Tacview 1.3 beta 1 is available!

Saving up for the Pro version now :D Btw dead units would be nice to see.. and with the option to turn it on/off of course :)

Please add to your list: RWR indications and smart merge (ie. replace existing aircraft with one from another acmi, instead of having them both)

Lift vector is added to my list

 

The ECM display depends on what is available in DCS. It will probably be available in 1.3.x.

Multiple targets radar lock and radar cone are planned for Tacview 1.4 (or 1.3.x) it will depends on what data is available from DCS.

hey man please check ur messages.

Vyrt, I am testing some logging ideas which will use the scripting environment instead of the export environment. The export environment is good for aircraft but hopeless for logging anything else.

Right at this moment I am trying to visualize ground and search radar activity and I thought I would use the AdvancedTelemetry=RadarLock0,ID feature because the dotted line effect is suitable for the task.

One thing I noticed is that you only see the dotted line for units which are selected. From my perspective there will be other target tracking happening that I might like to see beyond just the currently selected unit and a single designated target. What are your thoughts on this?

Second thing. I know that you aren't exporting mulitple radar locks currently but I was hoping that Tacview would be ready to support it. What syntax would you be using in the logs for multiple targets in the logs?

This shows what works BUT I do want the red box to have red dotted lines going to BOTH the A-10 AND the UAV. What syntax in the log for this?

Thankyou Frantz

Having a look at it right now & liking it very much

Interesting work Vicx!

Radar locks are always displayed for any objects. They are not related at all to selected objects. This is just that, so far, I was able to get the radar lock info only for the local player aircraft. If you try the Falcon 4 demo file on my web site, you will see a battle with plenty of objects locking each other.

Also, like written in the current documentation, Tacview does not support more than one lock per object. Tacview 1.4 it will support an infinite amount of locks per object. Meanwhile, I’m going to add support for up to 8 simultaneous locks per objects for the public release of v1.3 to help you with your work.

The syntax to declare additional locks will be obviously AdvancedTelemetry=RadarLock1,ID and so on.

That said, in Tacview 1.4 the import/export format will be completely revamped, and I will gladly add to it any feature required for your analysis.

Vyrt, I am testing some logging ideas which will use the scripting environment instead of the export environment. The export environment is good for aircraft but hopeless for logging anything else.

 

Right at this moment I am trying to visualize ground and search radar activity and I thought I would use the AdvancedTelemetry=RadarLock0,ID feature because the dotted line effect is suitable for the task.

 

One thing I noticed is that you only see the dotted line for units which are selected. From my perspective there will be other target tracking happening that I might like to see beyond just the currently selected unit and a single designated target. What are your thoughts on this?

 

Second thing. I know that you aren't exporting mulitple radar locks currently but I was hoping that Tacview would be ready to support it. What syntax would you be using in the logs for multiple targets in the logs?

 

This shows what works BUT I do want the red box to have red dotted lines going to BOTH the A-10 AND the UAV. What syntax in the log for this?

Picked up the Pro version in the recent sale.

I have a question (using TacView 1.2.8 )

I noticed the warehouse (stock DCSW static object) is not visible in TacView. Can I somehow fix that myself (or was it already fixed in the current beta)?

Most static objects are not exported by DCS. I have also noticed that some “half-static” objects (like the buildings you can add to the map) are not exported too. This is a limitation of DCS.

I may be able to find a workaround while revamping my export system for Tacview 1.4. Meanwhile Tacview is already exporting as much data as available with conventional export script techniques. Do not hesitate to notify me if you find ways to export more data, I will gladly add your techniques to my script.

I have a question (using TacView 1.2.8 )

I noticed the warehouse (stock DCSW static object) is not visible in TacView. Can I somehow fix that myself (or was it already fixed in the current beta)?

Ok, thank you!

And another thing I noticed: When a plane goes vertical in 1.2.8, in a dive or climb, it sometimes spins around wildly. I guess it happens when it passes the 90° point.

Got the professional version. W aiting for real time analysis (y)

Real time analysis is on its way! Just a few more months to wait and you are going to get it in Tacview 1.4 :)

Yes Aginor, the issue is well known, it is called “Gimble Lock”. It is going to disappear in Tacview 1.4 or 1.5 when I will either rewrite my 3D engine or the way I’m managing objects data.

Sounds great!

The real time analysis requires the server to allow object exports? Right?

Yes, of course. If the server does not authorize objects export, you will only see your aircraft.

The real time analysis requires the server to allow object exports? Right?

All images are straight out of Tacview 1.3.

Just sharing some images of tests I am doing exporting data from the 'mission scripting' interface of DCS instead of the 'export' interface.

Here I am using the unit to unit line indicator to show radar detection (NOT LOCKS) of a SU-25T and a SEAD missile by a SAM network. This is Mbot's demo mission for his IADS script.

This is test scene for a long-term project I am working on to enable a CA player to take control of a small air defense group as a 'krai colonel'. The idea is to have individual units reporting contacts to the player and for the player to give real time tactical instructions for the air defense engagement. The aim is to make the action more dynamic than just driving the F10 map.

In this picture the blue unit to unit indicators are showing RWR detections. You can see that the blue aircraft have the DOG EAR radar on their RWR but the Dog Ear has not detected them. Also there is a DOG EAR rendered in black on the coastline. I exported that to the 'Dead' coalition to indicate it is a dead unit. Also I just noticed the BTR-80 has visual contact on the F-16.

