Realistic Ballistics

[NonWonderDog 0]

On the Dragunov, the lower chevrons are actually something like 570m, 780m, and 950m when sighted in to 300m. That's not how the lower chevrons are supposed to be used, however. They're supposed to be used at maximum reticle elevation (1000m), where they represent the aiming points for 1100m, 1200m, and 1300m. This makes a lot more sense when you use the actual scope, since the reticle floats within the field of view (unlike western scopes, in which the reticle is fixed).

I don't know if it's possible to add a floating reticle to small arms. It might actually be possible by changing the scope adjustment mod to use the technique used in my rangefinder mod. I'll look into this if I ever get any free time (since gmJamez has left the community and given blanket permission to modify scopeAdjustment), but I'm going to be swamped with coursework for the foreseeable future.

The scope on the AKS-74 is made for quick acquisition, so the chevrons there are meant to be used with a 100m battle zero. The top chevron is 100m, the middle chevron is 400m, and the bottom chevron is 600m. Using the optional PSO-1 style scope, there's a fourth chevron that corresponds to 800m. You will not hit an 800m target with an AK-74, and you won't penetrate his body armor if you do, so this one is just for show.

You can still use the adjustment knobs for more accurate fire at in-between distances, in which case you will always use the top chevron. The lower chevrons don't correspond to any useful ranges at max reticle elevation (900m). I think it's something like 975m, 1050m, and 1200m if you want to try it, but again, an AK-74 is useless past 600m. It might not penetrate a denim jacket at 1200m.

The scope on the KSVK is supposed to be used the same way as the one on the SVD. The lower chevrons correspond to 1600m, 1700m, and 1800m when the scope is adjusted to the maximum reticle elevation (1500m). This is for firing at trucks, of course; you'll never hit a man-sized target with a KSVK past 1200m.

[chus 0]

Hy NWD,

Your my las hope. I having trouble with your great mod and I don’t know when it started.

My problem is that on some weapons the SightAdjustment don’t works. It seems to be started as you can see the box on the upper left corner but I can’t change the values.

This only happens to me with some weapons. I tracked it down to the M16 with ACOG and some M4 with acog and with some of the Russian rifle models.

The strange thing about is you swap weapon to an sniper rifle like m24 or mk12 and it works again you then swap back to you m16 rifle and you got 7 out of 10 that it works perfect till you die next time. Then all starts over again.

I´ve been trying to solve this, until I post a noob question and that’s what if tested and what happened.

So I took a fresh install of the game – no add-ons.

I installed your latest release and the GMJ addon.

Here a tree snapshot.

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

+---@GMJ_SightAdjustment

| \---Addons

| GMJ_SightAdjustment.pbo

| rangecard_aks74pso.txt

| rangecard_KSVK.txt

| rangecard_list.txt

| rangecard_M107.txt

| rangecard_M16A2.txt

| rangecard_M24.txt

| rangecard_M4SPR.txt

| rangecard_SVD.txt

|

+---@NWD_Ballistics

| \---Addons

| NWD_Ballistics.pbo

| NWD_RealDispersion.pbo

| NWD_RocketBallistics.pbo

| NWD_SightAdjustmentPlugin.pbo

|

+---@NWD_ScopeFix

| +---Addons

| | NWD_ScopeFix.pbo

| |

| \---Extras

| NWD_4xBinoculars.pbo

| NWD_7xBinoculars.pbo

| NWD_7xBinoculars_WideScreen.pbo

| NWD_8xGTLDII.pbo

| NWD_AK74_PSO1.pbo

| NWD_ExtraBinoculars.pbo

| NWD_G36_NarrowFOV.pbo

| NWD_M107_M8541.pbo

To check that the problem was not server side I created a mission with the editor.

Just as simple as possible, Rahmadi, 1 soldier and big Ammo box (Standard Game).

1.TEST

First I only activated the GMJ_SightAdjustment add-on.

Executed: arma.exe –mod=@GMJ_SightAdjustment

Works fine with all weapons.

2. TEST

Now I added the optics add-on.

Executed: arma.exe –mod=@GMJ_SightAdjustment;@NWD_ScopeFix

Works fine with all weapons.

3. TEST

Third test.

