Difficulties creating an avalanche using smoke and tumbling objects

[Pioneer760 10]

Hi,

I like to simulate an avalanche with falling objects and smoke. I have done it in Arma2 successfully by using smoke grenades that tumbled down mountain faces just right. Now I want to port my mission to Arma 3. Arma 3 physics makes all smoke grenades stuck quickly ridiculously on even extreme steep mountain faces. And grenades stop smoking quickly too.

So far tried solutions:

1.I created water canisters falling nicely and attached smoke grenades to it. But its not working because either these two objects cannot be attached together or the connection breaks when hit the ground.

2.I created a smoke effect module and wanted to move it along the trajectory of the canisters. But setPos cannot be used with modules (using the module name in scripts). The coordinates for the smoke module are in different class items.

3.I attached the test_EmptyObjectForSmoke object to the canisters - it worked fine, but its black oil fire smoke only. I need nice powder-snow-white smoke.

4.I started reading about particle arrays. Rather complex topic. Before I go head, perhaps there is advice out there?

I am open to any good idea. Thanks a lot in advance.

(By the way the Mount Aoraki Map (yes, from the very Dean Hall; USEC Aoraki/Mount Cook Island), including a snow fall script and the cloud module for low flying clouds in the valleys is awesome - blocking your view randomly. Would be nice for search and rescue missions or snipers waiting for the clouds to lift … much later on, maybe. However the map was not ported for Arma3. But you can get is running.)

Best Pioneer

---------- Post added at 01:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:44 PM ----------

---------- Post added at 01:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:42 PM ----------

The above images are from the Arma 2 version only to illustrate the idea/ concept.

[SilentSpike 84]

Yeah it seems that in ARMA 3 smoke shells will stop simulating physics after coming into contact with the ground, I've had success in the past attaching smoke shells to men and they do move around with the men (attaching the smoke modules to the men had the same effect). So I would have thought there'd be a way to attach them to physics objects and have them move that way. Did you attach them to the canisters within the mesh so that they never come into contact with the ground?

[Pioneer760 10]

Thx for your answer. I did some further tests and am closer to the actual problem.

With wood logs (funny how they role down), canisters, ammo boxes etc. physics does not stop, but with all throw-objects and shells like chemlights, grenades and so on. Chemlights and smokeshells bounce one time and get stuck after no matter how steep.

But I have found the actual reason for my problem while testing your mesh-idea. I have a problem with my particle “addons†from Arma2 in Arma 3 (which I need for the nice cloud effects so far(see above picture).

In Arma 3 vanilla the attach-smoke-concept works fine. In my case the smoke shells just stop smoking quickly because of this particle script problem/conflict. It appears they break off the other object, because the canister moves on, while the smoke stays where it stopped.

The attached objects do not break apart, no matter from how high I drop them (tested up to 100m).

What a pity: nice clouds OR working avalanches… another problem to work on.

Other ideas for simulating an avalanche are still welcome.

Thx

Code I used:

//	Creation of flying objects (grey water canisters)
//	----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

canister1 = "Land_CanisterPlastic_F" createVehicle [getPos player select 0, getPos player select 1,1 + random 20];
//for some reason I cannot change the z value during the creation of the object, therefore the next line is needed until I got a solution
canister1 setPos [(getPos canister1 select 0),(getPos canister1 select 1),100];


//	Creation of smoke on the canister trajectory (smoke and grenades)
//	----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Smoke = "SmokeShell" createVehicle getPos canister1; Smoke attachTo [canister1,[0,0,0.8]];

[Pioneer760 10]

Update

The cause for the smoke grenade trouble were these Arma2 pbos (originally used to have better sky textures and additional old functions in Aoraki map)

ca_e.pbo

ca_e.pbo.bi.bisign

ca_e.pbo.bi2.bisign

ca.pbo

ca.pbo.bi.bisign

ca.pbo.bi2.bisign

The Arma 2 cloud module is working just fine now, including normal operating smoke grenades!

To do that add the following Arma 2 pbos into your Addon folder e.g. @Aoraki\Addon

For better sky lighting one can use this addon: GDSN_IslandLightingFixes

modules.pbo

modules.pbo.bi.bisign

modules.pbo.bi2.bisign

[Pioneer760 10]

If you want to see results, the mission is ready (first port version):

SP-Operation-Ridge-Sweep-Operation-Mountaineer