Tracer editing

[Cam51 0]

If youve ever seen tracers in real life (which is the coolest thing in the world to see when 20 of your fellow soldiers switch to burst and pop um away at 2 in the morning) you notice that OFP's tracers are so WEAK.

Looks like laser tag to me instead of actual rounds zinging across the sky. So i wanted to thicken the tracer texture to where u can actuall see it flying at you even at high noon.

I found the texture, or what ever it is, and i tried to edit it by adding more mass to it, then packing it back up and giving it a shot. It was a no go.

Im not to enclined with these editing tools, but i was wondering if someone that was could take the time to check it out and see what they can do with it.

Ill keep trying, but i lack experience to do this kind of thing, fast.

[ebud 18]

AFIK there is no tracer "texture". All you can do it change the color and brightness.... I could be wrong, but I have changed the color for the west units to be red like they should be, and I have never seen any reference for a tracer texture.

[advocatexxx 0]

Someone somewhere sometime mentioned that the texture used for tracers is the same texture used for gridlines in the mission editor. It's nothing more than a blank thin line (1 pixel in width I would assume). Many have complained about this but from my point of view only fanatic gurus like Kegetys have the knowledge necessary to modify such things.

[Bergmania 0]

The tracer color is predefined for default weapons.. It is possible to create a new ammoclass for addon weapons and have it fire blue tracers for example.. just add

tracerColor[]={0.1,0.1,0.9,0.14};

in the ammo class..

the 3 first values are red,green,blue.. the 4th Im not 100% sure of.. but I think it is the thickness..  

Or Purple maybe??

[Cam51 0]

i understand that, but look at how u can barley see the dang thing even at mid night!

I mean, when i first saw tracers in real life, they were like THICK laser beams snapping threw the air, it was amazing.

The tracers in OFP just put me to sleep.  I dont care bout the color.  Im talking about the thickness of the entire tracer itself.

I know theres gotta be some way. maybe later today ill unpack that file and show u the thing i was talking about.

gotta get back to work.   lunch time over.

PS where can i edit those numbers that u showed me there? maybe it is thickness.

[vade_101 0]

I'm fairly sure that last number is brightness.

[Bergmania 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I'm fairly sure that last number is brightness.<span id='postcolor'>

Could very well be.. The tracers look "fatter" when brighter..

[Morph 0]

This is a very interesting thread.. Especially as I'm hoping that someone can find the answer to this...

[bn880 5]

It's all in the color

Change the alpha of the color (4th param) as well as the intensity of RGB range

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE"> tracerColor[]={0.1,0.1,0.9,0.14};<span id='postcolor'>

to</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE"> tracerColor[]={1.0,0.6,0.6,1.0};<span id='postcolor'>

[Cam51 0]

http://www.opflashpoint.org/mappingtools.php

use the PBO Decrypter tool to open the Data.pbo and the texView to view what ive found so far. Im not sure how to take a screen shot of my desktop to show u the texture im seeing.

You'll see a file call: tracer.paa

I opened the file with the TexView program if you zoom in about 3-4 times u can see what im talking about when im talking about the tracers "texture".

I just can figure out how to edit this file and pack it back up and give it a whirl.

You can really see the line that i would assume is the texture that shoots out of the tip of the gun and streams across the sky.

If anyone could continue on from here and figure out how to edit that file (b.c im running out of HD space and cant afford to unpack anything more) it may not be anything, but i think its a great start and where getting closer to edit the almighty tracer.

Thnx yall

[Cam51 0]

^ bump ^

[Cam51 0]

^ bump ^ one last time.

[HellToupee 0]

yea sum doods at total annilation mod made laser tracers that u can see very well at day it looks real cool as laser towers fire on attackin light tanks.

[Eviscerator 0]

you could just change the model it fires into a tracer size bullet and texture that

[Bergmania 0]

Hmm that tracer.paa is only a 8x8 white square..

[Eviscerator 0]

did you check the alpha channel?

[Bergmania 0]

Ok .. it looks like this

AAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAA

Where the A's are alpha.. and the other is white.. 8x8

But I loose the alpha channel when exporting..

[Eviscerator 0]

try removing layers of alpha channels, probably the more vertical layers you remove, the thicker the tracer

[advocatexxx 0]

It's not just about the thickness. While yes they should be thicker, they should also be shorter and more blurred out.

OFP tracers are also too long.. Watching a machine gunner it looks *like a tracer is 100 meters long sometimes. Looks like a long thin line.

So fixing this would require making the texture thicker, shorter and a little blurry towards the rear. Tracers in Ghost Recon aren't that bad at all in my opinion.

[Eviscerator 0]

i think the ones in americas army are the best ive seen

[-Ash- 0]

Well.. If anyone discovers how to make a real tracer give me a shout, as we would love to have them in the mod.. Especially for the night time attacks (which were a regular occurence during the conflict)

cheers!

[Ash] don't call me Morph!

[Bergmania 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">i think the ones in americas army are the best ive seen <span id='postcolor'>

Yeah.. the m249's tracer looks real.. now we only need the tracers to fly everywhere when striking the target..