Radio communication

[Craig 0]

Hello there I’m in need of some help with regards to radio communication

I was looking for a tutorial for creating radio communication between the players unit and other AI units and my search found one that’s SQF syntax. Can any body tell me how to activate this and how is the best way to use it? Or is there a step by step guide that I can use that tells me how to create a radio communications file and what the text should look like for the game to understand it.

[jakerod 254]

Hello there I’m in need of some help with regards to radio communication

I was looking for a tutorial for creating radio communication between the players unit and other AI units and my search found one that’s SQF syntax. Can any body tell me how to activate this and how is the best way to use it? Or is there a step by step guide that I can use that tells me how to create a radio communications file and what the text should look like for the game to understand it.

I don't really know anything about SQF files but what exactly are you trying to do. From what I am imagining you don't need an SQF file but if you let me know what you need to do then I might be able to help... and if not i'll quiet down and slowly back away.

[snkman 351]

Well take a look here: wiki .sqf and scripting

[Craig 0]

Ok what I’m after is to create a radio message from one group of units to another. The Idea of the radio messages is to give extra information like extra objectives. In fact I think the best way for me to describe what I’m after is to say. When your playing the champagne missions a message appears. So for e.g. like the message used in the first mission were command was informing me that there had been reports of gunfire in the city. I would like to create a radio message like that in a way. So I can hear the message rather than having to read it. If you know what I mean. Oh I think it also comes under background chat between units

[jakerod 254]

Ok what I’m after is to create a radio message from one group of units to another. The Idea of the radio messages is to give extra information like extra objectives. In fact I think the best way for me to describe what I’m after is to say. When your playing the champagne missions a message appears. So for e.g. like the message used in the first mission were command was informing me that there had been reports of gunfire in the city. I would like to create a radio message like that in a way. So I can hear the message rather than having to read it. If you know what I mean. Oh I think it also comes under background chat between units

I do believe that in order to hear it you need to record it in some sort of sound file (.ogg? maybe?). As far as reading it though unitname sidechat "This is my radio message." Thats as far as I can go. Might as well throw this in. I think this might be from OFP but maybe I updated it when ArmA came out. It might not help but since it has to do with radio chatter I thought I would post it. Its how you give them code signs.

Description:

Set group identity. Id format is [letter, color, picture] or [letter, color]. Letter is one of:

"Alpha"

"Bravo"

"Charlie"

"Delta"

"Echo"

"Foxtrot"

"Golf"

"Hotel"

"Kilo"

"Yankee"

"Zulu"

"Buffalo"

"Convoy"

"Guardian"

"November"

"Two"

"Three"

"Fox"

EDIT: Apparently in ArmA you can say whatever you want in the above section such as setgroupid "Mama's Favorite Doggy"

Colour can be one of the following:

"GroupColor0" - (Nothing)

"GroupColor1" - Black

"GroupColor2" - Red

"GroupColor3" - Green

"GroupColor4" - Blue

"GroupColor5" - Yellow

"GroupColor6" - Orange

"GroupColor7" - Pink

"Six" - Six

Syntax:

group setGroupId [nameFomat, nameParam1, ...]

Example 1:

this setGroupId ["Delta","GroupColor4"]  ---> Gives Delta Blue

Example 2:

this setGroupId ["Golf","GroupColor0"]  ---> Gives Golf

[Namikaze 0]

I've never done this before, but I've seen notes about it on the wiki. [Here's] the file that you need to create/edit to put in radio sounds, and what part of the file you need to change.

After that, it's a matter of syncing up the sideChat command to the timing of the radio message, assuming you want text and speech at the same time.

[Craig 0]

ok thanks for the link I've now got a ruff idea of what to do but there are some things I’m not familiar with. When you mention syncing up the sideChat command. Can you please explain what you meet by that and have I got to create a scripting trigger or add a link from the Description.ext file to a way point.

Oh and is the Description.ext a HTML format like a briefing file or is it just a text format

Sorry to be a problem but all this is like a foreign language to me cos I’m not very good with computers

[Namikaze 0]

1. "Syncing up the sideChat command" means just making a text translation of the speech appear, if you want it to appear at the same time as the speech is coming through the speakers. It's just an aesthetic choice, really.

2. You can use lots of different techniques to trigger the event. Standard triggers can be used, or scripted ones, or it could be an event or state change that causes the radio message to occur. Once you figure out how to call the sound file, it's just a matter of determining when you want it to occur and then deciding which technique works best for you.

3. [Description.ext] is a useful link for understanding what the file is. It can do a whole lot, but essentially it's all about controlling the elements of a mission that interact with the player (not the player's avatar): sound, UI, dialogs, etc.

No worries, I hope I'm doing a good job explaining it. I've never done what you've asked though, so I won't be terribly useful if you have specific questions.

[Craig 0]

To be honest you’re doing a great job. I just have a couple more things to ask. How do I enable the Description.ext. I printed the link you sent me and Ihaven’t seen anything on it that tells me how I enable it in a mission and I still don’t understand how to create a side chat command or is that in description.ext?

[Namikaze 0]

The description.ext file is sort of like a header file in object-oriented programming. It isn't directly called, and doesn't specifically run code. What it does is provides you with access to predefined chunks of data that can do different tasks. The purpose of doing this in ArmA is to allow you to tell the engine how you want dialogs to look, sounds to sound, and more. For your purposes you want only to define different sounds for your radio, so you don't have to worry about dialogs. You don't call the description.ext file, it's simply loaded up every time you load the mission. Think of it as a precompiled header.

As far as creating sideChat, there's a reason I keep writing it that way. The command you want to execute (in your init.sqf file, initialization statements, trigger "On Act." field, etc.) is

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">player sideChat "<insert text here>";

This will allow you to have a little radio message pop up on the player's screen to say via text exactly what's being said via sound. It's just aesthetic, I would worry about that after getting the sound to work.

Unfortunately at this point, my expertise (limited though it is) is exhausted. I haven't actually put any sound files into any of my missions, so I can't tell you too much more about how to put them in. Hopefully someone can come along and expand on what I've told you so far though.