Helmet camera POV?

[Fox '09 14]

Hey guys, so I've been thinking about trying to make a helmet camera point of view work. It's only for ArmA 2 film makers but I suppose someone might get a kick out of it :)

I've been thinking about various ways to do this. One is memory points in the lod. I made a quick video as a demonstration of how this works so far. I'm afraid the point of view does not follow the head selection but rather the neck, or spine3, which explains why the helmet is bogging up and down.

I made a quick demonstration video. Pardon the ugly border (should be more circular). I suppose distortion would have to be added in post processing, as I did, as I don't see much use in changing the FOV settings for a video.

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Another way I was thinking of is attaching an invisible man to the soldier, but even then I would assume it wouldn't follow the head selection.

What do you guys think? Is there any interest in such an addon? It would consist of one unit for recording purposes.

cheers

[Rhodesy77 11]

this would give me a reason for modeling a helmet cam :) i like it

[mr_centipede 31]

Wouldn't it be easier to use something like attachTo or something? Like how (I think it's gCam mod) they attach camera to the belly of a plane or heli...

Or am I misunderstanding something?

[Fox '09 14]

Wouldn't it be easier to use something like attachTo or something? Like how (I think it's gCam mod) they attach camera to the belly of a plane or heli...

Or am I misunderstanding something?

I addressed that a bit in the OP. I don't think attachto would be able to follow the head animation when the soldier tips his head back.

Edited January 20, 2012 by Fox '09

[glowbal 13]

Nice one. How does it look when in the prone position though, seeing as it appearently does not follow the head/helmet?

[Laqueesha 474]

By all means, go for it! ;)

[aidas2 10]

Epic :D Just remove the horrible effect.

Move it forward, looks like it's behind the helmet, not on the side. Maybe do a few types, like mounted on left/ right sides and top?

[CameronMcDonald 146]

You can probably make it stick to the head, but I don't think you'll be able to do looking up/down.

_source attachto [_unit,[0,0.15,0], "neck"];

This is from a foggy breath script, which works well at making fog come out of people's mouths regardless of their position.

[PTV-Jobo 820]

That's pretty cool--especially for squads and people that wanna put together combat cam footage for training and just for entertainment videos in general I'd think. Yeah, I really hope you continue with this, this was a pretty cool idea Fox! :)

[therev709 10]

It would be even cooler to have a "commander's" view console, where they can pull up the live vid feed from any one of the troops on the ground.

[Fox '09 14]

You can probably make it stick to the head, but I don't think you'll be able to do looking up/down.

_source attachto [_unit,[0,0.15,0], "neck"];

This is from a foggy breath script, which works well at making fog come out of people's mouths regardless of their position.

No luck right now, It doesn't follow the head selection when I replace neck with head. It could work as a shoulder cam but even then I think this way would work better.

It would be even cooler to have a "commander's" view console, where they can pull up the live vid feed from any one of the troops on the ground.

I was hoping that arma 3 will allow for render to texture, and make available some sort of render to texture camera object that feeds into a display , hud, or computer.

Nice one. How does it look when in the prone position though, seeing as it appearently does not follow the head/helmet?

here's some photos, I moved it forward. first photo is a prone one

[Binkowski 25]

like i said on steam last night, i think it would add a cool effect and level of immersion for cutscenes and machinima's.

[Tankieboy2 10]

It would be even cooler to have a "commander's" view console, where they can pull up the live vid feed from any one of the troops on the ground.

This idea I like and would come in very handy for High Command for example.

For information I use one of these http://www.veho-uk.com/main/shop_detail.aspx?article=44 along with lots of other Brits in service.

[oyman 0]

Model a GoPro or Contour to go with it.

[DaveP 66]

I had an attempt scripting similar in the past, never had as good a result as this though

The FoV is about right, the positioning once you've moved it forwards looks a lot better. I think slightly angling it down will give a better headcam feel -those damn things never just point straight on, always end up slipping down with the helmet angle. Also consider adding a constant screen shake when moving, they don't stabilise well at all and combined with the robotic smoothness of the arma animation movements it may look a bit odd

That said I never want to use a bloody GoPro again -such a pain in the auto whitebalancing arse

[Fox '09 14]

Model a GoPro or Contour to go with it.

