VFTCAS - Terrain Collision Avoidance System

[VictorFarbau 0]

Important - according to the community issue tracker ticket bad chopper behavior is supposed to be resolved as of beta build 73272 (-> will be in patch 1.55). I did try many scenarios and it looks very good; meaning choppers don't consistently hit tree tops anymore! You should only use this addon if you still suffer from frequent chopper crashes!

Edit: Choppers now tend to dive too rapidly and crash into ground. So you might still need it after all.

VFTCAS - Terrain Collision Avoidance System

Big name, small addon. I was getting annoyed with the amount of dead choppers in forests, groves and hills that were lying there for no other reason than pilot stupidity*.

Since I was tired of missing out on half of the choppers during my missions I wrote this small addon. It simulates a primitive terrain scanning radar that just scans the terrain level ahead and adjusts the vertical lift of the chopper to maintain a minimum flightlevel of 35m (min height to avoid treetops).

Updated to new build 20

• Improvement: compensate loss of speed during terrain collision avoidance measures
  
• Improvement: exit message (if publicVariable vftcasrun == 0) appears only once
  
• Improvement: signed for MP usage
  

Updated to new build 18

• Bug resolved: Choppers with dead pilots would not crash
  
• Feature added: publicVariable "VFTCASrun" is checked. Setting it to 0 (zero) will immediately terminate the addon on all units
  

Updated to new build 14

• Bug resolved: Choppers without pilots would not crash
  

Updated to new build 12

• Bug resolved: players being dropped from high altitude and choppers won't land
  
• Slightly optmized code
  

Updated to new build 06

• Better download location (DevHeaven, thanks to Kju and Sickboy)
  
• Introduced better timings in script (less CPU intensive)
  
• Better check for human pilots
  

The VFTCAS Addon

• Just goes into your addons folder, no modfolder required
  
• Requires Extended Eventhandlers for Arma II (part of the CBA project)
  
• Automatically starts on all choppers
  
• Only AI pilots are supported (will pause on human player)
  
• Will quit if the chopper cannot fly anymore (damaged or destroyed)
  
• Will only look forward and not to the sides. Thus, strafing into treetops can still happen
  
• Pauses on positive or negative speeds smaller then 30 kmh to allow landing and extractions
  

Youtube demo:

Download:

VFTCAS download

Enough said - take it or leave it. Works well for me and reduces my blood pressure during chopper missions :)

Cheers,

VictorFarbau

* = Or so it seems at least; I guess the real reason behind this is more related to certain tree objects which seem to be invisible to the flight path algorithm. Choppers and planes keep bumping into the same sort of objects all the time.

Edited October 4, 2010 by VictorFarbau

[Uglyboy 10]

Amazing :) Just like all your other projects ;)

[manzilla 1]

Thanks for this. I was hoping someone would do this.

[Drew 10]

holy spam? is it always like that in the chat like shown in the video? otherwise cool addon

[Uglyboy 10]

holy spam? is it always like that in the chat like shown in the video? otherwise cool addon

I think the chat is like that for a kind of debug mode.

[VictorFarbau 0]

holy spam? is it always like that in the chat like shown in the video? otherwise cool addon

Debug mode - not visible during regular gameplay.

VictorFarbau

[Binkowski 26]

Thanks! Been waiting for this. Downloading now.

[norrin 9]

This is an excellent and much needed addon.

Thank you. :)

Just one request - is there anyway you can recreate the addon without extended eventhandlers as apparently they are incompatible with ArmA2 1.04 and unfortunately I'm not sure a proper fix has been released yet, see: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=78622&page=13

All I know is that in 1.04 XEH is incompatible with revive (there's some problem with moving markers), whereas in 1.03 there was no problem.

Edited October 30, 2009 by norrin

[nikita320106 0]

what you think about change some heli class' config' params right as in fixed wing(base air class)

brakeDistance = 200;

steerAheadSimul = 0.500000;

steerAheadPlan = 0.800000;

when original is

steerAheadSimul = 0.500000;

steerAheadPlan = 0.700000;

[Tankbuster 1746]

Victor,

Nice work. Will this work with Mando Heliroute?

Tanky -Paul-

[AnimalMother92 10]

brilliant! you've fixed one of my main complaints about arma 2 :)

[mrcash2009 0]

THIS JUST IN

Community modder fixes a fundamental problem that should have been addressed way before or included within patch 1.04 and should be patched and hard coded anyway!

:) Great job.

Just one request - is there anyway you can recreate the addon without extended eventhandlers as apparently they are incompatible with ArmA2 1.04 and unfortunately I'm not sure a proper fix has been released yet, see: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthrea...=78622&page=13

I think its a certain aspect of CBA not that event handlers don't work with 1.04, otherwise this place would flood with mod issues, half mine wouldn't work as they do now in 1.04 and this mod wouldn't work either from release if that was the case. Although I did post an update in that thread to see what wont work.

---------- Post added at 10:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:53 AM ----------

Please mirror! F**king cant stand filefront, zshare of mediafire all the way .. I just cant nab the file. :)

Edited October 30, 2009 by mrcash2009

[nikita320106 0]

@mrcash2009

[mrcash2009 0]

Thanks mate :)

I just dropped this in and went to Namalsk island (huge hills) and then set 2 Ah1z's in formation to move slow right through 3 way points direct over the snowy mountains (while following them in my own).

I set to slow to watch them study the terrain and they do it without effort climbing steady and navigating the huge snowy mountain tops, really good to see air AI looking like they are figuring something out :)

EDIT ... set a way points direct to each highest peak on the map set to full speed on all and again they think it through gather height (really high abrupt altitude) and work really well.

EDIT 2: Heres a test mission of it with camera set to AI so you can fly through it with them (just when you think your about to crash and burn ...) :)

http://www.zshare.net/download/67697103ef0a360b/

(needs Namalsk island and this mod obviously). Mission shows as "MRCASH - TEST".

Edited October 30, 2009 by mrcash2009

[VictorFarbau 0]

@norrin - hm but this needs XEH because of the class init eventhandlers; only other option would be to start this manually on each single chopper. That would really suck. Edit: however, I will make a CBA-free version available, too. It would require manual start of the script, but if you don't mind init lines like that... up to you.

@nikita320106 - I have to leave config tweaks to the config gurus. I don't think this would address the root cause anyway. No matter how careful but the pilots would probably still not "see" certain objects (yellow trees being amongst them).

I am awaiting my project space on DevHeaven for this addon. Then I will host the files there. The addon requires 1 or 2 more updates before I would consider it final.

Regards,

VictorFarbau

Edited October 30, 2009 by VictorFarbau

[Simon C 0]

This is brilliant, one small bug though:

Try setting some Hinds to fly over Island Panthera, as soon as they reach the hills, it's like they've got rockets attached to them, they climb so fast. :p

[Uziyahu--IDF 0]

This problem arises from a "realism" introduced in ArmA 1, I believe, the abandonment of the terrain-hugging A.I. of helos in OFP:R. While this allowed more manual control of elevation, it also requires constant correction over uneven terrain, making the flight model a bit more difficult for the human player...and apparently the A.I., too.

The sad thing about this is that my UH60 Instructor Pilot Army buddy told me that the Blackhawk will hug terrain much like it did in OFP:R. I flew the sim at Fort Rucker (a computerized simulator up on hydraulic stilts) and that seemed to be the case.

A civilian helicopter realism applied to an advanced military helicopter did not result in much better gameplay.

Thanks for at least fixing it for the A.I.

[cjsoques 0]

FYI...this stuff is really used (although the component goes by a different name) and have saved pilots lives in both helos and aircraft, particularly the AV8. Thanks for this addon!

Edited October 30, 2009 by cjsoques

[Richard Bruce Cheney 10]

Oh, wow! Look who just added more gameplay! Thanks, Victor!

Can you imagine hearing on the news that several choppers crashed due to trees? Thank you for helping out the AI pilots!

[-fg- 10]

Awesome work! Thx

[tcp 10]

Training wheels! Can a version of this be modified for human usage? I was thinking about being able to achieve ground effect. When you go under 35m, there should be a set percentage of vertical thrust added so that if you don't fight it, it will keep you above that altitude. However if you stay nose down and ride that "cushion" you can travel at greater speeds.

[An Fiach 10]

Should have been implemented for AI for sure. For players, not so much. Sure modern birds have these systems installed but it makes for poor game play from a realism standpoint if everything flies on rails.

[Simon C 0]

Plus, 35m is too high to be flying as a pilot really, if you want your helicopter to survive any sort of AA. ;)

[tcp 10]

If its adapted for human usage, it doesn't have to hinder your flying low. Ground effect is more realistic. It will enable more maneuverability when flying close to the ground and will probably be appreciated by the more advanced pilots.

[krycek 349]

Thank you for this mod,people like you make the game more enjoyable for me(you hear that BIS?).I was simply tired and frustrated with crappy AI flying and engaging armor(thank God that another mod fixed that problem too) and this fixed it for me.Like I said in another thread BIS doesn't really give a crap about old AI problems and they expect the community to do the work for them,well as always when I make a purchase I'll judge with my wallet next BI products.

Didn't want to bitch in your thread but I was simply furios and happy at the same time when seeing this mod,happy that someone finally has made the AI usable in air combat and pissed that such a problem still wasn't fixed by any patch.Thank you again,I sure as hell I appreciate your effort and this coupled with zguba's mod makes the AI air support actually "support" me.

Edited October 30, 2009 by Krycek