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Offline DeanosBeano

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UPDATE new mpdedicated fastrope beta 20-12-08
« on: 08 Oct 2008, 12:53:05 »
                                   


 Hi all,                         New version as of 20-12-08 i think it actually works
                                                           and a smoother anim

     I am testing a fastrope  idea which i feel is now ready for a full beta (lol fingers crossed). anyway i would love some feedback and suggestions from dedi server owners /clans etc.

 heres a breakdown and some guidance.

  in the dl = :

1 x @dbo_ropesmp  put this in the main arma directory alng with all other @ folders
 this folder contains 1 folder named addons
 within which you will find

1 x dbo_fake_ambient_test.pbo
1 x dbo_rope.pbo
1 x dbo_mh6.pbo
1 x dbo _fastrope.pbo (animation (beta version))

  Changelog.
  New anim for down rope.
  New shorter delay between ropes.
 pilot only can activate the action to set ropes and send down troops
 new set pos and velocity for stability on initial point of fastrope action (not looped so you can move sightly while roping with helo.
 new speed limitation <25
 new height limitation < 11

 new download below
 

 same report pls and obviously from the individauls how they felt it could be improved.


 known bugs .
 anim is a little slow and i have experienced damaged to units occasionally at height > 11

  thanks again for any feedback it really is only because of it i can make these things.

 also thanks to

al simmons
teacup
mandoble
                       
     TY
DB

 




   


« Last Edit: 20 Dec 2008, 16:01:08 by DeanosBeano »
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Offline Wolfrug

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Re: MH6 fastrope SP interim beta
« Reply #1 on: 08 Oct 2008, 13:44:32 »
Sounds good! Will give 'em a try and report back what I found.  :good:

Edit 1: Okay, so I've tried them. Heh, beta indeed! Note that I haven't checked out any internal scripting or so, just "gameplay"

Minor bugs: The "set rope" action changes to "prepare_fs" when you've done it once - consider using capital letters and the same text (also capital letters for the interrim actions) ;).

The rope, although impressively capable of staying pointed DOWN no matter what angle the helicopter is in, has a rather twitchy animation. Might want to make it animate a little slower, to simulate lightly swaying in the air. Obviously making it fully responsive to your chopper's speed etc. would be quite groovy, but that's a whole 'nother ballpark.

And then the major bugs (of which you're surely aware of most, but still):
-You can fastrope at any height and any speed, and the fastropers will hit the ground safely with no harm done. Impressive in its own right though, but you probably didn't mean for it to happen that way...
-The fastropers "downward" descent is in fact dependent on the chopper's "down" vector! just try to fastrope someone while doing a spin at 130 km/h: you'll see the poor little bastards fly out and around and everywhere. Still, they somehow land alive, which, once again, is somewhat amazing, but once again, probably wasn't the intent ;)

Aside from that, the thing seemed to work:
- Fastroping on top of buildings worked.
- Fastroping the whole squad worked (although it seemed a little slow?)
- The actions stayed and were replaced as they should be (sometimes the ropes disappeared; in particular when the vehicle was damaged?)
- The ropes pointed downwards at all times.

I understand the "teleport from chopper to ground unharmed" script is very necessary to combat ArmA's homicidal desire to kill any unit that's moving through the air at any speed - but coupled with the fact that you can do this at any height and at any speed (and angle) means that you can easily get some hilarious results. This could probably be fixed by checking the speed and height of the chopper and limiting it somewhere around 5-15 meters and 0-10 km/h or so, and if that limit is passed anyone in process of being fastroped would be thrown back into default ArmA physics (i.e., almost certain death), the ropes would be "cut", and the actions reset. Alternatively you could do it like BAS did it: once you reach the appropriate speed/height, an action would pop up for the pilot allowing him(or her!) to stabilize the chopper at the required height/speed for the duration of the fastrope (or, as it were, ladder extraction or "sniping-from-the-back-of-the-Chinook" - ah, BAS helicopters, sweet memories...)

