NonWonderDog

<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>NWD_TankFCS v0.2</span> (These actually zoom smoothly, and the maximum zoom is more than shown here.) Videos (from v0.1): Download: NWD_TankFCS v0.2 To install, just extract to your ArmA directory and add @NWD_TankFCS to the "-mod=" switch of your ArmA shortcut's "Target" line. If you use multiple mods, the "Target" should be, for example:<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">"C:\Your ArmA Path\ArmA.exe" -mod=@NWD_Ballistics;@NWD_ScopeFix;@GMJ_SightAdjustment;@NWD_TankFCS This mod requires the extended init eventhandlers mod! If you use GMJ_SightAdjustment, make sure to use the compatibility patch in the "examples" folder of the extended init eventhandlers mod. Just put it in your @GMJ_SightAdjusment/addons folder. -------------------------------------------- Description This mod replaces just about everything that has anything to do with firing the guns on a tank. First off, shell damage and trajectories are changed to be more in line with reality (APFSDS rounds will travel 100km+ in real life! ), and the coaxial machineguns fire at their real cyclic rates. That's not why you want it, though. In addition to changing the ballistic properties of the shells, this mod adds a simulation of the real fire control computers of both the T-72A and the M1A1 Abrams. The fire control works nearly exactly as it does in the real tanks (with a couple caveats), down to the smallest details I could find. As of version 0.2 this mod also includes a general upgrade of the tank models and damage simulations. The turret on the T-72 is declined at the proper 1°13' for firing from a hull-down position; the main gun sights are decoupled from the guns and placed in their proper sight housings, and the commanders' machine guns are more realistically modelled. The M1A1 Commander's Weapon Station is modeled (more) accurately, now, and can only be fired from the buttoned and semi-buttoned positions (no hip shooting, sorry). The 12.7 anti-aircraft machine gun on the T-72 is now mounted on the rear of the cupola, and can no longer be fired from inside the tank. (The commander's TKN-3 sight does not have any elevation adjustment either... so you might need to get proficient at designating targets from the orders menu.) Tanks are now completely immune to anything smaller than 20mm (I've fired 1000 rounds of 12.7, 2800 rounds of 7.62, and ten rounds of M1028 Canister (that's 1,150 12-damage projectiles each! ) into the side hull of a T-72 without appreciably damaging it, whereas a T-72 could be destroyed by as few as 600 7.62x51mm rounds before), and anything smaller than 40mm will do little damage. Where you hit the tank is now very important, as well. Hits to the frontal armor of an Abrams tank will accomplish very little. It will take ~3 M829A2 rounds or ~5 BM42 rounds to the glacis plate, or ~5 M829A2 rounds or ~8 BM42 rounds to the front turret armor to destroy an Abrams. However, a lucky hit may take out a track, the main gun, or the commander's weapon station, and repeated hits may disable the turret. Hits to the side or rear of the tank will likely be disabling. The T-72 is still very lightly armored in comparison, and an M829A2 penetrator is very likely to disable the tank from any angle. A single well-aimed shot to the lower side armor will touch off the ammo and cause a catastrophic explosion. High explosive ammo does slightly too much damage to the tanks currently. I'll need to change the damage of all high explosive shells (or replace the indirect damage with a fragmentation script) to fix this. The M830 and BK-27 HEAT shells in this mod behave realistically, but the M830A1 MPAT shells currently do too much damage to armor because they have to be able to damage helicopters indirectly. As of now, only the main gun sight is simulated properly. I intend to add night sights, auxiliary sights, and commanders' sights later. This also includes a bug-fixed version of my GLTD II rangefinder mod, described here. I used the GLTD II code as a base for this mod, but I can probably separate them again. I'll try to do that for a future version. (It's now available separately at that link.) -------------------------------------------- <span style='font-size:9pt;line-height:100%'>Gunnery Manual</span> M1A1 Gunnery Getting a fire solution in the M1A1 Abrams is easy once you know what you're doing. To hit a stationary target with the main gun, all you need to do is make sure you have the proper ammunition type selected (select "Change FCS Mode" in the action menu if not), place the target within the 1-mil circle of the reticle, lase the target, and fire. Firing with the coaxial is carried out identically, just switch to the coaxial machine gun, lase the target, and fire. If you are engaging with both weapons, you only have to lase the target once; the fire control system will apply the proper corrections automatically when you switch weapons. If the target you have lased is outside the programmed maximum range of the selected weapon, the range display will flash and the gun will elevate to the maximum programmed range (4000m for the main gun, 1800m for the coaxial). You can still fire on the target, but you'll need to apply additional superelevation manually. To lase the target in ArmA, press the "Lock Target" button -- the Tab key by default. You can also use the "LASE" action in the action menu. After you have lased the target, the reticle will be allowed to "float" if you move the sights. The important thing to keep in mind here is that your controls move the reticle. Wherever you put the reticle, it will stay. This is used for firing at moving targets. To cancel the reticle motion ("dump the lead"), just press the button you have bound to the "Look" function or select the "DUMP" action in the action menu. To fire at a moving target, you must smoothly track the target with the reticle for 1.5 seconds before you lase. Once you lase the target, the sights will jump in front of the target to apply the proper amount of lead, while the reticle stays exactly where you put it. Continue to track the target with the reticle, and fire. If you've carried this out properly, you will hit the target. If the target changes speeds, all you need to do is continue to track the target for at least 1.5 seconds before firing. If the target changes range during this time, you can lase again--the laser always points to the center of the reticle. The M1A1 turret traverse is such that you can actually hit a helicopter in flight. To have any chance of this, load M830A1 MPAT rounds and set the FCS mode to "MPAT (Proximity)". This will set the shells to detonate whenever they come within five meters of anything, after an arming range of 300-400 meters. (While it is triggered by terrain, it seems to ignore rocks and trees.) After each time you fire the gun, you must select the next shell to load. To reload the same shell type you have just fired, press the button you have mapped to the "Reload" action. The minimum laser rangefinder range is 200m, while the maximum range is 7990m. If the target is less than 200m away or more than 7990m away, the range will flash "0000". (I think this should prevent the gun from firing, but I don't know how to do that in script. Right now I think the script sets the gun to maximum superelevation.) There are a few extra controls in your action menu. "BSGT" sets the FCS to battle sight mode. This will set the range to the battle sight preset. (This preset will be adjustable in future versions, as of now, it's always 1200m). This is useful for firing APFSDS rounds at close range, if you don't have time to lase the target. Press the "binoculars" key to call up this mode. "Range Logic" refers to the method of dealing with multiple laser returns. If there is more than one object in the 1-mil circle when you lase, you may see a bar appear over the range. This means that the rangefinder has seen more than one laser reflection. By default, the range to the furthest reflection is displayed and entered into the fire control system. By selecting the "Range Logic" action in your action menu, you can toggle between this behavior and displaying the range to the nearest laser reflection. It won't display the other range until you lase again, in this version (this will change, eventually). "Toggle Coax" does exactly the same thing as pressing the button bound to the "Toggle Weapons" action. It's displayed in the action menu because that's the only way the script will work. T-72M Gunnery The T-72 fire control system simulated in this mod is the 1A40 FCS from the 1980s, which includes the TPD-K1 gunsight and a semi-automatic lead computer. Using this system is rather more difficult than using the M1A1 FCS, but firing at a stationary target is still pretty easy. To hit a stationary target with the main gun, you must make sure the proper ammunition type is selected, place the target within the red laser marker, lase the target, place the point of the large center chevron on the target, and fire. The currently selected ammo type is shown by the big red letter in the middle of the screen. "O" means high explosive fragmentation (HEF), "K" means high explosive anti-tank (HEAT), and the Cyrillic "B" (looks like a "6") means armor piercing (APFSDS in this case). To change this, select the "Change FCS Mode" action in your action menu. Note that the firing solution does not update when you do this. (It probably should. Wait for the next version.) To hit a stationary target with the coaxial machine gun, you must place the target within the red laser marker, lase the target, note the range, set the range to zero, place the point of the appropriate machine gun chevron over the target, and fire. The machine gun chevrons are the small chevrons that form a curve from right to left, and they are marked in hundreds of meters. To hit an 800 meter target, for example, you must place the point of the chevron numbered "8" (below and to the left of the main aiming chevron) over the target and fire. Lasing the target is