zodd

Land Nav mod Updated - SHOULD work properly in MP - Untested I believe I have fixed the MP issues; Be aware that this is UNTESTED so it may not have fixed the issue... I appreciate any testing and feedback as to if it works on dedicated/hosted MP. -------------------------------- There are many aids to land navigation present in real life that are not in Arma. These are often made redundant by difficulty settings (eg. Showing location and direction on the map) but on higher difficulty settings or in specific situations, these real life aids come in handy in game. This mod is an attempt to bring some of these real life options in game. It is fully functional in SP and has been tested in hosted and dedicated MP without any issues (supports JIP). CHANGELOG DOWNLOAD LINK V1.3/B] http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=24012 (MP fix - UNTESTED) Contents The contents of this mod are: 1. Hand Angles – A convenient way to get an approximate angle is using hand angles. While hand angles are not as frequently applied in navigation, they are used extensively in target indications. 2. Pace counting – The main low tech way to keep track of your distance travelled is pace counting. This is handy for both paces and bearing navigation (Fundamental land navigation technique – especially used in thick terrain or terrain without key landmarks) 3. Vehicle odometer and trip meter – Self-explanatory; allows you to track distance travelled in vehicles. 4. Map protractor - Allows you to get accurate 8-10 figure grid references and accurate angle measurements. Current Issues 1. The hand angles and protractor roamers seem accurate on all displays apart from TFT (The other multi monitor aspect ratios appear fine) 2. The protractor sets how the map handles mouse movement - You wil notice once this is run you wont get the hint near the cursor showing the grid reference and ASL altitude of the terrain. It also means if any other mods are setting that particular event handler it probably wont work (None that I know of at this stage though) 3. The vehicle odometer works for all vehicles present in game but will not work for vehicles spawned post mission start. If this is a sought after feature, a workaround can be implemented. - FIXED; can be added by placing basic options module. Able to modify countdown time to check for new vehicles (defaults every 10 seconds) 4. The scale is set for Stratis ideally. On Altis, the string is thinner and the map doesn't open at a zoom level aligned to the roamers (I am guessing the ctrlMapScale command is dependant on map size as opposed to tied to firm values like 1:25000 etc). Doesnt affect usage at all - the string is still wide enough and you can zoom the map as per normal to align the roamers. SETUP USAGE HAND ANGLES PACE COUNTING Vehicle Odometer Map Protractor This mod has progressed from this thread: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?170749-Navigation-Aids-(pre-release)-Hand-angles-Pace-counting-and-Vehicle-Odometer There are further videos on usage in there if you are still unsure. Enjoy! Hope you find it helpful!

Gday all, I have encountered an issue with cutRSC. I have an image with no transparency (just a white background) - when I use it with cutRSC it works as expected ie: with: colorText[] = {1, 1, 1,1}; it is a solid image. with: colorText[] = {1, 1, 1,0.5}; it is semi transparent. Ok - all good so far. A mate removed the white background and replaced it with a transparent background. Looks perfect previewing it and in TexView... But in Arma (using same test values) with: colorText[] = {1, 1, 1,1}; it is semi transparent. with: colorText[] = {1, 1, 1,0.5}; it is almost invisible I dont have much experience with image manipulation etc. The only thing I could think of was if there was a full transparent background layer that the image was on it may be making the image itself semi transparent but this is not the case - he told me he only made the white background part transparent. Does anyone have any ideas on what is causing this or workarounds? Displaying multiple images on top of each other is making it 'more solid' but still transparent (and looks like crap - loses a lot of the detail) Much appreciated!

