VAICOM PRO plugin for VoiceAttack

@Muakoka OK seems you are trying to use a legacy DCS install i.e. 2.1 openalpha.

The plugin auto-installer supports current versions i.e. 2.5 and 2.5 OpenBeta.

Install paths are read from registry, so if you manually renamed or moved things around, lua files can end up in the wrong places. Check if the folder for 2.5 in your log (i.e. on G:) is correct.

In this thread from post #805 onwards there are some suggestions to fix.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

@Muakoka OK seems you are trying to use a legacy DCS install i.e. 2.1 openalpha.

The plugin auto-installer supports current versions i.e. 2.5 and 2.5 OpenBeta.

Install paths are read from registry, so if you manually renamed or moved things around, lua files can end up in the wrong places. Check if the folder for 2.5 in your log (i.e. on G:) is correct.

In this thread from post #805 onwards there are some suggestions to fix.

 

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

That install is only openalpha in "folder" name only, the actual version I'm running is 2.5.3.22176 Release, and it's currently on my G drive, it's never been on C. It's also been moved to different drives numerous times, so the windows registry will not have the correct information, I've verified that by looking through the registry. I use the Updater Utility by Skatezilla. This install has been both Release, and Beta. I have no idea why the folder is still named alpha. I ran a alpha version, versions ago. Naming seems to not matter to DCS, it runs great, updates, cleans, and repairs just fine. No problems with modules either.

I've pretty much read this whole thread, and it's the reason I'm here. I've read the manual, and specifically the stuff on page 33, and it makes no sense to me at all. I don't understand what your trying to do with the lua files.

Simply put, the logs show Vaicom is looking in the wrong place for the DCS install. How do I correct that? I've tried changing the parent folder, no change. I don't understand the "instructions" on page 33, so at this point I'm at a loss as to what to do. Re-install of DCS seems a bit much, just to "sort out" the windows registry entries.

Chatter is working fine, but the config utility never lists the name of the aircraft I'm using. I have PTT setup, and it's working, but the commands I speak don't appear to have any effect in DCS. They are being recognized by VA fine.

How do I "point" Vaicom to the current location of DCS on my system? And, if I decide to physically move the DCS folder again, how do I manage that in Vaicom, basically the same question.

The lua files mentioned on page 33 already exist, but in different locations of course to the manual, so I'm not sure why, or if, they need to be edited/appended in some way? When I export the files in the config utility, the export.lua script for example is exactly the same as the one that already exists in saved games, so appending that file makes no sense to me, the contents are identical.

Hopefully someone will shed some light on how to correct the install issue.

I know this is not what you want to hear, but I was having some install problems also with DCS on "G" drive. I un-installed DCS and reinstalled it back on "G" drive and checked my register which indicated a good install. I also reset Voice Attack which removed the license and then unstalled it and deleted the folder from the Program Files (x86). After I reinstalled Voice Attack it found DCS on "G" drive and Viacom install was a breeze following the instructions, and it works great.

I know this is not what you want to hear, but I was having some install problems also with DCS on "G" drive. I un-installed DCS and reinstalled it back on "G" drive and check my register which indicated a good install. I also reset Voice Attack which removed the license and then unstalled it and deleted the folder from the Program Files (x86). After I reinstalled Voice Attack it found DCS on "G" drive and Viacom install was a breeze following the instructions, and it works great.

Thanks for the response, and you're correct, it's not what I wanted to hear.:)

On limited internet as it is, so a re-install of DCS is not an option, and quite frankly, totally unnecessary. I find it hard to believe this has to be this difficult. There must be "a lot"? of people out there that move DCS around as they see fit after initial install, as that is a feature of the program. To think this would rely on a registry entry for install, considering the portability of DCS, makes no sense to me, I guess it does the author.

I've again tried setting the parent folder path in the config utility, and it appears to just ignore the entry, and continues to look at the registry entries that do point to drive "G". DCS is currently on my "D" drive, there's no DCS on any other drive.

