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scotg

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Everything posted by scotg

  1. LOL. Bless you, @jandrews! I do have morale boosters, such as yourself and others in this thread, patreons, and YT followers. It's a very modest sized group, but I'm grateful for these people. They enjoy discussing the mod with me and seeing the progress of what I'm doing. I'm still forging forward. I don't expect Fight For Freedom's Alpha Release to be pretty and tidy. There'll be many things that are incomplete, but the main objective for Alpha is to get it to the mainstream audience. I will probably get a lot of garbage responses about how it sucks because things are broken, and how I should have completed it before releasing, but hopefully a few more people will be interested in joining a mod they can check out themselves.
  2. Thanks for your input! To be honest (but why wouldn't we be?), I think you may not have read that list thoroughly, but I could be wrong. Some of these features are part of other mods via advanced script. The problem isn't that they can't be done; the problem is that it takes some very special skills apart from inputting regular config parameters, which I have little knowledge of. Mods with these features have special people who can focus on writing code to make the game engine do things it's capable of doing, but not necessarily prepped for. I don't have such a luxury: ...therefore... All I'm asking is for BI devs to consider making it easier on mods that lack the advanced personnel who can script these things, like this mod, with configurable parameters. This means all that's needed from the mod developer to make these things happen are values, strings, and arrays. Maybe there's an information gap about the difference between scripts and configs, and what's worse is that people often say "configs" when they are really talking about full, additional scripts. Getting back to your responses: There is a stand alone Apache mod, by Nodunnit and Franze, that does this, and the Apache in the RHS mods does this, too. In both mods the scripting is very complex, and there are parts that most likely pertain specifically to that helicopter. I wouldn't begin to know where to start separating it to understand how to use the parts I need for all my small aircraft. Other than that, it's easy to give the pilot access to the fire button. In this case, though, the more important issues are the lights and engine for one-man tanks. It's rather simple to make a one-man tank, such as my M4920 Varmint (inspired by the GI Joe Armadillo) with the parameter hasDriver = -1; (meaning that the commander assumes control of the vehicle's movement). The commander can drive the chassis, control the turret, and fire the weapons. I'm sure it might not take much config work to operate any doors extra than the hatch, but the commander does not have control of the engine and lights. These tasks should be automatically passed on to the commander when hasDriver is negative one. Forgive me if my next response seems nit-picky; it's not my intention to rub anyone the wrong way. I know for a fact that none of the VTOL parameters exist, and those cover more than half my list. I have been on discord talking to other mod makers who have more experience in certain areas, and they have confirmed that redirecting thrust using a trigger button would take extensive scripting. There is a mod that reduces character fidgeting, but there isn't one that makes the player camera attached to the head, AFAIK. The towing mods only work with tow cables, from what I can tell. The creators of Advanced Towing also have Advanced Trains... If only they could hitch up a trailer like a train car. These are great mods, but the towed wheels don't roll. I don't even think the train engine wheels roll. In advanced towing, sometimes the towed vehicles move jerky - a lag like the RV engine is trying to keep up with its location. This is why I'm asking for an official towing system. As I see it, if the talented people at BIS can do such a fine job with slingloading, then towing should be comparable, but I'll admit that I don't fully understand the complexities of implementing it. I'm afraid it would take much more than simple config work, my friend, but I do appreciate your gung-ho spirit (no pun intended)! All this might seem like a lot to ask, but I'm just asking - that's all. It's not a demand or rebuke or anything negative. BI devs probably won't see this anyway, and even if they do see it and think it's all a great idea, they are probably already inundated with other tasks. I only present these requests in case BI finds them too good to bypass, but I am doing so in my own mod discussion thread so as not to be annoying.
