AH-64 Pack

[nodunit 397]

Funnily enough it does, not quite sure what happened but something I did to the materials causes it to have a sporadic "pink flash" which you can see around 1:50. I don't want to get hopes up so I will say flat out, the thing about turning switches in Arma won't be happening, the examples given by several people work perfectly on the ground but when you introduce add in swift motion as well as X and Y..well things get a bit weird. Even when the whole MPD is an action zone to simple switch it caused havoc, so instead we will be using "User actions" in custom controls to make things less action menu focused.

That said, visually you'll still see them move. It may not sound as interesting until you realise there is no HUD other than the HDU, and without that the only way to know what is what, is to check your instruments. For example around 1:25 if you look around the top of the screen, the part of the HUD indicating direction is removed, forcing us to use the HDU, or if that fails, the heading tape above the dash.

That said, there is much more interest in TKOH now with the release of TKOH Arma, but that will likely come after the first release, we wouldn't want to pull a "Well guess what, now you need this to use this".

Edited March 24, 2012 by NodUnit

[Feint 137]

Really looking forward to this one. Great job and that video opening was awesome. :) The cockpit details look intense. Hope there's a manual. :)

By the way, you mentioned trying to figure out a way to single out parts of the cockpit dashboard. I'm not sure if someone else suggested this or not, but you can get the direction of the aircraft and compare it to the direction of the pilot's head. Since the body is always in line with the aircraft, maybe just looking at a certain angle could make some actions visible and others invisible.

I don't know how accurate it is but I've been using the following for something I'm working on where you can throw something in the direction you are looking (the direction your head is facing).

// FIRST/THIRD PERSON SCREEN VIEW POSITION
_headPos=screenToWorld [0.5,0.5];

// POSITION OF YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME WORLD
_headDir=[                (_headPos select 0)-(getPos _caller select 0),                (_headPos select 1)-(getPos _caller select 1),                (_headPos select 2)-(getPos _caller select 2)        ];

// DIRECTION YOUR HEAD IS FACING IN DEGREES
_dir = (_headDir select 0) atan2 (_headDir select 1);

So, if the direction of the pilot's head is -5 degrees or less off the forward axis of the helicopter, then show a certain number of actions for the Left MFD. If it's +5 degrees or greater, show the right side MFDs actions. You can hide or show actions depending on if a statement is true when you initially run the addAction command.

Another possibility is to use cursorTarget to see exactly where your cursor is pointing to and maybe switches could be somehow declared as individual entities. I don't know if this would work or not, but perhaps you could create individual "invisible panels" over the dashboard that could be seen by using cursorTarget. So for example if you have an MFD on the left and an MFD on the right, both with separate actions, perhaps using cursorTarget to look at one of those panels or one of the invisible overlays would enable certain selections for the pilot. If you can't get the panels to be anything other than part of the main helicopter identity, perhaps you could try using attachTo to attach the invisible panels once the helicopter is spawned in the game. If they can't work being invisible, maybe you could make the MFD glass a separate attachTo'd element that's semi transparent and visible via cursorTarget.

Sorry if you've already thought of all of this already. Either way, looks like you already have a great addon on your hands!

Edited March 26, 2012 by Feint

[Raafatah64 0]

nodunit will there be 2 versions one with shark mouth and one without thanx lovely addon cant wait for the release

[[frl]myke 14]

Another possibility is to use cursorTarget to see exactly where your cursor is pointing to and maybe switches could be somehow declared as individual entities.

Be aware that with lockable weapons the cursorTarget command doesn't return the actual cursors target but the locked target, regardless of it's position.

[nodunit 397]

...

Interesting idea, NouberNou also PM'd with a suggestion as well but we're going to wait and see what kind of performance demands we're talking when things are more done. As it stands every page has several things moving at once, for example FUEL page monitors fuel in lb's in both forward and aft tanks, as well as external fuel tanks and endurance (how long you can fly on that fuel). Each time a lb is burned you see the numbers tick down, what is really fun is to take great damage and watch the numbers dropping fast, it inspires a panic that watching a bar drop doesn't quite do. And that is the page with the least number of things moving about.

To give you an idea of the kind of complexity we're going for, this aircraft is going to have a ton of pro's, so many you might say they are cheats, however the balance comes in that you can lose not only these systems that enable you but much more, default all you have to worry about is engine, fuel and rotors..here you have to worry about weapon damage and even the chance of losing your optical sights! The page dedicated to showing you the warnings for example contains 27 advisories..and that is just one page, which we're likely to fill.

And yes there will be a manual, probably even demonstration videos.

...

That depends on wether or not Franze releases the shark mouth, it's his personal decal.

Edited March 26, 2012 by NodUnit

[ozzbik 70]

Can you tell what the performance impact of the mod is?

Does the mod come with wipes? (Because i drool at the sight of this mod)

[J-Guid 10]

Where the BIS :D?!

[bigpickle 0]

Nod this looks epic, cant wait for release so best of luck for that day :D

[scfan42 0]

Suppose we can show something since it has been so long, please note that sounds are temporary and I am working on the glaring material issues.

Here you can see an example of the arming, weapon pages and more. I suggest you pause on the weapon pages and look closely at the change, it's quite different per weapon type but the screen goes through them so fast.

Fully articulating rotors and swashplate? I didn't even think that was possible in this engine! Simply amazing. Looking forward to seeing it released!

[nodunit 397]

Yep! Every part moves and is all controlled by the pilot. When you increase or decrease collective the swashplate moves up and down, causing the scissors to contract or extend and in doing so, push or pull the arms down which in turn causes the blades to be pushed or pulled with them. Likewise Cyclic controls the bank of the plate, all Franze baby there and one of my most favorite additions, it's a great pleasure to even just fly around and watch the dynamics change, and once the texture isn't so bland on the outside I'm sure we'll be showing more of it.