This is quickly becoming "not worth the effort", and if possible, I may ask for a refund, if my keys for the program and chatter can somehow be "invalidated".

I do appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Thanks for the response, and you're correct, it's not what I wanted to hear.:)

 

On limited internet as it is, so a re-install of DCS is not an option, and quite frankly, totally unnecessary. I find it hard to believe this has to be this difficult. There must be "a lot"? of people out there that move DCS around as they see fit after initial install, as that is a feature of the program. To think this would rely on a registry entry for install, considering the portability of DCS, makes no sense to me, I guess it does the author.

 

I've again tried setting the parent folder path in the config utility, and it appears to just ignore the entry, and continues to look at the registry entries that do point to drive "G". DCS is currently on my "D" drive, there's no DCS on any other drive.

 

This is quickly becoming "not worth the effort", and if possible, I may ask for a refund, if my keys for the program and chatter can somehow be "invalidated".

 

I do appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Hollywood was trying to point you to some posts in this very thread that can help you with this problem by suggesting you read from #805 forward. I cherry-picked a couple here that will get you started on creating symbolic links to your current DCS install location:

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3577151&postcount=807

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3581852&postcount=821

Hollywood was trying to point you to some posts in this very thread that can help you with this problem by suggesting you read from #805 forward. I cherry-picked a couple here that will get you started on creating symbolic links to your current DCS install location:

 

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3577151&postcount=807

 

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3581852&postcount=821

I get that, and I've now read every post in this thread, some multiple times, as well as the manual. I can see I'm not the first to have issues. I've no interest in creating symbolic links, just so this will operate properly. I do use them for my Xplane scenery, over multiple instances of Xplane, and it works great. But that's only to save space. I don't need this that bad, I'm just a casual DCS user.

So it is what it is, and that's fine. I will seek out other options privately.

Thanks to all for trying to help.

Well, out of nowhere it has started to work, I think. The log now shows it's found DCS, and then a few lines later it says it can't find it, whatever.

The only thing I did was select the option "Auto-import new modules" in the config utility, and now the aircraft names are showing on the PTT screen. I've yet to try anything else, but that seems positive. I don't see anywhere in the manual that indicates this is a "required step" for initial install functionality. Perhaps because my install is not standard, the database wasn't created properly in the beginning, and selecting this triggered something?

Edit:

Seems fine so far, loaded the P51, asked for ground power, and it worked fine.

Having the same problem as redtail and others but none of their steps work for me.

F10 menu imports, commands are recognised but nothing happens (through the inferno trying to spawn a target)

And Chatter is always on regardless of radio settings or if the game is even running.

Tried removing all the .lua files mentioned by vaicom manual page 33 and repairing dcs.

Tried manually placing the .lua files.

Tried removing Vaicom entirely, redownloading, same issue.

EDIT:

So it appears that chatter will play if the game isn't running, then play through the menu and turn off once I've loaded in a plane with radios off, it'll then turn back on when radios are on :S is that intended? seems a tad redundant if it's just turn on all the way up till I'm in the plane to just turn off for a few moments before I start the radios?

EDIT 2:

Radio menus aren't hidden anymore. Tried resetting everything except for the license info, no dice, the option simply doesn't do anything.

Now no matter what I do the Keyword database keeps asking to be finished, despite being done many times in many ways.

Everytime I follow the steps advised from other posts more things break, if I uninstall to start again it still doesn't work, this is driving me bonkers. Everything was fine and all I wanted was to have the imported f10 commands work, now everything is buggered.

EDIT 4:

Now I've removed all profiles, reset everything in vaicom, reinstalled and I still get the radio menus, even if I toggle the option back n forth they just won't go away. 80% of the time I don't get a squelch sound either.

Tis totally inconsistent and short of completely burning everything DCS related off my drive and starting over completely I am at a loss.

