RKSL Studios

[Guest RKSL-Rock]

One thing I must ask after seeing the vid. How are you going to treat fuel consumption during the hover?

It will eat fuel just as it does in reality. Every aspect i can think of is getting modelled into it. (As far as the game engine allows)

[.COMmunist 0]

Rock,

I remember you were making Western and Eastern static air deffence. Lately nobody talks about it. Is it progressing or you are giving priority to the Harriers?

[-HUNTER- 1]

There was something about air to air refueling posted some time ago in the forums, you could do air to air refueling from a kc-10 tanker. It works thanks to scripting.

Have you guys though about making something like the DKM C-130 as compatible aa refueling aircraft for the harriers?

And will it also have the "scope" function. So you can see thrue the FLIR for instance? The RAF tornado addon has such a feature with the recon version. I dont know if you've tried it?

Anyway keep it up this will give me and many others hours of fun in ofp!

[Guest RKSL-Rock]

Rock,

I remember you were making Western and Eastern static air deffence. Lately nobody talks about it. Is it progressing or you are giving priority to the Harriers?

They are still in progress.  They were delayed because I added some things to the Specs. UNN is finalising the Version 1 Fire Control scripts and I have to finish the texturing.

The Version 1 system will basically be a fully automated AI driven system and be shipped as part of the Rapier FSC. This is made up of 3 units:  The Launcher, Blindfire Fire Control Radar and Dagger Search Radar.

Version 1A which should be released very soon after (maybe at the same time) will support human players.  It slaves the launchers to the Firecontrol system and simulates Optical trackers and manual SAM battery control.  This will be shipped with the Rapier FSB (Older version), also  made up form 3 unit:  The Launcher, Optical Tracker Turret and the FSB Standard Blindfire Fire Control Radar.

Other Air defence systems compatible with the Ver.1A system are:

SA-2 Guideline/Fansong

SA-5 Gammon/Square Pair

Later releases will support towable/deployable units such as:

Rapier FSB v2 – Adds Support Vehicles

Rapier FSC v2 – Adds a deployable ‘Control’ tent & Support Vehicles

Skyguard/ASPIDE

Skyguard/GDF-005 35mm AAA

SA-6 Gainful, Straight Flush Radar Vehicle & LongTrack Search Radar

The SA-4 has been cancelled for the moment due to the lack of decent interior research shots.

There was something about air to air refueling posted some time ago in the forums, you could do air to air refueling from a kc-10 tanker. It works thanks to scripting.

Have you guys though about making something like the DKM C-130 as compatible aa refueling aircraft for the harriers?

And will it also have the "scope" function. So you can see thrue the FLIR for instance? The RAF tornado addon has such a feature with the recon version. I dont know if you've tried it?

Anyway keep it up this will give me and many others hours of fun in ofp!  

Someone released a demo tanker on OFPEC some time ago and I’ve been watching that project with interest.  As for a refuelling aircraft for the Harriers, there wont be a specific one  but it will have an extending fuel probe.

We will do a tanker version of the RKSL/DKM C-130 at somepoint its already in the job spec.

Scope Function?  I take it you mean and optics view? – Yes it will be supported for the Harrier and any other relevant aircraft.

Sorry if this sounds a bit brief but im in a hurry to get to the pub

[-HUNTER- 1]

Thanks man you've answered it nice, besides the pub is far more important than the internet! Reallife, Ive also got one!  

[chris330 0]

Someone released a demo tanker on OFPEC some time ago and I’ve been watching that project with interest.  As for a refuelling aircraft for the Harriers, there wont be a specific one  but it will have an extending fuel probe.

We will do a tanker version of the RKSL/DKM C-130 at somepoint its already in the job spec.

To get this to work flawlessly we would need a special script which took control of one of the planes. Most likely I would suggest the plane being refuelled. This would have to remove control from the pilot for the duration however so its position could be perfectly controlled by the computer.

My original thoughts were to use the setpos command but I wonder if this would have bad consequences for an enemy AI attempting to target the plane with an anti-aircraft missle or even a missile launched from a SAM site (or whatever they're called these days).

Given that I suppose the setvelocity command would likely work best as I presume then the game keeps a record of the plane's previous positions and momentums when using this command (which it probably loses using the setpos command -I'm not certain about this) which I would guess a surface to air missile would need to track it.

