6thSense.eu Presents: Tracers (Beta)

[sickboy 13]

6thSense.eu Tracers v0.1RC4 (Updated the Package at 19:02CET, Optimizations and Fixes)

Changes:

[*] Added ability to override Tracer Settings from within Mission description.ext class

[*] If you want to manually configure tracer settings, please review SIX_TracersCfg.hpp

[*] The config works transparantly, if there is no config, or no configuration for a specific ammo or setting

It will take the default settings from the Addon Config. More info findable in the Cfg file.

[*] Demo2: Incl. Tracer Configuration on Mission Level, please review h\SIX_TracersCfg.hpp

[*] Cleaned Config, Removed Yellow for now, sometime proper yellow for Vickers etc will be made

[*] Added a Client(player) check, does not fire the scripts on Servers, though does on ingame servers with Player

[*] Fixed "No Tracers when starting inside 1 manned vehicle"

I have not disabled SmallArms Tracers per default. At this time, SmallArms Tracers can be disabled through the usage of SIX_TracersCfg.hpp, which MUST be placed and enabled inside a Mission. Instructions are inside the Cfg and the Readme. You can view a Demo of how to Disable SmallArms Tracers as mission: Demo2.

SIX_TracersCfg.hpp Example

ArmAVidz: Great Video again mate, really big thanks mate!!

[zootia 0]

I figured out why I wasnt getting tracers in AH6s and other air vehicles.

When I spawn myself as a AH6 or a Cobra in the mission editor, the tracers don't work.

However, If I spawn as an infantryman and get in a empty AH6 or Cobra, it works.

This is really odd, because all the other vehicles, i can spawn as them and use the tracers fine from the get go.

[geloxo 2]

I figured out why I wasnt getting tracers in AH6s and other air vehicles.

When I spawn myself as a AH6 or a Cobra in the mission editor, the tracers don't work.

However, If I spawn as an infantryman and get in a empty AH6 or Cobra, it works.

This is really odd, because all the other vehicles, i can spawn as them and use the tracers fine from the get go.

I have just had the same behaviour now when I played with choppers and RC4 for the first time, yeap... It does not happen always to me but anyway I saw that it was solved by using "movein" commands like this one:

Quote[/b] ]soldier1 moveingunner heli1

There you are the pilot or gunner of heli1 (a cobra for instance) and you assign a dumb unit soldier1 as gunner to your ship (even if the chopper as already a gunner)

By the way... nice work here, thanks for sharing it!

[sickboy 13]

Thanks mates, I updated the RC4 package once more; your problems should be gone, thank you for reporting!

[geloxo 2]

My god! Express support I was just editing my previous answer... lol

Thanks man. I will check it

[zootia 0]

Nope, problem is still there. Still no tracers when I spawn as a Ah6

[geloxo 2]

I found something that could be cause: just place another soldier in the map (it seems it must be a soldier for the script to work) and it works perfect. I tried with an empty map having only the chopper and in the beginning it didn´t work but when I placed that extra soldier in the map (no need to be on your squad) it works fine for both cobra, littlebird and MG on the blackhawk. Jets (A10 and harrier) seemed to have the same problem but they also work fine if you add that extra unit.

I didn´t see the script but I guess it´s dealing with that unit check sickboy seem to have there... as far as I understood from the config:

Quote[/b] ]SIX_TRACER_REFRESH = 30; // Refresh time in seconds, how long pause between checks if new units are on the battlefield

Hope it helps

PD: This chopper fan is very pleased to have new tracers available

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Loving the A10 with these tracers. Owned several T64s with them before, great effect, especially seeing the occasional round ricochet off the armour!

[zootia 0]

Another thing - the FFARs seem to be invisible now. Can you bring these back?

[sickboy 13]

After about an hour of config fcking, i've squashed the bug.

Problem was with how the BIS Air Classes inherit from rootclasses.

I reupdated RC4 again, now 19:02 CET. Sry for the hassle

And have fun :-)

About the Smoke or whatever is missing, I will have a look but I'm actually certain that none of those things are affected by my Tracer Addon

[zootia 0]

Not the smoke, but the FFAR rockets themselves seem to be invisible. Maybe they are some type of tracer and got disabled with all the other BIS tracers?

Also, is there a way to use these in MP evolution?

[sickboy 13]

Plz Confirm fixes from latest RC4 build few posts back mates, I think we're kinda near Final v0.1 :P

Not the smoke, but the FFAR rockets themselves seem to be invisible. Maybe they are some type of tracer and got disabled with all the other BIS tracers?

