VhC, Vehicle Customization (dev branch)

[soul_assassin 1750]

Well, I will skip my turn for the kiss, but not for the beers ! That said...

Regarding the camera for the M-900 and the MH-9 I'm going to investigate but I cannot promise anything. For now, the FLIR is gone from the garage.

This could be nice to have, it's a possibility I'd like to explore in the future.

The function can be called only from where the vehicle is local to. In case of need for other possibilities, just post it here, I'll investigate :)

What do you have in mind? What radar?

+1 on getting the weapon selection for vehicles. This would be awesome!

[Sari 18]

Added: VhC implementation for the Mi-48 Kajman

Thanks :)

[chortles 263]

It will be possible, to change taru pods via VhC in future?

Not without drastically reworking the way that the Taru works, if I recall correctly that was the original reason for the Taru not being modular in the first place.

+1 on getting the weapon selection for vehicles. This would be awesome!

If you take a look at the (Buzzard-based) jet sample, this can sort of be done in the sense that the Buzzard/jet sample are set up with a method akin to what these customizable vehicles do... visually that is, you still end up having to apply the weapons/magazines array yourself when pasting the init line.

[somesangheili 111]

Is the ability to customise the number plates and random numbers (eg numbers on the karts) going to be added?

[d3nn16 3]

Hi Tom

Vehicle customization is something I already tried to figure out while developing a PvP mission. Here are the things most of the players I've been working/playing with are interested in (mainly for allowing balance of a PvP game):

- Radar:

it is too powerful and it can allow, through the green/red color of the squares identify where the enemies are spawning (extrapolate the FOB position from the direction they are coming from with vehicles),

=> suggestion 1: add option to remove the green/red color from squares in the radar so vehicle driver/pilot has to identify the target visually (making spotting harder, more balanced and also more realistic I guess)

=> suggestion 2: to go further with radar improvements, it would be nice to only show the squares on some portion of the radar (eg: 30° only in front of the helicopter, and when targets go out of this section the white dot disappears)

Note: already created a thread about the radar issue.

- Vehicle faction and score attributes

score is actually an important thing for players (even veteran ones) as it is a measure of performance. In my PvP mission you can get "support points" (which is an alternative scoring system) based mainly on what vehicles you kill, so the score bonus a player gets from destroying an enemy vehicle is important for mission makers.

=> suggestion 1: allow customizing the score value a player gets from destroying a vehicle (the input for this customization should be a list with vehicle classes - eg b_mrap_01_f - and vehicle generic classes - eg Tank, Air, Car)

=> suggestion 2: allow customization of the faction attribute which is used for determining wheter the vehicle that was destroyed is friendly or enemy. In my PvP mission I used independent vehicles for both BLUFOR and OPFOR in order to balance the gameplay so when player destroys firendly vehicle he gets positive score instead of negative score. This happens also with ammocrates which are an important asset a player can paradrop near his position. if enemy destroys it he will get a negative score because the "faction" attribute is "Default" which is same as "Civilian" and results in negative score whatever side you are on

Note: a feedback ticket was created for the "faction" attribute

- Camouflage

as stated in previous topic I used independent vehicles for both blufor and opfor sides to balance the gameplay, but this can lead to some confusion for new players that will not be able to quickly determine whether the vheicle is friendly or enemy

=> suggestion: allow customization of camouflage, if possible, introduce a simple camouflage system that is independent of vehicle type (eg if I use a independent Kuma tank on OPFOR side I can change the camo to look like the OPFOR Varsuk tank)

- Thermal

the strider and hunter vehicles with MG/GL turrets have a screen in the cockpit that is always set on thermal view even if I use the disableTIEquipment command to disable TI on the turret optics

=> suggestion 1: allow possibility to disable the TI on the cockpit screen in strider/hunter or other similar vehicles created in the future

=> suggestion 2: possibility to disable the thermal without disabling the night vision capability as shortly mentioned in this feedback ticket

- Auto Locking

the current auto lock system (where you press one button and any ground vehicle, be it empty or with crew can be locked without any effort from any distance) is not acceptable for PvP and probably for other kind of missions