accomplished with the "Lock Target" key or the "LASE" action. To set range to zero, press the "Look" key or use the "DUMP" action. To fire at a moving target, you must place the target within the red laser mark, track the target smoothly, and hold down the lase key until the lead value stabilizes. You will need to hold the key down for ~1.5 seconds before you have an accurate firing solution. If you are using a joystick, you will have to use a joystick mapping program to map the tab key to a joystick button -- binding "lock target" directly to a joystick button will not work. As the lead is computed, it will be displayed by red LED numbers to either the left or right side of the reticle. When you release the lase key, the number will freeze. To fire on the target, place the top of the mil mark on the same side as the lead display that corresponds to the number on the lead display over the target, and fire. For example, if you are tracking a swiftly moving target that moves left to right across your view, the lead may be displayed as "22,0" on the left side of the reticle. To hit the target, place the top of the small dash on the left side labeled "22" on the target and fire. If none of that made sense, watch the video. The laser rangefinder in the T-72M is of considerably poorer quality than the one in the M1A1. It really does fill the entire red hexagon. In addition, it always returns the range to the first reflection it sees. If that wasn't bad enough, the maximum range is only 3000-4000 meters depending on the weather; the minimum range is 500 meters. If your target is further than 3000-4000 meters away or less than 500 meters away, no digital range will be displayed, and the sights will set themselves to 800 meters. To fire at targets less than 500 meters away with the main gun, just let the sights set themselves to 800 meters and fire -- you should be close enough. In future versions you will be able to change the range manually. Although the rangefinder always returns the nearest range, you can lock out shorter ranges if you need to fire through trees. The minimum range can be changed between 500, 800, and 1200 meters for this purpose. For example, if you are firing at a 1500 meter target behind a few trees that are 700 meters away, and the rangefinder keeps showing 700, set the minimum range to 800. Getting an accurate range to a target that is more than 2000 meters away is very difficult; Soviet doctrine was to lase three times just to be sure. Keep in mind that there is a three-second cooldown phase after each laser usage that cannot be overridden. -------------------------------------------- Loadouts Loadouts are completely configurable. Every magazine holds exactly one round, so you can removeMagazine and addMagazine to get exactly the loadout you want. All rounds are currently considered "ready." I plan to make you reload the ready racks in a future version, but I really need a way to make the AI do likewise. The default M1A1 loadout is as follows: 27 -- M829A2 APFSDS (12 ready, 12 semi-ready, 3 stowed) 13 -- M830A1 MPAT (5 ready, 5 semi-ready, 3 stowed) 4 -- 2800 round belts for the M240C coaxial 10 -- 100 round ammo boxes for the commander's M2HB The above loadout is the standard anti-tank load. Tanks currently deployed in anti-personnel roles in Iraq apparently stock random mixes of explosive shells, with no APFSDS rounds at all. Only the lower two rows in the ammo racks are supposed to hold explosive shells, to reduce the chances of them getting hit by enemy fire, but this rule might be ignored more often than not. An Iraq loadout might look something like the following, with no rounds in the semi-ready rack or hull stowage: 2 -- M830 HEAT 5 -- M908 OR 3 -- M830A1 MPAT 3 -- M1028 Canister (if supplied) 8 -- 2800 round belts for the M240C coaxial 10 -- 100 round ammo boxes for the commander's M2HB The default T-72M loadout is as follows: 13 -- 3VBM17 (BM-42) APFSDS (8 in autoloader, 5 stowed) 17 -- 3VOF36 (OF-26) HEF-FS (10 in autoloader, 7 stowed) 14 -- 3VBK17 (BK-21) HEAT-FS (4 in autoloader, 10 stowed) 8 -- 250 round ammo boxes for the PKT coaxial 1 -- 150 round ammo box in the DShKM anti-aircraft gun (which really needs to be an NSVT) 3 -- 50 round ammo boxes for the DShKM anti-aircraft gun (1 ready, 2 strapped to the side of the turret) A mostly-realistic T-72B loadout would the the following, if that's your kind of thing: 13 -- 3VBM17 (BM-42) APFSDS (8 in autoloader, 5 stowed) 13 -- 3VOF36 (OF-26) HEF-FS (8 in autoloader, 5 stowed) 14 -- 3VBK25 (BK-29) HEAT-FS (4 in autoloader, 10 stowed) 5 -- 9M119 "Svir" ATGM (2 in autoloader, 3 stowed) 8 -- 250 round ammo boxes for the PKT coaxial 1 -- 150 round ammo box in the DShKM anti-aircraft gun (which really needs to be an NSVT) 3 -- 50 round ammo boxes for the DShKM anti-aircraft gun (1 ready, 2 strapped to the side of the turret) The magazine names (with descriptions) are as follows: NWD_M829A1 -- "Silver Bullet" of ODS fame (not yet in FCS) NWD_M829A2 -- most common APFSDS in current inventory (in default loadout) NWD_M829A3 -- new, world-beater APFSDS round (not yet in FCS) NWD_M830 -- dedicated HEAT round, being phased out in favor of MPAT (in FCS, but not in default loadouts) NWD_M830A1 -- multipurpose explosive round. Not good at anything in particular, but has a proximity fuse for anti-air duty (in default loadout) NWD_M908 -- obstacle reduction round, made for rubbling buildings. It doesn't really work right in ArmA (in the FCS as "MPAT," but not in default loadouts) NWD_M1028 -- Canister round, contains 1,150 3/8" tungsten balls fired at 1400 m/s (not in FCS, and not recommended for online play) 2800Rnd_762x51_M240 100Rnd_127x99_M2 NWD_3VOF36 -- Modern 3OF-26 high explosive shell, roughly equivalent to 122mm artillery (in default loadout) NWD_3VBK17 -- Mid-80's 3BK-21 HEAT shell, equivalent to 3BM-42 in penetration but with horrible ballistics (in default loadout) NWD_3VBK25 -- Early-90's 3BK-29 HEAT shell, with improved ballistics (unfinished, and not in the FCS anyway) NWD_3VBM17 -- Mid-80's 3BM-42 APFSDS round, now offered for export (in default loadout) NWD_9M119 -- "Svir" ATGM, used in T-72B for long-range engagements. It doesn't work correctly in ArmA. 250Rnd_762x54_PKT 150Rnd_127x108_NSV 50Rnd_127x108_NSV -------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- Known Issues This mod is currently to be regarded as beta. There may be any number of bugs in this mod, and I haven't tested it online at all. This version might work online if used on a dedicated server that does not have the mod installed, but running it on the server apparently causes issues. I'm working on fixing that for the next one. I still need to add: -- commanders' optics -- night sights -- trunnion tilt corrections -- manual range entry -- smoke dischargers -- fixed lead when traversing through dead south -- emergency turret control I found a very interesting feature in the damage model that's not used by default in ArmA -- the "turret" damage. If the turret selection is destroyed, turret traverse and gun elevation is frozen, and gun stabilization is disabled. If I add new, user controlled turret traverse and gun elevation animations to the model I should be able to implement manual turret controls for use if the turret is damaged. And it should work just like the real thing. Detecting turret damage may be very difficult, however. As this mod no longer relies on GUI controls for the reticles, it no longer causes problems on 5:4 aspect ratio displays. The range numbers may be slightly offset from where they should be, but it shouldn't be noticeable. Reticle motion is not as smooth as in the last version, unfortunately. The worst case is firing on a moving target from a moving Abrams tank, although high frame rates will mitigate this somewhat. I may be able to improve the smoothness in future versions. Repeatedly switching from the M1A1 gunner's seat to other seats in the tank may throw non-critical errors. This seems most common if the range number is flashing, so battlesight before switching positions until this is fixed. -------------------------------------------- Version History v0.2 -- AI T-72s now load APFSDS by default -- AI tanks no longer try to attack by firing their rangefinders into the sky (???) -- New T-72 machine gun ammo loadout (this should be the correct loadout, regardless of what you may find online) -- many new ammunition types added to the config, although not yet programmed into the FCS. -- New tank models, with many new features: - main gun reticles are now accurate at any zoom level. Both tanks have two field of view levels that will automatically toggle when you zoom in or out by the appropriate amount (as long as you use the keyboard for zoom). - T-72 turret is now declined 1°13' forward, as it should be - T-72 driver can now unbutton (but the turret is locked when he does) - T-72 commander's AA machine gun is now mounted on the rear of the cupola, and can no longer be fired from within the tank (the AI does not unbutton in combat, however, and thus will never use it) - M1A1 commander's weapon station is remodeled to look (kind of) like the real thing - M1A1 commander's machine gun can now only be fired from inside the tank or (unaimed) from a semi-buttoned position. You are currently not more protected when semi-buttoned than when unbuttoned. If you play with external views, you will still be able to fire ( and aim! ) the gun from the external view. You can also, due to a limitation in ArmA, zoom in to 3x magnification when semi-buttoned and looking through the vision block. - M1A1 gun superelevation is now applied by physically moving the gun barrel after you lase, instead of moving the shell when it's fired. - M1A1 dynamic lead is now applied by directly rotating the turret, and not by rotating the entire tank and relying on the AI driver to keep the hull stationary -- New, radically different damage models. Tanks are much better protected on their frontal aspects, and are completely immune to small arms. ----------------- v0.1 -- First Release

