Kneebord Export for all DCS modules - I need your suggestions

KNEEBORD_Tablet_Mod_PP_for DCSWORLD_1.2.4.rar

is up!

This post purpose is in first place to pass some info to Balu and Icemaker ,

but it should also show, to these that interested, the current WIP to integrate a automatically generated Mission-Chart into DCS.

 

 

Hi Balu , hi Icemaker - I think that I have now worked out a syntax that allows 'easy' injection of the Mission-data that is inside of DCS and calculated of Balu's Flight Planning for DCS .

 

The Blue (can be any colour later on) text-strings that you can see above are place-holders for the Mission-Data - this text is not from a image-file , it is created by a LUA script. -and can be reloaded each time you jump out of the cockpit.

 

Means it should be Possible that you join a server - create the data - and have it in-cockpit when entering the plane.

 

Attached is a Working WIP of the current state (the RAR container is passworded -PM's are sent) -

It works out of the Box in the DCS World Su-25T .

You need the mod files from here to make it work with other modules.

 

I also attached a sample of the syntax that is used on this Image:

(please note the annotations inside the lua file)

 

 

Have a good look on everything and make your own thoughts how to inject the data on the fly in my files - let's talk about it at the weekend/up coming days via TS or whatever.

 

You may ask yourself: why not generate images (DDS with mipmaps against shimmer) and place them in the prepared folder?

I prefer the lua scripts because the are much smaller in size than images and much more flexible - the typo is also much clerar and better readable compared to a DDS that should have a small file-size. - and the LUAs can be easily attached to a mission file beforehand and placed on a server - so everyone gets this flight-charts instantly and they can be even different for each flight / coalition.

 

BTW: Look also at this to get a estimate about the workload/and time that will be needed for coding:

 

Item list.txt:

Path to lua files that create the text: DCS WorldKNEEBOARD_MOD_PeterPMISSION_DATA_Charts...


Text-String list for each Chart:

MISSION_DATA_Chart_1.lua = FI (126) - FP (201)........................................................= 327

MISSION_DATA_Chart_2.lua = CO (84) - FN (115).........................................................= 199

MISSION_DATA_Chart_3.lua = MT (19) - MA (3) - RI (2) - AI (10) - BJ (5) - TO (8) - AB (8) - LD (48)...= 103

MISSION_DATA_Chart_4.lua = RK (1).....................................................................= 1

MISSION_DATA_Chart_5.lua = FL (162) - ME (19) - MR (3) - AC (10) - BF (5) - LO (15)...................= 214

MISSION_DATA_Chart_6.lua = CP (84) - RM (1)...........................................................= 85

MISSION_DATA_Chart_7.lua = SI (1) - TA (1)............................................................= 2

MISSION_DATA_Chart_8.lua = WI (3) - RE (1) - WP (300) - UN (1)........................................= 305

                                                                                               Total = 1236


Legend : 
"CP.12.B"  
'CP' = Comm Plan (or similar) 
12 = Line 12 
B = column B

No Test-string naming exists twice - every item is unique.

EDIT:

Something I forgot to add:

 

The next thing that I will do (after we agreed on a clear syntax) is to put in every

 

MISSION_DATA_Chart_.lua

this line:

dofile("KNEEBOARD_MOD_PeterP/MISSION_DATA_Charts/text_definitions.lua")

 

and replace every text-string with a expression that will be listed in the

text_definitions.lua .

 

In this text_definitions.lua will be every text-string listed and we only have to replace what's behind the equal and/or between the "" .

 

Here is a example for MISSION_DATA_Chart_4.lua :

(attached is now a working example for MISSION_DATA_Chart_3 - drop both lua files inside the new "MISSION_DATA_Charts" folder )

 

dofile("KNEEBOARD_MOD_PeterP/data/KNEEBOARD/indicator/definitions.lua")

dofile("KNEEBOARD_MOD_PeterP/MISSION_DATA_Charts/text_definitions.lua")

 

...

 

local fac = 0.00301

 

local RK_A = 65*fac

local RK_1 = 62*fac

 

add_text_left(RK_1_A,

RK_A,RK_1

and this is a example how a singel line in the text_definitions.lua will look

RK_1_A = "Test for putting something in"

- so we have a library and it should be 'easy-peasy' to inject new data for you/us.

 

EDIT:

text_definitions_chart_3.lua

MISSION_DATA_Chart_3.lua

Edited June 28, 2013 by PeterP

I gotta tell PeterP and everyone else involved with this project that I love it, and look forward to seeing where else you are heading with it's future development. I really saves clutter.

 

I've scanned a load of individual mission plates - (I'm still going through the Maple Flag training campaigns), and use shortcuts to paste them into the application folders before loading DCS.

 

Is there an easier way to load and dump content mid flight, or automating the way a set of files is selected by changing the .miz files? Would it work on Maple Flag stuff?

 

Thanks guys for all your hard work, it is much appreciated here.

NeilWillis,

I hope you found it already out yourself - head over here >>> KNEEBORD_Tablet_Mod_PP_for DCSWORLD_1.2.4.rar

 

The 'basic'Mod has already everything you need when you have your charts already as image file.

