wolfbane

I just had to dig up my old account after all this time MIA so i could drop by and say that I love the demo! Can't wait to get my hands on the full game now :) Oh and you did a damn fine job with the tracers.. I'm loving them ;)

This is a small script addon that i´ve worked on for some time now for my own use. But i thought maybe the ofp community could have some use for it too so i decided to release it. This is addon aims to provide a bit more realistic tracerrounds. The tracers comes in 4 colors to choose from. There are two types of tracers, normal and glowing. The tracers can richochet off the ground realisticly and can also be set to a specific size. You can set the number of rounds between each tracer fired. Check out the readme on how to run the script. Latest version: Download v1.06 Download v1.06 Source Previous version: Download v1.05 Download v1.05 Source

Very nice vid, but there´s one thing that i think is very distracting and that is how the soldiers hold their weapons, it just doesn´t look right. It looks like the barrel of the weapon has a weird angle like it´s allways tilted slightly upwards. I´ve seen the same thing in an otherwise very nice vid for the Red Orchestra mod for UT2003. RO looked like a fantastic mod and i really liked to try it but as soon as i saw how the soldiers held their weapons it really turned me off. It simply didn´t look right at all and kinda blew the whole illusion of realistic ww2 battles right out the window. Dunno why i react so much to small details like that but i guess it has something to do with some very basic/primitive function in my brain or something..

Fyi i did not replace the stock tracers in my addon TracerFX. But other people have implemented my tracers in their addons/mods to replace the standard ammo based tracers for different weapons/units. All my addon is doing is creating tracers with the drop command and this does not affect the ammo based tracers of different weapons/units in any way. If you see ammo based tracers and my drop created tracers at the same time even if you have tracers switched to "off" in the game difficulty settings its not my addons fault but the fault of the addon for the weapon/unit that is being used, ie the default ammo based tracers for that particular weapon/unit is configured so that it can´t be switched off or just configured wrong for some reason. /wolfbane

Well, what can i say.. truly kickass work bn880! The custom tracer objects you made look really really cool just as i thought they would. I tried to do something similar for my little addon but i never really got it to work since i couldn´t get the config right. Very clever to use the car class/simulation, i don´t think i would have ever figured that out.. I think i know what tracers i will be using from now on..

No you can not do that without a complete rewrite of the code and some genious new engine workarounds.. It´s impossible to associate a specific weapon with anything since the weapon objects don´t have an object id that you can get hold of. If it was possible to get hold of a specific weapon´s (magazine would be even better in this case..) object id it would have saved me a shitload of trouble and weapon specific tracers would allready be in the addon believe me.The only thing you can do is to associate a specific type of weapon or ammo with something (in the addon it´s the tracers and a unit). I tried the idea with associating ammo types with tracers in a previous version but i removed it since it was just a pain in the ass to use. / wolfbane

Seems like my old filehost went down for some reason so i had to change the links to new ones. Download should work now.

World of Warcraft

New version is up, you find a download link in the first post. "Changelog 1.06 bugfix - a bug in the file wbe_tracerfx_cleanup.sqs was causing ctd. i couldn´t recreate the actual bug myself but i think i have found the cause of it and changed the code so it shouldn´t occure anymore (fingers crossed). fix - slightly increased the pause in a loop in the wbe_tracerfx_ricochet.sqs file so it´s not as cpu intensive as in the previous version." I hope the nasty CTD bug is fixed in this version but since i havn´t been able to recreate it myself i can´t be sure. Please try the new version and see if it works. If it doesn´t work i´ll try to fix it asap.

Yes i know that it would be a bit more realistic to have somewhat more elongated tracers rather than the perfectly sphere shaped tracers that are in the addon now. But it seems like some of you think it´s very easy to change that. I just want to tell you that it´s not. To create elongated tracers i need to create custom models for the tracer objects, a config file to go along with the new tracers objects and pretty much rewrite all of the script code as it is now. I´ve been working on just that for some time now on and off but i´ve had some major problems to get it to work right and to little time to fix it. Then bn880 said he´s working on some tracers too with a similar concept to what i had in mind and i pretty much lost my motivation. His work will probably be so much better than anything i can do so i dunno if i will be releasing anything at all. Maybe i will, but please don´t hold your breath waiting for it.

The site seems to be down, is this the one they had? [imghttp://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/TECH/space/01/14/huygens.titan/top.main.titan.shoreline.jpg[/img] (From CNN) Omg that´s so cool, i think it looks like a shoreline to the right in that pic. But maybe i´m just imagining things.. Would´ve been neat to see that that pic in full color.

