"Home made" targeting pod for ANY aircraft

[kimi_uy 135]

Hey everyone, this is my first thread ever.

For the past year I've been looking for single seater aircrafts that had a TGP, and today it ocurred to me to use the function "attachto".

So basically what I did is I attached a Darter UAV to one of the wings on a A-164 Wipeout and managed myself to get a fully working TGP with nightvision, BHOT and WHOT FLIR and laser capabilites.

Manual way to do so:

1- name your aircraft, for example "wipe1"

2- place a Darter UAV on the ground.

3- write this on the darter's init field: this attachTo [ wipe1 ,[7.5,0.3,0.05]];

That makes the darter be attached under the right wing of the Wipeout named "wipe1".

4- Get yourself a UAV terminal and connect to it via the UAV terminal scroll wheel action.

5- Get in, take off and find targets.

Uses:

1- Enables you as a pilot to have an actual working targeting system on your aircraft.

2- Find targets.

3- LASE targets for other assets, I especially recommend it for 2-ship flights to do proper buddy-lasing deliveries. (needs to be borisighted**).

4- The crosshairs of the turret camera are slave to the ground position you're aiming at, so there's no need to apply further input once you get it on target.

5- If you leave the laser on and "release turret controls", the laser will center itself to point forward, enabling you to lase targets on a dive without having to go heads down and lose aircraft control.

6- With the help of the UAV feed, control is by default "2xTab", I was able to PID targets and pick up their IR signatures without gong heads-down, thus allowing me to keep my situational awareness high.

Note: the AV feed will only show the turret view of the UAV you're connected to, and only via cTAB other people will be able to see what the TGP sees.

7- Auto-pilot engages when you are the pilot and go into turret view, the aircraft will continue flying with the last input you made on the controls, so with good skills you can do nice orbits around AO's while targeting/lasing.

**To boresight the TGP u need to go into the uav terminal and uncheck and check again the "Autonomous" box. Don't ask me why but it does the trick! You might need to make the turret look forward in order to work.

As you see, FLIR, NV and Zoom is available in the turret view, and keeping the laser on while in FLIR, will give you a good estimate of where your aircraft is pointing.

It also enhances night navigation (while boresighted).

RELEASE THREAD: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?179309-Release-Script-TGP-Targeting-Pod-for-Air-Vehicles

The addon version will include laser designators for every vehicle turret available on the game and a boresighted laser designator on the actual weapons of fixed wing aircrafts.

Other considerations:

- In order to safely use this TGP, I advise to do a level flight with positive forward acceleration, because once you get in the turret view you won't be able to input on the flight controls until you release the turret controls.

Issues:

- As mentioned before, once you release turret controls, the TGP will boresight itself. But that's something BIS should implement as vanilla...

List of aircrafts and example lines:

- Buzzard named "alca1": this attachTo [ alca1 ,[4.4,-0.5,-1.3]];

- F-35 named "lite1": this attachTo [ lite1 ,[0,7,0]];

- F/A-18E named "hornet1": this attachTo [ hornet1 ,[-0.8,-0.1,-1.25]];

- A-164 Wipeout named "wipe1": this attachTo [ wipe1 ,[7.5,0.3,0.05]];

- STI's A-10a named "wart1": this attachTo [ wart1 ,[7,-0.1,1.4]];

- Perals' A-10c named "wart2": this attachTo [ wart2 ,[7,0,0.27]];

- AH-9 Little Bird named "ah9": this attachTo [ ah9 ,[0,1,-0.81]];

- MH-9 named "mh9": this attachTo [ mh9 ,[0,1,-0.8]];

- Ghosthawk named "ghost": this attachTo [ ghost ,[0,5,-1.75]];

Further plans(???):

- Addon Version.

- Custom models for targeting pods on fixed and rotary wing aircraft.

- TGP for all CAS and Air-to-Ground Capable assets on Arma 3 universe.

Here's a video I put together to simply showcase the funtionality:

Advanced features:

Little Bird with TGP:

Laser Guided Maverick from F/A-18:

Big thanks to:

- Lala14 for the scripting

- 161st V-SOAR community for the testing

I hope it serves a good purpose to the community.

Enjoy!

Edited June 19, 2014 by geraldbolso1899

[cz_bpk 1]

Way to go - god thinking :-)

It's a bit difficult to keep the uav on the targets, but with some practice it works fine.

A autopilot would be very useful.

[kremator 1065]

I suppose all you need to do is hide the darter now, and it will be complete.

[nodunit 397]

I like the way you think.

I wonder if it would be possible to have a PIP source projected from the UAV's camera feed directly to the cockpit, that would be one hell of a boost in digital targetting in combination the ability to lase and slave the camera to targets.

