DCS User Manual EN.pdf

ED [DCS USER MANUAL]
The cockpit triggers utilized in ED Simulators allow a mission designer to create a wide
variety of triggers that evaluate the state of cockpit switches and instruments. This data
can be used to provide feedback and instruction to the player using text and voice
prompts, as well as 3D graphical highlights of cockpit elements.
Although cockpit triggers are considered a developer's tool, most of their functionality is
open to the player. There are some examples, however, which require the use of the ingame
console, which is disabled in public builds.
Cockpit triggers are utilized similarly for all DCS flyable aircraft. A number of aircraft
script files (.LUA) are used to obtain data used by the triggers. Each DCS aircraft
includes a collection of script files in its own dedicated folder, found in X:\Game
Directory\Scripts\Aircrafts. The specific .LUA files used by cockpit triggers will be
referenced below. To ease the workload of a mission designer working with cockpit
triggers, a cockpit arguments guide has been prepared for the A-10C cockpit and can be
found here: http://files.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/84654/
.LUA files should only be opened with a proper code editor, such as Notepad++. When
working with the scripts, the Search function [Ctrl +F] can be very helpful in locating the
desired sections of code.
CONDITIONS
COCKPIT ARGUMENT IN RANGE. The position of every cockpit control and
instrument is defined by a custom argument ID and valid value range. This trigger
checks for a set cockpit argument to be within a set value range. This is most often used
to evaluate switch and button states with discrete argument values (such as ‘0’ for off
and ‘1’ for on or in decimal values between 0 and 1 for multi-position switches).
However, it can also be used to evaluate the position of needle instruments, such as
airspeed or vertical velocity, etc.
Argument – sets the ID number of the cockpit argument to check. Clickable
cockpit functions (switches, buttons, knobs, etc.) are described in
Scripts\Aircrafts\Aircraft Name\Cockpit\clickabledata.lua. Non-clickable cockpit
arguments, such as instruments are described in Scripts\Aircrafts\Aircraft
Name\Cockpit\mainpanel_init.lua. The variable “arg” describes the argument ID.
The variable “arg_value” describes the increment of each movement of the
argument. The variable “arg_limit” describes the limits of the argument’s range
of movement.
MIN – sets the minimum value of the set argument, which will satisfy the
condition to execute the trigger. Valid value range is -1 to 1.
MAX – sets the maximum value of the set argument, which will satisfy the
condition to execute the trigger. Valid value range is -1 to 1.
Note, to successfully evaluate an argument, you may need to enter a MIN and MAX
range that is inclusive of the desired value. For example, when evaluating an argument
to equal to “0.5”, enter “0.49” for MIN and “0.51” for MAX.
90 DCS USER MANUAL