Executed: arma.exe –mod=@GMJ_SightAdjustment;@NWD_ScopeFix; @NWD_Ballistics

Doesn’t work, I detail it.

I start preview, player spawns as rifleman with standard M4. Add-On seams to be loaded as it appears on the upper left.

I press the sightadjustment keys up, right, down, left doesn’t work.

I go to the Ammo box take an mk12 to my inventory leave the m4, close after that the inventory.

I press the sightadjustment keys up, right, down, left the values on the upper left coner change. It works.

Back to Ammo box and pick up an M16A2 ACOG, close the inventory.

I press the sightadjustment keys up, right, down, left the values on the upper left coner change. It works.

Back to Ammo box and pick up an M4 ACOG, close the inventory.

I press the sightadjustment keys up, right, down, left doesn’t work.

Back to Ammo box and pick up an M24, close the inventory.

I press the sightadjustment keys up, right, down, left the values on the upper left coner change. It works.

Back to Ammo box and pick up an M16A2 ACOG, and I receive an error message “NWD_SightAdjustmentPlugin.pbo could not be loaded or has been deleted. Close the inventory.

I press the sightadjustment keys up, right, down, left doesn’t work.

I looked into Arma.rpt

And found some errors like this.

Addon nwd_sightadjustmentplugin (entry M16A4_ACG_GL) not found in the list of active addons.

Warning Message: You cannot play/edit this mission; it is dependent on downloadable content that has been deleted.

nwd_sightadjustmentplugin

Would be great, if you could give me a hand on this.

I love this add-on and would be nice if I could fix this.

If I can help with anything like more test or you need some files, please don’t hesitate to ask, I will do. Sorry I don’t know how to debug it more to drill down the problem.

BTW:

The clan members of my clan that use this add-on have all the same problem.

[moosenoodles 0]

I get same issues using the mod.. at first start of game the adjustments dont work.. i have to take a standard non scoped m16 say with 203 first.. close gear window check its working. then take say acog with gl etc.. then its all fine...

A fix be nice but not a big problem..

Cheers,

Moose

[Q1184 0]

Haven't you thought that ACOG's are not meant to be adjusted? Why would you want to adjust them anyway? The weapons with ACOG's are zeroed to 100 meters and their scopes have marks for up to 600 or 800 meters, isn't that enough for a .223 rifle?  Same goes for G36 scopes (zero is 200m). Aimpoints aren't supposed to be adjusted either(zeroed to 300 meters). NWD made it on purpose, so relax and enjoy realism

PS if you really want to unlock adjustment feature for these scopes, take a look inside NWD_SightAdjustmentPlugin.pbo

[NonWonderDog 0]

Yep. If you wanted to get picky, ACOG scopes and the Aimpoint can be adjusted if you have a coin to turn the dials with. The dials aren't marked, however, and it's not entirely guaranteed that you will get back to the original zero if you turn it (for example) five clicks clockwise and then five clicks counterclockwise. On top of that, they're in annoying units like 1/3 MOA on some of the scopes.

One of the chief complaints with the ACOG is "lack of windage adjustment." This is true even though it has a little wheel for changing windage. The adjustments are only to be used for zeroing the weapon, at which point you just use the BDC marks and hope there isn't any wind. The BDC marks are a semi-convenient number of mils wide if you really need to apply windage, but I've completely forgotten what they are.

Since the sights are only to be adjusted during zeroing, I've disabled the windage and elevation adjustment entirely on the ACOG and Aimpoint optics.

AK-style rifles don't have windage adjustment either, and the AKS-74U has only two range settings -- the 200 m default and 400 m. (You can set it to negative elevation too, but you'll just shoot into the dirt.)

If you haven't figured it out yet, all the BDC marks in this mod are completely accurate. You can use them instead of adjusting sight elevation. To hit a 400 m target with a scoped M16, just put the 400 m cross on target and fire.

[Jinef 2]

Could you post your formula for calculating angular magnification please?

[NonWonderDog 0]

It's actually pretty easy. The opticsZoom values are in radians, and refer to the horizontal field of view measured from the center of the screen. If you have an optic with a 9 degree FOV, it should have opticsZoomMin = "9*pi/360" if you want it to fill a 4:3 screen horizontally.