This script simulates a silent attack (eg. knife) on an individual - If you get within range (2m in this case) you have the option (addaction - red, top most action) to do a 'silent takedown' That will kill the unit to your immediate front (takes 1.5 seconds to complete the kill). I would see it being used for silent takedowns of sentries etc. (Better than using silenced weapons as they still make some noise - disadvantage is it is riskier as you need to get very close and it isnt instant) I have seen several threads (mainly in A3 forums) talking about silent takedowns for stealth missions and if BI will incorporate it... I thought it would be pretty simple to do so I had a crack at it. That is the story how this version of simple silent takedown script was born! Updated! V1.3 - http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?151500-COMPLETE-Very-simple-silent-takedown-script-(ZOD_STAKEDOWN)&p=2360337&viewfull=1#post2360337 V1 1. Uses salute key as hotkey so you dont have to use the action menu (although that is still there if you want to use it that way!) 2. Basic setup in one line on any init field. Slightly more advanced setup (Chance of failure, specific units) through trigger and one line on act 3. Compatible with A2 and A3 with no editing http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=19731 VERY difficult to do during the day. Much more feasible at night against an enemy without night vision! Initial version (redundant)

I havent looked into that but I have no objections to it. I will look into it when I get a chance

Gday all, Unfortunately I wont be able to work on this any more but it is at least basically functioning and hopefully people can either have a bit of fun with it or use the ideas to develop a (much) more polished version! The scripts here are generally functional but represent only a proof of concept rather than a watertight solution! It came from an idea in the addon request thread; there are no mods/scripts readily available that allow helmet slaved cannons. This is a pretty poor implementation I will freely admit but I figured it is better to get it out there so people can have fun with it than just bin it all together. Demo: Note the aiming mark is the origin of the pilot's velocity vector line (unsure of correct name) in the middle of the HUD. Drawbacks: - You need an AI gunner (No other way to directly control the gun unfortunately) - It is sometimes a little slow at reacting or will lose the target briefly - Sometimes it will hover in one spot close to where you are looking - fix for this is look around a bit to 'reset' it - Only finds the terrain point - wont use heights of objects (eg. generally will just fire at the base of a building) - No indication if you look past the limits of the cannon; it will return to forward position until you look back within the arc Usage- Chopper init: nul = [this] execVM "slavedGunInit.sqf" Scripts: slavedGunInit.sqf: _unit = _this select 0; _unit setVariable ["CANNON_SLAVED_ACTIVE", false]; _unit addAction [ "Toggle Slaved cannon", "trackLookSpot.sqf", "", 5, false, true, "", "_this == (driver _target)" ]; trackLookSpot.sqf: _unitToTrack = _this select 0; if (_unitToTrack getVariable ["CANNON_SLAVED_ACTIVE", true]) then { _unitToTrack setVariable ["CANNON_SLAVED_ACTIVE", false]; } else { _unitToTrack setVariable ["CANNON_SLAVED_ACTIVE", true]; _moveObj = "LaserTargetW" createVehicle [0,0,0]; _moveObj hideObject true; _gunner = gunner (vehicle _unitToTrack); _gunner commandTarget _moveObj; _gunner disableAI "AUTOTARGET"; _gunner disableAI "TARGET"; _unitToTrack action ["ManualFire", vehicle _unitToTrack]; while {_unitToTrack getVariable ["CANNON_SLAVED_ACTIVE", false]} do { _gunner = gunner (vehicle _unitToTrack); _wPos = screenToWorld [0.5,0.5]; _moveObj setPos _wPos; _gunner reveal [_moveObj, 4]; //_gunner doTarget _moveObj; //_gunner doWatch _moveObj; sleep 0.01; }; deleteVehicle _moveObj; _gunner enableAI "AUTOTARGET"; _gunner enableAI "TARGET"; _unitToTrack action ["manualFireCancel", vehicle _unitToTrack]; } These scripts are completely free to use/modify/improve/etc without any restrictions - Hopefully someone is able to develop a better implementation. While I only used mouse look in the video demo, it should work no issues with track IR/VR etc - While the hacky implementation isnt great, it should open up some more solo piloting options. (The scripts above can quite easily be modified to add an AI gunner if one is not present) Enjoy!

Gday all, I have encountered a rather strange issue; I have two vehicles with a section mounted as well as a fire team in each. The fire teams are both meant to disembark at "Get out" waypoints which is synch'd to their respective vehicle move waypoint. This worked with no issues (as expected and as it has done 100s of times) however in the last few hours it has started behaving strangely; the fire teams are becoming reluctant to get out! https://www.dropbox.com/s/vghjxzfrosjevl0/2016-02-26_00001.jpg Sometimes both groups will get out, sometimes only one will get out and sometimes they will both remain in their vehicles. I have tried a range of different ways to get it to work then eventually gave up and decided to force them out via script. I added a move waypoint to the vehicles just prior to the move waypoint where the dismount is to occur and executed the following script on the respective fire team groups: { unassignVehicle (_x); (_x) action ["EJECT", vehicle _x]; sleep 0.4; } foreach units _group; Again; this works as it should initially (ie. Dismounts them at the point) however again, half the time one or both will decide they want to remount. I then deleted the "Get out" waypoint so the fire team's current waypoints were 400m away from the dismount location ("Move") however again, sometimes they will move and sometimes they will chase after the vehicle and remount. The only thing I can think of is the larger amount of groups than normal (21) however I have run these sizes before and had no issues (And wasnt an issue with this one until an hour or so ago). I am also only running one script (that isnt even called at the stage the fire teams are meant to dismount). Very interested to hear of any ideas as to why this (inconsistent) behaviour might be occurring. I am using the 3DEN editor however I do not expect that to be the cause of the issues.

Ahh sorry - not sure how I missed that one. Good luck with the new project!

I dont think there is any way to physically scale an in game model (would love to know if that is an incorrect assumption though) however does anyone know of a way to make an object appear smaller? It only needs to work from one direction (from where the player is looking). The only thing I can think of is using particle effects to create a haze which may give the impression of somewhat distort an objects size however it is far from ideal. Anyone have any other cunning ideas?

I highly doubt it can be directly brought over but a great AI FO script from A2 is here: https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/120340-blakes-ai-forward-observer/ That said; a core part of game design is you dont actually need to realistically simulate something... it only has to appear that way to the player. If you can do it more efficiently and achieve the same endstate, the player wont know the difference. Joe98's suggestion seems to be quickest and easiest.

Cheers! It was surprisingly doable and a total conversion mod with that kind of gameplay is definitely doable although it would be quite the time investment. Purely born out of a desire to attempt something completely different to all the other offerings. My thoughts (if I had time) were to introduce a a new very simple cartoony terrain and models to meet the aesthetic of it. A team with some dedicated modelers could definitely pull it off.......... I know the feeling! Although forgive me if my (vain?) hope is that Disney replies with the green light for this mod. Otherwise - do you have any big picture idea concepts you are up for sharing?

Ha not top secret... nothing that exciting! Just an idea that came to me after I saw a few things about people not benig able to see aircraft at longer range (ie. less than object draw distance). Managed to get a solution (Vid below shows extreme example of aircraft visible at 20km (with 5km draw distance) ) however I need to scale the fake 'image' manually based off individual object draw distance vs actual aircraft range. https://youtu.be/abPkAt-0CZE Thread: https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/187566-aircraft-visible-to-player-at-distances-above-render-distance/ I tried using heat hazes etc and while it distorted the image the scale mismatch is still apparent. I doubt this will be a widely adpoted set of scripts; more just for people that have to run at low draw distance or people using powerful optics for aircraft spotting.

You want something completely different from the normal mods..? How about something like the ARPG style mod concept I was working on. Unfortunately I have nowhere near enough time to continue this now as it is a pretty large scope... But definitely doable and pretty different to anything else. (Would also benefit a lot from additional model content/maps to put your amazing artists to work!)

That is a very handy tool but for slightly different applications; If you zoom in that one only set your object distance to your view distance (and wont change if you have a lower field of view normally). eg. if your view distance is 3km the above will only show things out to 3km when you are zoomed in - if your mate is playing with 5km view distance you still wont be able to see what he sees. Likewise if your view distance is 5km but object distance is only 1km, you wont be able to see aircraft at 1.1km unless you zoom in where it sounds like they are. It is excellent for longer range recon and sniping but not for what I am doing. This one will show aircraft well outside view distance. (Threshold distance configurable) 2nd video; out to 20km+ with transition between real object and image. https://youtu.be/abPkAt-0CZE

A big limitation for some long range activities can be the render distance of objects. The example that prompted this was spotting aircraft past object draw distance (either due to very low draw distance or via optics). I am trying to tee up a small set of scripts that will remove this issue and have the basics of it working. The current real drawback is the size of the aircraft stand in (aircraft image outside render distance) doesnt scale based on distance but the basics of it seem to work ok. Unfortunately I cant work out how to embed a youtube video but the link is here (30 second vid demonstrating it in action). https://youtu.be/WG5vD0nzNk8 It isnt much and just a side project but for some people struggling to get decent view distance it might help so I figured I would put it on here. Note this is just for visual identification; at this point you wont be able to target it until it is inside view distance but am looking at other options there as well. Outstanding items: - Fix scaling (I dont think you can scale models inside the Arma engine but will look into image effects etc to see if they can help) - Look into targeting options

Hmmm unfortunately it appears as though you are right. https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/145006-disablecollisionwith-enablecollisionwith/?p=2325982 indicated it was unexpected however you actually posted a bug tracker point in 2013 http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=7842 which was added changed to a feature request (within a month of posting) as disablecollision has no effect on physx objects. Unfortunately this doesnt appear to have been touched since. It is counter intuitive as within the editor the syntax prompt remains "vehicle disableCollisionWith vehicle" It appears that the only way to disable collisions between two physx objects is to attach them together... which is far from ideal... The workaround I have currently just uses bounding box size and distance to avoid collisions with each other but it still means the _visualObj can collide with other objects.... Unless I check for anything in a radius I guess. Not sure why they are still exploding on collision with enableDamage set to false though...?

Gday all, I have the following script (extract) which is being run on an aircraft (_visualObj and _unitToTrack are both the same type of vehicle, _unitToTrack is occupied, _visualObj is empty) { _visualObj disableCollisionWith _x; } forEach allUnits; _visualObj disableCollisionWith _unitToTrack; _unitToTrack disableCollisionWith _visualObj; _unitToTrack allowDamage false; _visualObj allowDamage false; _visualObj enableSimulation false; ... .. ... _visualObj setPos _posToSet; When _posToSet is near _unitToTrack, they are colliding and exploding, regardless of the fact that collisions and damage is disabled. The command should work as I have tried walking through a plane on the ground with the above and it is all good, but when AI or myself flies with the above code, we still collider with the _visualObj. 1. Why is this occurring?? 2. Is there a way around this? It seems to be quite strange behaviour...

Strewth - sorry for absence in this thread, I checked on it a few days after I posted and there was nothing but notifications must have been turned off... oops! It seems that most of the issues that were raised have been sorted but basically these are just simple scripts to add to your mission files. As Orcinus said it is just a matter of saving the scripts in your mission file (Even if you dont tinker with scripts normally, Notepad++ is a worthy download!) and putting this line in the init line of the chopper in the editor: nul = [this] execVM "slavedGunInit.sqf" The sqf files should just be placed in your mission root folder before you pack it (same dir as your mission.sqm) but this will require an AI gunner to work. There are no issues with this being used on pure AI choppers as the slaved toggle is something that a player pilot has turn on/off specifically. It could definitely be turned into an addon (and more than happy to do that if people want and/or someone can take these as a base for a mod) but the reason I shied away from it is it is a bit too hackish at the moment... You need an AI gunner because as far as I can tell there is no way to access (set) the cannon orientation via script. The benefit of the current implementation is the AI gunner is basically simulating the software that takes your look rotation and gives it to the gun so the actual affect is not too bad. It is not perfect by any stretch (and if your gunner gets killed, unfortunately a bit of shrapnel must also hit the slaved cannon computer... ha!) but it does the job in the interim and can be VERY satisfying even with just mouselook. I would be very interested to see how it works with VR headsets if anyone has tried it!

NZiwasogo ( http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?172251-N-Ziwasogo-A3-terrain-%28Released%29 ) Needs A3MP but best representation of more tropical terrain I have seen yet... Cant say enough positive things about this one!!

Absolutely awesome mate. I have been hanging for a decent Australia map. Looks amazing so far; excellent contrast between desert, aussie bush, rural and (I am guessing) bigger population centres. It looks like you have nailed parts of the northern/central QLD coast! The one thing I hope is as amazing as the rest is the jungle. One map that I think has done a great job is NZiwasogo ( http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?172251-N-Ziwasogo-A3-terrain-%28Released%29 ) - Any chance the tropics will get some decent love? Keep up the great work and give me a bell if there is anything you need help with.

I have had a bit of luck; more of a proof of concept than anything but at least it might be a starting point for someone else (or a bit of fun to use solo) Pretty rubbish implementation but gets the job (somewhat) done. Discussion thread has scripts - free to use/modify/develop etc as anyone wishes: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?189609-AH-99-pilot-helmet-slaved-cannon-script There are a few drawbacks and it isnt 100% reliable but there is no requirement to adjust VR/IR sensitivity at least. Let me know how it goes if anyone tries it eh (PM pref as I dont check here often)

Wow... cant see the forest for all the trees... Ha dont I feel stupid now. Didnt even cross my mind to consider actions... Thanks heaps eh

In order to tidy up a script I am working on (slaving chopper gun to pilot visor) I am looking for a way to turn manual fire on/off via script. The only scripting command I can find is "isManualFire" which obviously doesnt help (although tantalisingly close...!) Does anyone know of any hidden command to achieve this?

Ok - success for the slaved cannon script for AH-99. Will tidy it up and post it soon. Video demo: Should be no issue - The cannon will move to where you are looking as fast as it can - you can obviously move your head faster than the cannon can move so it move at best speed. This means there is no difference in control sensitivity and the above should be a non issue; just use your normal look speed. Limitations: - Only tested in AH-99 however I will look a bit deeper; should work for any vehicle with a gunner. - Needs an AI gunner - You need to specifically select manual fire (until I can find a scripting command to change this)

I believe this can be achieved using CBA extended event handlers... If so it should not be too much of a problem. Unfortunately I am now living in an area with no Internet (apart from crappy wireless with bugger all data!) so I cant update CBA. Still, old version should work. I will look into it! If so, I would probably release it as a separate mod as it would (internally) work a bit different from the current one.

Gday all, From the mod request thread, I have been working on a script to slave the gun to the pilot's visor in a chopper... What I thought was the hard part is done and what I thought would be the easy part is causing difficulties! All I want the AI gunner to do is to keep focussed on an object/position. I currently have an LZ as the object to look at (currently normal LZ for debugging; will swap to normal LZ when done) but the gunner refuses to aim the cannon at it. The more ideal solution is to access the cannon 'look rotation' directly but I doubt that is possible. Simplified version of script: From the debug hint I can confirm the gunner has the LZ as current target but still refuses to aim the cannon _unitToTrack = _this select 0; _moveObj = _this select 1; _gunner = gunner (vehicle _unitToTrack); while {true} do { _gunner = gunner (vehicle _unitToTrack); _wPos = screenToWorld [0.5,0.5]; _moveObj setPos _wPos; _gunner doTarget _moveObj; _gunner doWatch _moveObj; hint str (assignedTarget _gunner); sleep 0.01; }; Does anyone have any possible solutions? The closest to success I have had is by using an enemy tank instead of an LZ but that was from the gunner auto targeting it as opposed to following the scripted target orders (worked perfectly as far as being slaved to pilot visor though) Cheers all!