Does OFP need an LCAC?

[Scrub 0]

Quote[/b] ]Messiah Posted on July 26 2004,07:20

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

the model looks beautiful, but there are a couple points....

The cabin windows need a face to place window textures on

There are some small lumps and bumps you've decided to model into the model, where they could be replaced by textures with the same effect

those are all minor points tho, as 8000 pollies for that detail in a model is very very good (about what i said, hehehe) - one major point tho, the helicopter class... if this thing hits a tree, it will explode, no 2nd chances, no armour levels to set, it will explode due to the nature of the helicopter class.

to make it realistic, you'll need it sliding around like a bitch until the player gets used to the controls, they are not easy things to drive at any stretch of the imagination, so avoiding tree's is not the easiest job.

just some food for thought.

You're GOOD alright, do you dream in poly's at night?!  

I agree about the details,  that's part of where I can loose the 1000 or so polys.  The rest comes from decreasing the number of faces in the 'circles', they will of course become more ragged.  Can still get away with a bit more.. the ducts should only be 150-175 per if I use the right method.  Whoever takes this to texture can use one face per cabin side for the windows. A simple rectangle mated to the inside surface will cost only 2 polys per face and might use a single texture.  And you're right about the sliding like a bitch.  That is what I'd really want.  Any way for the script to counter damage by collision?  The damn thing's big enough and has enough bumper around it to soak up big hits (I'd like to think) so the 'reality adjustment' wouldn't seem too out of place.  

My major interests (not that they need to be anyone else's) is in the movement, the air cushion action, the ramp action, and the hauling of vehicles.  It will be neat to see any or all of that take shape.

[Messiah 2]

im not sure if there's anyway to get around the tree issue, except for playing around with the geo LOD and fire LOD and see if playing with them helps stopping it exploding when hitting tree's... but unforunatly i think its the nature of the beast...

one conselation though... these things arent meant to be going 1 mile inland... the reason for the hovercrafts introduction was that it can't ground out, ever... hence its role as an amphibious vessel is very important - you'll rarely seem them far inland, unless of course there are water ways or marches (like al faw in Iraq - UK Hovercraft)

so in the respect, it really shouldn't be an issue... another problem as well though, technically the AI will respond to it as an aircraft, so only AA weapons will fire apon it when its 'flying' around - once 'landed' they should engage normally  

the aircusion... hmmm - well being a chopper, u have an advantage with making the skirt rise, as when the engines start and u press Q (or whatever its mapped at) then the skirt will seem to rise - just model a 1m or so of skirt below the zero line in O2 and u'll be smiling... the ramps are simple enough, same as the BAS chinook, so doable... the cargo script... well, same again - it can be done, so why not

[4 IN 1 0]

dont forgot that in OFP chopper nature the thing with dive into dirt when you want to gain speed, there should be some way to counter it but i am in wonder about that

[Messiah 2]

dont forgot that in OFP chopper nature the thing with dive into dirt when you want to gain speed, there should be some way to counter it but i am in wonder about that

that can be resolved by editing the weight (the heavier it is, the slower it will dip) and the top speed - i was also playing on the idea of always having 'auto hover' switched on - to limit the dip....

[FW200 0]

Got an idea:

How about a normal car/tank class.. and then just use a script which setposses a roadway under the vehicle so it can drive over water? then just add some dropped blueish smoke for water spray and you're done

[Messiah 2]

well, yes, but the advantage of the chopper is the movement, which is similiar to the hovercraft (pitch, yaw, roll etc)

[Scrub 0]

Remember the shape of the air cushion, it will have to deform at some point to be able to drive on. It can be done with another model I suppose, but the transition being ugly is what I'm worried about. And don't tanks and AT infantry fire on choppers at about 1m off the ground?

[Messiah 2]

i think its the same heght as when infantry can disembark (or when the eject turns into get out - around 1m i think)

[Scrub 0]

Good, then the GeoLOD might be able to make a chopper config be fired on like a land vehicle. lol, I was just thinking that the armor scale will have to be set up a bit different. A single tank shell might be able to disable this thing, but there is just too much mass spaced out to be destroyed very easily. Tough for me to imagine in the OFP world.

