DCS-SimpleRadio Standalone

Quick update, line of sight looking doable for this week. Either a release Friday or Sunday!

It'll be a server side option to enforce or not and the setting will take effect immediately so if there are issues it's easy to turn off :)

Awesome dude

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

Hey Ciribob!

Found a bug in 1.1.8.0. Tested with three pilots and diagnosing on the fly.

What is working:

We were able to confirm PTT is not and issue

We were able to confirm that we were broadcasting/receiving on the correct (specified) radios via overlay panel

Sound channel output is not working correctly:

Radio 1 will not set anything (no effect)

Radio 2 will set radio 1 output

Radio 3 will set radio 2 and 3 output

Example in A-10C:

FWD radio on LEFT ear = no effect

MID radio on BOTH ears = FWD radio BOTH ears

AFT radio RIGHT ear = MID and AFT radio on RIGHT ear

Timeline:

This bug was not present in 1.1.6.0 (we skipped 1.1.7.0)

Hey Ciribob!

 

Found a bug in 1.1.8.0. Tested with three pilots and diagnosing on the fly.

 

What is working:

We were able to confirm PTT is not and issue

We were able to confirm that we were broadcasting/receiving on the correct (specified) radios via overlay panel

 

Sound channel output is not working correctly:

Radio 1 will not set anything (no effect)

Radio 2 will set radio 1 output

Radio 3 will set radio 2 and 3 output

 

Example in A-10C:

FWD radio on LEFT ear = no effect

MID radio on BOTH ears = FWD radio BOTH ears

AFT radio RIGHT ear = MID and AFT radio on RIGHT ear

 

Timeline:

This bug was not present in 1.1.6.0 (we skipped 1.1.7.0)

I think a few posts up he mentioned that radio 1 is intercom now, radio 2 is the first real radio. I think it's changing next release too.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quick update, line of sight looking doable for this week. Either a release Friday or Sunday!

 

It'll be a server side option to enforce or not and the setting will take effect immediately so if there are issues it's easy to turn off :)

Looking forward to test this, awesome work Ciribob!

Now crossing my fingers for the mic click feature.

Hey Ciribob!

 

Found a bug in 1.1.8.0. Tested with three pilots and diagnosing on the fly.

 

What is working:

We were able to confirm PTT is not and issue

We were able to confirm that we were broadcasting/receiving on the correct (specified) radios via overlay panel

 

Sound channel output is not working correctly:

Radio 1 will not set anything (no effect)

Radio 2 will set radio 1 output

Radio 3 will set radio 2 and 3 output

 

Example in A-10C:

FWD radio on LEFT ear = no effect

MID radio on BOTH ears = FWD radio BOTH ears

AFT radio RIGHT ear = MID and AFT radio on RIGHT ear

 

Timeline:

This bug was not present in 1.1.6.0 (we skipped 1.1.7.0)

Thanks for the detailed report! :)

Its an off by 1 bug due to the radio re-ordering. I've fixed internally and will be in the next release. Sorry for the bug!

Currently in 1.1.8.0

Radio 1 Seperation controls Intercom

Radio 2 Seperation controls Radio 1

Radio 3 Seperation Controls Radio 2 + 3

Attached is a screenshot showing the new server options (Distance setting isnt implemented but setting is there ready for it) and also you can now see what options are enforced by the server from the client by pressing "Show Server Settings"

The window must be closed before you can carry on interacting with the client :)

After a very helpful chat with Dutch_Baron (thanks!!), I've decided to throw in distance limitations for the next release as well. Instead of trying to simulate every radio I'm going to go for one or maybe two defaults which should give a good enough approximation.

Please can you as a community, just check the way I've gone about it and say whether the defaults make sense :)

So we have two Aircraft Transmitting with Line of Sight

Distance: 1000m (calculated by SRS)

Rx Antenna Gain: 1 dBm

Tx Antenna Gain: 1 dBm

Frequency: 100 MHz (taken from Radio)

Wavelength: 2.9979m

Transmission power: 10Watts / 40 dBm (From [ame]https://tsc-60.cellmail.com/tsc-60/TSC-118/rtn_ncs_products_arc164_pdf.pdf[/ame])

Therefore with Friis equation: Received power is -30.4434 dBm and can be easily heard by the receiver

Radio Sensitivity is down to: -101dBm (again from link above)

Handy calculator here: http://www.everythingrf.com/rf-calculators/friis-transmission-calculator

So the defaults for all transmissions for now will be:

10 W transmitter

Rx Antenna Gain: 1 dBm

Tx Antenna Gain: 1 dBm

Rx Sensitivity: -100 dBm

Does that sound like some sensible defaults to do a good approximation of most radios?

Each transmission will have its received power calculated based on the Friis equation with the correct frequency and distance taken into account

Edit: Reducing Sensitivity to -90dBm to simulate some loss

This projects moves forward SR-71 style ! Congrats !

