In this tutorial, we will integrate Ka-50 autopilot channel switches with MATRIC so that their state reflects the game state and vice-versa. Although this post might look really long, the procedure itself is not complicated, basically you will change one "false" to "true" and do two copy & paste actions.
Additional info is given in dashed frames.
1.1 Open the config file
We will edit MATRIC configuration file which is in your Documents folder (C:\Users\<your username >\Documents\.matric\config.json).
Open the file in thext editor (like notepad or even better
Notepad++)
1.2 Enable integration API
Change the line
"EnableIntegrationAPI": false
to
"EnableIntegrationAPI": true
1.3 Grant the permission to our DCS script
In order for MATRIC to obey our commands, we will have to do another small hack, we will add a permission in config.json like so:
{
"AuthorizedClients": [
{
"Name": "Galaxy A70",
"IP": "192.168.1.28",
"Id": "ivUP0l+n06oCAR6XYzZPdclCSURAVjGSyv27b42aT+o=",
"MatricVersion": 2,
"LastContact": "2019-10-15T17:40:35.5818578+02:00"
}
],
"AuthorizedApps": [
{
"appName": "MATRIC4DCS",
"appPIN": "9087"
}
],
"LastOpenedDeckId": "medium sized gibberish",
"ApiKey": "medium sized gibberish",
"MatricWebToken": "some really long gibberish",
"Author": "The MATRIC Team",
"LastReadMessageId": 1,
"EnableIntegrationAPI": true
}
1.4 Get the device id we want to use in the demo
If you have already connected to MATRIC with your Android device, you will find something similar to this (if not, then connect at least once):
"AuthorizedClients": [
{
"Name": "Galaxy A70",
"IP": "192.168.1.28",
"Id": "ivUP0l+n06oCAR6XYzZPdclCSURAVjGSyv27b42aT+o=",
"MatricVersion": 2,
"LastContact": "2019-10-15T17:40:35.5818578+02:00"
},
...
We will need this Id in the next step as we will use this Id to tell MATRIC we want to integrate with this particular device.
1.5 Save config and restart MATRIC
Save the config and restart MATRIC (right click on tray icon, choose "Quit" and the start it again)
2. The DCS side of things
DCS allows you to add code which can read the game data and do something with it. It is done by writing an export script in
LUA language.
It is simple, I learned enough of it in an hour to create this proof of concept (and I'm no coding ninja).
2.1 matricka50.lua
Copy the
matricka50.lua to your C:\Users\<your username >\Saved Games\DCS\Scripts", open it in notepad and modify the line
MATRIC.clientId = "some gibberish"
You need to paste the Id from the step 1.4 between the "". In our example the Id was ivUP0l+n06oCAR6XYzZPdclCSURAVjGSyv27b42aT+o=
Save matricka50.lua
2.2 Export.lua
This is a script you already have, it gets executed when DCS runs it can also be found in "C:\Users\<your username >\Saved Games\DCS\Scripts". We will just need to add a single line at the end and save it:
dofile(lfs.writedir()..[[Scripts\matricka50.lua]])
Wrapping it up
Start DCS, open the Ka-50 deck on your smartphone and ADI channel buttons should work like in this video