[WIP] Helocasting & K-Casting

[fat_lurch 337]

Update - I have since released this addon on Steam. Below is a link to the new discussion.

 

Steam Link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1947483966

 

 

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Hello all, 

 

    I've been working on a system for helo-casting and K-Casting (Kangaroo-Casting). Right now this exists as a few scripts.

 

My intent is to try to make this an addon which allows users to setup for helocasting and K-Casting via a checkbox in the Eden editor. For these tests, the helo is commanded by an AI. In theory this should be compatible with player pilots.

 

Here's video of some tests with the RHS UH-60 and the RHS CH-47:

 

 

Concept of Operation:

1. Helo gets setup in Eden
2. Helo flies a set of waypoints
3. During the flight, a user in the helo can command to setup for the helocast
4. Helo flies low and slow
5. User commands the helocast
6. Boat is dropped/pushed out
7. Non-aircrew (players) are ejected from the helo (about 1 every 0.5 seconds)
8. Helo resumes its last commanded flyInHeight and top speed

 

I use the vanilla "Assault Boat" for all of these operations at the moment. I've been testing this in SP and on dedicated server.

 

My plans as of right now:

• Allow users to configure which marking devices to attach the RHIB (right now I'm just using my multispectral strobe)
• User configurable movement speed and height (right now this is 8 km/h & 4 meters)
• One-click setup in Eden for supported helos
• Support for popular (appropriate) helos
• Command the helicopter to slow down without the huge pitch-up (I know this is built into the flight model; I'm hoping numerous, gradual changes to flyInHeight & limitSpeed help)

 

I'd be curious to hear people's input on the development of this; I've been surprised in the past how users wind up utilizing my addons in ways I never planned.

 

Also, if you have a favorite helo you'd like this to work with please post up. I can't promise to get to them all, but I'll get the most popular ones.

 

Thanks

[stburr91 1009]

Pretty cool, it seems to work pretty well. I know from experience that the boats in Arma can get away from you during a Helocast, and you end up chasing the boat.

 

Will you release a scripted version for vanilla, so people can use it without a mod requirement.  

[fat_lurch 337]

On ‎2‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 6:38 AM, stburr91 said:

Pretty cool, it seems to work pretty well. I know from experience that the boats in Arma can get away from you during a Helocast, and you end up chasing the boat.

 

Will you release a scripted version for vanilla, so people can use it without a mod requirement.  

Thanks

 

Yes, I *can* release the script version as well. (See below)

[GEORGE FLOROS GR 4207]

10 hours ago, fat_lurch said:

helo-casting and K-Casting

 

fat_lurch this is great and i would like to show you some action doing also the opposite of helo-casting  of our Greek Special Forces Unit , called Z' M.A.K. , the Amphibious reconnaissance formation.

 

 

 

I'll be waiting for the release of your script , especially the CH-47 action is Great !

[fat_lurch 337]

Thanks GF!

 

I hadn't considered recovery of RHIBs yet, but that would be a really neat feature.

 

I'll try to incorporate that.

[beno_83au 1369]

Nice, good luck with it. I tried dropping RHIBs out of helos in ArmA2, but the results were........ random at best lol:

 

 

Yeah, so I wasn't very good at this back then.

[GEORGE FLOROS GR 4207]

4 hours ago, fat_lurch said:

I'll try to incorporate that.

 

This would be an awesome feature !

Just to know as you noticed in the video , there are not a lot of special forces who can do this , especially on a camera !

Keep up the good work !

[fat_lurch 337]

So I've been trying a few techniques to get the ARMA helicopters to decelerate without the huge climb that's typical of the AI.

 

During testing, the goal was to command the helicopter to 20 km/h for helocasting at its current altitude. I baselined the AI behavior by issuing the standard limit speed command:

_vehicle limitSpeed 20;

I then tried iteratively issuing limitSpeed commands which scaled the speed limit by the current aircraft speed combined with how much the aircraft is climbing.

 

I'm seeing pitch oscillations and the deceleration takes a long distance - I'm struggling to find the "balance point" of deceleration. However, the aircraft flies MUCH lower overall. I'm going to keep tweaking and this will post up the results here.

 

If I can get acceptable behavior out of this I'll release the function so other people can use it as well.

 

Thanks

 

[john111 76]

Can`t you simply use some Library that just tells the helo what you want it to perform?  Some FMS ?  Btw,the speed for helokasting is about 8 km/h.

[Jnr4817 215]

Please release this function.

Way better performance, then stock.

Test 7 looks like the tits.

Any video?

Reed

[fat_lurch 337]

17 hours ago, john111 said:

Can`t you simply use some Library that just tells the helo what you want it to perform?  Some FMS ?  Btw,the speed for helokasting is about 8 km/h.