=> suggestion: alow customization of the allowTabLock attribute so mission maker can disable/enable the feature for any air vehicle

- Weapons

=> suggestion 1: possibility to remove gunner turrets, remove/replace any weapons (ex useful when trying to balance vehicles on both sides, eg removing AT missiles from the APC to make it similar to the oppposite side counterbalancing APC), change magazine maximum rounds count

Note: I could do all this things by script but in some situations there are some visual glitches, eg if I replace AA missiles with AT missiles on blackfoot helicopter the missile compartment doesnt open when gunner switches to AT missles so it looks like the missile are fired from nowhere

Another visual glitch is when a player adds AT missiles to his plane (any model) one by one, you can see the missiles positions are not consistent with their default positions (the ones you can see when plane has full ammo from start)

=> suggestion 2: possibility to remove the cannon from the ghosthawk/huron armed helicopters if the weapons is removed. This is to quickly give a visual indication to players that they don't have any weapons available on these helicopters (otherwise they may feel frustrated to see the cannon and not be able to shoot with it)

If you need to put a priotiry on all the elements listed above, these are the top priority elements for me:

1) Radar

2) Auto Locking

3) Thermal

Note: the idea of vehicle customization should also propagate to infantry weapons. I would be particularly interested in the possibility to disable thermal view on some missile launchers or rifle scopes, as well as disable auto locking and replacing manual locking with "manually guide the missile with your launcher optic" locking (I don't know atm what is the config attribute for this)

[chortles 263]

@ d3nn16 : Bursting the bubble I suppose when I say that from what I can tell the VhC implementation is basically cosmetic and doesn't tie into any of the above...

[nkenny 1057]

The new Vehicle Arsenal is a joy to play with. :) However, while the export feature is great, I really wish there was an easy way to read class names directly in the arsenal-- like it is in the editor. I guess this goes double for the weapons and uniform arsenal, where editing, exporting, hunting for lines of code, quickly gets cumbersome!

-k

[gabberxxl 9]

Now all thats left is a way to create AI members for your group and to modify their loadout. You should also be able to select at which position you want to spawn with the vehicle and/ or if the chosen AI's should join your group.

Edited March 28, 2015 by gabberxxl

[Tom_48_97 523]

@ d3nn16 : Bursting the bubble I suppose when I say that from what I can tell the VhC implementation is basically cosmetic and doesn't tie into any of the above...

Well, no because the VhC can also impact the mass of the vehicle. In addition, the animation sources can have a property "onPhaseChanged" which is a string of code, executed by the VhC each time the animation phase changes. The documentation is available on the Biki. That said, regarding the above, indeed, it's not really relevant for the VhC itself. By the way, this is the first released version of VhC, it's meant to be updated and expanded. :cool:

d3nn16, I will try to take a look about your suggestions ;)

[Sniperwolf572 758]

... The documentation is available on the Biki. ...

If I'm reading some parts of the docs correctly, this should mean that we now have the native ability to define vehicles through the config in a way where you have to open the doors to get in, using lockCargo and lockCargoAnimationPhase? For example, the side doors of the Blackhawk have to be open to get inside. Would this be possible to extend to other positions in a vehicle like drivers, gunners, commanders and turrets?

[reyhard 2082]

Could I suggest some sort of support for "door" type anim sources?

like:

                class door_L {
                   source = "door";
                   animPeriod = 1;
                   initPhase = 0;
               };

in garage functions something like this should be added

			lbclear _ctrlListAnimations;
			{
				_configName = configname _x;
				_displayName = gettext (_x >> "displayName");
				if (_displayName != "" && {getnumber (_x >> "scope") > 1 || !isnumber (_x >> "scope")}) then {
					_lbAdd = _ctrlListAnimations lbadd _displayName;
					_ctrlListAnimations lbsetdata [_lbAdd,_configName];
					/*
						isEqualTo might be problematic there due to case sensetive, so if addon maker will type in "Door" or "DOOR" it won't work
					*/
					if(gettext (_x >> "source") == "door")then{
						_ctrlListAnimations lbsetpicture [_lbAdd,_checkboxTextures select ((_center doorPhase _configName) max 0)];
					}else{
						_ctrlListAnimations lbsetpicture [_lbAdd,_checkboxTextures select ((_center animationphase _configName) max 0)];
					};

				};
			} foreach (configproperties [_cfg >> "animationSources","isclass _x",true]);

and then in initVehicle

		_sourceType = getArray(_CfgPath >> _source >> "source");

		if(_sourceType == "door")then{_vehicle animateDoor [_source, _phase];}else{_vehicle animate [_source, _phase];};

Hope we can see something like this soon :

[alganthe 74]

Does VhC support hiddenSelections for textures ?