[AgentFox2 0]

This is a pretty interesting undertaking you've got here, guys.

I haven't read the full thread, so this might've been suggested before, but I think the best way to go about making a hovercraft in OFP is configging it as a boat. One thing you might want to look at is the config file for the old F1 racing boats. The cool concept I found that worked with that addon is that the boats actually moved *very* fast on land, and AI could even move quite a bit inland, but not too much.

The problem with coding an LCAC as an APC or helicopter is that it can go anywhere, which is not the case in reality. With a properly configged boat class, it would still be able to move on land, but not so much that it is unrealistic.

*EDIT2: Also, I don't believe that hovercrafts pitch and roll quite as much as choppers do. You'd have a hell of a time scripting the helicopter to only fly 1-2m off the ground, as well. You'd most likely just have to setvelocity over and over. Would get quite sloppy (not to mention the problems in multiplayer). Overall, I don't think that a chopper class would be the best option.

Also, on the skirt deflation/inflation issue, wouldn't it be possible to animate the land contact memory points with a custom animation? Similar to how today's helicopter addons have landing gear that animate the land contact points, could you not move those points with a boat? Only problem with that is that you could not turn the engine off with the boat, so you'd probably have to have a "unload" or "deflate" action menu command to actually start the animation.

I hope those suggestions helped a bit. I'll be following the development of this closely and I'm looking forward to anything that can come of it.

EDIT* Oh, I forgot to mention that you also might want to take a look at or get in touch with the creator of the old Star Wars speeder bike addon. It seemed to have quite a bit of space between the model and the ground, which maybe useful to simulating a hovercraft.

[Scrub 0]

Well, the basic model is off to scripting.  It is in the wise and skilled hands of Romolus.  With a bit of patience, I believe we will have our sweet LCAC testbed carrying vehicles.  

Now, I believe -correct me if I am wrong- we still need a confirmed LOD config'er and texturer to make it look nice, not to mention, physically exist in OFP.  Anyone up to the task?  Everon Cartel?  Col. Klink?  Footmunch (enough with the flytoys.. get grounded!   )?  Anyone?  Beuller? Bueller?

*edit*

@ AgentFox2: All those ideas and more are to the Scripting and Configuring Guru.  He seems to have ideas, direction and purpose, so I'm just going to let him work his magic and support him anyway I can.

@ Romolus:  I never heard, or asked for that matter, how far you'd like to script this unit.  Are you taking it all the way to fully functional?  Or are you just handling the vehicles and ramps?  The reason I'm asking is, if there is an area of this addon you don't want to do, I'll go beg Mod groups to lend a hand and keep it moving to completion.  

So, please let me know what your plans are.  Thanks again.

[4 IN 1 0]

hum about the crash into tree thing, is it possible to fool OFP that the LCAC LOD is an APC instead of chopper by script?

OT:why ppl always makes the trees damage LOD to be so high? men it is really a pain in ass to fly at tree top hight

[blackdog~ 0]

hum about the crash into tree thing, is it possible to fool OFP that the LCAC LOD is an APC instead of chopper by script?

OT:why ppl always makes the trees damage LOD to be so high? men it is really a pain in ass to fly at tree top hight

have you ever seen a helicopter ram into a treetop in real life?

[Messiah 2]

and thats the only answer u need

[4 IN 1 0]

hum about the crash into tree thing, is it possible to fool OFP that the LCAC LOD is an APC instead of chopper by script?

OT:why ppl always makes the trees damage LOD to be so high? men it is really a pain in ass to fly at tree top hight

have you ever seen a helicopter ram into a treetop in real life?

no but atless you dont need to make the leafs to be that deadly rgr

[Romolus 0]

Well, the basic model is off to scripting. It is in the wise and skilled hands of Romolus. With a bit of patience, I believe we will have our sweet LCAC testbed carrying vehicles.

