Installation & Network configuration

See Server Installation Guide

Configure with the Configurator

The recommended way to configure LotAtc Server — passwords, network port, detection profile and data files (transponders, ATIS, users) — is the free LotAtc Configurator. It edits the configuration and profile of every DCS instance for you, without ever touching a Lua file.

Open the Configurator, pick your DCS instance, then use Config and Profile. See the Configurator manual for the full workflow, and the config.lua reference for every available setting.

Running LotAtc server

Since LotAtc 2.7.0, dedicated_mode is enabled by default. LotAtc runs as a server out of the box and uses the detection profile set in its configuration (dedicated_profile, managed with the Configurator) — you no longer need to enable it or pick a profile from the DCS Options page.

All you have to do is run a DCS server as usual. Being a DCS World module, LotAtc server is merged into DCS and becomes live as soon as you launch a multiplayer host.

LotAtc server can only work if you’re the DCS host for the mission. You cannot act as a LotAtc server if you’re a client of DCS, nor if you’re playing DCS single player mode.

If there is no connected LotAtc client, then LotAtc server doesn’t do much and thus won’t hit your FPS or anything. From a performance point of view, you may leave it running at all times.

Running a dedicated DCS server? Follow that page for the per-instance setup.

DCS GUI options page

If you run LotAtc from the DCS GUI and have opted out of dedicated mode (dedicated_mode = false), you can still manage it from the DCS World Options page:

  1. Go to the DCS World Options page
  2. Display the “Special” tab
  3. Open the “LotAtc 4 DCS” sub-tab
  4. Tick the “Enable LotAtc” switch to allow LotAtc server to run

On that page you may enable/disable LotAtc and pick which Detection Profile the server uses.

These DCS-page settings only apply when dedicated mode is disabled, and they apply to all connecting LotAtc clients (no blue/red specifics). Configuring through the Configurator is the recommended way and works for both GUI and dedicated setups.

LotAtc passwords

With the Configurator

Open Config in LotAtc Configurator and set the red/blue passwords there. Easier and simpler than the manual way!

Manually

To change the passwords manually, edit the %userprofile%/Saved Games/DCS/mods/services/lotatc/config.custom.lua file, see config.lua documentation.

We advise you to use Notepad++ to edit DCS LUA files. Avoid using Windows’ default notepad as it usually makes (not so…) “funny” changes to LUA files (changes that transform into bugs).

Locate those lines in the config file:

red_password="red" , 
blue_password="blue",

Set the password by replacing the default ones (between double quotes). Passwords are case sensitive. Save & exit the file.

Passwords MUST NOT be void

See Server advanced configuration for more configuration on LotAtc server.

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