Oh crap.. that looks like a serious bug The code from error you posted is from a cleanup script running in the background. I havn´t been able to reproduce the error myself yet but i think i know why it occurs. I will try to fix it asap.

Thanks again for you kind words Miles Teg! I hope it works a little better than the previous version.

Latest version is now 1.05. Check out the first post for a download link. /wolfbane

Don´t worry i don´t see your post as whining at all. I totally agree with what you say. The idea of only supporting a handful of weapons was not very good at all. Even though people can add support for their favourite weapons ammo it´s still not good. The reason i implemented the check for different ammotypes was to get rid of the problem with tracers being fired when a handgrenade or a pistol etc was used. I think i have found a better way to solve that problem so i can get rid of the stupid limitation that requires support for different ammo types. So in the next update of the addon all your favourite weapons should be able to fire tracers and the silly problem with tracers being fired from handgrenades etc will hopefully be gone. If all goes as planned that is.. but i think it will (fingers crossed that i will not have as many problems and bugs as in the recent updates.. )

Unfortunately there seems to be a very serious bug in the addon from version 1.02 on. This bug is the reason for the numrounds parameter not working as it should. I can´t believe this bug slipped through my testing but it did. The weird thing is that it looked like the script(s) was working allright but infact it was only a part of it that worked as it should. I will release a new version to correct this bug. Locke: I will include your code for the trajectory of the tracers as it is more accurate than mine. I may implement it like Keycat suggested with a 0 to the speedmod parameter to enable it. I prolly make it the default setting too since it seems like that most of you would like it that way. The reason for the speedmod parameter is that those who want a slower tracer speed so that they can see the tracers better should have the option. The whole idea with this addon was not to make a super accurate replacement for the default bis tracers for longrange fireing with snipers or whatnot. The idea was to make machinegun fire from infantry units look a bit more realistic in firefights over normal ai engagement ranges, not nessecerily from the gunners point of view. Yes, you could call that eyecandy if you want. But i don´t think the tracers are totaly useless now as you say even if they are not following the actual bullet trajectory to a 100%. I can use them without problem to hit targets at fairly long ranges (way beyond the engagement range of the ai) dead on with a machinegun without using a crosshair, the default bis tracers and with the ricochets turn off. Tracers irl arn´t allways that super accurate either since the phosphour on the back of the projectile tend to burn out at random and/or fall off during the flight and thus creating all sorts of weird streaks of light in various directions (that´s not even close to the trajectory of the bullet) in the air. Keycat: I have considered adding some randomness to how often the ricochets are created but forgot about it. I will prolly implement that in the next version. Thanks for the suggestion. I can´t say for sure when the update will be available since i have alot of stuff to do irl but i´ll do my best to get it out as soon as possible. Thanks for your continued support. /wolfbane

Weird, i take a look at that and see if it could be a bug. You are running the script correct so it can´t be that. Somethig must be wrong in the code. Yup the glowing tracers should ricochet in version 1.03, i think i forgot to change that in the readme..

Oh, i´m really sorry kin hil i must have forgot about the color issue when i worked on the problem with the tracers being fired when throwing grenades etc. When i say i´m working on a fix for a problem it often means i´m thinking out a strategy to solve the problem. The actual coding is just a small part of the work and is often pretty straight forward once i have a strategy to work with. But sometimes it turns out that what i thought would be a good strategy just won´t work in code and i have to rethink the whole thing again. When that happens i sometimes get a bit carried away with the problem at hand and forget to implement things that i originally had in mind I will see if i can fix this problem in a new update however. But this problem has also turned out to be more complicated than i first though it would be since i somehow must keep track of each units individual weapon that have tracers enabled. I could create a basic fix for this pretty easily (i think) that would switch the color of the tracers based on just the side of the weapon that is picked up. But this wouldn´t be very good because if you pick up a weapon from say a dead unit that have not had tracers enabled you would still get a weapon that fire tracers just that the color is different. I need some time to work on this problem. I hope i can make it happen but i can´t say for sure. Again, i´m terribly sorry if i dissapointed you. /wolfbane

I´m sorry but i don´t know anything about that. You have to ask the authors of ecp and/or flashfx. The tracerfx script addon is free to use in any way people like including adding it to their own addons or mods, modified or not, without me approving it or anything like that.

nubbin77: Thank you, i´m glad you like it. Miles Teg: Thanks again for your kind words. I hope this little thingy works allright in your mod. Best of luck with the mod work. Kin Hil: Your first problem seems a bit weird yes, i´ll take a look at that and see if i can do something about it. But the second problem i don´t really understand to be honest. How´s that a problem? I don´t remember saying anything about adding the the color changing when you pick up different weapons thingy to the script. Or I did i? If i did i´m very sorry, i must have forgot about it. I could implement it though in a new version but i can´t say when that will be. Locke: Yes i know the tracer trajectory is still slightly off the actual bullet trajectory but that was a compromise i had to make. I did see that your version was more accurate and i thank you for the suggestion to use it but it just wouldn´t work with my idea about an option to adjust the tracer speed via a parameter to the script.