Here's a log:

And a voice attack fault that occasionally comes up

EDIT TWILIGHT ZONE:

Did a reset of everything completely uninstalled and removed all traces of voice attack and vaicom, removed all the scripts mentioned in the manual, did a repair install on DCS.

Can still bring up radio menus with the communication key despite menus set to off.

Chatter still plays until I'm in a plane with the radio off.

Squelch often stops working upon loading DCS.

Trying to load the inferno F10 menu results in the keyword list being stuck in a "finish" loop, stops when I remove all the commands that were imported.

Voice attack is throwing out the following errors when I try changing the config for use in multiplayer and disable menus.

EDIT MORE SLEEP LESS COFFEE:

So after cleaning up and reinstalling my keyboard controls went a bit skewiff, odd considering I thought they lived in saved games but I digress.

Menus are hidden for the most part however sometimes they will still pop up, squelch is less temperamental and ties in with the power state of the aircraft somewhat better.

Has to be said this is an absolutely essential program for DCS, it is magnificently done and I cannot live without it.

Still not there yet. Don't have any problem communicating with ground crews, but ATC is a no go, at all airports, on any map. Requests are being displayed correctly in VA, and in game ("Request Departure", or "Nearest Airfield....Directions to final" for example) but I never get any response back from ATC.

Suggestions? I've read all the threads here, as well as the manual multiple times, nothing gives a answer as to why ground works, but atc doesn't. If one is capable of understanding, and reading back, why isn't the other?

Here's the log from the VA window. Ground connects the power as they should, ATC does not respond. I've done the edit's from page 33 of the manual.

I've managed to get to a place that has better internet than me (unlimited data) , doing another install of Dcs. Will see how that goes. It's still not the default install location, I can't, not enough space on drive c.

Some PM's inbound. Grtz

Hollywood good afternoon.Although in the control panel of DCS I do not mark the communication easy and in the panel of preferences of Vaicon I put not visible menu , when the mission begins. and I use the PTT of my hotas the menu appears in screen and in panel of Vaicom it appears Easy on communication when should appear as OFF .You could help me solve this problem.Thanks in advance.

see attached files

Some PM's inbound. Grtz

Thank you for getting in touch. I tried responding in pm, doesn't look like my message went through as far as I can tell.

Before I do what you suggested in pm, I have some questions.

I just spent the whole day re-downloading and installing DCS, and all my modules (75 gb), so the registry entries in Windows 10 would at least be correct, for this install. Having moved my original, and subsequent installs numerous times, the registry for DCS was a mess, still is for those installs. So I still have multiple entries in the registry, but at least one of them is correct. None are OpenBeta, (see below).

I have fired up the new install, and everything looks fine.

I then started up Voice Attack, and the VA window log says it found DCS in the new location, great, but the saved games folder is incorrect. The new one does exist as I created a variant text file in DCS World root, my new install.

How do I tell Vaicom where my new saved games folder is? I want one save folder for the old install, one for the new.

I'm also seeing a reference in the log, same as before, stating "DCS World version 2.5 OpenBeta not found". Why is it even looking for that, when it already says it found the new directory where DCS is currently installed under "DCS World" on my G drive? There is no reference to the OpenBeta anywhere in my registry for DCS, that I know for sure.

Because the log is saying it found one location that is correct, and continues to look for one that doesn't even exist, OpenBeta, do I need to tell the config utility where the parent folder is?

Also, do I still need to do the export lua thing on page 33, if I tell it where the parent folder is? It seems to have figured that out, but the saves folder is still wrong in the log.

Should I be removing Vaicom from VA, and starting fresh with it as well?

I also tried by removing the "old" saved game folder, leaving the new one, just to test. Vaicom just keeps recreating the folder when starting VA, and placing a Scripts folder inside it.

Started from scratch with Voice Attack, it's still looking at the wrong saved games folder according to the log.

Guess I can't go any further until I hear how to get Vaicom to look at the correct saved games folder.