<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>NWD_Ballistics v1.6 / NWD_ScopeFix v2.2</span> Now includes all man-portable optics, with illuminated reticles! (I was lucky enough to hit him with my first shot, too. You need gmJamez' SightAdjustment mod to pull this off.) <span style='font-size:9pt;line-height:100%'>Downloads: </span> NWD_Ballistics v1.6 NWD_ScopeFix v2.2 Delete version 1.0 of either mod before installing. To install, just extract to your ArmA directory and add @NWD_Ballistics or @NWD_ScopeFix to the "-mod=" switch of your ArmA shortcut's "Target" line. If you use multiple mods, the "Target" line should read (for example): <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">"C:\Your ArmA Path\ArmA.exe" -mod=@NWD_Ballistics;@NWD_ScopeFix;@GMJ_SightAdjustment If you use gmJamez' SightAdjustment mod v0.4beta, installing NWD_Ballistics v1.6 will overwrite the in-game range cards provided by that mod. If you do not use the SightAdjustment mod, you will simply have a harmless extra directory in your ArmA folder. (If you install gmJamez' mod after mine, you will want to replace his range cards with the ones included in the NWD_Ballistics mod's @GMJ_SightAdjustment folder. gmJamez' mod must be installed to this folder in order to function properly.) <span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'>NWD_Ballistics v1.6</span> Comparison graphs: Stock Ballistics, NWD_Ballistics v1.6 This mod contains four pbos: NWD_Ballistics The supposed difference between the ArmA ballistics and the VBS2 ballistics is ArmA's lack of bullet-specific ballistic coefficients. With this mod, that difference is no longer. When poking around the data files, I found that the "airFriction" parameter can be set per bullet type. After a little research, a little ballistics calculator work, and a whole lot of tweaking, I've managed to create proper exterior ballistics for each small-arms bullet. Rounds now drop much, much more, particularly 5.56 mm and 5.45 mm rifle bullets. Since damage is dependent on speed in ArmA, that also means that body armor has no problem stopping rounds past 500-600 meters. You'll still take damage, but not much. In addition to increasing bullet drop, this mod will re-zero all small arms to fix a small issue in ArmA. The "distanceZoomMin/Max" values seemingly do not take sight height into account, and actually set the distance at which bullets will re-cross the plane of the barrel. This is not the same as zero, which is properly defined as the distance at which the bullets will touch or cross the plane of the sights. This ranged from a 3% error for .50 caliber rifles to a 47% error for M16s and M4s with ACOG scopes. In short, weapons should now be zeroed at the distances they were supposed to be zeroed at. Huge thanks to Kronzky and his portable target range. Without the ballistics tracking in that script, none of this would have been possible. NWD_RocketBallistics This pbo includes redone rocket and missile ballistics, including the AT4 and RPG-7. The M136 AT4 ballistics should be fairly accurate as long as you fire within +/- 10 degrees of horizontal. The RPG-7 is hopeless, but it at least has a realistic muzzle velocity and flight range. The other rockets and missiles have (mostly) realistic thrust times, impulses, and maneuverability. Javelin missiles will fly my best approximation of the direct-attack profile, climbing out to 25 meters before diving down. Without any script to do this, I had to decrease the missile maneuverability. Unfortunately, this means you will not hit any target closer than 350 m away from you. Javelin launchers aren't present by default in ArmA, so this isn't so terrible. This mod does not completely fix SACLOS ATGMs. ArmA guides these by placing an invisible target 1500 m in front of your sights and guiding the missile to that. This is a terrible method. You will never hit a moving target at ranges less than 1500 m, and you will never hit any target at ranges greater than 1500 m. At 1500m, the missile just starts to fly in circles around the invisible target. NWD_RealDispersion This pbo fixes something that annoyed me to no end: in the stock game, the accuracy of single shots depended on your fire mode! With this mod, single shots with your rifle set to automatic fire will be exactly as accurate as single shots with your rifle set to single fire. The AI will ( should! ) still have increased dispersion when laying automatic fire. Sniper rifle dispersion is also increased to realistic values, and MP5 and handgun dispersion is reduced to realistic values. Gatling cannon and machine gun dispersions are also reduced to their published values, being 1.5-3 mil for mounted machine guns and 5-8 mil for gatling cannon. Small arms dispersions are still set to twice what they should be, but that's the way it was before. I am fairly certain that the player gets a 50% dispersion reduction on small arms while prone, and that these settings are correct. NWD_SightAdjustmentPlugin This is one of my favorite parts, designed to be used with gmJamez' SightAdjustment mod v0.4beta. It will do nothing if that mod is not installed. This pbo can be used independently of the others, if that's your kind of thing. If you do have the SightAdjustment mod installed, this pbo will add accurate adjustment ranges and increments to every stock weapon. You will, for example, be able to set the SVD scope to 1000 m (+12.5 mils elevation in the mod) and use the lower chevrons for ranges of 1100, 1200, and 1300m. Assuming, of course, you are also using: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'>NWD_ScopeFix v2.2</span> images: M4 scope, M16A4 scope, G36 scope, M107 scope, M24 scope, Mk 12 SPR scope, SVD scope, AKS-74 scope, KSVK scope, M22 binoculars, BPOs binoculars, GLTD II laser designator display, Javelin CLU display + optional reticles This mod replaces all small arms optics with accurate versions, with reticles redrawn from scratch. Version 2 reticles also feature brand new optics models done from scratch, enabling reticle illumination and widescreen support. Reticles will be illuminated between dusk and dawn, whenever lights are on as decided by ArmA. Specific information about each reticle can be found under "extended information" at the image pages linked above. In short, all rangefinders, windage lines, mil dots, and BDC ticks are now at least 95% accurate, and the scope reticles now look (mostly) like they do in real life. All troops with binoculars will use binoculars with the M22 reticle (the old Steiner M22, not the new Northrop laser safe M22--I don't know what that reticle looks like) by default. If you wish for eastern troops to use binoculars with the BPOs reticle (old Soviet issue, but the new binoculars--whatever they are--probably use the same reticle), you must use one of the optional mods below. To use binoculars for rangefinding, follow the real procedures. This mod has usurped the ACOG and M19 binocular reticle mods provided with the first release of my ballistics mod. Options These are provided in the "extras" folder. To install any of these, move them to the "addons" folder. Don't place two binocular zoom mods in the addons folder at the same time, or the reticles may be incorrectly calibrated. NWD_G36_NarrowFOV.pbo -- 5° FOV G36 Reticle This is equal to the real field of view of the G36 3x optic. However, I'm pretty sure the G36 scope is meant to be used with both eyes open. Not only is this impossible in ArmA, but the only aimed mode for the G36 is through the scope; there is no red-dot optic for close range. This is provided mostly in case someone manages to add a G36 with a working red-dot sight, but you can use it if you think the 50% larger field of view I've provided by default is "cheating." NWD_4xBinoculars.pbo -- 4x M22 and 4x BPOs Binoculars The default ScopeFix binoculars provide a realistic 7° horizontal FOV on a 4:3 monitor. If that's not enough for you, these provide a realistic 7° FOV vertically as well, although they are only 4x power instead of 5.25x power as in the default mod. NWD_7xBinoculars.pbo -- 7x M22 <span style='font-size:7pt;line-height:100%'>or 7x widescreen M22</span> and 7x BPOs Binoculars While the default ScopeFix binoculars provide a realistic 7° horizontal FOV, they are only 5.25x power. The real binoculars are 7x power. If that makes you feel slighted, this mod is for you. As you can see, however, these binoculars have a restricted 5° horizontal FOV in a 4:3 resolution. If you have a widescreen monitor, you may prefer NWD_7xBinoculars_Widescreen.pbo instead. This mod provides nearly the full 7° field of view if you have a 16:9 monitor. You can use this on 4:3 monitors, too, but it doesn't feel like looking through binoculars at all. NWD_8xGTLDII.pbo -- 8x power GLTD II display The default laser designator display is correctly proportioned, but is only 5.25x power so it can all fit on the screen. The real optic is 10x power, but that just won't fit. In this mod, the optics portion is zoomed in to 8x power, and fills the whole screen horizontally. The view field is very restricted vertically, so the display can still be shown. It still turned out pretty well, though. NWD_AK74_PSO1.pbo -- AKS-74 PSO-1 Reticle The default ScopeFix reticle for the AKS-74 is a PSO-1-1 style 400m rangefinder reticle. This