SJB Weapons Pack

[fireship4 0]

will the pack have correct smoke/sparks from the weapon? I have yet to see proper sparks being simulated yet.

And will the firing rate be closer to the real things? Project USTP are setting up a weapons reference table so maybe we can give you some info on a couple of guns if you need it while we are researching. But we are still v early days.

EDIT also it may be possible to simulate the red dot thing u mentioned earlier, i think there is a way to make certain clolours only visible to NVGs etc and you could mess around with that and script so a clear version of the NVGs is applied to your screen when using the IR dot.

[Jackal326 1158]

will the pack have correct smoke/sparks from the weapon?  I have yet to see proper sparks being simulated yet.

And will the firing rate be closer to the real things?  Project USTP are setting up a weapons reference table so maybe we can give you some info on a couple of guns if you need it while we are researching.  But we are still v early days.

The pack is in its early-days as well. While it was very close to a release for OFP, the conversion process to ArmA has added another lengthy period to the development process. I'm having to (not strictly having to, but I'm going to) be merging most of the textures into 2 or 3 larger files per weapon, to cut down on the massive number of textures the pack has had in the past. This will hopefully help compensate for the detailed models some of the weapons have. Not to mention the work each model will need in terms of its positioning and quality to try and bring it into line with the standard people expect from ArmA.

Any help you can provide in the area of config values for re-fire rates, recoil values or any other form of reference materials would be greatly appreciated because I want to make the pack as realistic as possible. That said, there will always be disputes over values used, and whilst there isn't a JAM for ArmA (yet!, I'll be definately supporting it with future versions of my pack, upon release.

[Jackal326 1158]

I'd like to share a "fun" experience I had last night.

I had just finished a code update on the weapons pack (trying to get the M203 grenade launchers to work), and had just installed the PBOs necessary to test. I removed the ArmA DVD from its case, and carefully placed it in the drive. I started up the game, then heard an almighty CLUNK. "WTF was that?!" I exclaimed, to which my game replied "Go F&%$ Yourself!" and then crashed after failing the Securom disk-check. "Oh Snap!" I cried, as I hastily removed the disk from the draw to see what was wrong. Well, I tried to anyway. After numerous presses of the button and then what felt like an hour waiting, the drive finally opened. All of 2 inches. It seems somewhere along the line, the disk spontaniously combusted and exploded in the drive, not only destroying itself, but knackering the drive too (couldn't open the draw because shards of the disk were jamming the mechanism).

I've since spent 30 quid replacing the drive, and a further 20 quid replacing ArmA. So now I'm somewhere in the region of 50 quid down, and very, very angry.

[fireship4 0]

Shit thats dangerous. You should get in contact with 505, just in-case it's a defective batch and others have reported it too. They should pay for your drive aswell!

[da12thMonkey 1943]

I'd like to share a "fun" experience I had last night.

I had just finished a code update on the weapons pack (trying to get the M203 grenade launchers to work), and had just installed the PBOs necessary to test. I removed the ArmA DVD from its case, and carefully placed it in the drive. I started up the game, then heard an almighty CLUNK. "WTF was that?!" I exclaimed, to which my game replied "Go F&%$ Yourself!" and then crashed after failing the Securom disk-check. "Oh Snap!" I cried, as I hastily removed the disk from the draw to see what was wrong. Well, I tried to anyway. After numerous presses of the button and then what felt like an hour waiting, the drive finally opened. All of 2 inches. It seems somewhere along the line, the disk spontaniously combusted and exploded in the drive, not only destroying itself, but knackering the drive too (couldn't open the draw because shards of the disk were jamming the mechanism).

I've since spent 30 quid replacing the drive, and a further 20 quid replacing ArmA. So now I'm somewhere in the region of 50 quid down, and very, very angry.

Same thing happened to me with OFP mate, though I know I didn't settle the disc in the drive-tray properly before I closed it, hence why it shattered.

However, I just sent the disc to Codemasters and got a free replacement the next week after getting in touch with their customer services to check whether a simple replacement was possible. AFAIK all I had to do was pay postage per disk that needed replacing.

Replacing the drive was a bit more costly, but it was about time I replaced the CDRW drive with a DVD drive anyway.

Bad luck anyway mate.

[Jackal326 1158]

@Fireship: I doubt they'd pay for a new drive. I'd have to prove the disc broke the drive, and not the other-way-around. It doesn't matter, I've got both issues resolved, I'm just 50 quid out of pocket. Put it down to experience.

[scubaman3D 0]

Jackal, quick question.

What is the rational behind releasing one massive weapon pack instead of several smaller ones?

The only reason I ask is you could, say, release 3 packs of x weapons each so that your work gets out faster.

I'm just curious and if I'm honest, I'm anxious as well.

[EvEnLeaSe44 0]

ok, since i know jackal, and known him since early 04.

I might be able to help answer that question.

If he were to release them in say, 3 packs, there would be more then a couple pbos, like.. say, 3-6, but if he just releases them in 1 big pack, mmm 2-4 pbos.

not just that, i would have to think its better to just finish all the guns, then release them, then to finish 100 of em, then release a pack, then another 100 etc.

If he just releases the pack of lets say 300+ like i was told early on msn, then heh... more quailty and quanity.

[echo1 0]

I'd like to share a "fun" experience I had last night.

