Diving Under Water

[andersson 285]

Maybe you can "hiddenselectiontextures" to hide the fins when the units are in the sub. That could also be used when they are walking on land (maybe x-meters from the water?).

[Feint 137]

Raptor 6 Actual, outstanding! Looks really cool. I'm excited about this. As for changing the nose so that it can fit the fins, I think a different animation could fix the problem, one where the toes were pointing upward. So I would make the SDV as close to reality as you like. The fin issue pointing out the nose should probably be fixed through the unit animations and init placement within the vehicle. Unfortunately, I don't know how to make my own animations static or otherwise. Maybe someone out there can lend a hand.

@ anderson, that's a good idea. I have someone working on units and I'm hopeful that they can make something that will allow the flippers to be retracted or something.

So I've been working on this and that trying to finish this project up for an initial release (ETA is soon as I was hoping to get it done before mid-March, but that didn't happen b/c of real life work).

Here's a quick video I put together of something we were all discussing a while ago. Using Clayman's animation viewer, I was able to find an aiming animation that works in the water. Right now I just have it activated with radio triggers, but I think it's something I can enable rather easily into the existing project's dropdowns. I also discovered that the stock MP5SD6 can discharge in shallow water which makes things easier.

uIpxtxacvzg

Edited March 24, 2012 by Feint

[kremator 1064]

Just superb mate .... superb !

As with some others from the forums .... BIS needs you as a DEV !

[DaveP 66]

That's really awesome. Is it the anim for laying on the uhh rigid inflatables (oo-er fnar fnar)

[Feint 137]

That's really awesome. Is it the anim for laying on the uhh rigid inflatables (oo-er fnar fnar)

Good call. It's one of the cargo animations for the CRRC. In 3rd person, it looks a little strange, but not too strange. And honestly, it's the only animation I found that works while in the water (meaning you don't switch back to swimming automatically), and it's the only one that allows you to fire your weapon and aim. I wanted a prone animation because standing or crouching in the water just looks weird.

Here's a pic from 3rd person:

Honestly, this animation makes me wonder why you can't fire and aim from the CRRCs normally. I think if you used attachTo and this animation in that cargo position in the CRRC, you'd be able to fire from the CRRC. Worth a try, no?

EDIT: Like this...

There are some issues with this. The AI don't like to fire but they will (maybe they won't engage when not being fired on?), but whatever they do fire eventually. And you can't reload. Um, that's not good. And you only have about a 20 degree arc that you can fire within depending on your aiming deadzone settings in game. And you can't command the AI driver since you aren't actually riding in the boat; you're just attached to it. But it's better than not being able to fire at all, right? Or..?

Here are shots of the player being able to move compared to the normal position.

Edited March 25, 2012 by Feint

[logandog1240 10]

An idea for a later release would be if you could make a backpack with all these scripts attached to it, and make that backpack a suit type thing with the flippers all in the package, i dont know if this is at all possible im just going by the survival vest that the f18 pilot has.........

[DaveP 66]

As far as I know the flippers and etc. would be impossible to have in any other manner than hiddenSelection already on the model/unit

Easiest manner I can think of would be a 'change into/out of wetsuit' action that swaps your character for the swimmer bloke (and swaps gear) & visa-versa

Good call. It's one of the cargo animations for the CRRC. In 3rd person, it looks a little strange, but not too strange. And honestly, it's the only animation I found that works while in the water (meaning you don't switch back to swimming automatically), and it's the only one that allows you to fire your weapon and aim. I wanted a prone animation because standing or crouching in the water just looks weird.

Honestly, this animation makes me wonder why you can't fire and aim from the CRRCs normally. I think if you used attachTo and this animation in that cargo position in the CRRC, you'd be able to fire from the CRRC. Worth a try, no?

EDIT: Like this...

There are some issues with this. The AI don't like to fire but they will (maybe they won't engage when not being fired on?), but whatever they do fire eventually. And you can't reload. Um, that's not good. And you only have about a 20 degree arc that you can fire within depending on your aiming deadzone settings in game. And you can't command the AI driver since you aren't actually riding in the boat; you're just attached to it. But it's better than not being able to fire at all, right? Or..?

I can't imagine it's particularly easy to reload while swimming, game or otherwise

As far as the AI firing issues my understanding is that because they are stuck in that animation their heads are only looking along a fixed axis -ergo they can't scan for targets in the usual manner, only fire at targets that they know the position of already (ie. either commanded by a squad leader or they're being shot at). I've had some similar issues in the past with trying to get infantry firing out of vehicles

Hopefully with Arma 3 the improved animation system will mean we can have differing levels of influence for units attached to objects, whether sitting in them or otherwise

Edited March 25, 2012 by DaveP

[J-Guid 10]

Good

And you can't command the AI driver since you aren't actually riding in the boat; you're just attached to it. But it's better than not being able to fire at all, right? Or..?

its posible with scripts :)!

