WW4 Extended - Unofficial expansion for WW4 2.5

[akvadakar 21]

Thanks a lot guys!

I hope the deletion of the 2 textures in the dedicated server will solve it - so players can keep the faulty version :)

[kenoxite 156]

Thanks for the heads up, Akvadakar. And also for the fixed textures, Sanctuary.

Replace ww4ext_strykers.pbo in WW4_EXT_VEH with the one found here: https://www.mediafire.com/download/ghb9hp92vh7rs35/ww4ext_stryker_quickfix.zip

As the name for the slat.pac has changed to slat.paa ww4ext_matdef.pbo needs also to be updated with the one provided in the zip file, or the slat will look flat and dull with materials enabled.

I've also removed a couple faces inside the strykers that were using an inexistent texture, and changed another inexistent one (white_mat_10.pac) with a vanilla BIS one (white.pac).

[kenoxite 156]

Quick fix that solves dedicated server compatibility with the Harrier: https://www.mediafire.com/download/smjucqca1vbyl98/ww4ext_harrier_quickfix.zip

Replace ww4ext_harrier.pbo in WW4_EXT_VEH with the one found in the zip file.

 

As reported by Akvadakar. The texture itself was resized by Sanctuary.

[BennySouthSt 12]

I've recently been working on a few tweaks to WW4 Extended that really suits a small OFP group i'm in - its currently a few tweaks to load outs and vehiclesclasses, with some extra units written in. Is it okay for me to release this tweaked version for my group to use? 

 

Thanks!

[kenoxite 156]

I've recently been working on a few tweaks to WW4 Extended that really suits a small OFP group i'm in - its currently a few tweaks to load outs and vehiclesclasses, with some extra units written in. Is it okay for me to release this tweaked version for my group to use?

Sure thing, go ahead.

 

And, to clarify, you can do pretty much whatever you want with WW4 Extended other than make money with it. You can tweak it, redistribute it, etc without problems, particularly when you don't plan to release it publicly (making a thread here claiming it to be, say, "WW4 Extended v1.5", that would confuse things). Basically, this project is under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial lincense, and WW4 itself is under a similar license (can't remember if explicitly, but it's implicit). Using the new BI licenses it would fall under the Arma Public License (APL) one. Actually, that's probably the more appropriate since v1.0, which includes models and textures from Arma 1 and 2.

 

With that said, those licenses can only be applied to the derivate WW4 infantry units and vehicles and the rest of vehicles that are made by BI or are clearly stated to be public domain (as shown in the credits). The rest are still under the licenses established by each author (on the top of my head, inf units like the Middle East insurgents and guerrilas, vehicles like the Zils, Sea Knight... all those not made by BIS). You should ask those authors for permission. But, well, you don't need to worry about this for your particular case.

[BennySouthSt 12]

Great, thanks for the info man.

[Ulmann 45]

Hello Kenoxite,

Sorry for offtop, have a question.

http://devon.chrisob.com/photoshop/Camouflage/- Link is dead, maybe you know where I can take camouflage textures?

[kenoxite 156]

http://devon.chrisob.com/photoshop/Camouflage/- Link is dead, maybe you know where I can take camouflage textures?

All those textures were compiled from the ones found in this thread.

It was initiated by SomerenV (the author of the textures from the dead page), but others have contributed with further patterns.

[Ulmann 45]

All those textures were compiled from the ones found in this thread.

It was initiated by SomerenV (the author of the textures from the dead page), but others have contributed with further patterns.

This link not working too...

UPD: Now working, thanks

[barccy 53]

If another update is made, could the optics be changed to wgl style launcher scopes and translucent m16 iron sights, stgn m4 style acog, and add a replacement Carl Gustav recoilless rifle like wgl's or Raptor's at least for Rangers?

[krzychuzokecia 716]

If another update is made, could the optics be changed to wgl style launcher scopes and translucent m16 iron sights, stgn m4 style acog, and add a replacement Carl Gustav recoilless rifle like wgl's or Raptor's at least for Rangers?

