Playback of DCS-BIOS Cockpit data / Testing of Gauges without starting up DCS - Linux / Fedora

[loneregister]

Is there any support for playback of DCS-BIOS data (gauges in particular) for testing? And if so, how about on Linux?
I do all my work/development on Linux / Fedora 42 - and was hoping that this might have been tackled?

If not - if a recording of an F16 from DCS for DCS-BIOS could be made available - I might be able to put something together to do playbacks via linux. No promises - but necessity is the mother of all invention, right?

All the best!
Thanks,
Kevin

[charliefoxtwo]

You might check out the python tool mentioned in the readme - I think it might accomplish what you're after?

[loneregister]

I will check that out, and get back to see if it works.
That being said, would someone point me in the direction of an F16C/50 playback file that I can use for testing?
Thanks!

[charliefoxtwo]

I'm not aware of any existing playback files - I think you'd have to record your own (which I assume you'd want to do anyway so you know what it should be triggering)

[loneregister]

For the moment, I am more interested in having a "flight" to run / test my software setup. Later, will come the testing to see if it's matching up properly.

This brings up an idea - mayhaps a new folder of recordings by DCS-BIOS version, and plane. This could be populated by the community with a recording or two of the plane in question that could be used for situations like this.

I will make the suggestion / update in my fork, and suggest for pulling later after I record a few flights that might be good candidates for test recordings. In the mean time, if anyone has a moment to record an F16 flight and send my way - I'd appreciate it.

Thank you

[BojoteX]

For the moment, I am more interested in having a "flight" to run / test my software setup. Later, will come the testing to see if it's matching up properly.

Hey Kevin,

This is exactly the problem I solved for my project CockpitOS — a DCS-BIOS panel firmware for ESP32. I do all my gauge/display development without DCS running, and it's 100% cross-platform (pure Python tooling).

The Solution

DCS-BIOS exports to multicast 239.255.50.10:5010 — I capture that traffic to JSON, then replay it later. Your panel code can't tell the difference between real DCS and the replay.

Capture Script — run while flying in DCS:
DCS_stream_capture.py

Replay Script — no DCS needed:
DCS_stream_generator.py

python DCS_stream_generator.py              # Normal replay
python DCS_stream_generator.py --speed 2.0  # 2x speed
python DCS_stream_generator.py --fps 60     # Fixed 60 FPS

Works perfectly on Linux — just sockets and JSON, no Windows dependencies.

Recording Format

[
  {"timing": 2.0, "data": "555555550000020046411600..."},
  {"timing": 0.045, "data": "55555555020004002D313843..."},
  ...
]

• timing = seconds since previous frame
• data = raw DCS-BIOS binary as hex (including 0x55 sync bytes)

What I Can Share

I don't have F-16 recordings, but I have F/A-18C Hornet and AH-64D Apache captures in my repo under Debug Tools/:

• dcsbios_data.json.AH-64 — Apache
• dcsbios_data.json.LONG — Extended Hornet session
• dcsbios_data.json.SHORT — Quick Hornet test
• dcsbios_data.json.RADARALT — Radar altimeter focused

The protocol structure is identical across aircraft — useful for testing your parsing logic before you capture your own F-16 flight.

Cheers,