saetheer 9 Posted February 5, 2018 Hello fellow humanoids! Since BIS removed the illumination effect, and replaced it with "It's meant for signaling only"-effect the night-missions have been (...) not that fun..? Dont know what the argument was to removing it, if there was an argument at all? Nevertheless, I really want this back into the game. Night mission was one of my favorite type of mission - well, they still are - but my mission is somewhat overkilled with CAS, cluster bombing and explosions in general. Todays flares (40mm and artillery) are a joke. Anyone that has been in any military units, knows they are dulled down to a point where they are usless. In fact, if BIS don't want to consider buff them, they should remove it. They are so dull and incorrect that it would be equivlent as if BIS developed Tanks and leaving out its main armament. Hopefully there is someone else miss the flare illuminating the sky and the surrounding enviroment equally as much as I did! We should start a community movment: Illuminating. 8 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brightcandle 114 Posted February 13, 2018 The current flares just simply don't do the job they are meant to do anymore. The lack of lighting distance makes them more like a flying candle than a flare. We used to love them in Arma 2 but in Arma 3 we barely notice them as they have zero impact. It would be nice from a tactical point of view to have them working as they should because currently they aren't worth using. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fn_Quiksilver 1636 Posted February 13, 2018 BIS changed it, and then defended the change afterwards. Don't matter that in config its: simulation="IlluminatingFlare"; BIS has changed it to signal flare. Its also not so simple/efficient to change it via scripting, only good way is with mod/addon. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Grumpy Old Man 3545 Posted February 13, 2018 2 hours ago, fn_Quiksilver said: BIS changed it, and then defended the change afterwards. Don't matter that in config its: simulation="IlluminatingFlare"; BIS has changed it to signal flare. Its also not so simple/efficient to change it via scripting, only good way is with mod/addon. Oh well, flaregate... Got a similar weird explanation for choppers no longer using lights during landing/takeoff and "SAFE" behavior, since A3 came out. In arma 2 it worked fine. Cheers 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fn_Quiksilver 1636 Posted February 14, 2018 16 hours ago, Grumpy Old Man said: Oh well, flaregate... Got a similar weird explanation for choppers no longer using lights during landing/takeoff and "SAFE" behavior, since A3 came out. In arma 2 it worked fine. Cheers speaking of flares, do you know if its possible to reference the lightpoint created by the flare object? like for burning wrecks there is an "effects" variable where the light/smoke is stored. cant find any such thing for flares Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Grumpy Old Man 3545 Posted February 14, 2018 4 minutes ago, fn_Quiksilver said: speaking of flares, do you know if its possible to reference the lightpoint created by the flare object? like for burning wrecks there is an "effects" variable where the light/smoke is stored. cant find any such thing for flares No idea, most likely engine handled and no way to manipulate it via scripts since both attachedObjects and allVariables of the projectile return empty arrays during the entire lifetime of the flare. player addEventHandler ["Fired",{ _projectile = _this select 6; _test = _projectile spawn { while {alive _this} do { _attached = attachedObjects _this; _vars = allVariables _this; systemchat str [_attached,_vars]; copyToClipboard str [_attached,_vars] } } }]; Cheers 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
h - 169 Posted February 14, 2018 I guess you've already tried just creating a new light for the flare? Dunno how "cost effective" and fiddly that would be in MP though Been using this sort of thing myself sometimes: player addEventHandler ["FiredMan",{ private _scpt = (_this select 6) spawn { private _timmeh = time; waitUntil { time - _timmeh >= 3; }; private _foo = "#lightpoint" createVehicle (getPosASL _this); _foo attachTo [_this, [0, 0, 0]]; _foo setLightColor [1, 1, 1]; _foo setLightAmbient [1, 1, 1]; _foo setLightIntensity 100000; _foo setLightUseFlare true; _foo setLightFlareSize 10; _foo setLightFlareMaxDistance 600; _foo setLightDayLight true; _foo setLightAttenuation [4, 0, 0, 0.2, 1000, 2000]; waitUntil { sleep 0.1; !alive _this; }; deletevehicle _foo; }; }]; 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Grumpy Old Man 3545 Posted February 14, 2018 Might as well post my flare fix here as did @h - GOM_fnc_flareFix = { params ["_unit"]; _ID = _unit addEventhandler ["Fired",{ _projectile = _this select 6; _type = typeOf _projectile; _upperType = toUpper _type; if !(_type isKindOf "FlareCore") exitWith {true}; if !