PIP Adaptive/Active camouflage test

[noktrum666 10]

Hi guys. Just finished some testing with custom add-ons I've made for Arma 3. It was two different air vehicles using active camouflage effect that was created with PIP commands.

IDEA

The test was to show if this camouflage technique is of any use against human players in MP and if so, then what is the most efficient way to use it.

DESIGN

Both vehicles are simple shapes and their surface is made out of render texture. Basically its a in game flying display with a 'camera' recording what's behind it.

VEHICLES

First was my dimond/piramid triangle vehicle. Each side of the triangle is a separate monitor displaying what's directly in opposite to the inner surface of that monitor.

Second is a disc. Top is displaying ground and bottom - sky.

Both where tested during stance at the air base and wilderness. Also tested in motion, at high/low altitudes and speeds from 01km/h to 400km/h. Night and day

TEST

Static:

While your vehicle is in static when on the airport or in hover, it becomes very hard to spot from above or bottom - but, unless you are not above the horizon line(from observer perspective) not from side. Side perspective is a mix of bottom and top of your environment. Other thing is you need to be inside the vehicle, if you are not inside, or AI is inside the PIP displays will just wont work(engine limitation perhaps).

Motion:

First of all in both cases (disc and triangle) any motion what so ever is making you much more visible than normal camo paint. That's because of two thing - first, PIP render target command is design for interior displaying only(cockpit). Out side it works, but the FPS is drastically low, so the active camo motion is terrible. Second thing is that the PIP is displaying the picture brighter than it is in reality. So in motion you are brighter and unnaturally flappy;).

CONCLUSION

The in game PIP technology used that way showed some interesting results not seen before but unfortunately turned out to be useless. Further more at night time the effect dose not have any masking value what so ever. So the verdict is :

LOOKING NICE BUT USELESS ;)

Regards!

[Sealife 22]

Hi i did similar thing with Take on helicopters , same result real shame but then i realise why use PIP anywh why not use Hide Animation

this will also help with

" if you are not inside, or AI is inside the PIP displays will just wont work" because a getin/out eventhandler can be used maybe .

i was going to look into the shader used for the heat wave from the helicopter exhausts too( less the animation) when i saw it in Arma 3 , i dont have time but maybe you could use this in some way

[noktrum666 10]

Already tried the hide animation but that did not solved the problem... there is another solution. You see, the render effect I've used for my test flights was a monitor/display render. There is another one responsible for mirrors, and that is a different one, because mirrors in Arma 3 are reflecting stuff all the time, no matter if you are in your vehicle or not. Problems are - will it be possible to make them show whats behind them instead of reflecting whats in front, and most important how to do a bloody mirror... Creating a working display in game is a pis of cake (thanks to Take on sample heli) but mirrors... no idea...

[Sealife 22]

well i set up a multiple pips so it would show the scene behind if you understand ,

i think in the end though you conclusion is correct

here was my quick dirt test without much focus and FOV tweaking many moons ago .

ZlN-opugJuw

Shadows was big problem too

[noktrum666 10]

Another approach might be what you've already mentioned - blur exhaust effect. It may by possible to convert that in to some sort of camouflage. Your FPS on that car is brilliant, if you won't mind me asking what is your value in 'renderQuality'?

[Sealife 22]

that was my own terrain with no real clutter or anything so always returned a constant 70fps

Pip would have been on Vhigh IIRC , there is one lag spike as you see in video but that was another prog in background .

[noktrum666 10]

Just tried it in TKOH, the PIP fps is much better. It seems that PIP fps issue i have experienced was related to ARMA 3 engine... hmmm. Not worth digging in because the camo effect generated like that is useless any way and inside the cockpit(like intended) every thing is working smooth. Hopefully sample addons with mirrors will be released in the future. That might be interesting.

[Sealife 22]

hmm mirrors are just same render quality 2 with similar FOV cameraview1

not sure what you mean by mirror addons ?

[noktrum666 10]

'not sure what you mean by mirror addons ? '

Basically a sample addon of a car/helicopter with mirrors so we can open it and see how exactly are they coded in the config and what is the render texture? I have notice that mirrors on the light heli from TKOH or cars will reflect things even if player is not inside the vehicle, but monitors (like in hind or medium heli FLIR) will only work with player inside. The render might be the same, but coding must be different for that. I was thinking of performing another series of tests with the disc air vehicle but this time have it's surface coded as mirrors, not monitors... obviously for camouflage effect i would have to figure out a way to make them reflect whats behind them, not in front. Perhaps the FPS would be better.

[Sealife 22]

hmm you sure the reflection when a player is not inside isnt just a "environment shader" ?

i never noticed mirrors working without vehicle having an owner before but i must admit not really looking after the car i showed in the video simply went black when i got out

[noktrum666 10]

:( I'm afraid you are absolutely right on this one... I was fooled with a simple reflection RVMAT... so basically PIP of any kind (mirrors, LCD displays etc) will work only when player is inside the vehicle... so my plans to create an active camouflage with mirrors are pointless - the effect will be exactly the same. Shame, but thanks for all your suggestions and tips, I'm sure this thread will be very useful to people experimenting with PIP. Best regards Thromp!

[Sealife 22]

i beleieve you do have one option left which is the scripted PIP ,

if you look in the TOH section theres an example on billboards apart from that i agree the all idea realy need more paramters accessible to work