Edit: Went with the saved games folder it was looking for. Seems to be working. Guess I need to learn more about DCS as far as radios go. Depending on what I loaded, Instant action, a mission, or a mission I created, I would get ground ok but no atc, or atc with no ground, or nothing on some.

Edit2: All seems well, did a flight from Beslan to Batumi in the L39C and had no real issues with ATC. Need to work on the pronunciations some, but it all worked out in the end.

Edit 3: Can't get atc anywhere on the Nevada map, but works fine with Caucasus and Normandy maps.

Hollywood good afternoon.Although in the control panel of DCS I do not mark the communication easy and in the panel of preferences of Vaicon I put not visible menu , when the mission begins. and I use the PTT of my hotas the menu appears in screen and in panel of Vaicom it appears Easy on communication when should appear as OFF .You could help me solve this problem.Thanks in advance.

see attached files

Hollywood

Solve my issue, delete vaicom.export and export.lua files from saved games folder and reinit vaicom .

Now all works again

Not having any luck at all with Atc in Nevada. I've tried with "Instant Action", and "Create Fast Mission", and I never get any response from Atc. This is in the L39C, DCS latest.

Actually, in some of the Instant Action missions atc works, in others it doesn't. Now I need to look at the missions and find out why.

Ok, got it figured out. Created my own mission for Nevada, with parameters that work. Have ground, and atc working from Nellis.

Still learning.:)

Didn't have luck at the destination airport though, no interaction with atc at all. It "picked" the correct airport, but there was no response to repeated requests for directions to final, or requests for landing.

Figured it out, just had to make the destination airport the same as me, and the departure airport, color "blue", when setting up the mission. All good after that.

Hello, it seems i have a sameish problem. But for me it worked when i placed the luas to their designation. But after every update i need to do this so its annoying. I wanted to change the DCS path in regedit but i was unable to find the path - only modules.

Also i dont know where VAICOM is searching for the game so i also cant place a shadowlink :(

Can you please help me? I saw that you can see where it is looking by opening the log but in there there are no path like with the guy above

Decided to purchase the P51D today, and now the atc are no longer responding at destination airports in the mission I created yesterday. Nothing has changed in that mission, I'm still flying the same aircraft as yesterday, L39C, all I did was purchase/install another aircraft module for future use.

This is really getting frustrating.

Is the website down only for me? If not - are there alternative links or anything?

Would someone kindly explain how I can setup a "simple free flight" mission so I can practice flying / landing from Nellis to Creech on the Nevada map, and most importantly "have" atc work at both ends.

Right now I'm taking off from Nellis and have atc, but at the Creech end there is crickets. The request is going through properly, just no response. They are both blue coalition.

All lua files are in place, and worked fine yesterday with a mission I created, that no longer seems to have atc at both ends.

Think I have it figured out now, first "new" test to Creech was a success.

Which request is ATC not responding to? If it is "request taxi to runway", maybe try "request takeoff" instead. The former does not always work for me, probably due to some sequencing issue that either i or DCS is suffering, but the latter appears to result in the same response, ie ATC telling you to taxi to the chosen runway.

Also, it might be worth making sure that you "request startup" before either of the above requests.

To confirm that this is not a Vaicom Pro issue, maybe use the Dcs comms menus to check if the same requests result in the same behaviour that you are experiencing with VP

Which request is ATC not responding to? If it is "request taxi to runway", maybe try "request takeoff" instead. The former does not always work for me, probably due to some sequencing issue that either i or DCS is suffering, but the latter appears to result in the same response, ie ATC telling you to taxi to the chosen runway.

 

Also, it might be worth making sure that you "request startup" before either of the above requests.

 

To confirm that this is not a Vaicom Pro issue, maybe use the Dcs comms menus to check if the same requests result in the same behaviour that you are experiencing with VP

In the end I think it was my lack of understanding of the convoluted atc and radio systems in Dcs, more than anything else. I have always been just a casual user of Dcs, jump in and fly around. I spent far more time, and many years, in "other" flight sims.

