Observation Night Sky [BETA]

[ArmanIII 304]

Arma 3 Observation Night Sky [BETA]

 

This is some kind of example addon what can you do in Arma engine. Please do not ask me why some doen't work or why sometimes game crash.

 

Mod using own library which is helping calculate some data for satellites, because it cannot be done ingame.

 

WARNING!!!
When the library is called, it can connect to internet for downloading TLE data. These files are not dangerous for your PC, they only contains data for calculating satellites. Files are stored in @ObservationNightSky/tle.
Please if you don't know what are TLE data are, go to Wikipedia for more info.

 

 

Using mod

Module Satellites
This module add satellites into the game. Satellites are showed as white dots on night sky (as real satellites). If you point at them, info will display. If not, some issue happened, please it is BETA and only sample mod.

 

BEFORE PLACING MODULE, PLEASE SET INGAME REAL DATETIME. It means if it is today 2017-08-15, set this date also ingame. Otherwise game can crash or you can't see anything!

 

Also you can saw sometimes falling star (meteor). This is the next reason for setting right datetime, because meteor showers are calculated from real parameters.

 

On map you can see circle, bigger circle is the horizon. Smaller circle is 50 degrees of elevation.

 

 

Module Milky Way
This module simulates real Milky Way in night sky.
You can see three different brightness of it.
First is the maximum - for this brightness go to very dark place of map (without any light lamps) and set night without full moon.
Second is the middle - set night where is the moon at half
Third is the low - for this set night with full moon or go to city/town/village where are a lot of light lamps

Please, you can sometimes see that Milky Way texture is "misplaced". It is due to strange Arma stars positions, because they aren't at their real positions!

Also, Milky Way script was designed only for Altis and Startis, because script is dependent on lat lon coords.

 

 

Meteors and Bolides
These functions doesn't have scripts. If call it, it will run.

 

 

For meteor run:

[0, 50, 50, 0, 1] call ObservationNightSky_fnc_Meteor;

 

Parameters:
0 - azimuth ( 0 to 360 )
1 - elevation of start ( 30 to 90 )
2 - slope of fall ( 20 to 70 )
3 - from north or from south ( 0 or 1 )
4 - distance from player ( +1000 to -1000 )

For bolide run:

[0, 0, 50, 0, 1] call ObservationNightSky_fnc_Bolid;

 

Parameters:
0 - bolide type ( 0 - small long trail, 1 - small short trail, 2 - big and long trail )
1 - azimuth ( 0 to 360 )
2 - elevation of start ( 30 to 90 )
3 - from north or from south ( 0 or 1 )
4 - speed of falling / or also gravity ( 0 to 5 )

 

 

Installation
WARNING!!! Mod directory MUST BE PLACED in game installation folder. Otherwise it won't work or game can crash!

 

Copy folder "@ObservationNightSky" to your Arma 3 installation folder.

Add "-mod=@ObservationNightSky" to your Arma 3 shortcut like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Bohemia Interactive\Arma 3\Arma3.exe" -mod=@ObservationNightSky

 

Or run it through Arma 3 Launcher.

 

Uninstall
Delete "@ObservationNightSky" folder.

 

 

Downloads

v1.0 BETA

Mega

 

v1.0 Sources

Mega

Released under Arma Public License Share Alike (APL-SA)

 

 

Mod was not released in Steam Workshop due the reason that mod is not for using as regular player. Mod is designed for advanced mod / mission makers.

 

 

Thanks to
Stellarium (http://www.stellarium.org/)
- calculating satellite magnitude
- meteor shower calculating
- also inspiration for creating this project

 

SGP4 library (https://www.danrw.com/sgp4/)
- calculating satellites

 

libnova (http://libnova.sourceforge.net/)
- Celestial Mechanics, Astrometry and Astrodynamics Library

 

Bohemia Interactive studio
- for amazing game engine

 

Used tools
- Object Builder
- TexView 2
- Pack tools
{
  - FileBank
  - Binarize
  - CfgConvertFileChange
  - CfgConvert
}
- GIMP
- Zoner Photo Studio X

- Microsoft Visual Studio 2015

 

Creator
ArmanIII

 

If you want to edit or make the mod / library better, inform me.

