Screen Export

DCS offers exporting and arranging in-game screens on multi-monitor setups. For example displaying the content of the DSCG screen on a second monitor.

(Setup with RWR exported to a small monitor)

This allows for making great setups, in particular when owning some smaller extra monitors; and is especially useful for SimPit builders.

DCS interface for this expects users to define what is called a Viewport. The F-4E currently supports this feature for the following screens:

💡 The DSCG screen of the cockpit the player is currently not sitting in will not render any content.

In order to work, the DSCG screens currently require also exporting the viewport F4E_Dscg_Tv, a width and height of 1 pixel suffices though.

🚧 Support for other screens is in development:

• F4E_Cameras_AvtrTimeIndicatorPilot
• F4E_Cameras_AvtrTimeIndicatorWso
• F4E_EoTgtDesignatorSystem_BitDisplay
• F4E_EoTgtDesignatorSystem_RangeIndicator
• F4E_UhfRadio_FrequencyChannelIndicator

Of special interest are also programs such as Helios which simplify the entire process and lets users create even complex setups with ease.

Viewport

In order to make use of the feature, players can define a special file in their Saved Games MonitorSetup folder for DCS, for example:

C:\Users\John Doe\Saved Games\DCS\Config\MonitorSetup\

Such a file would for example be called MySetup.lua and look similar to this:

_ = function(p)
  return p
end

name = _("MySetup")
Description = "This is my setup"

Viewports = {
  Center = {
    x = 0,
    y = 0,
    width = 3840,
    height = 2160,
    viewDx = 0,
    viewDy = 0,
    aspect = 3840 / 2160
  }
}

GU_MAIN_VIEWPORT = {
  x = 0,
  y = 0,
  width = 3840,
  height = 2160
}

UIMainView = {
  x = 0,
  y = 0,
  width = 3840,
  height = 2160
}

function reconfigure_for_unit(unit_type)
  if unit_type == "F-14A-135-GR" or unit_type == "F-14B" then
    F14_VDI = {
      x = 1016,
      y = 1450,
      width = 525,
      height = 525
    }

    F14_HSD = {
      x = 1016,
      y = 1985,
      width = 525,
      height = 525
    }
  elseif unit_type == "M-2000C" then
    RIGHT_MFCD = {
      x = 879,
      y = 1580,
      width = 800,
      height = 800
    }
  elseif unit_type == "F-4E-45MC" then
    F4E_Dscg_Pilot = {
      x = 3840,
      y = 2160 - 1527,
      width = 300,
      height = 300
    }
    F4E_Dscg_Wso = {
      x = 3840 + 300,
      y = 2160 - 1527,
      width = 300,
      height = 300
    }
    F4E_HeadUpDisplay = {
      x = 3840 + 300 + 300,
      y = 2160 - 1527,
      width = 300,
      height = 300
    }
    F4E_Rwr = {
      x = 3840 + 300 + 300 + 300,
      y = 2160 - 1527,
      width = 300,
      height = 300
    }

    F4E_Dscg_Tv = {
      x = 3840,
      y = 2160 - 1527 + 300,
      width = 1,
      height = 1
    }
  else
    LEFT_MFCD = {
      x = 3840,
      y = 2160 - 1527,
      width = 700,
      height = 700
    }

    RIGHT_MFCD = {
      x = 3840 + 700,
      y = 2160 - 1527,
      width = 700,
      height = 700
    }
  end
end

Once created, this setup will now appear within DCS for selection in the graphics settings:

The way the setup works is that you first sum up the resolution of all monitors that you want to use combined. This will be the target resolution to render DCS at. The example uses two monitors, one at a 3840x2160 resolution and the other at 2715x1527, combined that makes a virtual monitor resolution of 6555x2160.

The exact arrangement is defined in the Windows Display Settings:

In the setup-file, one has to now define several viewports for DCS. This tells the game where on the virtual monitor to render which scene. The format looks as follows:

NAME_OF_THE_VIEWPORT = {
  x = ..., -- x-coordinate of top left corner, in pixels
  y = ..., -- y-coordinate of top left corner, in pixels
  width = ..., -- width to use for the scene, in pixels
  height = ... -- height to use for the scene, in pixels
}

The main scenery of DCS is defined and placed on the virtual monitor through the following viewports:

Viewports = {
  Center = {
    x = 0,
    y = 0,
    width = 3840,
    height = 2160,
    viewDx = 0,
    viewDy = 0,
    aspect = 3840 / 2160
  }
}

GU_MAIN_VIEWPORT = {
  x = 0,
  y = 0,
  width = 3840,
  height = 2160
}

UIMainView = {
  x = 0,
  y = 0,
  width = 3840,
  height = 2160
}

In the example setup this will render the main scenery of the game on the 3840x2160 monitor arranged on the left.

The following section in the file lets you define custom viewports per aircraft type:

function reconfigure_for_unit(unit_type)
  if unit_type == "F-14A-135-GR" or unit_type == "F-14B" then
    ...
  elseif unit_type == "M-2000C" then
    ...
  elseif unit_type == "F-4E-45MC" then
    ...
  else
    ... -- any other aircraft
  end
end

Within this construct one can now declare custom viewports, for example

F4E_Dscg_Pilot = {
  x = 3840,
  y = 2160 - 1527,
  width = 300,
  height = 300
}

will place the DSCG screen on the second monitor as follows:

Modding

Viewports, once defined by users in their monitor setups, are then picked up by the modules code in the respective Indicator-lua-files, which can be found for example in:

C:\Programs\DCS\Mods\aircraft\F-4E\Cockpit\Scripts

As an example, the HUD declares at the end of Scripts\HeadUpDisplay\Indicator\init.lua the following two lines

dofile(LockOn_Options.common_script_path .. "ViewportHandling.lua")
try_find_assigned_viewport("F4E_HeadUpDisplay")

which will try to see if the user created a viewport called F4E_HeadUpDisplay and if so, render the scene there.

Modders can follow this approach to easily create new viewports in modules that do not officially support them yet.