[kimi_uy 135]

Hey Nod! here's the thing I've been working on this mornin, u know there's a "AV feed" thingy u can access by pressing 2xTAB? that will show the uav turret feed. I've been trying to make it boresighted so I can aim guns/rockets with the zoomed/FLIR AV feed, but apparently there's no certain way to do so.

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

Dude, i'm going to do a video with this now. Thank you so much for this neat little find. Ill feature it in my next flight video.

[corporal_lib[br] 396]

geraldbolso1899 you should talk with Feint, as his RAVEN UAV can LOCK ON TARGETS with the laser designator - there´s no more boresight problem when exiting cam mode - (and it has a optic head resembling a small Litening pod), so if you could attach it and use it, you could lock a ground target, get back to cockpit view and drop LGBs efficiently =)

[nodunit 397]

That sounds like a neat idea, and I hope it would fix the boresighting issue because something like this...its difficult to state the value of if it works.

[kimi_uy 135]

That sounds like a neat idea, and I hope it would fix the boresighting issue because something like this...its difficult to state the value of if it works.

To boresight the TGP u need to go into the uav terminal and uncheck and chekc again the "Autonomous" box. Don't ask me why but it does the trick! You might need to make the turret look forward in order to work.

As you see, FLIR, NV and Zoom is available in the turret view, and keeping the laser on while in FLIR, will give you a good estimate of where your aircraft is pointing.

It also enhances night navigation (while boresighted).

Check this out:

---------- Post added at 19:48 ---------- Previous post was at 19:45 ----------

;2705477']geraldbolso1899 you should talk with Feint' date=' as his RAVEN UAV can LOCK ON TARGETS with the laser designator - there´s no more boresight problem when exiting cam mode - (and it has a optic head resembling a small Litening pod), so if you could attach it and use it, you could lock a ground target, get back to cockpit view and drop LGBs efficiently =)[/quote']

I've thought about it, but here's the thing, I have little to no experience in scripting and this is something that stupid simple to use and has a lot of power! Another thing about the raven is that it's not an autonomous vehicle as the UAVs, it's an objet attached to a spining red sphere in the ground, thus making it fairly difficult to translate it into a UAV vehicle.

[warlord554 2065]

I don't know if you could get PIP targeting without modifying the LODs. Cool concept though

[Feint 137]

;2705477']geraldbolso1899 you should talk with Feint' date=' as his RAVEN UAV can LOCK ON TARGETS with the laser designator - there´s no more boresight problem when exiting cam mode - (and it has a optic head resembling a small Litening pod), so if you could attach it and use it, you could lock a ground target, get back to cockpit view and drop LGBs efficiently =)[/quote']

That's funny. I actually tried this a few months ago attaching the Darter to an aircraft and seeing if it would work. I got to about where you are now, but abandoned it because of the same problems you are encountering, i.e. the hidden AI in the Darter kept slewing back to full forward or some random point every time I left the gunner camera view and the AI couldn't keep up with the aircraft movements as I was piloting. I tried flying at much higher altitudes so the camera moves would be less drastic for the AI, but it was still unreliable. I thought the concept overall was promising, but the laser would never stay put and I couldn't figure out how to make it stay put at first glance. And to me, that's the whole point of a targeting pod...accuracy. Honestly, I determined that it would have required too much time and frustrated scripting for me to pursue it so I just dropped it. I went down this road with my original Raven addon and abandoned it.

My Raven addon uses a completely different system for ground and vehicle/unit targeting (scripting/camera-based) than the default aircraft including the Darter (AI/turret-based). The problem with any turret in an aircraft is that if you want some kind of auto-tracking, it has to be run by an AI unit that's hidden. And the problem with that is the AI tends to get sidetracked and distracted, etc. That's why I just abandoned it all and went for the scripting/camera-based method I used for my Raven. I just sidestepped all of those problems with trying to get the AI to do what it was supposed to be doing. I knew the problems couldn't be overcome because even BI can't seem to get their default UAVs to target well. The side effect is that I don't have the ability to realistically use lasers like you can with a turret that's been 3d modeled into an aircraft model. So you win some, you lose some.

Sorry for the discouraging post, but I've literally spent days and days trying to get this sort of thing working to no avail. I could get to where you are now, but I could never overcome the shortcomings of the default AI.

[kimi_uy 135]

Sorry for the discouraging post, but I've literally spent days and days trying to get this sort of thing working to no avail. I could get to where you are now, but I could never overcome the shortcomings of the default AI.

I don't think I've encountered a wall, on the contrary, Being able to find targets is a huge step forward in my opinion. Buddy-lasing, another huge step. And as I mentioned before, it's posible to boresight the TGP and lase targets without the turret view, and have a fixed forward looking sight that u can see via the AV feedback, with zoom and all that.

Observation about the turret AI: once u leave the camera it will keep the angles, not the center of view, so it will stick to that last configuration u left it with.

