Slmod- multiplayer server mod for new mission logic functionality

[Quax456]

(Where is the log file?)

 

Well, all things being equal:

 

Slmod is like 10,000 lines

DCS is probably what... 1,000,000 lines? I donno.

 

Multiplayer is also a bit more unstable than average right now.

 

Lua also has a very hard time causing CTDs.

 

So all in all, for any crash or bug there is something like a 99.9% chance that it has nothing to do with Slmod.

 

Anyway, I'd probably appreciate it if we didn't report crashes in here unless there was a reasonable cause to think that the crash could be related to Slmod. (Also consider that in this thread, posters have suspected Slmod of causing crashes/instability/whatever at least 10 to 20 times and not once has it been discovered that Slmod had been at fault).

 

The reason I say this is I don't want people glancing through this thread to get the false impression that Slmod causes game instability or other bugs when I have never even once found that to be the case.

 

Dear Speed nobody has said thats it is your failure that SLMOD has some problems with .7560......

I know anything is supject to change, but with .7286 all works good, not perfect but good....so I have decided to rollback and await any upcoming patch off ED to fix this.

 

BTW: Sometimes I am a little bit concerned, no excuse only a declaration, I spend so much time to realise my missions that I'm not in the mood to redesign them on every UPDATE.

 

Best regards

[Speed]

Dear Speed nobody has said thats it is your failure that SLMOD has some problems with .7560......

I know anything is supject to change, but with .7286 all works good, not perfect but good....so I have decided to rollback and await any upcoming patch off ED to fix this.

 

BTW: Sometimes I am a little bit concerned, no excuse only a declaration, I spend so much time to realise my missions that I'm not in the mood to redesign them on every UPDATE.

 

Best regards

 

As I've said before, the problem is almost certainly with DCS, not with Slmod. "Release" versions of Slmod have never once been involved with a server crash to my knowledge, and it's almost inconceivable that it could be involved with a client crash.

 

Rolling back to a previous version of DCS will work temporarily, but what will you do in 1.2.3? Your mission will be broken permanently. Why? Because bugs do not fix themselves. If this bug is not reported, it will still be there in 1.2.3. So unless you want all your hard work on your mission to go down the drain, you need to give me detailed steps on how to replicate this crash. That's the only way to ensure it might be fixed.

 

Here's what I think I understand:

1) Start the server, run your mission.

2) At some point? (When? under what conditions?) clients will crash? Or is it always on second rejoin that clients crash?

3) Then clients will be unable to re-join?

Anyway, I've already tried all the above, and had no problems.

 

Finally, I do agree you should not have to re-design your missions on every update. That's why it's important that, when a new bug occurs, you provide detailed steps on how to recreate it so that it gets FIXED.

 

As Scorpi points out, there are suspected issues with dynamic weather. There are also suspected problems with enforcing scenes. Have you tried turning off dynamic weather and not enforcing scenes?

[Scorpi]

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1617211&postcount=50

[Speed]

Dear Speed nobody has said thats it is your failure that SLMOD has some problems with .7560......

I know anything is supject to change, but with .7286 all works good, not perfect but good....so I have decided to rollback and await any upcoming patch off ED to fix this.

 

BTW: Sometimes I am a little bit concerned, no excuse only a declaration, I spend so much time to realise my missions that I'm not in the mood to redesign them on every UPDATE.

 

Best regards

 

OK, based off of Mustang's description of this bug on ED's internal bug tracker, I was able to replicate the crash using one of the VTAG dedicated servers.

 

I uninstalled Slmod from the VTAG dedicated server, and removed all Slmod elements from your mission.

 

Your mission still crashed, even with no Slmod elements, and Slmod not running on the server.

 

So, like I said, would you please STOP blaming Slmod for a bug in DCS?

 

I am now in the process of trying to narrow down the cause. The cause is NOT due to enforcing scenes, civilian traffic, or dynamic weather, I know that much now.

[Quax456]

OK, based off of Mustang's description of this bug on ED's internal bug tracker, I was able to replicate the crash using one of the VTAG dedicated servers.

 

I uninstalled Slmod from the VTAG dedicated server, and removed all Slmod elements from your mission.

 

Your mission still crashed, even with no Slmod elements, and Slmod not running on the server.

 

So, like I said, would you please STOP blaming Slmod for a bug in DCS?

 

I am now in the process of trying to narrow down the cause. The cause is NOT due to enforcing scenes, civilian traffic, or dynamic weather, I know that much now.

