mod release Vandeanson’s Apocalypse

[Weapon-Fetish 26]

Since your last update is all Good now lol

[Vandeanson 1676]

1 hour ago, Weapon-Fetish said:

Now im no more Sure if you know what i mean, when not im soory for my bad

statement. To make Shure i make screens in the next hours to show exactly what i mean sometimes is not so easy for me to write all in english about bug because all people have a other way of thinking and explain 😄 

No worries, i know its not easy to express yourself in a foreign language, try to explain as good as you can and we will figure it out:) and yeah screenshots and rpt files are even better. 

Btw. I do speak german, if that helps.

[Vandeanson 1676]

OP updated to confirm that the mod is needed on both server and client. 

 

In addition, just to confirm that all features work on dedicated, hosted and SP. 

 

Teaser:

Tonight i will add a new feature for ravage users:

If you pick up a document folder, there is a chance that a point of interest is added to your map, indicating the location of one of the sites (e.g. A bandit camp or crashsige) 

 

Cheers

Vd

[lordfrith 401]

i was just trying this on new Livonia terrain on Devbranch. it was working pretty nice but i noticed it sometimes spawned camps, trade posts outside the map region? i was starting at the edge of the map so maybe that didn't help...

 

i was getting some script errors too but i was running a few other mods so i'll check that later 😉

 

anyway great mod mate, thanks for the updates!

 

🖖

[Vandeanson 1676]

Just now, lordfrith said:

i was just trying this on new Livonia terrain on Devbranch. it was working pretty nice but i noticed it sometimes spawned camps, trade posts outside the map region? i was starting at the edge of the map so maybe that didn't help...

 

i was getting some script errors too but i was running a few other mods so i'll check that later 😉

 

anyway great mod mate, thanks for the updates!

 

🖖

Thanks for the feedback:) 

 

If the errors contain references starting with VA_ or VD_.. Then please send me a printscreen, it would be errors caused by VA. 

 

Yeah check out the installation /usage parts of the OP, there is instructions on how to ad blacklisted areas for land and coastal spawn sites (mainly to restrict stuff from spawning outside a map). 

 

Let me know if it is not cleraly explained, then i will update it. 

 

Cheers

Vd

[lordfrith 401]

21 minutes ago, Vandeanson said:

there is instructions on how to ad blacklisted areas for land and coastal spawn sites

 

do you mean i surround a land locked map with large safe zones? i had a safe zone for my base but it didn't occur to me to use it for borders too.. duh. cheers!

 

edit: ah yes, just like in OP, i missed that as i played on altis before

Edited June 9, 2019 by lordfrith

[Vandeanson 1676]

33 minutes ago, lordfrith said:

do you mean i surround a land locked map with large safe zones?

Yes exactly, and consider your maximum spawn distance from the VA settings when choosing the markers size. It sometime happened to me that stuff spawned even behind the markers😂

[Vandeanson 1676]

Hi all,

 

I pushed an update for Vandeanson's Apocalypse, now including a ravage exclusive feature;)

 

***

Point of Interest EH:
- with ravage, you have a chance to find information about points of interest in document folders.
- such info will add a local (to player) marker to the players map (question-mark)
- this may indicate the location of any of the sites of the mod ( e.g. Bandit Camps, Crashsites,...)
- POI marker disappears once you are within 10 meters of POI
- POI markers do not disappear when the site is despawned, simulating that intel you looted might be outdated

- chance of rvg_docFolder containing such intel can be adjusted

The looted doc folder is always deleted and turned into a rvg_notepad to avoid exploit.

***

 

Further I have

- added the option to have FAKs turn into (gets deleted in the process) Anti Virus Medicine (if the infection feature is enabled) when picked up. The chance that this happens can be adjusted.

- added an option to change the damage effect base frequency between harmful effects of the infection feature. The frequency is increased by 5% every time it hits.

