DMSmokeGrenadeVB v1.0

[dmarkwick 261]

OK, I decided that the smokeshell viewblock deserved a seperate release, as not everyone likes (or can) use the DMSmokeEffects.

Readme:

Quote[/b] ]DMSmokeGrenadeVB v1

First of all, if you are using DMSmokeEffects addon DO NOT USE THIS ADDON. This addon is included in DMSmokeEffects already. (As from v4.3)

This addon will add a viewblock object to smoke grenades, and generally improve the look of all grenades. The viewblock object is invisible to the player, but will effectively block the view of AI in, through or past the smoke grenade smoke volume. It is reactive to wind direction & strength, and a special player Action has been added to your Action menu called "Wind info", which will give you wind strength & directional information at the time of use.

Currently the smoke ammo supported list looks like this:

"SmokeShell","SmokeShellRed","SmokeShellGreen","G_40mm_

Smoke","G_40mm_RedSmoke"

if there's any I've missed, or you would like me to add your own variants, let me know ASAP.

Frag grenades have been improved in looks only, so now a nice instantaneous "poof" of dust & smoke will be apparent.

This is untested in MP, but should cause no problems. The frag effects are purely config based and should not affect any other player. Smoke grenade effects use createVehicle to instantiate a viewblock object, which may or may not appear on all players machines, I have not tested this. I would appreciate MP feedback if anyone can provide it.

This release also includes, and requires, the Extended Init Eventhandlers addons. If you already have these addons active (many other addons use them) then you may remove them from this addon.

This addon may be included in any mod you might wish to make, and the objects, code and images are also up for grabs as far as usage goes. Just verbal credit in your readme will entitle you to this. (And also drop me an email, so I can check your mod out )

Kindest regards

DMarkwick

Download

[dmarkwick 261]

Note that although I said it's untested in MP, as this addon contains custom textures and objects, that the server/host and all players should be running it.

As far as SP goes, it's working great.

There is one small problem - any smoke grenade launched (from a launcher) that takes more than 5 seconds to land stands a chance of it's viewblock spawning in the air somewhere.

It's an easy fix, but it's not in this version. 1.1 for sure soon as I get some MP feedback I'll update it. Launching a smoke grenade that high is essentially wasting it in any case, any smoke grenade you've aimed properly will be fine.

[mr_centipede 31]

thank you for your hard work DM...

though im not really fond of your grenade explosion anim... how can i disable it? i just want to use the smoke grenade only

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Could you check its velocity, then spawn once 0,0,0 has been reached?

I guess this could be a problem if the grenade "goes off" whilst still moving, though, cause that smoke will be unblocked... but you'll find a way around it, I'm sure.

[dmarkwick 261]

Could you check its velocity, then spawn once 0,0,0 has been reached?

I guess this could be a problem if the grenade "goes off" whilst still moving, though, cause that smoke will be unblocked... but you'll find a way around it, I'm sure.

Heh, no I'm not bothered about smoke trails as it falls to the ground

The fix is easy enough, just move the setPos command inside the loop that checks for wind changes.

[dmarkwick 261]

thank you for your hard work DM...

though im not really fond of your grenade explosion anim... how can i disable it? i just want to use the smoke grenade only

Sorry Mr_Centipede, I'm separating the grenade effects from DMSmokeEffects completely, as a separate grenade solution.

Be assured though that the effect is as realistic as I could make it, using reference footage from Liveleak & others. They may even get their own short-lived viewblock in time

[mr_centipede 31]

okey.. no problem... i think i can live with it. hehe

[NoRailgunner 0]

Thank you - now human player has another smoke advantage against AI. Hopefully AI someday will use such grenades wisely!? But... no lets enjoy the advantage!

Will you "rework" some other grenades too - whats about little noise grenades that affect AI (with proper ai-unit-animation)?

[KeyCat 131]

Just tried it in SP and it seems to work just great! The smoke effect is much improved over BIS old "puffy style" and most important of all is that there now is a reason to carry smoke grenades since they break AI's LOS (will hopefully be able to try MP this weekend).

Thanks for making a separate addon out of this, will make some co-op friends with older machines real happy! Hope I'm not asking to much here but would it be possible to have one version without the windinfo? That way ppl could pick the one they prefer, personally I prefer to have the action menu so uncluttered as possible...

Thanks again!

/KC

[malick 0]

I just tried it and it works nicely. I wonder what's the load on the CPU with all the scripts we add to the AI with each new addon

I just had an error message when I first threw a smoke grenade. Something along the lines of "cannot find bin\Config/config.special" or something similar.

Thank you !

Malick

[ArmaVidz 0]

I really like that you've made it seperate from the other effects you are working on Thank you! Can't wait to try this when I get home from work

[dmarkwick 261]

Thanks for the comments everyone

Just bear in mind though, that at v1 it's only tested in SP. There's already changes & fixes made to the next version, which include MP optimisations. Unfortunately it can never be a client-side only addon where you can just turn up & have viewblock smoke grenades, as there is custom objects & textures. This means the server will need it too. I hope, when a stable, fully MP functioning version is out, that it will become a ubiquitous addon, or perhaps part of a set of complementary addons.

Good news is, it's already stable

[KeyCat 131]

I just had an error message when I first threw a smoke grenade. Something along the lines of "cannot find bin\Config/config.special" or something similar.

Played around with it some more and I also see this error message when using a smoke grenade for the first time after starting ArmA (only happens then).

