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NonWonderDog

Tank Fire Control Systems

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If you're still interested in doing the SPG-9/BMP-1 sight I'm willing to give you my BMD-1 addon as a base to test out the optic/turret speeds/etc.As the gun, fcs, and turret are exactly the same as the BMP-1

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I have a 1024x1024 targa of the sight, but it just doesn't look very good. To do it properly I'll need to put all the lines and dashes in the model, and that will be time consuming.

I haven't started the model because I have been completely unable, as of yet, to make even halfway believable ballistics for the RPG-7 or SPG-9. As soon as the rocket cuts in they start flying perfectly level. According to pictures I've seen of the sights, the real RPG-7 ballistics should be about the same as a 9mm sub-machine gun, while the SPG-9 ballistics should be only slightly better (when firing HEAT; I can't figure out where the 4400m range for fragmentation rounds comes from). Hopefully it's as easy to fix as a script that sets the direction the rocket's pointing equal to the direction it's flying every frame, but I haven't had a chance to write a rocket script.

The 2A28 "Grom" is basically identical to a (non-recoilless version of a) SPG-9 "Kopye," right? I don't think there's actually an FCS on the BMP-1 at all, anyway--just a fixed sight. It might still be best to add the PSO-9 sights to the gun model and the (I've forgotten) sights to the BMD-1 model so you can zoom out to see the whole thing. Otherwise I'm afraid the max range will be ~800 meters instead of 1300.

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It might be possible, but I don't want to do it. I just found some SPG-9 firing tables, so I now know exactly how it should be (OG-9 isn't rocket assisted?!?!? I was reading the sights completely wrong...). I'll have time to try to fix rockets now, though, because...

<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>NWD_TankFCS v0.2 Released</span>

This includes many, many changes:

-- AI T-72s now load APFSDS by default

-- AI tanks no longer try to attack by firing their rangefinders into the sky (???)

-- New T-72 machine gun ammo loadout (this should be the correct loadout, regardless of what you may find online)

-- many new ammunition types added to the config, although not yet programmed into the FCS.

-- New tank models, with many new features:

- main gun reticles are now accurate at any zoom level. Both tanks have two field of view levels that will automatically toggle when you zoom in or out by the appropriate amount (as long as you use the keyboard for zoom).

- T-72 turret is now declined 1°13' forward, as it should be

- T-72 driver can now unbutton (but the turret is locked when he does)

- T-72 commander's AA machine gun is now mounted on the rear of the cupola, and can no longer be fired from within the tank (the AI does not unbutton in combat, however, and thus will never use it)

- M1A1 commander's weapon station is remodeled to look (kind of) like the real thing

- M1A1 commander's machine gun can now only be fired from inside the tank or (unaimed) from a semi-buttoned position. You are currently not more protected when semi-buttoned than when unbuttoned. If you play with external views, you will still be able to fire ( and aim! ) the gun from the external view. You can also, due to a limitation in ArmA, zoom in to 3x magnification when semi-buttoned and looking through the vision block.

- M1A1 gun superelevation is now applied by physically moving the gun barrel after you lase, instead of moving the shell when it's fired.

- M1A1 dynamic lead is now applied by directly rotating the turret, and not by rotating the hull and relying on the AI driver to keep the hull stationary

-- New, radically different damage models. Tanks are much better protected on their frontal aspects, and are completely immune to small arms.

All the AI problems should be fixed in this version; they are very deadly now. Taking on an M1A1HA in a T-72M1 is usually a losing proposition, but if you can get the first shot you have a chance.

I still haven't tested this mod online, but it should be much more compatible than before (unfortunately, though, still not compatible enough to actually work). It relies heavily on animations embedded in the model, however, and I wouldn't be surprised if it requires the mod to be present on the server.

It's rather complex now, and I may have introduced lots of new bugs. I appreciate any and all bug reports. I'm aware of the model warnings in ArmA.rpt, but they don't cause any problems as far as I've seen. The degenerated faces warning is actually a false alarm, as it's referring to the very small (but nonzero area) faces in the TPD-K1 analog range display.

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As usual, thanks for the hard and very inspiring work!  As a tanker for my squad, the trend for MP compatibility is most appreciated.  Will try out and report back any findings.

notworthy.gif

Update: The armor changes are fantastic.  The M1's laser fires a little high, as can bee seen by lasing a T-72 out around 2500m.  To hit it, you need to aim a bit below the actual target.  Finally, I had this non-critical error.

nwdfcs2cx7.th.jpg

.

Quote[/b] ]Repeatedly switching from the gunner's seat to other seats in the tank with a flashing range number may throw errors. Just battlesight before you switch positions until I figure this out.

I'm assuming that's what this means

I'm off to try it in MP.  Liking it even better, thanks

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Tried it also and it works very well and gives tank combat finally some real good feeling.

@NWD

If youre intrested we ( RHS ) would offer a more modern tank as testbed / sample addon ( T-64 type or T-80 ).

Last time the intrest seemed rather low, if anything changed just PM me smile_o.gif

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Hi NWD.

Congratulation for this fantastic work.

It's a very high level addon.

But there is no MP use at this time.

friend of mine said me "maybe" you could think about making disctinct tanks addons activated in local (only for the players but not on the dedicated server ... or addaction or ... any local solution), because at this time, infinite loops occurs on dedicated servers, resulting in extremly laggy situations.

Furthermore, there is no digit display, and range finding isn't working.

Not talking about laaaarge lag with targets ... teleportation all the time.

And monster desync for all clients.

I tested with all addons on the dedicated, and tested again removing them, with same results.

I Hope you will find a solution for MP games ... it would be very bad if MP players couldn't use this piece of art !

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Is there a way to detect a dedicated server? "isNull player" or something like that?

Actually, I think I'll change the init event to only work "if (_this select 0 == vehicle player)", and set the loop to terminate when the player dies. I think that might solve a couple bugs.

I really don't understand multiplayer scripting. I think I've gathered from the biki that a tank is never local to it's gunner unless the gunner is the only one in the tank. I don't know exactly what that means for my code, since all clients probably have to have the mod anyway (I have no idea what happens when different clients have different models for the same unit -- especially if that model has completely different animations). I don't think "animate" is supposed to cause issues in multiplayer.

Is setVariable local to the client? If it's broadcast, this mod won't work online without major surgery.

I'm trying to make all of this mod run on the client, because that should be most compatible online. I shouldn't need the server to do anything... I think.

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setVariable is local to client only.

I guess you spotted one potential issues, trying to force animation on the gunner's PC, while tank is in fact local to the commander's PC. This may lead to serious issues.

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"animate" is supposed to work in multiplayer no matter if the unit is local or remote. I think. The user animations should only ever be triggered by the gunner. There could be a sync delay, though, which would be very annoying.

The big issue that might pop up is the nature of my animations. My animations move the gun. And the fire direction. I hope that bullets are local to the PC that fired them, but I don't actually know that.

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Great work NWD.

Me and another bloke just tested it on a dedicated server and it seemed to work well in MP. However, we also tried to host undedicated, and it was a mess, createing immediate connection lag at the start.

Bugs:

--In MP, the tanks seem to bounce around alot more if they hit a rock etc. Its not that amazingly noticable though.

--In MP the t72s dont seem to that effective at engaging the m1s. The m1s have no problem at turning around and putting one up your front side though. Possibly due to turret speeds.

--t72's less detailed lods still have interesting features on them. Notice the grey triangle on t72s turret.

nwdbug1eb0.jpg

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"isServer" doesn't detect if it's a dedicated server. It just says it's the host -- which includes the host of a singleplayer game. I'm pretty sure that dedicated servers don't have anything called player, though, which solves my problem.

I've redistributed the weight in the geometry closer to where it should be, and I've moved the geometry around near the suspension. The T-72 has a much higher center of gravity than before, but it actually should be less prone to flipping over when it hits a rock. The M1A1 might be a bit worse, since it had too much ground clearance before. I didn't want to make it flip over when it hit rocks, though, so I'll see if I can make it a bit better.

It looks like I might have added an extra face to the back of the muzzle flash when I was messing with the model. I'll check, but I haven't seen that on my PC.

T-72s have trouble at short ranges, because the turret is very, very slow. This is realistic. They light me up at medium range, though, if I'm not careful. I haven't noticed any AI difficulties with the turret being declined 1.2 degrees, but they might not be able to shoot you if you're too close over the rear deck. This is also realistic.

But now you're saying that it only works on a dedicated server? That makes no sense at all.

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I've been playing around with this for a while, and just noticed an issue. The commanders guns on both tanks seem to move up and down very slowly. Their movement speeds to the sides is fine though.

With the T72 gun now only usable from the turned out position, the AI can't fire at aircraft and this makes a pretty big impact on game play. I know it's not realistic to use it from the inside, but the AI never turns out in combat. Now they are sitting ducks. Unless there is a way to get the AI to turn out, would you consider allowing it to be fired from the inside? Just for gameplay's sake.

I also noticed the gray triangle glitch on the T72 earlier.

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Noticed the slow elevation/depression myself (thought it was my options settings). I believe I remember reading the cranks on the T-72's MG make it not so good for air defence anyway and is not normally used.. Bad news for the M1 however.

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Elevation on both guns is accomplished with a hand crank, so it's not a glitch. They are, indeed, very slow. I might have slightly underestimated them, but they're not supposed to be fast. I don't think the commander's observation ring on the T-72 is actually powered at all, and I know it's not stabilized, so it probably traverses too fast (but if I slow it down I'll try to let you use the numeric keypad or something to look out the side periscopes). The M1A1 observation ring is powered, but I don't actually know if it's stabilized. The gun isn't, obviously. (The only way to simulate a non-stabilized turret will completely break it for the AI, so it's going to remain the way it is.)

I don't want to make the commander's machine gun on the T-72 fireable from inside the tank, because it really shouldn't be. The annoying fixed-elevation commander's periscope is also realistic. I don't know if I can force the AI to unbutton, though. All the necessary commands are there to make the commander man his machine gun (as long as I'm willing to make all the crew unbutton) if the target is an aircraft, but I think the AI will override this and just get back inside the tank. I need to test this.

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I feel for you NWD, having to defend the annoying way the tanks move by having to explain that's how the real thing is. Keep up the good work!

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from Sickboy

Quote[/b] ]The sixthSense projects also have their own six_isClient variable.

Lately, I'm using code like this (from forum, not mine) to determine my own isClient value.

// Determine locality

if (isServer) then

{

Locality = "SP_SERVER";

isClient = true;

if (isNull player) then

{

Locality = "MP_SERVER";

isClient = false;

};

}

else

{

Locality = "MP_CLIENT";

isClient = true;

if (isNull player) then

{

Locality = "JIP_CLIENT";

isClient = true;

};

};

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I like this thread and project, mainly cause it finally gives some people a idea about why some tanks may seem even on paper but arent if you also count all the lil things like better optic systems, or automatic gun elevations and such.

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Where in g's name did you find that piece of code Q, that barely looks like my coding style, linky linky? smile_o.gif

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hi

i've downloaded the version 0.2 of your mod and when i start arma i get an error message saying "no entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgMagazines.120mmSABOT_M1A2'" and anohter one when i use a t72 or abrams in the editor saying "no entry 'bin\config.bin/CfgMagazines.150Rnd_127x107_DSHKM'"

And i have no ammunitions for the t72 and only no m256's shells with the abrams

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It looks like you're combining versions 0.1 and 0.2 somehow. Delete the @NWD_TankFCS folder and reinstall. The new magazines are named "NWD_M829A2" and the like instead of "120mmSABOT_M1A2", so it looks like some part of v0.1 is trying to fill the tanks with magazines that don't exist anymore.

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