Thanks for this Ettico!
What does a guy need to get this up and running? Latest version of DCG and AirBoss? What should we read to get smart about setting it up? Readmes of both progs - any other good tutorials, etc. out there you'd recommend? I messed around with DCG and Airboss some years ago, but wasn't very successful.
Finally after 12 years of flying, my CFS2 world is just about how I want it - planes, ships, airfields, scenerey, objects and weather are all dialed in so nicely. But there can never be too many missions and campaigns to put all of these things through their paces.
Hi Ghostrider,
I provided links to the latest version of DCG and to Lowengrin's DCG tutorial in the AIRBOSS_64 tutorial. Lowengrin's tutorial does a good job of outlining the basics. However:
There is no definitive DCG tutorial (that I know of) which details (all) the quirks and tricks of DCG. DCG is a beta program which never got out of the beta stage. The purpose of AIRBOSS is fo find and fix a few bugs that turn up occasionally, and add some elements to the missions. My previous uploads of DCG campaigns and earlier versions of AIRBOSS have included lots of tips, tricks, and advice, which could be compiled into a tutorial of sorts. I suppose I could gather up all my README files and compile them into something like a "tips and tricks" tutorial.
There isn't a lot of expertise necessary to simply fly existing DCG campaigns. That's mostly a matter of having DCG generate missions and you flying them. Doing the same thing with AIRBOSS supplementation is just a matter of having a couple of AIRBOSS shortcuts on your desktop and clicking on them in the correct order.
The complicated part is building your own DCG campaigns. Doing this successfully requires precise, syntax-error-free text file editing - after you've learned what to put in the text files you're editing. Essentially, you have to know the exact structure of all the DCG text files, and understand what the files tell DCG. That's the easy part. The worst part is that any deviation in the standard text file structure will cause an error condition which is often difficult to track down, which means it's best to work in a way that avoids such errors in the first place. Slow and steady wins the race.
So there's a learning process involved, just as in building missions and campaigns the normal way with the mission builder. The biggest difference is that the mission builder is a far more user-friendly environment than DCG's text file editing requirements.
When building a DCG campaign, you don't build missions at all. DCG builds all the missions, in real time, while you are flying the campaign. The closest you get to building a mission is using the mission builder to set up campaign infrastructure and task force routes to be imported into DCG text files. The DCG campaign text files provide DCG with the parameters of the campaign - essentially an order of battle. DCG then uses this info to design contextual missions as the campaign progresses. And, of course, the campaign parameters change as the campaign progresses, as air crews, ships, and infrastructure are destroyed.
As for myself, I can say that my DCG campaigns are usually put together faster than I could build a complex single mission, and usually run the first time I try them. But I assure you, it hasn't always been that way. It took a good deal of practice, trial, and error for me to get to that point. Our friend Talon seemed to have better luck in his initial attempts. It was a piece of cake for him. Some people, I suppose, have that systematic approach to things that works well in building DCG campaigns. I"m not one of them though. :isadizzy:
