h - 169 Posted January 4, 2006 <span style='color:maroon'><span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'>MCAR Engine</span></span> version 0.931 This is what the Project MCAR was initially aimed to be, a fully stand-alone engine in which the AddOn makers could tap into with relative ease to produce their own MCAR powered vehicles.. MCAR Engine is aimed at the AddOn makers, the average gaming-joe has little or no use for it until MCAR engine 1.0 appears (or vehicles utilizing this or the 1.0 engine).. This doesn't mean you shouldn't download it and see what it has eaten though.. This is aimed at 'professionals', so we will not be answering questions about the use of O2, "what is .p3d?", etc.. This makes the old MCAR Beta 3.xxxx's obsolete, and all AddOns using those old codes are encouraged to be updated to use this new engine. Support for the old Project MCAR powered AddOns will be discontinued. The two original MCAR vehicles are provided as an example how to implement the MCAR Engine, so again, no complaining about the quality of the vehicles (textures/models/etc..). MCAR Engine compliant Sa-8b Gecko and the M151A1C jeep are also vailable.. The reason why we release this in pre-1.0 stage is that we have very limited testing capabilities and we hope you will be able to help us there.. This is not a beta per-se, and AddOn makers should not be shunned away by the fact that we still call this 0.xx instead of 1.0... So we urge you AddOn makers to try and implement this into your own AddOn and give us feedback on the documentation etc.. The aim is that you could do it all by yourself and we would not need to 'interfere' that much.. <u>We also need this to be tested in MP. So all MP-pro's, please lend us your skills.. We are looking for a bit more in-depth MP test 'reports' than just "it doesn't work.."..</u> History: 0.931 Debugging (MCAR_debug = true) : - the output max speed for SAM missiles is the max effective one the missile will have, and no more the one in vacuum - when the missile is destroyed the time, distance from shooter and missile's speed are printed on screen New features: - _MEXH parameter (only for SAMs) can be a function or an expression. This will allow, for example, to simulate boosters with different propellant than the main rocket engine's. Or to simulate booster effects having _MKGS constant (example: ..._MEXH,"if(_tDiff<2)then{2500}else{1700}" ) - it's also possible for _MKGS to be an expression too, instead of only a function: for example, _MKGS,"if(_tDiff<4)then{8.5}else{4.1}" . In this case, _MINT must be set to "auto". This allows easy implementation of dual thrust engine, without recurring to the automatically generated function: the main advantage is the simplicity of the calculations involved (no arc tangent and logarithm to be evaluated, just plain algebra). Differences from previous versions: - regarding SAMs missiles, the max turning rate is effectively the one specified in stringtable.csv, rather than being higher, cause before it was calculated using max missile speed in vacuum. To compensate for this, at lower speed (<50% max speed) the missiles are more maneuvrable than before. 0.91 - Vertical launch of an AA missile using PROPNAVG guidance code kept going on to the zenith instead of turning towards the target -FIXED - Multiple launch positions for AT missiles using the 'tiltable missile' code (AddOns with the _PATH parameter set to "\MCAR_engine\psy_mcar_scripts\at\MCAR_getAmmo_3b.sqs") 0.9 - A new variable is usable in stringtable.csv (AA units only): _GMK This works only for lead collision and proportional navigation guidance codes and if enabled (true) makes the missile loose lock if between the shooting vehicle and the target happens to be a hill. Setting this variable to true will slightly worsen the performance (but very slightly). - A new global variable is present: MCAR_engine_version This one is useful if your addon needs a newer version of MCAR engine than the one currently installed in the user's addon directory. Examples how to use it proficiently will be given in a new version of the docs. - AA codes optimized a bit 0.8.0.1 - Initial release Downloads: - MCAR Engine 0.931 (.rar file) - MCAR Engine documentation (.rar file, docs in .pdf format) Documents updated for 0.931.. Example vehicles Utilizing the AT codes: - HMMWV with TOW Launcher (.rar file) Utilizing the AA codes: - Sa-9 Gaskin (.rar file) And the Jeep and the Gecko: - SA-8B Gecko - M151A1C v 2.0 And as always, read the readmes. HateR_Kint Project MCAR Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Messiah 2 Posted January 4, 2006 congratulations on getting this finished (well, nearly) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
h - 169 Posted January 4, 2006 Thanks m8.. Better late than never I guess.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
.kju 3244 Posted January 4, 2006 once time permits i think we - from Wargames MOD - will have a close look at this ! anyway great work Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
crassus 0 Posted January 4, 2006 Thanks a lot, guys. Well done. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
h - 169 Posted January 5, 2006 Thanks for your kind words guys.. Hopefully there are still AddOn makers left who would find this usable for them... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raedor 8 Posted January 5, 2006 Thanks for this update, I would love to test it more intensively, but my holidays are over... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gavinthecat 0 Posted January 5, 2006 Im in the dark about this one chaps, is this to allow for class vehicle cars to have turrets or? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bobcatt666 0 Posted January 5, 2006 Cool, seeing if this makes any help implimenting mcar to a dozen or so addons in hiberation. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
buliwyf 4 Posted January 5, 2006 Thx for your work!!! I would like to see combat! addons with this stuff... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raedor 8 Posted January 5, 2006 Thx for your work!!!I would like to see combat! addons with this stuff... LOL. Combat! already uses this for a while now (over a year?)... Just try our Humvees. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
h - 169 Posted January 5, 2006 CBT humwees use quite outdated scripts actually... Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they are from something like MCAR Beta 2.5 era... But nevertheless they use MCAR Quote[/b] ]Im in the dark about this one chaps, is this to allow for class vehicle cars to have turrets or? Close. Guided missiles.. And some other ordnance, but that's not so 'MCARish' .. Quote[/b] ]Cool, seeing if this makes any help implimenting mcar to a dozen or so addons in hiberation. Well, that makes you quite perfect 'guinea pig' for the documents Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Messiah 2 Posted January 5, 2006 i'll eventually get round to updating our stuff with the new scripting - but i'm of the school of though of 'if it aint broke, dont fix it' but from what gecko has told me, its worth it Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
buliwyf 4 Posted January 5, 2006 Thx for your work!!!I would like to see combat! addons with this stuff... LOL. Combat! already uses this for a while now (over a year?)... Just try our Humvees. Damn... if i am firing with the latest COMBAT! TOW HMMWV in multiplayer, the launcher will fire as much rockets as players on the server. This makes the TOW HMMWV unplayable in MP sessions... and... yes i put a COMBAT LOGIC on the map... I thought this stuff would fix that bug... but... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raedor 8 Posted January 5, 2006 Thx for your work!!!I would like to see combat! addons with this stuff... LOL. Combat! already uses this for a while now (over a year?)... Just try our Humvees. Damn... if i am firing with the latest COMBAT! TOW HMMWV in multiplayer, the launcher will fire as much rockets as players on the server. This makes the TOW HMMWV unplayable in MP sessions... and... yes i put a COMBAT LOGIC on the map... I thought this stuff would fix that bug... but... Ah, ok, we're using a very old version (as HateR_Kint said). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
General Barron 0 Posted January 6, 2006 Cool, great to see continued work on this ground-breaking engine. So, to clarify, this release makes all prior MCAR releases obsolete? And previous mcar stuff is not-compatable with this new engine? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
h - 169 Posted January 6, 2006 Quote[/b] ]So, to clarify, this release makes all prior MCAR releases obsolete? And previous mcar stuff is not-compatable with this new engine? Yes. Sorry, didn't make that clear enough in the initial post.. (will edit it accordingly..) Although the only old MCAR stuff not compatible with this new one are our own old example vehicles (old=using the old codes), all the other addons like CBT! Humwees and FischKopp's Humwees are 'stand-alone' which means they include all the MCAR related stuff in them.. That's the way the old Betas worked and we always wanted that not to be the case... And of course you can still use the old beta codes but we will not be supporting it anymore.. Quote[/b] ]I thought this stuff would fix that bug... but... Unfortunately, like explained above this new MCAR Engine will not fix anything from the old MCAR codes, nor any of the AddOns released using the old beta method... I can't address enough how important it would be for us that people would test this new engine in MP so that we will know for sure it works in that environment as well.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SpecOp9 0 Posted January 6, 2006 Sounds interesting... But what exactly is this used for? Why was it made? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
h - 169 Posted January 6, 2006 You mean MCAR in general or this new engine? If you mean MCAR in general; because car class vehicles can not be armed with with missile launchers, or anything other than MG (well, you can use all kinds of dodgy getPos/setPos stuff if you want to)... If you mean this new stuff, I think it has been explained already.. Addon makers who would make a car class vehicle launching guided missiles can 'refer' (in lack of better word) to this few kb engine instead of having piles of scripts that all need to be edited on AddOn basis (piles of different class names changed, filepaths edited, etc... hundreds of lines of code at it's worst with the old stuff) just with a few lines of code in the AddOn.. There is no need to touch any of the scripts inside the MCAR Engine.. But basicly, it was made because we wanted to, and I think this is reason enough ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