  3. While developing this mod, I've come across many challenging hurdles to its success. As an individual with no team support, I don't have a clue about making extra scripts to fully shine the project, so maybe I can ask for certain features to become available. There are "feature request" posts all over the forums, but I wonder if those are in the right places. I figure since my requests will most likely help this mod the most, then here is the best place to present them. Maybe it's that these things exist but that I simply cannot find them, or maybe they don't exist. I'm not asking for new assets that can incorporate these features; I'm just asking for new config parameters that enable mod developers to use them. The reason we make mods is to provide something unique, but I run into a lot of roadblocks which force my (somewhat) unique-looking objects, like vehicles, to work the same as any other vanilla A3 asset. The following is a list of features that I see a need for in this mod. - Pilot turrets. The ability to control a turret with freelook and/or TrackIR. I have quite a few one-man flying vehicles with weapons on turrets. They are model assets I have made, but they cannot function properly as the game is. While I strongly support team play and solidarity, I believe it is not the right of the developers to prohibit full control pilot turrets all together. Such restrictions belong in their game, not in my mod. These turrets should be capable of integrating any necessary visual aids, huds, targeting, and such things. - Commander controls of auxiliary vehicle functions. This includes being able to turn on/off lights and engines, opening hatches, activating radars, and so on. While these tasks are usually delegated to other crewmen, they should still be available for example to a one-man tankette commander. - More VTOL parameters - VTOLs have come a long way, but in some cases they are more of a challenge to fly. This is great if your VTOL assets are strictly hard-to-fly machines; it surely enhances the realism. Mine should not be as hard, so it diminishes the fun factor. This is a sub-list of VTOL parameters that would make my planes more fun to fly: VTOL minimal hover engine power - set a minimal percentage of the engine during hover mode to prevent losing too much thrust to recover. VTOL hover throttle - while in hover mode, this would act like a throttle on a car, pushing the plane forward. It would have a direct influence on any tilt-engine animations, and can be analog controlled (e.g.: the trigger buttons on a gamepad). The more it's pressed, the more of the thrust is transferred to forward motion. The point here is to avoid relying on airframe tilting (like helicopters) to move forward while hovering. VTOL reverse hover throttle - if applicable, allow airbrake to double as reverse flight during hover. Just like in a car, it needs weaker values. Most fictional VTOLs won't even use this, but it's better to have it for unforeseen applications. Might be useful if someone uses these VTOL parameters to make a ground hovercraft (essentially a plane that cannot takeoff). VTOL hover throttle coefficient - define the balance of vertical thrust vs. horizontal thrust for throttle. The config editor person can specify how slowly or quickly the thrust is transferred, to either prevent or enhance altitude loss during transfer, respectively. Disable manual VTOL - 0 for enabled, 1 for disabled, -1 for using strictly manual/disabling auto vectoring Set manual VTOL increments - set how many ticks it takes to cover the complete range of VTOL positions for manual VTOL mode. Affects flight and visual. Somehow allow for VTOLs with a dedicated throttle engine, which would greatly reduce altitude loss while throttling forward. Lifting engines will not be redirected to provide forward (or backward) movement. - Severely subdue the character animations. The vanilla A3 soldiers are military characters with no military bearing. - Attach the 1st person view to the character's head, and enable view-pilot headgear that should be seen. - Enable an official method of ground vehicle towing - vehicle tow vehicle and vehicle tow trailer. The towing line length should be adjustable, to allow for tow cables or tow hooks and hitches. Incidentally, I can only see how these potential parameters would help Arma 3 and mod developers. I see no downsides, should BI decide to make these a reality.
  4. So, I've been talking with @reyhard on the Discord channels about solutions to the pilot turret issue. This thread will hopefully explore that. Older, unresolved threads have done so in the past, as well, but digging them up is not allowed. Arma 3 has changed a little bit since then, so exploring the options for one-man pilot turrets can resurface anew. Here's my first implementation, trying to use pilotcamera as a turret control: Unfortunately, you need to enter a special optics mode to control it, and it cannot be moved with freelook/TrackIR. If you watched the video, it also demonstrated an alignment problem with the optics camera: it cannot be attached to animated parts and still move with them. At reyhard's request I am providing the model.cfg for inspection: Edit: This model.cfg is the most up to date. ...and here's the most up to date config.cpp:
  5. Thanks for pointing me in that direction, @.kju! It's a better experience on discord. Here's the updated video: Here's the latest config.cpp: ...and my model.cfg here:
  6. Since 1.82, you can completely remove the driver of a tank or car, and allow the commander full control of the vehicle - driving and gunning, with the parameter hasDriver=-1. This is great for little one-man tanks, and there's no invisible AI trying to drive off with it. However, it only allows the CMDR to move the vehicle, not turn on/off lights, engine, or other driver operations. I was hoping to find an answer here... maybe it has something to do with