I didn't realize that the end user had to "setup" the whole atc system for every "flight/mission". As in other sims, you get in a aircraft, any aircraft, tune your radios, and away you go. Doesn't matter which aircraft, they all recognize the underlying atc network of the simulator without any input required from the user, not so in Dcs. That's my fault for not having/obtaining the required knowledge.

So, I had expected VaicomPro to be just a tool to simplify my interaction with a already present atc system, in every aircraft, for every flight/mission, and I was wrong. You, the user, still have to setup the atc system every mission, manually, with no option for "saving presets", not that I can see.

I'd bet that 90% of the posts in here for people wondering why atc isn't responding to their requests properly, is because the mission itself doesn't have the proper atc info in it. On the other hand, if VaicomPro is supposed to magically know what atc frequencies to use, in every mission, in whichever aircraft you choose, it's not working that way at my end. The only way I can communicate with atc at every airport on a map, is for me to setup the atc system manually, in the mission editor, for every single mission. Seems to be a rather poor implementation of a atc system to me, just my opinion.

I get that every "mission" is unique, but underlying atc systems are not. Airports have frequencies that seldom ever change, so you should be able to create a mission, and have the underlying atc system automatically implemented, without any user input. Once in the aircraft, tune your radios accordingly using that aircrafts systems, to a atc system that already exists. Can't that be implemented somehow on a per "module/map" basis. Why do I have to tell the mission editor "everytime", what the atc frequencies are, for every airport on the map. Something like that should already be "baked/programmed" in.

Rant over.....

Hey Muskoka

You seem pretty confused, however VAICOM PRO has nothing to do with all this.

It doesn't work at all like you describe, and users don't have to manually set up anything.

The plugin automatically reads all ATCs in the mission, including their callsigns, frequencies, regardless of how they were set up.

Your posts here are a bit hard to follow for myself but they seem to point to a lack of understanding of ATC flows.

On the manual page 34 there's something about that i.e. which commands should be issued in which order during takeoff, navigation and approach/landing stages.

You have to issue the right command at the appropriate time in order to get a response from the tower.

Needless to say you also need to have the radio tuned correctly.

Suggest to spend some more time learning.

Grtz

Hey Muskoka

 

You seem pretty confused, however VAICOM PRO has nothing to do with all this.

It doesn't work at all like you describe, and users don't have to manually set up anything.

 

The plugin automatically reads all ATCs in the mission, including their callsigns, frequencies, regardless of how they were set up.

Your posts here are a bit hard to follow for myself but they seem to point to a lack of understanding of ATC flows.

On the manual page 34 there's something about that i.e. which commands should be issued in which order during takeoff, navigation and approach/landing stages.

You have to issue the right command at the appropriate time in order to get a response from the tower.

Needless to say you also need to have the radio tuned correctly.

Suggest to spend some more time learning.

 

Grtz

Sorry to say it doesn't work as described at my end. I've been flying sims for a lot of years, and was a atc controller on Vatsim for awhile, so please don't assume you know anything about my level of atc flow intelligence.:smilewink: I'll admit, my knowledge of DCS, and it's inner workings is lacking, but not flows, or how to fly aircraft in general.

Now that's out of the way.

If I don't fill in the "Radio Presets" for the airports in the mission editor, I get nothing but crickets, or it's very hit and miss at best. Once I fill those in manually, the atc work exactly as they should, and I would expect.

So, something isn't working/setup properly still at my end, and I have no idea why. I just finished a fuel tanker rocket bombing mission I created this morning, and everything worked great, including the atc.

If I remove the "Radio Presets" in the mission editor, I can sit there all day long asking "Request Engine Start" at Nellis, and I get zero response from atc. Put them back in, and the atc respond immediately. Please explain why that might happen. Nothing has changed in the "atc flow", or the way the radio is used, only in the way the mission is setup.

