Wolfbane´s tracerfx script addon

[Kin Hil 0]

"I BELIEVE that NATO uses red tracers while the Soviets used green, not the other way around. I'll look to Miles Teg for confirmation of that."

Today the US and Russia use red tracers, while Resistance stick to green, white, yellow etc.

At least thats what I've come to understand.

[Uziyahu--IDF 0]

That's great, but default OFP is set in the mid-'80's.

Also, I am getting an error that is displaying at the top of my screen after my mgunner gets shot and killed. A few seconds after that, OFP has to shut down because of an error. I'm not sure if it is the same error, because the second occurs a handful of seconds after the first.

'WBE_TRACERFX_UNIT_ARRAY set [_index,WBE_TRACERFX_UNIT_ARRAY select (_size-1)]|#|': Error Zero divisor

...is the error that displays at the top of the screen.

[Kin Hil 0]

"That's great, but default OFP is set in the mid-'80's."

I like all my OFP missions to take place today.. thats why I can't wait for the Unforseen Circumstances mod.

[Nemesis6 0]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this - How about using one of these three particles instead of the cl_fired one - obrysove svetlo, koulesvetlo, halflight?

[nubbin77 0]

Quote[/b] ]And not to sound elitist, but if you are still using the internet and don't know how to upload an edited .pbo using FTP you really should learn!

That's what the internet is for...distribution.

uzi,

I didn't upload because 1)any changes I made would be useless to anyone who doesn't either change their config or use my config and 2) the instructions for such changes are in this topic, and 3) Wolfbane is doing an amazing job of updating this thing quickly, and anything I'd upload, he would quickly supercede with something better.

I'd upload my config, but its basically a heavily modified version of EECP. It would be roughly 200-300 meg's of addons. Not something I'm capable of uploading.

Trust me, the moment I create something the community would like, I'll give it to them!

[wolfbane 0]

That's great, but default OFP is set in the mid-'80's.

Also, I am getting an error that is displaying at the top of my screen after my mgunner gets shot and killed. A few seconds after that, OFP has to shut down because of an error. I'm not sure if it is the same error, because the second occurs a handful of seconds after the first.

'WBE_TRACERFX_UNIT_ARRAY set [_index,WBE_TRACERFX_UNIT_ARRAY select (_size-1)]|#|': Error Zero divisor

...is the error that displays at the top of the screen.

Oh crap.. that looks like a serious bug The code from error you posted is from a cleanup script running in the background. I havn´t been able to reproduce the error myself yet but i think i know why it occurs. I will try to fix it asap.

[the_shadow 0]

i dont get 1.05 version to work....

i even used the example from the readme, but not even that worked

i dont get a error or anything, just nothing happens :/

[KeyCat 131]

How about using one of these three particles instead of the cl_fired one - obrysove svetlo, koulesvetlo, halflight?

Will anyone of these enable the glowing tracers also at daytime or is this an OFP engine thingy?

/Christer (a.k.a KeyCat)

[KeyCat 131]

Yayy! Guess I can answer my own question

By using....

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">

drop["halflight","","Billboard",1,3,_pos,_vel,0,_weight,0.05,_drag,_size,_color,[0,1,0,1],0,0,"","",""];

Instead of...

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">

drop["halflight","","SpaceObject",1,3,_pos,_vel,0,_weight,0.05,_drag,_size,_color,[0,1,0,1],0,0,"","",""];

We get glowing tracers day and night

Of course they are less visible at day (as they should be) but they are there. Guess the script can be simplified a bit and you no longer have to choose or switch in the script depending of daytime...

/Christer (a.k.a KeyCat)

[Uziyahu--IDF 0]

"That's great, but default OFP is set in the mid-'80's."

I like all my OFP missions to take place today.. thats why I can't wait for the Unforseen Circumstances mod.

Again, that's great, but let's leave default settings simulating the new millennium in mods for the new millennium and leave an addon so fundamental as tracers to Cold War-era defaults.  If we don't, when I play the campaigns, again, there goes the suspension of disbelief, again, right out the window... just like when I use B.I. default tracers.

Good job, KeyCat!

Nubbin, Okay, understood.  300 megs is a bit hefty, agreed, and who is to say I would like all of your customizations?  Makes sense.