Can you tell what the performance impact of the mod is?

Does the mod come with wipes? (Because i drool at the sight of this mod)

I couldn't say at the moment, not until things are more finalized and worked through. As we add more we also need to streamline it and check for problems, so there is no real answer for now.

Edited March 27, 2012 by NodUnit

[pathetic_berserker 4]

Giiiiz that's look'n nice.

[Nike619 1]

All we need now is Vortex States, and Retreating blade stalls! Great work gents. Keep it up.

[max power 21]

I'm mostly impressed. I've always been moar impressed by things in bikinis.

[Nike619 1]

Who doesn't like a gunner wearing a bikini?

[kremator 1064]

Hmmmm hairy bloke in a bikini ..... each to their own I suppose !

[Nike619 1]

You forget, We have females that can fly this chopper. But, If you're into hairy blokes..;)

[slatts 1978]

dont bother running..you'll just die from a bloke in a bikini.

[Nike619 1]

Sounds like a good motto too me. :cool:

[DMC_RULEZ 10]

Wooo ..your baby is nearly finished..shame I can't say the same for so many of my pet projects :( anyway good luck with it all NOD/Franze :)

[Pr0mthesus 1]

Hey there! I was wondering where i might be able to download the awesome AH-64d Modification?

[MissileMoose 10]

Hey there! I was wondering where i might be able to download the awesome AH-64d Modification?

Hello,

It's not ready yet. Once it has been released the developers will update this thread with the download links, you can also check Armaholic.com for new releases.

Hope this helps!

[eaglezero6205 10]

This Looks frickin Awesome Just had to add that. Congratulations on this looks like it took a lot of work to do. You guys are awesome for the effort you have put forth for the Community to get this project out. Ill be one the first to download it. And I love hte Mean Shark face. Epic. Its says the Cockpit is fully Functional WOW I didn't even know that was possible. And the rotors look sweet! Cant wait to take this baby up for a spin.Keep up the good work Guys the the community will definitely Love the is mod.

[doveman 7]

Hi

I love the AH-64D, so I'm really excited to see this mod.

Now I don't know if this would even be possible, but there's no harm in suggesting it (I hope!)

I like to play 2-player games with my friend on my LAN, where I pilot and he plays gunner. I have a proper joystick and sit at my desk, but he sits on the sofa and uses the TV and a wireless Xbox360 controller. What I think would really make things easier for him is if

a) there was a command (say Ctrl+X) that would zoom/superimpose the Left MFD on the screen and give it focus (and a seperate command for the right MFD of course). I guess around 1/4 of the screen would be a good size to be easily readable from the sofa, maybe 1/6th or even 1/12th but I know the MFDs in MMA and ICE_HUD are too small.

b) whilst the MFD was zoomed like this, either mouse up/down or scroll up/down (or maybe -/+, I'm just thinking of keys that are already mapped to the controller for something else) would move up/down through the MFD, with Enter selecting the highlighted function and Backspace going back to the previous screen, and the same command (i.e. Ctrl+X) that zoomed the MFD restores normal view. With MMA and ICE_HUD, using the MFDs requires pressing the number keys on the keyboard, which my friend therefore has to keep on the sofa next to him and it can be rather fiddly hitting the right key.

If that's not possible, an alternative might be to map most of the MFD functions to key commands, as then he can use VAC to select them with voice commands, but I'm not sure there's enough keys available for that :)

[franze 196]

Unfortunately, neither A nor B are possible due to camera scripting limits. We had wanted a way to focus on the MPD and possibly lock the view in place but there's no way to do that as far as I can tell. It would have expanded the realm which we could use the MPDs such as waypoint creation but unfortunately this will have to wait for more robust camera/view commands. The best we have so far is usage of the custom user commands for a number of functions and putting other action keys to use for certain functions.

[doveman 7]

Unfortunately, neither A nor B are possible due to camera scripting limits. We had wanted a way to focus on the MPD and possibly lock the view in place but there's no way to do that as far as I can tell. It would have expanded the realm which we could use the MPDs such as waypoint creation but unfortunately this will have to wait for more robust camera/view commands. The best we have so far is usage of the custom user commands for a number of functions and putting other action keys to use for certain functions.

No worries, if it can't be done it can't be done. I recall from MMA's MMC TV mode, I can press F2 to bring up the map and then move around and click to designate a point (as shown at 1:48 in this video

) so perhaps it might be possible to give the MPD focus somehow if it's fullscreen like that, although I appreciate that might not be how you would wish to design your mod. I'm not even sure I'd want the MPD fullscreen like that, although for the gunner perhaps it would be OK for his main view to look something like the MMA MMC TV view (only filling more of the screen if possible) and to switch from that to a fullscreen MPD view and back.

Otherwise, using keyboard shortcuts certainly helps a lot, as then I can program a voice control program like VAC to e.g. press K when I say IHADDS, which saves having to swap between controller and keyboard/mouse when using the HUD/MFD functions. In addition I can program saying "MFD 1" to press 1, which works with the ICE MFD when it's open. I have the mouse scroll wheel and left/right click, backspace and Enter mapped to the controller anyway, so can call up the menu and access functions that way, although that's a bit more fiddly.

I have a bit of a problem with the BD Hellfire mod, as it uses the reload key to "Fire Hellfire", but that key also releases countermeasures. I only mention this to illustrate how tricky it can be with mods finding spare keys that don't also trigger something unwanted, but hopefully you've already planned around this problem with your mod.