franze

Yes, Longbow HELLFIRE guidance outside of about 5km is finiky due to changes introduced in how the game calculates unit position outside of render distance. Within about 5km you're usually OK. Launch mode also matters; LOAL is much less accurate than LOBL.

I'll try to answer a few questions: Engine startup: This was a last minute thing demanded by Nodunit, so I didn't have time to include proper feedback of what's happening throughout the startup process. If you turn the battery on, then the APU, if the engine switches will go forward (on) then your sequence is good; if they don't, you need to go back and click the battery and APU again. After you switch the rotor brake off, you should be able to throttle up as with any other helicopter, but if you turn the engines off at any time you'll have to go back to the engine switches and continue from that step. You can use this switch in an init field to make it start up like any other helicopter: fza_ah64_cem = false I will be adding indications on the UFD and likely startup sounds to add some feedback for what's happening during startup. ArmA3: To be decided; a TKOH move has been planned for some time now. The scripting all needs an overhaul before we can consider a move in any case.

You can get around problems regarding aircraft roll, pitch, and yaw by using modeltoworld to find the right coordinates in model space and converting those coords to world space. From there you can use worldtoscreen to convert the coordinates to screen position and measure the distance from the center of the screen to show/enable your action based upon a distance threshold. This can involve a lot of trial and error to find the right coordinates in the model; using a custom model you can simply use named selections in the memory LOD with selectionPosition.

Depending on the aircraft, weapons aren't exclusive to one or the other crew member(s). In the Apache, both crew members can select any of the weapons; the only difference that comes into play is available sights for either crew member. Aiming the weapons is then accomplished by the on-board computers for a given sight; such that if the HMD is the selected sight, then the selected weapon will aim where the crew member looks. When it comes to 'ownership' of a weapon and a sight, whoever last selected the weapon and sight get ownership of it. I don't know if it is the same for other aircraft but I don't imagine there to be huge differences since most gunships with two crew members allow certain tasks to be swapped. You could handle it similar to controls tradeoff where the gunner simply gives the weapons to the pilot for the time being, just like pilot gives flight controls to the gunner.

I have the hooks in place for CMWS but the Block II that will be for the initial release won't have CMWS. It does have limited automatic ASE functioning but it only works against active radar threats, not passive IR threats.

There were a few incidents over the past 10 years where it was used, the guys on the side secure themselves to various points with straps and hooks to keep from falling off. In rare instances guys just sit on the side but this is very rare. You can see the straps in use here: http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?126443-Riding-Shotgun-AH-64-Apache-Style In our case, taking on passengers will limit usage of wing stores - using wing stores will injure the guys on the side.

I promised I'd do this earlier but only just now remembered to take a few pics during MP testing. This is from last night with me and Hellcat. First scenario is Night Strike, involving the destruction of an EWR and a hostage rescue. Sneaking up on the EWR site after escorting the CH-47 to it's hold point, we managed to take out the site and destroy a bunch of armor, but Hellcat got shot down and the ChDKZ executed the hostages due to the rescue squad moving too slowly. We made several attempts at this one but usually something went horribly wrong; once the CH-47 collided with me and took out my FCR plus my #3 station, leaving me with little combat capability. Another time we managed to clear out the hostiles but a stray 30mm round on my part killed the hostages. Clearly we need more practice at night ops. Next was Insertion, a scenario we've gone through quite a bit but still proves to be a challenge each time. A Russian-controlled airfield is to be taken by two AH-64Ds and a pair of UH-60Ms with a squad of infantry each. Me, followed by Hellcat, moving quickly to try a northern approach against the airfield. It didn't work out so well and Hellcat only managed to take out two SA-19s before being shot down. I got a few armored vehicles but eventually an SA-19 took me out with a well-placed missile. Another attempt, this time from the start, looking through PNVS. Without PNVS it's kind of dusty. On this attempt, I stuck with the UH-60s long enough to see them get shot down, plus managed to take out a SA-19 before another one gave me quite a missile hit. Hellcat picked me up before shortly being blown away himself. We gave up and loaded up a simple shooting range scenario after our last failure at Insertion. I chose to head out with a Longbow, Hellcat picked something different. En route to the target, I tried locking him up with FCR Air mode. At the range, I played around with my missiles and trajectories while Hellcat practiced his strafing. I then switched to gun and did a little bit of manual aiming practice. I then did some Bob-Up practice (poorly) with LOAL-LO mode. Hellcat managed to nose dive into the sand and turn a multi-million dollar helicopter into a new part of the landscape, so I went to pick him up. A good night to fly, even if we managed to lose every scenario we tried! :cool:

There's a high cost associated with the in-model interface but like everything else there's always a trade off. I agree with render to texture canvases - it would make creation of digital instrumentation in the cockpit so much easier. The HUD system has been in there since FP so there's already an existing baseline if they were to expand on it. So far the initial release will just be the AH-64D Block II. We have other models planned but the Block II is the baseline we're working from. This has been in progress for almost 3 years now and we designed it for ArmA2, that's where it's going first. ArmA3 may be the next big thing but it's not finished yet and we have a promise to keep to the ArmA2 community. I will try to get some more pictures the next time we do multiplayer testing.

