Making devices compatible with TDL is very easy. While the overview might have been long winded, this guide aims to make things easy to understand and show examples of how to implement it.

Create Mesh Radio Device (MPU5, etc.)

Let’s start with adding encryption to a radio.

You can use any radio prefab, such as one already created, or override/duplicate an existing one. This one is included with the mod.

We start with changing the radio component class to a TDLRadioComponent. This will allow the radio to be detected as a TDL device by the system. No changes are required within this component once changed.

We will then add the TDLDeviceComponent to this device, which will allow it to connect to other TDL devices on the player, or other devices to network with them.

Under the component properties, we start with the Device Capabilities. This is what allows us to define what this device does.

• NETWORK ACCESS
  • Does this device act as a router? Should people join networks using this device?
• GPS PROVIDER
  • Does this device know it’s own location without another device?
• DISPLAY OUTPUT
  • Should this device be capable of showing video feeds? Or be able to display other available info?
• VIDEO SOURCE
  • Does this device have a camera? Could it stream video?
• POWER PROVIDER
  • Does this device have it’s own battery? Can it be used to power other devices?
• INFORMATION
  • Is this device a computer/operating system? Can it use the network to retrieve information from it?

By asking these questions we can come up with a good combination of capabilities. Some devices may have many capabilities, while others have one specific purpose. For the sake of this mod, all devices on a player’s kit (or in hand) are considered automatically connected. This means that not every device needs network access, network access should typically be used on the “master” device which is used to log into and out of a network. In this case, the radio will be how we join the network.

In our example, we will say that this radio does have an integrated GPS, so we will use that capability as well.