Don't mean to be rude by just jumping in at the end of this one and to be honest I have not read much of the thread at all nor have I checked out the abilities of the original air-air refuelling project done by the previous author but I just thought I'd chuck in some suggestions for the hell of it.

Sometimes someone who approaches a subject in complete ignorance can throw light on a problem from a new angle

[UNN 0]

The only problem I can see with in-flight refuelling, is where you’re going to do it.

How much of the map would you take up, trying to line up and complete the process?

@Chris

Things like SetVelocity and SetPos are independent of each other. Although I think SetVelocity is probably all that’s needed? Just so you can automatically maintain the slowest possible speeds.

The other problem is the AI and it's desire to follow the terrain height. But you could probably fix that with a SetDir Loop.

[chris330 0]

The only problem I can see with in-flight refuelling, is where you’re going to do it.

There was a plane circling script in the Pending section of OFPEC a few months ago which allowed for high speed jets to remain within the confines of the map. I think a marriage of this script and the refuelling idea would work very nicely indeed, provided the circling radius was kept suitably large

[UNN 0]

Quote[/b] ]There was a plane circling script in the Pending section of OFPEC a few months ago which allowed for high speed jets to remain within the confines of the map

I'm thinking more of the amount of time from beginning to end. Controlling the aircraft is easy enough. But I assumed you generally fly in a straight line, at a constant speed and altitude?

With OFP's maps, you might end up flying 3 to 5 times it's length. If your a crap pilot like me, probably more Interrupting the process every 15 mins to turn round, would be a pain in the A%$s.

Perhaps Armed Assaults bigger maps will make in-flight re-fuelling more of a necessity than a novelty. It easy enough to do, if you accept your going to fly miles away from the island to complete the process.

[chris330 0]

I completely agree with everything you said but my idea was to have the circling radius of the refuelling craft so large it would keep its bank and its rate of change of heading down so low that the refuelling could be done whilst it was in the circling script, as if it were in a kind of giant holding pattern. From what I have heard real air-air refuelling takes place along a very long rectangular holding pattern and the refuelling must be complete by the time the turn is ready to be made.

For OFP we would have to script a different kind of holding pattern for the refuelling. This would have the slightly unrealistic concept of the tanker circling an area near enough the size of the entire island constantly to keep its bank and rate of change of heading down low enough for a smooth positional relationship between the tanker and the aircraft being refuelled.

I'm pretty sure it would work though mate

[Guest RKSL-Rock]

Just a quick reply:

A guy called "Plane" on the OFPEC forums releases a demo KC 10 Extender - unfortunately he requested that no one distribute or mirror it - however it did work quite well to a point.

Once you requested a refuelling it counted the distance you needed to travel to the tanker and once in position 'locked' you in place until refuelled and then released you.

The down fall was the atrocious turning circle for the plane, while this might be appropriate for the likes of Tonal and RKSL Test Island 1 (They are both big) for the CWC islands its impractical. Plane was continuing to devleop it further but since OFPEC is down I cant give you the link to the forum page.

Out of the 3 or 4 different projects ive seen about refuelling his showed the most realism and promise… if he can iron out the kinks in his scripts I’d be very keen to incorporate it into the RKSL/DKM C-130s

As for circling radius - its easy to solve if the tanker is set up properly. In realily the planes would fly a race track pattern with 2 long "legs" allowing the planes to refule on each straight leg...

...gotta go - i'll reply properly later.

[chris330 0]

This looks very interesting indeed.

Random throw-out suggestion mode:

I think one part of the development must be to remember that when the plane to be refuelled is close to the tanker and the auto-fly script takes over it must not appear that the plane being refuelled moves towards the tanker too quickly so as not to be seen as having an unrealistic burst of speed.

