AWACS System 2.0

[[frl]myke 14]

ADVANCED AWACS SYSTEM 2.0

As announced in the Armaholic Forums, i've completely reworked the basic AWACS script and extended it to a fully functional AWACS System.

Features:

- Use any vehicle/plane (DC3 would fit pretty well) as AWACS System.

- Shows all enemy vehicles inside recon range

- Show/hide friendly vehicles

- Show/hide neutral vehicles

- Show/hide non-moving vehicles

- Data uplink! Share info's with friendly units in scan range (can be disabled)

- Show AWACS stats as hint (can be disabled)

- Easy to implement. Check the readme to adapt it to personal use.

It is not tested in MP yet. Any comments are welcome.

DOWNLOAD:

Armaholic.com

USAGE:

In the init line of the vehicle which should act as AWACS, write this:

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

nul = [this] execVM "PRACS_AWACS.sqf"; this addaction ["Toggle AWACS", "PRACS_TOGGLE_AWACS.sqf"];this addaction ["Toggle Display", "PRACS_TOGGLE_DISPLAY.sqf"]

You can change default settings by using global variables in your init.sqf:

PRACS_AWACS_MAX_RANGE:

Max scan range for the AWACS System. Contacts inside this range are marked as BLUE (Unknown).

Default: 3000m

PRACS_AWACS_RECON_RANGE:

Max range to which friend or foe recon is possible.

Friendly vehicles are GREEN and enemy vehicles are red. Also Vehicle type is shown.

Default: PRACS_AWACS_MAX_RANGE / 2

PRACS_AWACS_MIN_FLIGHTLEVEL:

Defines flight level AWACS plane have to reach for AWACs to work properly

Default: 500;

PRACS_AWACS_SCAN_FREQ:

Frequency for updating markers. Simulates rotation speed of the radar dish.

Default: PRACS_AWACS_RECON_RANGE / 500

PRACS_AWACS_SHOW_FRIENDLY:

Define if friendly vehicles should be shown or not.

Default: TRUE

PRACS_AWACS_SHOW_NEUTRALS

Define if neutral vehicles should be shown or not.

Default: TRUE

PRACS_AWACS_SHOW_STATIONARY:

Defines if non-moving vehicles should be shown or not.

Default: TRUE

PRACS_AWACS_ENEMY_SIDES:

Defines sides that should be considered enemy to AWACS side. Players side is sorted out automatically.

Default: [WEST, EAST];

PRACS_AWACS_NEUTRAL_SIDES:

Define sides that should be considere neutral to AWACS side. Players side is sorted out automatically.

Default: [Resistance, Civilian]

PRACS_AWACS_SHOW_STATS:

Defines if hint with additional info's should be displayed or not.

Default: TRUE

PRACS_AWACS_STATE:

Deefines if AWACS System is enabled or disabled. Can be switched using PRACS_TOGGLE_AWACS.sqf script.

Default: FALSE

PRACS_AWACS_DATA_UPLINK:

Defines if AWACS shares info about revealed enemies with friendly vehicles.

Uplink range is same as PRACS_AWACS_MAX_RANGE.

Default: TRUE

Each variable can also be changed during a mission to adapt the functionality to the missionflow, if needed.

Future plans:

- if driver of a contact is a human player, show playername instead of vehicletype (can be disabled)

- mapclick option for players to get detailed info (type, speed, heading and so on) of a single contact.

[nuxil 2]

sounds nice. i'll give it a try

edit:

Ok. a silly question.. but. where do i find the dc3 plane? whats the name of the addon?

[[frl]myke 14]

I'm sorry...the DC3 is part of Queens Gambit.

You may open the mission.sqm (if you can't load it in Editor) end edit manually the following parts:

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

addOns[]=

{

"cacharacters",

"desert",

"CAWheeled",

"DC3_DBE1",

"CATracked",

"CAAir"

};

addOnsAuto[]=

{

"cacharacters",

"CATracked",

"CAWheeled",

"CAAir",

"DC3_DBE1",

"desert"

};

Remove the lines with "DC3_DBE1".

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

class Vehicles

{

items=1;

class Item0

{

position[]={2542.250488,13.860000,2419.391846};

special="FLY";

id=2;

side="EMPTY";

vehicle="DC3";

skill=0.600000;

text="awacs";

init="nul = [this] execVM ""PRACS_AWACS.sqf""; this addaction [""Toggle AWACS"", ""PRACS_TOGGLE_AWACS.sqf""]; this addaction [""Toggle Display"", ""PRACS_TOGGLE_DISPLAY.sqf""]";

};

replace "DC3" with "A10".

This should allow you to open it in Editor. I apologize for the convenience, i always forget that not all have QG addon.

[.kju 3245]

so far good job Myke

A few thoughts:

~ It sorta conflicts with Sickboy's marker system.

A way to avoid that to put like 10-15 blanks before the text of the marker ..

~ What about a sound and/or text message to inform about a new scan (regarding SCAN_FREQ).

~ How about fading (= removing) markers after some time, before

a new scan gets their pos again.

~ In addition to blue add the text "unknown".

~ How about an option to make the marker not perfectly

precise. Like random x meters offset (for each scan different).

~ What about implementing a small mini map with the UI of the

GPS where you can zoom in/out the map and move the cursor.

That would make it way more useful. Gigans camera uses this

mini map from Vienna.

[[frl]myke 14]

@ Q

Thanks for your suggestions. Let me go through the list and see.

To 1: Will take a look at it and see if i can make it work properly together. Sadly i don't know about every addon and script out there so there may be always some conflicts. But i'll try to find a fix for it.

To 2: Hmm..a sound or text for a new scan. Will think about it.

To 3: Fading markers seems not to be practical or realistic (in widest terms) to me as i guess (never saw a real AWACS in action) contacts will be shown untill updated data is available.

To 4: I thought about it but as all other contacts have vehicle type shown so i guess it would be too much of redundancy to mark unknown contacts as "UNKNOWN". Also remember in unknown contacts, friendly and neutral aren't sorted out so depending on mission, there could be very lot unknown contacts, and having text next to each of thos could make it pretty messy.

To 5: Although i guess that actual AWACS systems are pretty accurate, introducing an optional glitch or roughness seems a good idea. Will try to implement this in the next version.

To 6: I would love to have such a minimap or dialogue. Sadly i can't do dialogues for my life. Only thing i can do: anyone is invited to create such a dialogue and i would be very happy to include it in an update, of course giving credits properly.