Current Project status for a automatically generated Mission Data-Chart:

 

 

Will upload a working demo for "milstone1" as soon as possible (well - this cant take some days/weeks/moons...)

Edited June 29, 2013 by PeterP

Some more WIP:

 

The team consist right now of Balu , Icemaker and I.

 

 

Balu is right now rearranging his flight-plan tool in a way that it will place a luafile with a complete database of current loaded mission -

so I we have a complete 'libary' of the data for each element exactly how it is needed and already in the right syntax for the kneeboard .

 

Icmaker will probably write a 'wizard' for MP sessions that asks you which Coalition/Flight/Flightnumber you want to join - so you get your plane-specific data on the Kneeborad pages (we hope to fully automate it on a later stage and integrate it in the flight-plan tool) - but first we want a working 'proof of concept' with a single page.

 

I'm already coding to implement some sort of 'excel' functionality into the knee-board - so I don't have to use DDS background images at all - and all tables and lines will be directly drawn by the lua code.

- this will allow a very high flexibility and you can also choose in which way the data should be represented to you and you can 'de-clutter' it.

-but if you like to have the 'big' picture - you can have listed almost everything - like weapon-load of each element on the map (this will be several pages long...).

And we will sure work out a way to restrict this only to your coalition. - like a trigger that throws you out of the server when you load the 'blue' charts and than join the 'red' side.

 

- this will also allow the mission-maker to attach the mission charts directly in the *.miz file - so people that join a server will have the data-charts even if they didn't installed the flight planning tool or my mod at all.

Edited June 30, 2013 by PeterP

Status update 01.07.2013:

 

 

See this Post from Balu for reference:

 

>>> Flight Sim Tool Set

I´m just integrating into the Flight planning tool, beside the A-10C and KA-50, the UH-1H, P-51D and all flyable aircraft of FC-3 so that the kneeboard tool of PeterP can be suported.

Edited July 1, 2013 by PeterP

That's great Peter looking forward to that just wish could help you not much of a programmer myself still learning.

Does this mean we are going to lose that picture of you on there lol.

Thanks Jay!

 

@ Kneeboard team:

Updated our dropbox >> ...\Dropbox\DCS_TeamWork\PeterP WIP >>>

I Finally found a very easy way to draw complex tables.

 

 

First I did it for hours with polys --- and it got very complicated and wasn't very flexible to rearrange them for all cases .

 

Than (after I was in the Bathroom for deeper thinking ;) ) - I tried a absulute different way and edited a Font.

- and It works very, very well . And I can also bind the text that will populate the table on it.

And each Table-template (Aircraft-info; Comms; Waypoints;Metar; ect.) will only consist of a single line. - so it gets very easy to rearrange them and place them in a different order when I add functions for my templates. - and they are much better readable and clearer than a DDS.

 

-PeterP

A simple Example how it works and the used syntax:

 

 

 

Edited July 2, 2013 by PeterP

How about a toggle option so you can quickly look at charts or tables that are best displayed lengthwise? Basically just turn the tablet clockwise 90 degrees and then back on a toggle.

Hi, I hope someone reads this in time (the next 5 hours) and can help me.

 

(.it's now 1817 Zulu time >> http://www.zulutime.net/ and I can test until 2300h Zulu.)

 

Can someone host a passworded server with the attached miz - so I can join the server to make some MP-tests regarding the the

and how to separate the info for each side/flight.

And it's important that I connect as client on a non-local server.

 

I will do no flying at all,I will only jump in and out of the various planes to see if things work and edit my code in between.

 

I will try to find out a save way to separate the Briefing-images for each coalition in MP.

- So the Red-pictures are only visible in a Red-side cockpit and the Blue are only visible in a Blue-side cockpit.

And the same with the Mission-task on the next page.

 

 

Please send me a PM with the server-name and password.

 

Thanks in advanced - I will edit this post when I have a test-server available from someone.

 

 

EDIT: Got some server test-time ! Thanks to whartsell !!

test red blue.miz

Edited July 5, 2013 by PeterP

got a server hosted for you...details in PM

Hi all !

 

Short:

I need Help! because I'm too dump to learn a 'new' Syntax and/or use it efficient and I'm too Limited at time....

 

 

Long:

All my mods and knowledge about lua scripting relied up to now to read a given code and just to rearrange it and/or look up in various tutorials how to do it and make it usable for me.

 

But now I'm reaching a point where this isn't sufficient any-more and it gets too time consuming for me to reach a certain goal in a reasonable time frame

- as studding gets more and more important before I get to the next necessary step.

So I'm at a stage where I can say that this mod will maybe be ready in a min of 6month when I go on like this and only have some hours at the weekend to concentrate on newly learned and bring it into a form I can use it for this mod.. (I hope you get my point)

 

I have nailed almost everything down what it need to run this mod by "lua only" and almost automatically triggered by the dcs-lua engine alone. (many functions are already worked out by myself - but I ran in too much problems when combining them . and it isn't healthy to my family life any-more when using up 80% of my 'coding-time' for debugging alone)

 

So I'm looking for someone that is more experience in lua and 'io.' functions and how to make array searches in strings and how to extract and format data.. ...to help me (us) out.