  7. @.kju Sweet. Is that the Arma 3 channel on Discord, or something more specific? I've gotten some good tips from both of them, directly and indirectly. Reyhard seems to be the aircraft guy, while X3KJ is more an armor/tracked expert. As you replied, I was editing my post with this next bit, but I decided to just put it here: What I don't need in a helicopter is to have the flight controls to be moving the turret, too. The "aiming" commands I have set to kb, mouse, and gamepad for turrets are also used for pilot controls in planes and helis (since historically they have been available). However, I'm afraid if the turret is enabled for a pilot then there might be a conflict between flight and aiming controls, hence the need for freelook/TrackIR to be set as aiming control method in specific aircraft of my own design. I guess what I'm saying is I hope pilot turrets work, but I'm afraid they will work wrong.
  8. Good to know! I'm not sure AI are suited for tank driving at all in the first place, but this is informative. Any idea how to pull off the same feat with a 1-man attack helicopter? Also, I need the gun turret to follow freelook/TrackIR. I've got the parameter turretFollowFreelook=1; in the turret class, but it's not doing anything while I have hasDriver=-1. Haven't tried it other ways, yet.
  9. Aside from the turret configs, I also mentioned the need for a hidden AI driver to make it appear the commander is the only person in the tank. This was an old trick, and kind of a janky way to fake one-man tanks with turret, such as the Varmint. When you exit the tank, the AI driver has the tendency to move around and break the illusion. Today, I just discovered this: hasDriver = -1; After initial testing, this seems to be exactly the solution this tank needed. It eliminates the driver and allows the top commander to drive the tank and use his turret. In a 1-man tank, that means the player has full control without running the risk of the invisible AI driving off when you get out. THANK YOU SO MUCH BIS DEVS!!! I'm not giving you guys my first child or anything, but much love to you for this simply delicious line of code! Now... I'mma try it on my 1-man helicopter. I hope it works! Further updates on the first post video: Varmint (Small Tank) - Speed is now adjusted. The problem was coming from having the wheel boundaries too much off the ground, and the solution was to lower the memory points about 2 cm. New problems have arisen from having too much stopping power and a super fast reverse speed. Tweaking certain values to ease the jerking makes it go faster in a curve than it can in a straight line. Tweaking it another way makes it do the endless neutral steer thing. I'm having a look at the Nyx' code to see how it handles, since it's about the same size and weight, and has the same number of wheels. More to come on that. - Commander position not appearing in 3rd person was from a missing proxy. At some point I must have deleted it, but I never checked because I didn't have a reason to delete it on purpose. Now it's fixed. - Head motion with turret... It's fixed. I'm not sure what it was exactly, but I just replaced a chunk of code with turret code that was working, and started tweaking it to fit the small tank's interior. The other two tanks - I haven't gotten to their problems, yet, but I will keep y'all updated.
  10. Thanks everyone for helping me reach this! Almost there! One week away, and only 94 views to go.
  11. It's a tweaking inward spiral. You just have to fine adjust all the factors until you reach your goal - FLUSH! Latstiffx/y controls the grippiness of the "tires." Even for tanks, you probably don't need much more than latStiffX=25. Too little, and your tank will start going faster when turning than it would while going straight forward o_O. Incidentally, you may want a much larger latStiffY, like 200 to 300, if you like climbing hills in your tank. It can also help in slowing it down. MOI and dampingRateInAir (dRIA) of course affect top speed, but it can be fine-tuned easier if the numbers are higher. You'll just have to play around with their numbers, because afaik there isn't a simple formula. If you have a high MOI, but your tank is launching itself, then keep raising the dRIA until it calms down. If your tank is stopping and starting too quickly, like jerky, it could also be that your MOI is too low. Raise it, but be sure to raise the dRIA as well. EDIT: Be careful not to tweak MOI too high or you could suffer from unstoppable turning syndrome. Another factor that can slow down or speed up your tank is your wheel bounds in the memLOD. If they are too high close to the hub they can effectively put your high powered engine to a dull crawl - same with virtual wheels of different sizes. You do all the work and tweaking on MOI, dRIA, gears, torque, etc... then you free up your wheel bounds and suddenly you're licking the moon. Back to the drawing board. I suspect you don't have this problem, but I hope future readers might benefit from this understanding.
  12. While testing my mod tank's speed, I noticed it was going faster in a turn than it would in a straight line. I don't have a speed boost available on my tank. I thought it might have something to do with one of the tire slip properties, but just a random guess. To see if this is just mine or a common issue, I tested the Bobcat and Sochor the same way. The Bc was doing the same thing as mine - turning about 5kph faster top speed than going straight, as long as I didn't use speed boost/max speed. The Sochor went too fast in a straight line and then rolled over before I could observe its turning speed. I don't know if any of this is supposed to happen or not. If not, what should I start tweaking in order to fix my tank?
  13. scotg

