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Player Guide

Quickstart for Multiplayer

  1. Set your in-game callsign to a simple callsign in the format Callsign 1 | yourname. (Note: That's a vertical bar (|), not the letter I.)
  2. Join a server that uses SRS and SkyEye.
  3. Get airborne.
  4. Tune to any of the server's SkyEye frequencies in SRS.
  5. Say "Anyface, Callsign 1, radio check" and see if the bot understands you.
  6. Say "Anyface, Callsign 1, picture" to be told about the highest priority threats to your coalition.
  7. Say "Anyface, Callsign 1, bogey" to get a bearing to the nearest threat to you.

⚠️ If the bot doesn't seem to respond to you

  • Double check you're saying "Anyface" or the GCI callsign at the start of your message. This is a surprisingly common mistake that players often don't realize they are making!
  • Ask another player for a radio check to ensure you are clearly audible.

⚠️ If the bot responds but doesn't seem to see you on scope

  • Double check that your in-game name matches the callsign you are providing to the bot.
  • If you joined shortly after the mission started, try returning to spectators and re-slotting, or disconnecting and reconnecting. It seems that joining a mission too soon may sometimes make you invisible in TacView.
  • If you haven't moved your aircraft for a few minutes, try again after moving slightly. Sometimes TacView stops sending position updates for a stationary object to reduce bandwidth usage, and the bot may not consider you to be visible as a result.
  • If your aircraft took slight damage at some point, try returning to spectators and re-slotting. You may have become invisible due to the game marking your plane as destroyed.

A Word of Warning

"Hello. DCS is full of bugs"

For various reasons, aircraft in DCS are sometimes marked as dead when they are still very much alive and dangerous. These "zombie" aircraft do not appear in exported data or even on the in-game F10 map, but can still shoot you down. Sometimes this happens to your aircraft, and you become invisible to many game systems and data exports!

GCI is only one source of data to help you build situational awareness. It must not be considered an all-seeing eye. It does not replace your onboard sensors and communication tools such as your eyeballs, radio and attack radar - it assists you.

"All software is garbage."

This bot is not particularly intelligent. It is good at counting enemy aircraft, and at computing angles and distances. However, it is very dumb at understanding the tactical or strategic situation. A human is always going to be better than the bot. I hope the bot can help fill in when a human controller is not available, but temper your expectations.

"Keep your stick on the ice."

This is a silly piece of software for a silly computer game. Don't take it too seriously. Remember to HAVE FUN!

Choosing Your Callsign

You need a callsign to use SkyEye. SkyEye will make its best effort to figure out your callsign from your in-game name, but it works best if you have a name like Mobius 1 | Reaper (MOBIUS ONE) or Hitman 11 | Monarch (HITMAN ONE ONE).

That is:

  1. A two or three syllable English word.
  2. One to three digits.
  3. A pipe character (|)
  4. Your non-callsign username.

Your callsign should be unique within a server. If multiple players have the same callsign, SkyEye will respond but you may receive inconsistent information. Note that callsigns are normalized in capitalization, numbers, and separation - "WARDOG 14", "Wardog 14", "wardog14" and "Wardog 1 4" are all considered to be the same callsign.

Numbers are pronounced individually - "Spare 15" is pronounced "Spare One Five", not "Spare Fifteen".

If your name contains any content within brackets [], that content is ignored, For example, "[ISAF] Mobius 1" is read as "Mobius 1".

Avoid:

  • Names that contain or are similar to brevity codewords, including "alpha", "radio", "comm", "bogey", "picture", "declare", "snaplock", "spiked", "bullseye". For example, "Spade" can be difficult to distinguish from "SPIKE"
  • Names that are hard to distinguish, like "Spare"/"Spear", "Jester"/"Gesture", "Witch"/"Which". The bot will make a best effort, but may be less accurate.
  • Names that sound similar to numbers. For example, "Knight" sounds similar to "Nine", "Fort" sounds like "Four"
  • Names that aren't widely recognized words in common parlance, like "Razgriz" or "Beskar". The bot will make a best effort, but may be less accurate.
  • Names in poor taste.

If your callsign doesn't follow this format, SkyEye makes a best effort to understand it while still applying its parser rules. A bare username like "Jeff" (with no numbers) may still work, but do not expect this to work reliably.