 

Never ever somebody I know or myself has blamed on SLMOD. That is a complete missunderstanding.

 

All I had said that since .7560 and maybe SLMOD have comatibilitie problems....due to immerse testing we know right now it is not!!!!!

 

My question now, what has changed?

 

1. I start a server with slmod it is paused due to empty server

2. somebody joins the server, slmod resumes the server

3. the client crashes right on loading after connect

 

if the server will be unpaused after one client has connected, he stays connect on stable and the mission runs, but......

any further clients wich try to connect get this strange CDT.......

 

That was the reason I had assumed that SLMOD could also be a reason for that error.....

 

I have also tried: disabling dynamic weather, disableing enforcing scene resolution etc.

No CHANGE!!!!!

Edited November 29, 2012 by Quax456

[Speed]

Never ever somebody I know or myself has blamed on SLMOD. That is a complete missunderstanding.

 

All I had said that since .7560 and maybe SLMOD have comatibilitie problems....due to immerse testing we know right now it is not!!!!!

 

My question now, what has changed?

 

1. I start a server with slmod it is paused due to empty server

2. somebody joins the server, slmod resumes the server

3. the client crashes right on loading after connect

 

if the server will be unpaused after one client has connected, he stays connect on stable and the mission runs, but......

any further clients wich try to connect get this strange CDT.......

 

That was the reason I had assumed that SLMOD could also be a reason for that error.....

 

I have also tried: disabling dynamic weather, disableing enforcing scene resolution etc.

No CHANGE!!!!!

 

Yea, it's very frustrating trying to narrow this down. That's what I'm doing right now.

 

I deleted all aircraft, all static objects, and all ships from your mission, and it doesn't crash now. Now, I need to add stuff back until it crashes again. It could either be the number of units, or the types of units... I donno yet.

 

Oh and the crash only happens if the server time has advanced some amount. Server cannot be at or near time = 0.

Edited November 29, 2012 by Speed

[Quax456]

I know Dragons Red Cross massacr runs fine in the actual Vanilla.

So I know there are no ships or AI Fighter out of FC3 in there!!!!

 

I give a 100$ bet on the F15 or the hostile FC3 aircrafts which are AI controlled :D

[Quax456]

Oh and the crash only happens if the server time has advanced some amount. Server cannot be at or near time = 0.

 

Yea that was what I tried to explain.......

[Speed]

Ok, Quax, if I delete all planes from your mission, it doesn't crash. I tried deleting just the F-15s, and it crashed still, if I remember correctly. Hmmm.....

 

104th has no trouble hosting a lot of FC3 aircraft- but then again, maybe this is a server-side problem and they rolled back.

[Quax456]

Scorpi and I just arguing right now in STP TS. Just do a missions from the scratch with 1x A-10 and 1x Ka50 and try to fly. It will work.

After that edit this mission and add 1xF15 and try again. It should crash than.

[Kholsaet]

Output flag FLAG Values as Text

 

I was hoping someone here would be able to help me do this, I would like to write a lua script that prints the value of a flag as text while the game is running....

 

Let me give you an example of what I mean. I have a mission in which I have set up a number of counter flags have been added. Each time a blue or red unit is killed a predetermined value is added to it respective flag, essentially providing diagnostic information about how a mission is unfolding in multiplayer.

 

I would like to write a lua script that would print the value of a given flag (not true or false, but a magnitude) while the game is running. I am using slmod, but even with these additional commands I haven't been able to achieve this. I figured that I could use the "slmod.rand_flags_on" function to toggle the script on and off - but how to write the code that would output a flag value as text has eluded me -- unfortunately I do not have much experience with programming.

 

As always, any help that is offered on this topic is greatly appreciated

 

Thanks

[Speed]

Quax, the bug with your mission has been reported and attended to. Hopefully we will see a fix made public as soon as possible.

 

In the meantime, try deleting all the tankers and AWACs, see if that helps. The issue may have to do with beacons or service providers (service providers = AWACs, Tankers, AFACs, etc.). I gotta move on to something else...

Edited November 29, 2012 by Speed

[Scorpi]

Quax, the bug with your mission has been reported and attended to. Hopefully we will see a fix made public as soon as possible.

 

In the meantime, try deleting all the tankers and AWACs, see if that helps. The issue may have to do with beacons or service providers (service providers = AWACs, Tankers, AFACs, etc.). I gotta move on to something else...

