TacView and Tornado telemetry data

[Frankie]

This just in.

Imagine with me, if you will, an After-Action-Review aid in Tornado!

-and-

TacView is a Universal Flight Data Analysis tool which enables you to easily record, analyze and understand any flight to improve your skills much faster than with conventional debriefings. Read more here. Here is a

from r/hoggit

.

TacView's author, Vrytuous, said that it is "possible to insert some code to export telemetry data". For example, in the Tornado source code, "the main loop is in CONTROL.ASM and AI aircraft are updated in AIRCRAFT.ASM. The source code is clean and well documented. The challenge would be to find a clean way to convert Tornado flat X/Y coordinates in latitude/longitude." A generic routine could be written that would output telemetry data in TacView's native file format. This data write "could be called from many points of the Tornado code".

I am therefore looking for a passionate gamer dude, experienced in assembly code, who is ready to extend Tornado's features. Vrytuous will gladly provide his support so he or she can output Tacview ACMI files in a fast an easy way. Vrytuous has documented the data format here: http://tacview.strasoftware.com/documentation/acmi/
He claims that is very possible to output the Tornado telemetry data, even for custom code written in x86 assembly language code.

Imagine TacView running on telemetry data from the last flight sim in this list:
1. DCS World
2. Microsoft Flight Simulator X / Lockheed Martin® Prepar3D®
3. Falcon 4.0
4. Enemy Engaged – Comanche vs. Hokum
5. Digital Integration (1993) Tornado
Could happen.

Any takers?

Regards
Frankie Kam
Friday 1st July 2016

[Asid]

Great news Frankie.

Nice one Vrytuous.

I hope this will happen

[Speedwagon]

Fantastic idea Frankie, I would be all over this one. So much could be learned watching missions (especially multi-aircraft) unfold in a format like this!

Would TacView display actual terrain and ground objects from Tornado or use some sort of generic model?

[Frankie]

Hi Speedwagon
Good question. Considering that Tornado's terrain consists of flat-shaded polygons and is less detailed than later sims, it begs the question: how will the rendered terrain show up under TacView? Well it should be reflective of the terrain in Tornado since the game allows you to make use of hills and (not so steep) mountains to mask your ingress over the target area. Missing of course are deep valleys and other geological forms which are not represented in Tornado's 1990s graphics engine. So that is one for input from Vrytuous.
Cheers
Frankie Kam

[Speedwagon]

Frankie, if TacView is not able to display 3D terrain directly from Tornado perhaps the war zone maps could be used as the "ground" since they have x-y coordinates printed right on them. Granted this would not look as appealing but at least provide a way to stay oriented as a mission progresses. Just a thought.

[Frankie]

Hi SpeedWagon

Vyrtuoz said, in a message to me, that one should "probably convert the Tornado map data into SRTM3 map format" supported by Tacview. He pointed out the file MOVEMAP.ASM as containing code that interprets the Tornado map data. The challenge, though not too difficult he thinks, will be to "find a way to convert Tornado flat coordinates into latitude/longitude coordinates". Having said that, he says that "the most difficult and important part will be to start by exporting the main aircraft data". Once that is done, the rest (map data export) will be easier to understand and to do.

Regards
Frankie Kam