Attached Lights bouncing around

[chronicsilence 12]

Hi everyone,

I'm creating lights to attach to a vehicle (emergency lights), using the following script:

_newlight = "#lightpoint" createVehicle [100000,100000,100000];

_newlight setLightColor [1,1,1];

_newlight lightAttachObject [_vehicle, [-0.45, 0.0, 0.56]];

This is a simplified version, but you get the point. The light shows up in the correct spot and functions properly when the vehicle is stopped. However, as soon as the vehicle starts moving, the light bounces around on the vehicle and doesn't stay in its attached location. Once the vehicle stops again, it returns to its correct location. Anyone know why?

[Tajin 348]

I found that the regular attachTo command works at least a bit better than "lightAttachObject".

You'll still get some bouncing though.

[chronicsilence 12]

Yeah, after some more looking I found this: http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=18337

Looks like BI knows but don't care. What about some creative thinking though, this is something that would benefit a lot of missions/mods if we could find a workaround. Any thoughts?

[Tajin 348]

Like I said, attachTo helps to some extend.

Only other workaround I can think of would be to update the position of the light manually on each frame with modelToWorld. Though that would be a bit resource intensive.

Edited November 7, 2014 by Tajin

[zgmrvn 95]

i had (have) the same problem on my Mohawk script (in my sign), seem to be how the engine handles lights, probably no way...

[kovvalsky 13]

Only other workaround I can think of would be to update the position of the light manually on each frame with modelToWorld. Though that would be a bit resource intensive.

Very expensive, plus I think they must be local, for use in multiplayer you should use BIS_fnc_MP to create them on each computer

[iceman77 18]

Yeah, after some more looking I found this: http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=18337Any thoughts?

Make an addon instead.

[chronicsilence 12]

Very expensive, plus I think they must be local, for use in multiplayer you should use BIS_fnc_MP to create them on each computer

Wouldn't they be local though? If a function is run using BIS_fnc_MP, then that function will be run on every computer. If the function is run on every computer, then that function should create local lights. If you create global lights on each computer, well now you've created 'NUM LIGHTS' * 'NUM PLAYERS'.

[chronicsilence 12]

Like I said, attachTo helps to some extend.

Only other workaround I can think of would be to update the position of the light manually on each frame with modelToWorld. Though that would be a bit resource intensive.

Hilariously enough, this doesn't even work. It looks like the engine doesn't provide accurate position data on the vehicle every frame, so even if I force the position every frame, I can't force it to the proper location because I can't GET the exact proper location of the vehicle.

EDIT: ok, I have more info on how this works. The modelToWorldVisual command will get the current, interpolated position of the vehicle with the given offset. However, using the setPos function with that position onEachFrame will still cause the jitter because the light's position isn't interpolated every frame like the vehicle is. So, what I need is a way to force the light's position to be updated every render frame instead of every simulation step. Similar to how the drawIcon3D function works.

Edited November 8, 2014 by ChronicSilence

[Harzach 2507]

Maybe take a look at setVelocityTransformation.