Micro Air Vehicle Addon

[Feint 137]

I've been able to create a new backpack config and have it execute commands through addActions. That was a hurdle for me because I am not good at configs. Baraka created some separate parts for the Raven and I was able to create a sequence where they are built or broken down using my old friend attachTo. The two sequences look pretty good to me but I might tweak them a little bit.

The nice thing about this is that you don't have to add anything special to your mission like a module that you sync. You can just add the backpack to a unit or drop the backpack somewhere in the editor and have a unit retrieve it at mission start. To use the Raven, just take off your backpack, assemble the Raven, launch it, perform your mission, retrieve the Raven, break it down into the backpack, put on your backpack and move to your next location. This way, you can also hand off the backpack to someone else who can then build and launch a Raven. This is still untested in multiplayer, but I'm hopeful that there won't be too many problems.

I've also added a "reveal" command that I have to tweak a little. Basically, when the Raven overflies troops, laser markers, land vehicles, aircraft or ships, it will "reveal" them to the group of the person operating the Raven (i.e. add the information to the map the way you can see an enemy soldier on the map after you see him). It's a little hit or miss revealing them, having their locations show up on the map, then fade out over time. And it seems like when the Raven flies right over the same troops, the locations are not updated in real time. This might have to do with the way I'm using the reveal command:

_scanDiameter = 250; // radius - not diameter
_objects = nearestObjects [position _microAirVehicle, ["LaserTarget","Ship","Air","Man","LandVehicle"], _scanDiameter];

// _objects = _microAirVehicle nearTargets _scanDiameter;   // TRIED THIS AND GOT NO RESULTS

{(group _caller) reveal _x} forEach _objects;

This gets repeated every 2 seconds.

I tried using nearTargets, but didn't get any results revealed, maybe because the _microAirVehicle doesn't have a "side". I'm not sure I'm using the command correctly so I just went back to nearestObjects.

Left to do is figure out how to make displays and make a better display for the RQ-11 Raven. I might also just rename this addon "RQ-11 Raven" rather than "Micro Aerial Vehicle Module". What do you all think?

Here's a video demonstrating the new functionality (reuploaded because of problems):

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Edited April 20, 2012 by Feint

[kremator 1064]

Superb!

/me rubs hands together in anticipation!

[andersson 285]

Can you put the unit closer to the ground, so its built "on the ground" instead of in the air?

One thing I personally dont really like is UIs center screen. I would love to see it in the lower right corner, or center right.

You are inventing very cool and useful addons, cant wait to play with them :)

[kremator 1064]

One thing I personally dont really like is UIs center screen.

That isn't part of MAV andresson. It's something like Truemods GUI.

[Feint 137]

That isn't part of MAV andresson. It's something like Truemods GUI.

Thank you. I seem to answer this question more than any other.

---------- Post added at 22:55 ---------- Previous post was at 22:52 ----------

Can you put the unit closer to the ground, so its built "on the ground" instead of in the air?

You are inventing very cool and useful addons, cant wait to play with them :)

Sure. Probably a good idea.

[kremator 1064]

Can you put the unit closer to the ground, so its built "on the ground" instead of in the air?

...and perhaps have the engineer animations play at the same time (the one where it looks like they are changing a tyre)? That may fit in nicely.

[andersson 285]

That isn't part of MAV andresson. It's something like Truemods GUI.

Ok, then its all good. Then I wont suggest the same in your diver thread ;)

[Feint 137]

...and perhaps have the engineer animations play at the same time (the one where it looks like they are changing a tyre)? That may fit in nicely.

I am going to look for a different animation. That one is used for everything. I hate being locked into an animation though... I kind of like just walking around it as it's being built. I redid the assembly animation. It's cooler now... :)

Edited April 26, 2012 by Feint

[Shashman 0]

The Raven was in the news today by the way. A pair of Taiwanese nationals were caught by undercover US agents, trying to aquire an example for the People's Republic of China. They were also after an E-2 Hawkeye... A bit harder to conceal in luggage than the little RQ-11 I should think.

[Dillzter 1]

if only i had the paid version... great concept, great everything, ill keep looking at this, and probably eventually get it when i get the paid version

[Feint 137]

The Raven was in the news today by the way. A pair of Taiwanese nationals were caught by undercover US agents, trying to aquire an example for the People's Republic of China. They were also after an E-2 Hawkeye... A bit harder to conceal in luggage than the little RQ-11 I should think.

China has spent decades reverse engineering Western inventions. Seems to work for them. It puts them behind the times, but they save a ton of money on R&D. I didn't know that the Raven was any kind of super secret invention. They should just masquerade as a YouTube channel host as the comedian who runs Rated RR got great access to the RQ-11.

if only i had the paid version... great concept, great everything, ill keep looking at this, and probably eventually get it when i get the paid version

Arma2 is an addiction. Being an open world, you can basically do anything you can imagine. It's the best value in games, bar none, mostly because of the support of the community and the fact that the community doesn't/can't charge for addons and scripts (unlike the FSX community that charges money for anything worthwhile). It's a policy that's kept our community much more honest than the FSX community which seems rife with stealing and bickering.

