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description.lua for customized cockpit


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The Spitfire cockpit seems to have some shortcomings (strange sun, reflections), some of which have been fixed (green tint of the armored windshield) while others haven't yet.

There are some mods floating around as remedies but so far, I had to install those textures via OvGME which often broke integrity check on MP-servers.

 

Finally, after a lot of trial and error, I've managed now to get a working description.lua so that I don't need to use OvGME anymore for the mods I use and it passes IC.

Feel free to try it out. No warranties/guarantees, though!

 

Copy to \Saved Games\DCS\Liveries\Cockpit_Spitfire_LFMkIX\default (create folders as necessary).

 

I only provide the description.lua as the mods I use aren't mine in the majority.

 

Not sure how to attach one file to two posts, so please look here:

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3826429&postcount=8

"[...] because, basically, in this day and age, if you get to the merge and no one's died - it's not good for anybody." - Keith 'Okie' Nance
"Nun siegt mal schön!" - Theodor Heuss, September 1958

"Nobody has any intention of building a wall." - Walter Ulbricht, June 1961
"Russia has no plans to invade either Ukraine or any other country.
" - Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, January 2022

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Here is a more complete one by Automan

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3826959&postcount=11

"[...] because, basically, in this day and age, if you get to the merge and no one's died - it's not good for anybody." - Keith 'Okie' Nance
"Nun siegt mal schön!" - Theodor Heuss, September 1958

"Nobody has any intention of building a wall." - Walter Ulbricht, June 1961
"Russia has no plans to invade either Ukraine or any other country.
" - Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, January 2022

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What utility can be used to description.lua?

EDM Livery Extractor GUI already on the new modules does not work.

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What utility can be used to description.lua?

EDM Livery Extractor GUI already on the new modules does not work.

 

The new edm format must be analyzed manually, no dedicated utility can help in this actually.

You can use any editor able to open binary files, for example Hex editors or Notepad++, and search for strings at start of your file: in sequence you should find the material name and textures name.

Then you must figure out what channels of the materials are used by those textures and compile a description.lua for it.

Time consuming and only a work for experienced users:music_whistling:

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But there are some tweaks floating around already which would otherwise trip IC.

 

E.g. I'm using

 

the Spitfire gauges and cockpit refurb mods by NAKE350

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=224765

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=228393

 

The reflections mod by Toby23 (tint has been fixed by now)

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=216210

 

and a 'strange sun' workaround that was made by Esac_mirmidon until fixed officially

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3710266&postcount=13

 

All (or at least some) of those used to trip IC, with this they don't.

 

I'm also using your very own reticle mod

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=229184

which isn't covered by the description.lua but doesn't trip IC in the first place.


Edited by ams999

"[...] because, basically, in this day and age, if you get to the merge and no one's died - it's not good for anybody." - Keith 'Okie' Nance
"Nun siegt mal schön!" - Theodor Heuss, September 1958

"Nobody has any intention of building a wall." - Walter Ulbricht, June 1961
"Russia has no plans to invade either Ukraine or any other country.
" - Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, January 2022

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I copied description.lua to:

"\Saved Games\DCS\Liveries\Cockpit_Spitfire_LFMkIX\default"

 

Integrity Check (IC) passes but I get the yellow black texture missing online and offline.

 

Removing "\Cockpit_Spitfire_LFMkIX\default" folders texture works offline but I can't go Multiplayer because IC fails.


Edited by -0303-

Intel Core i7 3630QM @ 2.40GHz (Max Turbo Frequency 3.40 GHz) | 16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz | 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M | 447GB KINGSTON SA400S37480G (SATA-2 (SSD))

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I copied description.lua to:

"\Saved Games\DCS\Liveries\Cockpit_Spitfire_LFMkIX\default"

 

Integrity Check (IC) passes but I get the yellow black texture missing online and offline.

 

Removing "\Cockpit_Spitfire_LFMkIX\default" folders texture works offline but I can't go Multiplayer because IC fails.

 

Not an awful lot of information to go by, so forgive me for asking some questions:

 

1. Which textures are you trying to use?

2. Where do you keep those textures? Easiest way is to keep them in the same Saved Games\DCS\Liveries\Cockpit_Spitfire_LFMkIX\default folder where the description.lua is located.

3. Are they someplace else? Then you need to tell the description.lua where to find them, if you don't, you get 'missing textures'.

4. Have you commented out all the lines in the description.lua for textures you did not replace? Otherwise, also 'missing textures' for those.

 

Those are some Qs I can think of right now.

"[...] because, basically, in this day and age, if you get to the merge and no one's died - it's not good for anybody." - Keith 'Okie' Nance
"Nun siegt mal schön!" - Theodor Heuss, September 1958

"Nobody has any intention of building a wall." - Walter Ulbricht, June 1961
"Russia has no plans to invade either Ukraine or any other country.
" - Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, January 2022

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Excluding a detailed description of what I did wrong I got it to work (online/offline, IC pass) by patterning after how the Su-25T cockpit english mod is structured.

 

-I used "Spitfire Cockpit Reburb"

-I copied and then modified (*1) the original DCS "Cockpit_Spitfire_LFMkIX_Textures.zip" zipfile archive located:

C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Mods\aircraft\SpitfireLFMkIX\Cockpit\Textures
with the files from "Spitfire Cockpit Reburb" (overwrote the five originals)
SpitfireIX-CPT_DIF.dds

SpitfireIX_1_DIF.dds

SpitfireIX_2_DIF.dds

SpitfireIX_3_DIF.dds

SpitfireIX_4_DIF.dds

-I placed the "description.lua" (automans version) in the
C:\Users\myusername\Saved Games\DCS\Liveries\Cockpit_Spitfire_LFMkIX\default
folder together with _all_ the unzipped files (*2) from the modified "Cockpit_Spitfire_LFMkIX_Textures.zip". I also tried unsuccessfully to place only the modified files from "Spitfire Cockpit Reburb" (as it appears how the Su-25T mod is done) into this folder. Didn't work but your question 4) implies the answer to how to make that work.