Using SkyEye

You can send a request to SkyEye by speaking on any SkyEye frequency in SRS. If the server operator has enabled DCS-gRPC integration, you may alternatively type the request into the in-game chat.1

The format of the request is:

GCI_CALLSIGN YOUR_CALLSIGN (...) REQUEST_TYPE (...) (REQUEST_ARGUMENTS...) (...)

Where:

  1. GCI_CALLSIGN is either the GCI's callsign or "Anyface" - either is fine.
  2. YOUR_CALLSIGN is your chosen callsign, e.g. "Mobius One" or "Hitman One One"
  3. REQUEST_TYPE is a keyword indicating what kind of request you're sending (discussed below)
  4. REQUEST_ARGUMENTS are optional modifiers to the request (discussed below)

Example: "Anyface, Mobius One, spiked One Five Zero" is parsed as GCI_CALLSIGN="Anyface", YOUR_CALLSIGN="mobius 1", REQUEST_TYPE=SPIKED, REQUEST_ARGUMENTS=[150]

The (...) indicates that you can say extra words in those spots and SkyEye will do its best to figure out what you mean.

Example: "Anyface, Mobius One, Alpha Check" and "Anyface, Mobius One, good morning. Alpha Check bullseye" are both parsed to GCI_CALLSIGN="Anyface", YOUR_CALLSIGN="mobius 1", REQUEST_TYPE=ALPHA_CHECK, REQUEST_ARGUMENTS=[].

Some types of requests require you to provide numeric arguments.

  • Compass bearings must be given by speaking all three digits individually. Say "Zero Six Five", not "Six Five" or "Sixty-Five."
  • All other numbers should be given normally - "Seventeen", not "One Seven"
  • Do not use ICAO pronunciation; pronounce numbers normally. Say "Three", "Five", "Nine", not "Tree", "Fife", "Niner".
  • When providing bullseye coordinates, you may either say "bullseye" before the coordinates, or omit the word "bullseye". That is, both "Bullseye Zero Six Five, Ninety-Nine" and "Zero Six Five, Ninety-Nine" are acceptable.
  • When providing bullseye coordinates, speak at a steady and measured pace with a slight pause between each number. Not too fast, not too slow. Don't mush your numbers together.
  • If the bot has trouble understanding your bullseye coordinates, you may use the separators "at" or "altitude" between the range and altitude. That is "Bullseye Zero Six Five, Ninety-Nine, at Twelve Thousand"

Tips:

  • Think about what you want to say before you say it.
  • Speak clearly at a measured pace, as if you were recording a vlog or talking to colleagues in a meeting room. Speaking too quickly or excessively slowly can confuse the bot.
  • If you misspeak, release your Push-to-Talk key and start over rather than trying to correct yourself.
  • Avoid excessive chatter on SkyEye frequencies. This may delay responses to actual requests.

Available Requests

RADIO CHECK

Keyword: RADIO or COMM

Function: The GCI will respond if they heard you. They will also inform you if they cannot see you on the radar scope.

Use: Testing communication with the bot.

Examples:

MOBIUS 1: "Thunderhead Mobius One radio check"
THUNDERHEAD: "Mobius One, five by five."

HITMAN 11: "Galaxy Hitman One One how's my radio working?"
GALAXY: "Hitman One One, Lima Charlie" [LIMA CHARLIE meaning LOUD & CLEAR]

YELLOW 13: "Goliath Yellow One Three radio"
GOLIATH: "Yellow One Three, loud and clear"

Tips:

  • Note that if your aircraft is still sitting on the ramp, you may not be visible on the radar scope yet.

ALPHA CHECK

Keyword: ALPHA

Function: The GCI will check if they see you on scope and tell you your approximate current location in bullseye format.

Use: You can use this to coarsely check your INS navigation system in an aircraft without GPS. It is accurate to within several miles (accounting for potential lag time between when the bot checks the scope and when the response is sent on the radio).