This is in the L39C, Nevada map, Easy Communications on. I'm using one PTT button on my Hotas, and currently using Tx4 "Auto", but have also tried with Tx1. I want to use one button only for all communications, ground or atc, and have no desire to set the radio frequencies myself, at least not today, maybe tomorrow. I've also tried with the rotary switch in Norm, and SNGL mode.

I find the manual "very confusing", so please tell me how I can setup the L39C to fly the Nevada map, only using one button on my Hotas, for all forms of communications. I will only fly in VR, so some form of keyboard less communication is what I need. I'm still hoping VaicomPro is the answer.

Edit: If it sounds like I'm irritated, you'd be correct. I've been working at this for hours a day, for the last week. Luckily I'm retired and have the time. I had no problems at all getting HCS Voicepacks setup for Elite Dangerous, or any other plugins I have for VA, yet this has turned into a nightmare, sorry to have to say that.

OK thanks for clarifying. I think you're referring to defining radio presets in the Mission Editor.

Several aircraft type (such as WWII fighters and others) have a fixed preset-based radio system,

so the frequencies that can be used during the mission are determined during mission build for these aircraft.

Other aircraft don't have fixed presets but instead can be freely tuned during mission time.

This is simply the way these aircraft module radio systems work in DCS, again has nothing to do with the plugin.

If you are frustrated about the way DCS is designed thats's fine but in that case I'd really appreciate if you start a separate thread about that and direct your complaints to ED to avoid things getting mixed up here.

And just to prove to myself, not that I need it at this point, I just created a simple free flight mission from Nellis without me manually changing any preset frequencies in the mission editor, and got no response from atc for "Request Engine Start". Go back to the editor, put 132.55 in the first preset, and the atc respond immediately to my "Request Engine Start".

Maybe that will give you some clue as to what's wrong at my end, or how I have things improperly setup?

Edit: Your message went in as I was typing this reply, yes I seem to have to define the radio presets in the L39C or atc response is very hit and miss. If I put them in, it just works. So, the way I'm doing it for the L39C is correct, and not the norm for "some" other DCS aircraft? If that's the case, that's fine, at least I know for the future.

I don't recall seeing anywhere in the VaicomPro manual, that mission editing may need to be done differently for certain aircraft modules in DCS, for it to function properly. If it were in the manual, with perhaps an example, it may have saved me many hours of unnecessary frustration, and hair pulling. Just a suggestion of course.

And just to prove to myself, not that I need it at this point, I just created a simple free flight mission from Nellis without me manually changing any preset frequencies in the mission editor, and got no response from atc for "Request Engine Start". Go back to the editor, put 132.55 in the first preset, and the atc respond immediately to my "Request Engine Start".

 

Maybe that will give you some clue as to what's wrong at my end, or how I have things improperly setup?

 

Edit: Your message went in as I was typing this reply, yes I seem to have to define the radio presets in the L39C or atc response is very hit and miss. If I put them in, it just works. So, the way I'm doing it for the L39C is correct, and not the norm for "some" other DCS aircraft? If that's the case, that's fine, at least I know for the future.

 

I don't recall seeing anywhere in the VaicomPro manual, that mission editing may need to be done differently for certain aircraft modules in DCS, for it to function properly. If it were in the manual, with perhaps an example, it may have saved me many hours of unnecessary frustration, and hair pulling. Just a suggestion of course.

Pg 18 of the manual

Note: Keep in mind that for e.g. WWII-era aircraft with basic radio systems typically only a small number of preset frequencies can be used. These frequencies are set by the mission designer. You can only reach recipients that match these pre-programmed radio frequencies. The same goes for example for using JTAC. With a PRO license you can engage with JTAC from any aircraft, but the JTAC frequency/modulation type set in the mission editor must be suitable to be tuned by the aircraft radio system.