RQ-11B Raven for Arma3

[Feint 137]

I've been working on an RQ-11B Raven addon for Arma3 for a few months now. I've gotten it to a place where I'm close to releasing it. So I made this video to demonstrate some of the features such as:

-Target Tracking

-Laser Pointer

-Target Height adjustment

-All new keyboard and numpad keys

-Overhauled code

-New display layout

-Expanded UAV and Target info

-Ability to change units from Metric to Imperial

-Map Marking

-Raven Launching Animation (grenade throw)

-Ability to put on and take off editor-placed backpack

Enjoy:

Here's the keyboard layout I'm working on:

BI recently changed the way attachTo interacts with setDir and just the way attachTo seems to work in general. I'm having problems with attaching something, then detaching it and then trying to reattach it again with a script. I know something changed on their end because the script I was using before worked fine. I put in a few tickets to see if I can get some info on the problem. But if you have heard anything about attachTo changing (or changing the way certain objects or classes interact with attachTo), please let me know.

[m1n1d0u 29]

Really nice ! i love the laser feature but can you make it IR ?

[shay_gman 272]

Amazing as always Feint. Keep up the good work.

[malakdecaen 3]

great !! can't wait

thanks for you'r work

[legolasindar 3]

Nice work

Please add IR LASER, visible only with NVG (night vision googles).

[mind_games_cabal 1]

:yay: I loved your old one in Arma 2, and cannot wait to use your new one Feint :yay:

[marker 1]

Hi Feint

Looking at the video, I can't work out if you are moving the camera independently from the UAV? If you are, have you managed to get it smooth. As in my helicam PIP script I cannot seem to get the camera to move smoothly!

If you have got it moving smoothly, mind if I look at your code to see how? Thanks

[brad7 4]

Will it be possible to make it more compact when its on your back?

[RoyTF91 1]

RQ 11 was super useful in ArmA 2, glad you're remaking it for ArmA 3 Feint. Much appreciated.

[pre-Vet 10]

The minimonitor is great.

You really make excellent mods.

[Feint 137]

Really nice ! i love the laser feature but can you make it IR ?

Nice work

Please add IR LASER, visible only with NVG (night vision googles).

I think it's possible but I have to figure out what color/alpha levels the IR lasers are. If anyone knows, that would save me a lot of searching around. I had originally planned to tie in the visibility of the laser with the new command "humidity" so that if it's 100% visible, the laser would be 100% visible and if it was 10% humidity, the laser would be 1 percent visible. What do you guys think of that?

One note is that the end point of the laser is a target-able laser (the same one that you get with West laser designators) that you can shoot laser-enabled weapons at. You can see the end point of the laser visible in the video as a red flashing dot. I can't control the color of that as far as I know and so that is a visible laser dot. It's also red, so I was thinking of making the laser line red, but I love the way it looks when green. So I'm kind of torn between looks vs. reality.

Hi Feint

Looking at the video, I can't work out if you are moving the camera independently from the UAV? If you are, have you managed to get it smooth. As in my helicam PIP script I cannot seem to get the camera to move smoothly!

If you have got it moving smoothly, mind if I look at your code to see how? Thanks

The camera is moving independent of the UAV, yes. Right now, it's basically looking at a point on the ground. And to move the camera, I'm moving the point one meter in whatever direction you choose. Smooth? When zoomed in, it's jumpy. But when zoomed out, it looks smoother as an illusion of distance because a 1 meter change looks small when you are 100 meters away from whatever is moving. When the end point is locked to a target, it's super smooth because it's actually attached to that target using attachTo. Does that make sense? I could theoretically make it smoother by moving the end point with setVelocity instead of setPosASL and setPosATL, but...I never thought of doing that until I just wrote it just now. There would be lots of problems doing it that way though because the keystrokes would add up if someone holds down the key and yadda yadda yadda I'm using setPos. :)

Will it be possible to make it more compact when its on your back?

I didn't show it in the video, but the Raven folds up into a backpack. Unfortunately, something changed with attachTo so that I can't get the animation to work correctly for assembly and breakdown. I'm working on that trying to think of a workaround or some way I can use setVectorDir commands to get what I need instead of setDir. But I also have to figure out why some objects are going in their correct space and some are not. I'm guessing it's a visual bug but who knows?

The minimonitor is great.

You really make excellent mods.

Baraka deserves all credit for the models including the Ground Control Station and the Raven A and Raven B models and all the parts. He did a great job and I hope to show off his work soon when I release this.

[frankfranconi 24]

I was already a fan of the RQ-11 in Arma 2 and this is looking even better. Good job!

