Shell disappearing in mid air (?!?)

[Matthijs 40]

I have written a script to use M60 tanks as artillery.

The problem:

It seems like the shells are disappearing in mid-air after about 3500 meters.

Example: I have M60 tanks set halfway the Everon airfield, bearing on Montignac.

At 15 degrees, the shells hit at about 150 meters before Montignac.

At 16 degrees, the shells hit at about 100 meters before Montignac.

At 17 degrees, I can hear the shells whistling by, but they never hit the ground. (If by any chance one or two shells do hit, it's just because they fall short, some 100 meters before Montignac) I checked to see if they would maybe overfly the town and strike in or behind the valley just south of Montignac, but nothing.

Also: I couldn't hear shells whistling by south of Montignac.

Can anyone confirm this?

Do the M60 shells just disappear after some 3500 meters?

[LightBringer 0]

Maybe the guys at BIS made 3500m to the edge of the fireline. I don't know that tank, but I don't think that it could shoot further that range... Thats why u cant hear it..

Try the M1A1 i think it has a range of 4000m...

[Matthijs 40]

Are you sure?

Considering the physics of a shell flight, air friction, angle and velocity given by the OFP developers, 3500m should not be the maximum range for the M60 shell.

I could use the M1, but the problem would stay the same.

Also: because of the higher velocity of the M1 shell, the flight path will be quite more 'flat', not really good for indirect fire.

[Relg 0]

have you tried to make the M60 fire something else? like maybe a law round? cause I know you can get nice trajectory on one of those

[LightBringer 0]

Those ranges, what are written by me, are the ranges, in which the tankcrew can do a targeted shot. As u know, the tank is not an arti, so it can't shoot as precisely to long range. (Because of the non static stand.)

But u should try then the LAW... I'm sure it gonna fly further...

Cu.

[Matthijs 40]

Written by you ? ? ?

It's not true that the M60 tanks are inaccurate at these distances. The ranges are calculated from an angle. At some 2800 meters they are quite accurate. Shells from a single tank group almost perfectly, even at this (very) long range. (Which is another problem by the way. I will have to add some randomising to this script, because the impacts show exactly the pattern in which the tanks are placed.)

I'll try the LAW, but I doubt if it will be better than M60 tanks. The M60 tanks firing in the distance produce a soft rumbling sound, exactly what I need for artillery. LAW wouldn't do that.

[LightBringer 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Matthijs @ Mar. 24 2002,09:32)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Written by you ? ? ?

[...]

I'll try the LAW, but I doubt if it will be better than M60 tanks. The M60 tanks firing in the distance produce a soft rumbling sound, exactly what I need for artillery. LAW wouldn't do that.<span id='postcolor'>

muha... not in ofp, upside in this post.. =)

so... then u should add some sounds to the laws... or u should try to use the static artis, and write some script, which is makin' them usable... =) that should be the best.

[Matthijs 40]

LAWs explode in mid air after only about a 1000m.

M60 still looks like the best option, even though shells disappear just before about 3500m. The M1 shells are not much better by the way. They disappear somewhere between 3500 and 4000 meters .

I'll stick with the M60 tank, until the modmakers come up with a full blown howitzer.

Anyway, I have almost all problems solved. I "only" have to create a script that calculates barrel-inclination from the range. The only snag is that I can't measure the altitude of the target relative to the artillery. I guess the only option is to give the player the possibility to request "fire for effect", and report about it.

The script works quite cool already. Mark a target on the map, give an inclination, request firemission, KABOOM!!!!

[edit]Hey, how do you guys like the smilies from my own forum?? [/edit]

[Wobble 1]

I think its a program thing.. for some reasons certin weapons just vanish or explode after a certin distnace.. like I made a TOW missle and at around 3000m it just flys straight up and explods.. or noses into the ground...

[LightBringer 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Matthijs @ Mar. 24 2002,22:50)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">

[edit]Hey, how do you guys like the smilies from my own forum??    [/edit]<span id='postcolor'>

Muhaha... is there any sniper smilie?

[LauryThorn 0]

So what is the difference between simulating artillery

with M60 and doing it with camCreate thing?

And second, how do you do it with M60?

[Matthijs 40]

First of all: What CamCreate thing ?

(I don't know how to do it with CamCreate... )

How it works with M60 tanks:

Take a point, hovering over a target position.

The altitude of this point is decided by multipying the distance with the TAN of the required firing angle.

Let the tanks look at this point and force them to fire with the UNIT FIRE ["muzzle", "weapon", "shell"] command.

As you can see the only hard thing about this is deciding at what angle the shell should be fired.

The advantages of this, over just spawning objects in mid-air:

- You can hear artillery firing in the distance

- You can actually hear shells flying overhead

- There is a realistic delay between firing and impact

- When you can see the shells coming down, you see them at a realistic angle and speed

- The script is usable with upcoming artillery units (I can't wait to see a howitzer fire away at 60 degrees inclination)

- It's mighty cool to do the scripting and see it work.

As for the emoticons, here come the snipers:

[ click here for the full listing ]

You can find military smilies at the bottom of this list. All those thingies are based on actual Dutch Military units.

It's nice to see, people on my forum sign their message with the smilie of the unit they used to be in. (teenagers always pick commando's or marines )

Kind regards,

Matthijs

[LauryThorn 0]

It sounds very cool!

Can that script be downloaded from somewhere??

[Matthijs 40]

Currently not.

I can e-mail you my 'work in progress' if you want. You will see it's all very simple.

If you want it, send me an e-mail as a reminder: webmaster@bbemariniers.net

(If you post it to this forum, I will probably have forgotten by the time I get home tonight.)

[LauryThorn 0]

All right, I emailed you.