- added military and industrial structures (based on config) to the dynamic loot spawner of the loot economy feature

- removed CUP Terrain - Core dependency to avoid dependency of a 6gb mod. I would still recommend to play it with that mod, due to the cooler assets.

- minor fixes

 

Got quite excited when I saw that Prospekt Mir dedicated a video to testing Ravage along with VA and I wanted to share it here:

 

 

I was on eggshells while watching the video, always waiting for that big massive error pop up mentioning my tag somewhere..;)

Got some good feedback out of it, if you get to playtest VA - please let me know about any issues you might notice!

 

cheers

vd

[chernaruski 338]

mmm , tried to have a quick look and got this right at the start when loading the mission via eden

 

Spoiler

Mods I used:
ChernarusRedux
CUP Terrain Core
CBA_A3
CUP Weapons
CUP Units 
CUP Vehicles
Ravage 
VA v2.04

I've created a custom scenario via eden editor with ravage modules such as ambient zeds, loot system, settings and fire it up.
Wait ....just a sec...what is this? Why steam downloading all the older versions ? for some reason I have current version + older  builds installed. Could it be they load on top of each other and thats why I get these errors? 




Update: Nope. Still getting scripts errors , after I manually deleted old versions and re-subscribed.
Thats even before I get to addon config menus

[Vandeanson 1676]

Sorry guys, i must have messed something up in the cba menue. I have backed up version 2.03 from june 9 until its fixed. This should make the mod playable again

[Vandeanson 1676]

2 hours ago, chernaruski said:

Wait ....just a sec...what is this? Why steam downloading all the older versions ?

Uhm that seems odd indeed oO

Not sure if that is normal

[tortuosit 485]

Trying it for the first time, first good impression. You put a lots of effort into it; thank you.

[tortuosit 485]

Error massge in Livonia - I am using the workshop version:
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/799866799760276204/9715AFD881378A8A6E54B9B0351A4004C7E2FEEF/

[Vandeanson 1676]

Have you 

A) placed and named markers for possible plane spaen locations on the map? 

B) added these marker names in the marker field of the plane spawner settings? 

 

It seems to me that the script can not find any markers, which indicates that step B) might be missing. 

[Vandeanson 1676]

8 hours ago, chernaruski said:

Wait ....just a sec...what is this? Why steam downloading all the older versions ? for some reason I have current version + older  builds installed. Could it be they load on top of each other and thats why I get these errors? 

 

Oh ok i think this happens when i change the mods name when updating it. 

Going forward i will not update the version in the mod name. That should fix it:) 

[tortuosit 485]

7 hours ago, Vandeanson said:

Have you 

A) placed and named markers for possible plane spaen locations on the map? 

B) added these marker names in the marker field of the plane spawner settings? 

 

It seems to me that the script can not find any markers, which indicates that step B) might be missing. 

 

OK thanks, no did not place any marker at all.

[tortuosit 485]

When my player was placed in the very south west of Livonia, your mod did happily spawn stuff (helicopter...) out in the empty green map areas, you may need to check "worldsize" in your mod? My random scripts stay all perfectly inside [0..worldsize, 0..worldsize] - i.e. the map should be OK.

[chernaruski 338]

Just tried it again, yeah seems like it working now. First impression - woah, this thing tanking FPS badly.
+ Turning debug on and then off , doesn't clear the debug circle markers.
+ It seems some of the events spawn outside of the map? https://i.imgur.com/E0UR3Rk.png


@Vandeanson , I'm not sure how the addon setting work in MP , as hosted on GSP server game...  Initially I though , mission creator can decide what parameters should be used via module , as Ravage do it, and then players could join multiplayer game...
Now I understand correctly, any player would be able to configure the settings via addon setting menu or how would it work? I'm so used to text config files with all the params inside , I don't even know the basics of addon config via in-game menu )) There is a part of server addon setting and client, anyone who join wont be able to change it right? Can you clear this out for me?