[marker 1]

The camera is moving independent of the UAV, yes. Right now, it's basically looking at a point on the ground. And to move the camera, I'm moving the point one meter in whatever direction you choose. Smooth? When zoomed in, it's jumpy. But when zoomed out, it looks smoother as an illusion of distance because a 1 meter change looks small when you are 100 meters away from whatever is moving. When the end point is locked to a target, it's super smooth because it's actually attached to that target using attachTo. Does that make sense? I could theoretically make it smoother by moving the end point with setVelocity instead of setPosASL and setPosATL, but...I never thought of doing that until I just wrote it just now. There would be lots of problems doing it that way though because the keystrokes would add up if someone holds down the key and yadda yadda yadda I'm using setPos. :)

Exact same way as myself mate.

When locked to target it is obviously super smooth. I decided to to use modeltoworld with select to move the camera up, down, left or right. Maybe try setvelocity and see how it works..

Although, you should maybe look at Blakes Workshop over on the TOH forums, as he has it super smooth when directing the camera. He graciously allowed me to use some of his code...

Cheers for the response.

[Baraka 10]

Great work Mate!

I'm sure you will solve the animation trouble. Take it slow, every Alpha patch can screw up your work these days.

Greetings Baraka.

[Feint 137]

Exact same way as myself mate.

When locked to target it is obviously super smooth. I decided to to use modeltoworld with select to move the camera up, down, left or right. Maybe try setvelocity and see how it works..

Although, you should maybe look at Blakes Workshop over on the TOH forums, as he has it super smooth when directing the camera. He graciously allowed me to use some of his code...

Cheers for the response.

If I changed the position of the target 0.1 meters at a time, it would be super smooth, but too slow I would think. Changing the target position 1 meter at a time is almost too slow for me honestly, but I can't be too picky about these things or I'll never finish any of my work. I'll take a look at Blakes Workshop though because I love the work he's done for TOH. Thanks.

[MasterDon 10]

That is so awesome!!!

[delta99 34]

You should post links to the tickets with attachTo so we can up vote. I've heard problems with that recently so they must have messed something up.

[Meatball0311 79]

Everytime I watch your videos I am just amazed. Your projects are all just fantastic and I am rooting for you! Keep up the great work and stay motivated my friend.. you make big contributions to the ArmA World.

* also, nice beats.

[kremator 1064]

Very nice indeed to see this improved baby make it to Arma3 .... grats mate!

[Divinitize 1]

outstanding keep up the good work

[Feint 137]

You should post links to the tickets with attachTo so we can up vote. I've heard problems with that recently so they must have messed something up.

Good idea:

AttachTo ticket is here:

http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=7228

Everytime I watch your videos I am just amazed. Your projects are all just fantastic and I am rooting for you! Keep up the great work and stay motivated my friend.. you make big contributions to the ArmA World.

* also, nice beats.

Thanks man. I appreciate your kind words especially coming from you, one of the best modders the Arma series has seen.

Very nice indeed to see this improved baby make it to Arma3 .... grats mate!

Gracias, sir. :)

outstanding keep up the good work

Thanks!

That is so awesome!!!

Thanks to you and everyone for your support!

[anthariel 165]

Very original as mod, congratulations.

I did an article on my website for the French COMMUNAUTY, they are all very excited to be able to download!

Keep it up, good job :-)

[sorry for my English :-(]

[Kendrick-1stMD 10]

AWESOME! I love using the Raven in ARMA 2, and cant wait to download and use this one. Excellent work man.

[Feint 137]

QUICK UPDATE:

• I've learned how to make functions and I've made the camera display much more efficient. So that's cool. Functions are created in the config, so you can look at them from within Arma3's Function Viewer which is kinda fun.
  
• I've also made the laser unable to be turned on except when it's locked onto something or pointing at ground level. Otherwise, I was able to shoot the laser and have it stop in mid-air.
  
• If you are locked onto a ground unit, I've created a simple script that checks if that unit gets into a vehicle. If it does, then the lock drops. I'm now trying to figure out how to check if a ground unit enters a building. I know the Jarhead Sound Redeployment Mod figured out to "check height above player", but I have to figure out how to do that too.
  
• I've added a new sound (engine wind down) and might add a few more to replace some of the alarm sounds that I'm not crazy about (if I'm feeling bored with coding the hard stuff)
  
• The laser is too difficult for me to make IR only. So screw it. I'll make two lasers, one for pointing (red and visible) and one for target designation (invisible beam but red-lit end) unless someone else has a better solution
  
• With setDir and attachTo fighting inconsistently, I've removed the cool little animation of putting together the Raven. But I'll restore it if ever the commands are fixed or I figure out what I'm doing wrong.
  
• I've been playtesting a lot and have found a few bugs that I've squashed
  
• Created a new backpack (just a simple reskin of the kit bag):
  

[kaelies 17]

If the point of breaking lock-on is due to a broken line-of-sight, maybe you could use this every few seconds to see if you are able to see the unit: http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/lineIntersects

Also, I'm not well educated in how it works, but wouldn't the lock transfer onto the vehicle if a unit were to get in one, rather than just dropping?