A quick suggestion, it would be nice to havec a mic "click" when you key in the PTT. Like that, you can check that your radios (SRS) are working without having to show the overlay and it adds to realism. (A "click" on receiving comms would be awesome too since a lot of pilot acknowledge little comms by keying their mic twice).

Again, thanks a lot for the awesome work !

There actually is more to radio frequencies than just power and range.

Things like atmospheric conditions

Adjacent frequencies

Actual frequency (imagine 100mHz vs 2000mHz)

Wiring length / installation (losses)

And some other considerations :D

But as there is not enough material to work on regarding that, I can only imagine how hard / impossible would be to code that in.

Also Polarisation losses, eg. If you bank, but I think that's a little bit too much for now, maybe on a later stage.

For now it looks quite good, especially for a generic radio.

OK, Different frequencys with different bandwidth and characteristics would be good.

There actually is more to radio frequencies than just power and range.

Things like atmospheric conditions

Adjacent frequencies

Actual frequency (imagine 100mHz vs 2000mHz)

Wiring length / installation (losses)

 

And some other considerations :D

But as there is not enough material to work on regarding that, I can only imagine how hard / impossible would be to code that in.

Also Polarisation losses, eg. If you bank, but I think that's a little bit too much for now, maybe on a later stage.

For now it looks quite good, especially for a generic radio.

OK, Different frequencys with different bandwidth and characteristics would be good.

Yes I know there is much much much more so I'm going for an approximation for now. I could spend years programming a radio propagation model ( all antennas are assumed uniform transmission power) let alone path loss as you say. :D

Actual frequency is taken into account in the friis equation already when you transmit but for now everything else is, I think, a little bit too far. Weather would have a big effect but I've no idea how to get that data or once I've got it, model the result so I'll leave for now as well.

Where I was trying to get too was is -90dBm a sensible receive sensitivity?

The original radio is -100 or so, so that 10dB loss is to simulate weather, polarisation, crappy antenna, etc :)

If you guys help fill in the table of receiving sensitivity and transmit power I could do it per radio. :) Link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tzd996zJ1t0heZ-t1PpL7vNUIZbXl7pI6De0GThN1Qw/edit?usp=drive_web

Edit: LOS and distance tests worked well last night so should be good for Friday or even a release tonight

I think you have it absolutely spot on for the moment Cb.

Later you may wish to consider free space propagation methods in some bands but at the moment LOS is great.

Or if you are really, really bored, work out how to pop in the export.lua a method of measuring rain drop size distribution and spatial structure of the rain field used in DCS bad weather simulations and model the effect on attenuation and fade...:music_whistling:

GREAT WORK, CiriBob!

We in TAW tested it thoroughly last night and it works very good.

As a licensed radio amateur I can acknowledge all the things mentioned in the 5 previous posts are completely true, but that is I think just too much for CiriBob to take in account, like he says he could spend years making that model.

Is that worth it? I think not, it would be really cool though.

We should be REALLY happy with what he made already and it works already very much as in real life.

He is still going to add nice features like mic clicks, audio fading and white noise.

CiriBob is one of the biggest, or even THE biggest contributor to the DCS community, so we should give him some space to work on other projects as well ;) oh and have a private life as well hahaha.

Keep up the great work man, you make our DCS lives even better!

Regards,

Dutch Baron TAW

I think you have it absolutely spot on for the moment Cb.

 

Later you may wish to consider free space propagation methods in some bands but at the moment LOS is great.

 

Or if you are really, really bored, work out how to pop in the export.lua a method of measuring rain drop size distribution and spatial structure of the rain field used in DCS bad weather simulations and model the effect on attenuation and fade...:music_whistling:

Well.....

Just kidding, maybe one day :D

Thanks Dutch_Baron and everyone who has helped test or supplied information, its a great help.

Will hopefully get round to a release tonight :)

Edit: Just calculated - Max Range is 378,390 meters direct line of sight in 3d space for -90dBm (so height between transmitters matters)

Will Simpleradio also be available for JTACs and ATC in a MP enviroment?

New Release - Version v1.2.0.0

LUA files have changed again so make sure to use the installer to install / update or manually update. This is very important for the new Line of Sight and Distance system to work.

Change Log:

• Fixed Audio Separation
  
• Fixed Mig-21 Radio
  
• Added Server Settings Window Client-side
  
• Added Optional Line of Sight - Enforced Server Side
  
• Added Optional Distance Limitations - Enforced Server Side
  

This is another big release and a lot has changed again so please report any bugs or odd behaviour. If you have issues with Line of Sight or Distance, they can be turned off individually server side. They're both pretty experimental features so please give feedback :)

Thanks again for all your help and support!

Distance Limit - For every transmission, the power of the received transmission is calculated (Friis Equation) based on radio power and the transmitting frequency. If the received transmission is under -90dBm, the transmission wont be heard. This setting is server side enforced.

