Fully simulated shrapnel... claymores, bouncing betties, etc

[jostapo]

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[jostapo]

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[jostapo]

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[BitFlix]

Looks great. Can you post the script here?

How did you make the bullets move in vertical direction? They normally just drop straight to the ground.

[mcnils]

Cool, i saw the pics,
isnt the blast a lil to "big" for a claymore?
i dont mean the killing range from the shrapnell,
i mean just the explosion blast.

[jostapo]

Reply for both of you.

The bullets were made to fly horizontally by attaching the 12_7 bullet (something close to it anyways) to the shotmissile simulation.  This is Diggers idea, and a good one at that.  So basically, the rounds THINK and behave like missiles, but sound and hit like bullets.  There is a 2k addon required for these scripts to make it happen (1k if we really pair it down).

The explisions occur for a couple reasons.

First, the actual projectiles themselves use the shotmissile behaviour.  As a result, they make a 30mm shell explosion when they strike something.  This explosion is _not_ lethal_ nor does it have any splash effect.  It's just the side effect of using shotmissile to animate the rounds.  If you are amidst the woeful targets of the claymore, you will only be injured if one of the projectiles actually hits you (and as a result, no one behind you will be hurt).  Furthermore, the sounds are those of a bullet whizzing by and hitting the ground.

Second, there is a wee bit of slight of hand going on here.  In order to instantly spawn 120 rounds of ammunition, unique location's have to be found for them.  So the shells themselves are spawned 2 meters out from the claymore, in a perfect 60 degree arc.  Since there's only enough room for 60 rounds along that plane, an additional row of 60 is spawned .5 meters above the first row interleaved by a .5 degree heading change.  The net effect (if you have a fast video card), is that you will momentarily (about .1 seconds) see a zig zag pattern of shrapnel.

The unfortunat eside effect is that this leaves a an arch of 'zero danger' out to 2 meters in front  of the claymore.  This was addressed by camcreating a grenade spot in the middle of the gap.  So if you are laying prone right in front of the claymore, you are DEFINATELY toast (regardless of cover).

The other bit of fakery going on is that directly on top of the claymore, there is supposed to be a 6 meter danger zone all the way around (even behind) from blast.  This was addressed by dropping a grenade directly on top of the claymore.

ULtimately it's a tradeoff.   Bloodmixer's claymore script has an exceptional presentation, as it looks and sounds like a claymore ought to.  Unforunately, the script does not take into effect cover and marginally dumb luck.  Basically, the script checks if you are in the lethal arc, and then does a setdammage on you according to how badly wounded/maimed it is decreed you should be.  (if you are inside the arc of the claymore, and behind a building it makes no difference)

Our script on the other hand LOOKS nowhere near as good.  However, it behaves far far better.  If you want to avoid the effects of the claymore, you walk up to it behind the cover of an APC or tank (or duck from tree to tree).  Furthermore, the claymore has minimal effect on all vehicles.   Any wheeled vehicles caught in the blast are apt to lose their tires (and likely the driver).  And, should an APC be caught in 6 or so claymore blasts, it's possible for it to be destroyed (as if being hit 60 or so times by a .50 cal mg).

Finally, the simulation follows the actual book values for munition as close as is possible.  Depending upon your source, claymores are supposed to be dangerous out to 100 meters, and their cone of blast is roughly 60 degrees by about 6 feet high.  Our simulation has a perfect 60 degree arc, rising to about 5 feet, dangerous out to about 80 meters.  The further you are away from the epicenter, the odds of your survival going up by virtue of shot density going down.  If you stand right in front of the claymore, you can literally take 60 or so rounds of .50 cal ammunition nearl instantly (you should see how far the body flies and what it looks like afterwards).

I'm hoping to finish the basic claymore script tomorrow/today, as well as two additional scripts (having them posted Monday or so).

The first additional script is a bouncing betty.  The simulation includes the projectile popping into the air 3meters, and fannting the area with 180 projectiles, lethal out to 60 meters or so.  This puppy covers a HUGE area, but is really only bad news out to about 20 meters (everything inside this range gets creamed).