    Creating PIP

    Since my last post, I tried lining up two "screens" for a wide view. Getting the FOVs right is the issue, because it can align in the foreground at the expense of splitting the background, and vice-versa. There was indeed a performance issue in the PIPs as well. It was worth a shot. I just wish there was a way to make better periscopes.
  14. scotg

    Creating PIP

    I guess your outcome was different from mine. Both are unfavorable, but distinct. The edge pixels stretching/bleeding is what we don't want, but I am curious why your render area was centered while mine was left-top aligned. The only change I had made to do this was setting the (512, 512, 1) to (1024, 1024, 1). Either way, it doesn't support it, sure enough; I just wonder if the difference in outcome has any bearing on a potential work around, like fusing together 4 PIPs to fake a higher resolution. In my tests, I also discovered that if you don't fit your longest edges to the bounds of the square, then you lose even more resolution.
  15. scotg

    Vehicle Interiors - Feedback

    Hey all. I was wondering if this thread is about specific interiors of vanilla models, or about the general interior capabilities the engine sports now? In other words, I want to know if talking about interiors in regards to how it affects mod vehicles is allowed. I have a few enclosed vehicles I've made that could benefit from some of these discussions, I think. I am all for interior immersion, and being able to look around my environment instead of being forced to look through a fixed view. I have one tank, especially, which has its gunner cannons directly in front of his periscopes. I don't know if there's a fix, but I just wanted to explore the matter because it presents a unique situation. Here is a video with better explanation:
  16. scotg

