Read this first: limitations

TacPad can only show what DCS and the server allow. It is not a cheat and cannot get around a server’s settings. If a server hides something, TacPad hides it too.

The Home tab and the map’s status say when a server hides other units or your own jet. Details are under Multiplayer servers below.

What TacPad is

TacPad is a live tactical map for DCS World. It shows your jet, other units, your route, threats and the mission’s own drawings on your PC, a second monitor, a tablet or phone, and inside your VR headset, all at the same time.

TacPad runs next to DCS on the same PC. It reads only what the mission or server allows, the same as the F10 map, and it never changes your aircraft or your controls.

DCS sends live data to TacPad on your PC; TacPad serves the same picture to every browser, your headset and, if you share, your flight.

What you need

Install and first start

Download TacPad from your account, run the installer and enter the email you bought it with. TacPad finds DCS by itself the first time it starts.

1. Download. Log in at overkillsimulations.com/account and click Download TacPad. You get a zip named TacPad-Setup- plus the version, like TacPad-Setup-1.0.1.msi.zip. Open it and run the TacPad-Setup .msi inside.
2. Install. TacPad installs to Program Files\Overkill Simulations\TacPad, so Windows asks once for permission, and adds Start menu and desktop shortcuts. If Windows shows Windows protected your PC, click More info, then Run anyway.
3. Start TacPad. The first time, a Welcome to TacPad window asks for the email address you bought TacPad with. Type it and click Check. When it says You’re all set, the TacPad window opens on the Home tab.
4. If Windows Firewall asks about TacPad, tick Private networks and click Allow. This is what lets a tablet or phone on your Wi-Fi open the map. It is not needed for the map on the PC itself.
5. Look at the DCS card on the Home tab. Every DCS folder in your Saved Games should say Ready.
6. If DCS was already open, restart it once (or start a new mission) so it picks TacPad up.

Your purchase email

• There is no license key and no device limit. TacPad checks your email with overkillsimulations.com once on each PC and never asks again there. Install it on your sim rig and your laptop if you like.
• Use the email on your receipt. If you bought with another address than your account’s, either one works.
• The Purchase card on the Home tab shows the email TacPad was bought with and when it was checked. Change email… checks a different one; Cancel keeps the one you have.
• Updating or reinstalling keeps the email, so TacPad doesn’t ask again.

What TacPad sets up by itself

For every DCS folder in Saved Games (DCS, DCS.openbeta and so on), TacPad adds:

• One line at the end of Scripts\Export.lua
• Its own script folder, Scripts\TacPad, which also keeps a backup of your original Export.lua
• A small mission hook, Scripts\Hooks\TacPadHook.lua, which reads the briefing, bullseye and mission drawings

Nothing else in those folders is touched. HangarControl, Tacview, SRS and other export scripts keep working as before.

If your DCS Saved Games folder lives somewhere unusual, click Add a DCS folder… on the DCS card and pick the folder that has Config and Scripts in it.

The TacPad window

The window has four tabs. Everything you set up once lives here; the map itself only holds view settings. At the top right are the version you have and Check for updates.

Keep TacPad running while you fly. Closing the window stops the map everywhere, including in VR.

Open the map

The map opens in any web browser, and every screen shows the same live picture. Open as many as you like: marks, rings and go to points appear on all of them at once.

• This PC or a second monitor: on the Home tab, click Open next to This PC or a second monitor. The address is http://localhost:34391/. Drag the browser window to your second monitor and press F11 for full screen.
• Tablet or phone: connect it to the same Wi-Fi as the PC. On the Home tab, click Show QR code and scan it with the tablet’s camera, or type the address shown under Tablet or phone (it looks like http://192.168.0.245:34391/).

Tip: on a tablet, use the browser’s Add to Home Screen option. The map then opens full screen like an app.

Tablets and phones get every map feature: marks, rings, go to and lock. VR, HOTAS and sharing settings only change in the TacPad window on the PC, so nobody else on your network can switch them.

What the status means

The Home tab and the top left of the map show the same status.

The Home tab also counts how many maps are open, so you can see a tablet connect.

Using the map

The map follows your jet until you drag it. The buttons down the right edge do everything else.

Touch and mouse

• Drag to pan, pinch or use the mouse wheel to zoom, double tap to zoom in.
• Tap anything (a unit, airfield, navaid, waypoint, mark or empty ground) to open its info card.
• Press and hold to drop a mark right there.

The info card

The card shows the coordinates (tap them to switch between DDM, DMS, MGRS and decimal), the bearing, range and time from you, and the bullseye call. Its buttons depend on what you tapped:

• Go to puts a steering line from your jet to it and its bearing, range and time on the HUD. On a unit, go to follows it as it moves. Stop go to clears it.
• Mark drops a mark. On a unit, the mark rides on that unit.
• Ring draws a threat ring around it. On known air defences, Ring at its range uses that system’s range.
• Set as home keeps an airfield’s bearing and range on the HUD (Clear home removes it).
• Lock locks it for the whole TacPad: every screen and the VR map show it (Drop lock releases it).
• Measure from here and Copy (the coordinates).
• On an airfield, the card also lists its tower frequencies, TACAN, ILS and NDB.

