Flame and Smoke Clouds

[Dajan]

This topic concerns my scripting woes while trying to recreate an old mission I made in Arma.

While editing for A1 I made extensive use of Mr Murray's Editing Guide, which provided me with two wonderful scripts called "fire.sqs" and "smoke.sqs" (found on pages 168-170 of the guide).
With the change in game to A2 these scripts no longer work for me as the particle effects that are called upon no longer exist in their old form/locations.

Does anyone remember these scripts (I'll post them if required) and know how to adapt them to the A2 format?

TIA

[haroon1992]

if you could wait a bit longer, i might be able to make two functions for you.

or use the drop command to simple create your desired smoke and flame.(you might need to adjust the parameters though)

Or you can see several useful informations about Particles in the following link :
(not sure whether they are for ArmA 1 or ArmA 2 though)
http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ParticleArray

[Dajan]

@haroon
Mate if you're willing to bash some out for me that'd be great! I'm a little lost in iit all an have to follow examples for everything... In the mean time I'll have a ganders at the page you suggeted 
TIA

[haroon1992]

I've already made a burning script in April.
And it's not yet been posted anywhere
(so it's not yet been beta tested )
But I found it working perfectly in my game (ArmA 1.05)
Here's a quick glance at it's features :
Create anysize of fire on anyobject.
Define whether the fire would damage nearby units or not.
Define whether the fire would spread to nearby units or not.
(if a man gets near to the object that the fire was attached,he'll catch on fire and if another man is near that man ,the other man would also catch the fire.So it worked like a chain,fire spreads from objects to objects until it dies)
(the distance at which the fire will spread to the other things can also be defined)
(the fire damages not only the attached object,but also nearby things.and the damage can also be disabled)
(the burning time of fire can be defined.After that time fire will wearout and eventually die(this takes no longer than 30s))
(the damage the fire inflict upon objects varies with the kind of the object, buildings will take the longest time to breakdown,while infantry units die quickly after catching fire.Tanks might catch fire but the tank get dammaged only if the size of the fire(intensity) is big)
(the infantry units can prone and quickly roll to extinguish the fire)

And several other features...
(I should have opened another thread to show this but I am busy making it ready for the public release..)
Effects :
Emits smoke over fire.(like the original car burning fire of ARMA 2)
Fire wear out with rain.


But as I got some freetime,i think I might realease this in a few days.

(I will send this to you if you are interested in this Dajan)
If you are not interested in it or find it too complex for you to use or you think it has too many features and you only needed just to make a fire source on an object that burns for a limited amount of time, then I would create two scripts for you to use :
burn script and the smoke script.
Well, I have always wanted to help people.
Just reply me what you think.
Regards,
Haroon1992

[Dajan]

@haroon
That one sounds a little complex for me mate - I mainly use them for atmosphere, like burning choppers in a night-time LZ-Xray or such like. As that can mean lots of small fires in fairly fixed and central places having too many features can rapidly bog down my aging system!
I'd be happy to beta-test it for you, but what I'm looking for is more in line with the simpler scripts you're offering.
Regards

[haroon1992]

tell me the exact features you want in the script as well as additional ones.
I ask you this so that it will be alot easier for both of us.
As it will be easier for you to handle it.

And i think you should be able to change the color of the fire from within the editor (within the arguments array)
that way, you can make different colors of fire as well as smoke.


Regards,
Haroon1992

[Dajan]

OK, where to start..?

As I say, generally I use fires for immersion. Either I'll set fire to a wreck to simulate ambushed/shot down transports or I'll set fire to invisible objects to have spot fires in the distance (or maybe as a lightsource during a night op). Smoke I usually stick on something i want to appear as an old engagement.
Features I guess would then be:
*on/off (obviously)
* variable length of time to burn/smoke (sometimes it can be helpful if a near indefinate figure is possible)
*I like the idea of colour-changing - It'd be good for representing different materials
*different size of flame (I don't know if that's possible)

Would you be able to knock something like that up? As I'm a fairly green scripter I might need instructions on how to adjust the variables.
Like I say if you want me to test anything for you just pm me
Regards

[haroon1992]

What does "near indefinate figure" mean?

Well, my native language is not english and i am still bad at it.
I googled and ended up confused.

Your features needs seems pretty simple and yes different size is possible.
And you can also have fire burning to different direction.or upside down! LOL that's not needed.


I've got a little busy with OFP projects,so I won't be able to work your script today...
I will create it tomorrow and upload here.