 

So I'm asking if someone want to step into our team - probably with some lua knowledge or equivalent (pascal) and has no fear to learn something new.

We share a common drop-box by Icemaker and also use Skype desktop sharing option to show us our code how we write and arrange it while talking to each other (English).

I have a full 'road-map' that covers every step that we have to work out to make this mod become alive - without to worry that it gets absulute unusable with a new 'update' of DCS. - it can be even established as a new 'module'. ... but this is another story...

 

 

Please start reading at post #51 to get a overview at which stage we are.

 

The project goal is to fully extract all given data into a readable way to populate FlightCharts that have everyting inside from Radio comes of your wing/coalition up to a full list of your allies - all info separated into Blue/red to prevent cheating.

...once this works (...) - we hope to hand out the (good documented) code to ED and they will integrate it.

 

Please contact me via mail and give the obvious info about your capabilities - I will than contact you via mail/skype and give you a overview on which stage we are and what's the tasks in detail:

(btw: this is a strictly non-profit project)

 

E-mail:

 

:)

Edited July 7, 2013 by PeterP

Well I immediately put the mod to work, skip to 5:10

 

Gday Peter, and congratulations on a very worthy and very handy project, ive been looking with great interest and just cant help feel amazed at your talent and of those helping you. I wish there was something i could do to help but im just not that 'tech'd' up to do so.

 

What i d also like to add is that i have a suggestion, you may or may not like, but here it is: I have a long military background and one thing that was always instilled into me when conducting 'Ops' was the '7' P's - (Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance) and 90 percent of any tasks success depended on the preparation.

 

Anyway i digress slightly, to ensure success one important element is navigation, and particularly in the Huey where the "Nav" aids are primitive we need to go back to "first principles" for navigation. Navigating in our current model is almost purely visual, with the ADF as a good aid. Ok that said, all students of navigation will agree that one of the most important and basic skills of navigation is to orientate your map to ground and when you move in the desired direction and route, you can "read" the map and the ground as you move over it, in the direction you are moving to. This simple method helps greatly to recognize the lay of the ground, natural features and landmarks, which makes navigation easier. In the Huey we dont have the ability to do it, the map always points up, on the other aircraft we have the electronic maps in MFD's etc etc so its covered, but would also be handy as well.

 

So my suggestion is, can you incorporate into your mod to make the map on the kneeboard constantly orientate to Grid North / Mag North , maybe you can do it with magnetic variation calculated into it, but not necessary, so that the map is always orietated to the direction / destination you are moving in/to. Just a suggestion.

 

Best regards

Thanks for the feedback Strut!

 

Yes - that's defiantly a thing I want also have working , but I can't tell anything about the 'when?' - and that's one of the reason I'm asking more experienced 'hobby-programmers' to join .

Here is the current roadmap:

(Strut, have a look stage five...)

 

1.

Including the Briefing and Images of the mission into the Kneeboard.

- separated for RED/BLUE

in SP(easy and already working)

and MP (A little trickier but working already at a rudimentary stage)

 

2.

Extracting the full mission data of your coalition , with way-points, weapon load, and comm , and so on.

(already working at a rudimentary stage but needs a much better scripting and a lot of fine adjustment how to handle the data extraction )

 

3.

Providing a GUI that let you filter the info before you enter the cockpit.

4.

In-cooperating a different layout for each Module - as close as it can get to real flight-chart standards that are used by the NATO and/or depending on your joined country.

 

5.

Try to add 'wishes' and other features like "map pointing always to your heading direction".

 

 

 

........................................

 

 

 

Well I immediately put the mod to work, skip to 5:10

 

 

 

:D:D - finally someone realised why I have started this whole thing !

Edited July 11, 2013 by PeterP

PeterP Thx for the answer, i know your busy

With this mod , is it possible to read a pdf , like the ground charts one , and have it availlable in every mission without regards if it my missions , campain or multi one ?

If yes , where should i put the files ?

 

Thanks

Edited July 12, 2013 by Neon67

With this mod , is it possible to read a pdf , like the ground charts one , and have it availlable in every mission without regards if it my missions , campain or multi one ?

If yes , where should i put the files ?

 

Thanks

 

You are in the 'wrong' thread .

Head over to this and read the readme/documentation/FAQ (again).

>>> http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=107586

 

FAQ:

Q: is it possible to read a *.pdf with this Mod

A: No. Supported image files are:

*.bmp , *.jpg *.png , *.tga ,*.dds

 

Its been a little while but I figured I would ask. Since many new updates...and the mod doesn't work with 1.2.8 anymore.

 

I just want to be able to resize kneeboard I don't want to move it.

 

 

I looked inside

C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Mods\aircrafts\Flaming Cliffs\Cockpit\KneeboardRight\device_init.lua

 

I tried editing this by changing the values sx_l, sz_l but it did nothing. I tried editing the Multiplier 0.5 Default changed to 1.5 and that did nothing.

thx for any help in advance.

 

I would like to resize for all FC3 Aircraft, Mi-8TV, and Huey Which files do I edit. I imagine there are separate ones...

Edited June 30, 2014 by thinkr