Thanks john111, 

 

      There's nothing in ARMA 3 that I'm aware of - if someone knows of something, please let me know.

 

There's something for VBS called setMaxDive. Unfortunately it hasn't been incorporated into ARMA 3.

 

Thanks for the info on the helocasting speed!

[fat_lurch 337]

12 hours ago, Jnr4817 said:

Please release this function.

Way better performance, then stock.

Test 7 looks like the tits.

Any video?

Reed

 

Thanks much, Reed! I hadn't taken any video because all you see is the helo taking a long time to slow down while pitching up and down a bit.

 

Is 2.5 - 3 km to slow down a reasonable distance? I'm not a decent pilot - I can't hold the balance point slowing down.

[Jnr4817 215]

Its definitely not, but still better then what the AI currently does by shooting straight up in the air.

 

Could you find a mid-range, say the aircraft only increases altitude to make 75-100 and lands within 750-1000?

 

Great work so far.

[fat_lurch 337]

On ‎2‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 9:41 PM, GEORGE FLOROS GR said:

 

This would be an awesome feature !

Just to know as you noticed in the video , there are not a lot of special forces who can do this , especially on a camera !

Keep up the good work !

 

So I have the most basic recovery working - now I need to make it more robust. The good news is that it seems to be possible within ARMA 3 without an explosion...

 

 

[fat_lurch 337]

7 hours ago, Jnr4817 said:

Its definitely not, but still better then what the AI currently does by shooting straight up in the air.

 

Could you find a mid-range, say the aircraft only increases altitude to make 75-100 and lands within 750-1000?

 

Great work so far.

 

Thanks jnr, I'm hoping to come up with a few flight profiles.

 

    

[stburr91 1009]

On 3/4/2019 at 3:51 AM, fat_lurch said:

 

So I have the most basic recovery working - now I need to make it more robust. The good news is that it seems to be possible within ARMA 3 without an explosion...

 

 

Looks like the heli took damage while in the water, maybe incorporate an allowdamage false for the heli while in the water?

 

Anyway, looks pretty good, keep up the good work.  

[GEORGE FLOROS GR 4207]

12 hours ago, fat_lurch said:

So I have the most basic recovery working

 

fat_lurchlly ,

this is really ,  just beyond !

I did'nt expect this !!!

Well done !  🙊🙉🙈

[fat_lurch 337]

I cannot believe the timing of update 1.90 - I had been doing things the hard way using attachTo because the Assault Boat couldn't be loaded into other vehicles:

 

"Fixed: Assault Boat was missing a vehicle transport class and it did not use memory point defined bounding boxes"

 

Also:

 

"Added: Small animation for raising the engine of Assault Boats when they are transported in other vehicles"

 

 

Cheers to the developers - In (Lottery odds) case this had anything to do with this mod, let me know where to drop ship the beer.

 

p.s. Let me know what it would cost to incorporate setMaxDive

[Jnr4817 215]

results?

[fat_lurch 337]

10 hours ago, Jnr4817 said:

results?

 

BIS's changes didn't affect things like I expected - I still wasn't able to use vehicle-in-vehicle on the assault boat.

 

I've been testing with my group and working bugs.

 

We've been able to recover a zodiac, fly out and helocast over and over.

 

I added a custom handle damage EH so that the boat can't damage the helo but the helo can still be damaged by small arms, etc.

 

It's probably 80% complete save for integrating the custom decel function - that will be the next big hurdle, then packaging as an addon.

 

I'm in the process of trying to come up with a waypoint type for the helicopter to set it up to recover the zodiac.

 

I also want to setup support for the vanilla helicopters. 

[fat_lurch 337]

On ‎2‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 7:07 AM, fat_lurch said:

Thanks

 

Yes, I *can* release the script version as well. (See below)

 

An update on a scripted version: as far as I can tell so far I'll need to release this as an addon in order to be able to incorporate custom waypoint types for helocasting. A workaround would be to provide code for scripted waypoints, but this will require quite a bit more work on the part of the person using the scripts.

 

 

[MattyIce01 57]

Looks great man, can't wait for a release!

[fat_lurch 337]

On 3/10/2019 at 5:19 AM, MattyIce01 said:

Looks great man, can't wait for a release!

 

Thanks much!

 

I'm still working at it - this weekend was devoted to upgrading my PC so I didn't get a heck of a lot done.

[fat_lurch 337]

I've got most of the waypoints working in the Eden editor & Zeus.

 

The actual helocast itself is fighting me a bit as a waypoint.

 

Eventually I want to figure out how to integrate this with ALiVE.

[fat_lurch 337]

I seem to have the waypoints for setting up and executing a helocast working. The AI will also climb into their boat and wait for subsequent tasking. I think I'm going to hold off trying to make the AI driving the boat try to drive into the Chinook for recovery for now - I have a feeling the AI will not do that very well.