About animations, all posible, you know ;)

[Feint 137]

@DaveP, roger that. It looks like the AI are tracking targets that I point out to them. They will swivel their weapons to track, and when I turn the boat, they keep tracking. They do fire sometimes. But it's almost like they feel bad about it or something. I suspect that they aren't tracking fast enough to keep up with the movement of the boat, or the targets are just outside their firing radius.

This is a path I'd like to go down for a future release, but I think I'm going to put the aiming from CRRC on hold for now until I can finish up UDM. Got to stay focused.

[raptor 6 actual 13]

As far as the flippers go while the divers are in the SDV, I think I may have that problem fixed. While still learning the in's and out's of modelling, I haven't quite gotten the front nose section exactly like the real thing (the Navy Department won't let me have the original blueprints for some reason ;p). But, none the less, I've remade it so that it's a smoother transition and longer by just six inches. <--Insert joke here my wife would say-->

Anyhow, the periscope is now modelled at 6.5 feet tall (1.98m) and I'm working on the viewport part of it now. Right now, without any coding in the config, the rudders don't move, the dive planes on the front don't fold up or move, and the periscope just hides in it's compartment above the top portion of the sub.

I ended up totally remodelling the entire thing yesterday, so I still have about the rest of the day to get it over to Gnat again. I hope that it will be useable by the time Feint gets ready to release the module.

[kremator 1064]

... and longer by just six inches

(the difference between OOOH and AAAAHHHHHHHHH)

[Feint 137]

qtcSodCc_ro

As you all know, usually you can't throw grenades while swimming. I've decided that sucks. Building on the concept originally thought up by Dslyecxi (though never released) for throwing grenades out of a moving helicopter, I've created this script to throw grenades from your inventory while swimming. The player initially holds the grenade while it cooks off. Click the action again and you ca throw the grenade in the direction that you are looking.

Music is "SWCC Boats" by Nathan Furst from the "Act of Valor - The Score" soundtrack.

Edited March 26, 2012 by Feint

[raptor 6 actual 13]

Again....outstanding work there.

[Feint 137]

Thanks. :)

RE: Animations underwater

A lot of people have been asking about replacing the default BIS animations underwater and adding underwater rifles and pistols.

There's something hard coded in the game so that if you do any animation other than the default swimming animation while underwater and not in a vehicle, it injures you and you eventually die. This includes the shooting animation I'm using for aiming your weapon once on the surface of the water. I have it set so that you can't do the aiming animation unless you are above sea level. Otherwise you'll get injured. I think the default swimming animations would have to be replaced with animations of the same name as a possible workaround but I have no idea.

You can try this yourself right now. Go to the shoreline of a beach. Go prone. Low crawl into the water until your unit is under the surface of the water. Don't go so far that your unit starts swimming, just stay prone under water stuck to the ground. Eventually you get injured and die. If I had to guess, this was BIS's answer to people hiding in the shallow part of the water or something. I've tried a few other animations underwater and they all have killed my units so far. This includes the weapon aiming animation. So I have the action set so that it only becomes visible above sea level. A few months ago, and more recently, I tried using some of the HALO animations during diving, but I got injured and died every time.

[J-Guid 10]

Somewhere in config for units I see params for swimng anims, check that :)

[Feint 137]

Thanks for the info. Configs are the death of me. I'll address swimming animations at a later date when I have more time. :)

Here's an update video on the dive light and the underwater flares. Enjoy!

twPeUbWtTpw

And when I was working on seating positions for the SDV, I discovered that I could lean forward and backward when using attachTo and a seating position. This could be very useful for leaning forward to see around your passengers or aircraft or whatever. I can imagine clicking an action to enable leaning forward in a car. Then clicking it again to return to normal driving position. I think I saw this on a VBS2 feature video.

Anyway, here's a video to illustrate what the heck I'm talking about:

uTrmQlFQKy0

Edited March 27, 2012 by Feint

[J-Guid 10]

:cool: nice :) what about more different colors for lights :)?

[orcinus 121]

Anyhow, the periscope is now modelled at 6.5 feet tall (1.98m) and I'm working on the viewport part of it now.

Does the "viewport part" mean this will be a working periscope? It will still be a great addition if not.