Random suggestion mode finished

If Plane has decided to drop the project then I'm sure if you could shed some light on the principles of how he did it we could if necessary build a brand new and improved script   I'd need to get a few things done first though (like some work on my dropship). At the moment I'm completely reverse engineering Dschulle's GetBankPitch script (a painstaking process) to see if the principles contained therein will be useful for future scripts. I might type up all my handwritten notes too and distribute them to the community so it would help scripters of beginner to medium level understand complex scripts    Might aswell, don't want to write up all those notes for just my own use  

By the way those planes look the absolute bee's knees. One question. Some of you may remember a game called TFX from the early nineties which featured three main planes. The F117-A (stealth fighter), the Eurofighter, and a plane called the F22 or X22 (can't remember which but it was a really futuristic plane which was just coming to light at the time).

One of those planes you have made looks remarkably like the F22/X22 in how modern its appearance is. Is it a variant or a descendant of it?

**Edit, If you don't want this thread to become a discussion about refuelling scripts then I'll pm you with any ideas I have from now on. Or we can start a whole new topic dedicated entirely to a refuelling script in the scripting forum. Might be best that way, and more useful from the standpoint of anyone doing future searches looking for the same thing

[BlackScorpion 0]

The XF/A-32? It was a competitor in the JSF project but Boeing lost the deal and Lockheed Martin's F-35 is being ordered instead... dunno how related the XF-32 is to F-22, but yes, they share some qualities...

JSF at fas.org

F-22 at fas.org

F-22 info

Mmmm... the Harrier is looking good...

[-HUNTER- 1]

Quote[/b] ]There was a plane circling script in the Pending section of OFPEC a few months ago which allowed for high speed jets to remain within the confines of the map

I'm thinking more of the amount of time from beginning to end. Controlling the aircraft is easy enough. But I assumed you generally fly in a straight line, at a constant speed and altitude?

With OFP's maps, you might end up flying 3 to 5 times it's length. If your a crap pilot like me, probably more Interrupting the process every 15 mins to turn round, would be a pain in the A%$s.

Perhaps Armed Assaults bigger maps will make in-flight re-fuelling more of a necessity than a novelty. It easy enough to do, if you accept your going to fly miles away from the island to complete the process.

Would it be possible to have a device so you can see in which direction your flying away from the map.

I know when your flying on the map there is the cursor thingy that tracks where you are. But when you leave the map the only thing to get you back would be radio teammate for location, like if he's the commander of your group and then press 5 5 "where are you?" a box appears in the general direction. With distance...

I presume the same would go if you locked a target before you leave the map, but I dont know how long that target would stay locked.

But if you could have like a pointing device as to where the F you are outside the map getting back to the island of carrier or whatever would be much easier.

Does ofp still get coordinates where you are, even outside the map?

Sorry its difficult to explain all this in proper english...

[Mr_Tea 0]

When you have an teammate on the island or on the carrier you can find his location with an marker in the hud.

[sv5000 127]

Thanks for the info on the AA missles, I am looking forward to those with great interest, So are my specops people

Interesting discussion on inflight refuling as well, amazing what can still be gained from the ofp engine

[UNN 0]

Quote[/b] ]As for circling radius - its easy to solve if the tanker is set up properly. In realily the planes would fly a race track pattern with 2 long "legs" allowing the planes to refule on each straight leg...

Yeah, that would work better in OFP, for probably the same reasons? You don't have the entire map to use as some of it will be occupied by hostile forces. If you setup the path like this:

You can confine the aircraft to a safe side of the map.

Quote[/b] ]Would it be possible to have a device so you can see in which direction your flying away from the map.

I was trying to think of ways to exploit OFP's infinite ocean. The simplest method would just be some radio dialog that gives you the bearing and distance to either the tanker intercept point or the centre of the island? I think the default ofp indicators only show up in Cadet mode?

I may well be worrying over nothing, I've never tried going though the motions of in-fligh re-fuelling. Perhaps if you keep the speed down as low as possible, a half decent pilot might be able to get the job done in time?

[Guest RKSL-Rock]

This looks very interesting indeed.

Random throw-out suggestion mode:

I think one part of the development must be to remember that when the plane to be refuelled is close to the tanker and the auto-fly script takes over it must not appear that the plane being refuelled moves towards the tanker too quickly so as not to be seen as having an unrealistic burst of speed.

Well in “Plane’s†system you had to manually fly to within about 10-15 of the plane to a specific position behind the aircraft.Once there you had to maintain your position until you managed to get “locked in/connectedâ€.  It really was a very good and realistic system, it didn’t feel fake at all.