I had just finished a code update on the weapons pack (trying to get the M203 grenade launchers to work), and had just installed the PBOs necessary to test. I removed the ArmA DVD from its case, and carefully placed it in the drive. I started up the game, then heard an almighty CLUNK. "WTF was that?!" I exclaimed, to which my game replied "Go F&%$ Yourself!" and then crashed after failing the Securom disk-check. "Oh Snap!" I cried, as I hastily removed the disk from the draw to see what was wrong. Well, I tried to anyway. After numerous presses of the button and then what felt like an hour waiting, the drive finally opened. All of 2 inches. It seems somewhere along the line, the disk spontaniously combusted and exploded in the drive, not only destroying itself, but knackering the drive too (couldn't open the draw because shards of the disk were jamming the mechanism).

I've since spent 30 quid replacing the drive, and a further 20 quid replacing ArmA. So now I'm somewhere in the region of 50 quid down, and very, very angry.

Nasty...How old is the PC? Its quite possible that you had a bad drive, you should ring up the PC's maker and complain.

[Jackal326 1158]

There are several reasons, one of the most important has already been brought up be Evenlease,keeping your addon directory tidy by minimising the number of PBOs needed to be installed. The second reason I felt it better to make one pack instead of several smaller packs, is because one pack is easy to keep up to date. Otherwise, its hard to know if all of the PBOs are up-to-date with the current versions. No disrespect to Vilas, but this is a situation I personally have found with his numerous addons, with the frequent updates I often find I've no-longer got the most up-to-date version which, if I didn't keep track, would soon become an issue.

To combat the "Oh noes! Now that you've updated the pack I need to download the whole thing again!" comments, I'll release any updates in patch form, to minimise the filesize that will be needed to be downloaded. This will hopefully be in the form of a .EXE, not as an 'Extract the PBOs yourself and replace the files' because some people can't grasp that idea

Anyway, thats still to come, I need to finish off and release v1.0 first.

@CH_123: Its roughly 18months old. I'm not too fussed, its fixed (read as: replaced) now, as is my game.

[scubaman3D 0]

fair enough...

nobody likes to wait for something they are excited about

[Jackal326 1158]

Thats fair enough, I may release a little 'teaser' when things fall into shape, but right now I'm concentrating on getting as much of the pack ready for testing as possible.

[Curatalo 0]

=0...im drulling ( i dont think i spelled that right =/ )

[Jackal326 1158]

Its drooling, but I'm glad you like what you've seen so-far, there is more to come. Hopefully by next week-end I'll have made far more progress than I have thus far. Real-life keeps finding a way to messing things up and pulling me away from working on the pack.

[Jackal326 1158]

Finally made some progress! I've been working on the updated desert camo textures. They're still very much work in progress, and I plan to add more wear and tear all-over to try and better simulate the fact the paint wasn't applied 5-minutes ago. I also plan to 'dust up' the ANPEQ, which you can't really see in the screen but leaving it black makes it stand out (same with the vertical-grip assist, which you can see).

[Blackbuck 9]

Maybe something like this? Click Me

[Jackal326 1158]

Thats how the desert C7s/C8s will look, and I want the M4A1s to be slightly different hence the more-all-over camo painting.

[Blackbuck 9]

Fair play i'm happy whatever you make. I can allways tweak them for my own use after release

[-Puma- 2]

Jackal, if u get teh flaslight work, wouldn't be cool to add "surefire"

laser "trijicon" in ur addon. Alltought im no expert in coding, it would be a nice1, coded thru the flashlight.

IMO mods (picatinny rail mod, Sopmod for blufor), is what makes the guns modern.

[Messiah 2]

Thats how the desert C7s/C8s will look, and I want the M4A1s to be slightly different hence the more-all-over camo painting.

you don't fancy adding the British 'tiger stripe' des camo on the SFW's do you? Otherwise could we use your SFW's again when the time comes? Pretty Please

[Jackal326 1158]

@helping_hand: Feel free to tweak them how you want post-release.

@SPC.Puma_FIN: I have no idea if flashlights/lasers are possible within the ArmA engine. If its anything like OFP, they are, but they're coded to the UNIT, not the weapon. So I'll leave this to someone else to sort out while I concentrate on getting the core pack working.

@Messiah: I will be sure to lend UKF any resources they need to produce their own pack for ArmA, returning the favour

[Messiah 2]

legend - can't wait to see what comes of the rest of the pack - the attention to detail is verging on anal on most of these weapons, and its an admirable thing.

I just don't have the patience

with regards to lasers etc - couldn't a clever use of particles go some way to simulate the laser catching on smoke/dust/particles in the air to create a 'visible' beam? Although without it being able to react to striking an object or person, it's nothing more than laggy eye candy I suppose - perhaps we can badger BIS to include these

[Guest Ti0n3r]

I just saw the latest pics. Superb work Jackal!

[SASR Sabre 0]

in regards to desert camo i can shoot you over the .psd's and all that for the desert camo i was doing for your ofp weapons pack.

if you think it will help that is.

some pics if you dont remember;

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/sabretron/left3.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/sabretron/des2-1.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/sabretron/des1-1.jpg

[Jackal326 1158]

Just when I was feeling quite proud with myslef about my desert camo texture, it pales in comparison to you version SASR Sabre

I'd appreciate it if you could please send over the .PSDs, so I can learn from them as to how to add better quality wear 'n' tear.