That's the only important part. Relative magnification depends on whatever you define as unity. I used ~0.3 radians. ArmA by default uses 0.25 radians for rifle optics and 0.33 radians for tank optics. Angular magnification, of course, is just FOV at unity divided by the FOV of the optic.

If you want your optics model to actually match the FOV, you need a custom model. The BIS models aren't quite accurate enough. Mine are a 5.12x3.84 unit rectangle, of which the middle 1.00x0.75 units are visible on a 4:3 screen. More of the model is visible in widescreen resolutions. This is the exact size ratio used by the game--the actual size of the model doesn't matter.

Then, just define a certain number of pixels in each milliradian (if you've got a 1024x1024 texture and a 128 mil FOV, you've got 8 pixels per mil) and make the textures to that scale.

I actually worked everything the other way around, i.e. I defined a certain texture to be 14 px/mil and worked out the opticsZoom values based on that. That made it a lot easier to make calibrated optics.

[Jinef 2]

You are beautiful.

[chus 0]

Thx NWD,

thats not what I expected but if the mod is that way i will used that way.

Changing the mod, is like cheating and thats a no go.

I just a bit surprised cause I used the binos to get the range an then I adjusted the weapon an shoot the target.

Sometimes I used it while was on acog mode to correct more easely.

But its fine the way it is.

I will have to practice shooting with the acog marks.

Thanks a lot for the mod.

Just one last thing, cause I´m curious. If you have the red dot aimpoint only like standard m4 an you cant change the elevation how do you target with the aimpoint?

(Well is not the big deal, cause I wont shoot with an m4 anything that’s more far away than 200m - just not the right weapon)

[Freshman 0]

The Aimpoint is there for fast shooting.

As the 5,56x45 has a very flat trajectory, the point of impact does not change very much up to 200m.

You also can't adjust it that quickly. You have to take off the covers what takes you at least 15 seconds and then take a coin or a crewdriver to adjust.

The benefits of the Aimpoint are unfortunately not present in ArmA but SLX mod will change this.

[OKO 0]

I want to thank you, NonWonderDog, for you great job.

Maybe you will be pleased to know your work is used in large scale battles at OFCRA (french organisation http://www.ofcra.org/forum/index.php ) on battles with more than 100 soldiers (40 humans + IA), H vs H on all the map.

if you want to take a look at our briefings (in french ...) =>

http://www.ofcra.org/forum/index.php?board=4.0

on this very large scale battles, the most realistic you could have with arma (no respawn of course) your addon is a fabulous implementation.

Not only bullets but also missile are very nice.

everything is really fantastic, and we have lot of pleasure to play arma in this kind of very realistic environment (we use some more addons like FDF sounds and smoke)

Everything but one thing

LGB.

As we use every possible war materials (see briefs) for the last mission (the first of a new campagne about a blocus) I wanted to use LGB with reco team on ground, illuminating targets.

With stock arma, it work as stated : a stand off weapon, released at medium to long range with very high kill probability if launched in the good fire window.

Maybe drag/manoeuvrability etc ... isn't so accurate, but it works as designed, as a real LGB do.

But with your addon, LGB just don't work as a real LGB.

Not a stand off weapon anymore, you have to release it at 500 m of the targets to hope for a kill.

So I have a request for you dear master :

As you make us completly addicted with real balistic, and as it is now impossible to go back to stock arma (you are a drug dealer shame on you ! lol) we can't use LG at this time, as long as the doctrine of use for this weapon is totaly modified.

Question is : couldn't you give us back the stock LGB, please ?

Maybe you could give the choice on the mission edition ?

"LGB stock" or "LGB real balistic" .... except, for this one, the real thing is stock ! lol.

Thank you again for your work, and I hope you will hear me about LGB ! lots of people cross their fingers at this time

[andersson 285]

@OKO. I made a small fix for myself regarding the GBU issue.

My small addon makes the GBU-bombs function as in vanilla-arma (I kept NonWonderDogs indirekthit=25).

But I'm not sure if I should release it as NonWonderDog should do this "backward-change" in his NWD_RocketBallistic.pbo himself (its not very realistic to miss a lased target with ~500m..). If I release my small petty addon it can be confusion for some if he later fix this issue.

