RQ-11 Raven A

RQ-11 RAVEN A

Author: FEINT (Jon Hillenbrand)

Concept date: April 1, 2012

Release date: May 4, 2012

Update date: May 5, 2012 (version 1.1)

Update date: May 12, 2012 (version 1.51 Hotfix)

Update date: December 24, 2012 (version 1.6)

Contacts:

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Web: http://www.jonhillenbrand.com

Required game: Arma2: Combined Ops

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Tested with Arma2: Combined Operations.

Tested with ACE2

Required addons:

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CBA

Description:

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The RQ-11 Raven A is a a lightweight unmanned aircraft system designed for rapid deployment and high mobility for military applications, requiring low-altitude surveillance and reconnaissance intelligence.

The Raven can be operated manually or programmed for autonomous operation, utilizing the system's advanced avionics and precise GPS navigation. With a wingspan of 4.5 feet and a weight of 4.2 pounds, the hand-launched Raven provides aerial observation, day or night, at line-of-sight ranges up to 10 kilometers. The Raven delivers real-time color or infrared imagery to the ground control and remote viewing stations.

This addon gives the Arma2:CO player the ability to assemble and operate an RQ-11 Raven.

FEATURES:

• Backpack that can be turned into a blanket of disassembled Raven parts
  
• Raven that can be assembled and disassembled
  
• Raven that can be carried in the back of a pickup (somewhat carefully)
  
• Custom sounds for beeps, servos and engines
  
• Colored addActions for ease of visibility
  
• Realistic altitude limits based on real-world data (10 meters to 150 meters AGL)
  

• Point and click auto flight
  
• Auto landing (returns to Ground Control Station (GCS))
  
• Accurate launching of the Raven using setVelocity to simulate throwing in the direction you look
  
• Ability to carry and drop Raven
  
• Ability to assemble and disassemble Raven to and from a standalone backpack
  
• Custom sounds for servos, engine noise and flight/landing complete indicator
  
• Post-landing strobe light and beep for night retrieval of Raven for recovery in tall grass, at night or in urban environments
  
• Strobe and beep test and reset functions
  
• Ground Control System camera with realtime data streams:
  
  • Distance of Raven from GCS
    
  • Current altitude ATL
    
  • Current azimuth of camera (compass direction)
    
  • Current speed of Raven
    
  • Current Date and Time
    
  • Current camera zoom level (focal length)
    
  • Current vision mode (DTV, NV, FLIR W, FLIR B)
    
  • Listing of Raven and camera controls
    

  [*]Map marker tracking of Raven and Raven's camera target positions

  [*]Map marks can be made at Raven camera target position indicating time mark was made for target tracking

Changelog/known issues:

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VERSION 1.6

-CHANGED: Removed locked standing animation when "holding" the GCS (restored ability to crouch and go prone while viewing camera feed

-REMOVED: Ground scanning radar (entity revealing) for better game balance

-CHANGED: Made new target range marker local instead of global for better gameplay

VERSION 1.51 HOTFIX

-FIXED: Rare disappearing backpack bug

-FIXED: Raven inheritance weirdness

VERSION 1.5

-CBA IS NOW REQUIRED FOR MULTIPLAYER SOUND TO WORK

-ADDED: More zoom levels (11 now instead of 4)

-ADDED: Increased zoom max

-ADDED: new zoom controls (in and out)

-ADDED: Altitude ASL to in-camera data stream

-ADDED: Range limit of 8km (distance from Raven target to Ground Control Station)

-ADDED: marker elipse visible on map when changing targets

-ADDED: Battery limit of 60 minutes

-ADDED: Battery status to in-camera display

-ADDED: Autolanding near player when battery reaches zero percent charge

-ADDED: Camera shuts off when battery reaches zero percent charge

-ADDED: Ability to recharge battery in Raven

-ADDED: Restricted the ability to disassemble the raven when it is recharging

-ADDED: Battery level holds true from raven to raven (can recharge more than one raven at a time)

-ADDED: If you pick up a raven that is recharging, you can see a display of the charge level going up in real time

-ADDED: In-camera compass that tracks the camera position and rotation and zoom level

-ADDED: In-camera battery display shows minutes remaining on charge

-ADDED: Charge Battery action only visible if battery level is lower than 100%

-ADDED: Raven can be destroyed when engine is off (but not when flying)

-ADDED: New sounds for engine startup and engine loop

-TWEAKED: in-camera instructions so they are shorter for people running lower screen resolutions

-TWEAKED: in-camera data stream to better reflect altitude

-TWEAKED: in-camera data stream for easier and faster reading (right aligned right side elements)

-TWEAKED: DTV blurriness

-FIXED: Raven can now be assembled and disassembled from walkable ships (Nimitz, Kuznetzof, P99, BAM, Gnat's Warships, etc.)