QUICK UPDATE: I've been looking into making a display to replace the temporary BIS UAV display that's currently in the camera view. It's complicated (for me) and going slowly. But I have a half day of work today and hope I can make some progress on it.

Also, I've changed the "workflow" from backpack to launch. Basically it's:

BACKPACK <<->> BLANKET WITH PARTS <<->> ASSEMBLED RAVEN >> ATTACH RAVEN TO PLAYER (ready for launch) >> LAUNCH RAVEN

When the Raven is attached to the player ready for launch, if you get into a vehicle, the Raven sort of prevents a Hummer from driving forward. I like the idea of being able to launch the Raven from a boat or the back of a truck. But I haven't decided exactly what that would look like. Also, since you can't use addActions in a vehicle that were assigned to the player outside of that vehicle, that means I have to script a way of adding those actions to the vehicle but making them only visible to the player that "owns" the Raven, so to speak. Or I could just skip all of that and make it so you can't launch from a vehicle and release this addon sooner.

[kremator 1064]

Skip the launch from vehicles. Not needed IMO.

[DrunkenVeteran 10]

Skip the launch from vehicles. Not needed IMO.

Agreed, acting as the JTAC/FAC for my Group I can see myself using this addon from the Ground quite often to maintain situational awareness throughout the AO.

[sup3r6f0ur 2]

Skip the launch from vehicles. Not needed IMO.

Would not need to be top on the prorities but still handy if your on a boat and you want to recon the Target area before you arrive, that would work great.

[Feint 137]

I suppose the workaround is to just launch the Raven before getting into a boat or vehicle. But to access the camera, you have to be out of a vehicle. Well, hmm. OK, thanks for the inputs.

[Feint 137]

I created my first display ever. Wow, what a pain in the ass.

I'm still getting a config error from BinPBO but I have no idea what it is referring to in the display hpp file which I've linked to the config with an #include statement. Everything works fine in game. I get no errors in the RPT file. But that binPBO is usually pretty good at pointing out the flaws in my coding. So I'm at a loss.

Here are two quick screenshots of what I've come up with so far:

And here's a video demonstrating the new assembly, new landing and the new display.

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[Baraka 10]

:bounce3: That looks hot like hell!

[glowbal 13]

The display looks nice!

Are you going to make it MP compatible and if so, have you tested it on the dedicated yet?

[kremator 1064]

Very nice indeed.

[J. Schmidt 10]

Great Job! Can't wait to use it in game.

[[aps]gnat 28]

Very cool

[John1000 10]

Gnat;2142472']Very cool

Feint' date='what about making it out so that it can Laser Paint a target for a Arty barrage with a invisable laser,thus making it somewhat ready for use in Arma 3?

What if we could use it to locate missing people at sea by some sort of added ELB,a sort of a Beacon device for pilots.

It will be Great if you can make a simple thing also that won`t take up much of you`re time anyway:[url']https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/rXtWMudiDVAWq70vvwCPCNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink[/url]

It a" AR. DRONE".

[AzUme 10]

Awesome!

[mrcash2009 0]

Well I have to say this is perfect for handy mobile recon, plenty of missions I can already see use for this esp SF stealth missions.

[Feint 137]

Thanks all. I am trying to keep this somewhat realistic. So the laser designator is a no go mainly because they are too heavy to fit on a uav of this size but also because this particular raven is not the upgraded model with the gimbal camera. It is the one with the two fixed cameras, fore and port. Also, launching this particular bird from a downed pilot isn't realistic because it is too large and requires support equipment that a pilot would never eject with.

As for multiplayer, I am concentrating on getting this working for singleplayer. If it works in multiplayer, great! Otherwise, I will most likely need some help. My main concern with multiplayer is getting the raven to move as I am using camera commands on a non-ai vehicle that is spawned with createVehicle. CreateVehicle should work fine in MP but I know cameras are local. So maybe the launcher of the Raven will see it flying in circles, but others might not. But this is pure speculation.

---------- Post added at 12:42 ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 ----------

Oh, I'm realizing I misread your request John1000. The Raven actually already does alert the group of the person viewing the Raven camera feed with icons on the map indicating positions of all land, sea or air objects that it sees. If it doesn't get a good look at something, it puts a question mark on the map. This is vanilla map work, nothing special. I just set the script to "reveal" to the group of the player the nearest objects within certain categories closest to the raven within a certain distance. The Arma2 engine does the rest. So the map icons will disappear over time if those objects are not viewed directly by the players. Best practice is to run the raven over an area and then mark the map manually with unit and vehicle positions along with the time those positions were revealed. A vanilla bug is that the raven doesn't seem to "track" those icons on the map in realtime. It seems to reveal objects once and that's it. Weird bug that I can't figure out. But nearestObjects is an unreliable command.

Edited May 2, 2012 by Feint