 

Well, unfortunately, no further updates are planned, apart from bug-fixing:

 

This project is pretty much feature locked now, so there won't be any further significant additions (units or weapons) other than the ones I previously mentioned (maybe some more vehicle ports, but they are quite unlikely TBH). Further patches will and are focusing on bug fixing and polishing the existing stuff.

 

Also, adapting WGL sight views/different CG model would need permission from WGL team/original authors - which may be hard to achieve. However, it is possible to make custom EXT config which would replace original (WW4) Carl Gustav model, with another. The file You're looking for is in ww4ext_magazines.pbo - \rocketlaunchers\carlgustav.hpp. Open it up with Notepad, and change model=""; value.

[kenoxite 156]

A bit of info dump related to the development of WW4 Extended:

 

 

Stats

How many infantry classes does EXT add? 1074

And the Cold War module? 238

And Arctic? 176

WW4 Extended adds 1488 infantry unit classes.

 

How many vehicle classes does EXT add? 291

And the Cold War module? 90

And Arctic? 46

WW4 Extended adds 427 vehicle unit classes.

 

 

How enemy identification and detection for AI works in Ext

https://imgur.com/a/xxGka

(check the image descriptions at the bottom for more info)

Basically, Ext units inherit four base classes:

1. Random person - This sets the basic stats and it's identified as neutral (Man, in yellow).
2. Generic soldier - This sets the basic stats for soldiers and it's identified as neutral (Rifleman, in yellow).
3. Faction soldier - Sets the basic stats for a normal Ext soldier and has side defined (Rifleman, red if enemy)
4. Role soldier - Sets the specific stats for the role of the soldier (<Whatever role the unit has>,red if enemy)

This gives awareness to Ext units of other enemy or neutral nearby units without giving them total knowledge of their side or role. That information is only gathered by AI units when those units get closer, similar to how a human would do it. Once a unit has been revealed (by the naked "eye" or through magnified optics, such as binoculars or rifle scopes) all proceeds as you would expect with WW4 units.

 

Another difference between WW4 Ext and vanilla WW4 is sneaking. In vanilla WW4 sneaking around enemies is not possible (due to increased hearing abilities). In Ext, the units hearing is similar to BIS default, but the noise generated varies by their unit class. Noise generated is higher for regular soldiers and lower for civilians and insurgents (they have little to no gear) and SF and recon units (they are trained for this). In general, it's closer to vanilla OFP/CWA behaviour than to WW4.

 

You can see all this stealth system working in this test/showcase mission: https://www.mediafire.com/download/t4au5lsi2l1gnkl/_ext_stealth_test.eden.zip

You have an SF and regular Ext unit to the left, and a SF and a regular vanilla WW4 unit to the right. Test this mission using several speeds and stances (walking, jogging, running, kneeling, crawling, etc). The dots over their heads indicate if they have spotted you: not detected (green), suspected (yellow), detected (red).

 

 

Unfinished and on hold (indifinitely)

https://imgur.com/a/OJJDL

The glitch in WW4 skeletons where the hand glitches out of place when holding handguns was particularly evident in these units. I finally had to artificially elongate the gloves, which solved the "broken wrist" (particularly noticeable in first person) but made the hands look really weird.

 

 

All that was part of a module for Ext I was working on but never got to finish, centered around Tropical conflicts (center and south America, SE Asia). So it's now in the same bag as NBC and flashlight units.

 

 

Changing sensitivity and armor values of infantry units

As you have seen, Ext changes the way units detect and engage quite significantly. It also changes the way infantry armor is calculated and assigned.

 

Regarding armor, two changes are particularly relevant:

• The armor of arms has generally been upped so it's similiar (if not identical) to that of the torso. This was done in order to prevent what I call "death by arms", where units die from a shot to the arm in most cases due to the way the animations are set (where arms are covering most of the torso 90% of the time). Now a shot to the arms deals the same damage as if it were the torso.
• The armor of legs has been upped. This was done to prevent the usual and annoying (from the player's game experience and gameplay POVs) situation where you have to crawl the majority of a mission due to an unlucky early leg injury. Note that you can still lose mobility, but it's more difficult now. Also note that this change of armor values is closely tied to the built-in and forced hit EH in all Ext units, where shot units will generally lie down when shot at. So, visually and from a gameplay perspective the effects are similar, without all the annoyance.