Good initiative!  :good:

Wolfrug out.
« Last Edit: 08 Oct 2008, 19:03:31 by Wolfrug »
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Offline DeanosBeano

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Re: MH6 fastrope SP interim beta
« Reply #2 on: 08 Oct 2008, 20:02:31 »
 Fantastic report mate , just what i expected from this great site :).

 ok here goes i try to answer and agree


Quote
Minor bugs: The "set rope" action changes to "prepare_fs" when you've done it once - consider using capital letters and the same text (also capital letters for the interrim actions) Wink.
Yes i noticed this late on too it will be fixed.

Quote
The rope, although impressively capable of staying pointed DOWN no matter what angle the helicopter is in, has a rather twitchy animation. Might want to make it animate a little slower, to simulate lightly swaying in the air. Obviously making it fully responsive to your chopper's speed etc. would be quite groovy, but that's a whole 'nother ballpark.

The animations will be made slower in final ,at the moment i have no control over speed other than to add more keyframes but lets see if al_simmons can work some magic in o2 or i can finally acess speed rtm :)


Quote
And then the major bugs (of which you're surely aware of most, but still):
-You can fastrope at any height and any speed, and the fastropers will hit the ground safely with no harm done. Impressive in its own right though, but you probably didn't mean for it to happen that way...
-The fastropers "downward" descent is in fact dependent on the chopper's "down" vector! just try to fastrope someone while doing a spin at 130 km/h: you'll see the poor little bastards fly out and around and everywhere. Still, they somehow land alive, which, once again, is somewhat amazing, but once again, probably wasn't the intent Wink

 it was meant to happen for testing purpose, they are setdammage 0 at height of ground +_x
 

Quote
Aside from that, the thing seemed to work:
- The actions stayed and were replaced as they should be (sometimes the ropes disappeared; in particular when the vehicle was damaged?)
there is at the moment a 4 second delay between last man in cargo and automatic removal of ropes.

Quote
I understand the "teleport from chopper to ground unharmed" script is very necessary to combat ArmA's homicidal desire to kill any unit that's moving through the air at any speed - but coupled with the fact that you can do this at any height and at any speed (and angle) means that you can easily get some hilarious results. This could probably be fixed by checking the speed and height of the chopper and limiting it somewhere around 5-15 meters and 0-10 km/h or so, and if that limit is passed anyone in process of being fastroped would be thrown back into default ArmA physics (i.e., almost certain death), the ropes would be "cut", and the actions reset. Alternatively you could do it like BAS did it: once you reach the appropriate speed/height, an action would pop up for the pilot allowing him(or her!) to stabilize the chopper at the required height/speed for the duration of the fastrope (or, as it were, ladder extraction or "sniping-from-the-back-of-the-Chinook" - ah, BAS helicopters, sweet memories...)

1 Ok at the moment i have deliberatly setdammage 0 ,so it can be tested on buildings and some fast insertions in th final  the worst case scenario is that it will ensure you have the same damage you had before you go on the rope, the best case would speed and height * a number to apply to a setdammage factor.

2 i have removed the line setvelocity 0,0,0 and a hint that tells you to be 10 feet above roadway lod / ground , it doesnt matter if your 5 in all honesty but to make it look right 10 is optimal, i could replace this but i am guessing the kind of clan to use this in a MP environment would get used to the height factor ?

3 the vector of pilot is same as helo but rope is [0,0,0] i will look into this and see if i can get a better effect for both ,so some 10 -15 mph moving ropeage can look nice and be achieved.

4 . and of course the other biggy , only one rope is used at the moment  .


 all in all thanks for a really nice summary and i hope i cann implement all those sugestion /fixes in MP dedi version .

 thanks

DB


 a little video of the release http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=222XgdiFZD8&fmt=18
« Last Edit: 08 Oct 2008, 20:57:17 by DeanosBeano »
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Offline loki72

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Re: MH6 fastrope SP interim beta
« Reply #3 on: 09 Oct 2008, 22:13:59 »
whoot!... just found this.. brb for a beta report.