This is a test with RWR indication disabled. I only included this picture so I can make some comments on the auto-scaling. Sometimes it looks good for air units but most of the time I think the mesh is too large and for ground units it just makes a mess. Auto-scaling also seems to scale background objects more than it should which throws perspective out in a lot views. I will post images with mocks that show scaling I find preferable in the next post.

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Just to sum up. Tacview rocks, especially the latest version which adds up to ten "unit to unit" indicators per unit. Earlier in this thread Vyrt invited suggestions and screens for ideas and suggestions we might have for future versions of Tacview. I'm probably going to add more pictures and comments in the next couple of days and weeks to help shape the next version. We can do it in this thread or spin another one up.

Feel free to mark up and repost any of the images I post if you feel creative.

how about Xplane 10 analysis?

Some ideas for line indicators. It is possible to export data on targets and sensors from the "mission scripting" environment (with trusted scripts).

This means you could show "who can see who" and use different colors, dots/dashes, glows and transparencies to indicate what sensor is being used. IRST, Radar, Optical, Passives (RWR, IR, Laser), Eyeballs etc etc.

On the subject of scaling. I had to carefully frame this shot so the models weren't comically large. Even with a best case these models are too large. I'd like to see these models half this size.

X-Plane 10 support is planned for Tacview 1.4. I’m going to revamp from scratch the export format, and I don’t want to work twice on X-Plane support (before and after acmi file revamp).

Nice job Vicx, I appreciate a lot your feedback!

In Tacview 1.3.1, dead ground objects at displayed as grey objects to improves situational awareness. Keep in mind that Tacview 1.3.x is just the beginning as a test bed for the incoming improvements planned for Tacview 1.4 and 1.5.

Very nice screenshot(s) Vicx! This is exactly the kind of feedback I’m looking for: clear, constructive and not too hard to implement. I’m going to improve the auto-scale soon too. As for the missiles locks, is there any documentation about how to make a trusted script?

Vyrt. I used the term "trusted script" a bit lazily. I was just making a point that in DCS to get some cool things to happen sometimes you have to lower the protection.

In C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Scripts\MissionScripting.lua there is following code.

--Initialization script for the Mission lua Environment (SSE)

dofile('Scripts/ScriptingSystem.lua')

--Sanitize Mission Scripting environment
--This makes unavailable some unsecure functions. 
--Mission downloaded from server to client may contain potentialy harmful lua code that may use these functions.
--You can remove the code below and make availble these functions at your own risk.

do
sanitizeModule('os')
--sanitizeModule('io')
--sanitizeModule('lfs')
require = nil
loadlib = nil
end

I say these things generally.

If you enable scripts to write to filesystem then you must trust missions (mission_from_forum.MIZ) you download from internet because they could have in them malicious code that can now access the file system.

I do not know LUA well and I am not a coder (only I play) and I know less security but someone who knows these things better might have the technique to make exports from the mission scripting environment work without completely enabling lfs,io module for ALL missions.

This would be an improvement.

This is a use case for being able to log objects purely for visualization.

This is a recording of SEAD attack on mobile SAM units. The Su25T launches an anti-radar missile, the SAM units detect the launch or predict the attack and turn off their radars.

Guidance in the missile maintains course with last known location.

---

This is something that people may want to visualise - why did my anti-radar missile miss the target.

This last known location is "kind of" available in the mission scripting environment. Below is debug text exported to dcs.log with comments in italics.

Sensor RWR: Su-25T detects Osa true

Visible: false (OSA radar was turned off)

Distance: true (still have range information for original target position)

Identified: false (this is not true for Su-25T - probably true in aircraft with modern RWR)

Last seen: 290.16

Time now: 303.301

Last Pos: {["y"] = 310.72463989258,["x"] = -48381.29296875,["z"] = 713613.6875,}

With this information I could provide a visualisation of the anti-radar missile and it's path to what it THINKS is the target location. I simply have to log this target location as a GHOST vehicle unit at Last Pos.

Being able to control visual properties of units/objects from the log would make it possible to create unique visualisations by writing custom exporters for Tacview and experimenting with the output.

The utility of a GHOST unit in the Tacview client I see an interesting possibility to show FOG of WAR- who can see who and where units were last seen. This is not a feature request, to my thinking it raises too many UI issues but I do like the idea.

Very interesting! I like the ghost idea. I’m going to see if I can integrate the concept in Tacview 1.4.

yeah ---- this is FANTASTIC

making a great tool even better!

#WeLiveInGoodTimes

Some ideas for the next version of Tacview. Focused on how labels are shown.

My own comment: The Mi-24 helos are actually a lot further away than it looks in the picture. I think slightly scaling the labels for the helos smaller in a ratio to match the distance from the camera would prevent the illusion of them appearing closer than they really are.

The labels for the ground units are sized 10px and airborne are 12px - should probably scale and fade labels based on distance from cam to give better visual cues.

Also I probably should have enabled the height vector.

I've a problem with Tacview: I installed the new version and wanted to tell it to record DCS World flights, but when I had to point it to the installation directory of DCS it said it could not find it. It is possible, that I pointed to the wrong folder, so I wanted to try it again, but now I can only chose "Record DCS World Flights" from the drop down menue of the Recording-icon and when I click on it I always get the following error message: "Export script installation has failed - Please ensure that 'DCS World' is properly installed and you have write access to it's folder."

I'm launching Tacview as admin and the Export.lua as well as the TacviewExportDCS.lua are in the DCS Scripts folder. The Export.lua has it's usual line and "allow_object_export" is set to true in the TacviewExportDCS.lua. I'm using the DCS World OpenBeta.

Any ideas?