phaeden

lol @ Fetus - I found that site as well but it is too far to the west and is just outside of my map. If I remember and I have the map open, I may throw a wreck somewhere on the western edge. As for the e-club, etc. they are not present - at least not as anything resembling what they really look like. The buildings are more or less on the map but it is not a 1 to 1 scale by any stretch of the imagination. It has already taken me 4 years to get to this point - if I was going to do it 1:1, it would take another 4! It will hopefully have it ready very soon. No dates yet but I wouldn't have posted unless I was very close. I have a few more buildings that I have to finish and then I'll get it up somewhere for people to download and test. Semper Fi

The map is roughly 20x20 km. There area no water areas so the entire thing is playable space. There are a few mountain areas that are fairly steep but are not a problem for infantry. As for the lighting, it was a lot of trial and error. It is still not perfect but I think I have reached the limits of the engine and while other minor changes may bring better lighting at one time of day or weather condition over another, I think that it represents the overall feel of 29 Palms.

Theoretically, yes. I have had the AI move around in through the buildings and take up appropriate fighting positions. However, I have also had them act like complete idiots and take up positions outside the houses as well. I haven't been able to make the Modules work correctly either yet - AI won't spawn correctly when using the Modules. Any help is appreciated on figuring this out.

Camp Wilson is in there but it is a modified version. Instead of trying to replicate every building correctly with the right style and location, I went with a method that would help keep my sanity. There is a "Camp Wilson" but it is not as ... wonderful as the real one. Thanks Gnat - hopefully you'll enjoy the island as your posts on the forums have helped me in making it. @johanna - that looks really interesting. I will look at it this weekend to see how much work it would take to get it working on Palms. Thanks for the info!

Final set of screens for now: Insurgents form hasty ambush in one of the MOUT areas northeast of Mainside: Same area – this is close to some firing ranges: Assaulting the same area – the southern end of the central mountains are in the background: Infantry assault the main MOUT facility. The buildings are based on real buildings used for MOUT on 29 Palms – they are not in the exact right locations but are close enough for government work: Another view of the same assault – note the 5 story building on the right – again, this is based on real buildings used for training: Another squad moves towards the 5 story building as the main assault moves up the roads to the interior areas of the training facility: Aerial view of the same training area: Another angle of the same facility: The final screen before I get back to work (both real world and the buildings for the island): If anyone would like to volunteer to help me finish the buildings and provide them with enough polish to make them worthy of our community, I will gladly accept your help. Please just send me a PM and we can get started. ---------- Post added at 22:55 ---------- Previous post was at 22:49 ---------- I forgot to note that all the buildings have been built with ACE's ability to "stabilize" your weapon in mind. For example, you can stabilize your rifle or MG on any of the window sills while kneeling or roof top walls while standing. You have to approach them fairly straight on as it doesn't always work if you are trying to stabilize your weapon in a corner (for example). The buildings also have "paths" for AI but, honestly, they haven't all been put in yet and don't always work (sometimes, the AI will stand outside of the building - I've been trying to figure this one out so if anyone knows what might cause that behavior, I am more than happy to listen and correct the models.

Here is the last group of screens I will take for now (so I can get back to working on the models) – this group of screens includes a lot of close ups of many of the buildings: This is one of the base housing residential neighborhoods (west of mainside – when I was stationed there for comms school, this area was nearly empty). I have NOT tried to replicate each building type but instead went with a more generalized building that can be used in various area around the map. Additionally, I went with low poly models to keep the focus on high FPS play instead of really pretty houses/buildings. When I studied the psychology of simulations and training, I learned that when you are actually “fighting†in the virtual world, little details like rain gutters and such don’t actually matter much to your brain. Therefore, if you are walking the streets from the perspective of a tourist, the buildings may look horrendous. However, if you’re engaged in a firefight, you shouldn’t even notice. Here is another building type – the larger buildings have this concrete type build whereas the smaller buildings are mostly concrete block in nature: Another view of the city lights at night – on the left is the residential area seen above while the right is Mainside - note the reflection of the moon's light on the sand toward the right side of the image along the base and side of the hill (I remember it looking a lot like this in real life): More city lights – this time, we are flying over the southwest section of the map (based on real world data). Buildings are spread out along dirt roads. Flying over that same area in the daytime, you can see arroyos, several dirt roads and the main hardball the goes east-west: Flying a little further west than the above shot, you can see more houses as the terrain gently rolls toward the horizon: Heading west above the houses, you can see the central mountains off in the distance. Final shot of that flight as the sun sets over that large residential section. I don’t have the data right in front of me but it is something like 5 kilometers from north to south and 10 or so from east to west: Southern end of the central mountains: Killing tanks at 3.5 kilometers:

And yet a few more: Burning armor from an adjacent infantry section: One of the fortified positions on the map: Artillery position in the eastern portion of the map: Infantry perspective of another arroyo: Low 1/2 moon brightness on the terrain – note the flares and burning armor – several kilometers away: Similar location to the shot above – just in late afternoon – again, view distances are 10 kilometers: Sunset view of the mountains – not many buildings out here, just the occasional fortification:

Here are a few more screens of the map and some of the buildings: Please keep in mind that the view distance is 10,000 meters. Mountains at sunset: Approaching the main gate in the early night: Main Gate: Southern end of mainside – baseball fields, housing and large buildings: Some of the varied terrain in the southeastern part of the map: One of the MOUT facilities: Another view of the terrain from the infantry’s perspective: View from a hill in the southern part of the map looking towards to valley which separates the central and eastern mountain ranges: Airstrike on roads leading northward – you can also see the boundary of the map of the right side of the mountains: Another airstrike:

I appreciate the positive comments! It helps to keep me focused on getting it done. I have removed any shine the lights have so they are just points of lights. The down side is that they don't illuminate anything when you are near them (like a street light does). The up side is that they look great from a distance and through NVGs. I figured that the ups outweighed the downs and therefore have left them that way. I would like feedback on this item once I release the BETA. I have notice a few inconsistencies with the lights and I am working on it - i.e. I have to load the map twice in order for all the lights to come on - no idea what's going on there but at least I know the workaround. There are several airfields and one very large airbase (EAF). It is kilometers long and is based on the real airfield there. There are two small civilian fields in the southeast and southwest parts of the map. There are also two "hasty" fields in the desert area to the north. I believe that the airfields that are on the map should be enough for a wide range of missions and focus points for combat. I am hoping to get a few more screens up later today.

Awesome! Just awesome.

Some more screens: Southwest area of map - near residential build up - mostly flat with some arroyos: Central mountains (southern end): Mainside: Editor Map of Mainside: Editor Map of one of the MOUT areas: Northwest area of the map - mountains in the distance are about 7 kilometers away: Similar to above shot just further south and closer to the mountains: Southern end of the central mountains (and armory depot in the bottom of the screen): City lights in predawn (one of the fictitious areas of the map): South central area of the map - a few kilometers from mainside and the main airfield:

It depends on the poly count of your buildings. You can have a dense urban area so long as you keep the poly count low.

What was it?

Thanks for the help. I've had them all the correct way until recently where I tried to add the master class house. I'll try it again later today and see if that fixes it. I appreciate the help and sorry that you had to repeat yourself again. :)

I have not yet downloaded this but I had one quick question. Is it possible (perhaps using Attitude/Altitude (ATT ALT)) to set the autopilot to simple orbit a point? For example, when flying and waiting for a CAS mission, it would be great to simply press a button to orbit a far distance IP point and wait for the call for Close Air Support. Thanks!

I know it has been a long time since this was read but to help with future searches: RandSamp0[] = {SOUNDFILE, VOLUME, PITCH, DISTANCE, PROBABILLITY, Min DELAY, Mid DELAY, Max DELAY}

Thanks Thromp. I will try all those things. I appreciate the help.

Thanks again for the help. Here is the beginning section of the code: class cfgvehicles { class Thing; class Building; class Strategic; class NonStrategic: Building { class DestructionEffects; }; class HouseBase; class Land_VASICore; class House: HouseBase { class DestructionEffects; }; class Ruins; Maybe I need to change those buildings with lights to Nonstrategic and see if that will do it. I looked in the AllInOne.cpp and found that the default lighthouse is a child of just House (class Land_NAV_Lighthouse: House). I'd love to have lights on some of my buildings but this is getting to the point where it is beyond me. Thanks again.

Thanks for the help. I tried replacing "class Land_wgl_atc : House" with "class Land_wgl_atc : HouseBase" but then BinPBO has an error and will not finish binarizing the file. I tried moving it to the beginning of the .cpp but that did not seem to make a difference. I will keep plugging away at it.

I was not able to get it to work - I ultimately changed my satmap.

I know ArmA 3 won't come close to anything like this - SAMs Simulator gone mad: https://sites.google.com/site/samsimulator1972/home at all but having some more direct control over more technical aspects of vehicles/equipment (not relying on mods/addons) would be cool: Having been around since OFP (my Join Date is almost embarrassing), I've seen some incredible mods/addons but I would like to see more technically demanding options available from a vanilla version - be it tanks, trucks, tripods or whatever - I would like to see the option for more than "TAB, left click, BOOM." So, while SAMs is the title of the thread, I guess it should have been "Options for More Technically Demanding Interactions with Weapons, Vehicles and Equipment." Looking forward to ArmA 3 regardless of what is done with the game..

Blasting away tree branches would be great - I've always enjoyed pruning branches with a M249.

Maybe a good compromise would be something with AAA where the operator sees a screen that displays radar return information, from which he can select and lock on. Adding a few additional steps beyond "Tab, Click, Boom." The same thing could be applied to all other technical equipment. Tank drivers start a tank via several knobs/dials/switches/etc. Tank gunners have a few more options (imagine like ACE 2 +). Helicopter pilots have a few start up procedures and configurations for loadout. TOW gunners have a few more steps in order to get things ready to go. Again, I think all of these should be an option! There should still be a simple, standard version for those that want to have the simple technical details.

I think that level (from SAMsim) is too high but I would like to see something more in that direction. Of course, I think that it should be an option to turn on and off (server side or for SP).

Training: ~150 meters (500 feet) minimum height ~150 knots (173 mph) maximum speed for deployment. Combat: ~75 meters (250 ft) AGL It takes about 4 seconds for a chute to open. At combat minimum, that leaves about 5 seconds under canopy (or smacking the ground if your main didn't open - no time for a reserve). I've heard that Russians in WW2 jumped at even lower altitude into soft snow but I haven't find any research to back up this scuttlebutt (I have a feeling it is based on some rare/unique event and has grown over the years).