[tortuosit 485]

5 minutes ago, chernaruski said:

Just tried it again, yeah seems like it working now. First impression - woah, this thing tanking FPS badly.

 

I've also seen heavy FPS load. When I load my default mission and after my scripts all ran and spawning has been done, I play at 50 FPS (except of course typical battles, towns, explosions etc.)

But now with this mod I have seen FPS go down to almost 10, temporarily... But not sure how long it has to work. A message (in debug mode maybe) would be helpful, I'd like to know when it has done its major spawning action for better judgement of the FPS.

[chernaruski 338]

There is no doubt performance issue must be a top priority , but I'm sure @Vandeanson is aware of that.   
There are too many factors to take into account when trying to optimize the whole thing, but there are also a lot of tweaking addon options available for us mission creators, to squeeze a little more out of it.  I'm running test mission at the moment , in tandem with Ravage modules. Each of them does their thing and eats a bits of performance. 

I've seen a lot of mission systems , like DMS (for Exile mod) and such , that have different automatic solutions for AI optimization, self-cleanup scripts which remove corpses, ground item spawn holders and many more. Maybe there is a thing or two you could learn from existing ai systems and their optimization. 
Also , it would be nice to have some sort of debug monitor, with overall spawned objects / units / etc .... to get a more in-depth picture of what is going on and what tanks the performance at the moment.

 

Quote

I've also seen heavy FPS load. When I load my default mission and after my scripts all ran and spawning has been done, I play at 50 FPS (except of course typical battles, towns, explosions etc.)

I'm down to around 50 or less, when the usual is around 70. So I'll have to look into how to get the performance better first , before I really start implementing it on MP server.

[tortuosit 485]

I think we all know about the complexity. 🙂 Looks like e.g. the stuff around boats has a bigger impact for my FPS. Will see.

[Vandeanson 1676]

Hi both, 

 

Uuh nice, loads of feedback:) i always appreciate to hear how VA works for various users. Lets dig into it:

 

1) can you post a list of your mods you use alongside VA? 

 

2) what VA settings have you set under the general section of the settings? 

I need to know if you changed min/max spawn range and despawn timer. 

 

3) how many iteration per site type do you spawn? (e. G. How many bandit camps, shipwrecks... )

 

4) how many AI patrols and AI stalkers, animals and feral dog packs

this is usually heavier on fps because the AI is within close proxy and active

 

5) two of the issues mentioned have respective instructions in the OP or on the Steam page, namely, how to set up the planespawner and how to avoid that stuff spawns outside the map borders. 

Please read through and let me know if these instructions helped you. If not, i need to rewrite the guide. 

 

5 hours ago, chernaruski said:

+ Turning debug on and then off , doesn't clear the debug circle markers.

Do you mean, changing settings while playing the game? If that works, then only at the next despawn/respawn cycle of a site. I need to test in general, if changing this while the game is running, affects the spawners. 

The intention was that changes can only be made in editor. Will look into it. 

 

5 hours ago, chernaruski said:

There is a part of server addon setting and client, anyone who join wont be able to change it right? Can you clear this out for me?

In my understanding of CBA, you as mission maker can change the settings under the "mission" tab of CBA settings, which will den overwrite and black out the client settings. 

I understand that the cba settings are then saved into the mission file. So settings don't reset if you reopen a saved mission template in editor. 

 

It would probably be best to have a server version of the mod with all the settings (server side and client side features settings ) and the server side scripts, and a separate one for clients, that does not have own cba settings but has all client scripts such as infection script, equipper, random respawn finder and such that take the settings from the server side mod. -> damn i really want to look into this now;)

 

4 hours ago, chernaruski said:

There are too many factors to take into account when trying to optimize the whole thing, but there are also a lot of tweaking addon options available for us mission creators, to squeeze a little more out of it.  I'm running test mission at the moment , in tandem with Ravage modules. Each of them does their thing and eats a bits of performance. 

Yes exactly, play around and use what works best together with your other mods and scripts. 

Let me know if you find specific features that specially affect fps. 

 

4 hours ago, tortuosit said:

But now with this mod I have seen FPS go down to almost 10, temporarily... But not sure how long it has to work. A message (in debug mode maybe) would be helpful, I'd like to know when it has done its major spawning action for better judgement of the FPS.

Hm thats heavy, i did not experience such drops, usually the initial spawning is done within the first few mins of mission start. 

 

Use the debug markers and the ZEUS feature (set to 15 seconds, not lower to avoid lagspikes) , and assign zeus to your player, its a good way to check how stuff works and to see how much stuff is active and spawned and when it despawns. 

 

4 hours ago, chernaruski said:

different automatic solutions for AI optimization, self-cleanup scripts which remove corpses, ground item spawn holders and many more. Maybe there is a thing or two you could learn from existing ai systems and their optimization. 

Absolutely specially when it comes to AI. 

I may also add in some more small sleep delays within spawners, to avoid lagspikes (e. G. 5 AI do not need to be spawned in sametime and also need to have immediately all AI functions and the equipment set. Some delays inbetween should easy stutters/lagspikes

In the end not everything needs to be up within 30 secs, it could as well take 5 mins, players wont notice. 

Will look into it. 

 

4 hours ago, tortuosit said:

 Looks like e.g. the stuff around boats has a bigger impact for my FPS.

You mean the shipwrecks? 

These things are good to know for me, it gives me indications what to test and optimize. 

 

So maybe at this point i should briefly explain what the mod does and how i tried to optimize performance so far:

 

Position finder loop:

First finunction, finds a position for the respective site, loops until a matching site is found

 

Spawner prep

At the position, a reference marker is placed. This is shown as area marker if debugging is enabled. 

The spawner is now put on hold until any player gets within 1000m of the site. 

 

Spawner:

If all players are more than max spawn range away from the site position, it gets deleted without spawning any assets. 

If a player gets close,  the site and its AI and loot is spawned in. 

Immediately, simulation is disabled for all AI and objects via dynamic simulation. Also, all structures are hidden. 

Once the player gets even closer, simulation is enabled and hidden objects are unhidden. 

This, and the step before, are the asset intensive and therefore FPS affecting states of a site. Keep this in mind when tuning min/max spawn distance, site uptime timers, and min distance from players to delete after the timer has run out. (all in VA general settings). 

 

Despawning:

Once a site is up, the despawn timer starts to count down. At 0 the site will be despawned, if no player is within min. despawn distance (VA General settings) 

 

The process repeats. 

This happens for each feature, as many times as you have selected (amount of e. g. Banditcamps). 

 

So the key tuning here can be done in the general settings and under the site spawner settings. 

Consider the despawn timer and min despawn distance to player. Fps wise, it would be best if the site would despawn quickly after spawn, if a player is getting far way from the site. For immersion it should be up for a while.. A decision needs to be made:) 

 

Also you need to decide if you want multiple sites spawned over a large area? With the staggered spawn system that is not a problem. But imagine that you take a heli and fly around, covering vast areas uncovering all sites (and hence activating them). 

Maybe in this case, short despawn timers might be good, to clear up a camp. Maybe connected with a slightly increased minimum despawn distance from a site to any player, e. G. As soon ad you are 2500m away, the site despawns immediately... Decision to make:) 

 

One more thing. The new dynamic loot spawner is rather fps heavy, turn down the spawn area to counter that. 

 

In the end, you will have to balance number of features and events vs. Your minimum fps requirements, adapted to all other active mods. But in the end the mod spawns in assets and runs code, which comes with a fps penalty. 

 

Hope that makes some sense:) 

Cheers

VD

[Vandeanson 1676]

Pushed another update including the earlier announced changes. 

The earlier update did not work, because i forgot two comas.... 