Offline DeanosBeano

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Re: MH6 fastrope SP interim beta
« Reply #4 on: 14 Oct 2008, 15:20:22 »
 Just a quick update seeing as there seems to be alot of interest in this,
 I am hard at work still between rl and sleeping , there has been beeny things to overcome whilst making this mp dedi capable, not least of all death of a man who has ejected ,got out of a helo above 5 meters. i am not sure since even ofp that you can setdammage units back to good health from 0 so its been a nightmare .
 Anyway good news is i have found away to do it and its working , the struggle for the next few days is to make it look good .

 ty for interest

 DB
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Offline Wolfrug

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Re: MH6 fastrope SP interim beta
« Reply #5 on: 14 Oct 2008, 18:41:14 »
In ArmA you can't setdamage people back to 0 health from death - once they're dead they're dead. See discussion in this topic: linky (towards the end, in this case).

However, you -can- setdamage them to i.e. -500, which will make them invulnerable for at least one "hit" (not sure if falling constitutes for more than one hit) - note though that it's a bit hard to give them back their old health, since i.e. setdamage (_olddamage) will "spread out" the damage evenly over the body, meaning someone hit in the legs can stand again etc.

Isn't it possible with just a calm setpos loop to make sure they land with less than terminal velocity? No idea how that'd work in MP etc, of course. :)

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Offline DeanosBeano

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Re: MH6 fastrope SP interim beta
« Reply #6 on: 14 Oct 2008, 19:17:06 »
 well the dedi isn`t so hot on calm setpos loops so although in sp all is well and in an ideal world sleep .01 would be a beautiful frame rate  ,so the unit gets hammered up and down the rope, i have decided to create a proxy and add some weight to it and class as parachute , this seems the only workaround i can think of for now.

 locailty in mp is an absolute nightmare , thought i had it done four hours ago until suddenly the action of ejecting stopped in the addon version . one more day then i will throw it too open source ,its far too much for the gains , at this moment anyway.

 cheers for link

 DB
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Offline loki72

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Re: MH6 fastrope SP interim beta
« Reply #7 on: 14 Oct 2008, 19:27:24 »
finished trying this out.. works great.. like previously stated.. maybe a bit too fast coming down the ropes. 15m in 1 sec was a bit.

and most of all.. thanks for showing BiS.. that once again the community shines bright! hope to see this finished.

Offline DeanosBeano

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Re: MH6 fastrope SP interim beta
« Reply #8 on: 14 Oct 2008, 20:04:54 »
 thanks for the feedback ,
 i will look at this 15m 1 second problem it shouldnt happen in sp unless your framerate is really poor.

 as for bis , well we must understand 2 things here.

1, they sell a similar product for $1500 a pop with all these things in and have to leave them out to justify the commercial price tag i guess .

2, BIS take a lot of flack for there unpolished products , i dont think if they added my shoddy workarounds to the disc version ,they would get much appreciation lol.



 
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Offline loki72

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Re: MH6 fastrope SP interim beta
« Reply #9 on: 14 Oct 2008, 20:41:28 »
 :D thats funny and true.

about the fps.. nah.. i have a  strong system. 8800gtx.. duo core.. the works.

still... i think the functionality of it is playable.. and over 300 downloads.. from just here.. and only wolfrug and my's feedback.. i'd think that others are digging it as well.


Offline DeanosBeano

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Re: MH6 fastrope SP interim beta
« Reply #10 on: 14 Oct 2008, 21:12:24 »
 well i have decide to release an alpha of the mp version .
 Please note that this is really a see how it goes not how it looks at this moment in time, i don't have a big system anymore and its hard fro me to test whether there is massive delays in the scripts.