All fine here mate, FFAR's, 57mm Rockets, you name it. (When they come out etc, but after few meters you don't see them any longer, but thats normal? )

Is there a chance you have other addons installed, also which game version are you running? If you have other addons installed please try disabling them to see if that changes anything for you.

Goodluck

About Evolution: It should work in any mission mate. Unless there are only addons used which have overwritten eventhandlers by other mods, but this is unlikely to happen as the EventHandler runs on virtually every units, vehicle or logic in the mission

You tested it?

One can make his mission permanent compatible with SIX_Tracers, even when there are all vehicles, units etc.

placed on the map that would have overwritten init eventhandlers, is to add to the mission init.sqf the following code:

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

_tracerInit=getText (configFile >> "SIX_Tracer_EventHandlers" >> "Init");

if(_tracerInit != "")then{call compile _tracerInit};

This is even compatible with servers or clients that don't have the addon!! There should be no error if there is no SIX_Tracers addon. But when a client has it installed, it will be enabled

Gotto Love the ArmA Scripting Functionality ^^

[zootia 0]

AH6s and all the other aircraft have tracers from the get go now. Thanks!

I tried evolution on various servers, got into vulcans and 50cal hummers and all sorts of other vehicles. Got no tracers for any of them.

Running the latest version of beta 1.07

[Maddmatt 1]

Plz Confirm fixes from latest RC4 build few posts back mates, I think we're kinda near Final v0.1 :P

Not the smoke, but the FFAR rockets themselves seem to be invisible. Maybe they are some type of tracer and got disabled with all the other BIS tracers?

All fine here mate, FFAR's, 57mm Rockets, you name it. (When they come out etc, but after few meters you don't see them any longer, but thats normal? )

The smoke and flame at the back should stop, but you should still see the actual rocket fly through the air. I haven't tried this addon yet, but I will soon.

[Abbe 0]

Great addon for anyone who likes realism, a must have...

Sometimes the tracers look like three small balls in a row swoshing by, something to do with poor framerate?

Good work, thanks    !

/Abbe

[mr reality 0]

Bloody hell Sickboy, do you ever stop for a break. Your dedication to this task is phenomenal. Outstanding work, give yourself a pat on the back...

[Strag 0]

I have not disabled SmallArms Tracers per default. At this time, SmallArms Tracers can be disabled through the usage of SIX_TracersCfg.hpp, which MUST be placed and enabled inside a Mission. Instructions are inside the Cfg and the Readme. You can view a Demo of how to Disable SmallArms Tracers as mission: Demo2.

I'd suggest disabling tracers for rifles by default, but leaving them enabled for machineguns. This way, for folks who are playing missions not specially set up to work with this tracers mod (which will likely be the majority of folks out there), those irritating rifle tracers won't show up.

If a mission maker DOES want rifle tracers to show up for some reason, he can configure the tracers mod to work that way with his mission.

EDIT: If you decide to leave rifle tracers enabled, could you also please release a version that does NOT have rifle tracers enabled?

[Panda-PL- 0]

Hmmm... I kind of don't get how do you need to "specially setup" missions to work with tracers.

Are you an America's Army player by any chance? It didin't have rifle tracers but for rather obvius reason: the engine wasn't ment to display tracers in the first place. The machinegun tracers were implemented very badly.

The rifling twist in both M16A2 and army M4s is the same and it's 7" in order to be able to fire tracer rounds more or less accurately. This rifling is a tradeoff and some actually say that M16a1 had a better barrel.

Anyway when M16A2 was being designed it was a concern to make it practicall to use it with tracer rounds.

If you mean that tracers make spotitng enemy a bit easier once hi fires you shouldn't worry - IRL you would be able to spott muzzle flashes. In ArmA you usually can't.

[Strag 0]

@ June 10 2007,08:10)]The rifling twist in both M16A2 and army M4s is the same and it's 7" in order to be able to fire tracer rounds more or less accurately. This rifling is a tradeoff and some actually say that M16a1 had a better barrel.

Anyway when M16A2 was being designed it was a concern to make it practicall to use it with tracer rounds.

Yeah, the M16A1 had a 1:12" twist, which worked fine with the M193 round's 55 grain bullet. But that's neither here nor there.

The question is, what does a typical rifleman fire the majority of the time? M855 (green tip) or M856 (orange tip tracer)? IMO, the answer to that question should determine whether or not tracers are enabled in this mod for rifles by default. It would then be up to mission makers to configure their missions manually for the other case as desired.

