamspeak 3 Integration

[Distiler]

You were beyond radio horizon. TARS doesn't do LOS for terrain, just for the horizon of the Earth. LOS in mountains and so on would be another can of worms since there's no native (correct me if I'm wrong) command hooked to get that. You'd have to do it through scripting (one person already send me a way to do that) but unfortunately the performance hit from this would scale pretty badly as you increased player count.

 

There has to be a waaayyyyy in the api :(

 

ED devs, I summon you!!!

[Headspace]

Actually, I had a user on here (speed) PM me with a way to do it using existing commands. The issue was that some of the commands might not be officially supported and I am concerned that there could be a performance hit associated with the calculations. Most of the mathematical calculations are done on the Teamspeak 3 plugin side (it's a DLL in your plugins folder), which is in unmanaged code written in C++ and runs in its own thread (i.e., very fast) whereas Lua is a script and anything you do inside there comes at a cost.

 

Sorry for the technojargon there, but that's the reason. LOS based on terrain was never a planned feature of TARS, but if enough people want it, I can add it to the list of features for future release.

[Distiler]

Well, the thing is that inside the game it's already calculated (datalink loss of signal for example) so we could ask ED to implement it in the api as an status indicator like on/off or something like that. I guess ^^

[Headspace]

Well, the thing is that inside the game it's already calculated (datalink loss of signal for example) so we could ask ED to implement it in the api as an status indicator like on/off or something like that. I guess ^^

I'm sure there's a way to get it. The key is getting it in the best, most compatible (with the game) fashion as possible and then carrying that over to both games.

 

Why? Because originally, I planned to have TARS support both A-10 and Black Shark in the same multiplayer game. At the same time. If the two games were MP-compatible now, you'd be able to use TARS in a game with both A-10 and Black Shark.

[Steel Jaw]

Hi Headspace, awesome work, buddy.

 

We are finding though that confusion can arise as to what radio is active.

 

So is it possible to make it closer to RL as follows...

 

Up = PTT on radio 1

Left=PTT radio 2

Right= PTT radio 3

Down= PTT TS only, outside the game

 

Cheers!

[Headspace]

What if a person decides that they want to configure Teamspeak 3 to do voice activation instead of PTT? I know not many use it, but for those who do, mandatory PTT for TARS would pre-empt a normal function of Teamspeak.

 

If it absolutely ends up having to be in there, I'll add it, but I want to give the community enough time to establish consensus on how it should work.

 

Edit:

 

I'd also like to point out that with that method, a fourth PTT isn't necessary. You would simply use whatever the user has bound for PTT under normal Teamspeak as the PTT button for teamspeak.

Edited January 14, 2011 by Headspace

[Rat.NL]

Hi Headspace, awesome work, buddy.

 

We are finding though that confusion can arise as to what radio is active.

 

So is it possible to make it closer to RL as follows...

 

Up = PTT on radio 1

Left=PTT radio 2

Right= PTT radio 3

Down= PTT TS only, outside the game

 

Cheers!

 

What a great idea:music_whistling:

 

This would be a verry nice feature, could this be done?

 

I think flying in a MP session with a lot of action around me, its would be quicker to use TARS this way

Edited January 14, 2011 by Rat.NL

[sobek]

Up = PTT on radio 1

Left=PTT radio 2

Right= PTT radio 3

Down= PTT TS only, outside the game

 

How does it work right now? Does TARS use the radio that is currently active in the sim?

[Distiler]

What if a person decides that they want to configure Teamspeak 3 to do voice activation instead of PTT? I know not many use it, but for those who do, mandatory PTT for TARS would pre-empt a normal function of Teamspeak.

 

If it absolutely ends up having to be in there, I'll add it, but I want to give the community enough time to establish consensus on how it should work.

 

Edit:

 

I'd also like to point out that with that method, a fourth PTT isn't necessary. You would simply use whatever the user has bound for PTT under normal Teamspeak as the PTT button for teamspeak.

 

I always use voice activation, and I know lots of others that use it too. Correctly fine tuned, it works perfect.

[Headspace]

How does it work right now? Does TARS use the radio that is currently active in the sim?

It does for black shark, because the sim can tell TARS which radio is selected with the SPU-9. But in A-10, with the multiple PTT controls of the HOTAS, all three radios can be active at once.

[Steel Jaw]

How does it work right now? Does TARS use the radio that is currently active in the sim?

 

The PTT will xmit on the active radio only. So you must first set your active radio.

 

Hitting the radio key combination selects that radio and causes it to transmit when next you key your Teamspeak 3 push-to-talk.