Here is the error line from my RPT-file...

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

Warning Message: No entry 'bin\config.bin/cfgModels.default'.

Quote[/b] ]

I hope, when a stable, fully MP functioning version is out, that it will become a ubiquitous addon, or perhaps part of a set of complementary addons.

I'm pretty sure it will (along with Sickboys nice tracers). At least it will be ubiquitous addons for our co-op group

Will try to isolate the error tomorrow, god night gents!

/KC

[dmarkwick 261]

OK, I did some testing, me hosting/playing with Acog99 as client. Some weirdness ensued

First, we tried a simple test mission where we took turns to throw smoke grenades around a corner where two enemy were standing, and then we both stepped out. As pilots, we each had red smoke grenades.

When I threw them, we were able to step out OK and not get fired upon, but when Acog99 threw grenades out, we were shot as though no viewblock existed. We repeated this several times, no mistake.

Next, we did exactly the same mission but as grenadiers. Same result for me, I fired smokeshells and we stepped out, no fire. Agog99 fired smokeshells, we step out and also, no fire. Several times, same result. So Acog99 can fire successful smokeshells, but not throw them.

So for some reason, if a client fires a smokeshell, a viewblock object is created. If he throws a smoke grenade, no viewblock is created. If the host throws a smoke grenade, a viewblock is created. Exactly the same code is used for each type. I cannot explain this activity in terms of scripting, all that happens is that on a "fired" event, the ammo type is compared against a list of strings.

I wonder if a client throwing something in MP is not captured as a "fired" event for some reason?

[Misfit Leader 1]

What happens if we launch the addon on a dedicated server ? (for coop purpose)

Will it works perfect against the AI ? (as the player don't see any effect, they don't need to have the addon, right ?)

I am trying to add more realism to my server AI by blocking their "cheat" (already add durgs vegetation fix even if it is not perfect). But one more addon, like durgs one, for smoke grenade could at last improve the smoke grenade for coop game.

Who is currently using smoke grenade to cover a frontal assault ?

[dmarkwick 261]

What happens if we launch the addon on a dedicated server ? (for coop purpose)

Will it works perfect against the AI ? (as the player don't see any effect, they don't need to have the addon, right ?)

I am trying to add more realism to my server AI by blocking their "cheat" (already add durgs vegetation fix even if it is not perfect). But one more addon, like durgs one, for smoke grenade could at last improve the smoke grenade for coop game.

Who is currently using smoke grenade to cover a frontal assault ?

If you make sure that players on your server launch their smoke grenades instead of throwing them, you should be good. I recommend using Spectre's GrenadierPack addon to give you more usable viewblock smoke grenades. As well as give you a more realistic grenade loadout.

As far as I can tell you just need the addon on the server to block server controlled AI's view.

*edit* BTW, Here's a newer version.

Still got the MP throw problem, but slightly different in a way I can't quite remember right now. Something transparent to the player anyway, so you won't see any difference, it's just more efficient.

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[oldbear 390]

"Well, no more smoke with this last version for M203 smoke grenade".

In fact nothing to do with your addon, I have lost smoke for vanilla ArmA M203 smoke grenade and I was just trying to do a nice picture of smoke clouds ...

Nevertheless Addon is hosted on Armed Assault.info

[flashbang151 0]

Great Addon, thanks.

But one question:" How do you placed the invisible wall, because if i throw the smoke in front of the tank, everything is fine. But if the tank is in the smoke, the tank sees me.

[KeyCat 131]

*edit* BTW, Here's a newer version.

Thanks for the update DMarkwick!

/KC

[dmarkwick 261]

Great Addon, thanks.

But one question:" How do you placed the invisible wall, because if i throw the smoke in front of the tank, everything is fine. But if the tank is in the smoke, the tank sees me.

Well I know that if you're in the smoke, and an enemy soldier is in the smoke, he won't see you. If he's in the smoke and you're out of it, he won't see you. I never tried this with a tank, I just assume they have similar properties but with different point of origin, so maybe the tank's POV is outside the viewblock, like above it or something?

[teilx 4]

Great addon!!!  But how can i disable the wind.info??? sorry but i think its better for me without that.

[Panda-PL- 0]

Great Addon, thanks.

But one question:" How do you placed the invisible wall, because if i throw the smoke in front of the tank, everything is fine. But if the tank is in the smoke, the tank sees me.

Well I know that if you're in the smoke, and an enemy soldier is in the smoke, he won't see you. If he's in the smoke and you're out of it, he won't see you. I never tried this with a tank, I just assume they have similar properties but with different point of origin, so maybe the tank's POV is outside the viewblock, like above it or something?

I think he means the viewblock only has faces to the outside. So if yoiu're inside the viewblock model you see outside but not vice-versa. Maybe they should be double-sided?

[dmarkwick 261]

@ Dec. 03 2007,12:59)]I think he means the viewblock only has faces to the outside. So if yoiu're inside the viewblock model you see outside but not vice-versa. Maybe they should be double-sided?

As a human player you can see whatever you can see, viewblock only affects AI. If you meant AI, then this behavior is already there even with only one sided surfaces.

[dmarkwick 261]

Great addon!!! But how can i disable the wind.info??? sorry but i think its better for me without that.

Well the next version of DMSmokeEffects will have the smokeshell viewblock removed and it will only be available as a separate addon (at the moment it's also integrated into DMSmokeEffects) and when I do that the DMSmokeGrenadeVB addon will lose the wind info action.