Dumb Question #213c - Testing a Mission

[jollyjack]

After messing around and figuring out how to use especially MCUs in the FMB, it gets annoying to load a mission a few times for testing it in the game, find out things not working, back to editing in the FMB, and the same thing over and over again. Isn't there a workaround? The profi mission builders must have figured out something.

Working in separated groups f.i.?

 

Example: i am having issues which occur at the end of a mission, and it annoys me quite a bit that you have to play it through from start 'till the end for testing. In this case around a train ride for about 30 minutes, and even using 8x speed makes it still a long time to check matters over and over again. There's no workaround possible for that i presume, like starting a mission halfway through?

Edited October 28, 2019 by jollyjack
correction

[Gambit21]

6 hours ago, jollyjack said:

After messing around and figuring out how to use especially MCUs in the FMB, it gets annoying to load a mission a few times for testing it in the game, find out things not working, back to editing in the FMB, and the same thing over and over again. Isn't there a workaround? The profi mission builders must have figured out something.

Working in separated groups f.i.?

 

Example: i am having issues which occur at the end of a mission, and it annoys me quite a bit that you have to play it through from start 'till the end for testing. In this case around a train ride for about 30 minutes, and even using 8x speed makes it still a long time to check matters over and over again. There's no workaround possible for that i presume, like starting a mission halfway through?

 

I use a separate test flight that I place and enable/disable as needed. 

That way I don't have to test the whole mission every time.

 

You need to pipe in all necessary logic to the test flight, this means waypoints, attack MCU's, Force Complete MCU's etc.

 

Be advised that the test flight will trigger your primary flight to take off early, and trigger other logic (like sound files, subtitles etc) that you will have to ignore/remember why they're going off early etc.

Edited October 29, 2019 by Gambit21

[Gambit21]

 

Also, use Subtitle MCU's to debug your logic, so you get a message and know if this or that logic is firing or not.

Name them all the same, like "DEBUG", that way you can do a search later and delete them all.

[jollyjack]

5 hours ago, Gambit21 said:

 

I use a separate test flight that I place and enable/disable as needed. 

That way I don't have to test the whole mission every time.

 

 

You mean organized in a saved group, for editing separately and for later import?

Or a 'separate" computer with the game on standby, as i understand you cannot run IL2 GB and the editor at the same time.

 

[Gambit21]

1 minute ago, jollyjack said:

 

You mean organized in a saved group, for editing separately and for later import?

Or a 'separate" computer with the game on standby, as i understand you cannot run IL2 GB and the editor at the same time.

 

 

I mean a separate, air start flight near the target, or area I want to test (assuming I'm testing something activated by the player or other flight)

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

16 minutes ago, jollyjack said:

Or a 'separate" computer with the game on standby, as i understand you cannot run IL2 GB and the editor at the same time.

 

I've actually wondered about the technical reason for forbidding simultaneous editor and game operation, but I've never had a chance to test it.

 

If I were to set up two computers (or VMs or whatever) with access to a shared folder, could I edit the mission without restarting the game?

 

Perhaps there is some sort of caching that would prevent this from working correctly.

[jollyjack]

32 minutes ago, Gambit21 said:

 

I mean a separate, air start flight near the target, or area I want to test (assuming I'm testing something activated by the player or other flight)

 

Ah, that is a very good idea it seems.

 

I got a quite long (Entente) Arras train trip now, started by Jim BTW, and got a few things happening down the road.

Now i want to get a ww1 plane to cover and follow the train covering it, but the bugger (a Bristol) keeps cycling after the 2nd waypoint. Im trying to figure that out.

Once that works i'll get some enemy flies buzzing into the fun, but i can guess ww2 flak on the train will be too much for a ww2 plane.

 

Arras is a nice map, but that no-mans land without ground troops is very unnatural IMO. I would welcome an Arras map with the country side still intact, thus before the ground war 'destruction' already being there.

===================================================================================

 

14 minutes ago, Mitthrawnuruodo said:

 

I've actually wondered about the technical reason for forbidding simultaneous editor and game operation, but I've never had a chance to test it.

 

If I were to set up two computers (or VMs or whatever) with access to a shared folder, could I edit the mission without restarting the game?

 

Perhaps there is some sort of caching that would prevent this from working correctly.

 

It works like that in Cliffs of Dover Blitz ...

 

Edited October 29, 2019 by jollyjack
paste in a quote ...

[No601_Swallow]

3 hours ago, Mitthrawnuruodo said:

 

I've actually wondered about the technical reason for forbidding simultaneous editor and game operation, but I've never had a chance to test it.

 

If I were to set up two computers (or VMs or whatever) with access to a shared folder, could I edit the mission without restarting the game?

 

 

I read (somewhere - I can't remember where, of course) that this is exactly what veteran Rise of Flight mission builders did/do. They'd have the ME running on a second PC and resave the mssion onto a USB stick or similar and then plug it into their primary PC for testing in-game. Obviously, though, it'd be great if the devs could find a way to allow us to keep the ME open when running the mission.

 

For testing, as Gambit said, Subtitle MCUs are the way to go. Also, often it's not too difficult to copy the logic you want to test and paste it into a new otherwise empty mission to test.

 

Ah, testing. Think of it as extreme sports for the brain....

Edited October 29, 2019 by No601_Swallow

[jollyjack]

20 hours ago, No601_Swallow said:

Ah, testing. Think of it as extreme sports for the brain....

 

That's exactly why i bought IL2; this FMB protects you from getting Alzheimer. Alas for 1C they found another medicine against it ...

[Alonzo]

Edit mission until mostly complete or you want to test it. Quit editor, load game. Load mission. Start and pause mission. Load editor, ignore warning about running at same time as game. Go back to game, unpause, test. If problem, switch to editor. Update logic (do not update object placement). Save mission and copy to live missions folder. Alt tab to game. Escape. Reload mission. Re-test. Repeat ad nauseum.

 

Mostly works although sometimes you get graphical glitches.

[Gambit21]

For the relatively small amount of time that saves I’d just as soon not risk it.

[Habu]

i agree with Gambit.

[Jaegermeister]

I also use an AI plane spawned at the target area on mission start and linked to vehicles, artillery, etc. to check the logic and make sure they are working correctly. When the player flight shows up on target I already know what the ground units will do. After testing, I just delete the AI plane and the links go away too. That way I don’t have to fly to the target area to spawn ground units and I can test multiple things at the same time. It is saved as a group to import.

 

I keep a legal pad handy and as I run through a mission to test it, I pause and make notes of the things that need to be fixed and then go back and address multiple items at the same time, not just 1 or 2.

[Gambit21]

1 hour ago, Jaegermeister said:

 

I keep a legal pad handy and as I run through a mission to test it, I pause and make notes of the things that need to be fixed and then go back and address multiple items at the same time, not just 1 or 2.

 

Yep, me too.

[jollyjack]

Figured that out already, was even thinking of exchanging my 8 years old tablet for a simple laptop  ..

BTW does at least the editor run on a surface pro? Soon the Black Friday sales period comes pestering us.

[Alonzo]

On 10/30/2019 at 10:35 PM, Gambit21 said:

For the relatively small amount of time that saves I’d just as soon not risk it.

 

On 10/31/2019 at 7:39 PM, Habu said:

i agree with Gambit.

Depends what you’re doing. AI is super fiddly and might need several tries to get right, and a minutes-long quit-game, loaf ME, load mission, edit, save mission, quit editor, load game load mission cycle is super painful. This works reliably for me when doing an edit that requires in-game confirmation and quick cycles.

[Gambit21]

2 minutes ago, Alonzo said:

 

Depends what you’re doing. AI is super fiddly and might need several tries to get right, and a minutes-long quit-game, loaf ME, load mission, edit, save mission, quit editor, load game load mission cycle is super painful. 

 

Oh I get it, trust me - that’s me every night.

 

That said I get corrupted saves now and then doing it the normal way as it is.