Also, armor values in general are now tied to the one that the unit is actually wearing. Units with PASGT vests are worse protected than those with IBA, those without helmets have the most basic armor value in their heads, etc.

 

All these values are tied to the new Ext versions of the vanilla WW4 weapons, so IBA vests can take up to 3 7.62 shots, PASGT about 1, etc. While damage values of the weapons are mostly the same as in WW4, the Ext versions have other changes that can break this balance if you use other weapons. This same rule applies to anti armor weapons (AT launchers, etc) and Ext vehicles.

 

All these values (armor, sensitivity, and also camouflage, etc.) are set by using defines, in the definitions.hpp file found in ww4ext_inf_cfg (in the v1.96 compatible infantry config all this is already preparsed, so you must search for it in the main config.cpp).

 

definitions.hpp has defines for WW4 Extended, vanilla WW4 and vanilla BIS values. This way you can easily set the value of any given unit type just by changing the define to be used (to revert them back to vanilla WW4 values or maybe change the Ext ones). That file is also heavily commented, so you shouldn't have too many problems knowing what's what.

 

--

EDIT: Added more info about detection; added link to stealth tests mission; info about changing values of infantry units; embedded the albums now that we can; corrected some things

Edited August 31, 2015 by kenoxite

[krzychuzokecia 716]

Unfinished and on hold (indifinitely)

 

Blame it on me. I was tasked with making an example set of WW4EXT infantry models (like WW4 templates), that would include Kenoxite's amazing models like winter clothing and those unreleased short sleeves models, but because of various reasons, I've never got to finish it... :(

 

But I will, sometime I will...

[Macser 776]

The glitch in WW4 skeletons where the hand glitches out of place when holding handguns was particularly evident in these units. I finally had to artificially elongate the gloves, which solved the "broken wrist" (particularly noticeable in first person) but made the hands look really weird.

 

 

That's not a WW4 glitch. The original base models were heavily edited and optimised HYK/ GRAA characters. Which in turn were based on the resistance civilian mesh. The "skeleton" is the same for all BI default units. Without exception. Even the older default US/Soviet ones. :)

 

The modder never had any official template precisely showing the locations of each joint though. You had to work off the existing meshes. Given the "awkward" ( I'm being polite there) pose of the models that wasn't easy. And made creating new characters very fiddly. 

 

It wouldn't have bothered Sanc at the time, as he had a fair bit to do in other areas. And I don't remember sleeve-less units being on the menu. The wrist problem wouldn't have been a priority in any case. Same with the shoulders.

 

Before anyone asks. Although Sanc is an experienced Blender user, the tools weren't there to get smooth, blended weighting into P3d form. Not back then. By the time they became available the project would've been too far ahead in production.

 

The wrist issue:

It might be possible to alleviate the wrist collapse with some weight painting and the addition of one or two edge loops in the forearms. But no guarantees. If it worked, you'd likely be limited to FK animation from there on. Not as cool as it sounds.

 

Unlike A2/A3, you can't add new bones into the upper torso and still have the procedural animations work.

In fact I don't know if you can do that in the newer titles either. Model.cfg does allow custom hierarchies though. 

 

The later titles in the Arma series use a secondary set of bones in the upper and fore arms called twist bones.

These rotate roughly at the center of the limbs to give an intermediate turn. This helps maintain volume.

[kenoxite 156]

That's not a WW4 glitch. The original base models were heavily edited and optimised HYK/ GRAA characters. Which in turn were based on the resistance civilian mesh. The "skeleton" is the same for all BI default units. Without exception. Even the older default US/Soviet ones. :)

I stand corrected then.

 

Still, I was able to "fix" it by modifying the shape of the upper part of the gloves. It doesn't look natural, but at least the hands are linked to the arms now.

[Grafsburg 0]

Really enjoyed the mod so far! I have a question though; is there a convenient list of weapons and magazines that the mod uses somewhere, without me having to dig through the .pbo files?

[kenoxite 156]

Really enjoyed the mod so far! I have a question though; is there a convenient list of weapons and magazines that the mod uses somewhere, without me having to dig through the .pbo files?

