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franze

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Posts posted by franze

  1. Posted

    Hey folks,

     

    As you've noticed, things on the "official" side of the house have been incredibly slow, if not nonexistent; I could give a dozen excuses as to why that's been, but in the grand scheme of things it would be a hollow gesture.

     

    I want to personally apologize for our failure to keep this up to date and properly integrate it with ArmA3. We gave it a fair shot but after building it for ArmA2, we were really burned out and couldn't put the right effort needed to make it work as it should in ArmA3. A lot of changes in regards to how the scripting engine handles things as well as inherent limitations with the engine itself meant that we really needed a lot more time to work out functionality, but neither me nor Nodunit really had the time and ability to do so.

     

    It's been a grand adventure and we're grateful for the support from the ArmA3 community, but this year will mark 5 years since we released the AH-64D for ArmA2, on top of the 8th year since we started the project. It's time to move on and pass the torch to the next generation -- and the Apache is open source for those who wish to do so! I will not be doing any regular updates anymore, but I welcome the community to tinker with the mod as they desire. Feel free to send me a PM if you have a question or need help with something!

     

    As for me, it's been 15 years of modding for the FP/ArmA community. I still have some of those first models I made, so very long ago, when my imagination outstripped my capabilities; it's amazing to look at how much has changed in the decade and a half since then. Those early days were quite rough and sometimes I wonder why I stuck with it, but I look back at what we achieved at the pinnacle of all of it and can say it was definitely worth it! Alas, nothing lasts forever and it's time for me to move on. I would like to release more of my source files (though probably not the more embarrassing ones!) but I already have a thread for that, so will update that one when I have the inclination to do so.

     

    In closing, to all aspiring would-be modders: you will try, you will stumble, you will fail, but eventually, you will succeed. The only limitations are the ones you place on yourself; don't let others dictate to you what you can or can't do. Good luck!

    • Like 9
    • Thanks 8

  4. Posted

    A long time ago, I used to make addons. A lot of them! In fact, it's been almost 15 years since I first started modding for Operation Flashpoint; about half my lifetime. I've learned a lot from this great community, met some very interesting people, and have done things that I never would have thought possible way back in 2002. But things are different; things have changed, and with it, so have I. In 2002, when we first got O2, it was incredible the opportunity that tool presented to us. Unless you had the big money for Maya or 3D Studio, you didn't have many options for making 3D models. Blender was only just starting to become a free piece of software and wasn't widely known, while other options like Milkshape were considerably clunky and difficult to work with. Today, not only do we have more advanced free tools that rival commercial offerings, but also widespread knowledge regarding content creation. It's an incredibly different world in what we can do with software today, not to mention how much more straightforward it is to learn compared to 15 years ago. Sometimes I wish I were 15 years younger so I could start again, knowing what we have out there now!

     

    Alas, time and technology marches on, and life has passed me by. I've determined that I no longer have the desire to create content for the ArmA community. It's time for me to move on and let go. But before I do that, I thought I'd showcase a few things that I've made over the years, released open source for you, the community, to check out!

     

    None of these addons are complete and some are not even working; a number are just empty meshes. The intent behind them is just to tell a tale, a story of how far we've come over the years. Much as an artist builds their skills over time, so do we. Our first projects are almost always cringe-worthy, and no matter how hard we tried, they never turned out the way we imagine them to be. That feeling never leaves you -- it's there whether it's your first or your most recent.

     

    My first showcase is of a number of fixed wing aircraft I've made over the years. My first was an A-10 and it was quite shoddy; sadly, I no longer have any pictures or files from it, so I can't share it here. The next time I seriously tackled fixed was with an F/A-18A, after I and Nodunit had already made the AH-64D for Flashpoint. That eventually evolved into the F/A-18E/F, released right at the tail-end of the FP days:

     

    missionready_f18.jpg

     

    In those days, we had limitations like only one bone per selection (!) and a max named selection count of 128! It was the dark ages of modding in the FP community! Still, we managed to do things like a (at the time) working cockpit:

     

    sh_office.jpg

     

    As well as customizable loadouts:

     

    weapons.jpg

     

    ArmA1 cleared a lot of those limitations -- we got multiple animations per selection, a huge boost in named selection limits, much more flexible proxies, and a suite of new scripting capabilities. I forward ported the Super Hornet, though at the time it was poorly received. Still, I kept going, and rolled into an Su-17M4 as my next dedicated project. I'm skipping over other minor projects like a MiG-29, F-22, and some others I played with but never really finished for Flashpoint.

     

    fza_su17m4_alpha_2.jpg

     

    The Su-17M4 was an ambitious project; I had intended to create a whole 30 mission campaign around the aircraft, using my own map and units. This was foolhardy and I ended up getting bogged down with everything, since I had to create all the assets by myself. I ended up being unable to finish it before ArmA2 was released, so it ended up in a very alpha state for ArmA1. As ArmA2 changed a lot of the scripting elements, it didn't port very easily and so never took off. Some of the assets I made for this project were a basic MiG-23 and an An-12.

