Flight model & Handy Tools for cutscenes

[geloxo 2]

Hi everybody,

If you have checked the Choppers paradise posts:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....84;st=0

you probably know what these tools are. If not please take a look there to get the latest info, demo videos and user comments. Find here the first release of this experiment

http://rapidshare.com/files/32238963/HandyToolsDemo.Sara.zip

http://www.armed-assault-zone.com/news.php?readmore=346

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EDIT: available videos (feel free to upload them to your servers)

http://rapidshare.com/files/29505840/littlebird.wmv

http://rapidshare.com/files/29552847/chinook.wmv

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IU8RKAMI

http://www.armedassault.info/index.p....tart=32

http://www.armaholic.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=711

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Quote[/b] ]Demo mission on Sahrani island: HandyToolsDemo

Created by geloxo

Great thanks to people who share their work and allow us to get some more new ideas to improve the game.

Feel free to use the code here on your scripts or modify it but please share the resulting script for us to enjoy it too.

Feel free to upload this content to any server for people to access it.

No permission from myself will be needed.

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These tools appeared due to the need to improve and speed up the creation of cutscenes. Additionally the flight model for

both choppers and jets had, in my opinion, to be improved a little and that´s why I decided to experiment with it.

All scripts are self explanatory and I do not intend to prepare a detailed explanation for them, sorry.

* Available tools are:

- Aircam: allows to attach it to a vehicle and follows its movements. Can be controlled by defining buldozer controls in

the game options menu with a joystick, keyboard or mouse.

- Choppers: allows choppers to fly a reference path defined by other unit. No need to put them into a squad. Actions can be executed

at a defined waypoint and close and custom formations are a fact and are defined by the [x,y,z] reference in the script.

- Contmgfire, controlfire and mgfire: used by war cam to create weapons fire effects

- Eventfired: missile or bullet cam triggered when a gun is fired

- Fireweapon: forces unit to fire a particular weapon

- Jets: modified version of choppers script to use on jets

- Ricochets: simulates a unit to be under fire

- Spawn: allows to create units that follow a reference path and to use some effects on them

- Warcam: creates war effects on camera and are controlled by the cam movements.

- Other secondary scripts: artillery, cargo, eject, enter and exit. General purpose scripts.

* Known issues:

- Jets behaviour depends on game performance when the init is called. To get a better performance try to place then on map

as closer to their reference first waypoint as possible. Also their heading would be important.

- Choppers landing performance is better on flat areas and due to game scripting the load procedure must be done with

engines off to prevent chopper to move

- You may notice different results in jets and choppers each time you run the mission due to the issues explained before

Enjoy the movie making!

Geloxo

Cheers.

[Blanco 0]

Amazing what you can do with that choppers script...

I've managed an AI-chopper to land on a (small) roof

I just have to move the LZ marker on top of a building

I filmed it : http://www.mediafire.com/?axtxlwlmb9c (3Mb)

Are there any presets coords for custom formations (diamond, vee,etc...)

[Serclaes 0]

That will really come in handy. Thanks

[geloxo 2]

Hehehe... I knew that roof landing was going to be everybody´s first idea Yeap, it works great for roofs isn´t it? I didn´t say anything just to let people experiment it. Nice to see it on that movie...

No presets formations, sorry, but you can just create them at your wish and add them to the index.sqs, for instance: put leader on [0,0,0] and the others, let´s say, 10 or 20m away (with bigger choppers you may need to use 30m):

[0,0,0]

[-20,-20,0]

[20,-20,0]

[0,-40,0]

and that´s it.

Cheers

[guerilla -MCY- 0]

WoW, that's exactly what i need, Hollywood i'm coming...

[Electricleash 133]

Geloxo, what control setup have you found most intuitive?

I just had a go, and the default Bulldozer controls are a bit difficult to grasp, any suggestions as to what the mouse should control? Oh... and i don't own a joystick.

[NoRailgunner 0]

Nice tool... thx!

But detailed readme (little howto...examples) is a good suggestion too?

[geloxo 2]

I use to control cam in the following way:

- with mouse: rotation in X and Y axis (like you do when using weapons in game)

- with joystick and/or keyboard: movement in X and Y axis (like you do when moving a soldier, for instance) with the stick itself and cam altitude on Z axis with the joystick acceleration control

- with joystick buttons: zoom control and other secondary options (set target, increase movement speed, remove the screen cross or whatever you desire)

I found those settings useful because of the posibility to get smoother cam movements. Keyboard is not so good for this but you can use it as well if you don´t intend to get too much accurracy on the movements. Also a gamepad can be used... I mean, just experiment a little bit to get the controls you feel more confortable with.

You are right and probably I should have included more on the readme but I really didn´t have so much time to prepare more detailed documentation as this is the "beta" version and main issues or usage are explained on the scripts comments. Maybe for the future

Cheers

[mattxr 9]

Sweet just what i needed.