reticle is a PSO-1 style 1000m rangefinder reticle. I don't know what the special reticle the Russian special forces use when they put a PSO on an AK-74 looks like, but I'll bet it looks like one of these. Use whichever you like more. The PSO-1 style reticle has an 800 m chevron in addition to the 100, 400, and 600m chevrons, but it's nearly impossible to hit anything at 800m with an AKS-74. NWD_M107_M8541.pbo -- M8541 scope for the M107 This reticle would be a better fit on an M40A3, but he Marines eventually intend to use this scope for all of their scoped rifles, including the M107. It's a 3-12x power scope with a very busy reticle that I don't particularly care for. The reticle should be in the first focal plane and therefore vary in size when the scope is zoomed, but that's probably not possible in ArmA. It's calibrated to 12x magnification instead. NWD_ExtraBinoculars.pbo This pbo may cause problems in multiplayer, and any mission created with it active will require all clients to be using it. This pbo replaces the M22 binoculars with BPOs binoculars for all Eastern troops. It also adds binoculars to all special forces troops because, by golly, they should have binoculars. The ScopeFix pbo also includes a PSO-1-1 reticle calibrated for 9x39mm SP-5. This is included because I know for sure that it exists and is used by the Russian army. I can't say that about many PSO reticle designs. The BIS PSO reticle was from a civilian POSP, for instance--not a combat scope. If anyone wants to use any of these reticles in a mod, go right ahead. I'd like that you give me credit and use the opticsZoom values in my mod, but that's all. I am still looking into providing binoculars to tank commanders, but it seems that inside and outside optics are forced to have the same magnification. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ISSUES: #Russian weapons are disadvantaged at long range by these ballistics. That's just the way it is. However, US 5.56 mm is simulated as brand new NATO-spec M855 green tip while 5.45 mm ammo is simulated as poorly-performing 1970's style 7N6 because it's the only cartridge I could find definite data on. The Russian ammo included in the mod is very common ammo, especially for non-Russian armies, so this isn't as outrageous as it may seem. The Russian army may be issuing 7N10 enhanced penetration ammo to front-line units nowadays, so I'll try to implement this ammo if I can find enough data--for parity, if nothing else. I plan to make M995 AP for the M249 and 7N22 AP for the spec-ops AKS-74 some time in the future, too. #Subsonic rounds are not as accurately simulated as the others. Subsonic 5.45 does exist, and is in fact the only type of ammo that can safely be fired through a suppressed AK-74 in real life, but I couldn't find any information about it except its name (7U1) and weight (80 grains). Subsonic 5.56 is not used by any military. Various subsonic handloads exist, and you can buy very heavy subsonic custom ammo, but no military in the world uses subsonic 5.56. Nonetheless, I've filled the 5.56SD magazines with 75 grain subsonic cartidges. This ammunition should not, by rights, cycle the action of an M4. I think I'll switch it to 100 grain Extreme Shock nonsense in the next version because of that. I'll also see if I can restrict availability of 5.56SD magazines, and give special ops guys a majority of Mk. 262 ammunition instead. #Damage depends on bullet speed in ArmA. I've tweaked the 5.56mm and 5.45mm rounds with this in mind. They should be one-hit kill at ranges below 50m, about the same damage as stock at 200m, and less damage past that. At 800m, it will take about 8 hits to kill someone unless you hit them in the head (you wouldn't be able to penetrate their body armor, anyway). Damage for other bullets may be a bit off. Subsonic rounds in particular might need some work. #If you use the ExtraBinoculars mod, you will not be able to call up Russian binoculars with the "b" key; you need to use the action menu. This is a limitation of ArmA, in that the binoculars key will only work with the "Binocular" weapon. It will not work with anything else currently occupying your binoculars slot, such as my "EastBinocular" weapon. You can still use the "next weapon" key to put your binoculars away, so this is only a minor inconvenience. #Mil dots aren't perfectly sized due to resolution issues, but they're close enough as long as you don't try to subdivide them too accurately. I may be able to make it more accurate by using multiple textures, but the difference probably wouldn't be noticeable except at very high resolutions. #Night vision field of view settings are ignored by the game. As it is, the stock NVG model is probably the best compromise. Two NVG optics models that take up less of the screen are included in the ScopeFix pbo, but the field of view is far too wide if you zoom the view out. Neither of these models is enabled by default. #The BPOs reticle is probably too thick. It matches illustrations I have, but illustrations are usually wrong. If anyone has a photo of this reticle, I'll change it in an instant. #Due to a misunderstanding of the proper optics model dimensions, optics created before v2.2 are 2.4% bigger than intended. This doesn't have an effect in the game, since I'd unknowingly corrected for this error when I calibrated the zoom levels. For future reference, the proper reticle model size is 1.00x0.75 units inside of 5.12x3.84 units of black space. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version History NWD_Ballistics v1.6 -- tweaked missile maneuverability -- changed LGB maneuverability back to stock -- decreased HEAT and GBU-12 damage -- increased Kh-29L damage -- improved AI handling of M136 AT4 and RPG-7 -- added incendiary flash to appropriate ammo -- re-added extraBallistics.pbo in case anyone wants to use the ammo within for a Vintorez or Val. It does nothing on its own. ----------------- v1.53 -- fixed online annoyances with sightAdjustmentPlugin -- removed useless extraBallistics pbo, it will be readded when it contains something useful -- re-added range cards (sorry) -- changed M1A1 loadout to more realistic 27 APFSDS-T, 13 HEAT-T ----------------- v1.52 -- various sight adjustment range tweaks -- removed Javelin opticsZoom values (oops) ----------------- v1.51 -- tweaked sight adjustment ranges for AK-74, PKM, M240, M16A2, and M24 ----------------- v1.5 -- New SVD ballistics, fit real reticle out to 1300m -- started on 7.62x54R B-32 API for vehicle machineguns -- various small ballistic tweaks -- removed ACOG reticles ----------------- v1.0 -- First release NWD_ScopeFix v2.2 -- New, thinner M22 binocular reticle, from photos -- New GLTD II laser designator optics -- New Javelin CLU display ----------------- v2.01 -- Fixed missing texture in default G36 reticle ----------------- v2.0 -- Fixed M16A4_ACOG_GL optics -- Tweaked PSO-1-1 reticle to have 400 m aiming point -- Recalibrated all optics zoom values for better accuracy -- Added 12x Gen 2 mil dot reticle -- Added 14x oval mil dot reticle for the M107 -- Changed round mil dot reticles to have 0.5 mil posts and 11% bigger (now 3/4 MOA instead of 0.2 mil) dots -- Added illuminated reticles for scopes that should have them -- Added new models for all optics, with widescreen support and more accurate crosshair loacation -- Made extra binoculars component modular -- Merged default option mods into NWD_ScopeFix.pbo ----------------- v1.0 -- First release ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Current Ballistics Status (v1.5) While my ballistics are very much more accurate than those provided by default, they are by no means perfect. This is a list of all the ammo covered and all the ammo I'd like to cover, rated by my confidence in the current ballistics. All current ammo in ArmA is covered by this mod, but I plan to add multiple ammo types in each caliber. Numbers in parentheses are for the next version. Ratings explanation: 1 -- I've spent no time trying to make this accurate, and have just given it a ballpark number 2 -- I have no ballistics data for this ammo, and have generated the ballistics from bullet weight and diameter alone 3 -- I am not confident in my data, or the in-game ballistics vary from that data by up to 5% 4 -- I do not know that my data is accurate, but it is believable and matched in-game Perfect -- These ones are perfect. These rounds fit known bullet drop compensation sights to better than 99% accuracy Ammunition Accuracy For ArmA 5.45x39mm 7N6: 4 5.45x39mm 7N10: -- 5.45x39mm 7N22: -- 5.45x39mm 7U1: 2 5.56x45mm M855: Perfect 5.56x45mm M995: -- 5.56x45mm Mk 262 Mod 1: 4 5.56x45mm 75grn subsonic: 2 5.56x45mm ASP: -- 7.62x51mm M80: 4 7.62x51mm M118LR: 4 7.62x54mm 57-N-323S: 3 7.62x54mm 7N1: Perfect 7.62x54mm 7N13: -- 7.62x54mm 7N14: -- 7.62x54mm 7N26: -- 7.62x54mm 7BZ-3: -- (3) .303 British: 1 9x18mm 57-N-181S: 3 9x19mm M882: 3 9x19mm 147gr: 3 12.7x99mm M8 API: 3 12.7x99mm M33 Ball: 4 12.7x108mm (BS): 3 12.7x108mm (B-32): Perfect 12.7x108mm 7N34: -- 14.5x115mm (BS41): 3 14.5x115mm (MDZ): -- For Addons 4.73x43mm DM11: -- 5.7x28mm SS190: -- 5.7x28mm SB193: -- 7.62x39mm 57-N-231S: -- 7.62x39mm 7N23: -- 7.62x39mm US: -- .338 Lapua (LockBase): -- .338 Lapua (MatchKing): -- 9x39mm SP5: -- (3) 9x39mm SP6: -- (3) .45 ACP M1911: --

Sure, go ahead. I'm not likely to release anything more on this, so consider everything in this mod free for community use.

That's the TPN3-49 reticle picture from the T-72A manual I have, and I have a bit more documentation on it in that manual. Â I don't have any photos, though, and photos would be very useful here. Â The aiming mark and range scales in this sight are projected onto a fixed prism located at the top of the periscope. Â The range scales are cut into a disk that sits in front of the projection lamp, and this disk spins to three different settings for the three different weapon combinations (APFSDS/7.62, HEAT-FS/7.62, HEF-FS/7.62). Â The aiming chevron, windage marks, and the two range bugs are cut into another disk, and this disk is moved by the range wheel to move the aiming mark up and down in the sight, just like with the TPD-K1 reticle currently in the mod. All the illustrations I've seen of this sight's reticle, even the color illustrations, show a black etched reticle. Â The illustrations are wrong. Â There is no etched reticle, and I have the exploded diagram to prove it. There's no laser rangefinder in the sight, either, but it might be able to set the range automatically based on input from the TPD-K1 rangefinder. Â I'm not sure at all on that, though, and I don't have time to try to decipher that chapter of the manual right now. Â There doesn't appear to be any laser aiming mark in the reticle, though, so you'd probably have to use the day sight if you wanted to use the laser rangefinder in any case. Â (That brings up another point: job #1 is probably to add proper nighttime illumination to the TPD-K1 reticle. Â It shouldn't be hard to do, but it needs to be done. Someone fix the alpha channel on the ready light, too; it's WAY brighter than I intended, and I forgot to fix it before release.)

This is to simulate laser dispersion and allow the FIRST/LAST laser logic to work. Â It's most important for the T-72, as the laser in the TPD-K1 has that ridiculous 2 mil dispersion, but the 0.75 mil dispersion of the M1A1's MBTELRF isn't insignificant. Â If you're firing at a target behind trees, for instance, it makes a difference. Â More laser projectiles would be better, to get better sampling, but seven is good enough most of the time and doesn't seem to have any noticeable impact on performance. Â (Then again, my canister shells don't have much impact on my performance either, and there are 1150 projectiles there generated with a Gaussian RNG. Â I haven't tried them online, though, since I suspect that they would flood the connection and cause bad things to happen.) The laser fills the entire circle in the middle of the reticle, and I wanted to simulate that. Â If you want to test it out, you can place a target so that it fills half the circle and lase. Â You'll get the range to the ground behind the target and a bar will be displayed over the range signifying multiple returns. Â Then switch the laser logic to "FIRST" and lase again. Â This time you'll get the distance to the target. Â (I think that you shouldn't actually need to lase a second time to get the distance to the target in the second case, though, since I believe that the computer keeps track of both the first and last return regardless of the setting. Â All you should have to do is change the range logic. Â My code doesn't currently do this, but it should be simple enough to modify it so that it does.) If there's any way to do it, it would be very nice if the laser projectiles were stopped by leaves and foliage, and if they had a random chance of being stopped by smoke. Â As it is they're just hitscan bullets that cause no damage (and I still have no idea if they alert the AI). Â Before I wrote the current system, I tried to use a hidden laser designator that was fired by the script. Â There was just no way to reliably control the designator, though, and there isn't any easy way to simulate laser dispersion and return logic with lasertargets, either. I don't think this can be done in any satisfactory way. Â First, scripted animations always move at a preset speed with no damping. Â Since there's no way to change animation speed through scripting, the animations will jerk around and be almost unusable for fine aiming. Â The only way around this would be to make 10 or so different animations for each axis and interpolate between them in script, and that would be so script heavy and would drain so much performance that it would be just as bad. Â Second, the AI will throw fits if you do this. Â They probably wouldn't be able to use the main gun at all. Â I'm almost certain that the AI uses the gun axes for aiming, and not the turret and gun animation states, and the AI would probably go into some kind of feedback loop if you were constantly changing the gun axis direction in script.

I don't know of the fire control computers are different (I think pretty much every modern western tank uses the same Computing Devices Canada unit), but the M1A2 has a slightly different Gunner's Primary Sight. The sight in the M1 and M1A1 is the one in this mod; it has a one-axis head mirror where the reticle slews left and right on the glass. Â The M1A2 has a two-axis head mirror that keeps the reticle centered at all times. Â The Leopard 2 has a similar system. Â I can't find any direct references to this in Janes, but one of the new components in the M1A2 is the Line of Sight/Dual-Axis Head Assembly. Â I'm pretty sure that's the new GPS component.

T-72 is definitely stabilized, but the stabilizer is kind of crap. Â The whole system is very different from the Abrams system, and it's actually implemented rather well in Balkans on Fire. Â The big red light at the top of the gunner's sight isn't just there to tell you the gun is loaded in real life. Â In real life it's there to tell you that the gun is loaded and aligned with the sight. Â The gun stabilizer in the T-72 is pretty damn slow, and the gunsight is not only much faster but it has a much greater range of elevation (in this mod I've set everything to the gun limits). Â There are a bunch of little oddities with the system, too, like the turret stabilizer's propensity to overheat if left on too long. Â The turret stabilizer is also slow as hell, of course, and the chassis is perfectly capable of turning faster than the turret motor can keep up with. But again, that's not really the issue. Â ArmA takes care of the stabilization issues. Â The stabilization is too fast and too perfect, but we don't have any real way to change it. Â The issue from our perspective is when and how the fire control computer gets its inputs and changes the superelevation and lead dependent on that data. Â That is to say that the script doesn't have direct control over gun elevation, but only controls superelevation--the elevation of the gun above the sight line. Â On flat land this is pretty simple; for a certain range you have to elevate the gun a certain amount to hit the target. Â If the tank is tilted, you still have to elevate the gun the same amount, but the elevation is out of plane with the turret and the trunnions. Â Furthermore, the relative plane changes orientation as you rotate the turret side to side. Â In an M1A2, the three-axis stabilizer always keeps this in mind and aligns the gun with where it needs to be to hit the target. Â You barely even notice that it's happening, since the sights are independently stabilized from the turret in both axes. Â You just put the target in the sights, lase, and fire, and you don't know any better as to what the computer's doing. The M1A1, however... I just don't know. Â If it continuously updates due to trunnion tilt, then tracking a close-in target must be a very odd experience when you're on a slope. Â The turret and reticle would slew at different rates depending on where the turret is currently pointed, and it seems like that would be very disconcerting. Â It could be, although I doubt this, that the tank senses trunnion tilt only once when you lase a target and applies a correction based on that instant no matter how long you track the target. If the T-72 has trunnion tilt corrections in its FCS (I think it does, but I'm not sure), then this is probably how it works. Â It would sense the tilt once, and output corrected info to the gunsight based on that. Â I don't think the computer outputs real-time corrections to the gunsight for anything. Â I think, though don't hold me to this, that the computer actually changes the reported range depending on trunnion tilt, as the superelevation is inexorably linked to range in the TPD-K1 gunsight. Â (There are lots of references in the documentation to "equivalent range" as opposed to "actual range"--it's all very odd. Â If I remember correctly, the "actual range" is only reported on an auxiliary display next to the gunsight, while the "equivalent range" is the one shown in the left eyepiece. Â The computer automatically scrolls the gunsight elevation to the "equivalent range" when engaged, and that range stays displayed for reference if you manually scroll the range up and down from there. Â It's all very primitive but workmanlike, like most Soviet technology.)

Finding the trunnion tilt isn't the problem. Â Well, it's a problem, but it's one I've already solved. Â Take a look at the "Trigonometry Ahoy!" section in MBTELRF.sqf. Â It's several lines of overcomplicated trigonometry that ultimately outputs a unit vector aligned 90 degrees starboard with respect to the turret. Â All that's left to find the tilt is to take the arcsine of the z-component of this vector. Â (I think I've tested this bit of code, but you might want to check that it actually works.) Â There are lots of extraneous calculations here that can be yanked out, too; I wrote this section partially as reference, and I was going to streamline it later. The problem is programming the corrections into the FCS. Â It's probably not as hard as I think it is, but I just can't quite wrap my head around what's needed. Â Is trunnion tilt tracked continuously, or is it a snapshot value? Â If it's a snapshot, when is it taken? Â Trunnion tilt would affect both lead and elevation--does the computer continuously change the superelevation as you scan the turret (lots of stuff might need to be rewritten if it does)? Â How does this work in the T-72? Â There are maximum correction angles to implement as well, and presumably some kind of notification if you're over the limit. Â I'll look through my documentation and see if I can find any specifics as regards to capabilities.