This last thing, enables you, for example in a lil bird/ghost hawk, to angle the camera slightly downwards and get a good navigation aid. To do this you need to uncheck the "Autonomous" box in the UAV terminal.

In addition, although the AI will not stick to that target once you leave the turret view, it will remember it when u go back in it.

Also don't forget that with choppers, you can have a co-pilot do the lasing.

The best thing about all of this is that is completely vanilla.

I've already tested it with: AH-9, MH-9, Ghosthawk, Buzzard, Wipeout, Neoprhon, F/A-18 and Flanker-E (John Spartan and Saul), A-10c (Peral), A-10a (STI) and F-35 (Chortles).

[kremator 1065]

As this is so useful, I wonder if there is anybody that could code it into an addon. One that identified the aircraft (obviously capable of using a TGP) then attached the darter (perhaps even a hidden one). Unfortunately my scripting skills are not good enough, but it would be extremely useful.

[Lala14 135]

also to help you with your respawn issue its quite simple, depending on what your using to respawn there is different methods but here's the vanilla way which is using the Vehicle Respawn Module

Go to the expressions and add

this is for the A-164 Wipeout just change the attachTo pos, also if you would like I could create a simple script

_tgp = "B_UAV_01_F" createVehicle [0,0,0]; createVehicleCrew _tgp; _tgp attachTo [_this select 0,[7.5,0.3,0.05]];

---------- Post added at 19:10 ---------- Previous post was at 18:27 ----------

Targeting Pod script

Targeting Pod Source Code

to disable on specific vehicles just add to the vehicle's init:

this setVariable ["TGP",true];

Automatically creates the TGP and on respawn and once the game is started

Edited June 8, 2014 by Lala14

[R. Brown 10]

So any kind of ground stableizarion has to be AI controlled? I have been wondering that for a while. I do seem to remember that "mando missles" had some sort of it, if I am remembering correctly. Just a question as I don't know at all.

[kimi_uy 135]

also to help you with your respawn issue its quite simple, depending on what your using to respawn there is different methods but here's the vanilla way which is using the Vehicle Respawn Module

Go to the expressions and add

this is for the A-164 Wipeout just change the attachTo pos, also if you would like I could create a simple script

_tgp = "B_UAV_01_F" createVehicle [0,0,0]; createVehicleCrew _tgp; _tgp attachTo [_this select 0,[7.5,0.3,0.05]];

---------- Post added at 19:10 ---------- Previous post was at 18:27 ----------

Targeting Pod script

Targeting Pod Source Code

to disable on specific vehicles just add to the vehicle's init:

this setVariable ["TGP",true];

Automatically creates the TGP and on respawn and once the game is started

This is ultimately awesome, thanks for creating it! A couple of things I'd like to point out:

1- the class name for the A-164 is not "Plane_01_base_F", it's "B_Plane_CAS_01_F".

2- for the F-35's it spawns 2 uav's and not in the right position. I might change the postion since it gets masked by the front landing gear bay.

[miketim 20]

What happens when the plane crashes? Do both blow up or does it glitch out or what?

[kimi_uy 135]

What happens when the plane crashes? Do both blow up or does it glitch out or what?

they both kaboom yes.

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

they both kaboom yes.

I found this useful as a TOW guided missile for Fixed wing. Since when the UAV goes straight when no one is using it, I can fly around 1-2 clicks out, find my target, lock on to the laser, and literally guided my missiles where ever I want them to go. Great stuff. :bounce3::cool:

[kimi_uy 135]

I found this useful as a TOW guided missile for Fixed wing. Since when the UAV goes straight when no one is using it, I can fly around 1-2 clicks out, find my target, lock on to the laser, and literally guided my missiles where ever I want them to go. Great stuff. :bounce3::cool:

There's a video I uploaded showing of that, it's on the first post. BTW, it wouldn't be wire guided, since it's guided by laser :p, this may resemble the AGM-65E

[rogerx 11]

You forgot about the WY-55? (Albeit, it already has spot light controls for the co-pilot already.)

Hopefully with two-seater aircraft or two-seater rotor craft, this laser mod will become extremely useful!

Currently the WY-55 co-pilot is pretty useless with being able to aim a spot light, of which is completely useless during the day. At most during night time and if server's enable night time, somebody will get into the co-pilot and move the dumb spotlight to the left or right and leave the light in an awkward position. And, although the SDV (or current submarine) has this laser function already within stable versions, the SDV is pretty much useless for almost every map in existence to date. Including the SDV could probably be beaten in a race by simply walking alongside it. ;-)

Would love to see this with a two-seat jet (ie. F-14 mod), and will probably be wonderful with helicopters as they already have a co-pilot seat! Probably will be wonderful for using the laser for non-auto acquirable hard targets or non-vehicle targets. Also this would make LGBU's a lot easier to use instead of waiting for somebody for an hour to lase a target on the ground! (To also note, ground troops don't last very long trying to lase vehicles as the AI seemingly detect being lazed and instantly shoot back.)