 

http://www.excessiveheadspace.com/tars/user-manual/communications/

 

Which is fine in some respects but, in RL say on the F16 TQS, you have a xmit uhf and xmit vhf key, no need to first set an active radio.

 

This is not a big deal or complaint per say.

 

Just nice-to-have feedback on a great achievement.

Edited January 14, 2011 by Mower

[sobek]

The PTT will xmit on the active radio only. So you must first set your active radio.

 

Hitting the radio key combination selects that radio and causes it to transmit when next you key your Teamspeak 3 push-to-talk.

 

http://www.excessiveheadspace.com/tars/user-manual/communications/

 

Which is fine in some respects but, in RL say on the F16 TQS, you have a xmit uhf and xmit vhf key, no need to first set an active radio.

 

Can't one just set all three xmit buttons as PPT keys in ts? I don't remember right now if TS3 permits multiple PTT buttons.

 

Thanks for the link, btw.

 

Should have paid a visit long time ago :)

 

Edit: Seems like you can't. Would have been too easy, i guess :doh:

Edited January 14, 2011 by sobek

[Headspace]

As I said: I can make it do multiple PTT. That's not an issue. The issue is what to do about cases where people use voice activation.

 

How about this. For later release (since this is going to take time to develop, and I'm interested in catching serious bugs in the short term):

 

- If the user has PTT selected, then the binds become PTT binds, and will transmit on the given radio.

- If the user has voice activation selected, then the binds function as they do now.

 

Does that work for everyone? I can stick that on the to-do list.

[Rat.NL]

I think this would be a nice solution

[sobek]

Does that work for everyone? I can stick that on the to-do list.

 

I guess that would be the ultimate solution.

 

Still, you know we're just nit-picking, right? :)

[Rat.NL]

you can call it positive feedback...

 

Further more, TARS is a great addon. a must have for online pilots

[Headspace]

Still, you know we're just nit-picking, right?

This is a flight sim community. It's a given. ;)

[Snoopy]

Also, TARS and helios isn't playing well with each other at the moment, we brought it up to the SCSimulations folks and they are going to see what they can do. I sure hope they can work at the same time I've gotten spoiled flying with helios. Flew without it in mp the other night and felt lost...lol

[Steel Jaw]

- If the user has PTT selected, then the binds become PTT binds, and will transmit on the given radio.

- If the user has voice activation selected, then the binds function as they do now.

 

That would be excellent.

[Headspace]

Also, TARS and helios isn't playing well with each other at the moment, we brought it up to the SCSimulations folks and they are going to see what they can do. I sure hope they can work at the same time I've gotten spoiled flying with helios. Flew without it in mp the other night and felt lost...lol

Feel free to put them in touch with me if necessary. Also try sticking the TARS line in your Export.lua to be at the end. TARS should properly run other exports (it works fine with Tacview, for instance) if they're defined before it is.

[mikey]

I played some coop with this addon, and it was fantastic. Definitely a great addon.

 

However I would like to ask if it was possible in TARS to enable hearing people without TARS on TS. Right now the people who are playing are totally cut off from the rest of the world, so when someone joins the channel we cant hear him asking what and where we're playing. I assume you did this intentionally because I know from ACRE that it can be annoying to have people without the addon blabbing without sound effects, but I'd appreciate it if you could make an option where we could keep hearing people without TARS in the channel.

 

All the other stuff is great though, good job on this project :thumbup:

[Headspace]

Good point, mikey. The current plan is to define a special frequency that people who are spectating will always be audible on, and that will be explored in a future release as well.

[mikey]

Another thing, is it possible to rename the labels "Radio 1", "Radio 2" and "Radio 3" to "UHF", "AM" and "FM"? Using a number to specify the radio is kinda unintuitive, and calling it what it is makes it a bit easier.

I know that you specify which radio is which on your website, but it really is an unneeded step to go on your website to find out what the number means imho.

[Headspace]

Another thing, is it possible to rename the labels "Radio 1", "Radio 2" and "Radio 3" to "UHF", "AM" and "FM"? Using a number to specify the radio is kinda unintuitive, and calling it what it is makes it a bit easier.

I know that you specify which radio is which on your website, but it really is an unneeded step to go on your website to find out what the number means imho.

That's no big deal. Originally, I named them that way before the decision was made to incorporate the SPU-9 switch in Black Shark into the radio selection--Black Shark handles it differently and you don't need those keys as a result. But, initially they had generic names because TARS works with more than one game. I'll likely rename them for the next beta.

Keep the suggestions coming, guys!

[Distiler]

A couple of minor ideas:

 

- Minimize to system tray.

 

- Link to TARS homepage when clicking the logo/banner of the upper side of TARS.