#4254266 - 04/29/16 04:32 PM
Parachutist and droptanks
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MrJelly
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Taking off from a discussion elsewhere This is the crux of it all: In the SPAW "weapons.dat" file some are coded 7. 7 = 1+2+4 so this weapon has the properties of a bomb(1), a rocket(2) and a drop tank(4) All sorts of conditional routines are triggered by these properties. I suppose we could have a new one: #define WI_PARACHUTE 0X40 //64 However, a whole lot of new routines would need to be written to check if the loadout has parachutes, and if so how many, and then for what happens when they are released, and then for what happens when they hit the ground. Furthermore these properties are linked to others WI_FUEL is also linked to BO_FUEL, and these need to be followed up. To be honest the only missions that would interest me as a player would be escorting a parachute drop, or intercepting one. Effectively that is no different from escorting or intercepting bombers, except that as the parachute aircraft had little if any armament, they would make easier targets.
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4254279 - 04/29/16 05:01 PM
Re: Parachutist and droptanks
[Re: MrJelly]
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MrJelly
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Checking a version that might not be up to date, but it serves the purpose The binary system has to work here and it is based on powers of 2. I sttll believe that anything coded 7 will have bomb, rocket and drop tank properties. That does not necessarily mean that it will look or behave like a normal rocket. The parafrag is coded 7 but it has an initial velocity of zero, and no acceleration, unlike the traditional rocket. Compare it with the 5" HVAR with an initial velocity of 45 and an acceleration of 3. In the game they both behave very differently
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4254287 - 04/29/16 05:24 PM
Re: Parachutist and droptanks
[Re: MrJelly]
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MrJelly
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There is little reference to it in the code. Back to SPAW I just gave both the HVARs (your L1 and L3) initial velocities and accelerations of zero. They just dropped from the Hellcat: I will make a few other changes to see what effect they have, but I will not be using a hexeditor LOL
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4254459 - 04/30/16 05:47 AM
Re: Parachutist and droptanks
[Re: MrJelly]
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Brit44 'Aldo'
Every Human is Unique
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Ray, I was looking into the code after reading the other thread, before reading this one. Jell is right. They are bit flags. The code uses IF and ELSE statements. Whom ever triggers the IF first wins. It all depends on the order the loop is checked, and how it is checked. There are times when the code checks if the type contains a value. In that case, 7 is true for all 3 types. If there is no ELSE statement then the last IF that is TRUE wins. If the entire IF/ELSE is one case, the first IF wins. There are also cases where an absolute value is checked. In this case you will only get a TRUE returned if the value is exact, so 7 would be ignored. As Jell said, there is a lot of nested code. The only reasonable way would be to define a flag above any existing flags and write new routines, even if they are copies of existing routines. This would insure that none of the existing routines will run if this flag is found. But, if you start mixing and matching numbers like you do with 7, you will corrupt the isolation. Clear as mud?
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#4254474 - 04/30/16 08:33 AM
Re: Parachutist and droptanks
[Re: MrJelly]
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Col. Gibbon
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Hi Allen. Thanks for taking a look at the code, and confirming that it's not a simple job to do, even if it would be nice to have. Hi Tony. That Cargo entry, what is it for? Can you drop cargo? Does cargo explode at ground zero? If it's truly cargo, it should land and not explode, if you see what I mean.
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#4254483 - 04/30/16 09:20 AM
Re: Parachutist and droptanks
[Re: MrJelly]
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MrJelly
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Not a cross post, but I replied to your earlier question in one of my previous posts. There is little reference to it in the code. Which is true. There is no code relating to the behaviour or events that happen when cargo is dropped. There is code flagging that an aircraft is carrying cargo, and a count of how many items, but no more.
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4254518 - 04/30/16 01:30 PM
Re: Parachutist and droptanks
[Re: Rotton50]
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Col. Gibbon
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Say you're a C-47 pilot. You take off, fly in formation to your target, drop you guys and fly home. You have no guns, you have no armament of any kind and you're flying a bus. That statement was what I was replying too, Ray. Not weather it was a waste of time to have it in the game. This all started because Moggy wanted to drop paras, which do not explode, and as I thought it's a load of code work. But, when I saw cargo, I thought cargo dropped should not explode, but as the code is not complete, to allow cargo to drop, that is yet another dead end. Over the years many good and bad ideas have been explored, with varying results, but it has always lead to an expansion of our knowledge.
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#4254533 - 04/30/16 01:58 PM
Re: Parachutist and droptanks
[Re: Col. Gibbon]
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Rotton50
3DZ / campaign designer
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That statement was what I was replying too, Ray.
The community at large knows I wasn't making light of the sacrifice of transport pilots. Yet in a discussion about what should or shouldn't be in the game you went off topic and implied that it was the case. It was another one of those sniping comments that sent us down the rabbit hole a couple of days ago. Maybe you don't realize you're doing it, I don't know but please, for the sake of the community think about it before you post.
Heck, even paranoids have enemies.