 

Note, the original "Cockpit_Spitfire_LFMkIX_Textures.zip" is untouched. Therefore I can switch between the original Spitfire textures or the modified textures by simply moving the entire "Cockpit_Spitfire_LFMkIX" folder structure in or out of

C:\Users\myusername\Saved Games\DCS\Liveries
~

4. Have you commented out all the lines in the description.lua for textures you did not replace? Otherwise, also 'missing textures' for those.

 

You can do that? Makes sense. Thanks, I will certainly explore this.

 

~

 

*1) Modifying a zipfile is very easy with Windows Explorer. No need for command line procedures as I've seen suggested in other ED Forum threads. Just a) doubleclick the zipfile b) copy files to add/replace into the expanded archive. c) done

 

*2) Tested to place the zipped (not unzipped) archive here. Didn't work.


Edited by -0303-

Intel Core i7 3630QM @ 2.40GHz (Max Turbo Frequency 3.40 GHz) | 16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz | 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M | 447GB KINGSTON SA400S37480G (SATA-2 (SSD))

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I see, so you copied all textures from the \Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Mods\aircraft\SpitfireLFMkIX\Cockpit\Textures\Cockpit_Spitfire_LFMkIX_Textures.zip to the saved games folder?

 

The nice thing with the description.lua is - you don't need to. The only things you need in that folder are

1. the description.lua

2. the replacement textures (in your case the five you listed from the Spitfire cockpit refurb)

 

You then comment out every line in the description.lua *not* referring to the refurb textures and you should be done. I would only comment out and not delete those lines in case you need them later on should you want to try other mods.

"[...] because, basically, in this day and age, if you get to the merge and no one's died - it's not good for anybody." - Keith 'Okie' Nance
"Nun siegt mal schön!" - Theodor Heuss, September 1958

"Nobody has any intention of building a wall." - Walter Ulbricht, June 1961
"Russia has no plans to invade either Ukraine or any other country.
" - Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, January 2022

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I changed it to only have the lua and the five modified files (from NAKE350's cockpit mod) in the directory (C:\Users\myusername\Saved Games\DCS\Liveries\Cockpit_Spitfire_LFMkIX\default) and edited Automan's "description.lua" file (by commenting out as you suggested).

description.lua

SpitfireIX-CPT_DIF.dds

SpitfireIX_1_DIF.dds

SpitfireIX_2_DIF.dds

SpitfireIX_3_DIF.dds

SpitfireIX_4_DIF.dds

Works it seems and pass IC. But I found if I edited out the

{"mirror_SpitfireIX", 0 ,"mirrors",true}; --mirrors texture replacement with runtime rendered one

in Automan's "description.lua" the mirrror would show a blue/yellow cross so I didn't comment that line out. I expect the coin will drop eventually to why that is. The mirror is obviously different in that it can be an active surface.

 

-Found this nice webpage to easily check Lua syntax (without having to learn Lua):

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/execute_lua_online.php

If EXECUTE shows no error syntax is (probably) correct.

-The ubiquitous NotePad++ editor also color codes Lua syntax.

-Found this Ed Forum thread: Tutorial: Introduction to Lua scripting.


Edited by -0303-
improved links

Intel Core i7 3630QM @ 2.40GHz (Max Turbo Frequency 3.40 GHz) | 16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz | 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M | 447GB KINGSTON SA400S37480G (SATA-2 (SSD))

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True, the last two lines in Automan's description.lua are also in the original description.lua (unfortunately, only those two, not the rest), so it's always worth checking there as it might be something important and keep it in.

"[...] because, basically, in this day and age, if you get to the merge and no one's died - it's not good for anybody." - Keith 'Okie' Nance
"Nun siegt mal schön!" - Theodor Heuss, September 1958

"Nobody has any intention of building a wall." - Walter Ulbricht, June 1961
"Russia has no plans to invade either Ukraine or any other country.
" - Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, January 2022

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  • 3 months later...

What do you mean? This one still works

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3826998&postcount=2

"[...] because, basically, in this day and age, if you get to the merge and no one's died - it's not good for anybody." - Keith 'Okie' Nance
"Nun siegt mal schön!" - Theodor Heuss, September 1958

"Nobody has any intention of building a wall." - Walter Ulbricht, June 1961
"Russia has no plans to invade either Ukraine or any other country.
" - Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, January 2022

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Hot new latest beta.

 

- P-51D and Spitfire don't have a "Customized Cockpit options" – fixed.

 

Although I can see in the list of custom cockpit still uses the default.

🖥️MSI PRO Z690-A DDR4, Kingston 3600 MHz 64 Gb, i5 12600K, Gigabyte RTX 4090, Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus,🕹️VKB NXT Premium.

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Not the fault of the description.lua, though.

 

If I name my custom cockpit 'default' it works (so the description.lua works), if I give it a custom name and select it in the custom cockpit list it gets ignored.

"[...] because, basically, in this day and age, if you get to the merge and no one's died - it's not good for anybody." - Keith 'Okie' Nance
"Nun siegt mal schön!" - Theodor Heuss, September 1958

"Nobody has any intention of building a wall." - Walter Ulbricht, June 1961
"Russia has no plans to invade either Ukraine or any other country.
" - Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, January 2022

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