Now, I believe -correct me if I am wrong- we still need a confirmed LOD config'er and texturer to make it look nice, not to mention, physically exist in OFP. Anyone up to the task? Everon Cartel? Col. Klink? Footmunch (enough with the flytoys.. get grounded! )? Anyone? Beuller? Bueller?

*edit*

@ AgentFox2: All those ideas and more are to the Scripting and Configuring Guru. He seems to have ideas, direction and purpose, so I'm just going to let him work his magic and support him anyway I can.

@ Romolus: I never heard, or asked for that matter, how far you'd like to script this unit. Are you taking it all the way to fully functional? Or are you just handling the vehicles and ramps? The reason I'm asking is, if there is an area of this addon you don't want to do, I'll go beg Mod groups to lend a hand and keep it moving to completion.

So, please let me know what your plans are. Thanks again.

Thanx for the flowers Scrub

I would like to do the whole scripting for the LCAC, just to keep the the various scripts consistent.

But that doesn't mean that I'm not open for discussing the features, quite the opposite.

I encourage everyone to state ideas about how things could be done. The more ideas, the better the chance that we find the best solution for a problem

@AgentFox2:

Any idea where to get those F1 racing boats?

I looked around at the main download sites for addons but I couldn't find them.

[ExtracTioN 0]

here is link to F1 boats link

[Asmodeus 0]

Ok,

I've got limited time but I'm in.  

I look forward to seeing this sucker textured and cruising around ingame!  

There are a lot of interesting ideas in here as to getting this to work.  

I'm ready to help push the limits of the engine as much as I can.

And Scrub, that model looks amazing, great work man!  

Asmo

[Scrub 0]

Thanks Asmodeus! Good to have ya on-board!

Romolus, When you're done adapting the model, would you please ship it off to Asmo? And, do you need anything model-wise for the deflatation of the air cushion (or anything else for that matter)?

[somebloke 0]

Right, at the request of the Scrub, i think it was at least, here is an engine sound for this here LCAC.

Hear it, and weep.

Oh and i took the liberty of making other engine sounds for it, should there be a problem.

LCAC Engine.rar

[Scrub 0]

Quote[/b] ]somebloke Posted on July 31 2004,03:46

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Right, at the request of the Scrub, i think it was at least, here is an engine sound for this here LCAC.

Hear it, and weep.

Oh and i took the liberty of making other engine sounds for it, should there be a problem.

LCAC Engine.rar

"Could be a nice challenge" you wrote?  14 minutes.  That's a nice challenge for you.. I takes me 20 minutes just to find pictures of this thing!  And you have multiple sounds in 14 min!  

Great job!  I've heard sounds that could be from the cabin, idiling, under-way etc.  They sound awesome.  Thanks somebloke.

(I hope Romolus can put them to use, I don't know the first thing of scripting vehicle sounds I'm just gathering resources for the project)

[somebloke 0]

I was contemplating sticking the original BIS Boat sound in there, but couldn't be bothered to de-pbo the file then convert the ogg to wav. (i'm lazy) lol. Glad you like them, need any start up sounds?

[hellfish6 7]

Romolus, would you have any interest in updating the scripting for that old Russian hovercraft?

[SpeedyDonkey 0]

Hi guys! This ine one really interesting project. Keep up the good work

[Romolus 0]

Romolus, would you have any interest in updating the scripting for that old Russian hovercraft?

Well the finished scripts and config can be tweaked for that one too of course once they are finished (still takes a while).

The cargo script coud also be tailored for all kinds of other vehicles that need to transport things.

@smokebloke:

I like the h2 sound best, since from further away you would only hear the deeper sounds from the rotors and not so much the screaming form the turbines and the air outlets at the front that you hear in the other sound files.

I also searched for some videos to see how this thing is moving and I found those:

http://www.cpf.navy.mil/rimpac2002/videos.html

@AgentFox2:

The boat config worked quite well compared to an APC (not really usable for water) or helicopter (allmost impossible to correct with scripting).

Thanx to Extraction for the F1 link.