Hi guys. Yeah, I haven't been around here for a while, and I haven't done much of any work on this in the interim. Â I fully support any attempt to turn this into a community project. I'll try to answer questions about how this works and where I was taking this, but I've forgotten a lot of it by now. Â I didn't really have a to-do list written down either, which was one of the reasons this just fell off my radar--I just didn't know what to do with it. These are the parts of my to-do list that I do remember, though: Trunnion tilt correction. Â This was #1 on the to-do list for FOREVER, but it's just so spectacularly complicated that I didn't know where to begin. Â In short, my code currently only gives accurate values if you are on flat land. Â If you are 90 degrees to a slope, the results will be somewhere between "close enough" and "garbage." Â (The code currently assumes that the turret ring is both perpendicular to gravity and in-plane with the target's movement. Â If the tank is tilted, everything will be wrong. Â The real fire control systems correct for this.) Rangefinder logic fixes. Â When you switch rangefinder logic from first-return to last-return, you shouldn't have to lase the target again. Â This just needs some code-flow changes that I was too lazy to make. Manual range control for the TPD-K1 gunsight. Â You should be able to push a button and scroll the range up or down. Â This isn't a separate mode, but something you can do at any time. Â Lasing a target would override whatever you've scrolled the range to. Machine gun range tape for TPD-K1 gunsight. Â There should be two sets of numbers for the TPD-K1 range tape -- one on bottom for the main gun, and one on top for the coax. Â Instead of using the rainbow sight for the coaxial, you should be able to set the FCS to HEF mode (the "O") and manually set the gunsight range using the upper row of numbers on the range tape. Â Then you can use the main aiming chevron to point the coax (the windage will be way off, though). Â This is more than a little bit esoteric, but I wanted to add it after I had manual range control in. Manual battlesight range for the M1A1 gunsight. Â You should be able to push a button and open a dialog that lets you type in a new battlesight range to override the default 1200 meters. Â I don't remember if this range is per ammo type or not, but I believe that it is. Illuminated reticle for the TPD-K1. Â Flip a switch, it turns red. Â Not hard. Â The simple way to do this would be to change all the optics textures to red instead of black and add the night-time illumination flag, or whatever it is. Â I didn't do this to start because the optics textures were originally HUD overlays, which don't have this flag. TPN3-49 or similar night sight for the T-72. Â This would be an entirely new sight mode, and it would have to be activated by the night-vision key (it would use the normal light-amp implementation in the game, as that's what the real sight is). Â Entering a tank would have to give you night-vision goggles if you don't have them, and leaving the tank would take them away (if you didn't have them before). Â The default night-vision overlay would have to be removed, and default (foot) night-vision would have to be handled with HUD overlays, much the same way as the tank reticles were in version 0.1 of this mod. Â I hadn't started on graphics or models or anything for this, and I can't find any references for the reticle any more. Â I can't even remember if I had any pictures of the reticle besides this one. (EDIT -- scratch that, I have fairly detailed info in my T-72A manual. Â Available on request.) FLIR mode for the M1A1 sight. Â This needs new, but similar, graphics. Â That means new models, animations, etc. Â Ideally it would be green, rather than black-and-white... but whatever is fine. Auxiliary sights for the M1A1. Â It's probably not possible to implement these correctly, but the textures would be easy enough. Â These aren't really critical. Â At all. Find a way to fix the gunner's periscope forward on the T-72. Â It doesn't have any elevation in real life, and it shouldn't have any in this mod. Â I have no idea how to do this, or if it's even possible. Â My idea was to have a second set of aiming animations in the model that moves exactly opposite the normal aiming animation, but I couldn't figure out how to toggle such an animation on and off. Emergency turret operation. Â Real tanks have hand cranks to rotate the turret if power is lost. Â ArmA has a turret damage class that disables turret rotation and gun elevation. Â By adding new control points and animations, and a custom animation-handler script (there are several in this mod), you can map keyboard keys to rotate the turret even if normal turret rotation and gun elevation are disabled. Â This would be very easy to add... but it might screw up the AI if you were to use it when the turret was still operational. Â This would be fun to screw around with, if nothing else. ATGMs. Â New sights with SACLOS navigation for the missiles, with proper laser receptor FOV and whatnot. Â Yeah, this was never going to happen. Â But it's possible. Â Probably. New gunsights for a BMP, T-64B, T-80, Stryker, Bradley, Challenger, or whatever I had planned. Â I have spotty references for all of these, so ask if you need them. Â That highlights the other reason this died, though: it's a demoralizingly huge amount of work just to find references, and half of them are written in Russian. Â My Russian is about 1st grade level, and almost worthless for reading these things. Â I'll look though my references to see if I have anything useful to you guys and I'll... probably only give them out by email or Rapidshare or something, because I don't want my Filefront account shut off for violating a Russian copyright (HA!) or for some idiot claiming that I'm conducting espionage by posting twenty year old declassified operating manuals. Here's some general points of what I remember of how the script works: Each tank model must be specially modified for the sights. Â This doesn't just involve putting sight models in front of the player viewpoint at the right distance (simple trigonometry), though. Â The models need extra memory points added for turret rotation, gun elevation, gunsight component rotation, viewport rotation, viewport translation (for multiple gunsights--I'm not sure if I finished this feature), and probably something else I'm missing. Â The model also needs to have its animation definitions edited to add new turret rotation and gun elevation animations, as well as every animation related to the gun sight. Â The script will use these animations to automatically lay the gun or move the viewpoint or change the sights or whatever is needed. Â This is miles better than in version 0.1, which brute-forced things by rotating the whole tank for lead (an AI driver would keep the chassis from moving) and moving the shell as soon as it's fired for elevation. Â Version 0.1 didn't require the model changes, though. The ballistic definitions are from the output of the bullet tracking code in Kronzky's portable target range. Â I fired a shell with the turret perfectly level, and the script saved the flight time and shell drop to various ranges. Â (I then put this in an excel spreadsheet to compare with actual ballistics data, and I kept tweaking shell drag and shooting again, and tweaking shell drag and shooting again, and tweaking shell drag and shooting again until I got what I wanted. Â I only figured out that I could have used a MATLAB script and a quadratic drag equation for this AFTER I'd finished the ballistics.) Â The FCS script uses this data for some fancy interpolation using the range the "laser rangefinder" returns. Â Rangefinding works by shooting seven instant-hit zero-damage special-effectless bullets in a hexagon (with one in the middle) and finding the range to each one. Â Depending on range logic, either the furthest or nearest range will be returned... unless that range is greater than maximum range or less than minimum range. Â You'll have to edit this script to change the laser spread for each new sight. Â The turret tracking script is a loop that runs constantly whenever tracking is required. Â This is continuously in the M1A1, but in the T-72 it only starts tracking when you hold down the button (and stops tracking when you let go). Â There are actually two threads here. (I'm sure there's a good reason for this. Â Probably.) Â The first thread runs every frame and continuously interpolates turret slew rate from weapondirection and writes it, along with vehicle velocity, to a vehicle variable. Â The second thread runs every .1 seconds and appends each of the current rotation and translation speeds to a vector. If the vector has more than 1.5 seconds worth of entries, the oldest entry is deleted from the vector. Â When requested, all the values of the vector are averaged together, and the result is the output. Â This all works mostly through voodoo, not proper planning and code design, and I won't be able to describe it any much more detail than that. (I think I name all the old elements "deleteme" and then subtract "deleteme" from each vector. Â Not exactly proper vector handling, but it doesn't seem to result in a huge, destabilizing memory leak. Â I think.) That's probably the other reason I abandoned this: most of my code is voodoo. Â I'm not really a programmer. Â What programming I do do is usually in MATLAB. Â I have no idea if my code has to be so convoluted and absurd. Â For example, this gibberish in the turret tracking code compensates for the turret rotation applied by the FCS during operation, so that the FCS can know how much the turret is rotating (minus FCS influence) so it can decide what rotation to apply to the turret: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">// cancel sight lead feedback if (!isNil {_pvehicle getVariable "NWD_FLOATING_LEAD"}) then {_tazimuth set [0,(_tazimuth select 0) - 360/6400*(_pvehicle getVariable "NWD_FLOATING_LEAD")]}; Gah. Â There's too much here to describe all at once. Â If you have questions about the code, I'll try to answer them. One more thing, though: Â after I'd written most of this script, I found out that you can read animation state from any vehicle animation, including turret rotation. Â The turret tracker could probably be very much simplified if you used the turret animation state instead of my current implementation. Â You could get rid of that gibberish expression above, for one thing. Â Doing this might make the needed trunnion tilt compensation harder, though; I don't know.

