FlightDeck

What does FlightDeck do?

FlightDeck aims to do a variety of tasks that a virtual pilot would be encouraged to do outside of DCS. Some of these tasks include:

• Keeping DCS updated
  • FlightDeck will automatically check and prompt for update when a new update becomes available
• Toggling whether VR is used or not
• Common optimization strategies to DCS itself to give you a few additional FPS
• Managing kneeboards
  • FlightDeck allows you to drag-n-drop kneeboards from the web, your desktop, or other popular applications like Discord directly into your aircraft
  • FlightDeck allows you to reorder your kneeboards and how they appear in your aircraft
  • FlightDeck allows you to remove unused or unwanted kneeboards from your aircraft
• Changing any DCS setting that would require a restart
  • Any DCS setting that would force a restart has now been moved here and allows you to change those settings before launching the game thus removing the need to restart the game... since it hasn't been started yet.
• Cleaning and/or repairing DCS

Managing Kneeboards

Flying with a virtual squadron and constantly getting updated kneeboards for your missions? This should help...

❗ Important ❗

• If you cannot see any kneeboards that you expect to be there, please ensure your kneeboard path is Saved Games\DCS(DCS.openbeta)\Kneeboard
• Please backup both your OptionsPresets found in Saved Games\DCS(DCS.openbeta)\Config\OptionsPresets and your kneeboards

How to Install FlightDeck (Using the installer)

1. Navigate here
2. Download the FlightDeck-Installer.exe from the latest release
3. Run the installer and follow the installer's instructions

How to Install FlightDeck (Installing manually)

1. Navigate here
2. Download the FlightDeck.exe from the latest release
3. Put it wherever you like though note that to uninstall everything you will need to remove FlightDeck from your .APPDATA folder

OS Requirements

• Windows 10 or Windows 11

How does FlightDeck do optimization?

• Enabled/Disable Optimization on the 'Utility' tab
• FlightDeck will currently do 2 forms of optimization
  • Set Process Priority - High
    • This will also set your VR server (oculus, steamvr, virtualdesktop) to Process Priority - High
  • Set Core Affinity to disable Core 1
    • The ability for it to dynamically set Core Affinity is implemented but disabled for now until further testing can be done

FAQ

• I don't see my Flaming Cliffs aircraft in the Kneeboards tab?
  • Flaming Cliffs, unfortunately works a bit different than standalone modules and therefore will take some additional time to implement. I do plan to add the functionality.
• Why did you make this when ED said they were working on a launcher?
  • I have had this lying around for ~2 years. With the news of ED working on their own, it inspired me to prepare this for public release so that it wouldn't go to waste
• Why is FlightDeck not open-source?
  • I plan to open source the entire project after an inital grace period
• Why should I use the FlightDeck-Installer?
  • The FlightDeck is able to keep itself and the launcher updated automatically, but only if FlightDeck-Installer is used
  • FlightDeck needs to save your settings somewhere. FlightDeck-Installer will setup the folder for this
• My Installer keeps giving me errors when I try to install/update/uninstall
  • Please download the latest installer before creating an issue
• Why does FlightDeck-Installer require Administrator priviledges?
  • This is needed to be able to install any application into folders like Program-Files and Program-Files (x86)
  • I have open-sourced the FlightDeck-Installer to be transparent as to why this is needed

Continue the conversation

Feel free to post any problems or suggestions on the ED Forums

Issues

If you encounter specific issues, please create an issue here and include the following information

• FlightDeck Build
  • This can be found in the bottom left of the window
• Any error message provided by either your OS or FlightDeck itself
• The DCS version you are running
  • If you have already set your install location in FlightDeck, you can get from the top of the Home tab
• A detailed step-by-step walkthrough of what you did to encounter the issue

Coming Soon_^TM

• Add 'Addons' tab to allow users to start other applications when they launch DCS. Programs like SRS, VoiceAttack, etc.
• Prettify the 'Latest Changelog' section on the 'Home' tab
• Add the weekly newsletter to the 'Home' tab
• Optimization, additional error handling and logging
• Add ability for the kneeboards feature to work with Flaming Cliffs
• Application framework conversion to Tauri
  • This will require a full rewrite but should reduce the memory used by the application by 80%

For nerds

This application is built using ChatGPT and Avalonia. See https://avaloniaui.net/ for more details.