DCS Liberation Tutorials | Video 4 - Server Setup and Running Our Mission

[@DolphVS]

I would love some tutorial that explains what the important things in-game are - setting up coms, dl, how to manage time for getting the TOT right ( also to get this right in planning for coordinated stuff), perhaps how to fly with other units (getting escorted etc.). Would love it! A whole playthrough (or 5-ish rounds) with some explanations and the flights would be great to get an overview on how to do things right!

[@m.chimiste]

I’ve not made any content in a while, but I think I can do this.

[@m.chimiste]

Probably good to get back on the horse

[@DolphVS]

@@m.chimiste I would love it!

[@matswane]

Great video! Thanks for sharing. What exactly is the loop-back you were referring to before loading in? How did you get two listed servers in DCS in this example?

[@m.chimiste]

Loopback IP is just the routing of the signal back to the source. Loopback is a reserved IP range between 127.0.0.0 through 127.255.255.255. What you see me connecting to is called “local host” which is typically 127.0.0.1. This is all very fancy IT networking speak for me just connecting back to myself without potentially traversing the internet. This is preferred as it’s (typically) faster in terms of latency. The reason you see two servers is because I have the ports open on my actual IP address to allow external clients to connect to my server. This is because I play co-op with some folks from time to time. DCS is seeing both the external IP and my loopback. If you only see one it might just be the loopback if you don’t have the appropriate ports open on your router.

[@rjhowlan]

Hi @M.Chimiste, great set of videos. I have a couple questions. 1) I fly with a squadron and we're going to be using this tool. Is there a way to specify the Roosevelt and specific radio frequencies for tankers and such? 2) I'm not sure what our attendance will be, is it better to apply pilot names or just make individual packages as players?

[@m.chimiste]

As for 1) To my knowledge I don’t think you can explicitly specify an aircraft carrier right now, but I did see it as a feature request. I’m also not aware of any way to explicitly set radio frequencies, but I can look into it. From a technical perspective it should be feasible, but I’m not aware of it being implemented yet. For 2) it doesn’t really matter. It’s nice to have the names so you don’t have to click the little checkbox for player, but you should be fine if you don’t use them you just have to be sure to set a player checkbox or else it’ll be controlled by AI.

[@rjhowlan]

@@m.chimiste, awesome. Thank you for the quick response. I look forward to more of your videos, especially on creating your own campaigns.

[@patrickwoolbright1960]

As always great video! Is it better to run it on a dedicated server, even with only using single player? I've been only running it locally.

[@m.chimiste]

Highly highly highly recommended dedicated server. You will get better performance. You basically are making DCS “multithreaded” in this way. Granted, it’s not actually multithreaded since you still only can utilize the single core, but you basically offload the heavy lifting to another core on your box versus the core you’re playing on with the client. It will let you run bigger missions as well with fewer hiccups. It’s not going to be as good as true multithreading, but it’s the best thing available right now.

[@patrickwoolbright1960]

@@m.chimiste Valid point. I was not even thinking of the core performance.

[@h0axy]

Great vid!! I have a problem tho, when I played without a dedicated everything was working fine but I switched to a dedicated server due to performance issues. When I played in the server, the AI didn't move at all and wasn't leaving the airfields. Know how to fix this? Thank you!

[@m.chimiste]

Check to see if the server is running the mission versus paused. Though I know that there are some issues with the game right now due to ED. Especially when you have a lot of units. It’s cause several servers to shut down temporarily. You can try additional culling if the server is indeed running the mission.

[@h0axy]

@@m.chimiste i previously had the culling at 150km but switching it up to 250km seemed to have done the job. Thank you for your knowledge!

[@h0axy]

@@m.chimiste one more thing, if I were to run the dedicated server in another machine, how could I do it? I would install the DCS dedicated server, but how would the mission file work to retrieve the results?

[@m.chimiste]

@h0axy you’d need to make sure that you update the scripting file, then look for a state.json file which would have the results.

