RealTracer V.9b

[Grendel]

Howdy All,

The Demo as promised...

This script adds some improved drop created tracer effects (reminds me of the MG34 in Red Orchestra MOD for UT2k4 but with ricochets!).

Enjoy!

-Grendel

[penguinman]

I gotta try this!

[Nemesis6]

Changing the cl_fired particles to "obrysove svetlo" and "koulesvetlo" makes this look even better.

drop ["obrysove svetlo", "", "Billboard", 1,.05, [0,0,0], [0,0,0], 0, 5, 1, 0, [_ts],[[_r,_g,0,1],[_r,_g,0,1]],[0],0,0,"","",_missile]
drop ["koulesvetlo", "", "Billboard", 1,.05, [0,-.01,0], [0,0,0], 0, 5, 1, 0, [_ts/2],[[_r2,_g2,_b,1],[_r2,_g2,_b,1]],[0],0,0,"","",_missile]

Also changed the opacity of the particles to 1. Now this looks absolutely perfect. I guess the next step is bug finding and compatability, meaning that these effects come with you fire anything, so that's gotta be fixed I guess.

[penguinman]

ok i tried it, it looks good.

1st off, lmao at the disclaimer in the readme, best one ive ever read ;D

only problems I have with the script are, that the tracers richoche way to far imo, they fly like 150 feet in the air from where they hit. maby shorten the distance they richoche.

also, they look alot better than most and i like the composite thing, but they are still a little bulbus imo. here is a picture of m-16 tracers as they would look from the firers perspective






and how would i get a BAS mh60L to have blue tracers for its minigun with your script?

[Grendel]

maby shorten the distance they richochet

Easy to do, but believe it or not those suckers can ricochet pretty high in real life ( I can make it a rarer occurance though).

also, they look alot better than most and i like the composite thing, but they are still a little bulbus imo. here is a picture of m-16 tracers as they would look from the firers perspective

Yeah, but I had to balance a lot of issues, like visibility at long range, and the '3D' scaling effect...

And in the pic, the camera is slightly offset from the tracer which will make it look linear...In real life they appear as points to the firer, trust me on this.

and how would i get a BAS mh60L to have blue tracers for its minigun with your script?

I'll see what I can do, although I'm not sure if it will look good due to the way the rounds are usually created at an angle to the firers line of sight.

And here is the new script with one small but signifigant change: It now uses Nemisis6's suggested drop particles instead of the basic 'fired" ones.  This does look much nicer BTW thanks Nemisis6!

[penguinman]

Yeah, but I had to balance a lot of issues, like visibility at long range, and the '3D' scaling effect...

And in the pic, the camera is slightly offset from the tracer which will make it look linear...In real life they appear as points to the firer, trust me on this.

well, yes to the firer they look like a dot but to everybody else it looks kinda like a shooting star, with a central dot, and a long tail, if you made yours with a smaller central dot but added a streaking tail, you wouldnt lose any visibility of the tracer, and it would look the same to the firer because he is looking at it from behind and wont see the streak.

[Grendel]

if you made yours with a smaller central dot but added a streaking tail, you wouldnt lose any visibility of the tracer, and it would look the same to the firer because he is looking at it from behind and wont see the streak

Unfortunately, untill OFP or ArAs can update bullet positions faster within a script, anyone looking from the side would only see a dot every 20 meters or so...the script just cant do it fast enough (many have tried to work around this)

But the good news is, I did up a special version for you replete with blue(!) minigun tracers (less richocets and less chance of really high ones BTW) for the BAS MH-60K's minigun...I also added an improved effect for the dust kick up a minigun creates at the 'beaten zone' of round impact...

Enjoy!

-Grendel

EDIT: I might just have a work around for the streak...stay tuned

[DBR_ONIX]

Theres a lighting thing in dialouge-drop (can't remeber the name, my Checz isn't great ), if used right could make okay trail
Ah, just found the tracer thingy Y2K3 uses : http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=7665
Not tried your one, so can't make any compraisons, going to sort that now
- Ben

[Grendel]

Wow, this thing consuming more time from my main project than I would like...but its pretty fun to play around with...

Here is a new zip with trails for the tracers fired by other units! It looks alright for a first try in my most humble opinion.

As far as wolfbane's tracers...mine does at least one new thing that I see right away: The composite particles make for much prettier tracers...and if you count the new trail thingies theres another thing I guess.

The new mission uses BAS ranger/delta and the BAS MH-60--EDIT-- and BAS OPFOR apparantly (sorry will post a cleaned up mission when I get a chance to fix a few other things)...if you have those , check it out.

