Abr Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 Recently started moving into some of the story based single player campaigns like BDs and OP Piercing Fury. Trouble I've had is that most missions are too long to do in one sitting. Is there any alternative to saving a game out there? Like editing a track file? Or a utility that could save a session somehow? Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoshua Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 Pause and leave your pc on till you decide to finish. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiJack Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 No, sorry. It has been asked for many times but not picked up by ED. The only way I know is to recreate an edited mission with dead units you have killed in first attack run and then play that mission. Won’t count in campaign so only for doing several flights in one mission. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimmerdylan Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 Hey man! History didn't just stop while you were taking a break or living your "life".......Did it? But seriously, as unfortunate as it is, I do not know any flight sim that saves in mid flight or mission. You are in good company. Lots of times I have to check the clock when I want to fly DCS because of time constraints. Even simple flights can take too much time sometimes. It's kind of the drawback to being an armchair pilot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiJack Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 I would love a save mission type function but only possible when player is alive and on ground. No need to save regularly and definitely not while airborne. It would open up so much more features to single player missions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Passero Posted September 11, 2020 Share Posted September 11, 2020 Just wondering... How long do these missions last that you can't play them in a single sitting? I'm also looking into mission and campaign building myself. If you build a campaign, you can have several missions with the same setup but split into missions. This could act as save points and keep the missions within limits of a single sitting... But then, single sitting might be subjective... For one that could 4 hours, for another that could be 30min... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PL_Harpoon Posted September 11, 2020 Share Posted September 11, 2020 It would be a good idea for mission/campaign devs to add expected mission time to mission descriptions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiJack Posted September 11, 2020 Share Posted September 11, 2020 Just wondering... How long do these missions last that you can't play them in a single sitting? I'm also looking into mission and campaign building myself. If you build a campaign, you can have several missions with the same setup but split into missions. This could act as save points and keep the missions within limits of a single sitting... But then, single sitting might be subjective... For one that could 4 hours, for another that could be 30min... Endless! :) https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=198221 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jib Posted September 11, 2020 Share Posted September 11, 2020 I think LOMAC used to have a save option but it often didn't worked that well, (a bit like the playback track system) so I guess that is why they dropped the save system. Mods I use: KA-50 JTAC - Better Fire and Smoke - Unchain Rudder from trim KA50 - Sim FFB for G940 - Beczl Rocket Pods Updated! Processor: Intel Q6600 @ 3.00GHz GPU: GeForce MSI RTX 2060 6GB RAM: Crucial 8GB DDR2 HDD: 1TBGB Crucial SSD OS: Windows 10, 64-bit Peripherals: Logitech G940 Hotas, TrackiR 5, Voice Activated commands , Sharkoon 5.1 headset. ,Touch Control for iPad, JoyToKey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hreich Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 I would only need two save points in each mission - after starting jet and takeoff , and then after egress point [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Pilot from Croatia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gierasimov Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 Just to share my experience here... So I am not a big fan of game saves generally. I use them rather sparingly and I don't like autosaves at all. Having said that though... I am working on a mission where it takes about 2.5 hours just to get to the last phase of the operation. I was testing it and, by that 2.5 hour mark I already had 4 A2G attack runs, three AARs, two A2A fights and I was going in for the last GBU delivery set... and DCS crashed! How I wished it saved the game prior to that... Intel i7-13700KF :: ROG STRIX Z790-A GAMING WIFI D4 :: Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB :: MSI RTX 4080 Gaming X Trio :: VKB Gunfighter MK.III MCG Ultimate :: VPC MongoosT-50 CM3 :: non-VR :: single player :: open beta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dangerzone Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 I have been on some servers which are persistent. (In that the state of the mission is saved, and then reloaded if the server is pulled down or is reset). The admins can pull down the server and then restart it with the state saved, so it is possible to do in DCS with scripting by the sounds of it. This is not identical to a 'save game' status where all clients are saved. What I believe it does is store variables - whether AI units are alive or dead, where they are (if they have moved location) and which bases have been captured into a file. When the server is reloaded - it checks and loads the variables from that file so the general map status is where it was when the server was pulled down. BUT- all clients have to restart from a spawn point again. So if your mission is one that involves numerous landings and taking off where you can respawn in again, or is an 'endless mission' - this could be an option. If you're looking for a 'snapshot' of a game - well, back in the DOS days (showing my age), there was a 'memory save' option that would take a snapshot of the memory so you could 'cheat' in some games and restore the whole computer back to that state when reloading the computer - but I have no idea if any such thing exists today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hreich Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 I was also thinking by using some of external utils like CombatFlite, or TacView to save "state" of mission, where units are positioned, status dead/or/alive and then import that file into dcs as miz..and continue where i left the mission...but no such util for now.. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Pilot from Croatia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dangerzone Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 8 hours ago, hreich said: I was also thinking by using some of external utils like CombatFlite, or TacView to save "state" of mission, where units are positioned, status dead/or/alive and then import that file into dcs as miz..and continue where i left the mission...but no such util for now.. Maybe check out this... https://github.com/thebgpikester/SimpleGroupSaving Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
