Aries Radio System

[towsim]

@Robin Hood

Your modifications are OK. Normally you modify the background sound only for the given type. The A10 is an exception. The values for the A10 are also used as defaults for non supported types , FC3 and CA. The A10 modifications have no effect if you fly the P51 or UH1.... And yes, only the other players hear the modified background sound.

For a better understanding:

 

• 
  
• Background noise and voice degradation as well as voice vibration are done in the transmitter radio. The values are taken from the local INI file.
  
• Horizon, range and terrain masking, which cause increase of white noise and interruptions, are calculated in the receiver radio. The values are calculated interactively based on distance and positions.
  

[Schleudi]

Some screenshots of today's Aries ATC test session in connection with the radio.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 5, 2014 by Schleudi

[Robin_Hood]

@Robin Hood

Your modifications are OK. Normally you modify the background sound only for the given type. The A10 is an exception. The values for the A10 are also used as defaults for non supported types , FC3 and CA. The A10 modifications have no effect if you fly the P51 or UH1.... And yes, only the other players hear the modified background sound.

For a better understanding:

 

• 
  
• Background noise and voice degradation as well as voice vibration are done in the transmitter radio. The values are taken from the local INI file.
  
• Horizon, range and terrain masking, which cause increase of white noise and interruptions, are calculated in the receiver radio. The values are calculated interactively based on distance and positions.
  

 

Great, thank you (again), I got it now. So the A-10C settings are used as default for others. Time to do some testing!

[dooom]

does anyone have a video of Aries working >?? I'd like to see it in aciton

[Exocet]

frequencies are adjustable directly into the cockpit as tars? if not what is expected ?

[Leto]

frequencies are adjustable directly into the cockpit as tars? if not what is expected ?

 

 

You can dial in frequencies directly on the comms in cockpit. That's the way most users will do. No need to change your behaviour at all.

 

Personally, I don't use the Aries Radio overlay for input. But it is very useful in another way: I have it shown on my second monitor and can check with a glance which radio in the A-10C is active and I am transmitting on.

 

There are cases like for example "Combined Arms" or aircraft or other vessels or ground units you are not able to see comms or a frequency. There it comes in handy dialing in frequencies on the aries overlay.

 

Or you can choose the overlay to not show up at all. That's up to you. (you can assign a button to show/hide the overlay)

Edited July 5, 2014 by Leto

[aaron886]

Glad to see someone else is doing this, but in my opinion being forced to use windowed mode is an instant no-go. That, and the excessive static noises (which I could and would totally adjust to my personal preference, but it's just not worth it if I have to use windowed mode.)

[shagrat]

Hmm, I'm not sure, but I would guess window mode is only necessary, if you want the overlay window?! If you only fly A-10C, Huey etc. you won't see the Aries panel, but still should be able to use in cockpit controls and switches? Not near my PC now to test it...

[chromium]

Windowed mode in "full resolution" is exactly the same than fullscreen: you don't see "windows border" or else... Try, you don't need to install anything... have you ever? cause you speak like windowed mode means that your screen won't be in full res anymore (or you don't run the sim in monitor native res?).

 

If you need the panel (I don't cause I use KA-50) by pressing a button that you can set to the config panel, and it will overlay to DCS World. You do what you need and then press again the "hide/unhide" button and the panel disappear. If you use anything that has a modeled radio, like A-10C, UH-1H, KA-50, you just need to do the same you can do for TARS or to speak to AI service: dial the correct frequences on your radio.

 

The noise it's adjustable, as you said.

Edited July 5, 2014 by chromium

[Leto]

Chromium is absolutely right. There is no disadvantage for you when you use full screen windowed mode. No performance issue.

 

So why is it "an instant no-go"?

Edited July 5, 2014 by Leto

[towsim]

DCS made a change (bug fix ?) for full screen mode with version 1.2.8. It accepts DLL based windows without crashing the game. Nevertheless, there are two disadvantages for Aries Radio in full screen mode. The windows Z-order is controlled by DCS. Means, if the radio panel resides in the DCS view window, it will be hidden after each frame. It cannot be switched to foreground. If the panel is moved to a second monitor, then the DCS view window will disappear if you do a click in the Aries Radio panel. So the only solution in full screen mode would be to configure the radios in the cockpit as usual and leave the Aries Radio Panel disappeared. But as Leto stated, I could not measure a decrease in frame rate when I use windowed mode. For confirmation, I just measured it again and had, for one and the same scenery, 54 Frames/sec in windowed and full screen mode, covering the entire monitor with 1980x1200 pixels.

[towsim]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

please do not start a competitive discussion about the radio products. It is up to the user what he prefers and nobody needs to be convinced. Headspace and me did it for the community. Not for money or for the hall of fame. Aries Radio came after TARS because of a missing standalone radio to be used for radar applications. The airborne radio was a derivative when I realized, that a self made stand alone radio would never be compatible with TARS as airborne radio. Aries focuses still on ATC and GCI which is still under construction. But, the spirits I've cited...