@NonWonderDog: I suppose you are going to fix this sooner or later , but are you going to fix this in a near future? Should I "release" my fix?

[OKO 0]

my main problem is 40 guys awaiting the LGB to come back for next mission, because I created a campaign scenario where LGB have a very important part at the beginning => on first mission it will help to attrit the ennemy forces for next mission by destroying many hard targets, with direct consequences on next missions.

There is 4 radio antennas, 2 fuel stations, 1 electric installation, and 6 planes/helo to hit, all around Paraiso, and LGB was perfect for this kind of job.

As I didn't found a way to recover stock values, what is projected is to use A-10 whitout maverick but with the possibility to rearm at his airfield.

But this scenario was especially made for LGB and as we "created" small SAM systems (Grison and LAV-AD, remplacing AT missiles on BRDM2 AT and stryker with Strela and stinger, those things really exists) and as there is lots of AA system around on this map, attaquing with roquets is simply a suicide.

This scenario is designed to use stand off weapon and the only one is ... LGB.

so heeeeelp please

my kingdom for a working LGB ...

[sdoc 0]

have you tried Mando Missiles already? There should be a decent chance to find suitable standoff missiles in it, or to configure them.

[NonWonderDog 0]

Yeah, I was still trying to tweak the LGBs when I went off and started my tank FCS project. Part of the problem is that I don't know what the maneuverability variable actually represents. I did a lot of testing with the MANPADS, so they should have decent maneuverability values, but maneuverability is probably slightly to completely off for everything else.

My best guess as of the moment is that "maneuvrability" is lateral acceleration in multiples of g, but I'm not sure on that. That would mean all my maneuverability values are slightly too low, but I still feel that the stock values were too high. The stock values were 20 or 30 for damn near everything.

If it is max g-load, those values are mostly classified. I could probably calculate something from control surface area, mass, and max gyro angle (or just make a quick CFD model)... but that's more work than I'm willing to put into this.

So I'm just going to redo things with that in mind, and guess that a Stinger pulls 22g max while an AIM-9X pulls 40g max. And I'm going to pull the rest of the numbers out of my ass (and Falcon 4.0), just like I did before. (Hmm... Open Falcon says the Strela-2 only pulls 12g, which is what I'd arrived at by trial and error before. Seems low, I know, but the Mujahideen did abandon them in favor of Stingers and Blowpipe missiles. I might have to pretend ArmA's Strelas are supposed to be Strela-3, even though they're obviously not.)

Realistic missiles, though, would need to be entirely scripted. It would need boost-sustain motors, gimbal limits, varying lateral acceleration with speed, and whatever else I think of. I might take a look at Mando Missiles and see what I can do. (First order of business on that front is a realistic RPG, though, followed by a realistic beam-rider that doesn't do loop-de-loops at 1500m.)

I have reduced the damage radius of the GBU-12 back to stock. For some reason I got it into my head that the GBU-12 used the 500lb bomb. It's a 250lb bomb, of course. I wish I knew the formula for this, though, because an indirectHit range of 12 gives a 25-50 meter kill radius. It's some kind of exponential decay, but I don't know how the 12 is used.

I'll need to change the indirect damage to something, though. As it is a 250lb bomb can utterly destroy a T-72 at a distance of 25 meters. I think that distance should be nearer to 2-5 meters. Ideally you'd have to actually hit the tank to brew it up, but the crew would probably be incapacitated or killed if a bomb went off two meters away. No way to do that without script, though.

[EDIT]I've now got a bomb that will kill men out to 25-40 meters and destroy a T-72 or disable an M1A1 a couple meters away. That seems about right to me.

The Kh-29 finally acts like it has a 700 lb warhead, too. It's about as powerful as the 250 lb Mk. 80 was in default ArmA.

[NonWonderDog 0]

NWD_Ballistics v1.6 Released

Alright, new update now, focusing on rockets and missiles.