     

    mig23_rogue_1.jpg

     

    For ArmA2, I tried to move into an F-16C and while the model went together pretty well, the rest didn't really follow. Still, it served a purpose: much of the systems and scripting made for the F-16 were rebuilt for use on the AH-64D. The missile guidance scripting has its origins as a JDAM/GPS script from the F-16, while the IHADSS was built from a JHMCS script!

     

    f16_new.jpg

     

    20170902161036_1.jpg

     

    From that point forward, I and Nodunit dedicated ourselves to the AH-64D and associated content. I never accomplished what I wanted to with fixed wing mods, but there's no doubt I learned much from all the attempts.

     

    For now, I have the F-16, Su-17, and MiG-23 working in ArmA3, though not with all the current features (they were ported to ArmA3 before we got a lot of the Jets DLC upgrades).

     

    F-16

    Su-17

    MiG-23

     

    The F-16 and the Su-17 have customizable weapon loads, though there is no structured menu available for either. The MiG-23 operates like any other pre-Jets aircraft and has a fixed load of 4xR-60 and 2xR-23. The F-16 has the old, original JDAM scripting I made for it many years ago, plus some other very basic stuff. The Su-17 was actually ported with intent of exploring what CreateSimpleObject could do in terms of loadouts, but I ended up doing some other things with it like CCIP and gunsight parallax experiments.

     

    As for the other stuff I have, I've clustered them into a single package that is mostly just models; don't expect any of these to work in ArmA3, though a little config work can get them in game.

     

    Franze's Jets

     

    I'll update this again in a few days detailing the history I have with helicopters! :smile_o:

    • Like 27
    • Thanks 3

  9. Posted

    On 7/8/2017 at 8:28 PM, Snakeyes1 said:

    I'm playing a scenario in the editor. Yes I do click on the dashes with the desired ordnance selected. I will try again tonight as the gunner. I have ammo, fuel and repair trucks parked on the tarmac to resupply the aircraft. This afternoon I was playing in the gunner seat and rearmed and refueled by simply hovering over the trucks. It's not ideal with the ordnance because you get the default load out, but it works. I'm loving the Longbow in ArmA 3! I played the hell out of Janes Longbow 2 back in the day.

     

    Another question. Is there a server key available so I can run AH-64D missions on my server? If not, how difficult is it to create a generic server key to make it work?

     

    I'm not sure what to say because the arming system is fairly complicated, so if you can tell me step-by-step what you're doing, I can probably tell you what's going on.

     

    Also, I have a key for the stock version available here. The custom version all depends on who packs it with what key.

     

    On 7/11/2017 at 0:17 PM, islesfan186 said:

    2 questions:

     

    1 - how do I start off flying without the aircraft shutting down?  If I place a unit in the air, it starts with the engines running and stuff, then just shuts down.

    2 - Since I'm just messing around, I'm playing as the pilot and have a playable gunner I can switch to.  The problem is if I'm the gunner, the AI pilot just lands, even if I have this flyinheight ___ in the units init.  If I take controls, I cant use the tads because the aircraft follows my mouse inputs thinking I'm steering the aircraft as opposed to panning the sight.  So my question is, can I just get the AI pilot to hover when I switch to the CPG?  Or how can I pan the TADS when I have the aircraft controls without moving the aircraft?

     

    Because Eden broke a few things with it, the only way to start off flying without it shutting down is to use the switch fza_ah64_cem = false which turns off the complex startup procedure.

     

    #2 is an engine limitation. Default aircraft are the same way.

  13. Posted

    On 6/2/2017 at 2:17 PM, islesfan186 said:

    Are you guys still planning on releasing the BII+ and BIII/64E variants?  I remember from testing these back in the day you had the models, but no textures or different functions.  I don't remember if you guys had a model with the VUIT/TOMMA system, but would be cool. Now that I've finally gotten into A3 after a pretty extensive break, I'll probably start messing with these bad boys again now that I have some free time

     

    We had the VUIT mast, but the other parts and pieces like CMWS and TEDAC weren't finished. I don't think we'll be getting to those variants anytime soon, nor will we be getting back to the 64A.

  15. Posted

    On 4/27/2017 at 4:11 PM, Hvymtal said:

    Saul is IIRC the one who introduced the entire concept of changing aircraft loadouts into Arma in the first place (correction, Franze and his amazing Su 17 came a year earlier),

     

    Actually, the original concept was done back in the FP days by a dude named "Hawk" if I remember correctly. He made a modification of the BI Ka-50 from Resistance to have multiple loadouts controlled via the action menu. I took this concept and applied it to my own AH-64D as I had been looking for a way to make a 16x HELLFIRE loadout that would still work with ATAS at the time. That spawned the original AH-64 pack that me and Nodunit did in 2005. This was later applied to other aircraft, including an F/A-18A/B/C/D addon I worked on, which became the F/A-18E/F for FP and later ArmA. The Su-17 expanded on this to include some concepts involving guiding munitions and munition scripting. Finally, the AH-64D from 2013 solidified the concept in ArmA2.