If you want use some part of mod (as script, library sources) please ask me or only inform me about what are you doing.

It is allowed to use mod in your mod.

It is allowed to unpack mod and use part of it your mod (only with informing me about it).

[EO 11275]

Out of this world. 

[Biflioi 8]

Beautiful! Do you think there's a way to get the Milky Way working for other maps (obviously not correctly aligned to the other stars at the firmament) but it's just to cool to be missed.

[lex__1 422]

Good work, thanks. Is in plans - to add a supersonic shock wave? Effect it is heard on video, in 3:50 minute.

 

[ArmanIII 304]

1 hour ago, Biflioi said:

Beautiful! Do you think there's a way to get the Milky Way working for other maps (obviously not correctly aligned to the other stars at the firmament) but it's just to cool to be missed.

 

Maybe.. I thought about new way how to calculate its position.

 

2 minutes ago, lex__1 said:

Good work, thanks. Is in plans - to add a supersonic shock wave?

 

 

It was on plan, but I still didn't find right sound.

[Guest]

An Armaholic mirror is now available:


Observation Night Sky v1.0 beta

[Memura Takahashi 690]

so great!but the milky way seems like not work.I have tried in Altis and Startis.

[ArmanIII 304]

8 minutes ago, Memura Takahashi said:

so great!but the milky way seems like not work.I have tried in Altis and Startis.

 

Try go to place where are not any light lamps, e.g. forest and set night without full moon.

[Memura Takahashi 690]

6 minutes ago, ArmanIII said:

 

Try go to place where are not any light lamps, e.g. forest and set night without full moon.

thx to answer,i will take a try!

[scottb613 284]

Hi Folks,

 

Nice work - pretty cool stuff - reminds me of camping out when a kid - trying to find satellites in the night sky - I was really skeptical at first but you can see them with the naked eye...

 

Regards,
Scott 

[ineptaphid 6413]

Wow this is great! Especially for us city folk who never get to see the stars...All we see is an orangey pink sky :(

 

Thanks again

[ArmanIII 304]

Sources of mod released. Check first post.

I hope you'll learn something from them.

[Colince411 38]

Hi, this mod looks incredible! How would it work with servers? If it doesn't work, could this be a possible future feature?

[ArmanIII 304]

57 minutes ago, colince411 said:

Hi, this mod looks incredible! How would it work with servers? If it doesn't work, could this be a possible future feature?

 

It was created primary for singleplayer. There is no server key included. Well, I never tried it in MP, so I don't know if it works.

In future - maybe...

[DL++ 397]

yes! glad you decided to release it !. Love it well done 

[Luneshot 1]

Bit of a bump, but what an awesome mod. One thing I might note about the Milky Way image used in this mod; there are at least two bright "stars" in that image that are not "stars"; the large yellow-spiked star, and the bright spot right next to the MW center. At least one of these is actually Jupiter, according to the original source: http://www.eso.org/public/usa/images/eso0932a/  

I believe there's a comet in there as well. Might be a fairly quick touchup to try and remove those.

 

Another interesting feature to add might be the zodiacal light; at the darkness levels where you can see the Milky Way in its full glory, the zodiacal light will be visible as well.

 

-Fellow astronomer

[ArmanIII 304]

2 hours ago, Luneshot said:

Bit of a bump, but what an awesome mod. One thing I might note about the Milky Way image used in this mod; there are at least two bright "stars" in that image that are not "stars"; the large yellow-spiked star, and the bright spot right next to the MW center. At least one of these is actually Jupiter, according to the original source: http://www.eso.org/public/usa/images/eso0932a/  

I believe there's a comet in there as well. Might be a fairly quick touchup to try and remove those.

 

Another interesting feature to add might be the zodiacal light; at the darkness levels where you can see the Milky Way in its full glory, the zodiacal light will be visible as well.

 

-Fellow astronomer

 

Thanks for ideas. As I like night observing night sky, I wanted to add all "night features" like zodiacal light. But due to my short of time I am still not able to add or fix current issues. Maybe if someone wants to continue, he can, but I for near future no.