(_upperType find "IR" isEqualTo -1) exitWith {true}; _unit = _this select 0; _clr = [1,1,1]; if !(_upperType find "YELLOW" isEqualTo -1) then {_clr = [1,1,0]}; if !(_upperType find "GREEN" isEqualTo -1) then {_clr = [0,1,0]}; if !(_upperType find "RED" isEqualTo -1) then {_clr = [1,0,0]}; _light = "#lightpoint" createVehicle [0,0,0]; _light setLightBrightness 13.0; _clr vectorAdd [-0.3,-0.3,-0.3]; _light setLightColor _clr; //_light setLightAmbient _clr; _light setLightUseFlare true; _timeToLive = getNumber (configfile >> "CfgAmmo" >> _type >> "timeToLive"); _timeToLive = _timeToLive + time; _ID = format ["%1%2%3",time,random 10000,getposatl _unit]; [_ID, "onEachFrame", { params ["_light","_projectile","_ID","_timeToLive"]; if (alive _projectile AND (velocity _projectile select 2) < 0) then { _light setposatl getposatl _projectile; _timeLeft = time - _timeToLive + 5; _light setLightBrightness random [(10 - _timeLeft) min 10,(12 - _timeLeft) min 12,(14 - _timeLeft) min 14]; }; if !(alive _projectile) then { deletevehicle _light; [_ID, "onEachFrame"] call BIS_fnc_removeStackedEventHandler; }; true },[_light,_projectile,_ID,_timeToLive]] call BIS_fnc_addStackedEventHandler; true }]; _unit setVariable ["GOM_fnc_flareFix",_ID]; true }; //add to unit: _stuffNthings = player call GOM_fnc_flareFix; This makes all flares fired by the unit illuminate the surrounding area, also picks the correct color. Could update it to use the new EachFrame EH instead the bis function if there's any interest, shouldn't make much of a difference though. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fn_Quiksilver 1636 Posted February 14, 2018 thanks, yeah i was looking for way to reference the already existing light source. I also tested nearestobjects for "#lightpoint", near the flare. no luck. sort of like this https://github.com/auQuiksilver/Apex-Framework/blob/master/Apex_framework.terrain/code/functions/fn_aoFires.sqf#L132-L146 { if (!isNull _x) then { _fire = _x; if (!isNil {_fire getVariable 'effects'}) then { { if ((typeOf _x) isEqualTo '#lightpoint') then { _x setLightBrightness 2.75; _x setLightAmbient [1,0.28,0.05]; _x setLightColor [1,0.28,0.05]; _x setLightAttenuation [3,4,6,0.0125,5,600]; }; } count (_fire getVariable 'effects'); }; }; } forEach (missionNamespace getVariable 'QS_fires'); have we tried just directly using the "setLight..." commands on the projectile itself? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
h - 169 Posted February 14, 2018 "SetLighting" the flare model doesn't work, IIRC tried it at some point.. 29 minutes ago, Grumpy Old Man said: Might as well post my flare fix here as did h- :P wouldn't call mine a fix, just something simple I used in a very specific situation. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fn_Quiksilver 1636 Posted February 14, 2018 I guess we could spawn ~5-10 lightpoints at start of mission, and just re-use/recycle them to the most recently-created flare, and move them offsite to storage location like [-100,-100,-100] between use. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fn_Quiksilver 1636 Posted February 14, 2018 basically this sort of code structure // Server init _globalLightpoints = []; for '_x' from 0 to 9 step 1 do { _globalLightpoints pushBack (createVehicle ['#lightpoint',[-100,-100,-100],[],0,'NONE']); }; missionnamespace setvariable ['global_lightpoints',_globalLightpoints,TRUE]; // Player init player addEventHandler [ 'FiredMan', { params ['','','','','','','_projectile']; // check for available lightpoints private _available_lightpoint = objnull; { if (((_x distance2D [-100,-100,-100]) < 10) || (isNull (attachedTo _x))) exitWith { _available_lightpoint = _x; }; } foreach global_lightpoints; if (isNull _available_lightpoint) then { // theres no available recycled lightpoints, either tough luck or create one here // _available_lightpoint = createvehicle ['#lightpoint',......]; }; if (!isNull _available_lightpoint) then { _available_lightpoint attachTo _projectile; // setlightbrightness and stuff [_projectile,_available_lightpoint] spawn { params ['_projectile','_available_lightpoint']; waitUntil {(isnull _projectile)}; if (_available_lightpoint in global_lightpoints) then { _available_lightpoint setpos [-100,-100,-100]; // reset light brightness and stuff, ready for next use } else { deletevehicle _available_lightpoint; }; }; }; } ]; 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