Examples:

MOBIUS 1: "Thunderhead Mobius One alpha check"
THUNDERHEAD: "Mobius One, Thunderhead, contact, alpha check bullseye 010/122"

HITMAN 11: "Galaxy Hitman One One checking in as fragged, request alpha check bullseye"
GALAXY: "Hitman One One, Galaxy, contact, alpha check bullseye 144/28"

YELLOW 13: "Goliath Yellow One Three alpha"
GOLIATH: "Yellow One Three, Goliath, contact, alpha check bullseye 088/5"

BOGEY DOPE

Keyword: BOGEY

Function: The GCI will give you the Bearing, Range, Altitude and Aspect from your aircraft to the nearest air-to-air threat.

Use: Get a vector to the nearest hostile aircraft.

Arguments:

  1. Filter (optional): Either "airplanes" or "helicopters" to filter by a category of aircraft.

Examples:

MOBIUS 1: "Thunderhead Mobius One bogey dope"
THUNDERHEAD: "Mobius One, threat group BRAA 071/13, 17000, flank south, hostile, Flanker"

HITMAN 11: "Galaxy Hitman One One looking for a bogey - anything interesting?"
GALAXY: "Hitman One One, group BRAA 055/71, 22000, flank north, hostile, Tomcat"

YELLOW 13: "Goliath Yellow One Three bogey"
GOLIATH: "Yellow One Three, group BRAA 188/45, 8000, hot, hostile, Eagle"

Tips:

  • Make this request repeatedly during a BVR timeline to build and maintain situational awareness.
  • Note: Specific filters such as "MiG-29" or "Flanker" do not work. You can only filter to airplanes or helicopters.
  • If you are a fixed-wing aircraft, hostile fixed-wing aircraft are prioritized over hostile helicopters, regardless of range.

DECLARE

Keyword: DECLARE

Function: You provide the position of a radar contact on your scope. The GCI will look for contacts in that area and tell you if they are hostile, friendly, a furball (mixed) or clean (nothing on scope). You can provide the position using either Bullseye or BRAA format .

Use: Additional source of Identify Friend or Foe (IFF)

Arguments:

  1. Bullseye (bearing and distance) or BR (bearing and range) (required)
  2. Altitude (optional)
  3. Track direction (optional)

Providing the optional arguments can help the GCI distinguish between contacts. If there's a friendly at 5000 feet and a hostile at 25000 feet, you may get a FURBALL response if you only provide the bullseye, or a specific response if you also provide altitude.

Examples:

HITMAN 1: Galaxy, Hitman One, declare one two four, five.
GALAXY: Hitman One, bullseye 122/51, 7000, track west, hostile, 2 contacts, Fitter.

MOBUIS 1: Thunderhead, Mobius One, declare two three zero, twelve, twelve thousand.
THUNDERHEAD: Mobius One, group bullseye 273/27, 2200, track east, hostile, Flanker.

EAGLE 12: Disco, Eagle One Two, declare BRAA zero nine zero, twenty five.
DISCO: Eagle One Two, group bullseye 072/52, 8000, track north, hostile, Flogger.

Tips:

  • You must provide either bullseye or BRAA coordinates. Due to limitations within DCS, the bot cannot receive your locked/bugged target via datalink.

PICTURE

Keyword: PICTURE

Function: The GCI will rank threats by priority, then report the top three. Threats are considered relative to the coalition as a whole, not to an individual.

Use: General situational awareness.

Arguments:

  1. Filter (optional)

Examples:

MOBIUS 1: "Thunderhead Mobius One, picture"
THUNDERHEAD: "Thunderhead, 5 groups. Group bullseye 192/41, 21000, track south, hostile, Flanker. Group bullseye 178/32, 9000, track east, hostile, Frogfoot. Group bullseye 181/44, 20000, track northwest, hostile, Frogfoot."

HITMAN 11: "Galaxy Hitman One One how's the picture looking?"
GALAXY: "Hitman One One, 6 groups. Group bullseye 211/27, 18000, track northwest, hostile, Frogfoot. Group bullseye 226/12, 7000, track northwest, hostile, Fulcrum. Group bullseye 193/47, 36000, track northeast, hostile, Foxhound."

Tips:

  • Repeat this call at regular intervals to maintain situational awareness.
  • Air combat is highly complex and the threat ranking algorithm is imperfect. The GCI might omit a highly dangerous adversary from the response. Exercise caution!
  • Be considerate of your allies on the channel. The response contains a great deal of useful information, but can occupy the channel for 20-30 seconds.