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#4254541 - 04/30/16 02:43 PM
Re: Parachutist and droptanks
[Re: MrJelly]
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Col. Gibbon
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OK, let us say I miss understood your post, and leave it at that. There are differences between English, English, and US English. Maybe you don't realize you're doing it, I don't know but please, for the sake of the community think about it before you post. Works for me, but this a a two way street.
Supports EAW 1.29.exe, Drop in and Play Technology. 1.29 download
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#4254558 - 04/30/16 03:37 PM
Re: Parachutist and droptanks
[Re: MrJelly]
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shreckster
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I haven't seen this much sniping and BS here since the VBH war WTF???? Do I need to box up some Pamprin and post it to y'all? Sure,I am no longer truly active around here,but it does bother me to see the remains of the once glorious EAW community descend into what looks like ego-driven destruction.....c'mon guys,its a game...an OLD game,and certainly NOT worth getting your knickers twisted up over. We have a term for what I've been reading around here...."Snarkiness" Quit it!!!!! y'all have a great weekend
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#4254561 - 04/30/16 03:44 PM
Re: Parachutist and droptanks
[Re: Col. Gibbon]
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Rotton50
3DZ / campaign designer
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Works for me, but this a a two way street.
See, here's the crux of the whole mess. I didn't say anything the least bit off topic and now WE BOTH have a problem. No, this has to stop.
Heck, even paranoids have enemies.
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#4255427 - 05/03/16 01:41 PM
Re: Parachutist and droptanks
[Re: MrJelly]
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MrJelly
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Back to this thread I have now got the parachute drop working better, even without the CARGO designation. The last entry on each data line in "weapons.dat" is "Handle". It is never used and the value is always zero. So I used it I re-jigged the editor to display the "Handle" column (the heading is "*Null"), and added two new lines to the real SPAW "weapons.str" file: Note that the "Handle" value for the two new items = 1I copied SPAW planeset13, as planeset14, and made the A20-G use the A20-G(Transport)_FM which has this "load.dat" data: For mysterious reasons a dummy bomb is needed along with the parachutes to get the AIs to drop them I flew an escort with Planeset14
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4255471 - 05/03/16 03:38 PM
Re: Parachutist and droptanks
[Re: MrJelly]
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Rotton50
3DZ / campaign designer
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For mysterious reasons a dummy bomb is needed along with the parachutes to get the AIs to drop them Yep, that's what I've been saying. Not sure if original EAW exhibited this but I know in SPAW if you don't drop or fire the ordinance that is assigned to the "drop tank" key that ordinance will drop or fire when you release the ordinance assigned to the "bomb" or 'rocket" key. Says it right in the SPAW readme file. Might it have something to do with the fact the the drop tank key doesn't arm but rather hitting the key immediately releases the ordinance, while the bomb and rocket key have to be armed first before firing?
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#4255492 - 05/03/16 04:25 PM
Re: Parachutist and droptanks
[Re: MrJelly]
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PeterMBooth
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Hi,
Most of this thread is way over my head but a thought occurs to me - would this work with parachute mines? I am assuming that when the RAF went "gardening" the mines they dropped had a parachute as I cannot imagine they were free-fall, so could this mod you are working on allow me to use a Hampden or whatever to drop a "vegetable" off the coast of Norway or in the Dortmund - Ems canal? Clearly we need a large object on the end of the chute which will not explode when it hits the sea. Moggy wishes to do a Falschirmjaeger drop but I rather fancy something more "explosive" and Rotton's "para-frags" won't do as they explode. A mining mission would involve the risk of flak from ships and the shore when "gardening" in estuaries, and later in the war there would also night fighters. Sorry if the facility already exists.
Pete
With increasing age should come wisdom and tolerance, but as the saying goes, "there is no fool like an old fool" as I prove regularly!
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#4255845 - 05/04/16 07:19 AM
Re: Parachutist and droptanks
[Re: MrJelly]
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Col. Gibbon
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Hi Allen. The 3D paratrooper is the icing on the cake. Tony has done a great job of tweaking the code, to make it work. It now just needs a proper paratrooper, one for each side, British, German and American.
Supports EAW 1.29.exe, Drop in and Play Technology. 1.29 download
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#4255849 - 05/04/16 08:00 AM
Re: Parachutist and droptanks
[Re: MrJelly]
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MrJelly
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Fortunately I have the luxury of being able to borrow graphics files in order to test the code. It will be up to others to make them Now, I have finally cracked something that has bugged me for days on end I added copy and paste buttons to the weapons editor, and gave the parachute exactly the same values as the 1000lb bomb apart from the image and the "Handle (*Null)" value. Previously I had needed the dummy bomb, but this time no more. Without it the AI bombers returned to base without dropping the "bombs". So I wondered why having the values for the 1000lb bomb made the difference, and started reducing them to zero. The breakthrough came when I changed "*Weight" to zero. The bombers returned to base. I have not checked, and may not need to, but I guess the exe is using weight to check if loadout is still available, which results in a total of zero when all has been dropped. If the item weight is set to zero then the total is already zero, so no loadout and RTB Even a weight value of 1lb makes the mission run properly
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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