Bah, typo in the title. That should read GLTD II. <span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>NWD_Rangefinder v1.02</span> <span style='font-size:7pt;line-height:100%'>Full size</span> (Shown with the optics model from my NWD_ScopeFix v2.2 -- optics model not included.) <span style='font-size:9pt;line-height:100%'>Download: </span> http://files.filefront.com/NWD+Ran....fo.html This mod requires the extended eventhandlers mod! If you use GMJ_SightAdjustment, make sure to use the compatibility patch in the "examples" folder of the extended eventhandlers mod. Just put it in your @GMJ_SightAdjustment/addons folder. If you wish to have the sight elevation and bearing displayed on the screen, move the contents of the "extras" folder to the "addons" folder. (These displays only work in real life if they have external data supplied from an electronic traversing mount, so display zero by default.) -------------------------------------------- Description This mod adds an LCD overlay to the stock laser designator, designed to match the display featured in my NWD_ScopeFix mod. It does not depend on that mod, it just won't look as pretty without it. When you use the laser designator, the display will illuminate and you will be presented with three extra options in you action menu: RANGE, MARK, and O/R. RANGE mode pulses the laser once and displays the range. MARK mode marks the target just like pressing the fire button did before, but also illuminates the XMT light and returns continuous range updates. O/R mode operates identically to MARK mode, but is not subject to automatic shutdown due to overheating. If you are currently illuminating a target in MARK mode, either RANGE or MARK will turn the laser off, while selecting O/R will switch the laser to override mode while continuing to illuminate the target. In override mode, any of the three options will turn the laser off. Laser heat is kept track of internally, and you will no longer be able to fire the laser indefinitely. The maximum duty cycle is 5-1-5-1-5-30. That's on for 5 minutes and off for one minute repeated three times, followed by a 30 minute cool-down. This isn't perfectly simulated, but it should be close enough for now. If you keep the laser on for long enough, the HOT light will illuminate. This will warn you that the laser may shut itself off to prevent burnout. Once this happens, you will not be able to use the laser in MARK mode until it's cool (about 10-15 minutes). If you don't want the laser to shut off, you can switch to O/R mode and hope it doesn't break. If you leave it on for too long, it will break, and you won't be able to use it again in that mission. You can no longer toggle the laser with the fire button; you must use one of the three action menu options. The script will steal your batteries when you look through the optics to accomplish this (you'll get them back when you put the laser designator away). If you do not have any batteries, the display will not illuminate and the laser designator will be non-functional. The script should, if there are multiple lasers flying around, return only the range to the laser return closest to your aim point. I haven't tested this with multiple lasers, but at least it won't crash anymore. The display will flicker until it's loaded all ten digits. There will be a pause the first time it displays a 7, for instance. If you're using the "NWD_GLTD_EADisplay.pbo" file in addition to the main mod, the azimuth and elevation displays will read out in NATO standard mils. There are 6400 of these mils in a circle, so north is 0 mils, east is 1600 mils, south is 3200 mils, and west is 4800 mils. The elevation display has a range of +/- 400 mils. -------------------------------------------- Known Problems #The script won't work after a save/load. It won't break anything, however, as your laser marker will just revert to the default behavior. #I haven't tested this online. At this point I don't expect too many problems, but I can't make any guarantees. #If you run in a 5:4 resolution, the overlay won't line up with the display in my ScopeFix model. If you run in any other aspect ratio, they will. I'm not sure why this is, but I'll make a patch for 5:4 monitors if I ever figure it out. -------------------------------------------- Version History v1.02 -- fixed XEH 1.7 compatibility ------------------- v1.01 -- separated from TankFCS mod once again -- added addon signature ------------------- v1.0 -- fixed divide by zero error caused by aiming east (?) -- integrated into TankFCS mod -- changed out of range behavior ------------------- v0.8 -- removed all dependencies on SF Recon; the laser marker will now work no matter how it is added to your inventory -- added launcher+binoculars animation to list of recognized animations -- reordered weapons in the "SoldierWSaboteurRecon" class so the same weapon recognition code could be used for all units ------------------- v0.51 -- removed stray debug message ------------------- v0.5 -- moved script-level variables into player-specific globals, to aid in multiplayer compatibility -- added overheating and O/R mode -- animated elevation and azimuth display as an option -- changed elevation and azimuth displays to 4-digit -- animated XMT and BAT lights "correctly" -- disabled player fire button ------------------- v0.1 -- first release

At this point it dosen't have Tank Fire Control System by NonWionderDog included. My apologies for not being clear. I know a FCS system has not yet been applied to your M1A1's. What I was wondering is whether or not NWD's Tank_FCS Mod works with these Tanks, as it does with the BIS tanks. The.D stated on the first page that: I've never been able to get NWD's AddOn to work with these tanks. If I have the vanilla M1A1 and Mateck's M1A1 placed in the Editor, only the BIS tank has it. Do I need to tweak something in NWD's AddOn? There's gotta be something I'm doing wrong here if others have it working. If anyone knows how it is done please fill me in. My FCS mod makes a great number of edits to the models, and doesn't work without the edited models. So it won't work with this right now. Version 0.1 might actually work... but I don't recommend it. On the new M1: it's still missing the CWS. The BIS model has the M2 on a pintle-mount, with iron sights on the gun. This is correct for the M1A2 tank, but keep in mind that the M2 machine gun on the baseline M1A2 tank cannot be fired from inside. (The M1A2 SEP adds the remote-control turret, I believe.) The M1 and M1A1 had a completely different mount for the M2 machine gun, one that could only be fired remotely from inside the tank. (You can actually still reach the trigger from unbuttoned and can look through the vision block to the stupid little ring sights while semi-buttoned, but you can't turn the hand crank to change elevation while higher than semi-buttoned. There are no sights on top of the machine gun, anyway.) This is the best picture I've found of what it should look like. No picture of the ring sights, unfortunately:

You could add a continuously-running script that checks for turret rotation and triggers a custom "raise gun barrel by 5 degrees" animation when the gun is over the rear deck. But that wouldn't really be an acceptable solution. Actually, you could scan both traverse and depression every frame and tie a "raise gun barrel" custom animation's value to the amount by which the commanded gun depression exceeds the limit at that clock position. It wouldn't actually add much more computation time beyond what my FCS mod has to track anyway, since it's essentially the same method by which my gun lead is applied. I might try this out. The real tank prevents the cannon from firing when the gun is over the rear deck. Or, I'm pretty sure it does. There's no real way to simulate that.

I've just tested the M16, and it seems to be zeroed to 300 meters to me. How are you framing the target? The sights don't seem to be lined up quite correctly in the aperture (and it's not using the right aperture, either), but if I align a 300 meter target with the top of the center post, I hit it. [EDIT] Aligning to the barrel and aligning to the sights is irrelevant in ArmA if the sights are centered correctly. The view direction while aiming is the same direction used by the firing code for every weapon I've looked at (although the bullet direction is modified by zero distance). The sight offset doesn't make a difference, either, since I corrected for that when I zeroed the weapons. (Hence the 322 m zero distance instead of 300 m--when zeroed to the barrel at 322 m, the bullet is 2.5 inches above the barrel at 300 m. The sights on an M16 are 2.5 inches above the barrel, so this is the proper zero.) The only thing that would make a difference is if the iron sights model isn't properly centered in the screen while aiming. I just checked the model BIS released, and... yeah, it's a little bit off. The eye level is set to halfway between the top of the front post and the center of the the aperture. But that should mean that the gun shoots high if you use the top of the front post to aim, like I do... I could actually tighten up the aperture, move the camera closer to the sights, and center the front post if I wanted to. I just wish ArmA allowed custom weapon animations.

Okay, version 1.02 up. This one is fully compatible with XEH 1.7, and should fix a couple of nagging initialization issues.