 

🤣

 

Further i fixed some small issues that i noticed and added minor settings in the lootspawner (option to offset the Z axis up down of lootpositions in buildings, in case loot always spawns below the floor for whatever reason) 

 

Further i added some additional delays, trying to smoothen spawns. 

 

Some cool looking cup hel wrecks are now automatically added to the crashite spawn assets, if cup is used. 

 

And some stuff I already forgott again:) 

 

Cheers

Vd

 

 

[tortuosit 485]

Thanks, a mod list of mine would be useless. Many mods, some own mods, also some scripts of mine are running, as so often, I also have to find things out myself. Yes it was shipwrecks. Can I control the number of assets spawned at shipwrecks?

To me most interesting would really be an indicator about when it has done its spawning (looks like it takes its time, which is good), such indicators are always good for FPS assumptions.

You added many options, I must admit I have not yet reviewed them in all detail.

 

EDIT. OK, you asked for it, here is my heavy command line which is typical when playing with Ravage. I symlink all workshop directories into the ArmA directory. I'm old school, I organize my ArmA startup with a few batch files. No launcher.

 

"C:\Disk\SSD1TB\Steam\steamapps\common\Arma 3\arma3_x64.exe"   -filepatching -nosplash -enableHT -world=VR "-mod=@CBA_A3;@tort_autostart;@BaBe_midTex;@ANZ_ReducedHazeMod;@eo_weedkiller;@recolor;@va;@CHVD;@em;@mrg_unit_sfx;@ravage;@friths_ruin;@Derelict;@EEA3I;@Vandeanson;@jsrs-soundmod;@jsrs_dep;@jsrs_reload;@improvedAmmo;@l_suppress;@l_immerse;@l_align;@Discipline;@advancedballistics;@ctab;@bzly_UIcorrections;@magRepack;@shacktac_user_interface;@tort_autostart;@tort_escape;@tort_playmusic;@tpw_mods;@VcomAI;@PIR;@mcc_sandbox_a3;@ryd_has;@ares_mod_achilles_expansion;@rhs_afrf3;@jsrs_rhs_afrf;@rhs_usf3;@jsrs_rhs_usf;@rhs_gref;@jsrs_rhs_gref;@aaf2017;@rhs_saf;@jsrs_rhs_saf;@cup_units;@cup_weapons;@improvedAmmoCUP;@cup_vehicles;@NIarms0;@rhs_afrf3;@jsrs_rhs_afrf;@rhs_usf3;@jsrs_rhs_usf;@rhs_gref;@jsrs_rhs_gref;@rhs_saf;@jsrs_rhs_saf;@cup_units;@cup_weapons;@improvedAmmoCUP;@cup_vehicles;@NIarms;@aaf2017" -name=TortuositSP

[chernaruski 338]

BTW , for those who getting lost in all the parameters and tweaking for better performance, it would be nice to have a presets , that you can just load up in addon setting. QoL for a non-advanced users.
Also , I would recommend pre-generating a few you would like us to test on a different maps / hardware .
 

Spoiler

 

20 hours ago, Vandeanson said:

Do you mean, changing settings while playing the game? If that works, then only at the next despawn/respawn cycle of a site. I need to test in general, if changing this while the game is running, affects the spawners. 

 The intention was that changes can only be made in editor. Will look into it. 

 

Yeah I was talking about in-game changes, to change it "on the go" while tweaking.

 

 

20 hours ago, Vandeanson said:

5) two of the issues mentioned have respective instructions in the OP or on the Steam page, namely, how to set up the planespawner and how to avoid that stuff spawns outside the map borders. 

 Please read through and let me know if these instructions helped you. If not, i need to rewrite the guide. 

 

To be honest I couldn't understand what you mean by "placing markers" 
Why not use [worldsize/2] as a max radius relatively to map center as your center for spawner and not player or marker location , and just auto-spawn them randomly on map when player near it (1000m or so) ?