Bullet life-time

[safari 0]

Not sure if this is talked through, if so i'm so sorry

OFP2 could include rifle bullets flying longer than 3 seconds. That would make it really suppressive, and dangerous.

True, it's not by any means most important. Why i proposed it is one of those moments in OFP you can't experience in any other game: I was running with my AI team to engage AI enemies almost a kilometer away. Enemy was shooting friendly AI's who were closer... and... suddenly, out of the blue, a rifle tracer flies over the forest, and kills one of my AI's just there. From almost a kilometer away. It was a very striking moment, would get anyone hooked in OFP2 i think.

[ozanzac 0]

I'm confused.

I thought that the bullets in OFP at the moment didn't have a time limit before they expire. I thought not seeing them 'hit' anything had more to do with view distances and LOD's than anything else.

[IceFire 0]

This thread got me wondering.

If you fired a shot straight up in the air, will it eventually come down and hit the ground?

Someone should test this. Maybe by creating a coating thatcovers the ground of the whole island that has a damage model. So when it gets hit, you could find out how long it took and where.

I imagine some people mastering this and hitting people who are hiding behind buildings or over hills with a hail of bullets falling out of the sky in Multiplayer games.

[ralphwiggum 6]

AFAIK, there is bullet life in OFP, but we hardly get to see it go poof since by that time, they disappear.

throw a hand grenade, as vertically as possible.

[Baron Hurlothrumbo IIX 0]

The bullets do have limited 'life'

Try out the bullet camera script and you will see.

[Spy17 1]

It is a bit of a shame!

I once tried to recreate one of the longest distance sniper kills (Afghanistan) like 1500m or something just to find out that this is not possible in OFP. The bullet disappears.

[JJonth Cheeky Monkey 1]

I can hit things with my Barrett M82a1 from 2000m away (UAZs and Trucks, its not that accurate)just because you dont see the bullet it doesn't mean its not there. It is LODs too. Bullets will still last long enough to hit things at very long ranges.

[Harnu 0]

bullet time-to-live is 3 seconds.

shell time-to-live is 20 seconds.

Missile time-to-live is 10 seconds.

Free fall bomb (missile with no thrust time) is 120 seconds

flare time-to-live is 17 seconds

smoke shell time-to-live is 60 seconds

satchel time-to-live is infinity

all other ammo types time-to-live is 10 seconds

That is Suma said from a while ago, not sure if anything has changed in recent versions.

[Major Gripe 0]

I thought the shell life was 45 secs?

[safari 0]

Based on testing I have done I can confirm that in 1.94 rifle bullets live 3 seconds or at least very close to that, so 3 sec life-time is very likely to be true. It can be both annoying and fun at the same time, when you shoot with .50 machine gun the tracers just disappear few meters before they would hit the enemy, with the BIS .50 machine gun the bullets did fly about 1500 metres during 3 seconds, and they just disappeared just before hitting their targets.

I don't believe it would add too much lag to OFP2 if rifle bullets would live 10 or 20 secs to add the realism taht it is dangerous to be within several kilometers from battle area

[safari 0]

Only way to compensate for the 3 sec bullet-life would be to create an addon, a rifle that would fire bullets travelling very fast, like 2000 or 3000 m/s instead if the real 750 m/s etc. If this can be done, it would allow long distance sniping, but wouldn't be too realistic.

[ozanzac 0]

Hmm, is this 'time limit' hard coded into the game engine, or is it changable with a bit of hard work?

[void_false 1]

BTW can somebody tell me plz how to attach camera to fired rocket from plane? I have script that attaches camera to bullets, but it doesnt work with vehicles and planes...

[Colossus 2]

No time limit on bullets. But they do have a accurency range.

(Sry if my english is a bit bad)

[Baron Hurlothrumbo IIX 0]

No time limit on bullets. But they do have a accurency range.

(Sry if my english is a bit bad)

Wrong. The bullets expire, disappear, no longer work, whatever, after three seconds.

[Colossus 2]

I have been seeing to much on Discovey Channel

hehe

[cornhelium 0]

3 seconds at 750m/s gives a bullet over 2.249km range, surely that's enough?

Cheers,

Cornhelium

[Harnu 0]

3 seconds at 750m/s gives a bullet over 2.249km range, surely that's enough?

Cheers,

Cornhelium

But I wanna fire one off at such an angle I can fire from the Airport on Everon to kill a russian is St. Pierre!

[dinger 1]

Quote[/b] ]

bullet time-to-live is 3 seconds.

shell time-to-live is 20 seconds.

Missile time-to-live is 10 seconds.

Free fall bomb (missile with no thrust time) is 120 seconds

flare time-to-live is 17 seconds

smoke shell time-to-live is 60 seconds

satchel time-to-live is infinity

all other ammo types time-to-live is 10 seconds

That is Suma said from a while ago, not sure if anything has changed in recent versions.

Heh. Suma said this?

Anyway, this is how I understand the situation, and no it can't be changed.

[Jus_ 0]

Shell TTL really needs to be changed. It's the main problem for creating artillery units, you can't shoot much further than 800m right now with a mortar.

[Baron Hurlothrumbo IIX 0]

Forgive my ignorance, but is it not possible to make a shell with the properties of the old shell just before the ttl runs out, on the same trajectory etc?

Bit of a hack way of doing it, but....

[dinger 1]

Baron -- you would think so, but actually, it doesn't work that way.

There's one property you can't set on a shell, and that is angle of attack. Angle of attack plays a major role in the ballistic model (and a messed-up one too, I might add).  If you just CV the shell, and give it the same direction and vector, it will not fly the same trajectory. And if it kills anything, it's not scored to the firing unit.

And yes, this is a problem for artillery units, but not as big as you might think.  The aiming system (point mouse at target) is not exactly realistic either, and you can't set different charges on the same shell.

So currently, the artillery I've worked on (UA, WGL mortars) uses the following interim solution:

A) shells use the "Free Fall Bomb" simulation.

B) artillery vehicles register themselves and get a unique variable name

C) Some entry system determines the azimuth, elevation and charge.

_2) Out-the-tube velocity vector is published to the unique variable name

_1) since FFB has no weaponclouds/flash, we have effects scripts for that.

_3) setdir on the shell to zero its AoA so it doesn't fly backwards.

___4) start any fuzing scripts (airbursts, WP, ICM, etc)

How OFP 2 could make this easier:

1) Variable TTL on all simulations, of two sorts: in config.cpp, and (optional) on weapon (or magazine).

2) revisit game physics so ballistic paths of shells are more believable

3) be able to specify terrain interaction of ammo (e.g., impact, explosive, bounce)

4) allow us to call a function (here would be a good place for a compiler) on termination, including passing "shooter" information to submunitions.

5) guns that are not controlled directly by the gunner's mouse, but by commands (setelevation, setazimuth, setcharge, fireround).  This way an addon can specify controls on the station that do these things.

6) heck, open up some keyboard bindings.