DCS Launcher

DCS Launcher is a Visual Studio Code extension for launching DCS World, DCS missions, and ModelViewer directly from the VS Code sidebar.

It is built for rapid DCS module development workflows where repeatedly opening menus, selecting missions, or manually starting tools slows down iteration.

Features

DCS Controls

• Select and store the path to DCS.exe
• Launch DCS directly from the Controls panel
• Launch a multicrew test client
• Kill running DCS instances from VS Code
• Hide launch controls until a valid DCS executable is configured

Mission Launcher

• Add .miz mission files through a file picker
• Store mission lists per workspace
• Show clean filenames in the sidebar
• Show full mission paths in tooltips
• Launch missions directly with DCS command line arguments

ModelViewer

• Select and store the path to modelviewer2.exe
• Launch ModelViewer directly from the Controls panel
• Add .edm and .lods files through a file picker
• Store model lists per workspace
• Launch selected model files in ModelViewer with reload arguments

Live DCS Log

• Open Saved Games/DCS/Logs/dcs.log in a dedicated editor tab
• Configure a custom path to the DCS log file in VS Code Settings
• Follow new log lines automatically
• Filter lines using text, regular expressions, and case-sensitive matching

Requirements

• Windows
• Visual Studio Code 1.108.1 or newer
• DCS World installed
• Optional: DCS ModelViewer installed

For DCS, the multithreaded executable under bin-mt is recommended.

Extension Settings

Global Settings

dcsLauncher.dcsExePath

Full path to DCS.exe.

"dcsLauncher.dcsExePath": "C:\\Program Files\\Eagle Dynamics\\DCS World\\bin-mt\\DCS.exe"

dcsLauncher.modelViewerExePath

Full path to modelviewer2.exe.

"dcsLauncher.modelViewerExePath": "C:\\Program Files\\Eagle Dynamics\\DCS World\\bin\\modelviewer2.exe"

dcsLauncher.logFilePath

Full path to the DCS log file. Leave empty to use Saved Games/DCS/Logs/dcs.log. Use the settings menu in the viewer to edit this in VS Code Settings.

"dcsLauncher.logFilePath": "D:\\DCS.openbeta\\Logs\\dcs.log"

Workspace Settings

dcsLauncher.missions

List of mission files shown in the Missions tree.

"dcsLauncher.missions": [
  "Missions/weapon_test.miz",
  "Missions/night_run.miz"
]

dcsLauncher.models

List of .edm and .lods files shown in the Models tree.

"dcsLauncher.models": [
  "Shapes/example.edm",
  "Shapes/example.lods"
]

Relative paths are resolved from the workspace root.

dcsLauncher.logExcludedPatterns

Case-insensitive regular expressions hidden by the live log viewer when Hide ignored is enabled. The default suppresses DCS's recurring negative payload drag and weight errors. Use the gear button in the viewer to edit the list in VS Code Settings.

Keybinding

The default keybinding is:

F8

This launches the last mission that was run.

You can change it in VS Code Keyboard Shortcuts by searching for DCS Launcher.

Typical Workflow

1. Configure the path to DCS.exe.
2. Add workspace mission files.
3. Click a mission or press the keybinding to launch DCS.
4. Test your module changes.
5. Kill DCS from the Controls panel.
6. Repeat.

For model work:

1. Configure the path to modelviewer2.exe.
2. Add .edm or .lods files to the Models tree.
3. Click a model file to launch it in ModelViewer.

Development

Install dependencies and verify the extension build:

npm ci
npm run compile

Open this repository in VS Code and press F5 to compile the extension and open an Extension Development Host window. Use the DCS icon in that window's activity bar to exercise the development version. Set breakpoints in src/ and use Developer: Reload Window in the development host after rebuilding.

For automatic rebuilds while editing, run:

npm run watch

To build and install a local VSIX in your normal VS Code profile:

npx --yes @vscode/vsce package --out dcs-launcher.vsix
code --install-extension dcs-launcher.vsix --force

Reload existing VS Code windows after installation. The generated dist/, out/, and .vsix files are intentionally ignored by Git.

Repository

Source code is available at:

https://github.com/DCS-OpenSource/dcs-launcher

License

MIT