Wolfbane, can you add a bit of code randomizing the size of the arc/bounce of the tracer? In the bigger-hammer.net videos, so of the arcs are quite large. Could that be accomplished by randomizing the speed of the round after bounce? And I think I'd like to see a bit higher percentage of the rounds bouncing (any chance THAT could be a parameter?). It is good that not all of them do, but I like it to look a bit more light-showish.

[the_shadow 0]

as i watched a small vid the other day where they fired a FN MAG gpmg with only tracers loaded i noticed that about 1 of the some 50 rounds they fired didnt bounce and just stayed on the ground glowing for a while before fading out in about a second.

would something like that be possible to make, so that 98% of the tracers bounce and they dont just get turned of but fade away?

anyway, i still dont get it to work, i cant see any tracers either with standard units or addons.

using either of the init field samples from the readme or writing it myself :/

i got the wbe_tracerfx.PBO installed to the res/addons folder.

running OFPR 1.96

it worked before i formated my comp :/

[Cpt. FrostBite 0]

as i watched a small vid the other day where they fired a FN MAG gpmg with only tracers loaded i noticed that about 1 of the some 50 rounds they fired didnt bounce and just stayed on the ground glowing for a while before fading out in about a second.

would something like that be possible to make, so that 98% of the tracers bounce and they dont just get turned of but fade away?

anyway, i still dont get it to work, i cant see any tracers either with standard units or addons.

using either of the init field samples from the readme or writing it myself :/

i got the wbe_tracerfx.PBO installed to the res/addons folder.

running OFPR 1.96

it worked before i formated my comp :/

adding a difficult part of extra scripting for just one of two tracers to NOT bounce?

Is this really that important?

[Drax 0]

I just found this an it sounds excelent, but I take it the way it has to be used currently is you have to load every mission you want this to work in into the mission editor and set it up there. So if I wanted to use it in a campaign I'm looking at a lot of work if it's even possible (I'm not an OpFlash moder at all).

As a possible work around since I'm already using the EECP mod is there a way I could implement this into EECP's config.cpp file? Thus making it work for any mission played useing EECP?

For that matter (though I see this as even less likely) use it in ECP's own ECP_Settings.sqs script?

Thanks in advance. And I did take some time to consider wether I should be post here or at the EECP thread, but I figured the author would be most likely to know if this is even possible at all or not.

[Yssabem 0]

Sorry, I'm a dullard. I'm using that global trigger snippet someone posted to make this work correctly for all troops/tank/etc and it's all fine.... BUT....

I'm still getting the default BIS tracers mixed in... how do i get rid of them?

Ta

[Cpt. FrostBite 0]

In the options/difficulty menu you can enable and disable a lot of things, inlcluding BIS tracers.

This will also disable JAM tracers and some other tracers. Although some (weapon and vehicle) addons seem to use something else, because those remain uneffected and still show JAM-like tracers.

[the_shadow 0]

as i watched a small vid the other day where they fired a FN MAG gpmg with only tracers loaded i noticed that about 1 of the some 50 rounds they fired didnt bounce and just stayed on the ground glowing for a while before fading out in about a second.

would something like that be possible to make, so that 98% of the tracers bounce and they dont just get turned of but fade away?

anyway, i still dont get it to work, i cant see any tracers either with standard units or addons.

using either of the init field samples from the readme or writing it myself :/

i got the wbe_tracerfx.PBO installed to the res/addons folder.

running OFPR 1.96

it worked before i formated my comp :/

adding a difficult part of extra scripting for just one of two tracers to NOT bounce?

Is this really that important?

no, it´s not important, i just asked if it could be done easily ;)

it would however add a little (but not much) more realism

and as someone asked before i belive, could someone implement this in for example EECP (with machinegunners firing every 5th round a tracer)

i would however want it to be red tracers for NATO

Green for East and maybe yellow or white for Resistance (could be red or green though, depending on if they use a Nato or russian made weapon, but that would probably be hard to script)

[Cam51 0]

Is it possible to change the shape of the tracers? instead of a colored ball flying threw the air, how about a streched out thin oval (not to long though).

When the tracers ricochet, they look great.

But up close, they look kinda odd.

Just a suggestion to make it a little more lifelike.