[Tom_48_97 523]

@Reyhard: It's in my list :) But nothing is promised and no ETA.

@alganthe: If you mean defining hidden selections on the fly, I'm afraid not because the hidden selection can be only defined in the configs.

[dezkit 28]

any plans on adding an objectmaterial as well? would be a god send.

[Tom_48_97 523]

Nothing planned, mainly because there's no global variant of the command "setObjectMaterial", but I added it to my list.

[skariaxil 24]

Sign my ass up for customizable vehicle weapons loadouts as well.

You could set a few pre-selected loadouts. The AH-64 Apache has three default loadouts, "Anti-Armor" with 16 Hellfire missiles, "Escort" with 76 70mm Hydra rockets, and "Covering Force" with 8 Hellfires and 38 rockets. These three can be applied to the KA48 Kajman.

Or leave it entirely up to the players; let us pick what to hang from which hard point.

[chortles 263]

Sign my ass up for customizable vehicle weapons loadouts as well.

You could set a few pre-selected loadouts. The AH-64 Apache has three default loadouts, "Anti-Armor" with 16 Hellfire missiles, "Escort" with 76 70mm Hydra rockets, and "Covering Force" with 8 Hellfires and 38 rockets. These three can be applied to the KA48 Kajman.

This should be doable already under what Bohemia did with the Buzzard -- ALL of the possible weapons proxied underneath the pylons simultaneously and hidden by default by animation, with the specific loadout classes having parameters/values for which ones are made visible.

Or leave it entirely up to the players; let us pick what to hang from which hard point.

This on the other would require a bigger overhaul in how Bohemia handles vehicle weapons in an engine-supported manner versus what "service menu" vehicles have done (since those are necessarily scripted).

[jone_kone 158]

Sign my ass up for customizable vehicle weapons loadouts as well.

You could set a few pre-selected loadouts. The AH-64 Apache has three default loadouts, "Anti-Armor" with 16 Hellfire missiles, "Escort" with 76 70mm Hydra rockets, and "Covering Force" with 8 Hellfires and 38 rockets. These three can be applied to the KA48 Kajman.

Or leave it entirely up to the players; let us pick what to hang from which hard point.

 

Yup, customizable loadouts is something really needed! Atleast for the Air units (As cars usually have the Noweapon, GMG and HMG options). Just a few added variations of each current Helo and Airplane would also do. eg:

 

AH-9: Guns only

Nephoron: CAS - Gun/rockets/bombs, CAP - AA missiles / gun only

A-143: CAS - Gun/rockets (no missiles), Gun/Bombs

A-164: CAS - Gun/rockets/bombs, Gun/rockets

Kaiman: CAS - Guns/rockets only

[chortles 263]

See above... although interestingly enough, at least on the sample jet there was actually a proxy for rocket pods but neither of the Buzzard loadouts make use of that.

[Tom_48_97 523]

Here a few points of the upcoming update of the VhC:

• Ability to prevent the reset of the animation sources
• Support for custom materials defined in the texture sources and the mission config file
• Support campaign config file
• Some adjustments and optimizations

any plans on adding an objectmaterial as well? would be a god send.

See above, but with a new command setObjectMaterialGlobal :)
 
Regarding the loadout customization, nothing is planned at this moment and perhaps a bit out of the scope of the vehicle customization.
 
For the those who want to know a bit more about the VhC, an OPREP is available in the dev hub.

[dezkit 28]

AWESOME

[goldenfiver 11]

will vehicle Insignias be included aswell at some point?

[Tom_48_97 523]

I'm afraid there's nothing planned (yet) regarding the insignia even it could be considered. I added it to my list :)