 

Works! :thumbup:

 

Edit:

Okay then let's hope for a fast update.

Edited November 29, 2012 by Scorpi

[mwd2]

I was hoping someone here would be able to help me do this, I would like to write a lua script that prints the value of a flag as text while the game is running....

 

Let me give you an example of what I mean. I have a mission in which I have set up a number of counter flags have been added. Each time a blue or red unit is killed a predetermined value is added to it respective flag, essentially providing diagnostic information about how a mission is unfolding in multiplayer.

 

I would like to write a lua script that would print the value of a given flag (not true or false, but a magnitude) while the game is running. I am using slmod, but even with these additional commands I haven't been able to achieve this. I figured that I could use the "slmod.rand_flags_on" function to toggle the script on and off - but how to write the code that would output a flag value as text has eluded me -- unfortunately I do not have much experience with programming.

 

As always, any help that is offered on this topic is greatly appreciated

 

Thanks

 

i am not sure, if you can give out true or false, but the value is not a problem

 

slmod.msg_out('Blue: ' .. tostring(trigger.misc.getUserFlag('201')) .. ' Points', 5, 'chat')

[Speed]

I was hoping someone here would be able to help me do this, I would like to write a lua script that prints the value of a flag as text while the game is running....

 

Let me give you an example of what I mean. I have a mission in which I have set up a number of counter flags have been added. Each time a blue or red unit is killed a predetermined value is added to it respective flag, essentially providing diagnostic information about how a mission is unfolding in multiplayer.

 

I would like to write a lua script that would print the value of a given flag (not true or false, but a magnitude) while the game is running. I am using slmod, but even with these additional commands I haven't been able to achieve this. I figured that I could use the "slmod.rand_flags_on" function to toggle the script on and off - but how to write the code that would output a flag value as text has eluded me -- unfortunately I do not have much experience with programming.

 

As always, any help that is offered on this topic is greatly appreciated

 

Thanks

It's pretty simple.

 

From: http://en.wiki.eagle.ru/wiki/Simulator_Scripting_Engine_(DCS:_World_1.2.1)

 

trigger.action.outText(trigger.misc.getUserFlag(1))

 

That will simply print the value of flag 1 to all.

 

(By the way, the above script does NOT require Slmod- the scripting engine is present in DCS already- Slmod just expands what the scripting engine is capable of doing.)

 

There are scripting functions to output to coalition, country, or group as well, but a bug was introduced and they do not work in this build.

 

So right now, if you need to output to coalition, you have to use Slmod. I have not exposed an Slmod function for outputting to group or country yet though, but it would be very possible to do so- I already use it internally.

Edited November 29, 2012 by Speed

[mladen]

I would just like to report that our DS is more then 24 hours on-line, with Pause" mode enabled and no problems so far. It seems that the Pause Mode works good. :thumbup:

 

THANK YOU Speed

[Scorpi]

There are no problems when tanker and AWACS are removed from the mission.

[Speed]

i am not sure, if you can give out true or false, but the value is not a problem

 

slmod.msg_out('Blue: ' .. tostring(trigger.misc.getUserFlag('201')) .. ' Points', 5, 'chat')

 

Yes, this would work too.

[Kholsaet]

Speed, mwd2

 

THANKS SO MUCH! This is exactly what I was looking for. Also, I was unaware of the wiki page you directed me to Speed. In the future it will be a very useful resource. I've bookmarked it.

 

Cheers!

[ENO]

Eh Speed... I know you're in the middle of a move or just coming to the end of one. I'd heard that slmod lost some stability with the 7570 update... is that true or will it still work fine and not cause connectivity issues?

 

Anything we can adjust on our end?

[Speed]

I'd heard that slmod lost some stability with the 7570 update...

That is simply not true. DCS is extremely unstable with 7570. I've never seen any crashes due to released versions of Slmod, ever. Not once. Whoever is telling you that Slmod was supposedly decreasing their stability just doesn't know what they are talking about.

 

is that true or will it still work fine and not cause connectivity issues?

Correct

 

Anything we can adjust on our end?

It has lots of new configuration options that allows you select which features to you want to enable.

Edited December 2, 2012 by Speed

[ENO]

Awesome news. Thanks speed.

 

Would rep but need to spread it around first I guess!

 

I just read back a couple pages as well and saw the whole SLmod conversation... I remembered reading that and for some reason I forgot you had ruled it out. sorry for the repetition.

