TownHide script system [Relz]

[Guest]

Been a long time in the making, honestly I feel this should go in addons/mods, but last script pack I saw go up there got bashed pretty good for not being here, so here it goes

Here is the description taken from the readme enclosed

TownHide version 1.1

By Special Ed

Single Player Only

The town hide script system, which enables literally 30 towns to be populated with 'man' type vehicles which the scripts will completely hide/show depending on player group units (inluding player) distance to these towns. The scripts support hiding and showing even static mg gunners, watch tower units, spotlight manners, etc - also supports saving waypoint plans. Unit names are stored as globals, and group names are stored as well.

Whats the point here? Ever felt like most of us, that good ol Sahrani is mostly a dead island in most missions, and going much farther than populating a few towns equals unplayable lag ? How about being able to heavily populate every city on the map, and be able to play at high frame rates still, theres the point To allow the island to come alive, and still be able to play the game with good fps.

This has been quite a complex system to setup, and it does work. The lag reduction is amazing when it comes to multiple towns being populated that the scripts run on.

At least basic scripting knowledge is required.

There is a small amount of work to be done by the user of this to be able to allow the scripts to run on static units, i.e. - machine gunner operators, tower guards, stationary guards, etc. Documentation reveals specifics.

Any units can be declared 'exempt' from hiding in a town, and a town can be locked to be shown for any period of time, then unlocked as well.

Just on the example mission provided separate from the template, there are 3 towns moderately populated, before the scripts ran on it, I got around 60 fps, after the scripts ran and hid the towns, fps increased to almost 70 - thats a 10 fps increase for just three towns hidden, imagine the difference if it were 10, or even 20 towns - it could go from being about 5 fps without this system, to 50 fps with it, for real.

Here are some pics of the example mission provided

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This is a taste of what it does.

Now here is the stuff this script doesent do, either due to added complexity, impossibility, or both?

This script system currently does not support custom loadouts

This script system currently does not hold ammo counts, and each town hidden then shown will replenish ammo to full for units,to store ammo counts this would add quite a few more array positions to each units stored array, and certainly would increase complexity of the already complex hide/show scripts, right now its enough that it all works, maybe another version may include this, right now, it doesent.

This script system does not hold faces of units and restores them to originals - aye, there is no command in arma to 'GetFace', the only way to store a face is by first setting a face to a certain type, and then holding, and passing that facial setting number to the script - a complex, possibly even impossible addition I care not to attempt at this time.

Download location

size = tiiiny

TownHideV1.1

Although I have tested this, and tested, and tested too much, I am only one person, and please feel free to post any issues that come up - I cannot find any, but would not be surprised to see something I missed neither.

This script system was put together over a period of about 2 months, specifically for Kolgujev Conflict Arma mission, due to the fact the mission populates 15 towns, heavily, across the map, and I realized this would be something the community may be able to use as well.

Lastly

Read the Readme

Read the Readme

Even if you are like me, and hate readme's and love to just 'toy with it',at least before you actually start messing with using the scripts/etc, read the readme

[dmarkwick 261]

This sounds great & I'd like to try it, but I'm getting consistent "invalid download session" messages.

[Guest]

dont know m8

Since I just read your message I downloaded again to be sure

Everything is fine, the file took about 3 seconds to download as well..

Pm me if there is still an issue, I can send it via Msn if u got it

[Denz 0]

nah I'm getting the "invalid download session" error too.

Of course you could submit it to OFPEC

[Guest]

Very nice work

Frontpaged at the Armaholic.com homepage.

The Armaholic.com download page can be found here:

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=3047

[sickboy 13]

Awesomeness!

Very interesting, going to toy around with it, thanks!

[Stavanger 0]

Mirror by Combat-Prison.net

Townhide v1.1 by Special Ed

Regards,

Stavanger

EDIT: Mirror updated!

[Guest]

thanks all

feel free to post if any issue arises, something I missed, etc.

I am quite busy this week but would be happy, in time, to address anything that might come up.

There was alot of time spent testing, and the final testing phase required creating the three towns in the example mission and running the scripts with a ton of test messages showing, and I fixed a few mistypes. I tried a good few 'odd' scenarios and such, and could not break it.

Also, of course, anyone is welcome to add/modify to their desires, there is no 'uela' attached here, just credit for my scripts if used in a release of a modified version.

[Guest]

Been avoiding it for a few days, but 2 of the scripts only have support for 25 towns, not 30, they were never updated.

So here is v1.1

There is a patch inside as well. For those that have already began to integrate units/towns into the v1.0 scripts, just use the patch to update your current version, and all information inputted in the system by the user will be retained.

For all others, just install v1.1, and replace the old version if you have it (delete it first, whichever is proffered)

Download location - v1.1

TownHideV1.1

[dmarkwick 261]

Bleah, I'll have to wait until it's mirrored, RapidShare does not like me

[Guest]

Bleah, I'll have to wait until it's mirrored, RapidShare does not like me

no worries

it affects nothing, in fact its doubtful many will surpass 25 towns anyhow

But I wanted to fix it, and the fix is in two scripts that are never affected by user information input - I had forgotten these two scripts also used the town # globals..

The fix wouldnt affect anything even if one had 20 towns already integrated. Its just an expansion.

If no one mirrors, Ill just upload a version to Armaholic.net

[Guest]

New version frontpaged at the Armaholic.com homepage.

The updated Armaholic.com download page can be found here:

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=3047

[Guest]

Thanks a ton El Nino

[imutep 0]

Thx for new version

Mirror from Assault Mission Studio

TownHide Script System 1.1

Regards

Imutep

[sdoc 0]

Splendid!

If i understand your readme correctly, this is exactly what i was looking for. I just imagine the possibilities combined with kronzys patrols for example.

It'd make realistic infiltration and exfiltration to mission objectives possible. Also realistic CSAR and survival scenarios. And last but not least civilian population.

Does ACE mod know about it already?

[Guest]

Splendid!

If i understand your readme correctly, this is exactly what i was looking for. I just imagine the possibilities combined with kronzys patrols for example.

It'd make realistic infiltration and exfiltration to mission objectives possible. Also realistic CSAR and survival scenarios. And last but not least civilian population.

Does ACE mod know about it already?

Yes.

Primarily the goal of this system is to allow, the entire island to be truly populated, to the max, with very little additional fps loss. In fact the only fps loss should be due to the town player is nearest to being shown, and any potential towns that a player's ai unit is near/in .

This means, one could even release a mission that merely populates all cities and many of the main towns - and allow it to be adaptive to having missions created and added by others.

As far as compatibility goes with any patrol type script system, it would primarily be dependant on wether or not the patrol system can 're - detect' the once hidden, now re-spawned units, unless the system only runs off of grp names, the units do still have their original names, but its now a vehicleVarName, and this is not quite the same as the editor placed name, there are a few script instances were these units wont return their name - most script instances will - this is because the editor placed name for a unit is directly attached to the unit, and can never be 're-set' to a new unit, but vehicleVarName works. I dont know how the patrol systems available work to be honest, so it would require a little testing to be sure it was ok.

The primary goal was to allow simple waypoint usage of units put on the map, which is, especially in a city, so that one can 'refine' the pathing to give the units a more visually appealing appearance when they are moving about, looking more as if they have a purpose to their movments.