I think those would be easier to model though a retiring SF operator was using an archos 500 helmet cam. (according to a collector who brought his gear)

My question is what helmet cam features a stream? If i remember during the bin laden raid it was said that they had a direct feed from the SEALs.

---------- Post added at 08:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:23 PM ----------

I had an attempt scripting similar in the past, never had as good a result as this though

The FoV is about right, the positioning once you've moved it forwards looks a lot better. I think slightly angling it down will give a better headcam feel -those damn things never just point straight on, always end up slipping down with the helmet angle. Also consider adding a constant screen shake when moving, they don't stabilise well at all and combined with the robotic smoothness of the arma animation movements it may look a bit odd

That said I never want to use a bloody GoPro again -such a pain in the auto whitebalancing arse

Good ideas, I'll take note of them. As far as shaking effects, I think that should be done in a video editor. Mostly because my knowledge of scripts is very limited.

[therev709 10]

My question is what helmet cam features a stream? If i remember during the bin laden raid it was said that they had a direct feed from the SEALs.

I honestly don't know what the SEALs and Dboys use, but the new Contour HD does have bluetooth, which can be used to stream in real time to an Iphone or Android. I don't think it would be hard to imagine linking them via bluetooth to a transmitter, radio, or satcom receiver.

[STALKERGB 6]

I honestly don't know what the SEALs and Dboys use, but the new Contour HD does have bluetooth, which can be used to stream in real time to an Iphone or Android. I don't think it would be hard to imagine linking them via bluetooth to a transmitter, radio, or satcom receiver.

At university I believe some students had some fancy transmitter box that they had linked to a small helmet mountable camera which (in theory) went to a satellite then down to a tv. So maybe it was something like that, a separate box for the transmitting?

[DaveP 66]

I've had some experience using live streaming compact video cameras, so here's my take on what's likely used:

It's entirely possible to take most consumer helmet cams and use them for a live feed -one could in theory use a commercial-grade broadcast package to transmit over RF up to around 200~m

However, even cameras like contour and gopro are really not ruggedised for combat and I consider it unlikely that they'd be appropriated for combat operations, especially since these systems generally use unprotected transmission.

I read an article on the video technology used for the Bin Laden raid in particular and it seemed to suggest a proprietary system developed by a defence supplier that involved robust cameras akin to the size of Contour or similar attached to a secure video delivery system, most likely RF.

From there the transmitters communicated with a base station system on one of the Blackhawk helicopters overhead, which in turn used satcom to send the data back to America

[Fox '09 14]

I would imagine the goverment might contract contour or archos for a secure system as well, though that's speculation. I'll look into it further, thanks for the input DaveP.

[DaveP 66]

There are many, many higher quality bullet/lipstick cams from a reliability and ruggedness standpoint than simply contours and gopro heros -the designs themselves are so genericised that it's well within the purview of a company like Raytheon or BAE to develop a system, especially with the sort of developments that were made with regards to Future Force Warrior/FIST.

But alas, that's not relevant

With regards to camera shake, it's a fairly simple implementation:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/addCamShake

One could imagine a script that added camera shake to the power of something to the effect of a value related to the speed of a unit

Either way, looking forward to see what comes out of this. Cool idea.

[LordJarhead 1721]

That's pretty cool--especially for squads and people that wanna put together combat cam footage for training and just for entertainment videos in general I'd think. Yeah, I really hope you continue with this, this was a pretty cool idea Fox! :)

Why we had the same Idea in our minds? This would be great to make some awesome stuff I guess.

But I would guess you should make the cam a bit further forward and bit more right. And please, this effect dont need to be there. I mean, if someone wants to make an aswesome videos Yokhanan mentioned, he usually add them in the video editor.

At least, I will wait for this fine piece! This'll be fun!

Jarhead

[Fox '09 14]

perhaps I didn't make it clear in the OP, the effects in the youtube video were added in Sony Vegas, not in game. No distortion , border, grain, etc.

[exikutioner 10]

Oh man this looks sweet! Keep up the great work. Can def find a use for this mod.

[LordJarhead 1721]

perhaps I didn't make it clear in the OP' date=' the effects in the youtube video were added in Sony Vegas, not in game. No distortion , border, grain, etc.[/quote']

Oh, alright! Very nice then. Your work is much appreciated!

Thanks!