Ok v 1.04 is now available. Chek out the first post for a download link. "Changelog v 1.04 fix - the tracers are now only created when a bullet/projectile that is supported by the addon is fired from a weapon. this means that grenades, handguns and other weapons that are not supported no longer fire tracers. this also means that your favorite custom addons weapons may not work with this version of tracerfx. i´ve included support for the standard bis weapons and some of the most popular custom addons weapons for ofp. the custom weapons that are supported in this version of tracerfx in whole or part are those from JAM, LSR, INQ and MTCO. the different bullet/projectile types for all the supported weapons are defined in three files found under the scripts folder. the filenames are wbe_tracerfx_bullets_west.sqf, wbe_tracerfx_bullets_east.sqf and wbe_tracerfx_bullets_res.sqf for west, east and resistance side bullets/projectiles respectively. i´ve included a helper script in the addon so that you can find out what type of bullet/projectile your favourite weapon fires if it´s not allready supported. by using the script and noting the name of the bullet/projectile you can include that name in the wbe_tracerfx_bullets_*.sqf files so that the weapon will be recognized by the addon. to run the helper script add this line to the init field of the unit that has the weapon you want to know the bullet/projectile name of: [this]exec "\wbe_tracerfx\scripts\bullettype.sqs". note that the names of the bullets/projectiles in the wbe_tracerfx_bullets_*.sqf files are case sensitive. fix - i´ve changed the default speed of the tracers so that it matches the speed of the actual bullet/projectile fired. i´ve also added a new parmameter to the wbe_tracerfx.sqs script that is called speedmod. this parameter modifies the speed of the tracers, default value of the speedmod parameter is 1. setting this parameter to a higher value will decrease the speed of the tracers. if you for example set the speedmod parameter to 4 the speed of the tracers will be ~ 1/4 of the actual bullet/projectile speed. the trajectory of the tracer should now be more accurate over longer ranges even with a value higher than 1 for the speedmod parameter. however if you set the speedmod parameter higher than 4 the trajectory of the tracer will drop and thus not be very accurate so my reccomended maximum value for the speedmod parameter is 4. also note that even if the trajectory of the tracer is fairly accurate with a speedmod value other than 1 (up to a recommended maximum of 4) the tracer will still move slower than the actual bullet/projectile and thus arriving at the target a bit later. for information on how to use the speedmod parameter see the Usage section below in the readme. fix - tracers should no longer ricochet to early. fix - some readme updates."

The update will be available soon. I´m sorry if i´ve kept you waiting but i´ve had a lot of stuff to do irl. Anyhow i´ve made some changes to the addon that i think you may like and i´ll just have to go over the readme and some other stuff before i can release it.

Here´s a video of some real life mg action with my all time favourite weapon that is pretty nice. It´s an unoffical video from the swedish military police on a traning excercise where they fire the ksp58, swedish version of the fn mag 58. In the last few seconds of the video you will see how the tracer fire from it look. Ever since my time in the swedish army i wanted to have something that looked like the tracer fire of the ksp58 in my favourite game ofp. So now you know where my inspiration to do this little addon come from. I just wish i had a ksp58 or fn mag with such a powerful sound as the real thing ingame. Ksp58 video

I´m working on a fix for the issue with the color staying the same if you switch weapons. This will also fix the problem with tracers being fired when you throw grenades or fire a pistol etc. There´s no easy way of fixing this so it will take some time. I may be ready with it tomorrow but i can´t promise anything.

New version released. Latest version is now v 1.03. I´ve also released the source files of the addon as a separate download if you like to poke around in them without going through the hassle of opening the pbo file. You find the downloads in the first post of the thread. "Changelog v 1.03 fix - major overhaul of the code after suggestions by Romolus from the offcial forum at http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard311/ikonboard.cgi. the changes in the code removed some of the performance bottlenecks so the scripts should hopefully run a bit faster now. fix - i´ve commented all of the scripts so that it should be easier to understand what is going on for those that like to modify them. the commented scriptfiles for version 1.03 is also available as a separate download. change - the default value for the glow parameter is now 1, ie on. fix - some readme updates."