Tacview – Understand what happened during your last flight! (alternative ACMI viewer)
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Absolutely! I’ve planned to completely rewrite my static objects system. I will create, in coming releases, a better format and will also provide a tool a bit like what you are describing. So you can easily add objects, debug them and display the ones you want.
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Absolutely! I’ve planned to completely rewrite my static objects system. I will create, in coming releases, a better format and will also provide a tool a bit like what you are describing. So you can easily add objects, debug them and display the ones you want.
AWESOME!!! :bowd::headb:
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Tacview 1.3.3 beta 1 is available to registered users!
In this version, I’m experimenting with some ways to reduce clutter and to make the battlefield easier to read than ever. This is just a small preview on what I’m currently working on for Tacview 2.0.
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Thanks to the help of Uri_ba, I was able to quickly add native support for DTC files in Tacview 1.3.3. This is currently in the testing phase. Stay tuned!
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Thanks Vyrtuoz, downloading
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It is the time to come back to the old thread: The accuracy of VHS playback in Tacview.
Before beginning, please note that we are not talking about the terrain here. I’m aware that sometimes, the terrain does not perfectly match the one visible in Falcon. And this investigation is for a later time. For now, the goal is to improve aircraft telemetry so we get a replay as accurate as the one we get using Falcon native ACMI viewer.
Now I’m working on Tacview 2.0 prototyping, I need your help to investigate any issues you can notice.
How can you help?
I need you to report here any inaccuracies you can notice compared to the official VHS file player in BMS 4.32. But please do not say “IAS is not accurate”. This is not helpful because I already know that there are telemetry inaccuracies.
We all need constructive data:
- Specify clearly what is not accurate: which data, which aircraft, and the exact time. List what value is displayed in Falcon 4.0 ACMI player and which value is visible in Tacview.
- Share me the corresponding original .VHS file (compressed in 7z if you want, but not saved as an .ACMI file from Tacview or that will void test). Specify which battlefield the VHS file is taking place in.
- Add any other relevant information to your feedback.
- It may be also interesting to compare the values visible in the cockpit while flying to the values visible in the official VHS file player.
I’m confident that eventually we’ll get the accurate replay we are all looking for! And, who knows, maybe we are going to help improving BMS too?
So, this is your turn now: call all your friends and shoot here!
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Hey Vrytruoz.
You might wanna contact Mav-Jp regards this. He can explain you in detail how the acmi data for BMS is produced.
The interpolation* lacks accuracy as far as i understand and needs improvement and as Tacview only converts BMS .vhs …the lack in accuracy is inherited.The data in the jet is the only true accurate data (AoA, Gs, speeds, etc etc), hence, an accurate source to get really good data would be to get the in-cockpit data via “shared memory” access, but the problem here is to get this data from all clients in multiplayer and to combine the telemetry to one result shown in every clients amci in the same way.
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I must be doing something wrong , since I cannot get the TrackIR working in the latest version and the latest beta. Anyone with same problem ?
Have tried hud view and other views, but for some reason it just does not worky -
Hey Vyrtuoz,
With Tacview 1.3.x, sadly, performance on my laptop is slideshow-bad (even with just 1 aircraft in the TE) and as ACMI’s saved in 1.3.x are not compatible with 1.2.x, I can’t really review our squadron flights anymore.
Would it be possible to look into this? My personal best guess would be that the problem lies with the rendering of the entire globe instead of just the mission theater, though I could obviously be very wrong.
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Hey Vyrtuoz,
With Tacview 1.3.x, sadly, performance on my laptop is slideshow-bad (even with just 1 aircraft in the TE) and as ACMI’s saved in 1.3.x are not compatible with 1.2.x, I can’t really review our squadron flights anymore.
Would it be possible to look into this? My personal best guess would be that the problem lies with the rendering of the entire globe instead of just the mission theater, though I could obviously be very wrong.
Have you tried enabling “Flat Terrain” option?
It improves framerate, but of course in cost of no ground volumes display. -
Have you tried enabling “Flat Terrain” option?
