Moogy,
Something I had to come to terms with in my modding work recently, and forgive me if the wording sounds odd.

On your CPU, the on off switches are arranged in values of 0-15. When a value passes to the next set of switches, the value in the first set of switches becomes 0 until the value is incremented by one. If the total is higher then the allowed number of switches, the process starts over at 0

f is a value of 0-15. It works like the old abacus.
A single hexadecimal number is 0xf. It consists of 4 bits. To move a number from one F to the other you have to shift the bit left or right by 4

8 bit number = 0xff
16 bit number = 0xffff
32 bit number = 0xffffffff

If you add 255 + 1 as an 8 bit number, the result is 0
if you add 65535 + 1 to an 16 bit number, the result is 0

Another thing you have to watch out for is combing unsigned and signed values.
for a signed value, any value in the upper half of the left half triggers it to be a negative value.
example:
0x7f is 127 for a signed and unsigned number. 0x80 is -128 for a signed number, while 128 for an unsigned number.
If you and ( & ) an unsigned 0xff with a signed 0xff the result

The left most f decides if the value is negative or posative.

I think you are either mixing signed and unsigned numbers inside your logical comparisons ( | or & ), or you are passing values greater then the size allowed for the number.

You can make then turn into puffs of dust by changing their flight characteristics from bombs to drop tanks in the weapons.dat file.

One is bombs, two is rocket and four in drop tank. It also looks better graphically since the men float back from the plane rather that dropping like stones.

Aldo: I think the problem is that EAW only knows about loudouts which are ordnance and therefore explodes i.e. anything which a bomber drops is a bomb.

Ray: I think I did once experiment with the characteristics in weapons.dat. Can't remember if defining the paras as a tank rather than as a bomb, the bombers will actually drop them when they reach their target. Have to have another go at that.

Hi Moggy.

The code for a bailed out pilot, creates a parachutes, which spawns a sprite on the ground, who runs around a bit and disappears.

Maybe Tony could invent a way of using that code, with a new loadout slot for parachutes, so you can drop 27 for a C47, or 17 in the case of the Junkers Ju 52.

Moggy you can use other numbers besides 1,2 and 4. You might have to use trial and error but I seem to recall 7 made the drop tanks fall like drop tanks but explode like bombs. I used that to make the parabombs.

Of course that's the opposite of what you're trying to do but I do know that other numbers work.

Interesting ideas!

Actually hexediting the weapons.dat file was the first thing I ever did related to EAW modding.

That's how I came up with the multiple weapons drop mod. I made some rockets act like bombs and vice versa.

It was still in use in SPAW where we combined Ralf's exec mod with my weapons.dat mod and came up with four weapons drops.

It's the sixth byte in the row that determines the weapons flight and damage characteristics. I think Jel has an editor for this so you might not have to crank up the hexeditor.

Ditto! First thing I ever did in EAW was 4,000 lb cookie loadout for Flyright's Wellington. I think mucking about with loadout.dat for that was how I got to the first paratrooper loadout, and then things like making rockets act like marking flares. Nearly 16 years ago now. Long before we had the code. Funny thing is that whereas Jel's editors are sometimes enormously helpful and time saving, some things I still like doing with the hex editor. Feels that you are right in there amongst the basic mechanics of the sim.

Still won't stop it exploding.

That is coded in the exe. Have bomb, will drop, will explode.

I've never seen a UXB sticking out of the ground in EAW, or one of those nasty time delay bombs, which still litter England.

They dug one up in London last week, while building some houses. The Army Bomb Squad defused it, and blew it up on the ranges. Only 250kg, so not a little one!

No, that is not correct.

As I wrote above some of the values will change what happens when the ordinance hits the ground.

For instance, I changed the sixth value to 7 for drop tanks to make them explode on impact rather than just display a puff of dirt. They still act like drop tanks in that they carry fuel and fall away from the plane in the same way but they explode on contact with the ground.

I used this feature in a few different ways.

One was to make the parabombs. They fall like drop tanks, carry no fuel, have the weight of bombs and explode like bombs. I made three different sizes, 3 lb, 100 lb and 250 lb versions.

Another was for the napalm. This one required the use of a drop tank 3dz and an invisible 3dz. The invisible 3dz's each had a small explosive charge, no weight and they had a drop delay of 1 set in the loadout.dat file. The plane was loaded with 50 or 100 of these invisible bombs.
When dropping the napalm the player would see the dummy drop tank fall back behind the plane just like real napalm tanks and then when the invisible 3dz's hit the ground they would see a long line of overlapping small explosions which simulated a line of flames.

It works very well. Y'all should try it. It's an available option in SPAW, SPAW45 and The General's War.

And finally, I gave the drop tanks themselves a small destructive value so that you could use them to destroy minor targets like tents and trucks.

As I said, all of these do exactly the opposite of what Moggy is trying to do but the point is that you can manipulate the weapons quite a bit and I wouldn't be surprised if he is able to get his desired results with a little of trial and error.

The way things react are based on the loadout.dat, and the phisics coded in the exe.

We all know you can make a para frag bomb, by changing the decent rate, and using a parachute 3dz, but you could make a lorry float down, and make a puff of dirt, but as far as the game is concerned, it exploded, even if it was a very small one. You did that back in 2006.

What Moggy needs is a way of getting 17 crew to bail out, and leave the plane to fly on, as if nothing happened. We explored all this years ago with the Silent Wings project, This was a long time before we had the code, and probably it could be done now.

The basic problem is to kill the explosion, other than setting it to zero, which still causes an explosion, puff of dirt, or even a small fire or smoke, and replace it with a little troop sprite, running around, so when you drop a stick troops are seen.

We could never get Napalm to work either, get the explosion damage radius realistic, or secondary explosions, so there is still a lot of things to do in this area of the game.

No, this data is in the weapons.dat file.



No, it wasn't necessary to edit the decent rate, the flight dynamics of the drop tank worked perfectly to simulate parabombs.

As for whether or not an object explodes on contact with the ground I'm not convinced that your statement is correct. The reason I say that is because a drop tank disappears in a puff of dust and leaves no crater where as a bomb or rocket explodes and leaves a crater. The explosion size can vary depending on the data in the weapons.dat file but even at it's lowest setting you do see an explosion. Though I'm not a programming maven these two different actions would seem to indicate that different routines are used for drop tanks vs bombs.




I'm not sure you are aware that Woody and I did most of the work on Silent Wings. Our biggest issue was that the scenario was very limited in scope. I mean, what do you do after you land your glider?

In the end we abandoned the whole thing because of this.

I'm sure there are things that could be done with the exec now that would improve the functions of this scenario but in the end you'd still be pretty limited in repeat game play. However, it is possible that something might come out of this thought exercise that Moggy can apply to his scenario.




See my comment above. I don't think they are the same routine but a programmer would be able to tell us one way or another.

Also, there would have to be a NEW routine for the jumpers not a replacement because otherwise every time a drop tank hit the ground you'd get the troops running around.




As stated earlier, try out SPAW. The napalm works just fine.

Why can't you just answer a post in a normal way? Taking sections of my post and quoting everything I say, is not really a polite way to reply.

OK. I'll except some of what you say, but I've not touched those files in 11 years, so your knowledge is going to be more accurate, than mine.

But, this has been tried before, and it's never worked correctly, because of what happens at ground zero. Any type of model, be it aircraft crashing, crew bailing out, or dropping audience, makes something happen at ground zero. This action needs to be changed, so you get the correct result, not a puff of dirt. The routine is in the code already, as part of the bail out routine.

A small change to that code and I'm sure a pilot in a PAW life raft could spawn on water, instead of the pilot drowning. But that's for another day.

John,

I think we can agree that forums are not that good for expressing thoughts in a cogent manner.

My reason for splitting up your post was to make the discussion easier to follow.

Now that you know what I was trying to do can we agree that it was the correct way to move the discussion forward?

OK, but lets see how these different ideas pan out.

Quote from Col.Gibbon in the other thread


Turns out the only thing to learn from this is how bit flags work. Someone has evidently tried to add cargo, but who and when is after I left the group.

well maybe we also learned that development discussions are best kept to private servers and PMs.

.. but then we do a bit more checking and

With "NoExplode" defined as boolean in XVARS.H



...and the HVARS re-set as WI_CARGO with the parabomb image:



I have not changed the delay in the loadout files for the HVARS so they to not fall like Rays parabombs do:



Very little to see in F11 at this range, but no explosions


Then when a real bomb is released:

Bang

Is that the complete code alteration Jel?

I think so Moggy- but I was doing all sorts of things yesterday and there could be remnants elsewhere

As indicated you need this line in XVars.H:

BOOL NoExplode;

I will 7-zip the 140 code and put it in your folder in any case

EDIT:

I have been trying to connect to the server, but it keeps hanging

I for one am quite relieved that the Bools will not be exploding. It was getting messy.