draconus Posted December 11, 2020 Share Posted December 11, 2020 Haven't tried myself but it could work if you pause the game and hibernate Windows (it will save a file of equal size to your RAM). When you turn on the PC again it will load the whole RAM state just as it was before and, hopefully, switch to already running DCS right where you left it. Another idea was applied in this campaign: https://forums.eagle.ru/topic/237915-sp-campaign-operation-earnest-will/?tab=comments#comment-238701 Basically you can fly the whole mission if you wish but there is a checkpoint (usually minutes before the "action" or between tasks in longer mission) which allows you to end the mission and then start again from that place. Technically it's a bit changed mission with airstart. All is designed to properly progress in campaign. Making more checkpoints or anytime-save doesn't make sense much imho. Who would run the saved state where you need just to RTB 200nm and shut down? Mission estimated time can be either bad from the start (it can reveal the spoilers that more tasks and action are really there than you would expect from the description) or not so easily calculated (you may need to dogfight, AAR, make more A2G runs, more air targets, fly somewhere else, limp damaged aircraft, rescue... etc.) Win10 i7-10700KF 32GB RTX3060 Rift S T16000M TWCS TFRP FC3 F-14A/B F-15E CA SC NTTR PG Syria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dangerzone Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 Here's another option - It may be simpler to setup/use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chromium Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 7 ore fa, Dangerzone ha scritto: It may be simpler to setup/use? I hope so, as I tried hard to make it "plug & play" at least for SP user. Then for anyone, most for server admin, I strongly suggest to read the manual, cause there's a lot of things can (not "must") be customized. 1 Author of DSMC, mod to enable scenario persistency and save updated miz file Stable version & site: https://dsmcfordcs.wordpress.com/ Openbeta: https://github.com/Chromium18/DSMC The thing is, helicopters are different from planes. An airplane by it's nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or by a deliberately incompetent pilot, it will fly. A helicopter does not want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces in opposition to each other, and if there is any disturbance in this delicate balance the helicopter stops flying; immediately and disastrously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wait4It Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 (edited) Honestly, i've been waiting for a save game feature for DCS for years. I struggle to find the time to complete the longer campaign missions, due to reallife/family stuff. Please don't force any strange restrictions on a savegame feature. It's MY singleplayer campaign playthrough and i should be able to play it as i like. Seeing as how track files and tacview record pretty much everything, i don't think its really a technical issue. There's a request in the wishlist section which i raised from 2017 Edited January 28, 2021 by Wait4It Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
draconus Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 32 minutes ago, Wait4It said: Seeing as how track files and tacview record pretty much everything, i don't think its really a technical issue. It is. You can stop anytime and save track. Then you can replay it (if it plays well) and take control at any moment but you can't fast forward it to the last moment beside making time scale faster which will probably break the track. Win10 i7-10700KF 32GB RTX3060 Rift S T16000M TWCS TFRP FC3 F-14A/B F-15E CA SC NTTR PG Syria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hreich Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 Ok...but then why don't you fix the track control so we can fast forward without issues? Why do you keep record track option active for 10+ years if you know it's broken? [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Pilot from Croatia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
draconus Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 21 minutes ago, hreich said: Ok...but then why don't you fix the track control so we can fast forward without issues? Why do you keep record track option active for 10+ years if you know it's broken? For the record, I'm not a dev nor ED stuff. They keep it because there's no better alternative done yet and the current one is still very helpful for the dev and bug hunting process. I'm just explaining how is it not so simple. The current track records only player(s) input (with some finite resolution) and mission sets at the start - all the calculations are then done again from the start during the replay which means simulation of AI, physics, guidance, randoms can end up all different from what really happened and then there are some different behaviors with different modules, accelerated time scale making it worse, no time stamps connected to any event and that all makes it impossible to use as a working save game feature. [I might be wrong on some parts not knowing how exactly it works] Win10 i7-10700KF 32GB RTX3060 Rift S T16000M TWCS TFRP FC3 F-14A/B F-15E CA SC NTTR PG Syria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hreich Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 Ok, you got me confused with DCS Ground crew part ... [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Pilot from Croatia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoobie Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 draconus is right. No use boring people to death, but basically "free save game" (at any point you want) is unlikely to come to DCS, not in a foreseeable future at least. Regardless of the fact how disputable or not it is in a simulation. It's a killer, not just "yet another feature" to implement. If they started building DCS (LOMAC and so on going back in time) with an idea of free save game feature and then kept it as their strictest development policy, or a "company religion", then yes - it could be possible. But at this time, with a few milion lines of code not prepared for it... naah, forget it. Of course they could go back to square one and destroy/rewrite a lot of things, but I don't think people would like to wait for 2 years until they finish and then another 3 years until they squash the whole river of bugs that this would inevitably bring. Most likely also all aircraft modules would have to be "rewritten" to work with the "save/load game" feature - ED, 3rd party, all of them. Besides, which company could afford such a "restart"? (Even if users were patient enough to wait for so long.) However, "save game on mission end" feature and "tuning" the next mission according to the result of the previous one (by means of code in a mission script written by a mission author) - this is doable and ED said themselves they were doing some preliminary experimentation towards it ("dynamic campaign"). Dynamic campaign is or should be something more than just "mission end save game", but the latter is required as the basis for it. So I think it's not a question of "if", but "when" Not soon, I think, but one day... Of course such file will most likely save only the list of units still alive or those killed (or a list of events), maybe something more, but definitely not the internal state of your aircraft (e.g. what was the current tendency in pitch due to your last trim inputs etc.), nor the inner state of the "AI actors" etc. Still, it's better than nothing! i7-8700K 32GB 2060(6GB) 27"@1080p TM Hawg HOTAS TPR TIR5 SD-XL 2xSD+ HC Bravo button/pot box Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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