It improves framerate, but of course in cost of no ground volumes display.Unfortunately enabling flat terrain does not help enough. I have exactly the same problem as Eagle-Eye on my laptop. As such, I switched back to 1.2.8 version which does not have the global strategic view at all and which still works flawlessly while not having all the latest features. I would also guess that rendering the global terrain slows the program down.
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Have you tried enabling “Flat Terrain” option?
It improves framerate, but of course in cost of no ground volumes display.Hadn’t thought of trying that up till now, no, but unfortunately, I still get no more than 2 FPS. Thanks for the suggestion, though.
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Indeed, the major difference between v1.2 and v1.3 is the new terrain engine. I’ve done some benchmarks and the new terrain engine may be up to 5 times slower than the older terrain engine. On modern configurations this is hardly noticeable (250 fps down to 50 fps), but on older computers, this may be too slow.
Enabling flat terrain cannot improve performance since it displays exactly the same amount of triangles and textures. It may seem faster at first, during terrain reloading, but the performances should be identical with or without the flat terrain.
With some samples, I’m going to see if I can improve the performances or add an option to downgrade the maximum terrain quality to match the one we have with the old terrain engine.
Can those who have performances issues share their dxdiag information log and tell me which version or Tacview is used (32-bit or the 64-bit)?
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Thanks for the reply!
I’ve done a quick test, and it looks like that BMS is exporting data at about 2 Hz. This is an average frequency for telemetry data and it should give us accurate enough readings. Also, Tacview is interpolating data automatically. We would get a lot of stutter if Tacview was not interpolating
I’ve checked again data exposed through shared memory, and putting aside problems already discussed, the most basic and important information is missing: time. Without a time field, there is no way for an external data recording program to known when things are happening… Impossible to know the base time is one thing, not knowing anything about time passing is another one! Having the time in single player is important (player can pause the game for example or stutter can generate micro pauses) and it is critical during network games (local time estimate is not an option in that case).
This is why I’m focusing on perfect VHS files support and correct formulas for now. Also as usual, Tacview file format is public and can be easily implemented directly in BMS to get the much better results than with VHS files.
Can you tell me if you are noticing important differences between the replay in Tacview and in Falcon ACMI viewer?
@A.S:
Hey Vrytruoz.
You might wanna contact Mav-Jp regards this. He can explain you in detail how the acmi data for BMS is produced.
The interpolation* lacks accuracy as far as i understand and needs improvement and as Tacview only converts BMS .vhs …the lack in accuracy is inherited.The data in the jet is the only true accurate data (AoA, Gs, speeds, etc etc), hence, an accurate source to get really good data would be to get the in-cockpit data via “shared memory” access, but the problem here is to get this data from all clients in multiplayer and to combine the telemetry to one result shown in every clients amci in the same way.
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This is why I’m focusing on perfect VHS files support and correct formulas for now. Also as usual, Tacview file format is public and can be easily implemented directly in BMS to get the much better results than with VHS files.
^^
Can you tell me if you are noticing important differences between the replay in Tacview and in Falcon ACMI viewer?
Haven´t had time to make sound testings yet, sorry.
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Tried the merge files feature today for the first time. I was unable to merge .vhs’s. I saved both as .acmi and then managed to merge them. It could use a clearer interface (which do you open first, etc.) and my jet over the merge break was two separate entries with the same name. It’s still a nice feature despite this.
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Yeah, the merge feature is experimental for now. This is a quick and “dirty” code, based on ten years old architecture… That’s why it is not always working as expected. You can try to merge by selecting multiple files with the “open…” command, this may give better results.
Don’t worry; in Tacview 2.0, I’m going to rewrite all of this from scratch and merging any kind of data at any time will be natural and always get perfect results.
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After so many years of wait, the (real) official Tacview website is at last online! Now you have a place to find all the answers to your questions, download links and a comprehensive documentation in a well presented, clear, and modern environment.
http://tacview.strasoftware.com
This is still a beta version: the updated technical documentation and French translation will follow in the coming days.
To celebrate, here is a new trailer made by Mirknir:
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CONGRATS Vyrtuoz!!!
:D:D:D