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Please make the track files more reliable and usable.


snodden

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Mission report: (MP server SoW, Normandy Map, Real date 11th of June 2021, DCS 2.7.1.7139)
Shot down a B17 bomber somewhere over Saint-Pierre-du-Mont but also took hits in the radiator of my Bf109. Engine quickly got cooked and it got worse when a P47 decided to chase me all the way to the ground from 7000m. Little did he know that today I had my chicken dinner waiting. I manged to escape into the low level clouds and hang in there while keeping a west heading with my dying engine. (Thanks for the new clouds ED they make this game much more exiting.) Out of the clouds I stayed on heading and for Lessey. With 1-1.05ata I managed to limp my broken bird at 300kph in a shallow glide for 25-30km. Engine died 500m before Lessey rwy 24 and I just had enough speed to make it all the way to the threshold for a wobbly landing. I rolled to a stand still and I could start breathing again.

After this escape and nail biting limp home I wanted to check the track file and replay my stoic flight where I saved the aircraft and lived to fight another day.
 

However, to my surprise the DCS multiplayer track file decided it had a different story to tell. According to the DCS track file I was the loser that could not fly straight. I was the dude that gave up and took my Bf109 into the ground in a hard crash. Some people may prefer the DCS version of the story. Myself, I just wish that someday DCS and I could agree on telling my version of the story because that is what really happened.
 
Please make the track files more reliable and usable.

 

Thanks for a great game (but there is always room for improvement)
/Snodden
aka Ateball

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I get that the track files are basic in nature (can only be played in one direction and only work at single speed), and seem to have a lot of issues.

 

I also understand that there is no direct financial incentive for ED to invest a lot of time into fixing this, given that the track files are part of the free foundation of DCS.

 

I don't think I'd be alone in suggesting that if DCS were to make a new payware module that included a reliable track file, that could be fast forwarded, rewinded, etc (even if it was in 5 min increments if it couldn't be fluid) - I'd be willing to pay for such a module! 

 

There are some incredible cinematic video's out on the internet using DCS and I can't help but think how many more there could be, and how many more would have the incentive to create them if making them was easier with DCS.

 

 


Edited by Dangerzone
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On 6/11/2021 at 2:19 AM, Dangerzone said:

I also understand that there is no direct financial incentive for ED to invest a lot of time into fixing this, given that the track files are part of the free foundation of DCS.

 

If it made it possible for idiots like me to produce good quality videos then I would certainly be happy to see a proper track file player sold as an add-on module. I'd definitely drop some cash on that. (Assuming, of course, that they can iron out the kinks that currently plague the track files as described in Snodden's original post.)

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On 6/11/2021 at 2:19 AM, Dangerzone said:

 

 

I also understand that there is no direct financial incentive for ED to invest a lot of time into fixing this, given that the track files are part of the free foundation of DCS.

 

I don't think I'd be alone in suggesting that if DCS were to make a new payware module that included a reliable track file, that could be fast forwarded, rewinded, etc (even if it was in 5 min increments if it couldn't be fluid) - I'd be willing to pay for such a module! 

 

 

 

 

 

The issue is, that ED uses tracks for debugging so there is infact, a monetary incentive to fixing them, as they are hilariously unreliable at the moment. Meaning I could send a track of a flight where I encountered a bug or strange behaviour and it might not appear in the track or might appear 50%. As tracks only seem to account for inputs and so the longer the flight the more the SNR increases. This is why in some tracks, you crash when you actually pulled out of a dive etc etc. 
So if ED insists on only taking tracks as debugging tools, they should be made reliable.

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As a sort of middle-ground to repairing the entire trackfile system, perhaps there might be some way of giving us the ability to import data from TACView files to replay within DCS? While I appreciate that none of the cockpit switches, displays or sensors are stored in TACView files, the basic flight and weapon parameters seems to be reliable, and would enable video creators to capture the multiple external shots even if the internal trackfile became corrupted.

 

Probably never happen, but it's something to hope for if the internal system can't be corrected.

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