If Plane has decided to drop the project then I'm sure if you could shed some light on the principles of how he did it we could if necessary build a brand new and improved script  

When OFPEC comes back up I’m sure he’ll be happy to discuss refining it.

By the way those planes look the absolute bee's knees. One question. Some of you may remember a game called TFX from the early nineties which featured three main planes. The F117-A (stealth fighter), the Eurofighter, and a plane called the F22 or X22 (can't remember which but it was a really futuristic plane which was just coming to light at the time).

I remember TFX very well, made by DiD, featuring the Eurofighter and F-22, spent many an hour playing it on a 486DLC with 8mb of memory.

One of those planes you have made looks remarkably like the F22/X22 in how modern its appearance is. Is it a variant or a descendant of it?

The XF/A-32? It was a competitor in the JSF project but Boeing lost the deal and Lockheed Martin's F-35 is being ordered instead... dunno how related the XF-32 is to F-22, but yes, they share some qualities...

The X/F-32 is not releated to the F-22 at all.  As BlackScorpion correctly said it was made by Boeing not Lockheed who make the F-22.  However the F-35 is a direct descendant of the F-22 in a lot of ways.

I was trying to think of ways to exploit OFP's infinite ocean. The simplest method would just be some radio dialog that gives you the bearing and distance to either the tanker intercept point or the centre of the island? I think the default ofp indicators only show up in Cadet mode?

I may well be worrying over nothing, I've never tried going though the motions of in-fligh re-fuelling. Perhaps if you keep the speed down as low as possible, a half decent pilot might be able to get the job done in time?

From past experience the AI don’t like flying off the map, they seem to either try and get back on to it or fly off into the distance.

**Edit, If you don't want this thread to become a discussion about refuelling scripts then I'll pm you with any ideas I have from now on. Or we can start a whole new topic dedicated entirely to a refuelling script in the scripting forum. Might be best that way, and more useful from the standpoint of anyone doing future searches looking for the same thing  

I think if we’re going to discuss this at any more length I’d prefer to do it either in the scripting section or in the guest section at the RKSL site.

[Guest RKSL-Rock]

Small info update (and to stop this thread vanishing into the depths)

GR7 Harrier - VTOL Control

I should mention Karrilion at this point who gave me an updated version of his scripts - Thanks alot - but we've taken the decision to develop a totally new system that is fully integrated into the addon, it requires no external scripts, markers etc function.  Its still early days yet but already its proved very easy to use.

Thanks to UNN's incredibly hard work the Harrier VTOL system now uses key presses to manoeuvre in a hover at 90 & 100 Nozzle angle setting you can now use keys to control the hover:

Nozzle Control is by the Q & Z keys (at any time not just hover)

Increase Altitude = Forward (W) Key

Decrease Altitude =  Back (S) Key

Strafe Left = Left (A) Key

Strafe Right = Right (D) Key

Rotate Left = Turn Left (X)

Rotate Right = Turn Right (C )

While in a HOVER Forward speed is gained by pressing the Forward+Speed keys (SHIFT+W or E Keys) once at a suitable speed the keys revert to normal functioning.

NOTE: Any of the keys mentioned here are dependant on your own keyboard mapping and may change if you are not using the OFP default layout

Other Features:

Interior Lighting

Carrier Compatible (ie fixed gear conversion)

NEW working HUD

HUD Low level Altitude 'Helper'

Damage system (planned)

and more...

We've taken great care to remove as much as we reasonably can from the action menu leaving only a collapsible menu with HUD setup options etc left.

Thats all for now - I'll post some screenies once it start to look better.

Cheers

Rock

[Messiah 2]

sounds great fella

[StealthTiger 0]

The OFP engine along with the addon wizards continue to amaze me! Sounds awesome Rock

[Daniel 0]

That sounds amazing RockofSL, really looking forward to this.

[tankieboy 0]

So many questions and wow's.

Interior Lighting! Altitude 'Helper'?

[Shashman 0]

Oooo sounds good

Any chance, as a tribute to the end of the career of the Sea Harrier, (it made its LAST SORTIE from HMS Illustrious today ) that you'd make one representing this example?

[wolfbite 8]

Cant wait to clusterbomb some rabbits