[sickboy 13]

Nice pack of scripts, my opinion though:

- Lacking MP Support (Not a problem for some scripts though)

- Written in SQS while exactly the scripts you wrote are mainly Functions, exactly that what SQF was made for

Gotto love Chopper Formations though

[mattxr 9]

Everytime my choppers go to land they go booom with each other?

[mattxr 9]

Oh and in this line what the first set of [0,0,0] mean and the second set of [0,0,0] mean?

[heli4, blueref2, 50, [0,0,20], 2, "land", [0,-40,0], "LZ1"] exec "choppers.sqs"

becuase it doesnt tell you in the scripts :/

[geloxo 2]

Yeap Sickboy but I just arrived to this game and I´m still not so familiar with all possible commands but the code structures are quite similar to other games with scripts and that helped me. I need some more time to read the tons of tutorials created years ago for OFP and the wiki too....

Oh and in this line what the first set of [0,0,0] mean and the second set of [0,0,0] mean?

[heli4, blueref2, 50, [0,0,20], 2, "land", [0,-40,0], "LZ1"] exec "choppers.sqs"

becuase it doesnt tell you in the scripts :/

First [x,y,z] are relative coordinates for position in formation during flight and second [x´,y´,z´] are relative coordinates for position in formation for the action only (landing, for instance). This means you can set a second formation for the landing procedure or for the attack procedure while the first formation is kept till you approach the landing zone. This also allows you to change the formation at a waypoint by using "formup" instead of "land"

Cheers

[simba 0]

I must say those are very good and very usefull scripts .

thanks a lot !

[Frans 0]

I can't wait for the first Sahrani Airshow featuring the Red Arrows, Blue Angels, Patrouille de France, Frecce Tricolore, etc...

Great job Geloxo!

[the_shadow 0]

is it possible to do something similar for AI soldiers?

i would like a script system that allows AI groups to use real tactics and communicate instead of just acting as a bunch of undiciplined ego´s that only act by them slefes (and gets killed)

[geloxo 2]

Thanks for your comments

I´m looking forward to see those cutscenes with the acrobatic teams Could be interesting to see your custom formations

I think I read somewhere that some IA infantry improved scripts were already developed for OFP in the past so I think they will be usable in ArmA too or their authors could convert them. Probably is what you need... The flight model is valid for aircraft and helicopters and not worked so fine for ground vehicles as they will usually follow roads (at least on my tests) and I didn´t test it with soldiers so I don´t know how it would work...

Cheers

[kiwi1234 0]

Hi all

These scripts look great, but they do lack a little on the explaination side for us rookies. I wonder could someone be kind enough to post a tutorial of sorts for using the chopper script?

Basically a step by step guide to setting up a route for the choppers to fly with actions along they way?

thanks heaps

Kiwi.

[kiwi1234 0]

Hi there gelaxo,

Well since posting asking for a tutorial I have worked out some basic functionality with this (sorry for the rookie approach to this, but i'm learning!

Indeed it's great, one question though - any way to make the choppers fly straight and level at a certain speed? setting the speed as you do here results in more seesawing than a day at the park! It would be great to get the choppers to fly straight and level - any way to do this?

thanks again,

Kiwi

[geloxo 2]

Yeap, sorry about the lack of explanation but as I said I do not intend to produce a tutorial as this is the first release , published on popular demand. I agreed because it could give some ideas to other scripters on their work. Please be patient on this. Any volunteers to prepare the turorial and share it are welcome.

Anyway it´s very easy: set a waypoint path for any unit in the map and just call the script for any chopper you want to follow it. The action will be executed at the given waypoint.

Concerning the speed the key is not the speed itself but the "domove" command. Modify the "_fact" variable to 200 or 100 on the script initial values section and you will have an smoother result (see suggested values for particular speeds included in the script itself). Speed and that move factor must be on the same range for better results but in this version I didn´t find a proper formula to relate them so that only one of those variables need to be set by the user.

Also take into account that script was tested on v1.05 and results may not be equal to beta patch versions.

Cheers

[Barry the baldy 0]

Using 2 MH-6 unloading 2 squads everything goes fine but one of the choppers will always sustain damage from landing too hard and forces the pilot out... Any ideas on how to fix that?

[geloxo 2]

Try to land on flat areas or to increase the separation between them for the landing formation

Good luck

[warpuppy 0]

Hi there all

And a very big thanks to gelexo for the scripts,

Is there anybody that can please explain to me on how to use these scripts. Sorry just that i am right thick squaddie when it comes to understanding scripts. Any help would be most appreciated.

[USSRsniper 0]

very usefull tool for moviemaking, formation flight what i always wanted, and easy to use aircam.

[geloxo 2]

very usefull tool for moviemaking, formation flight what i always wanted, and easy to use aircam.  

I understand you... Formations were my target since I knew about this game. That´s mainly why all those scripts were created indeed

Sorry everybody about lack of explanation on their usage. I was quite busy at work for the last weeks but I will try to prepare better documentation to learn the usage of this as soon as possible

Cheers