ScopeFix has no code, so doesn't need to be compatible with any event handler anything. It's just model replacements and FOV edits. This is the first I've heard of it conflicting with anything. But yeah, this mod apparently has a few conflicts with the new extended eventhandlers mod. I'll get a new version out as soon as I get it figured out. The version in TankFCS has the same problem, but I really don't want to issue a compatibility patch for a beta. Yuck, apparently the backwards compatibility is less than advertised. I was using a bit of a shortcut in the init field in order to keep my code from spawning multiple copies, but the new XEH mod seems to load sooner than the old extended init eventhanders mod, invalidating my hack. (Before, I set the init event to run on all vehicles, but to only run the init script if the player inhabited the vehicle in question. Now I have to run the init script on all vehicles, and have it abort immediately if an init flag has been set on the player. This is probably much slower in big missions, especially since "all vehicles" includes a bunch of silly things.)

I've been gone for a while--I looked around, but didn't see an update before I posted. It will almost certainly work with the new version, thanks. I'll update my links.

Whoops, I'd forgotten to add this to the original post: This mod requires the extended init eventhandlers mod! If you use GMJ_SightAdjustment, make sure to use the compatibility patch in the "examples" folder of the extended init eventhandlers mod. Just put it in your @GMJ_SightAdjusment/addons folder. That's your most likely problem.

I don't think the laser designator is actually a SOFLAM. It's probably supposed to be one, but the model looks more like the GLTD II--which is basically just a SOFLAM with a data I/O module tacked on. So, I propose that the name be changed to either "Ground Laser Target Designator II" or "Ground Laser Target Designator (GLTD) II". This is a partially selfish gesture, as well, since there was more data on the GLTD II display way back when I made the rangefinder mod.

I don't know AI scripting, so I won't be able to give you spotters that call out range. _ But, since I got a few requests, this is now a separate mod again. This is also the first mod I've signed, so hopefully this works out. Version 1.01 is available in the first post. It will probably not work in conjunction with version 0.2 of my TankFCS mod, and it will probably be a while before that mod is updated.

"The Iraqis were using training ammo," is the official Russian line. Believe it if you want, but if true it's no wonder they couldn't do anything against US tanks. The BM-15 rounds in Iraqi inventory have less than half the penetrating power of modern Russian BM-46 rounds, anyway. I'll try to (finally) finish up my FCS, so you'll have something less buggy for this. One thing, though... why no M1A1 CWS? The commander weapons station in my mod looks like crap, but it's at least a start. This and the default tank use the M1A2 pintle mounted gun -- but the M1A2's pintle mounted .50 can't be fired from inside the tank!

Huh? The M16 should be zeroed at 300 m. The M16 with an ACOG scope should be zeroed at 100 m. The raw values I used are 322 m for the naked M16 and 189 m for the M16 with an ACOG. These are corrected for sight offset, since ArmA zeros weapons with respect to the barrel instead of with respect to the sights. I'm 100% positive that the M16+ACOG combination is zeroed correctly, down to nearly the inch at every distance marked on the sights. The naked M16 might be a bit off, but it's not zeroed to 100 m. This is what I've got in my spreadsheet. This is from range test data I found online: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">Range (m) Offset (in) Correction (MoA) 0 -2.5 50 1.62 100 4.51 -3.94 150 6 200 5.94 -2.59 250 4.01 300 0 0.00 350 -6.31 400 -15.52 3.39 450 -28.15 500 -44.33 7.74 550 -64.98 600 -91.12 13.26 650 -123.12 700 -162.29 20.24 750 -209.37 800 -265.06 28.93 850 -329.71 900 -403.9 39.19 950 -488.23 1000 -582.68 50.88 Here's the data I recorded in ArmA with my ballistics. This is from one shot, not averaged. ArmA has trouble simulating very-high velocity bullets, so it's a bit high past 600 m. I assumed that the ~0.8 inch error at 300 meters was dispersion (which I forgot to disable), but even without correcting for that the data matches to better than 1 MoA out to 600 m: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">Range (m) Path (m) Offset (in) Correction (MoA) 0.00 0.52 -2.50 56.00 0.63 1.83 109.00 0.70 4.59 -3.67 158.00 0.73 5.77 203.00 0.72 5.37 -2.31 268.00 0.64 2.22 309.00 0.54 -1.71 0.48 368.00 0.33 -9.98 409.00 0.12 -18.25 3.90 466.00 -0.25 -32.81 502.00 -0.55 -44.63 7.76 553.00 -1.06 -64.70 601.00 -1.65 -87.93 12.78 661.00 -2.55 -123.37 704.00 -3.32 -153.68 19.06 756.00 -4.43 -197.38 806.00 -5.67 -246.20 26.67 852.00 -7.04 -300.14 906.00 -8.89 -372.97 35.95 958.00 -10.94 -453.68 1005.00 -13.13 -539.90 46.91 1051.00 -15.54 -634.78 1102.00 -18.62 -756.04 59.90 1158.00 -22.58 -911.95 1202.00 -26.18 -1053.68 76.53 1252.00 -30.70 -1231.63 1304.00 -36.23 -1449.35 97.03 1354.00 -42.19 -1684.00 1400.00 -48.60 -1936.36 120.72 1455.00 -57.14 -2272.58 1501.00 -65.36 -2596.20 150.93 To be perfectly honest, I didn't check the iron sights for alignment. It might be that the sights are pointing a bit high. I used weaponDirection to align the barrel with the x-y plane and fired when I took this data, so if the iron sights are correct, this is what should happen. Anyway, since you're working on this... do you have any will to add ranges to the adjustment text? My idea a while ago was to make the mod read from the range card files and show adjustment as 300 m 300 m +1 MoA 400 m -1 MoA 400 m 400 m +1 MoA 400 m +2 MoA 500 m -1 MoA etc... instead of the current behavior. This would be ideal for just about everything but the M107, since the M16, KSVK, SVD, SPR, and M24 all use adjustments that are graduated in MoA or mils but marked in meters. Separate min and max adjustment ranges would be good, too, but I'd probably have to put out a new version of my ballistics mod to keep compatibility. I need to figure out how to put out a signed version anyway, so don't worry about that.

With the 6thSense tracers, some enterprising soul could actually make these look exactly like the stock grenades. You'd just have to take the grenade model, reorient it, and delete the collision mesh. Then you could add it as an extension to the tracer models, as a special grenade tracer. I was actually working on something like that a long while ago. I forgot why I had to give up, though. I think it was before the BIS models had been converted, and I didn't want to make my own grenade model.

I didn't expect that it would work at all after a save-load cycle. You say all you have to do is get out and then get back in? I might be able to fix that. As for switching tanks, the code currently assumes that the "player" is always the same unit. It should work in any tank that the player inhabits, but if you switch the player to another unit it won't work. I should be able to monitor for this and move all my variables over to the new unit if need be, so this will be fixed in the next version. If you mean that it starts working once you get out of your tank and physically get in another, I have no idea why it would do that. Maybe there's a conflicting script in the mission somehow. I've been gone for a while (finals followed by vacation), but I'll start back up on the mod this weekend.

My method is nothing very complicated. I trolled the internet for ballistic coefficients of different ammunition types, and put them in a free ballistics computer. That gave me a curve for each ammo type. Then I used Kronzky's portable target range script to track the bullet flight paths in game, and tweaked the airFriction coefficients for each bullet (in the ammo class) until the ingame trajectory and real trajectory matched. I've since figured out the equations of motion for the bullets, which makes things a lot faster. Drag acceleration at any point in time is equal to airFriction*velocity^2. So I've written a MATLAB code that solves the system of differential equations and plots the trajectory. Real simple: dx/dt = u dy/dt = v du/dt = airFriction*u^2 dv/dt = airFriction*v^2 - g It's computed discretely ingame with updates every simulationStep, but that's not really important. Or, at least, I don't think it's really important. I had planned, ever so long ago, to do this for lots of different ammo types not in the stock game. The only ones I ended up doing were the 9x39mm SP-5 and SP-6 bullets. I don't see myself coming back to this any time soon to do the others for several reasons -- not least of which is that the free trial of the ballistic computer I was using expired. I've got a couple others, but they're not quite as easy to use for my purposes.

It's probably a conflict with some other addon that's trying to change the sight field of view. TrueView might do this, especially if you have an old version. I don't really know, though, since I don't use that mod. The sights now have an absolutely fixed field of view. The T-72 main gun sight has a 9° field of view no matter how much or how little you've zoomed in (until you're at or below 1x magnification, at which point it switches to the 8°x36° periscope). If, for some reason, some mod has set a very low zoom value for the gun sights, that nine degrees will seem very small. My code should track your current magnification within 20% accuracy or so no matter what it's set to in the config and give you the proper fixed field of view, but it doesn't take too much to get confused. Make sure that you're using keyboard keys for zoom -- if you use joystick buttons (unless they're bound to keyboard keys in programming software), my code won't notice when you zoom in or out. I don't know if TrackIR affects scope zoom, but if it does you'll have a problem.