The HUD

The box in the bottom left shows your heading, altitude and ground speed, then the lock, go to, team go to points, home and next waypoint lines, each with bearing, range and time. The last line is your bullseye call, the wind at your jet and the mission time.

Display menu

The Display button holds the view settings for that screen only, so a tablet and your PC can look different:

• Map: Night, Street, Topo or Satellite, plus a Brightness slider
• Show: Air, Ground, Naval, Labels, Route, Trail, Range rings, Threat rings, Bullseye, Mission drawings, Airfields, Navaids, Radar contacts, Crosshair
• Coordinates: DDM, DMS, MGRS or Decimal
• Units: NM / kt or km, Magnetic or True, Feet or Metres
• Text size: Small, Normal, Large or Huge
• Clear all marks and Open on a tablet or phone

Marks, rings and steering

Marks, rings, go to and home show on every open map and in VR at once, and TacPad keeps marks and rings between sessions.

Marks

• Tap Mark, then tap the map. Or press and hold anywhere. Or tap a unit and pick Mark on its card.
• A mark dropped on a unit rides on that unit and moves with it.
• Tap a mark for its card: Go to, Delete, and who it is shared with.

Threat rings

1. Tap Ring, then tap the centre (or pick Ring on any card).
2. Pick a Radius, or a Preset from SA-2 to Patriot.
3. Pick a Colour, add an optional Label, and click Add ring.

Hostile air defence also gets an automatic dashed threat ring at its approximate range (turn these off with Threat rings in Display). These ranges are rough planning numbers, not exact DCS values: real reach depends on altitude, aspect and the target.

Measure and delete

• Measure: tap the first point, then the second. The bearing and range show on the line. Tap again to start over.
• Delete: tap the bin, then tap a mark or ring. Clear all marks in Display removes them all.

Go to and home

• Go to draws a magenta steering line from your jet to the target and adds a GO TO line to the HUD with bearing, range and time to go. Pick it on any card; on a moving unit it tracks the unit.
• Set as home on an airfield keeps a green HOME line on the HUD for the trip back.

Lock

A lock marks one target with green corner brackets on every screen and in VR, and adds a LOCK line to the HUD with bearing, range and altitude. Lock from any card, or from your HOTAS (see HOTAS and keys). From the HOTAS you can then Go to it, share the go to with your side, or Mark it.

Picture and Briefing

Two side panels give you the picture and the mission paperwork without leaving the map.

• Picture (radar button) lists the nearest hostiles, closest first, with bearing, range, altitude, aspect and their bullseye position. Filter it to Air, Air defence or Everything. Tap a row to find it on the map.
• Brief (clipboard button) shows the mission name and date, the weather and QNH, your flight, the expected threats, the situation text from the briefing, and the radio presets of the aircraft you are in.

Both only show what your coalition is allowed to see, the same as the briefing and F10 map in DCS.

VR headset

TacPad puts the same map you see in the browser inside your headset in DCS, in front of one eye or both. It works with any OpenXR headset and needs no other app.

Turn it on

1. Start your headset software (Pimax Play, SteamVR, Virtual Desktop and so on) as usual.
2. Start TacPad and open the VR headset tab.
3. Tick Show TacPad inside my VR headset in DCS. The status turns green and says Drawing N frames a second within a few seconds.
4. Then start DCS in VR. By default the map sits low and to the left in your left eye, and it shows even in the DCS menu.

The order matters only the first time: TacPad has to be on before DCS starts, because DCS picks up the VR map when it starts VR. After that you can open TacPad before or after DCS, and the map appears within a couple of seconds.

To check it is working, click Centre test. It puts the map big and straight ahead in both eyes, so it cannot be off to the side.

Show, hide and zoom from the cockpit

• Ctrl+Alt+M shows and hides it. The Show / Hide button on the tab does the same.
• Ctrl+Alt+N steps through the ranges.
• Bind these, and zoom, pan and lock, to your HOTAS on the HOTAS & keys tab.

Settings

Every setting changes live while DCS runs.

Fixed in the cockpit is placed relative to your seated position. If it ends up off to the side, recentre your headset (in DCS or your headset software).

Only if you run DCS as administrator

Windows hides add ons like the VR map from programs run as administrator. If you start DCS with Run as administrator, TacPad tells you on the VR headset tab. Click Fix for admin DCS… once and answer the Windows prompt. After a TacPad update, the same button reads Update the admin VR layer…; click it with DCS closed. Remove it… takes it out again. Most people never need this.

HOTAS and keys

Any joystick, throttle, gamepad or key can show, zoom, pan and lock the map, and it works while DCS has focus. TacPad reads your devices straight from Windows, so it needs no drivers and handles sticks with 128 buttons and several hats.

Bind a control

1. Open the HOTAS & keys tab.
2. Click Bind next to an action. The row turns amber and waits 10 seconds.
3. Press the button, hat direction or key you want. For an axis action, move the axis all the way.
4. The row shows what you bound, like WINWING ORION THROTTLE · Button 5. Esc cancels.

Each action can have one key and one stick control at the same time. Clear removes them, Invert flips an axis, and Back to the default keys starts over. A stick only shows in the Seen list after you press something on it.

Keys are watched, not taken away from DCS. Pick a combination DCS does not use, like Ctrl+Alt plus a letter.

The actions

Bind one direction of a hat to a pan or cursor action and the other three directions fill in by themselves.

Crosshair, TDC cursor and lock

A white crosshair sits in the middle of the VR map and of the map on this PC. It shows exactly where Lock lands. Slew it with your throttle’s TDC (or a hat) and it follows; a few seconds after you stop, it goes back to the middle. Turn it off with Crosshair in the Display menu.

Press your Lock button: TacPad locks the unit, mark or waypoint under the crosshair, or the spot itself if nothing is there. Lock next hostile steps through hostiles, nearest first. With a target locked, Go to the locked target steers you there, and with my side shares that go to with your flight (see Sharing with your flight).

Which map the HOTAS moves

While the VR map is showing, the HOTAS works the VR map. Otherwise it works the map open on this PC. Tablets and phones keep their own view.

Sharing with your flight

TacPad Link shares marks, threat rings and go to points with other TacPad pilots in the same mission. One pilot hosts, the others join, and no server or account is needed. You choose who sees each item, and the other team never gets your side’s items, even on servers that show every unit.

Set it up

The host (one pilot in the flight):

1. Open the Sharing tab and click Host for my flight.
2. Type a Link code your flight agrees on, like VFA-103, and optionally a Callsign.
3. Click Save and connect. The tab shows the addresses to give the others.
4. For pilots outside your home network, forward TCP port 34400 on your router to this PC, the same as hosting a DCS server. Pilots on the same network need nothing extra.

Everyone else:

1. Open the Sharing tab and keep Join a host selected.
2. Type the same Link code, an optional Callsign, and the host’s address (their internet address, or their PC’s address on a shared network).
3. Click Save and connect. The status shows Connected, how many pilots are in the mission, and your side.

Everyone must be in the same mission. Your callsign is your DCS name unless you type one. Turn sharing off disconnects.

Who sees what

Every mark, ring and go to has its own choice:

• New marks and rings: while connected, choose before you place them: a bar of choices appears under the tool hint, and the ring card has Share with.
• Existing marks: tap the mark and pick Share: Blue force, Share: Everyone or Share: Just me.
• Go to with your side: cards show Go to with Blue force (or Red force) next to Go to. Your flight sees it on the HUD as a line with your callsign, like Viper2: Tbilisi, and as a magenta diamond on the map. They can tap it and Go to it themselves, or Dismiss it.
• Shared marks from others show the pilot’s callsign beside them. Deleting your own shared mark removes it for everyone.

The host’s TacPad runs the link, so it has to stay open while the flight is sharing. The link code works like a password for your room: anyone with the code and the host’s address can see and post shared marks, so pick one that’s hard to guess. The link isn’t encrypted, so keep labels to map stuff. It only ever carries marks, rings and go to points, never files or settings.

Multiplayer servers

TacPad works on any server and only shows what that server allows. Each server decides three things, and TacPad follows each one:

What the briefing shows is filtered the same way as in DCS: only your coalition’s bullseye, and only the mission drawings meant for your side (or for everyone), unless the mission hides them from pilots.

TacPad installs into your Saved Games folder, not the DCS install folder, so it does not affect the server’s integrity check.

Updates

Updates are free. TacPad looks for a new version every time it starts, and you can click Check for updates at the top of the TacPad window any time.

1. When there is a new version, TacPad shows A TacPad update is ready with what’s new.
2. Click Update now. TacPad downloads it, checks the download is intact, closes, installs the new version over the old one (Windows may ask once for permission) and opens again. Later skips it until next time.
3. Your settings, marks, bindings and purchase email stay as they were.
4. If DCS was running a mission, the status may say Restart the mission. Start a new mission to load the new TacPad script.
5. Only if you use Fix for admin DCS…: close DCS and click Update the admin VR layer… on the VR headset tab.

You can always download the newest version from your Account page instead and install it over the top.

Troubleshooting

Most problems are one of the cases below. If yours isn’t, click Open log folder on the Home tab and send TacPad.log with your question.

Logs for VR problems

If the VR map doesn’t show at all, look in %LOCALAPPDATA%\TacPad\VR for TacPadXR.log after starting DCS:

• No log file: DCS did not load the VR map. Turn it on before starting DCS; if DCS runs as administrator, use the fix on the VR headset tab.
• A log file: send it with your question. It shows each step from loading to drawing.

Removing TacPad and its files

Uninstall TacPad from Windows Settings, Apps like any other program. The uninstaller takes TacPad’s line out of every Export.lua, removes its script folder and mission hook, and switches the VR map off. Your other DCS scripts stay exactly as they are.

To take TacPad out of just one DCS folder and keep the app, click Remove next to that folder on the Home tab. TacPad then leaves that folder alone until you click Install again.

If you used Fix for admin DCS…, the uninstaller removes that too.

Where TacPad keeps things

The uninstaller keeps your marks, settings and purchase email in %APPDATA%\TacPad in case you reinstall. Delete that folder for a completely clean removal.