General Barron 0 Posted January 6, 2006 Just browsin' thru the scripts, and I noticed that you included functions in your stringtable. Great idea! Saves on variables, yet allows you to keep it short when calling it. Brilliant! Consider that idea 'yoinked'. BTW if you are having trouble getting this to work in MP, I would recommend that you use the Chain of Command's Network Services 2. Makes MP scripting 1000% easier. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
h - 169 Posted January 6, 2006 Never really taken a look at NS2 but I don't think we would make MCAR require another AddOn.. I think our MP related issues, if there are any, would be so complex a system of that grandeur would be needed.. We have to take a look at NS if it can offer some help though... The old MCAR Beta 3.xxx worked in MP without problems, at least none comes to mind atm (nothing server melting issues..).. But as there has been a lot of re-writing going on within this new engine there might be MP fiendly things going on... And that's just it as we have no means to test this in MP so we don't know if there is any problems or not.. Quote[/b] ]Just browsin' thru the scripts, and I noticed that you included functions in your stringtable. Great idea! Saves on variables, yet allows you to keep it short when calling it. Brilliant! Consider that idea 'yoinked'. Go ahead and yoink whatever you want That stringtable idea was something that had been mentioned by someone at some point in the past and it turned out to be much more versatile thing than I orginally anticipated... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
h - 169 Posted January 8, 2006 Promised these earlier.. SA-8B Gecko -Requires the MCAR Engine -If you have an older version of this, remove it first (or overwrite) Some specs (same as the old one): - Max engaging range: 8000 m - Min engaging range: 800 m - Min effective engaging range: 1.2 km - Missile max range: 13 km - Missile max speed: 800 m/s (mach 2.4) - Missile speed at max range: about 370 m/s (mach 1.1) - Missile endurance: 25 seconds, after which it autodestructs Download: SA-8B Gecko (.rar file) M151A1C v 2.0 New since 1.3: - Uses the MCAR Engine - Some more visual tweaks - All ammo types used (HEAT, HEP, APERS) available on one single vehicle instead of one ammo type, one vehicle.. Download: M151A1C 2.0 (.rar file) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gedis 0 Posted January 8, 2006 amazing thanx very much! Â Â things about SA-8 after testing... this is realy great! now it's very hard to evade being hit by a missile! top work mates! those missile launch effects are awesome! hehe, i don't know how, but somehow (only once) i evaded 2 missiles, but sadly 3rd missile hit my wing when i was manuevering as hard as could, fuel tanks in the wing cought fire and my days as pilot were counted, there were no time for ejecting... i love whole MCAR P.S. sneakee tactics are working, fly near the tree top and you will save your plane till you see those SA-8s... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
snoops_213 75 Posted January 21, 2006 yes this is a great addon. Is there any way to make an ecm script to work with this? Cant wrap my head around that. The missiles are Very Deadly at ALL ranges. I've been chased by a missile and i flew behind a BIG hill and yet the missile(SA-8) still followed, shouldn't it have lost lock? or is this one of those engine limitations? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sa8gecko 0 Posted January 21, 2006 Quote[/b] ]Is there any way to make an ecm script to work with this? Yes, but not the 'standard' way. There are built in chaffs in MCAR that activate on target plane, if the option is selected in the config file of the MCAR addon. In case of the Gecko, there aren't, for design choice. But: you can destroy the launcher and the missile then looses lock, or you can, as Gedis suggested below, fly at treetop level (I don't remember exactly what value I set in, maybe 20 meters) and the Gecko's missile looses lock. Quote[/b] ]I've been chased by a missile and i flew behind a BIG hill and yet the missile(SA-8) still followed, shouldn't it have lost lock? or is this one of those engine limitations? This is an MCAR engine limitation This is an option I considered when writing the code. I discarded it because the scripts are already heavy now, and this would have made them (a little) heavier. Anyway I'll consider adding it back in a future MCAR engine release, but limiting the check for hills between target and shooter any 2 or 3 seconds, cause the missiles can go a long way (13 km in case of the Gecko). BTW: the Gecko and the M151A1C are 'playable' vehicles, not only test ones like the Gaskin and the Tow humvees. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