Regards,
Haroon1992

[Dajan]

Ah sorry, I can get a little posh when I write. 'Near idefinate figure' would be basically having the flame/smoke keep burning without a time limit - so you don't have it turn off mid-mission.
Wow, OFP? Still? A sign of a true classic - it just won't die 
Regards

[haroon1992]

Sorry, I will not be able to upload it today (15/6/2010) as I didn't know what you meant.
(know i know what you meant  )
And I got a little busy with real life matters.

I hope you got the patience. 

I've already made a prototype.(it just creates fire at desired pos of the object)

Regards,
Haroon1992

[Dajan]

Haroon, the way i see it you're putting yourself out to help me with something I'm to dumb to do myself - in that case I have all the patience and gratitude you could ask for 
Regards

[haroon1992]

The script is near complete.

It includes the following functions-

- On/Off (specific fire,not ALL fire).
- delay before fire starts.
- intensity/size of fire.
- burnlength (script puts out fire and exits after this time of length)
- colorarray

Current Features :
- Fire reacts to wind.
- Fire reacts to rain.
- Fire reacts to water.(If the target object is in water,fire will be put out)
- Fire have tiny smoke trails.
- Fire have light source.(the brightness depend on the size/intensity of fire)

Actually, the script is finished but i am currently unable to reach the computer.
I will work on the smoke script.

Don't hesitate to tell me if there is any more feature that you want me to add in this fire script OR the features that you don't want to use.

Regards,
Haroon1992

[Dajan]

Haroon - Sounds beautiful mate, looking forward to giving it a spin when you're done.
Mucho gracias again!
Regards

[haroon1992]

Okay ,here's the fire script.

(The smoke script is in progress,and i also want some more informations from you.
What are the things that you want to do with the smoke script?
For example , smoke on helicopter ,smoke coming out of a house ,etc.
And i am also thinking about adding a particlecircle command the smoke script.

ParticleCircle - Distributes the currenty properties of the smoke in the specified radius.
for example,if the smoke source was emitting 10 smokes(i mean the texture like things) per second.
If you set the radius in the particlecircle command to 10,that 10 smoke things will be distributed inside the 10m radius,which means 10 smoke things will be rising from different locations/points within the radius.

(Well,just to make sure you know that does,maybe you already knew it)


About the fire script

The readme is the script or the script is the readme,whatever.
Just open it and see the comments for full info on the script.

Smoke
I've spent many hours calibrating the smoke effect on the fire script.And this is the best i can do to the smoke emitted by the fire.
If you don't want to have the smoke,just disable it.

Size
You should keep the size/intensity between 1 and 15.(higher than that makes the fire unrealistic,but i haven't put any limitations in the script,so you can still use higher values)

Night
Light was added and it depends on the intensity of fire.

Sound
A fire burning soundsource is added (BIS default fire burning sound) to the object.
And will be removed as soon as the fire is put out or extinguished.

Rain,Water and Wind
As i already said,Fire will react to these three natural factors.

Rain
When the rain started,the fire will eventually wearout.(not immediately!)
(High intensity/size fires take longer to wear out!)

Water
The fire doesn't get extinguished if the object is put in the shallow water.
(the example mission has a tractor on fire,test this feature with that tractor)

Example Mission
The mission has two vehicles on fire,a T-72 and a tractor.
T-72 is half-immersed in water,and the fire is still burning.(showing the Water feature)
The tractor's fire will be extinguished after about 60 seconds(if i remember correctly)
You can use the radio to toggle the fire on the tractor (on/off feature)
and someother things.

Feel free to alter the argument array of the tractor as well as the t-72.

I have one more question with fire script.

Code: [Select]

Do you want damage to the object on fire?
Like units on fire or a car on fire.

I feel happy helping someone in the community....
(i have problems in my real life, so i enjoy my virtual life here on OFPEC...)

With Best Wishes,
Haroon1992

[Dajan]

Haroon-
Wow! I'll spin it as soon as I get my guests out the house 
So far at least it sounds pretty perfect for me. Personally I don't go for damage from fires - I know it's unrealistic to have a raging fire that you can't get near, but I tend to run lots of AIs as I prefer SP missions and they can be frightfully stupid about any damage-taking not associated with gunfire.

Concerning the smoke script - I use it for atmosphere. Say I want to have a mission taking place a few hours after one a chopper was downed, rather than having it on fire I'd have a column of smoke rising to guide a rescue team in. Or use several smoke sources to simulate the aftermath of a forest fire or somesuch. Probably this will be even simler for you than the fire script!

Thank you very much again for all your help - I'm sorry to hear your personal life is rocky at the moment, you sound like a great guy
Regards