-Grendel

EDIT RealTracer Trail Test V.92b.zip deleted due to a bug that has been corrected...new V.93 pending release...Please make due with V.91b untill then, sorry.

[penguinman]

wow, cool thanks,

i tried it but it says I dont have addon "BAS_deraJ"

i really want to try the script so what is that addon and where can I find it. or if thats to hard, how would I set up my own mission with the scripts. Is the init needed? or can u use a trigger.

also if its hard to do the trail, you could just setpos the tracer on the bullet and give it the same velocity. then it would take the same path as the bullet but could go at its own pace.


edit: o NM, i was talking about the special one u made for me, but i guess that BAS deltas rangers is "BAS_DeraJ"


wow, its so great. how do i set that up with a trigger in a mission? is it possible.

and i would like to try the one with the tail but why does it need opfor. why does it need any BAS addons?

great script,

thanks

[Grendel]

and i would like to try the one with the tail but why does it need opfor. why does it need any BAS addons

It doesn't...I just forgot to clean up the mission.sqm .

If you want to do it in your own mission, just copy the marked lines from the demo init into your init, and put the realtracer.sqs in your mission's folder.  Define the units to use tracers by giving them all the eventhandler "fired" from the init (you can do this manually, use the foreach cammand, or use a trigger-whichever works best for you).

The Alpha will have all this set up and some more tricks as I can code them/think of them.  This thing is less than 24 hours old and has evolved alot already so sorry if things are a bit cobbled together at this point.

-Grendel

[Pilot]

I just tried out the script.  I like it.  I do have two questions/comments:

1: I tried the script with a sniper rifle.  I noticed that even if the tracer hits a man, it still ricochets (is that how you spell it? ) off of him.  Is there a way to check if the tracer hit a man and then delete it so it doesn't ricochet?

2: Do tracers really ricochet that high?  

3: In reality, does every tracer ricochet on impact?

-Student Pilot

EDIT:
Ok, I have a few moe observations:

In my attempts to break the script, I have discovered:
Rockets, grenades, mortars, and hand grenades all have tracers attached to them in the pattern the bullets have.  Every third shot fired seems to have a tracer no matter what kind of weapon fired it.

Also, I don't get the tracers flying through the air, they only appear on impact with the ground

[Grendel]

Is there a way to check if the tracer hit a man and then delete it so it doesn't ricochet?

I'm reasonably certain I can fix this. BTW sniper rifles won't have tracers in the final release unless you want them to

Do tracers really ricochet that high

Yep!  When you figure the bullet is travelling a couple of tousands of feet per second or so, after they ricochet they still have enough energy to go pretty high.

In reality, does every tracer ricochet on impact

No, not all of them. I am still trying to work out some more random hit effects:  Some tracers completely disintegrate on impact with a hard surface (and kind of splatter into sparks), others will thump into the dirt and finish burning out (they kind of look like a burning road flare).  I 'm pretty sure I can pull these off.

-Grendel

I am going to release V.93b tonight which fixes a lot of things like:
automaticly adding the EH to units on mission start...
The tracer size calculations have been streamlined...
Tracers will only show for weapons added to the init arrays...
The trails for other unit's tracers have been improved.

Student Pilot: Which version were you testing?  The trail test version has a strange bug that I have since sorted out.

[Pilot]

BTW sniper rifles won't have tracers in the final release unless you want them to

I didn't think sniper rifles had tracers, I guess I was just using it to test the tracers

Yep!  When you figure the bullet is travelling a couple of tousands of feet per second or so, after they ricochet they still have enough energy to go pretty high.

Good point

Student Pilot: Which version were you testing?  The trail test version has a strange bug that I have since sorted out.

I am using V.91B

[Grendel]

I didn't think sniper rifles had tracers, I guess I was just using it to test the tracers

Very rarely, we will use them to mark targets for mass fire / CAS when supporting a larger unit...You can't really snipe effectively with them though because they are very erratic.  As the tracer fill burns, the tracer becomes slightly lighter and the center of gravity begins shifting a bit.  This  litterally screws with the bullet (I've seen some of them yaw so badly through a spotting scope that the smoke trail makes a tight corkscrew).

I'm not sure why you arent seeing in-flight tracers with V.91b...If you are seeing the ricochet, then the EH is working.  It might have something to do with the line of code that bypasses the in-flight tracer for non player units, but I'm not sure what exactly.  The version I post tonight should fix this though as it has been overhauled a great deal.

-Grendel