[kimi_uy 135]

You forgot about the WY-55? (Albeit, it already has spot light controls for the co-pilot already.)

Hopefully with two-seater aircraft or two-seater rotor craft, this laser mod will become extremely useful!

Currently the WY-55 co-pilot is pretty useless with being able to aim a spot light, of which is completely useless during the day. At most during night time and if server's enable night time, somebody will get into the co-pilot and move the dumb spotlight to the left or right and leave the light in an awkward position. And, although the SDV (or current submarine) has this laser function already within stable versions, the SDV is pretty much useless for almost every map in existence to date. Including the SDV could probably be beaten in a race by simply walking alongside it. ;-)

Would love to see this with a two-seat jet (ie. F-14 mod), and will probably be wonderful with helicopters as they already have a co-pilot seat! Probably will be wonderful for using the laser for non-auto acquirable hard targets or non-vehicle targets. Also this would make LGBU's a lot easier to use instead of waiting for somebody for an hour to lase a target on the ground! (To also note, ground troops don't last very long trying to lase vehicles as the AI seemingly detect being lazed and instantly shoot back.)

I've added all vanilla aircraft now. Expect some development in the next few days.

Oh, and BTW, there is a way to auto-lase bombs using the turret...

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

You forgot about the WY-55? (Albeit, it already has spot light controls for the co-pilot already.)

Hopefully with two-seater aircraft or two-seater rotor craft, this laser mod will become extremely useful!

Currently the WY-55 co-pilot is pretty useless with being able to aim a spot light, of which is completely useless during the day. At most during night time and if server's enable night time, somebody will get into the co-pilot and move the dumb spotlight to the left or right and leave the light in an awkward position. And, although the SDV (or current submarine) has this laser function already within stable versions, the SDV is pretty much useless for almost every map in existence to date. Including the SDV could probably be beaten in a race by simply walking alongside it. ;-)

Would love to see this with a two-seat jet (ie. F-14 mod), and will probably be wonderful with helicopters as they already have a co-pilot seat! Probably will be wonderful for using the laser for non-auto acquirable hard targets or non-vehicle targets. Also this would make LGBU's a lot easier to use instead of waiting for somebody for an hour to lase a target on the ground! (To also note, ground troops don't last very long trying to lase vehicles as the AI seemingly detect being lazed and instantly shoot back.)

Dead wrong on both. What's useless is the people using it. Me and my team always go for the simple things. In wasteland we had an SDV and i was able to laze a base for a team mate to drop a GBU on. 7 kills and base = dead. Never even heard the jet fly by. Also, the hellcat green... i think it had a laser designation, i cant remember. But they are always useful with the right people.

[kimi_uy 135]

Read the first post for new features coming up soon!

Edited June 15, 2014 by geraldbolso1899

[kimi_uy 135]

That's funny. I actually tried this a few months ago attaching the Darter to an aircraft and seeing if it would work. I got to about where you are now, but abandoned it because of the same problems you are encountering, i.e. the hidden AI in the Darter kept slewing back to full forward or some random point every time I left the gunner camera view and the AI couldn't keep up with the aircraft movements as I was piloting. I tried flying at much higher altitudes so the camera moves would be less drastic for the AI, but it was still unreliable. I thought the concept overall was promising, but the laser would never stay put and I couldn't figure out how to make it stay put at first glance. And to me, that's the whole point of a targeting pod...accuracy. Honestly, I determined that it would have required too much time and frustrated scripting for me to pursue it so I just dropped it. I went down this road with my original Raven addon and abandoned it.

My Raven addon uses a completely different system for ground and vehicle/unit targeting (scripting/camera-based) than the default aircraft including the Darter (AI/turret-based). The problem with any turret in an aircraft is that if you want some kind of auto-tracking, it has to be run by an AI unit that's hidden. And the problem with that is the AI tends to get sidetracked and distracted, etc. That's why I just abandoned it all and went for the scripting/camera-based method I used for my Raven. I just sidestepped all of those problems with trying to get the AI to do what it was supposed to be doing. I knew the problems couldn't be overcome because even BI can't seem to get their default UAVs to target well. The side effect is that I don't have the ability to realistically use lasers like you can with a turret that's been 3d modeled into an aircraft model. So you win some, you lose some.

Sorry for the discouraging post, but I've literally spent days and days trying to get this sort of thing working to no avail. I could get to where you are now, but I could never overcome the shortcomings of the default AI.

Well, bohemia seemed to answer My prayers and now u can lock the view into any object, including vehicles. So now it has become a rally powerful tool.

Now i'm working in generating gps for ir targets for other weapons to loco in (mavs, IAMs, etc). Still i hace some "logístical" issues there.

What i'm also interested in finding now to do is crea te map