h - 169 Posted February 14, 2018 Sounds like a plan. And if using Grumpy's methods of getting the color etc data those could be stored in the lightpoint array at mision init as well for faster referencing EDIT: Or a separate array, sorted by type or something. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jnr4817 215 Posted February 16, 2018 On 2/14/2018 at 3:37 AM, Grumpy Old Man said: Might as well post my flare fix here as did @h - GOM_fnc_flareFix = { params ["_unit"]; _ID = _unit addEventhandler ["Fired",{ _projectile = _this select 6; _type = typeOf _projectile; _upperType = toUpper _type; if !(_type isKindOf "FlareCore") exitWith {true}; if !(_upperType find "IR" isEqualTo -1) exitWith {true}; _unit = _this select 0; _clr = [1,1,1]; if !(_upperType find "YELLOW" isEqualTo -1) then {_clr = [1,1,0]}; if !(_upperType find "GREEN" isEqualTo -1) then {_clr = [0,1,0]}; if !(_upperType find "RED" isEqualTo -1) then {_clr = [1,0,0]}; _light = "#lightpoint" createVehicle [0,0,0]; _light setLightBrightness 13.0; _clr vectorAdd [-0.3,-0.3,-0.3]; _light setLightColor _clr; //_light setLightAmbient _clr; _light setLightUseFlare true; _timeToLive = getNumber (configfile >> "CfgAmmo" >> _type >> "timeToLive"); _timeToLive = _timeToLive + time; _ID = format ["%1%2%3",time,random 10000,getposatl _unit]; [_ID, "onEachFrame", { params ["_light","_projectile","_ID","_timeToLive"]; if (alive _projectile AND (velocity _projectile select 2) < 0) then { _light setposatl getposatl _projectile; _timeLeft = time - _timeToLive + 5; _light setLightBrightness random [(10 - _timeLeft) min 10,(12 - _timeLeft) min 12,(14 - _timeLeft) min 14]; }; if !(alive _projectile) then { deletevehicle _light; [_ID, "onEachFrame"] call BIS_fnc_removeStackedEventHandler; }; true },[_light,_projectile,_ID,_timeToLive]] call BIS_fnc_addStackedEventHandler; true }]; _unit setVariable ["GOM_fnc_flareFix",_ID]; true }; //add to unit: _stuffNthings = player call GOM_fnc_flareFix; This makes all flares fired by the unit illuminate the surrounding area, also picks the correct color. Could update it to use the new EachFrame EH instead the bis function if there's any interest, shouldn't make much of a difference though. If you update to new eachframe EH Ill test out. Would this also work for illumination flares fired by aircraft. IE helicopters firing illum rounds over a dark area to fire unaided. Or if you could some how add an IR version that works under NVG's. Thanks and Humbly, Reed Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sputnik monroe 102 Posted February 16, 2018 I missed out on flare gate, is this really a thing? They seriously intend for the flares to be worthless? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Grumpy Old Man 3545 Posted February 16, 2018 54 minutes ago, sputnik monroe said: I missed out on flare gate, is this really a thing? They seriously intend for the flares to be worthless? Well it sums up to this (mild Apex spoiler): Chemlight in Alpha: Spoiler Chemlight in current devbranch: Spoiler UGL Flare during alpha: Spoiler Recent 82mm mortar flare illumination using a whopping !9! flares: Spoiler Flares and chemlights worked well during alpha. Shortly after release the darkness of nights has been tweaked, which rendered flares and chemlights almost useless, they still gave some illumination. The illumination basically died with the visual "overhaul" of the apex DLC, which caused both flares and chemlights to give off effectively no light. Official BI Apex mission that has enemy fire flare is using a script to fake the illumination for the flare because the lighting system is a mess, yet the devs claim all flares are a "signalling" flare despite having worked fine during alpha yet somehow also 82mm mortar and 155mm howitzer flares are also not illuminating anything The only thing hinting at a "signalling flare" is the 6rnd starter pistols mag entry for displayName: "6Rnd Signal Cylinder (Green)" Now the utterly ridiculous thing is, the 6rnd starter pistol flares are the only flare rounds currently in game that actually give off any visible illumination, talk about inconsistencies here... On top of that in real life the ONLY difference between signal flares and illumination flares is that signal flares have no parachute, other than that it's the same charge... Starter pistol flare illumination: Spoiler Modern day military barely has any use for signalling flares since there's other means of communication (Radio, GPS, Laser target designation, etc.). Illumination rounds though are frequently used. Some folks claimed the current state of flares is intentional, basically all the above points contradict it Cheers 7 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sputnik monroe 102 Posted February 16, 2018 * rubs temples * I am disappointed. I noticed flares are worthless, but I thought it was just a bug that hopefully would be fixed. This is for lack of a better term... this is dumb. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Grumpy Old Man 3545 Posted February 16, 2018 1 minute ago, sputnik monroe said: * rubs temples * I am disappointed. I noticed flares are worthless, but I thought it was just a bug that hopefully would be fixed. This is for lack of a better term... this is dumb. Can't really follow up on that decision either. Considering that flares where illuminating just fine during A2 times. Same goes for aircraft and main/spotlights, back in A2 those lights turned on when in "SAFE" behavior. No chance getting this again in A3, spotlights and main lights remain off, no matter the setting. They operate the navlights instead. Then BI introduced the setPilotLight command, which seemed to have the intended purpose of giving mission makers manual control over a vehicles main/spotlights, at least that's how I understand the wiki description of it. Turns out the AI simply overrides it within the same frame, so you have to use an eventhandler running every frame, using setPilotLight to true for every vehicle. No idea where the programming went downhill in that case... Then there's the support vehicles like medical, repair, ammo and refuel trucks. Players complained that they couldn't rearm an empty MLRS sandstorm with a single ammo truck, so BI simply changed those values to 1*10¹² instead of applying a proper fix. That's a 1 followed by 12 zeros. 1.000.000.000.000. One trillion... A wipeout holds 1000l of fuel. You could fully refill 10.000 wipeouts 100.000 times or a single wipeout 1 billion times. Humanity will be long gone until such a truck runs out of fuel. Just to put things into perspective. Cheers 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mynock 244 Posted February 16, 2018 Was always disappointed flares didn't give off any real light. Always thought it would be super cool to script tripwire flares for jungle missions to spook players. But without the brightness every time I try it I never feel like a deer caught in the headlights and it doesn't make me want to crap myself for setting it off. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fn_Quiksilver 1636 Posted February 16, 2018 7 hours ago, Grumpy Old Man said: Well it sums up to this (mild Apex spoiler): Chemlight in Alpha: Hide contents Chemlight in current devbranch: Hide contents UGL Flare during alpha: Hide contents Recent 82mm mortar flare illumination using a whopping !9! flares: Hide contents Flares and chemlights worked well during alpha. Shortly after release the darkness of nights has been tweaked, which rendered flares and chemlights almost useless, they still gave some illumination. The illumination basically died with the visual "overhaul" of the apex DLC, which caused both flares and chemlights to give off effectively no light. Official BI Apex mission that has enemy fire flare is using a script to fake the illumination for the flare because the lighting system is a mess, yet the devs claim all flares are a "signalling" flare despite having worked fine during alpha yet somehow also 82mm mortar and 155mm howitzer flares are also not illuminating anything The only thing hinting at a "signalling flare" is the 6rnd starter pistols mag entry for displayName: "6Rnd Signal Cylinder (Green)" Now the utterly ridiculous thing is, the 6rnd starter pistol flares are the only flare rounds currently in game that actually give off any visible illumination, talk about inconsistencies here... On top of that in real life the ONLY difference between signal flares and illumination flares is that signal flares have no parachute, other than that it's the same charge... Starter pistol flare illumination: Reveal hidden contents Modern day military barely has any use for signalling flares since there's other means of communication (Radio, GPS, Laser target designation, etc.). Illumination rounds though are frequently used. Some folks claimed the current state of flares is intentional, basically all the above points contradict it Cheers Here is when they broke the brightness of light-emitting objects (flares, chemlights, fires, etc). https://dev.arma3.com/post/oprep-visual-upgrade prior to then they worked fine unfortunately the marketing shills/"ambassadors" in the BI community always bat away criticism and say things like "its intentional, learn to play with it". result is its been broken for so long no one cares anymore. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
h - 169 Posted February 16, 2018 On 2/16/2018 at 9:02 AM, Grumpy Old Man said: Players complained that they couldn't rearm an empty MLRS sandstorm with a single ammo truck, so BI simply changed those values to 1*10¹² instead of applying a proper fix. Completely forgot about this one.. No idea what the values were before but the intensity of CfgLights class FlareLight is quite massive (outside the int range -> intensity = 1e+007 = 1^7 = 10 000 000) but because the attenuation values it doesn't actually illuminate anything no matter how insanely high you set the intensity the light simply dies off too close to the source.. As it's called 'intensity' I guess the value is in candelas (intensity of a light source, 10 000 000 candelas = (pretty much) 10 000 000 lumens) which basically means "the brightness of the light at source" so the FlareLight is actually pretty damn bright, it just doesn't illuminate anything, which means claiming that the flares aren't bright enough is false Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