@Feint: this is astonishing work, I dunno how I managed to miss this thread for so long. I shall be lurking here & on Armaholic on at least a daily basis :)

@kremator: my GF just read this over my shoulder

"the difference between OOOH and AAAAHHHHHHHHH) "

and said "ARRGGGHHH"

BR

Orcinus

[raptor 6 actual 13]

@Orcinus- Yes, I believe Feint wanted to have a working periscope so that the player could recon the surface before committing to re-surfacing. You'll have to ask him. I watched a video he sent me the link to, and I'm trying to model it the same way, so it's taking me a bit longer than I had hoped for, but this new version is looking much better, and again, solves the fins sticking out, no more see-through front section, and still working on more detail on the interior.

[orcinus 121]

@Orcinus- Yes, I believe Feint wanted to have a working periscope so that the player could recon the surface before committing to re-surfacing. You'll have to ask him. I watched a video he sent me the link to, and I'm trying to model it the same way, so it's taking me a bit longer than I had hoped for, but this new version is looking much better, and again, solves the fins sticking out, no more see-through front section, and still working on more detail on the interior.

That would be brilliant :) I love the WIP images on Armaholic, btw.

I won't take Feint's time with even questions than he's getting anyway. I agree with many other posters, his work adds (quite literally) an entirely new dimension to ArmA . Also happy with Feint's desire to release it only when he's confident it is essentially bug-free. Back to lurk mode :)

Cheers

Orcinus

[J-Guid 10]

Oke Raptor, i wish crying when see models maded in O2, we can assit you in (with) Max, PM me :)

if you need some tips or assistance ;)

[Feint 137]

@J-Guid, the only other color I was considering for the strobes was IR. Do you or does anyone know how to great light color that is only seen by NV goggles and isn't visible in the regular spectrum?

This is what I'm currently doing:

       _color = [255,255,255];        _brightness = 0.002;                _light1 = createVehicle ["#lightpoint", position _source,[],0,"CAN_COLLIDE"];        _light1 lightAttachObject [_source, [0, 0, 0.1]];        _light1 setlightcolor _color;        _light1 setlightambient [1,1,1];        _light1 setlightbrightness _brightness;

And as for Raptor needing help with 3DSM or Oxygen, I'm sure he appreciates your offer of help, but that shouldn't degrade the quality of his work. So far, his models have far exceeded my expectations. I see no limitation so far with him using Oxygen or whatever tools he is currently using and am very much looking forward to what he comes up with next. :)

Right now, I have a few others working on things which I think will add to this module greatly. Stay tuned.

Update video on the way...

[J. Schmidt 10]

@J-Guid, the only other color I was considering for the strobes was IR. Do you or does anyone know how to great light color that is only seen by NV goggles and isn't visible in the regular spectrum?

This is what I'm currently doing:

       _color = [255,255,255];        _brightness = 0.002;                _light1 = createVehicle ["#lightpoint", position _source,[],0,"CAN_COLLIDE"];        _light1 lightAttachObject [_source, [0, 0, 0.1]];        _light1 setlightcolor _color;        _light1 setlightambient [1,1,1];        _light1 setlightbrightness _brightness;

And as for Raptor needing help with 3DSM or Oxygen, I'm sure he appreciates your offer of help, but that shouldn't degrade the quality of his work. So far, his models have far exceeded my expectations. I see no limitation so far with him using Oxygen or whatever tools he is currently using and am very much looking forward to what he comes up with next. :)

Right now, I have a few others working on things which I think will add to this module greatly. Stay tuned.

Update video on the way...

---------- Post added at 01:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:11 AM ----------

@Feint: Have you thought of looking into the lasers on the weapons in-game and how BIS got them to only be seen when using NV? You may be able to copy what they did and convert it into a flare.

Edited March 28, 2012 by JSF 82nd Reaper

[kremator 1064]

Feint .... this is just excellent mate.

I have a new project for you once you are done - as you obviously have a WEALTH of coding talent! Based on your 'shooting out of water' work, what about doing a COMPLETE 'firing from vehicles' project? Something like dsylexci has done for littlebirds but for ALL vehicles. No pressure :)

[raptor 6 actual 13]

OK, OK, I know I've been saying this for the last few days, but I actually only have one more thing on my list before wrapping it up and sending it to Gnat and Feint. The SDV looks a lot better, and since I don't know how to texture and show it in the manner it deserves, I'll let Gnat decide what he needs to do before taking some WIP shots.

I had to stop putting extra detail into it, but think it's still going to be very useful with the Diving Module. I don't know what Gnat's plans are but as far as I'm concerned, Feint is free to just throw it in his module with whatever name he wants, so as not to make another required addon to download.

Anyways, I'll be talking to you all later.