[@peterkelberg6592]

Thx for the video got me up and running, one question how do you delete the posts in white on the left hand of the screen eg server connected, netual players removed or does it disappear after a time limit

[@m.chimiste]

Try left tab.

[@simfisch]

hey man. just wanted to ask if its possible in any way to get like one huge mission that runs continuesly that you can then join. like on servers like lets say hoggits "Georgia at War". is it possible that the server it self would innitiate the next phase? I hope you know what I mean by that lol any help is appreciated!

[@m.chimiste]

Presently the only way to do that would be by running those missions locally. Both retribution and liberation are turn based, but I’m with you. I’d love a real time persistent environment that evolves over time. Though I’ve personally found that over time these tend to degrade without very specific scripting.

[@simfisch]

@@m.chimiste oh ok I see. thanks for the information :D

[@deathman0111]

How do you guys manage to get this working ? Whenever a few planes are in the air, the server just freezes. All planes stand in the air etc. and I only notice once enemies won’t die from missile hits

[@m.chimiste]

Are you running it as a standalone server or just loading the mission on DCS client? Also, are you using multi-threading and have you looked into enabling culling of distant units? I’ve seen some bugs in past but it’s usually due to performance issues. I’d also recommend checking out DCS retribution which is installed the same as liberation and trying that out instead. I’ve found that it performs a bit better.

[@JayDKBGames]

Does the server need to be a beefy machine or can it be like a 2 yr old pentium based I7 processor based system.

[@m.chimiste]

Not necessarily beefy, you don’t technically need a separate machine. You can run it on the same machine as the client. In the tutorial I’m not using a separate machine since DCS can’t use all the cores on my machine all on its own. Though if you do run it on a separate machine keep in mind that you won’t have an internal IP loopback to connect to, it’ll be whatever that machine is assigned on your local network.

[@JayDKBGames]

@@m.chimiste Ok thanks, for clarity if its running on the same machine how does that make it more efficient? Is it with a server your forcing it to use separate cores of the CPU? I'm really gonna try this because I get crazy stutters and crashes using the Liberation appication. I can almost see it coming when I get MAD stutters then BOOM crash

[@m.chimiste]

This is what I call the poor man’s multithreading. It’ll offload a significant amount of processes to your dedicated server cores while allowing for your client to also use the other cores. Is it as good as properly multithreading your code base? No. Is it the best we have while waiting for ED to release proper multithreading? Yup. So you should see better fps performance even on the same machine.

[@jasonvandevander2579]

My only question is when other players join your server will they always see your IP address?

[@m.chimiste]

Yes, they will see your IP. Similar to if you join another multiplayer server. You can uncheck public and provide players your IP to add manually if you don’t want to be publicly available.

[@jasonvandevander2579]

@@m.chimiste maybe its time I set up a VPN.

[@m.chimiste]

@@jasonvandevander2579 You certainly can, but be aware that latency could be a problem.

[@jasonvandevander2579]

​@@m.chimiste Thanks for the fast reply and great video I will take a look into that issue and test it out.

[@4nt0n104]

Hi I wanted to ask you an info: I did exactly what you said, however when I make the server start with the retribution mission (retribution_nextturn.miz) it returns the following error: "Error starting server". If I instead start the server with any other mission the server works fine. How come? Thanks PS: I performed the instructions you gave in this video [ kzbin.info/www/bejne/q3WkXoCqm6yrqtUsi=As1j_ARaHTNcaYWT] but the error persists. I installed DCS 3 DCS SERVER on disk D.

[@m.chimiste]

Out of curiosity did you make sure the map you were using was installed? I know that not all the maps download by default. Feel free to pop into the retribution discord and we can take a look with you. Also there is a way to actually use the server without installing it using a bat file in your dcs bin folder. I’m going to make a video updating these instructions to do this instead since it’s more disk friendly (no need to install the dedicated server as a separate install).

[@NescherDestroy]

my friend can t join

[@m.chimiste]

You may need to look into setting up port forwarding on your router. I think I used a variation of this guide to do so. www.serveracademy.com/blog/how-to-host-a-dcs-server-full-step-by-step-guide/