[Home Fries]

@Home Fries

On startup, Aries Radio assumes three radios per model. The key definition in the configuration bases on this assumption. Once the model is loaded, all non existing radios are deleted internally. If you take the P51, two radios are deleted and only box 1 remains in place. Therefore the configuration for box 1 applies. In case of the KA50 with two radios, the configuration for box 1 and box 2 apply. For non supported models like MI8 (will be supported if an English labeled cockpit is released) or FC3 or CA, all three radios remain in the game and the corresponding configuration for the boxes apply. Once you decide to use common PTT, then it is used for all models. It is not possible to have different buttons for box select with each model.

 

Edit:

You can even configure the different rotary switches for Box select directly in the DCS options. Chromium obviously used this clever solution.Only the PTT signal is mandatory to be in the Aries Configuration

 

Towsim,

 

Thank you for the great explanation. It makes a lot more sense now. I was able to go in and test a few things, and I noticed a possible bug with the Ka-50.

 

While the rotary selector switch is designed to select the radio in Aries as well as in-game, I noticed that the only time VHF-1 is selected is when the switch is moving from right to left (i.e. from the ground crew setting). From left to right, VHF-2 is still the default radio. This was tested without a PTT Common. I didn't see the issue when PTT Common was used, but I wasn't looking either. I"ll report back if I figure anything else out.

 

If I could make (yet another) recommendation on your design, it would be to allow the mapping of a PTT Common, but have a simple checkbox for whether to use Common with the A-10C and FC3/CA/Mi-8. The way I see it, you really do need PTT Common for optimal use with the Ka-50, UH-1, and P-51 (and eventually the Mi-8 ), but not having PTT Common makes for more realistic use with the A-10C. This might be a good option for realism fanatics.

 

Finally, I noticed that the TF-51D still uses the FC3/CA radio stack instead of the VHF AM only that the P-51D uses. I assume this is on the list of things to do, but I figured I would report it anyway.

 

Again, thanks for the strides you've made with this software. I have been feverishly reworking the comms routine on my TARGET profile to better integrate with Aries, and I look forward to the evolution of your product line.

[towsim]

@Home Fries

Just tested the switch behavior of the KA50 rotary switch. It seems to work normal. With the rotary switch I can select VHF1 out of VHF2 position and SW Position as well. The only confusing appearance is, that VHF2 is on top of the Aries panel while VHF1 is at the bottom. Vice versa, if I use the keys to select the radio, the rotary switch moves to the right position and the corresponding radio is selected.

For the next big version change of the Radio it is planned to configure each supported type individually like DCS does. All PTT functions and Box select will then be different for each type if wanted.

TF-51D is not supported up to now. I have to admit, I never started the trainer version up to now because of time available. But I am on a good way. Yesterday I got a intensive introduction for the P51 by one of my fellow pilots. So an integration is in the queue.

[astiles5470]

Hi Towsim,

 

we continue testing Aries in some of our missions and we are quite happy so far. I have some suggestions for your next release. We noticed that when a pilot is ejected all the radios that were in use are still controllable. Maybe it would be better and more realistic just to keep a guard channel. Also, some people that fly BMS told me that when talking into a radio channel they know that somebody is trying to talk simultaneously into the same one because they can hear a small beep. It could be nice to have some acoustic notification in this situation. I don't know if this is realistic but it helps. Finally, it could be good to have the three radio channels with some preset for the hearphones audio channels by default :D. The other day one of my colleagues couldn't hear us in UHF until we realized that he forgot to configure an audio channel (L and/or R) for this radio.

 

Thank you and good work :thumbup:

Edited July 10, 2014 by astiles5470

[towsim]

@astiles5470

in the real world,the airborne radios are off by nature because of a crash. There is only a so called air foil, a small transmitter, which transmits a wail on 243.0 MHz. This transmitter is activated automatically when the pilot ejects. With the help of the air foil, rescue helicopters can find a crash site easily.Beside the air foil, the pilot is equipped with a mobile radio to communicate with the rescue crew.Even here, 243.0 MHz is used. The problem is,I did not find any signal in DCS, which says unambiguously, that a pilot ejected from a plane or that an aircraft crashed. If someone here found a signal for this case, please let me know, I will build it in.

The left and right earphones are set both active by default for all radios. So it is most likely, that the earphones were deactivated accidently during the configuration. But the important thing is, that you could help your colleague.

[Flagrum]

@astiles5470

in the real world,the airborne radios are off by nature because of a crash. There is only a so called air foil, a small transmitter, which transmits a wail on 243.0 MHz. This transmitter is activated automatically when the pilot ejects. With the help of the air foil, rescue helicopters can find a crash site easily.Beside the air foil, the pilot is equipped with a mobile radio to communicate with the rescue crew.Even here, 243.0 MHz is used. The problem is,I did not find any signal in DCS, which says unambiguously, that a pilot ejected from a plane or that an aircraft crashed. If someone here found a signal for this case, please let me know, I will build it in.