Line of Sight - Line of sight between the player and all other players is calculated ever 0.2 seconds or so. If you're transmitting and dive into a valley, you may find transmissions cut off mid sentence! :) Again server side enforced. The line of sight is actually slightly offset above the aircraft to simulate radio waves slightly bending around the edge of the terrain

As always - Please let me know if you have issues so I can help solve them! :)

DOWNLOAD HERE - Unzip all files and Run the Installer: https://github.com/ciribob/DCS-SimpleRadioStandalone/releases/latest

Wiki - Manual + Help

Thanks to Nossarian, there is now a Wiki here which will eventually be a central place for all documentation. Big thank you for the help! :)

https://github.com/ciribob/DCS-SimpleRadioStandalone/wiki

Finally - I need your help!

If you'd like to help with this project, please help me fill in this sheet of radio info! It'll also help correct any mistakes I've made with the Radios.

LINK: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tzd996zJ1t0heZ-t1PpL7vNUIZbXl7pI6De0GThN1Qw/edit#gid=1869108790

Will Simpleradio also be available for JTACs and ATC in a MP enviroment?

Yes it already does. Eventually I'll be adding 10 radios for JTAC / ATC to use :)

TAW SRS server is updated to 1.2.0.0 with Line of Sight and Distance limit ON. Set IP address in Simple Radio client to 37.59.10.136. You can play on any of our 4 servers. :joystick:

Hey Ciribob, sending this PURELY for inspiration purposes. :music_whistling:

First short vid (45 secs) I'm using two programs here: Aries (mic clicks, distance effects, LoS). The second was Crosstalk to produce the radio voice effect. In this vid I'm listening to comms ~100nm away on Victor.

Second vid, same flight, but I'm now within 500ft of the speaker.

Again.... again... purely inspiration ;)

Of course, we had to stop using Aries for the known stability issues, but alas, quality was pleasing. There's also plenty of really good Youtube BMS examples of solid "effects" should you be so inclined.

hi Ciribob, Thank you for all your hard work that you put into simple radio, unfortunately I am having some problems using it and was hoping that you might suggest a a fix. I seem to be the only one out of all the people that I am using this with having a problem with echoing 3 times. My standard setup is to use my speakers for DCS sound and using a headphone jack microphone as a default communication device. At first I thought that it might be my speakers that are causing the echo, so I disconnected everything to make sure that there is no interference and don't have any other microphones connected, still no luck, I played around with every single settings in the recording device tab but nothing seems to work. I have also downloaded your updated (1.2.0.0) version today and noticed the following changes, now when I speak I can hear myself echoing as well, but before the update only others would be able to hear the echo....I hope that this may be helpful and will provide some clue.....oh and I am using windows 10. Please HELP!!!! Thanks a lot.

Ciribob, I think it's been asked before but is there any chance we can get a dropdown menu or bookmark functionality for server IP's?

Ciribob, I think it's been asked before but is there any chance we can get a dropdown menu or bookmark functionality for server IP's?

+1

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

And another minor request, could you make the server remember it's window position?

E: And maybe enforce the Radio Effects server side or make it client side (sending)?

E2: Tested client/server locally, there's kinda sort of a little more than a little latency. Maybe it's possible to reduce buffer sizes?

hi Ciribob, Thank you for all your hard work that you put into simple radio, unfortunately I am having some problems using it and was hoping that you might suggest a a fix. I seem to be the only one out of all the people that I am using this with having a problem with echoing 3 times. My standard setup is to use my speakers for DCS sound and using a headphone jack microphone as a default communication device. At first I thought that it might be my speakers that are causing the echo, so I disconnected everything to make sure that there is no interference and don't have any other microphones connected, still no luck, I played around with every single settings in the recording device tab but nothing seems to work. I have also downloaded your updated (1.2.0.0) version today and noticed the following changes, now when I speak I can hear myself echoing as well, but before the update only others would be able to hear the echo....I hope that this may be helpful and will provide some clue.....oh and I am using windows 10. Please HELP!!!! Thanks a lot.

That sounds pretty odd. Would you mind posting your DirectX Diagnostic file? (http://wizards.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1271)

Could you also post a screenshot of the SRS client window with all the input choices listed?

Ciribob, I think it's been asked before but is there any chance we can get a dropdown menu or bookmark functionality for server IP's?

Yes its been asked for quite a few times. Its on the list no worries :)

And another minor request, could you make the server remember it's window position?

 

E: And maybe enforce the Radio Effects server side or make it client side (sending)?

 

E2: Tested client/server locally, there's kinda sort of a little more than a little latency. Maybe it's possible to reduce buffer sizes?

I'll try reducing it down. Had to increase it to stop issues with certain sound cards not liking a small buffer size. Latency should be no more than a 1/3 of a second or so at most so I'll investigate! Thanks for reporting.

If reducing the size can cause issues, make it some option? Having stutters? Use the large buffers option. Otherwise default small(er) ones.

E: Maybe ASIO(4all) would be a good way to get the lowest latency.