-FIXED: Raven can now approach and land on elevated positions such as buildings and ships at sea (if there's enough room)

-FIXED: Multiplayer sounds should be heard on all clients now by using CBA

-FIXED: Autolanding was broken on certain maps with fake altitudes (Raven wouldn't land)

-FIXED: Added minor fixes to autolanding script when autolanding is active

-FIXED: Added minor fixes to new target script when autolanding is active

-FIXED: addActions so that they can't be activated during team switching by another unit (thanks DeltaForce96)

-FIXED: Missing semicolon in strobe script

-FIXED: Rare disappearing backpack problem

-FIXED: Changed the way the Raven chooses altitude so that it no longer flies underwater when depth of water is below 30 meters

VERSION 1.1

= ACE2 COMPATIBLE

= FIXED RARE "DISAPPEARING RAVEN" BUG WHEN ASSEMBLING

VERSION 1.0

= INITIAL RELEASE (05/04/12)

KNOWN ISSUES:

=Minor texture bug on underside of assembled wing - no big deal.

=Raven can not be damaged while engine is on

Installation:

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1) Extract @RQ-11_Raven folder to your Arma2 directory.

2) Start Arma2

3) Go to Expansions

4) Enable "@RQ-11 Raven [by Feint]"

5) Restart Arma2

6) OPTIONAL: Add example mission to your documents folder under your username

Usage:

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1) Open editor.

2) Place a unit

3) Place an empty RQ-11 backpack (Empty > [RQ-11] Raven Backpacks > [RQ-11] Raven Backpack)

(SEE PREVIEW MISSION SUPPLIED WITH DOWNLOAD)

5) Preview mission.

6) OPTIONAL: You can place an already assembled Raven on the map instead (Empty > [RQ-11] Raven Parts > Raven (static))

Credits:

=================

BARAKA - 3d models and textures

BARAKA - Testing

FEINT - Original concept and research

FEINT - Enhanced Textures

FEINT - Scripting

FEINT - Sound design, recording and editing

FEINT - Screenshots and videos

FEINT - Testing

FEINT - 17 page instruction manual

The Arma2 community is full of very helpful people and without them, this addon would not have been possible. On this particular project, knowledge I gained while working on my Underwater Diving Module and Aerial Refueling Scripts really helped. Please see those readMe files for specific people who helped me along the way.

Disclaimer/License:

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THIS IS AN ADDON FOR THE GAME ARMA2:OA (BOHEMIA INTERACTIVE). IT WAS CREATED FOR FUN AND IS FREELY DISTRIBUTED TO THE COMMUNITY OF PLAYERS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. THIS ADDON IS BEING GIVEN AWAY FOR FREE AND NOT FOR PROFIT. AS SUCH, COMMERCIAL OR MILITARY USE IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

THIS ADDON IS NOT AFFILIATED IN ANY WAY WITH AEROVIRONMENT, INC.

ALL SECTIONS OF THIS ADDON ARE FREELY DISTRIBUTED TO THE COMMUNITY AND MAY BE OPENED (UN-PBO’D) AND REVERSE ENGINEERED FOR THE PURPOSES OF LEARNING. HOWEVER, IF YOU WISH TO REPRODUCE ANY PART OF THIS IN YOUR OWN ADDONS OR SCRIPTS, WRITTEN PERMISSION MUST BE OBTAINED IN WRITING IN ADVANCE. THE SOUND EFFECTS MAY NOT BE RE-USED IN ANY WAY AS THEY ARE FROM PURCHASED LICENSES and original recordings.

The author(s) of this software accept no responsibility for damages resulting from the use or misuse of this product and make no warranty or representation, either express or implied, including but not limited to, any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This software is provided "AS IS", and you, its user, assume all risks when using it.

©2012 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - JONHILLENBRAND.COM

SCREENSHOTS:

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DOWNLOAD:

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VERSION 1.6 NOW AVAILABLE:

http://www.gamefront.com/files/22780206/RQ-11_RAVEN_ARMA2OA_VERSION_1.6.rar

MIRRORS:

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=16723

Congratz man, can't wait to give her a whirl.

Congratulations on the release Feint.

Looking forward to using this bad boy.

Thanks for all the effort you put into this for the Community!

Thanks Feint, this has to be one of the most beautifully thought out, useful and well implemented mods I've seen in ages. The only slight criticism I have of it is that when you are viewing the Raven's camera, you can hear all of the cows and chickens and other ambient life it's flying over at full volume.

Thanks very much for the nice comments. :)

Thanks Feint, this has to be one of the most beautifully thought out, useful and well implemented mods I've seen in ages. The only slight criticism I have of it is that when you are viewing the Raven's camera, you can hear all of the cows and chickens and other ambient life it's flying over at full volume.

Regarding the ground sounds, I didn't want to make the Raven's engine much louder because then it was really noticeable from the ground and annoying as heck to listen to when looking at the camera from long periods of time. It's a tradeoff. If there's a way to turn off the volume from a camera, I would love to know.

Also, don't forget to congratulate Baraka for making some great models for this addon. Thanks again Baraka!

