What is a "Gamelogic"?

[Bahger]

Sorry but I'm having a little trouble wrapping my brain around this concept.  I looked at the Beginner's Tutorial here but, good as it is, I still don't quite get it.  What is a "Gamelogic" and how can I understand its application in mission design?  Could somebody give me an example?

As always, thank you.

[Krieg]

Although ArmA2 is far out of my OFP realm, I think I can answer this one.

Gamelogics are basically invisible objects that can have multiple purposes in missions, like for example, scripting unit to move to the gamelogic, making them useful for precise movement. They also can be used to createVehicle a unit at their position, etc. They are basically useful with any script that needs certain position in order to function.

The other kind of gamelogics I've encountered are the ones used to load certain scripts/functions at beginning of the mission, making them similar to init.sqf (or init.sqs if you are still playing ArmA/OFP).

That's pretty much all I know about them.

Hope that helped,
Krieg

[Wolfrug]

Gamelogics can also be used for any number of applications, it's really up to the designer to figure something out For instance, they can be put inside vehicles (gamelogic1 moveincargo car1) to fill up cargo spaces - say you want everyone in the squad to sit in the back of the truck instead of in the front, you simply fill up the front spots with game logics and they're inaccessible!

Or you can use them to create directional sounds, for instance an owl hooting in a nearby tree - simply have them "say" the sound and it will issue forth from their position.

Finally, you can also use them for various forms of in-editor scripting - their waypoints are different than regular ones, being a progression of "AND"s and "OR"s. Frankly I'm not entirely sure how the AND and OR thing works, but I -think- that if you synchronize more than one waypoint or a trigger with the AND waypoint, it means all three conditions have to be fulfilled (the AND waypoint's and the synchronzied WPs/triggers) for the waypoints/triggers/etc to activate, whereas if you synchronize it with an "OR" waypoint it means just ONE of the conditions need to be true. But don't quote me on that.

 I sometimes use the the Game Logic waypoints as a way to create longer conversations - I add a string of AND waypoints with different "Timeout" values, and then I add the conversation in the On Activation field (creating a back and forth). But they could equally well be used to monitor just about any other thing that would normally require a lot of triggers (say you have to finish three objectives in a certain order, you could just have a single GL and three waypoints with different Condition statements leading up to the completed mission, instead of several triggers).

GLs are a versatile and powerful tool for the editor, and one I suggest you use your own imagination to make work. I've for instance created unmanned turrets capable of engaging enemies using gamelogics in the past, which was a bit of a hoot. 

Oh, and as Krieg noted: GLs are also often used to initiate scripts and the like (such as the "Modules" or NIM weather). This is basically just a matter of it being convenient to use GLs for this - there's nothing stopping anyone from using ANY object as a way of initializing a script, GLs are just useful since they're indestructible, invisible, and take up no resources.

Hope that helped!

Wolfrug out.

[Bahger]

Very helpful, gents, many thanks.

[Mandoble]

And a last note, unless created with CreateVehicleLocal, gamelogics will be local to the server.

[bardosy]

they can be put inside vehicles (gamelogic1 moveincargo car1) to fill up cargo spaces - say you want everyone in the squad to sit in the back of the truck instead of in the front,

It doesn't work in my missions at ArmA2. It worked for OFP/ArmA1, but doesn't for ArmA2...

[nominesine]

And a last note, unless created with CreateVehicleLocal, gamelogics will be local to the server.

Wich is VERY useful for MP scripting. Refering to the game logic is a foolproof method of running server side scripts.

[Mandoble]

While in A2 to make sure a script is run server side the correct way would be

Code: [Select]

if (isServer) then
{

};

BTW, that's correct, GLs in A2 cannot board vehicles and sadly the global ones must be created with createUnit instead of createVehicle. Only createVehicleLocal works with GLs.

A "known" and global GL might be also a good way to pass info between all the clients and server, or even commands:

Code: [Select]

my_director_gl setVehicleInit "hint ""HELLO EVERYBODY EVERYWHERE""";
processInitCommands;
Also to transmit values:

Code: [Select]

my_director_gl setVariable ["common_value", 123, true];