I created several spreadsheets with listings of all the units, but this was done for a previous version (v0.7 or 0.8). A lot of things changed since v1.0, the most notable being that now all infantry units use custom variants of the vanilla WW4 weapons. Names are mostly the same, though, so where before it was, say, WW4_W556_30Bmag now it woulb be WW4EXT_W556_30Bmag, etc (so, from WW4_ to WW4EXT_).

 

There's hundreds of new infantry and vehicle units in v1.0 onwards than it's listed in those spreadsheets, but it should give you an overall idea of what's available. I tried to keep naming conventions as coherent as possible, so once you get the idea of what a name of a role is then all you have to worry is about what the prefix of a given branch or faction is (WW4EXT_MUSARGrenadier, WW4EXT_DFMOTGrenadier, etc, prefixes being WW4EXT_MUSAR and WW4EXT_DFMOT in this case).

 

The spreadsheets should be updated, but it's such a huge and boring task that I can't assure you it'll be done, or that it'll be done in a reasonable time frame.

 

But even if you have to dive in the pbos you shouldn't have to have a hard time finding things. ww4ext_inf_cfg.pbo and ww4ext_veh_cfg.pbo are extremelly modular, with all the different unit classes clearly divided by either camo type/branch or side.

[akvadakar 21]

The -Self heal for medics is bugged in MP - you get more -Self heal actions when you respawn.

Also the supressive fire for AIs seems bugged in MP - the invisible target is not deleted so AIs keep firing forever - not sure about this though.

[kenoxite 156]

The -Self heal for medics is bugged in MP - you get more -Self heal actions when you respawn.

I'll look into this.

 

 

Also the supressive fire for AIs seems bugged in MP - the invisible target is not deleted so AIs keep firing forever - not sure about this though.

The invisible targets for infantry aren't actually deleted. They are spawned in bulk (a full team of 12) and then repositioned back and forth as requested: from their original spawn position to the positions requested by the "suppression" script and, once it's done, back to the original spawn. The ones for vehicles are spawned on request, though. Were you shooting infantry or vehicles?

 

Thanks for the report.

[akvadakar 21]

Infantry only.

[Fruitpunchsamurai 1]

Hi kenoxite, I'm a rather new to OFP and only started playing two months ago. I'm loving the mod so far both you and Santuary have made me understand why Operation Flashpoint is loved so much by the people who played it. From what I played of it there are some bugs that I ran into, I don't know if its on my end or what. 1) the ah1z has an error that does not allow it to deploy flares when shot at and it also does not engage infantry as well as the ah64 apache, even with the invisible infantry marker. 2) I believe the mechanized group for the U.S. army says its missing the marksmen in the group. That's all the bugs I have found so far. Also how do you remove and  add magazines to rucksacks on ww4ext units? I tried putting in the int line: this removemagazines "map_ww4ext_w556_pdm" but the ammo in the rucksack is still there. I want to add JAM magazines in the rucksacks so that my ww4ext units equiped with JAM compatible weapons can use magazines in the rucksack. Again thank you so much for this mod.

[kenoxite 156]

Hi kenoxite, I'm a rather new to OFP and only started playing two months ago. I'm loving the mod so far both you and Santuary have made me understand why Operation Flashpoint is loved so much by the people who played it. From what I played of it there are some bugs that I ran into, I don't know if its on my end or what. 1) the ah1z has an error that does not allow it to deploy flares when shot at and it also does not engage infantry as well as the ah64 apache, even with the invisible infantry marker. 2) I believe the mechanized group for the U.S. army says its missing the marksmen in the group. That's all the bugs I have found so far. Also how do you remove and  add magazines to rucksacks on ww4ext units? I tried putting in the int line: this removemagazines "map_ww4ext_w556_pdm" but the ammo in the rucksack is still there. I want to add JAM magazines in the rucksacks so that my ww4ext units equiped with JAM compatible weapons can use magazines in the rucksack. Again thank you so much for this mod.

 

Thanks for the bug reports. I'll check them out.

 

Regarding the ruck mags: Both the backpacks and the rucksacks are added to the units after they have spawned. That means that there's a small time gap between the spawning and the final gear the unit will use. Anything you place in the init line will be executed as soon as the unit is spawned, so you are actually removing a magazine that doesn't exist yet and adding a new one that is replaced when the EXT infantry script kicks in (gearing up the unit).

