Double Barrel Guns via attached gun pod

I did some more research from the original discussion in this thread: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?157834-double-barrel-turret

I figured I'd give it the old college try once again since the I44 script doesn't work with the rapid fire of the M134. This is specifically for my Arma2 O2-A Skymaster addon's gun pods. DISCLAIMER: I intend to port them to A3 post-beta, therefore this information may be moot after beta closes :) Let's hope this becomes obsolete via a "relatively simple" code change to make the gun points an array for vehicles other than helicopters...

As you can see I made it work via SMOKE AND MIRRORS! :cool:

Short, short summary:

1. I created a new static gun with a turret that can't move, and is therefore fixed in the forward position.

- I associated the same magazine to the new static gun.

- I used my suu11 gun pod as the 3D model.

2. Via INIT script, the static gun is "attachTo" the plane. EXACTLY like my MV22 door gunner project: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?128251-MV22-Door-Gunner-Project

2a. To allow the new "gun" to have a "brain", you must add a gunner unit. Again, EXACTLY like my MV22 door gunner. Only this 3D model has no visible proxy for the gunner, so it looks identical to the default gun pod on the plane.

3. Using the FIRED Event Handler to invoke a script. Script uses the "nearestObject" to select the attached "static gun" and sends it a "fire" command.

PRESTO the attached gun fires its own tracers. Complete with muzzle flash :)

4. The script also makes extensive use of the DROP command to spawn ejected shells... based on the Unsung Vietnam helicopters' door gunner scripts with permission.

As you can see, it works *perfectly* and is reproducible for other mods, so long as the config is created for the addon. I can envision tri-rail gun pods on F4 Phantom CAS loads, and all sorts of goodness...

As always I'll be uploading the MLODs, so here's hoping some other mod makers will develop some gun pod goodness :cool:

Interesting way of doing mate. Well done.

Small downside I see is for every 1 plane theres another 2 AI controlled static vehicles in limbo.

The "nearestObject" is usually pretty slow, so I'm surprised that this is faster than the I44 script, but I suspect its more to do with the M134 actually firing short bursts, so you'll never see a "pause" in the firing.

Hi just to clarify this is for the Gunner position to fire ?

I agree totally - having that extra static vehicle is a down-side for this hack! The things we do for lack of that one little array... LOL

I coded it for the O2-A to actually have one extra gun pod... the port side pod is a part of the O2-A config and is present on the model. So the NearestObject works since it only finds one pod. I'll have to think of some clever scripting to send the "fire" command to multiple pods.

A few other tidbits -

I set static gun's ejectdamagelimit to 0.999 and setting ejectdeadgunner to False so they will never eject. Works well in the crash-testing I've done.

I wonder about the crew from a different faction calling out nearby vehicles... they should technically see the pod as a new West vehicle and might call it out in-game. If that happens (it hasn't yet!) I can make a dummy pod for the different factions.

@Sealife - this is intended to produce multiple gun points - and their tracers!!! - for a plane, regardless of the crew member position that is firing the gun. As long as the crew member position has been assigned the gun, it should work. This should provide the basis for proper gun pods. Take for example this Vietnam era F4... yeah, it has a DOZEN gun pods! Could you imagine the mayhem this thing would cause??? :cool: