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What is this about ?

VEAF missions are stored as files in the src folder, alongside other files used to configure the scripts and tools.

To build the .miz file that DCS will load, it has to be compiled by running the build.cmd script. This process uses the files stored in src and the VEAF toolset to generate the .miz file.

Then, the mission can be loaded in DCS to be run or edited (and saved) in DCS mission editor. Warning: once the mission has been saved in the DCS mission editor, it's possible to run it locally for testing, but not to run it on a DCS server (a few things have to be changed).

The edited .miz mission file can be transformed back to files in the src folder by using the extract.cmd file. It will process the first .miz file it finds in the mission folder (the same folder where the extract.cmd script is stored), with a file name corresponding to the mission configured in this folder.

Schema

How to build a mission?

Prerequisites

You need a few things set up on your PC for these scripts to function.

• LUA : you need a working LUA interpreter, in your PATH, ready to be called with the lua command
• 7zip : you need 7zip, or another zip tool, in your PATH, ready to be called with the 7zip command
• Powershell : you need Powershell, and you need it to be configured to allow script execution (read this article) ; basically you need to run this command in an elevated (admin) Powershell prompt : Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope LocalMachine
• nodeJS : you need NodeJS to run the javascript programs in the VEAF mission creation tools ; see here
• yarn : you need the Yarn package manager to fetch and update the VEAF mission creation tools ; see here

WARNING : do not do both manual installation and Chocolatey installation

Using Chocolatey

The required tools can easily be installed using Chocolatey (see here).

WARNING : you cannot both follow the manual installation and Chocolatey installation procedures, you would install the tools twice !

To install Chocolatey, use this command in an elevated (admin) Powershell prompt : Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

After Chocolatey is installed, use these simple commands in a elevated (admin) command prompt to install the required tools :

• LUA : choco install -y lua
• 7zip : choco install -y 7zip.commandline
• nodeJS : choco install -y nodejs ; then close and reopen the elevated (admin) command prompt
• yarn : npm install -g yarn

You'll still need to configure Powershell for script execution (read this article) ; basically you need to run this command in an elevated (admin) Powershell prompt : Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope LocalMachine

WARNING : if you see a weird error about illegal characters, like in the screenshot below, you may have forgotten to run the Powershell elevation command (just above).

Manual installation

If you know what you're doing, or you despise chocolate (who would?) you can install the prerequisite tools manually.

Simply make sure all the tools listed above are functional before moving to the next point.

Build the mission

Building the mission from source is easy ; you simply have to run the build.cmd script. You don't even need to run it in a cmd window, double-clicking it will be ok.

The process will take all the files in the src folder, fetch the latest version of the VEAF Mission Creation Tools (from GitHub), and compile all of this in a ready-to-use mission for DCS (in a .miz file).

This file will be named after the mission (this is configured in the first line of the build.cmd script), and placed in the build folder.

Editing a compiled mission

After a mission has been compiled, copy it from the build folder to the main mission folder (the folder where extract.cmd and build.cmd are stored). Then, you can open it in the DCS Mission Editor and edit it (add/remove units, add triggers, change zones, etc.).

Also, you can edit the mission source files in parallel (using a text editor, I recommend Notepad++ or Visual Studio Code); specifically, you can edit :

• the mission configuration file src/scripts/missionConfig.lua, to setup the mission parameters ; this is the main file you'll edit.
• the radio presets file src/radio/radioSettings.lua, to setup the radio presets pushed to the aircrafts.
• the weather presets in src/weatherAndTime

If you edit one of these files, and because they're compiled into the mission .miz file, you'll have to rebuild your mission before you can test your editions in the game.

There's a way to easily test these changes : the first trigger has a LUA predicate, that conditions the scripts loading method. If set to false, the scripts are loading statically (i.e. they're loading from the mission) ; if set to true, the scripts will be loaded dynamically, so each time you restart the mission in DCS (Left-SHIFT + R) you can test whatever change you saved to the files.

Extract an edited version of the mission

Once a mission has been edited and saved in the DCS mission editor, you need to extract its content to the src folder, in order to reinject it later with the build script.

To do this, simply run the extract.cmd script. You don't even need to run it in a cmd window, double-clicking it will be ok.

This script will take any mission file starting with the mission name (configured in the beginning of the script), in the mission folder (the folder where extract.cmd and build.cmd are stored, not the build folder), extract its content, process them and store them in src.

Note: this script can (and will) display errors; some of them are normal, don't be afraid:

• Headers error, due to the fact that DCS is not writing .miz file in the standard zip format

WARNINGS:
Headers Error

• Cleanup error on a non existing file

deleting veafTransportMission.lua
deleting veafUnits.lua
The system cannot find the file specified.
The system cannot find the file specified.
The system cannot find the file specified.
The system cannot find the file specified.

Dynamic script loading

As was mentioned above, the mission framework allows for an easy switch between static and dynamic mission scripts. Static loading must always be used for the finalized version of your mission, while dynamic mode provides a quick and easy way to test and adjust scripts during the development process.

Building in dynamic mode

While it is possible to manually change the predicate of the MISSION START (choose - static or dynamic) trigger, as explained earlier, another method is to have a custom build.cmd that will build the mission in dynamic mode. The extract/build loop then stays the same, with the added possibility to build in dynamic or static mode depending on the build command used.

To do that, create a command file in the mission folder, next to build.cmd. You can name it for example build-dynamic.cmd.

set DYNAMIC_LOAD_SCRIPTS=true
set MISSION_FILE_SUFFIX1=dynamic
call build.cmd

• DYNAMIC_LOAD_SCRIPTS will tell the command to build the mission in dynamic mode.
• MISSION_FILE_SUFFIX1 is optional but recommended to be able to identify dynamic missions by their name.

Dynamic config loader

In the src/scripts folder you will find the following file: veafDynamicConfig.lua. This is the only script that the MISSION START (choose - static or dynamic) trigger will execute in dynamic mode.

By default, this script will only load and execute the missionConfig.lua script. But if your mission logic requires it, you can amend it to load more scripts. These additional scripts can be loaded before missionConfig.lua (for general dependencies that will be needed by the subsequent scripts) or after (for mission logic that will need the veaf scripts loaded by missionConfig.lua).

All the additional lua scripts will have to be present in the src/scripts folder. Do note that to have these scripts loaded in static mode as well, you will need to modify the MISSION START (mission config - static) and add one action for each file to load, in the right order.

For the dynamic loading, only the scriptsToLoad table will have to be modified in veafDynamicConfig.lua.

Example:

local scriptsToLoad =
{
    -- load BEFORE missionConfig.lua
    "Moose.lua",
    "FgTools.lua",
    "FgWeather.lua",    
    "FgCsg2.lua",
    -- missionConfig.lua
    "missionConfig.lua",
    -- load AFTER missionConfig.lua
    "FgMission.lua"
}

Advanced settings

Setting the location of the 7zip executable

If your 7zip tool is not in your PATH, you can set its location in the SEVENZIP environment variable. It's a string which should point to the 7za executable (e.g. c:\tools\7zip\bin\7zip.exe)

Setting the location of the LUA executable

In the same way, you can set its location of the LUA executable in the LUA environment variable. It's a string which should point to the lua executable (e.g. c:\tools\lua\bin\lua.exe)

Skip the pauses

If you set the NOPAUSE environment variable to "true", then the pauses in the script will not be marked.

Build in dynamic mode

To build the mission in dynamic mode, set DYNAMIC_LOAD_SCRIPTS=true

How to use this - graphic version