 

IN GENERAL, PLEASE SEE THE C:\Users\<Account Name>\Saved Games\DCS\Slmod\config.lua FILE FOR ALL THE NEW CONFIG OPTIONS!

 

 

About that file ^... for some reason every time I load the game it reverts to a fresh config file and changes my adjusted one into configOLD... Am I screwing something up?

 

Edit: disregard. Reinstalled and it seems to be working now. Think it was just poor configurations in the file... Forgotten quotes etc. MY poor configs by the way- not yours!

 

Question about the team killing:

 

Are the friendly fire events actual kills or hit events? For example I might hit a guy with a few rounds- versus outright killing him. So for the tk setting I'm thinking by events you're talking about actual friendly fire kills. So if I shot down 3 of my teammates I'd be kicked / banned etc.

 

I imagine this record doesn't last past the mission and is reset to 0 after mission switch?

 

Chat log: man thank you thank you x10000000000.

Also people being able to register themselves. Friction awesome.

Edited December 3, 2012 by ENO

[Speed]

Are the friendly fire events actual kills or hit events? For example I might hit a guy with a few rounds- versus outright killing him. So for the tk setting I'm thinking by events you're talking about actual friendly fire kills. So if I shot down 3 of my teammates I'd be kicked / banned etc.

 

I imagine this record doesn't last past the mission and is reset to 0 after mission switch?

No, they're really friendly fire hits. Kill events are NOT actual game events, they are derived events from the game's "hit" and "dead"/"crash" events. This is why "killed" events can be so buggy. There is some logic that runs when a unit dies; it looks at the past "hitters" and determines who "killed" that unit. Unfortunately, there are a lot of complications to this and it is not anywhere as simple as it sounds (for example, what happens if there are multiple "hitters"? Who gets credit? Also, what happens to your code if one of the past "hitters" is now dead itself at the time of the damaged unit's death? What if, furthermore, that dead hitter unit's runtime ID is now being reused for a different active, alive unit?!?!). This is possibly why there are scattered reports of Servman randomly banning people who did nothing wrong (though, that is something I've never witnessed myself).

 

I added in the autokick/autoban option because I decided to add a log of friendly fire hits in the chat log. It only took a few dozen extra lines of Lua to add a simple autokick/autoban option, so why not?

 

The count is reset when you disconnect from the server. It is not yet a suitable replacement for Servman's autokick/ban feature.

 

A future Slmod version will replace the current autokick/autoban option with something a lot more intelligent and more customizable. For example, I will probably create my own derived "kill" events (they already exist to some degree for the units_killed_by function), and they can/will be less buggy and much more intelligent than the default, derived "kill" events that exist in the net Lua environment, due to the fact that Slmod spans multiple Lua environments and can access unit health, airborne weapons (and remember who fired those weapons, even if that person is no longer on the server), etc. I will actually start work on that stuff fairly soon, as it will also be needed for the Slmod Stats system.

Edited December 3, 2012 by Speed

[HiJack]

You are so creative Speed that you should do a online player statistics logbook for both Multiplayer flights and a single player pack that collect SP flights in one single logbook. ED will never deliver this I think, you are my best bet for universal statistics. I would pay for this MOD!

 

Jack

[Speed]

With stats keeping, Slmodv7 will need to keep a file that contains info on all clients who have joined a server.

 

We can piggy-back additional features onto this file. One of the features I'd like to piggy-back on is localizations- translations. I'd like Slmod version 7.0 to support multiple different languages.

 

The idea: Slmod has a default language you can set in Saved Games/Slmod/config.lua. All Slmod menus will be in this language by default when you join a server.

 

However, the client can set a different language for his private Slmod menus (another reason it's great that menus are now private :)) with the -setlang <language name> or -lang <language name> commands. Now, forever more when that client joins that server, his private Slmod menus will be in his new, preferred language.

 

I need to do some "homework" and learn about non-ASCII character sets. I think many "special" characters are support already in ASCII, we can PROBABLY already support Spanish, French, Italian, German- or perhaps be close enough (by using a character that is very similar to some special character). However, I know Cyrillic is not supported by default- ED team comments in Lua files are gibberish to me if they are in Cyrillic.

 

ANYWAY,

 

If you're interested in helping me with translating Slmod, please send me a PM. It will be a couple weeks before I'm ready to start. I think I can do the Spanish translation myself, but I know virtually nothing about German, French, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, etc.

 

Also understand that as new features are added to Slmod, I may request that you help me translate the new features.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Speed