SNAPLOCK

Keyword: SNAPLOCK

Function: This is a faster form of DECLARE intended for use during a BVR timeline. You tell the GCI the BRA (bearing, range, altitude) of a threat on your radar scope. The GCI will look for a group in that area and response with information.

Use: IFF during a BVR timeline.

Arguments:

  1. Bearing from you to the contact (required)
  2. Range from you to the contact (required)
  3. Altitude of the contact (required)

Examples:

MOBIUS 1: "Thunderhead Mobius One, snaplock one two five, ten, eight thousand"
THUNDERHEAD: "Mobius 1, threat group BRAA 125/10, 8000, hot, hostile, two contacts, Flanker."

SPIKED

Keyword: SPIKED

Function: You tell the GCI the approximate bearing to an airborne threat on your Radar Warning Receiver (RWR). The GCI responds with information about the nearest potential source within a 30 degree cone in that direction.

Use: Can be used to get ranging information to a threat that is visible on the RWR but not the attack radar (or if your aircraft has no attack radar).

Arguments:

  1. Bearing to the airborne radar threat (required)

Examples:

MOBIUS 1: "Thunderhead Mobius One, spiked zero eight zero"
THUNDERHEAD: "Mobius One, spike range 35, 16000, flank northeast, hostile, single contact."

HITMAN 11: "Galaxy Hitman One One sees a spike at zero six zero"
GALAXY: "Hitman One One, spike range 45, 8000, hot, hostile, single contact."

YELLOW 13: "Goliath Yellow One Three spiked three six zero"
GOLIATH: "Yellow One Three, Goliath clean three six zero"

Tips:

  • The accuracy of this call is imperfect. The information you receive is a best effort guess. The GCI may misidentify the actual source of the radar signal.

Broadcast Calls

SUNRISE

When the GCI controller comes online, it will announced that its services are available using the code word "SUNRISE".

If you hear this in the middle of a mission, it probably means the bot crashed and had to be restarted!

PICTURE

Server operators may optionally configure the GCI controller to automatically broadcast a PICTURE at regular intervals. The content and format is the same as described in the PICTURE request above.

Requesting a PICTURE will reset the interval on any automatic broadcast.

THREAT

The GCI controller monitors for threats which are near or approaching friendly aircraft. Any hostile aircraft within a pre-briefed range (default 25NM) is always considered a threat. At further ranges, the bandit's aircraft capabilities are also considered. Threat calls are broadcast every few minutes for as long as the threat criteria are met. THREAT calls about rotary-wing threats are only broadcast to other rotary-wing aircraft. A plane won't receive warnings about helicopter threats.

Threat locations are given in BRAA format if they are relevant to a single friendly aircraft, or in bullseye format if they are relevant to multiple friendly aircraft.

Your own aircraft must be on a SkyEye SRS frequency, and using the same name in DCS and in SRS, to receive THREAT monitoring.

Examples:

WIZARD: RAVEN Three One, threat group BRAA 070/20, 1000, hot, hostile, 2 contacts, Fishbed.

GALAXY: HITMAN One One, threat group bullseye 040/96, 10000, track south, hostile, 2 contacts, Flanker.

MERGED

If any fixed-wing threats close within 3 nautical miles of a friendly aircraft, the controller will transmit a MERGED call. MERGED calls only apply to fixed-wing threats. You won't receive a MERGED call about a helicopter threat.

Your own aircraft must be on the SRS frequency, and using the same name in DCS and in SRS, to receive MERGED calls.

You will only receive one MERGED call every 30 seconds. If you merge with multiple threats within 30 seconds, you will only receive one MERGED call.

Example:

THUNDERHEAD: "Mobius one, merged."

FADED

When the GCI controller sees a hostile contact within weapons range of a friendly aircraft disappear from the radar scope for at least 30 seconds, it will announce the hostile contact is FADED.

This is not a confirmation that the contact has been destroyed! In DCS, it is possible for aircraft to be marked dead while they are still alive and dangerous.

Example:

THUNDERHEAD: "Thunderhead, single contact faded, bullseye 146/123, track west, hostile, Flanker"

Footnotes

  1. Why not using F10 commands, you may ask? Sadly, the F10 command menu only provides the code with your coalition and mission editor group, and not your specific aircraft/callsign/name. For most requests, SkyEye needs to identify the specific player, not just the mission editor group. ↩