 It is open sourced as long as all changes that are beneficial are written here  any total conversion and re tagging is forbidden without prior written consent from me.

 big thanks to mando for even getting me this far , which is about step 2 of a 10 step program lol.

 anyway pls anyone with a dedicated server give him a try, hes an ugly unreliable bastard but without feedback and co operation he will never become a swan ;)

ty in advance

 the same rules apply as first dl for installation , cept a couple of maps to just save time i guess.
 DB

 to save time on feedback i write little todo list

1 change anim for proxy to better than para anim
2 place  roper and rope better proximity
3 more relaible smoother scripts
4 abandon little bird and make uh60 version with al_simmons.

 ty

                                  updated please see first post ty DB
« Last Edit: 17 Oct 2008, 16:40:31 by DeanosBeano »
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Offline loki72

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Re: MH6 fastrope SP interim beta
« Reply #11 on: 14 Oct 2008, 23:37:59 »
i put this on my dedicated.. no errors.. though i'm not sure how i was supposed to test it in MP with only 1 playable slot.. also how do i tell the ai to use the fast ropes?

i'll edit the mission and try it with some people and edit this thread.

Offline DeanosBeano

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Re: UPDATE new mpdedicated fastrope beta 17-10-08
« Reply #12 on: 17 Oct 2008, 16:32:24 »
 hi all ,

 Please see first post for new  dedicated server beta version release.
1 x @dbo_ropesMP  put this in the main arma directory alng with all other @ folders
 this folder contains 1 folder named addons
 within which you will find

1 x dbo_fake_ambient_test.pbo
1 x dbo_rope.pbo
1 x dbo_mh6.pbo
1 x dbo _fastrope.pbo (animation (alpha version))

 all feedback is greatly appreciated.
 thankyou

 DB
« Last Edit: 17 Oct 2008, 16:41:02 by DeanosBeano »
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Offline Wolfrug

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Re: UPDATE new mpdedicated fastrope beta 17-10-08
« Reply #13 on: 20 Oct 2008, 12:39:05 »
Phoie, sorry about the delay in picking this up, had some hectic days (and in for some more soon!) --> I can't test the MP dedicated, but I will test the rest of the stuff, and tell you what's still wrong with it afterwards ;)

Until then.

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Offline DeanosBeano

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Re: UPDATE new mpdedicated fastrope beta 17-10-08
« Reply #14 on: 20 Oct 2008, 19:00:51 »
 cheers wolf,
 All feedback is appreciated and whilst i don't have a dedi server myself i have tested it courtesy of jerry hopper and loki.

 there is good and bad.
 good that ll works

 bad :

1 the animation stinks and i really need a maya - 02 tool because i believe even bis do not save anims using o2.
 (cries out for teacups help ).
2 the activation system, at the moment it seems anybody and everybody can activate the system, i really do need to set
 some paramters here (suggested by ironman in pm too ). but where to set boundaries
 (a)  same as bas once did, set velocity and height of chopper rigid , then lower ropes then make crew descend ?
 (b) have only pilot can activate the ropes and the descend init ?

 i dont play online and i guess that why this thing has slow progress , because of lack of feedback, i saw it had been downloaded 453 times at another site and although i don't want to put exclusivity here , i may have too so that i can perhaps channel the feedback, whats people thoughts ?

 cheers

 DB.

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Offline Wolfrug

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Re: UPDATE new mpdedicated fastrope beta 17-10-08
« Reply #15 on: 21 Oct 2008, 10:03:05 »
First of all, we can't claim any kind of exclusivity, feel completely free to seek feedback anywhere else too :)

Second, here's a new batch of bugs for you to consider (some may be old, some may be new?):

Fixed:
- No longer possible to fastrope at high speeds and altitudes and survive.  :good:
- Actions named properly.