Thanks very much for the nice comments. :)

Regarding the ground sounds, I didn't want to make the Raven's engine much louder because then it was really noticeable from the ground and annoying as heck to listen to when looking at the camera from long periods of time. It's a tradeoff. If there's a way to turn off the volume from a camera, I would love to know.

Also, don't forget to congratulate Baraka for making some great models for this addon. Thanks again Baraka!

I took the liberty of looking at the scripts and made it so that the sound is just switched off altogether using fadesound when you activate the camera:

mavCameraOn2.sqf, line 7

if (isNil{_caller getVariable "nameOfMAV"}) then
{
hint "RQ-11 NOT DETECTED";
} else
{
2 fadesound 0;

... and turned back on again when the camera exits

mavCameraOn2.sqf, line 385:

 5004 cutText [" ","BLACK IN",2];
2 fadesound 1;   
sleep 2;
deleteVehicle _monitorHead;
if (vehicle _caller == _caller) then {_caller switchMove ""}; 

This works well enough for me.

Oh, and thanks Baraka!

very nice Feint for the release!!

Congratulations and Great Job on the release!

Congratulations!!

Grats on release Feint. Superb work !

Amazing addon Feint. Thanks a lot!

Release frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

RQ-11 RAVEN A v1.0



Arma 2

I have a problem, I launch the drone then I click the camera and it does not appear, but I have options: ADQW.

I play with the latest version of ACE2

Congrats Feint!

Your latest Changes work very well.

I have a problem, I launch the drone then I click the camera and it does not appear, but I have options: ADQW.

I play with the latest version of ACE2

Have you tried it without ACE2?

I have the feeling that this is a BIG problem:

people always let their mods activated, and then complain about not working things... but they never try in vanilla version to make sure it works...

I have a problem, I launch the drone then I click the camera and it does not appear, but I have options: ADQW.

I play with the latest version of ACE2

Same probleme Here

Effectively, this MOD is in conflict with the ACE.

Waiting for the fix ;-)

This ADD ON is becoming a must have ! Thx for the work !

I think his post was more a FYI that it doesn't work with ACE 2. I've tested with and w/o ACE and it works fine in Vanilla, but ACE does exactly what Ei8ght posted.

Nice addon though ! Shame it doesn't work with ACE.

Working perfectly in vanilla. Is it possible to sharpen up the camera image a little. It's a fraction too blurry (or is it just my eyes ?)

Great work mate!

I have the feeling that this is a BIG problem:

people always let their mods activated, and then complain about not working things... but they never try in vanilla version to make sure it works...

He never complained, he asked for help - Read before being an ass to the person.

As for the rest - Yes make it compatible for Ace due most units that would find it useful as many would use it are using ACE.

Wiki is correct. People testing mods while using other mods and reporting incompatibilities as bugs is an important problem. At least in this case, though, he actually announced that he's using ACE instead of having Feint try to hunt down some bug without any result.

looks amazing im downloading now feedback to follow a a few hrs of intensive use

thanks a lot for this

ok a bit later and i finisht my testing with a few interesting results ps i use ace

-1 when assembling the raven it is not assembled on the blanket but scattered all around the blanket appears and in a radius around it the parts randomly appear then nothing happens for a while and after that everything disappears and the raven appears in one case the raven did not appear after the assembly.

(no assembly animation)

-2when getting into the camera menu i get the camera view for half a seconds and then it disappears again

i hope that helps bear in mind i am using ace

apart from that it looks like an amazing pice of kit i am looking forward to using.

I've chosen to make my addon compatible with ARMA2:CO and most other mods and addons, which it seems to be (so far). Players using ACE2 should know by now that ACE2 changes a lot of the basic coding behind the ARMA2 game and they have changed a few of the basics which BIS and other coders use. Whenever you change the structure of the game like that, a lot of addons that work with ARMA2 will be rendered broken once ACE2 is activated. I have released this addon now that it is working with most other addons. I personally didn't want to wait another month before releasing something that was working just to make it compatible with ACE2.

Hopefully, it will be an easy change to get ACE2 playing nice with this addon.

This is excellent! When you first posted on April 1st with your 'crows' demo I wasn't sure that you were being serious or not. It seems you were very serious indeed!

Thanks for the efforts you put into your addons - and thanks for sharing them with us!

Working perfectly in vanilla. Is it possible to sharpen up the camera image a little. It's a fraction too blurry (or is it just my eyes ?)

Great work mate!

I have incorporated a post-process effect which includes blurring, digital noise and other effects. I've tried to make it match the real raven's camera as much as possible including the effects of a digital zoom. I'll tweak it a bit in the next release.

I have incorporated a post-process effect which includes blurring, digital noise and other effects. I've tried to make it match the real raven's camera as much as possible including the effects of a digital zoom. I'll tweak it a bit in the next release.

Congrats..high Quality job.. yes you got er real real close to the real deal.great work