     

    Other developments included ACES for FP which was very similar to what we have now, but I don't remember the movers and shakers from that one; not to mention other systems that were developed for ArmA2 which used proxies a bit more efficiently.

     

    Little bit of mod making history for everyone. :)

    • Like 8

  17. Posted

    11 hours ago, Fallingstorm said:

    Hi Nodunit and Franze

    can you look to this?

     

    File fza_ah64_controls\config.cpp, line 6753: '/CfgVehicles/fza_ah64d_b2e/Turrets/MainTurret.usePiP': Missing ';' at the end of line

     

    inside Code :

     discretedistance[] = {1, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000, 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2000, 2100, 2200, 2300, 2400, 2500, 2600, 2700, 2800, 2900, 3000};
        discretedistanceinitindex = 3;
        GunnerHasFlares = 1;
        isCopilot = 1;
        usePiP=1

     

    That error does not exist in my version. Make sure you're using the latest version.

     

     

    11 hours ago, Fallingstorm said:

    And can you take a look on this?

     

    [XEH]: fza_ah64base does not support Extended Event Handlers! Addon: @VH_AH64
    [XEH]: fza_ah64a_l does not support Extended Event Handlers! Addon: @VH_AH64

     

     

     

    Sorry, but no. If someone wants to add XEH support to the open version, that can be done.

  19. Posted

    Folks,

     

    I've been getting bandwidth warnings from my webhost; apparently, the previous version (1.42) somehow got an incredible number of hits from 8 March to 17 March. I have no idea as to the what, why, and how for this, but I've decided that the file downloads need to be moved somewhere else for now. For lack of a better option, I've set up a drop box account and moved the most recent files there.

     

    AH-64D v1.43 (dropbox)

    AH-64D v1.43 Source (dropbox)

    • Like 2

  20. Posted

    3 hours ago, Sacha Oropeza said:

    Franze, Nodunit, have you guys changed other things concerning v1.43 on top of the lines you posted ? The RPT appears to be much more lighter than before according to ShiftyFR. Perhaps some 3D files aswell ?

     

    During troubleshooting, I opened up all the model files and saved them again with the latest O2, just in case there was some old error lingering around. That may have corrected a few small bugs.

  22. Posted

    For those who are willing to modify the scripting:

     

    in ah64d_init.sqf, replace: 

    if(isNil "fza_ah64_pfsstate") then {30 cutRsc ["fza_ah64_mapfake","PLAIN"]; fza_ah64_pfsstate = true;};

    with: 

    if(isNil "fza_ah64_pfsstate") then {fza_ah64_mapfaker = addMissionEventHandler ["Draw3D", {[0] call fza_ah64_pfsched;}]; fza_ah64_pfsstate = true;};

    in "savetracker.sqf", comment this line out: 

    30 cutRsc ["fza_ah64_mapfake","PLAIN"];

    So it becomes: 

    //30 cutRsc ["fza_ah64_mapfake","PLAIN"];

     

    in "call_ihadss.sqf" replace all instances of: 

    ctrlCommit 0.01

    with: 

    ctrlCommit 0

     

    Background:

    Because OnEachFrame is not explicitly a per frame command, we have to run certain scripts to a certain set clock source - in this case, to a speed of 0.01 seconds. Previously, this functionality was done with a fake map interface, like what you get from the GPS map with ctrl+m. This allowed us to run the scheduler script every time a frame was drawn, thus allowing us more control in script timing and execution. It would appear that the fake map has some issues or problems that I can't figure out at the moment, so for the time being, addMissionEventHandler with a Draw3D event serves as a suitable replacement. I cannot be 100% sure that this is a permanent fix, but for the time being it seems functional in single player.

     

    I will try to do some more testing and if it's all good, I'll upload a hot fix for the controls file as well as the baseline development files.

    • Like 7

  23. Posted

    I'm looking into the issue now, to see if I can't determine if it's a scripting problem or a model problem.

     

    ETA: It is a scripting problem.

    ETA2: It lies in some of the initial scripting inits; I'm having to go line by line to figure out the problem child, so this may take a while for me to figure out what the exact issue is.

    ETA3: Found the offending line:

      

    if(isNil "fza_ah64_pfsstate") then {30 cutRsc ["fza_ah64_mapfake","PLAIN"]; fza_ah64_pfsstate = true;};

    I don't know if this is a particular problem with cutRsc or the script that makes it up, but it gives us a direction to look in for the problem. Trying to run the above manually results in a freeze.

     

    ETA4: The problem doesn't seem to lie within the script itself, but probably the false map function we derive the per frame handler from.

    • Like 4

  25. Posted

    5 hours ago, Sacha Oropeza said:

     

    Damn too bad... the model was wonderful ! I got hyped. 

     

    Also I saw your work regarding FLIR rendering. I was curious about it. Arma 3 Vanilla FLIR is unrealstic as everything is tinted in grey, whereas in the reality, building and other stuff render well trough it. I'd like to find a way to get a better FLIR.

     

    We tried doing a mix of FLIR with HDR/NV for the HMD PNVS display, which helped somewhat, but such a solution isn't possible for actual heads down views.

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