    Creating PIP

    I tried this, and all it did was fill the top-left quadrant of the square. The rest was bled from the right and bottom edges. I get what you're hoping to do; you want a higher resolution for your PIPs. I was hoping to do this as well for some of my periscopes that shouldn't look like video. Anybody have a better understanding of the bounding boxes? The guide doesn't really explain it well.
  17. Sorry to dig this up, but I figure readers may want to have a conclusion - and an answer to @chronicsilence's question. If XYZ is the virtual 3-D coordinates of the geometrical shapes that comprise the model, UV's are the coordinates of the 3-D model laid out in a flat plane (sometimes called UVW's even though there's no 3rd dimension). 2-D textures and the coordinates are aligned to each other, which provides the pretty details that show color, reflection, shininess, and the illusion of touchable texture (like bumps). Think of it kind of like virtual origami. Changing the proportions of the laid out shapes affects how they stretch over the model. You need to be able to edit the UVs, in either Object Builder or a 3-D sculpting program like Max, Blender, Maya, etc, in order to change the shape proportions. Reshaping a rectangle is the most basic UV editing you could ask for; however, vanilla A3 assets cannot be edited. You probably figured it out after all this time, but it looks like you've hit an impenetrable wall. Changing the aspect ratio setting was a great idea, but it seems to have no effect when I change it even in my models' texture settings in OB. The BIS config guides are a bit misleading, but this probably works in some other application of the engine, like ToH.
  18. Some small personal goals: Get eleven more views by the end of October 9, to reach 1K views for the AWE Striker video. Get one hundred seventeen more views by October 20, to reach 1k for the HISS video.
  19. This thread is relevant this mod:
  20. Some vehicle assets will have my M2 models on the roof, some will have other NATO, WP, or GC weapons attached, and some will have hybrids and customs (which is what BIS did with A3 assets). I have to rely on A3 vanilla for environments, structures, and most of the gear for now, including weapons. Most early action figure file cards specified real-life weapons in their specialties, but they also had some fictional stuff. IF we (me and my team-to-be) get to make weapons, they will largely be real life weapons like M2s (already made), M16s, AKs, Vz61 Skorpions (already made), and so on. Even though there are mods which already have these weapons, the ultimate idea is to be compatible with other mods, but to rely on them as little as possible. It's a mixed bag, but the concept here is to create something that looks like action figures, but with realism.
  21. Alpha Release expected soon. Info here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/21916890
  22. I could sure use some help figuring out how to get this working nicely. Here's the list of things that I am trying to fix right now: 1) Flight stability - adjusted, but it's far from right. Adjusting is not straight forward, so finding the sweetspot or magic combination is elusive. 2) Wheel suspension - Animations are fixed, but the physical handling is way off. 3) Folding wingtips, F/A-18 style FIXED 4) remove co-pilot FIXED AirplaneX vs Geom LOD After spending several hours messing with "draconic forces" and planar surface values in the config, my airplane is still acting weird. Currently, it requires 232kph to take off, whereas I'd prefer it to be about 80mph (~129kph). Once it takes off, there is little forgiveness in pitch changes before it starts to bob up and down violently, but with very subtle changes it can do a steady climb. It's like the config parameters are fighting with the plane's shape. I've started the config from the NATO UAV, which shares a similar wing layout (forward canard style elevators), but I must be overlooking something, I think. How much does the actual shape of the Geometry LOD and GeomPhys LOD affect its flight? Here is a printscreen of its GEOM LOD in OB. Fig. 1: Firebat/Hellwing Geom_LOD in Object builder. config.cpp (updated): Wheels & Suspension Notice in the image above that the front wheel doesn't droop as far as the main/rear wheels do. It is intended to have a nose down stance while on the ground, but I aligned it to its flight path (Z axis) in OB. I'm not sure if that's the correct way to do it; I just assumed its weight distribution and suspension settings would make it rest properly on ground. Something weird was also happening: Addon Breaker was compiling my PBO, even though it had some syntax errors. During that time, the wheels were aligned to the ground and working fine. The truly weird part: after I found and corrected the missing semi-colons (located after the map icon .paa line), the wheel behavior became wonky as you see in the images below. In short, the jacked up syntax version made the suspension and wheels work better. Huh. This is what the wheels look like when the plane is freshly loaded into the arsenal/garage: Fig. 2: Fresh spawn ...and after starting the engine and moving forward a few feet, the rear wheels are a little less sunken while the front wheel is still raised: Fig. 3: Allowing the wheel physics to readjust/kick in Fig. 4: After getting out and looking at it from prone, the wheels are sunken again. Some information about the plane: This is based on two planes - the real life BD5J and the fictional Cobra Firebat. It's a small, light weight, short-range bomber/fighter with very limited avionic technology. It has a wide gliding surface and canard-style elevators. The wings are supposed to fold upwards for storage (but that isn't working either) and vertical catapult launching (from e.g. a missile silo) , and it barely has room for one pilot. As always, any help is much appreciated! EDIT: here is also the model.cfg (updated): Edit 2: I am realizing to my horror how messed up my model.cfg is, with redundant selections and obsolete min/maxValue settings for dampers. My corrections so far have allowed the wheels to rest on the ground, yet the suspension is still really stiff. I have to hard dive into the ground in order to notice any change. Edit 3: Docs are updated, and some fixes were noted. Problems still persist.
  23. Thanks for watching the video! I have corrected the co-pilot problem. It turns out that airplane class inherits a vehicle turret with an added crewman position. The solution was to create an empty turret class. BTW, thanks to @DSabre and others for pointing that out to me in PM.
  24. Thanks! I was able to get its flight handling more controllable, but it's still far from perfect. The elevator force is important, but first I need to smooth out the vertical bouncing that occurs after a climb or descent. I found an error - a missing semicolon - that was being dismissed by the compiler. When I fixed it, there were some things that suddenly started working differently with the dampers. Mind you this is all physical handling. I think the visual stuff is right, but it will likely need adjusting once the physical handling is behaving right. I have to make another video to explain what's still wrong, I think it'll be easier to explain, and get my memory jogged over it. I have moved back to working on my tanks for the time being, and since I am finding new success with them it's easier to keep on them.
  25. scotg

    Airplane PhysX Wheels

    I always assumed, for planes anyway, that the order is front to back, left to right. So in a tricycle plane wheel_1 would be the front wheel, wheel_2 would be the left main wheel, and then wheel_3 is the right main. In taildragger layout I would think wheel_1 is left main, wheel_2 right main, and wheel_3 is the rear wheel. That's my assumption, but since I haven't tried making a taildragger it has little merit. Any idea how many wheels total per plane are supported in A3? Tanks are something like 10 ground wheels per side, and I think cars are 8 in total... or at least I haven't seen anything more than 8.
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