📲 DCS Code Injector

Don't worry, I'll change the name to something cool later 🌴🥥

Questions or concerns? Find me under the name coconutcockpit on my Discord server: https://discord.gg/jQbWJSK2cw

Find a video of an (older version) in action here: https://youtu.be/m2tGLFgLp8Y

🙋‍What is it?

It's a small program that you can run alongside DCS to influence a mission while it's running. I use it a lot to quickly try out scripting ideas without having to reload the mission all the time. It's a REPL (Read-Eval-Print-Loop) that I kind of based on Autodesk Maya's script editor.

Right now it's only designed to run in an active mission, but this might change in the future.

💾 How to download

You can grab a .zip file that contains an executable that should run on any Windows machine from the releases page here: https://github.com/nielsvaes/dcs_code_injector/releases

If you have Python installed on your computer, you can also find it on PyPi and pip install it with the following command:

pip install dcs-code-injector

It also makes an entry point to the application, so type dcs-code-injector to run it.

🪝 Add the hook

Find a file called dcs-code-injector-hook.lua in the Github repository or in the downloaded .zip archive. You need to copy this file into the Scripts/Hooks folder inside your Saved Games/DCS.openbeta or Saved Games/DCS folder. Remember where you put the SRS hook file? This one goes right next alongside it :)

✒️ Edit MissionScripting.lua

In the Scripts folder if your DCS install directory, there's a file called MissionScripting.lua. Comment out the lines that start with _G to make sure the hook can load everything it needs to:

MissionScripting.lua:

local function sanitizeModule(name)
	_G[name] = nil
	package.loaded[name] = nil
end

do
	sanitizeModule('os')
	sanitizeModule('io')
	sanitizeModule('lfs')
	--_G['require'] = nil
	--_G['loadlib'] = nil
	--_G['package'] = nil
end

🥇First time use

When you open the application for the first time, you need to tell it where your dcs.log file is saved. Browse to the file (it's in your Saved Games folder and then just close the Settings dialog to save the path. You will then be presented with the main window and the log panel. The log gets updated automatically while DCS is running, so it's easy to see if you're getting any errors or warnings when running code.

❓How to use

Press Ctrl-N to make a new tab. This will add a new UNNAMED tab. UNNAMED tabs are not saved on shutdown, so it's best to rename the tab if you want to keep the code around for later use. Double-click on the tab name to rename it. Anything you write in a tab is saved automatically.

Select a block of code and press Ctrl-Enter or Ctrl-Return to execute it. The code block will appear in the log panel and will be run inside the mission. Any errors in the code will show up as red in the log. If nothing is selected, all the code in the currrent active code tab will be executed

You can save code you run often to Favorite buttons. I use this to reload MOOSE for example, when I've made changes to it. To save a button, select the lines of code you want to save and drag them to the blank strip beneath the code panel and above the connection icon. Pick a name and click save. To delete a Favorite button, right click on it and click Delete.

Press Ctrl-F to open a search box in the Log view. The Cc toggles between case sensitive and insensitive search.

🗺️Future plans

REPL

• Better code highlighting
• Code completion
• Just a better all-round coding feel

Other parts

The REPL is actually just a small part of larger project I had in mind. Future plans include:

• Battlefield Commander Mode: This will show a map with all the units in the mission that you can manipulate in real time. In a limited testing mode I've used this to turn on SAM sites, spawn enemy fighters and things like that. I haven't really used LotATC, but I think it offers similar functionality.
• Integration with Standalone Servers
• Plugins
• and more!

🤙Contributing

I am not a hardcore coder or programmer, so if you are and want to lend a helping hand, GREAT! Fork the project and create a PR with your changes.

📖License

Licensed under GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE v3