[WIP] Mr. FX and urfisch at work - Flak Shells
 

after month found some time to look back into this wonderful community :)

lots of things have been improved and i wonder, what might be impossible...as nearly everything is going to be modded and it seems, as if all mystics of the code had been discovered. but although many things have been released (even my always wanted dive angle mod!!! ;) i wanted to ask what about modding the following:

flak/cannon - empty shells fly during firing

ai boats - contact radio messages

crew - walking by

flak:
when firing at planes, i always missed some shells dropping...so as many things can be added (like the water streamin thing, very nice!) why not add some nice shells? the model i can deliver...but how to get this implemented?

ai-boats:
i still found no time to test the new gwx or wac 3 supermod, pitty sad. but i wonder if there are wolfpacks acting (i know search function ;) if so, would it be possible to make them send radio messages, when discovering an enemy convoi or ship? i guess its hard work, but it might be possible.

crew:
on service, i always felt a bit lonely in my boat. as if there are only 5 men with me. so would it be possible, to make some crewmember walk on by? passing the central-station?

regards
urfisch

:o

So far as I know SH3, only the 3rd option is possibly viable and even then it would
require far more work than it is worth, but feel free to have a go if you like.

thinking out loud here: use a ParticleGenerator to produce the shell objects. Tie it to the firing of the flak gun (probably have to tie it to the effect called for under effect in the wpn_cannon controller or even embed it into the effect itself). Should work.
Would you mind sending me the model and I'll do a quick 'proof-of-concept' and then hand it over to you for finalizing (if the idea works)?

hey racerboy

no problem. please drop a pm with your mail. coding is not my business. i more deal with ideas, modeling and texturing.

regards

Racerboy's back!? Welcome back dude!

I know at least in WAC there are wolfpacks. I run across them all the time. I've seen up to 12 Uboats in one pack. I've not seen any in battle yet, maybe WAC 3.0 will have some Wolfpack action.

Crew walking by could be done.
Do several animations on the time scale,
and have him duck at the right moment.
keyframe animate that and he goes through the open hatch.
Just will look weird since the forward hatch is not open.
But that could be animated and timed as a seperate animation.
Then a flat scene behind so it 'looks' kind real when he opens
the door and steps through.

privateer, that sounds promising! i could do the animation and modeling...could you do the coding?

How about a retractable bollard for the type VII boats? I read that the bollard (located on the forward deck) on them was retracted when submerged to help reduce drag. Or is this hard-coded?

Just a thought...:)

Maybe something else ... like .... an animation of crew on the forward deck trying to reload external torpedoes or repair minor hull damage (vide: dry docks crew animations, repair teams at harbours)? It would add a lot of atmosphere to the sim. (... and tons of work too :hmm: ). What do you think mates?:yep:

i send privateer a model of an empty 2cm shell...but heard nothing since...

:-?

If it's not sent to my e-mail,
I won't get it.
I have shut off PM's.

implementation is easy enough. I had to resize the shell model you sent me for it was WAY too big. I finally had time tonight to sit down for a couple of hours and slap something together real quick for this. Results look good! The shell even spins on all axis's after being ejected. There's more work to be done on it but the proof-of-concept works ;)

first shot from 20mm flak gun:

http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e..._casings_1.jpg

watching shell fall and spin on all axis's:
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e..._casings_2.jpg

fired another shot for the fun of it to watch two shells fall and spin:
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e..._casings_3.jpg

and rapid fire of flak gun:
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e..._casings_4.jpg

:|\\

PLINK! PLINK! :up:

wonderful! implementation was easy??? :D ok, i see...mr.fx has come my way! stunning...

The only real hard part is getting the x,y,z set correctly so that the shell appears at the correct location in regards to the gun's breech. I have to add reflections, waterinteraction (so that a small splash appears when the shell hits the water), and a few other minor things yet plus a little tweaking of the PG. The texture used for the shell needs to be redone - I just made a quick brass look alike in photoshop for it. And this is currently only done for the single 20mm UFlak AA gun.
It's not hard to make this for all other guns but different shell models should be used (37mm, 88mm, 105mm, etc.). What color were the casings? Were they just standard brass color for them all?

Since nobody else directly addressed this, the game is already set up for friendly subs on patrol to send in reports. You will see them as circles on the zoomed-out map (and not the more common square), appearing more frequently as the war goes on (and # of boats on patrol increases).

shell reflections on water and splashes when they hit.....
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...ings_with_.jpg
coming along nicely :|\\

amazing stuff, racer! i still found no time to do the texture...but its in progress! already loaded your files. cant wait to shot down my first fighter with falling shells...great!

what about a sound bound to this? maybe you could make a node, with the event when they hit water or hull. or the more simply way, to rework the flaksound and add some pling pling...after the firesound.

what do you think? and again i have to say youre amazing, racerboy. i really dont know how you do this, but i like it! appreciate that...

:up:

sound can be added. Do you have a soundfile in mind? The sound could start as soon as the shell appears thus simulating the 'ding' of the shell being ejected. If you have a soundfile that has the sound of the breech opening with the 'ding' of the shell that would be awesome.
The sound of the watersplash for the shell can be done also. Just need a soundfile for it.
I was unable to keep the shells from passing through solid objects. I'm still trying to find a solution to this.
Currently shells (and effects) are only done for the 20mm single UFlak and I haven't released any BETA files for the mod yet. It still has location tweaking to be done but the 'ruffing' in is coming along nicely.
It is pretty cool to see the shells flying when you're shooting at airplanes. You can even see the shells being ejected from the AA view (the view with the scope on the AA gun).
Maybe someone knows a better way than I'm currently using to figure out the x,y,z location where the shell should appear. If someone can give me an offset from the end of the barrell to where the shell should appear that would help alot. Currently I have the shell ejecting from the right side of the gun - is that even correct?
From under the water you can 'see' the shells falling from the gun (part of the waterreflection node settings).
I'm liking this mod very much so far. There is a ton of work involved though for each shell/gun but it's worth it.
When the shell impacts the water and the splash happens the shell keeps falling through the water tumbling end over end. I gave it sufficient life so that it reaches a good depth before disappearing.