The sky

[penguinman]

is it possible to make it so you can go high in an aircraft like 10,000 feet without that horrible fog and not being able to see the ground. is there a script,addon, or somthing that can make this so

[DBR_ONIX]

You could find a picture of the sky from that sorta hight, and make a simple addon with it on it, and repeadly setpos it under the plane
But you have to check the planes height etc.. And it would be hard to make work in M'P'
It's possible though
- Ben

[penguinman]

ya but that wont work for dogfights because planes in em are constantly changing altitude.

[General Barron]

If you set the viewdistance to like 11,000, you would be able to see the ground. And I don't think it would cause much lag, because you wouldn't be able to see very much of it. So basically you could have a script that would change the viewdistance according to your alititude.

[penguinman]

I suck at scripting so could you please tell me how to set the view distance to 11,000 or give me a link of a script in the ofpec editors section?

[General Barron]

Use the "setviewdistance" command. It looks like this:

setviewdistance XXX

where XXX is the viewdistance you want. Now, for your specific situation, a script would be needed to change the viewdistance according to altitude, which I could likely do pretty easy. But first, try putting a plane way up in the air, and use the command like I told you. If the game lags to hell, well then we know it wouldn't be worth going any further.

[penguinman]

ok will do thx.  this could open up a whole new area in opf: ariel dogfights

[penguinman]

does this go in the units initiation field

[General Barron]

It goes anywhere that script lines are executed.

Init fields are just places that you put lines of script, and these lines are automatically run when the mission starts. The only special thing about them, is that you can use the word "this" in them, which refers to the unit who's init field you are using. Otherwise, you would have to name the unit to refer to it via scripts.

Other places you can put script lines are the 'on activation' fields of triggers and waypoints, and obviously scripts. I'm not trying to confuse you, just trying to further your understanding .

So just put the line in any init field or trigger. It doesn't matter where, because it doesn't use the command "this".

[penguinman]

it looks so cool flying at 3,500meters(10,000ft) it dosent lag realy if you set veiw distance to 10,000 not 11,000. you can see across the whole island from 1 side to the other but what is the script for? I can already see the ground and all the way across the island at 3500 on the altimeter which is in meters so that makes you about 10,000ft up in the air. what is the script needed for? its weird though barly any lag at 10,000 but pretty lagy at 11,000. you can make the script it works great as soon as i post this il start workin on some dogfighting missions they work good with trenchfeets P-51 mustangs vs his Me 109s.

[General Barron]

Lol! Whoops. I was thinking you were saying 10,000 METERS, not 10,000 FEET altitude! I guess meters wouldn't really make sense, huh? Anyway, the idea of the script, is that it would adjust the viewdistance according to how high above the ground you are. When you are standing on the ground (0 meters altitude), having a viewdistance of 10,000 is going to lag most people's computers. But when you are 10,000 meters in the air, you need to be able to see 10,000 meters, or else you can't see the ground.

Anyway, I can think of a great way to script this, and I like the idea (not many air combat missions out there), and it would be good for the ECP. So I'll try it out and get back to you.

[penguinman]

lol  10,000 meters is 10 km up that makes some sense its not that high about 30,000ft where the 747s fly i guess some modern air battles could be fought there like between the F-22 raptor and the MIG-29. that would be the ultimate air battle. but no ww2 fighters flew that high.  anyways im sure the script your making for changing view distance will look good in my mission.  
Speakin of my mission I just finished the dogfight  part. It looks great. so incredibly realistic
If I sent it to you, could add the script you are making for changing the view distance for me (I dont know how) . also could you please put a good cutsceen or 2 and a briefing and overview. my cut sceens suck and so do my briefings. You can take all the credit i dont care, i just want the ofpec public to enjoy probably(is there another one like it) the first ww2 dogfighting at the normal hight they usualy took place (0-10,000ft) on flashpoint. maby we will start some new mods or somthing.

[General Barron]

After having played with it for a while, I have decided that such a script isn't needed. The player can just set the viewdistance for himself, and I discovered that when you are a few hundred meters up, even the max viewdistance doesn't cause much lag. So basically, if the player wants to see further in an air mission, they should press escape, go to video options, and turn up the viewdistance. Then when they land they should turn it down again.

[penguinman]

ok  but about the briefing for the dogfighting mission I am not advanced enough to make one but I really feel it is a good mission and the ofpec public should be able to play the first realistic dog fighting mission. could u or sombody u know of make and put in the briefing and overview for it?  how could i get the mission to them?
I even thought of a great name for it.

thx general barron for all your help
You and Macguba are great guys

[General Barron]

Making briefings and overviews is very easy.... I'd say it's the easiest part of mission making. Check out this tut here to learn how to make them:

http://www.ofpec.com/editors/resource_view.php?id=1