I've redone missile maneuverability based on three assumptions:

(1) "maneuvrability" is maximum latax in Gs

(2) "trackOversteer" is a multiplier for desired instantaneous lateral speed

(3) "trackLead" is a boolean toggle between proportional navigation and a feed-forward course

I've also found some new data, and the Stinger is deadlier than it was in the last version while the Strela-2 is even more useless. You might have a chance to evade a Strela in a helicopter, but a Stinger will probably shoot down a jet. I also made the air-to-air missiles more maneuverable, since both are the latest wunder-missiles capable of 40+ G lateral acceleration. You will never dodge these. The Javelin is tweaked a bit more to better match the direct-fire course, but it still won't hit anything closer than 350 meters. I'd need to script the trajectory to fix this properly, but the default behavior was so ugly that I'm not going to change it back.

Missile damage is tweaked all around. Mavericks now do more damage than Javelins. Kh29L missiles now do more damage than GBU12s (they've got 700 lb warheads!. HEAT warheads do less damage in general, because modern MBT armor is much more effective against CE than KE and the armor is scaled by KE protection. I didn't apply this penalty to the Javelin because it's meant to hit thinner top armor (even though it flies a direct course).

LGBs are back to (mostly) the BIS default. I tried realistic maneuverability values, but the tracking logic is far too crap for them to work right. The bomb tries to fly over the target and dive straight down, which requires at least 20G acceleration in order to hit anything. I've also reduced the bomb drag to increase the stand-off range a bit. You should have a bit more success in loft bombing as compared to stock ArmA. I really don't know how realistic my drag values are, but they feel better.

All the problems with AI shooting the M136 AT4 and RPG-7 into the dirt are gone. AI is now effective out to 400 m with them (we really need wind).

The other update is to incendiary ammo, which now flashes. You won't see the flash during the day, but it's very visible at twilight or night. It's a really nice effect through NVG, too. Incendiary ammunition derives 10% of its damage from chemical effect in this update, so it should do slightly more damage at range. Incendiary ammo is loaded in the heavy machine guns and the KSVK.

ExtraBallistics.pbo is back, in case anyone wants it. All it contains at the moment are 9x39mm SP5 and SP6 cartridges. This pbo is intended to be a reference for any random ammo I make that isn't in ArmA right now, but I haven't really made any such ammo.

This doesn't include the tank ballistics, which are instead integrated into the FCS mod. (Beta later today.)

[ArmaVidz 0]

You rock man! I can't wait to try this out when I get home from work !!!

[NoRailgunner 0]

Thanks!

Hopefully BIS is changing from old Strela to standard Igla.

I think they built those AA manpads as wunder-missiles because planes and helicopters in ArmA have no countermeasures. It would be too easy for pilots to succeed.

[snoops_213 74]

love the work and the new rpg / at4 feel better too! Are you planning on fixing the grenade launcher optics at some point? And with Spectre-63's grenade pack is there a chance we could see something similar or even his work integrated into the ballistics pack? I've found your scope pack and his add on wont work together much to my disappointment, not with out editing either of them and then when the next version come out i'd have to keep on doing it, and i don't really like the thought of doing that!

[GD Mast 0]

Great work as usual NonWonderDog.  The USMC uses a different version of the ACOG made to Marine Corps standards (two versions- one for M4 and one for M-16A4).  Could you do a version for this?  Might be in conjunction with Jonny's up'n'coming USMC mod update?  Just a small request for your next update and I understand if your too busy for this request.  Here's the website for the reticule.

Trijicon USMC Rifle Combat Optic M4 and here's a pic of Marines with the new optic posted by USMC123 in Jonny's thread. Marines with ACOG RCO

GD Mast

[NonWonderDog 0]

Those two won't be hard to make if I get time. Actually, I'll probably just make the A4 scope (which just needs the mil lines) and forget about the M4 scope, since both guns have the same ballistics in ArmA.

[GD Mast 0]

Great to hear! Look forward to it when you can. Thanks!

GD Mast

[Radic 0]

I'm not sure if I actually have scopefix 2.2 working.... - the std aimpoint optic ("red dot") - is it still the same as original default or is it supposed to be the fine detailed red chevron in the screenshots - identified as M16A4??

[reciprocity 1]

Can you guys post your "range test" maps? One with different infantry at various ranges?

[Q1184 0]

Can you guys post your "range test" maps? One with different infantry at various ranges?

Just search for Kronzky's "Target range" mission.