 

So, how to work around this? You must place a pause (0.1 is probably enough) before changing or deleting the ruck mags. You need to create a new script to do this, as you can't place sleep calls in the inits of the editor. Something like:

_unit = _this select 0;
_oldMag = _this select 1;
_newMag = _this select 2;
_newMagCount = _this select 3;
; Wait for the EXT infantry script to finish
~0.1
; Remove and replace mags
_unit removemagazines _oldMag;
_i = 0;
#addMag
_unit addmagazine _newMag;
_i = _i+1;
?(_i < _newMagCount): goto "addMag";
exit;

You could name that script "swapRuckMags.sqs", and would call it in the init line of each unit like this: [this,<class of the mag you want to remove>,<class of the JAM mag you want to add>,<amount of JAM mags to add>] exec "swapRuckMags.sqs";

Example: [this,"map_ww4ext_w556_pdm","whateverJAMclass",2] exec "swapRuckMags.sqs";

 

If it still doesn't swap the mags properly, then you need to increase the waiting time a bit and keep trying.

 

The -Self heal for medics is bugged in MP - you get more -Self heal actions when you respawn.

I looked into this and it's an easy fix, but I spotted some weird behaviours in the script pbo and wanted to revise and fix what's needed before releasing a quickfix. As it seems it's not going to be done soon due to time constrains, this is what needs to be changed to avoid the "Heal yourself" action menu spam:

• In ww4ext_scripts\EH\killed.sqs change comment out the two last lines before the exit, so it ends up like this:

; KILLED EVENT HANDLER
; Killed event handler for EXT units
; 
; by kenoxite

_unit = _this select 0

?(!local _unit): exit

~0.5

?(_unit != player): exit
; Wait for respawn
@ alive player

;isPlayerMedic = loadfile "\ww4ext_scripts\fu\fIsMedic.sqf"
;?([player] call isPlayerMedic): player addAction ["> Self heal", "\ww4ext_scripts\selfheal.sqs"];

exit

 

Then recompile the pbo.

EDIT: whoops, used the wrong quote!

Edited September 16, 2015 by kenoxite

[Fruitpunchsamurai 1]

Hi Kenoxite to be more specific the bug is found in the U.S. Army mechanized mixed group both desert and woodland variations are showing; no entry 'config:cpp/cfgvehicles.ww4ext_ausamarksman. As for the Ah1z it is not engaging infantry nearly enough with its main cannon as the apache does. So for the swapruckmags.sqs would I put that in my mission description.ext file and execute the script in the int line of my units? Sorry if this is answered in another thread I don't really use outside scripts as I don't really make "missions" per se, I just play and mess around in the mission editor mainly. Thank you Kenoxite.

[kenoxite 156]

Hi Kenoxite to be more specific the bug is found in the U.S. Army mechanized mixed group both desert and woodland variations are showing; no entry 'config:cpp/cfgvehicles.ww4ext_ausamarksman. As for the Ah1z it is not engaging infantry nearly enough with its main cannon as the apache does. So for the swapruckmags.sqs would I put that in my mission description.ext file and execute the script in the int line of my units? Sorry if this is answered in another thread I don't really use outside scripts as I don't really make "missions" per se, I just play and mess around in the mission editor mainly. Thank you Kenoxite.

I actually spotted the problem with the marksman in that group last week, so I know what you mean. There's also some other tweaks that need to be done with the stryker mech groups anyway (such as using the MG versions instead of the GL ones). Thanks for the clarification about the AH1Z.

 

Regarding the script (the sqs file) you must create it yourself. It should be placed in your mission folder (the same where your description.ext is). Just create a new text file, paste the code I posted before there, and rename the file so it ends in .sqs and not in .txt. This process is the same whenever you have to create a new script.

 

BTW, if you don't mind, could you separate your posts into paragraphs? That would make them way easier to read. Thanks!

[Fruitpunchsamurai 1]

Oh, ok thank you. Sorry I got too excited that you actually replied that I forgot to use proper grammer :wub:. I will structure my responses better next time.