The second script will come in two variations of armoured vehicles defensive system.  The first will be a fixed 'bouncing betty' type defense which fires a tight ring of shrapnel like projectiles outwards from the vehicle in a 360 degree arc (with the barrel being centered in the gap).  This script is intended to simulate a missile/projectilfe defensive system.  Essentially, attempting to shoot down incoming missiles.  It remains to be seen whether this is feasible (I think it will work).

The second is the old glory mortar or grenade launcher system.  Basically, the tanker engages the system and the tank lobs a ring of grenades (be they smoke or he) around the tank.  As smoke is next to useless in the game, i'll likely go with grenades.  Think 'infantry assault' breaker.

These latter two will likely take a bit more time as they are going to require a bit more machination in terms of the tanker addactions as well as tracking ammo, etc.

Thanks for your comments,
Joel

[mcnils]

Well a pretty realistic claymore finally, my comment about the blast was more on a "estetic" point of wiew, also if the blast has no effect, its still visible.. and a such big blast is a lil unrealistic for a claymore.. but ok its not THAT disturbing i think.

For the mortars on tanks, thats a very nice idea, and would be a great enanchement for ofp, since tank models in ofp hawe grenade launchers but no option to launch them.. and it would be also just cool to take out some infantry that hides in a village, shooting grenades from a tank.. ummm

[Dinger]

Well, since jostapo started this thread, and it IS a thread in the scripting forum, I'll talk a little about what's going on, and what the uses of it are.

I will say that Jostapo's not giving himself enough credit here.

Anyway, it was fortuitous that he wrote to me asking about the drop command (of which I know very little) and claymores at the same time I was screwing around with config.cpp mods for artillery shells and submunition effects.

Before scripting, however, the mod part:
until BIS releases a "SetSpeed" command, the only way we can camcreate an object with velocity is by using the shotrocket/shotmissile simulations.  Give the object a very short thrusttime (but not too short or bad things happen), and a lot of thrust, and it will accelerate, fly  and drop when you camcreate it.  On the bad side, you get the little explosion.  Right now, I'm happy to make that tradeoff if it means ICM on the trees is less effective.

So at its heart, the submunition mod is simply a config.cpp-only mod object based on a bullet, but using ShotMissile and a lot of thrust.  The sound effects come from the bullet object.

--
Now the scripts part.
At heart, it's very simple.  Take a location and a direction, camcreate a bunch of these fragment particles and setdir in the proper direction.
If you didn 't know this already, you can do this with missiles and rockets too (try camcreating and setdir of hellfires, for example)
The issues are in testing: how many particles can we get away with and keep the FR up? How many of these "claymores" can we trigger at once in combat conditions without causing the CPU to seize?  How can we trigger the stuff in multiplayer without camcreate issues?

jostapo's solution is only one of many ways to spawn a bunch of particles.  For example, you could spawn the particles at random headings within the arc, and at random heights.  The problem is that you will get some collisions and lose some projectiles.

now, I have a couple of questions that fall into the "advanced" category, and relate to this project:


A. In the old board (not the old old board), in hints and snippets, someone posted about making a script into a mod.  I think he was referring to packing scripts into an addon pbo and calling them from the ME.  Does anyone know _exactly_ how to do this?

B. With camcreated shells in MP, you don't get sound effects. Someone alluded that this problem has been solved, but nobody has answered my queries concerning this.  Does anyone have a solution that actually works? (non working solutions include 1) doing nothing 2) camcreating shells on every client (causing as much damage as there are players connected) 3) playsound )

[walker]

Hi Dinger

I wrote a thread about

packing scripts into an addon pbo

It was actualy on the CoC old board I was refering to work done by kegetys for his grenade launcher which has the script for carying it in a vehicle inside the pbo for his AGS17 they are just put in the folder for the addon same as the config.cpp etc.

You call the scripts as follows

To use it add the following to the init script of the AGS: this exec "\KEGags\ags.sqs"

I was thinking we could put the final version of the CE within an addon such as an HQ M113

Kind Regards Walker