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Beginners Guide to DCS World Aircraft Mods


RedBeard2

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Looks like an awesome guide, my thanks. Only skim read my way through it, but I'll certainly be checking it out in more detail soon.

Rather fancy the idea of building a Hawker Tempest.

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Hey guys, i'm trying to make a copy of the Su33 for further EFM modifications and i can't get some animations to work. Everything is showing up in the modelviewer provided by ED when i press enable animations but in game there's only cannons,afterburner's,ejection and shock absorbers animations working. Right now i'm following the guide and i can't find any part talking about lua to link the animations to the mod ? How does it work exactly ?

 

You're going to have to create a externalanimations.lua in Cockpit/Scripts. Then in device_init.lua you need to call externalanimations.lua with:

+creators[devices.EXTANIM]		 = {"avLuaDevice"			,LockOn_Options.script_path.."externalanimations.lua"}

 

An example of something in externalanimations.lua would be:

local RUDDER_STATE = sensor_data:getRudderPosition() / 100
set_aircraft_draw_argument_value(17, -RUDDER_STATE)

 

This draws the argument 17, the one that moves the rudder

 

@Mr_Sukebe, if you have a question shoot away!

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Just started working my way through some of the "performance" elements of this guide. Clearly it's not straightforward with the level of aerodynamics covered.

 

For anyone who's already played with this, is there an easy way to change say the stall speed of an aircraft with a single setting in an Lua? I couldn't see anything genuinely obvious.

 

Background is that I've been playing with the F8 bearcat mod, which is based on the Mustang's flight model. My assumption (tbc) is that the real bearcat had a lower stall speed (probably top speed too), so it would be good to try to set them to more realistic levels.

System: 9700, 64GB DDR4, 2070S, NVME2, Rift S, Jetseat, Thrustmaster F18 grip, VPC T50 stick base and throttle, CH Throttle, MFG crosswinds, custom button box, Logitech G502 and Marble mouse.

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DAMAGE MODELS / ANIMATIONS ?

 

I've come to the point on several projects where I have the Collision Model and Corresponding LUA Data Done for the Beginning of the Damage Models.

 

All my Models Currently have Composite Layered Materials,

 

Is there any information on how the damage textures are setup (Seems Like there are 2 Different Damage Textures, one is Precedural, the other looks like transparency)

 

But for Progressive damage, from what I understand it's a Top Layer in the Composite Material, and uses UV Shift to go from no damage, to progressively worse damage texture.

 

My issue is only applying damage to PART of a Mesh instead of the entire mesh, or to a single mesh of a Texture instead of all meshes in the texture.

 

So the Main Questions prolly Are:

 

What is the Damage Layer's Settings?? (as there are more than one texture for the damage channel.)

 

is it simply a UV Map Shift? or is is a Cloned Mesh w/ each mesh having a UV MAP Shift from 0-100% Damage and a Visibility Argument that toggles between the meshes progressively?


Edited by SkateZilla

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OK, let's briefly clarify some things...

 

Conditionally, the process of modeling the visual aircraft damage can be represented as the following stages:

 

1. Сutting models shape into parts in accordance with the planned damage zones.

 

In EDM file format, instead of the so-called "wrappers", the texture damage is indicated by mixing damage testure with the diffuse texture of the model.

 

71586fcbb449.jpg

 

2. Creating a texture of damage.

 

The texture of the damage is a image 1024x1024 or 2048x2048 with a picture of a different kind of damage.

The texture is saved in .dds DX1 format without Alfa-channel and named: xxx_damage_main.dds

 

abb82d590172.jpg

 

Damage map , instead of the alpha channel texture, is created in a separate file: xxx_damage_main_map.dds

In addition, not one map is used at least four. Each of the maps indicates the display of damage, Characteristic for one of the gradations of severity of demage.

Respectively, the use of four maps gives us an opportunity to aggravate in the simulator the severity of the damage consistently, in four stages, from the minor

bullet holes and fragmentation to the most serious ruptures of the aircraft skin.

 

fb05d067e539.jpg

 

Also, one of the important advantages that the EDM format gives us, is the ability to model a real geometric holes.

So, if the brightness value of the map about 80% - the corresponding area of the damage texture is displayed.

When the brightness value about 100% - then a hole displayed on the model shape.

 

fac9522fbb4e.jpg

 

After creating maps for all gradations of damage, you need to pack them in the so-called "volume" texture in * .dds format.

It is possible to do this in Gimp or Photoshop with installed DDS plugins.

 

e71b630b5c64.jpg

 

Important! The damage map is referred to as: / texture name damage / _map.

 

For example, if the texture of damage named:

f18_damage_main.dds

 

Then the map of damage should have a name:

f18_damage_main_map.dds

 

3. Mapping the base shape model for applying the texture damage.

Mapping for the damage texture should be in the 3-d texture channel!

 

The damage texture is placed in the 4th layer of the composite texture.