[Panda-PL- 0]

The question is, what does a typical rifleman fire the majority of the time?  M855 (green tip) or M856 (orange tip tracer)?

Kinda don't know what's the difference but answer seems simple:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracer_ammunition

Quote[/b] ]

The M856 tracer cartridge (63.7-grain bullet) is used in the M16A2/3/4, M4-series, M249 weapons (among other 5.56-mm NATO weapons). This round is designed to trace out to 875 yards, and has a red tip (orange when linked 4 to 1 with the M249). It is not to be used in the M16A1 except under emergency conditions, and at ranges of less than 90 meters due to the fact that the M16A1's rifling twist isn't sufficient to stabilize the projectile.

And the photo on the rigth side of article says these are M16 tracers fired on the range.

[sickboy 13]

I'll let you boys "Fight out this information-war", wake me up when ur done and have results heheh I guess the discussion should be mainly not about the hardware capabilities but how common it is for US/Russians to have tracer rounds in their rifles in battles.

Seriously;

Releasing 2 versions wouldn't be a problem, though I think that for the sake of it, 1 version would be best, with power to the mission-maker to make alterations.

I kinda like it with the Rifle-tracers on, but for me it shouldn't be a problem to edit the missions on my servers and enable them through the SIX_TracersCfg.hpp file.

So I will monitor the discussion closely, and if the favor falls nearer to removing rifle-tracers by default, while being able to enable them as mission-maker; so be it, really not a problem for me.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

I'm in favour for disabling the tracers for rifles straight off (weapons I mean by rifles: M16 + variants, AK74 + variants, pistols), and being able to re-enable them as needed.

Only because I find having to disable the tracers prohibitive (and indeed impossible) when mucking around in the editor, and not wishing to have to write a description.ext for each little muck-around/test session that I have.

Nice job again, Sick.

[Strag 0]

@ June 10 2007,08:32)]Kinda don't know what's the difference but answer seems simple:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracer_ammunition

Thanks for the Wikipedia reference. I'll take it for what it's worth.

I'm really more interested in what the guys on the ground have to say, rather than what's done at a range. I see a lot of this:

Quote[/b] ]When I was in Kosovo, I had a mag with just tracers in it for marking targets.

Other than that, I ran the other 7 mags ball only.

Quote[/b] ]I used one or two [tracer] mags for marking targets for the Brads and Abrams. Easier to dump on a target and tell the armor to follow the trail of lights than figure out a grid or direction mid firefight. Other than that I tossed em. Tracers point both ways though /nod.

Quote[/b] ]I used to do the load the mag with 4 tracers at the end as another indication that it was time to reload when i was a grunt.

Quote[/b] ]SOP, that's pretty much it. There are reasons for how you may mix it and I'm sure most of us have done it differently for different reasons. In the past I've always had 3 at the bottom of every mag and then one mag with strip of tape on it for all tracers. This is pretty much how we did things downrange (13 years later).

Quote[/b] ]Assuming standard issue of 210 rounds (42 Tracer, 178 ball) I personally bring along an extra magazine (gives me 8 total) so I can download below 30 for easier mag insertions. Then I load up one mag full of 28 tracers, and split the rest at the bottom of the other 7 mags - 2 per magazine. I've thought I should probably leave a couple ball at the very bottom to give my non-observant ass time to react to the tracers, but haven't done it on deployment yet.

Quote[/b] ]I've got pouches that hold a mag three vertical, and one horizontal. The horizontal being an all tracer.

Quote[/b] ]The Brits I worked with would load every mag with 5 tracers on top. Some guys used 5 on top and 5 on bottom.

Quote[/b] ]Ran 2 856s at 5th and 4th from last. I didn't want an "OH S--T!!" moment without a little buffer.

Quote[/b] ]As an line infantry squad leader I put one mag in my weapon with ALL tracer for initial contact, then it was every 5th round a tracer.

So some squad leaders may load one or two full mags of tracers, and some guys may load tracers at the end of a mag, but others don't use them at all.

[Panda-PL- 0]

Cameron: M249 and other MGs are out of question since the tape is fabrically packed with 1/5 tracers. I cannot imagine machinegunners taking the tape off the box and removing them manually.

The magazines are hand loaded and they depend on one's own invenction it seems.

It does depend on kind of operation. But I guess if my forces were in advantage I would use tracers so that I can take advantage of them knowing where to shoot. If I was on a SF ambush etc - then I'd probably not use tracers at all so to hide my exact position as much as possible.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Cancel that, I'll shuddup now.