new aircraft loadout system - questions

[eggbeast 3673]

I have a couple of questions about the dynamic weapon configs.

just testing if these are limitations in the new system or not.

 

1. gunpod effects

with gunpods is it possible to have muzzle gas and shell casings ejected like we could in the old system? I added the memory points necessary to my gunpod model and then the weapon has this entry but all i see is a static (non-rotating) muzzle flash, and working tracer points.

 

2. muzzle flash rotation

i'm guessing we can't animate the muzzle flash ?
my gunpod has a model.cfg with a rotation animation using a source defined in the aircraft vehicle animationsources, with the pylonweapon as weapon entry, but the flash is static. i imagine it's impossible to animate inside a proxy, despite the muzzleflash working properly (show/hide on firing) that would likely be some engine change in jets dlc.

has anyone else experimented with gunpod proxies?

 

3. weapon order in HUD

We used to be able to design weapons grouping (cannon, rocket, AAM, AGM, small bomb, large bomb, fueltank) by adding weapons in the right order in the weapons[] array. what governs the load order in the pylon weapon cycling? is it pylon priority?

 

4. clusterbomb behaviour

on the new clusterbombs. mine seem to be dropping way behind the plane, almost like they are travelling backwards from release. is there a setting in the ammo/mag/weapon that controls the direction of travel of the main munition?

I am thinking I may need to add an initspeed to the munition to stop it moving backwards. It has 20kgs mass in geo (it's a small bomblet)

and then the bomblet spawns a clustermunition effect (to simulate 15 bomblets being released)

i didn't want to have 15 bomblets falling fro mthe plane, as that would probably be suboptimal

(in case you're wondering it's a SUU14 dispenser on an A-1 Skyraider)

 

[eggbeast 3673]

thanks to da12thmonkey muzzleflash is animated using reload, not ammorandom.

no need for a vehicle animationsource.

 

e.g. in model.cfg on gunpod

class MuzzleFlashRot
{ type="rotation"; 
source="reload"; 
sourceAddress="loop";
selection="zasleh"; 
axis="barrel_Axis"; 
centerFirstVertex=true;
minValue=0; 
maxValue=4; 
angle0="rad 0"; 
angle1="rad 360"; };

 

[eggbeast 3673]

any idea if there's any documentation on the new clusterbombs?

 

        class BombCluster_01_Ammo_F: Bomb_04_F
        {
            model = "\a3\Weapons_F_Orange\Ammo\BombCluster_01_fly_F";
            proxyShape = "\a3\Weapons_F_Orange\Ammo\BombCluster_01_F";
            simulation = "shotMissile";
            triggerDistance = 250;
            triggerSpeedCoef[] = {0.8, 1};
            submunitionAmmo[] = {"Mo_cluster_Bomb_01_F", 0.93, "BombCluster_01_UXO_deploy", 0.07};
            submunitionConeAngle = 10;
            submunitionConeType[] = {"randomcenter", 85};
        };

 

so what does triggerSpeedCoef[] = {0.8, 1}; do?

how is submunitionConeAngle = 10; calculated?

and what is the value in this submunitionConeType[] = {"randomcenter", 85};

the reason i ask is that our cbus appear to spawn effects several hundred metres away t othe left and right of the plane.

 

also maverickWeaponIndexOffset

any idea what is this used for? i only see questions and zero documentation

happy to document it, once i have an understanding

[da12thMonkey 1943]

17 minutes ago, eggbeast said:

any idea if there's any documentation on the new clusterbombs?

 

so what does triggerSpeedCoef[] = {0.8, 1}; do?

how is submunitionConeAngle = 10; calculated?

and what is the value in this submunitionConeType[] = {"randomcenter", 85};

the reason i ask is that our cbus appear to spawn effects several hundred metres away t othe left and right of the plane.

 

also maverickWeaponIndexOffset

any idea what is this used for? i only see questions and zero documentation

happy to document it, once i have an understanding

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3_Weapon_Config_Guidelines#Ammo_changes_on_fly_and_on_hit

 

maverickWeaponIndexOffset is pretty obsolete now we have dynamic loudouts. It used to be used to define where certain missile models loaded on the plane model, based on their proxy index number

 

Your bomb models and submunition models need a valid geometry LOD (i.e. with mass and components) and autocenter = 0. Not certain, but it might be why the submunitions spawn with an offset if you don't have it

[eggbeast 3673]

this is helpful thanks so much

we have geo with 20kgs mass - have upped it to 100.

components work correctly

autocenter is 0

 

the offset is like 200m away - makes me think the cone is firing horizontally, rather than vertically down

 

submunitionConeType[] describes pattern of ammo in detail, first part is a distribution function ("random", "randomcenter", "poissondisc", "poissondisccenter", "custom"), 
second parameter is number of ammo except of custom one, where it is another array of pairs for specific locations

the second line is a killer. i thought it was radius. but give nit's using a spawn height and a cone, it made no sense to me thinking that

 

[DSabre 2325]

regarding the pods, some more maybe helpful info: da12thMonkey helped a while ago

 

[eggbeast 3673]

thanks sabre, yeah i had read that.

 

so summary to date (with monkeys help)

 

1. gunpod effects

native support is not available for this.

 

2. muzzle flash rotation

works with reload animsource, not vehicle-based ammorandom like before

 

3. weapon order in HUD

still exploring - seems to me to be the order you put the weapons into the plane, so if you switch loadouts a few times it jumbles up the order.

otherwise it goes from first to last weapon added, so it seems.

 

4. clusterbomb behaviour

tweaking the cone, the mass of the bomb and the sideairfriction values, as well as removing a nexplosioneffect i had in the "canister" deploy (which may have been catapulting submunitions far away) fixed,  the strange behaviour.