The left and right earphones are set both active by default for all radios. So it is most likely, that the earphones were deactivated accidently during the configuration. But the important thing is, that you could help your colleague.

I stumbled upon this by accident, but perhaps it can help you:

I was experimenting with some data exports using the Export.lua. I started a coroutine that wrote several values of cockpit instruments into a file. Then I wondered, why DCS crashed every time my aircraft exploded. Eventually I figgured it out: the coroutine was still running and trying to access the cockpit instruments, but the cockpit wasn't available any more.

 

So, maybe you can check the availability of the cockpit itself? If GetDevice(0) = nil then the cockpit is gone, i.e. the aircraft crashed, pilot ejected (but perhaps also that player left MP?).

[towsim]

@Flagrum

Yes, I do that for every frame.The invalidity of the device address appears even, if the player changes an aircraft in multiplayer oractivates a CA vehicle or would simply leave the game. The trap door is, if someone activates a CA vehicle, the situation does not change after the device 0 became invalid.DCS does not publish any information if CA is active. So the last active aircraft before would be taken as crashed as long as CA is active. The absence of position reports and the invalid device 0 address signals CA mode for Aries Radio. Therefore I cannot distinguish between crash or CA mode.

Edited July 10, 2014 by towsim

[CallsignFrosty]

I can't wait for the radar modules to see how this will all integrate together :D

[astiles5470]

Towsim,

 

yesterday we had a nice mission, we used Aries with different modules and everything worked flawless. Only one thing that I don't know if it's a bug or just the way that Aries works. We noted that we could hear the PTT release button "beep" sound every time one of the pilots pushed it, even in channel frequencies that we actually didn't have sintonized (in fact, even with the radios in off).

 

Thank's

[Random]

Might give this a try! Does anyone have a video with it in use? i'd love to see how it actually works in game!

[towsim]

The 'end click' bug is already in the bug fix queue.

[Hamster]

DCS crashes as soon as the airborn radio panel comes up

 

And dcs runs through Steam should that be a problem?

Edited July 20, 2014 by Hamster

[towsim]

I never got complains regarding Steam. One of my fellow sim pilots runs Aries Radio together with Steam without problems. It would be for interest to see your protocol files, if available, from the installation and from a session startup. It seems, that some important information are not available to the software.

[Hamster]

I never got complains regarding Steam. One of my fellow sim pilots runs Aries Radio together with Steam without problems. It would be for interest to see your protocol files, if available, from the installation and from a session startup. It seems, that some important information are not available to the software.

dont know if this helps

 

2 [00:00:00.744] AriesAirborneRadio DLL initialized

10 [00:02:37.635] first Aircraft ID: 16777473

88 [00:02:37.799] SetCombinedArmsMode 0

44 [00:02:37.947] In MissionStartup version 774738232

77 [00:02:38.125] Shared Memory mutex creation failed with error 5

77 [00:02:38.333] Opened existing file mapping

80 [00:02:38.481] Shared Memory client active Adr: a10000.

33 [00:02:38.634] Thread Watch Supervisor started.

33 [00:02:38.781] Thread SharedMemoryPump started HDL: a88 ID: 170

30 [00:02:38.933] DCS Application Window found b0c44

11 [00:02:39.098] Sync time sent to Plugin: 158.936

33 [00:02:39.258] Thread AUXwindowPump started HDL: 9d0 ID: 17c4

33 [00:02:39.423] Thread RadioWatcher started HDL: a20 ID: 1bb0

11 [00:02:39.583] Start AUXwindowPump

99 [00:02:39.748] Default voice mod = 1

1 [00:02:39.908] Registered Window class instance: 2e2b0000

99 [00:02:40.073] LoadBkGndFileName send

22 [00:02:40.233] Com hdl 60a8e set to shMem a10000

22 [00:02:40.408] Sent window handle to TS3

99 [00:02:40.606] LoadBkGndFileName send

99 [00:02:40.766] LoadBkGndFileName send

34 [00:02:40.931] DEVICE_HANDLER: LPDIRECTINPUTDEVICE8 g_pJoystick failed

34 [00:02:41.124] device handler 0 for Throttle - HOTAS Warthog installed. HDL: 0

11 [00:02:41.289] TactCallSign = Hamster

0 [00:02:41.450] Program Execution Error in AUX_WIN::InstallDeviceHandlers

33 [00:02:41.614] Thread PicWinThreadThread started HDL: b6c ID: 11ac

000000002e2b4c0d EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION

11 [00:02:41.940] Air picture Folder: .\AriesWings, TGP window: 100 600 420 420 -- 100 400

81 [00:02:42.208] Configure Radio 0 Frequency: 0.000, Volume: 0.79 channels: 30000000