There hasn't been much to report on; I've been working on missions, scripting, and documentation (including the online manual) while Nodunit has been working on the heavy and catastrophic damage models. I'm sure talking about all the troubles with scripting bugs and developmental arguments between me and Nodunit would get old real fast here. ;) The external model hasn't changed much but I'll humor you with a few screenshots:

Negative, we actually use modeltoworld to get the position of buttons/functions in the 3D model and combine that with a per frame handler to get precise positioning. We then use worldtoscreen to get the screen position and use distance from the screen center to activate certain functions. Noubernou made the initial headway on it and I think he's got a thread or two in the editing section on it.

Please use descriptive thread titles and search before posting, I believe this is what you're looking for: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?131141-briefing-for-every-playable-units&highlight=tasks

The plot, setting, and characters made the game; I don't think the combat parts were particularly unique or interesting. I think that the combat parts should have been made much lower key and more focus should have been put on exploring and piecing together the mystery. There's so much to look at and it felt interrupted every time an enemy showed up. It would have made a better adventure/shooter rather than a pure shooter. Spoilers following: In the end I enjoyed it, but I don't think it's the best game I've ever seen. Maybe the best 'interactive movie' I've played thus far.

It actually takes about a full day to make a mission from start to finish (briefings, etc - no voice/sounds) so in terms of time put forth missions are still up there. So far there are 10 missions in the campaign (most of which are done, just need some additional voice actors), two training missions (out of 5 planned and none of these are finished/polished), one single mission, and two multiplayer missions.

Goes beyond instruments: damage to the rotor will cause oscillations and make it difficult to control, while a full on rotor failure sends you plummeting toward the ground; damage to the wings and pylons can disable or destroy weapons; damage to the engines reduces power and can result in fires; plus a bunch of other secondary systems to go with it. It won't be as simple as alive or dead.

So, small update: CPG finally has full functionality to include cockpit actions and same pages that pilot has access to, which was a big hurdle for us and marks a significant milestone. The CPG will be more involved in the cockpit than the pilot as he focuses on the 'menial' tasks like PFZs, target aquisition, weapon management, etc. The second part is the light and medium damage, which consists of simple bullet holes and impacts on the body. This is the first part of the damage system; the second part is more significant damage which may take a bit longer before it's ready. Actual effects will be the usual: loss of weapons, sensors, hydraulics, controls, fires; plus secondary effects to include malfunctions in various computer systems affecting capabilities for navigation, targeting, and information sharing. This is all for A2 and we're not shifting to A3 until it gets near a full release. We're hoping to be able to make a real release long before then but it will likely not include everything we wanted to do. At a minimum it will be the AH-64D Block II (including NR variant), a small campaign, several single missions, and several multiplayer missions. From that point we hope to bring in the AH-64D Block II+, AH-64D Block III, and AH-64As, all with associated missions and an extra campaign or two if we can swing it.

A3 work will not be conducted until we've made an initial release for A2, so we haven't had a chance to really try things out in A3.

ArmA2 work will continue for the duration until ArmA3 tools are ready; we'd be progressing a lot faster if it weren't for computer crashes and getting sick. If we're within 2-3 weeks of ArmA3's gold release and we still haven't made a release, we will likely put out an initial version for A2 and keep incremental updates as time goes by.

No text messaging between aircraft, but target sharing and PFZs are in.

You don't put the proxy in the skeleton, you make a named selection bound to the proxy like any other part/bone. If you have "proxy:alexboy_c5\prox\leftaileron.p3d" then you need an additional selection bound to that proxy named "leftaileron" or whatever you want the bone to be named. That then becomes the bone you use in the config.

Anything that has to be a proxy and animated must be it's own proxy. IE your left aileron must be an independent proxy, your cargo hatch has to be in it's own proxy, etc. In this way you can keep your bones and animations in one skeleton. There is a 256 bone limit per skeleton however.

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3 years? I've been waiting since '03 or '04 when they first started on that. :p

The PNVS view is just the pilot's optics view linked to the PNVS turret.

Only in TKOH is this possible; ArmA2 doesn't have picture in picture capability.

Yup, uses the same functionality. It's not 100% accurate but on the fly it works. You can use the map for more precision. Part of the reason for that is we want to balance the older PNVS with the newer M/PNVS on the II+ and III/E. That's also quite old as it was added around the time that PNVS was implemented as a separate working turret for the pilot; that being said, nothing says we can't experiment with some different methods to balance out and give advantages to one or the other with means other than FOV limitations. PNVS also has zoom which I'm not sure if the real thing has. Your understanding of how we did the WCA page is correct; it shows only damage that's active and has not been fixed. Once it's been repaired or no longer applies, the message goes away. The WCA page displays messages in historical order, with latest messages at the top. We co-opted the WCA page to display all faults/damage and given the limited nature of the damage that we'll implement (we haven't finished the damage model or effects yet), more complex options were ignored. The UFD also displays those messages. Not exactly sure how it is with the -60s, but everything in the AH-64A manual says once your fuel switch is on, master ignition is on, all you have to do is momentarily hold the associated engine switch on for a second or two and the startup is automatic from there. The mind boggling question I have is mostly related to APU starts. ---------- Post added at 21:13 ---------- Previous post was at 19:35 ---------- Ok, second video of the week is a brief action video, showing part of the campaign mission 'Emerald Forge' to give you a feel of what it's like in the game: And a bonus, loading screens from three of the missions: Mission 5 Mission 6 Mission 9