[gandalf the white 0]

Is it possible to change the shape of the tracers? instead of a colored ball flying threw the air, how about a streched out thin oval (not to long though).

When the tracers ricochet, they look great.

But up close, they look kinda odd.

Just a suggestion to make it a little more lifelike.

Agreed, i read somewhere in this topic that they look like a fireball in real life?

what about making the tracers like a muzzleflash (though a 3D object wouln't harm) But the point is that when bouncing off it might look very strange..

another option would be to make a very small particle leave other particles behind every 0.X seconds.... (but likely that'l burn your CPU)

[Chip 0]

These tracers look great! At night it seems like watching some battle footage where tracers fly all over the place.

[BAM 0]

Hi, I realize that the required piece of code to add these tracerfx to a config.cpp has already been listed previously in this thread, but the codes' exact placing in the config file isnt clear to me (im an ofp config virgin) ...so I was wondering if someone would be kind enough to illustrate where abouts I would paste this code so that tracerfx works for all soldiers in the game by default?

Many thanks in advance... im sure im not the only one reading this thread wishing to see these tracers in full-on action, but being unable to due to not having basic scripting and config editing skills ;)

Are there any plans to add these sort of fx to vehicles guns, such as the shilka?

Regards,

BAM.

[KeyCat 131]

as i watched a small vid the other day where they fired a FN MAG gpmg with only tracers loaded i noticed that about 1 of the some 50 rounds they fired didnt bounce and just stayed on the ground glowing for a while before fading out in about a second.

would something like that be possible to make, so that 98% of the tracers bounce and they dont just get turned of but fade away?

It all depends on what you are shooting at! Having 98% rate of ricochets may be the case if shooting on hard surface with low angles but I higly doubt that 98% of the tracers bounce if shoot at soft targets (like a car chassis, wooden house etc.) or in mud at somewhat angle. To me 60% - 70% chance of ricochets (as in the script) sounds like a very good compromise if you want it to be realistic all over.

Quote[/b] ]

anyway, i still dont get it to work, i cant see any tracers either with standard units or addons.

Strange you can't get it to work? Do you see other OFP effect like smoke, flashes etc.?

/Christer (a.k.a KeyCat)

[bn880 5]

Great thanks for making your tracers public.

However: The problem I have with the tracers is that they are a sub optimal solution, that is a "drop". What happens is you can't really see them from the side in anything below ~30FPS, and they go through objects and mountains.

I was inspired by these tracers though and tried to modify, of course got the glowing effects going etc that are present now, but eventually had to totally give up on the "drop" effects.

Maybe sometime fairly soon I'll release something very similar to this, but with a different method to show tracers, with the benefit of them not going through stuff and being much more visible, but with the unfortunate fact that the red tracer may be orange, and the tracer will always travel with the bullet not at any other speed. (NVG limitations)

EDIT: It will also follow a full "accurate" trajectory, heh, forgot to mention.

Cheers

PS: this is not really a proper way to use the set command "WBE_TRACERFX_UNIT_ARRAY set [_index,_arr set [4,0]];"

[Yssabem 0]

Is there anyway of using the "side" command in a script to make a global trigger that gives every east unit red tracers and every west unit yellow ones?

This is what I'm using atm (executed using a global 'Anybody' trigger which runs the script On Activation)

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">_list = _this

_i = 0

_men = []

#check_type

_unit = _list select _i

?"man" counttype [_unit] == 1: _men = _men + [_unit]

_i = _i + 1

?_i < (count _list): goto "check_type"

"[_x,1,1,1,{yellow},1,0.2,4] exec {\wbe_tracerfx\wbe_tracerfx.sqs}" foreach _men

exit

It's just a cut down version of the one posted earlier (as i know beggar all about scripts really ) What needs to be added to get that red for east/yellow for West thing?

Edit: Just realised i can use two triggers, one for each side each with it's own version of the script sorry to bother you...

[bn880 5]

No way that I'm aware of. Just trigger or scripting like putting an init line into each group member.

[nubbin77 0]

@ Bam and Drax,

I have it incorporated into my config. I'm at work, but I'll try to show you guys exactly where / how to do it when I get home tonight (if my wife doesn't have me running around doing stuff tonight). RED deserves all credit for giving me the proper syntax.