Damage map is used automatically by the game engine and it is not necessary to assign it anywhere in 3D Max.

 

Again,UV-animation not needed for this!

 

It is enough to place it in the archive with the rest of the aircraft textures.

The structure of the material with the main applied textures is shown in the figure.

 

5456d9453f7e.jpg

 

4. Assigning arguments the the selected part of the model.

 

To assign an argument to enable damage, it is sufficient in 3D max, open [Object Properties -> User Defined Tab] for the desired element/sape of the model and enter the following line:

DAMAGE_ARGUMENT = argument number;

 

For example, for the console of the right wing: DAMAGE_ARGUMENT = 213;

 

P.S. I think it's worth moving this post to the main thread of modding discussion: Beginners Guide to DCS World Aircraft Mods


Edited by Morkva_55
typo corrections

su-24.gif

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What type of coding language should I learn to get into this type of thing? Is it multiple languages or just one?

 

My main goal is to eventually gain the skills to become a 3rd party Dev if possible but I'm just not sure where to begin or what to learn 1st.

 

Any tips on what I should pursue in order to become a dev?

 

 

Edit: Also, any way to create maps? or is that strictly for the ED?


Edited by Legion
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help I can not adjust the position and is Raised in the game in the way

 

Hey, look in your aircraft's main lua file (usually named youraircraf.lua) for these two variables, they define the diameter of your wheels. Looks like you have to lower them in your case:

 

nose_gear_wheel_diameter  =
main_gear_wheel_diameter  =

 

Regarding the engine exhausts, I'm pretty sure the variables for them are in the same file, but I haven't used them and don't remember their names... but you should find them easily.

My DCS modding videos:

 

Modules I own so far:

Black Shark 2, FC3, UH-1H, M-2000C, A-10C, MiG-21, Gazelle, Nevada map

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thank you very much:pilotfly:

 

 

Forgot to say that you will probably also have to adjust the location of your wheels inside the same file:

 

nose_gear_pos  = 
main_gear_pos  = 

My DCS modding videos:

 

Modules I own so far:

Black Shark 2, FC3, UH-1H, M-2000C, A-10C, MiG-21, Gazelle, Nevada map

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Hi, when creating a new aircraft cockpit from scratch how do we set the players eye point? I have been experimenting using a stock aircraft folder to test the model but the eye point always seems to be set at 3dsmax world center?

Was not sure if it would be a dummy within the scene or set in a config file. I found cockpit_local_point within mainpanel LUA which seems to set the cockpit model position but nothing for eye point.

Thanks in advance for any help..

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Anyone got any clues or specific info about the piston engine equivalent of the extended engine data and thrust max table you can define for jets?

 

 

You can see examples for aircraft based on jet engines or their derivatives in the Community A4 mod.

 

 

Tried using the same set up in a piston engine aircraft and not surprisingly specifying thrust max at specific mach number and height didn't work.

 

 

At a guess it's probably something to do with WEP manifold pressures at a given speed and height.

 

 

Thanks,

Stonehouse

 

 

PS dpdh_m and dpdh_f don't appear to help tune performance at different altitudes for piston engine aircraft or at least that's what I seem to be seeing running test missions for the same aircraft at max speed at different heights.


Edited by Stonehouse
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Have managed to animate some of the cockpit and works fine while testing in sim but external model animations do not work, do we have to write them into the .lua from scratch or would it be possible to use/copy some code from existing aircraft? Thanks.

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Tried this from an earlier post but no luck..

 

device_init.lua:

 

creators[devices.EXTANIM] = {"avLuaDevice" ,LockOn_Options.script_path.."externalanimations.lua"}

 

created externalanimations.lua and entered the following:

 

local RUDDER_STATE = sensor_data:getRudderPosition() / 100

set_aircraft_draw_argument_value(17, -RUDDER_STATE)

 

devices.lua:

 

 

devices["EXTANIM"] = counter()--7

 

 

Or is the only way to do it to create the hydraulic & elec systems etc from scratch?


Edited by MrBiggs
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Hi Guys! I want to make custom cockpits and External models for FC3 F15.I do 3d art creation for few years now. Game model creation pipeline is a familiar process to me.

I asked couple of modders where should i find a guide and they say most of the stuff is outdated. Is the guide in the beginning of this thread relevant to today`s game structure? If somebody knows where can i get a guide that will work with current DCS versions could you please share links to them. Or advice on what should i look in to to avoide obsolete material.

Thanks a lot and happy new year!

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Hi Guys! I want to make custom cockpits and External models for FC3 F15.I do 3d art creation for few years now. Game model creation pipeline is a familiar process to me.

I asked couple of modders where should i find a guide and they say most of the stuff is outdated. Is the guide in the beginning of this thread relevant to today`s game structure? If somebody knows where can i get a guide that will work with current DCS versions could you please share links to them. Or advice on what should i look in to to avoide obsolete material.

Thanks a lot and happy new year!

 

Bumping this thread because I would also like to know this ^

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