Bugs:
- Pressing "lose ropes" actually only removes the visual aspect of fast roping - you can still press "fast rope" and it'll work without problems ;)
- If you are below 10 meters height, the fastropers will oddly enough spawn ABOVE the helicopter and then fall down! I believe this point is roughly at 10 meters. Using something like the boundingbox command or just plain ol' modeltoworld you should be quite able to find out where the "sides" of the helicopter is and begin the animation from there. Didn't seem to be problematic with heights above 10 meters though (they properly spawned and fell to their deaths ;))
- Fastropers still somewhat attached to the helicopter, but at least they seem to be going down even if the chopper isn't level. Not sure about this?
- Something looks iffy with the new animation used for fastroping - the hands look a little...off. I'll try to take a picture later, when my ArmA isn't being a bitch.
- Rope still swings wildly - maybe at this point a very tiny animation and a mostly "straight" rope would still be the best?

Looking good though! Can still fastrope on top of buildings and the like, and when used as one is supposed to (at 10m height, level helicopter, almost no speed) the people make it to the ground alive - which is the most important part. Good job, and keep it up!

Wolfrug out.
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Offline DeanosBeano

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Re: UPDATE new mpdedicated fastrope beta 17-10-08
« Reply #16 on: 21 Oct 2008, 22:06:19 »
 Thanks for another impressive report mate,
 Although i have already touched on some of the points in my las post , i think what i will do is , make the helo saty at a certain height by force and fix the animation and exit all scripts if the pilot has not executed the fast rope script, i will also remove the action to set ropes and make this auto once pilot has actioned fast rope.

 the greatest thing holding all this back is the fact that i cannot get an animation to save from o2 without it screwing up, i hear a rumour that in next 10 days there maybe a gift from a god though concerning maya and - o2 anims .

 until then i place this project on hold , although this is not abd news as yesterday i was helping geloxo fix his version (the model p3d erros only) hopefully he will now fix his scripts and there will be a fast rope addon sooner than this one .

 thanks and if anyone want to adpapt improve this in the mean time pls just go ahead and let me know here or via pm .

 thanks
 DB
 
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Offline DeanosBeano

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Re: UPDATE new mpdedicated fastrope beta 25-10-08
« Reply #17 on: 25 Oct 2008, 15:46:32 »
 Apologies for the bump ,
  There is a new model and description of a new download that is included at the bottom of the first post, this is now getting very near final.

 thanks for feedback .

 DB
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Offline DeanosBeano

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Re: UPDATE new mpdedicated fastrope beta 20-12-08
« Reply #18 on: 21 Dec 2008, 15:03:18 »
 Hi all,
     Due to some conversations in Lokis teamspeak , i became aware that this last update had some major flaws,
 i have found time to correct them and update the downlaod on the first post.
  i am told all is well now , however i cannot make final without good feedback , so i guess it is now upto the end user to dictate how polished this addon will become.

 ty

DB
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Offline Wolfrug

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Re: UPDATE new mpdedicated fastrope beta 20-12-08
« Reply #19 on: 29 Dec 2008, 11:27:19 »
Hey there!

Sorry for the christmas holidays being busy, not too much time doing much except, well, eating chocolate  :cool2:

Anyway, I tested this out, and it seems to be working quite nicely! Only a few minor niggles left:

The strings need to be properly capitalized (Set Rope, Fast Rope etc.) -> just check it through once; make sure at least the first word is capitalized :) Same thing goes for the text hints when you're flying too fast/too high -> capitalize and punctuate! Here's just an idea of what it could say:

"too high drop to at least 11"

-> "Too high; maximum altitude is 11 meters"

"you are traveling to fast <25"

-> "Too fast; max speed 25 km/h"

Or somesuch :)

And finally: it's still possible to fastrope while going -backwards- (negative speed) over 25 km/h! I really don't know how you can check against this, although frankly everyone fastroping then just tends to die...maybe ask Spooner or some other math wiz for help in how to use the velocity command instead of speed to determine the actual air speed in -any- direction?  :dunno:

Looks good otherwise! The animation is nice looking!

Wolfrug out.
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