Project Reality Forums

[I searched the forums, and found nothing on this topic. However if I missed a thread please let me know


This issue has bugged me for quite sometime

When landing any chopper in PR the dust kick up seems far too... petty

I know some of you may think it's just an effect and it's no big deal; but hear me out.


In the real world when a Helicopter lands in a sandy desert area it kicks up QUITE alot of dust; almost in a funnel around the chopper.



Adding this effect may cause a greater impact ingame than some would think.


When landing a transport BH, infantry will be able to use the dust as a natural cover from fire; giving them enough time to regroup and move before it settles.

however on the enemy side it adds the benefit of pinpointing a landing position behind hills where before it was mainly based off of audio.


I know the BF2 engine can produce more dust than it's doing right now. I recall BF1942 Desert Combat did a good job with this effect. If im not mistaken BF2 engine is a few steps up from the 1942 one.. i'm sure it can be done





And of course some videos.




BH landing
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4QpabWN1YSU[/youtube]



and here is a chinook
http://youtube.com/watch?v=s8UGAvWqNz8[/youtube]


maybe this is too much dust for in game, but I believe a lot of players here will agree we need more dust than we have now.











------------------------------

UPDATE!!!: 5/10

It seems Alex6714 took on the task of working on this effect.

Check out his most recent Youtube Video to see the new Dust effect!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taKObOpC ... lis-4.html[/youtube]

Awesome work Alex!

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if it can be done like you say im all for it.

I love your idea, but I can just imagine me landing and getting a huge bit of lag with bad consequences.

But yes, I like it.

making new effects are not quick fixes...

EDIT: if one of you want to give it a go, there's no tuts out there on how to crate effects in BF2 that I know of, but its mostly trial and error, this should help thou: http://bfeditor.org/forums/index.php?showforum=25

'[R-DEV wrote:Rhino;672150']making new effects are not quick fixes...

EDIT: if one of you want to give it a go, there's no tuts out there on how to crate effects in BF2 that I know of, but its mostly trial and error, this should help thou: Official BF Editor Forums -> Effect Editor

I was just about to ask that.

Maybe if it is not too hard I will have a go. I wanted to change some of the missile smoke trails aswell, especially the hydras.

we could really do with some good effect guys in the team, I can "just" do them (the river rapids effect), along with some other devs aswell but ehh, we also have other work to be doing

I disagree.

I appreciate attention to detail, but I feel this will produce more of a negative impact on the game than intended. If there is infact that much dust kicking up people will most likely freak out as they can't see where they're landing.

First off is that most players are not familiar with realistic flight instruments.

1. Artificial Horizon - Simply a line that's supposed to represent the ground and the sky. However it does not even offer a visual referance if you are right side up, or upside down.
<Note: Don't belive me? Try flying a jet sometime at 2,500+ altitude as you may find yourself losing your sense of direction especially in a dog fight. Kashan Desert is the easiest to have this occur as seeing the sky and the tan fog below you are difficult to tell apart until you absorb your surroundings. Hopefully they'll increase the Jet out of bounds timer to 20 seconds instead of the current 10 seconds while they're at it.>

2. Rate of Climb/Descent - Most people don't even know what this is. I wouldn't blame them as basically all the aircraft vehicles in game have had thier Rate of Climb/Descent indicators screwed up and/or not working. This indicator tells you how much altitude you are gaining/losing at a certain pitch and/or speed.
<Note: This indicator is generally on the right side of the screen right next to the altimeter. (Who knows what the increments are, however most likely meters.)>

3. Altitude - Indicates your height above sea level.
<Note: Humm, something that partially works off on the Battlefield 2 engine. Who knows what the true altitude increments are. Most likely best to assume meters.>

4. AGL (Above Ground Level) Indicator - This indicator doesn't even exist in the BF2 engine. In real life there is an instrument that informs you of your rough altitude above ground.
<Note: So essentially you can be flying at an alititude of 500, but have an AGL of 200. This means that there could be hills or mountains under you, and in actuality you are only flying 200ft from the terrain below you. That's a big detail you want to know before you fly right into something.>

5. Heading Indicator (Compass) - Hey! Something that isn't screwed up in BF2.

Anyways... I'm not too thrilled about the idea of mass amounts of dust kicking up. Besides, when was the last time you've seen a squad advance into a flag zone after a JDAM dropped and utilized the smoke for cover? Because I can't.

Also the fact that anything new to PR is prone to bugs. Last thing we need is an issue on Kashan Desert where the SH-60 Seahawks are idling at main base on the helipad and everyone's like "Get to da choppa!... Wait, where is it?".

I would also like to say that as playing from a helicopter pilots perspective myself, I've dropped more people off from a hover over uneven terrain than I have ever actually been able to land the helicopter on a nice firm and flat peice of ground.

Wait, what's that you say? Fast Ropes? (Gasp.) Don't say that term around here!

Eh? PR has gone through an endless list of changes, which have made alot of things more difficult throughout. If something like this is put in, which it should, you will have to get used to it, cos it is the way helicopters should interact with the environment.

Why do 50% of military videos have to have a crappy nu-metal soundtrack by the way? It's painful for the 2 seconds before you turn it off.

Mmm, how do I find out which effect is which? Like smoke trails etc..

I have no idea what the "helicopter dust kicking up when landing" effect is called.

I say no. This will cause massive lag for most PR players.


(Ill give this a try)

hehe, best way is to look at the .tweak files, let me take a quick look

yep, looking in the: \objects\Vehicles\Air\gbthe_merlin\gbthe_merlin_main_rotor\gbthe_merlin_main_rotor.tweak

you can find the line of code: ObjectTemplate.addTemplate ade_heliDraft

So that to me sounds like the most likely one, so then do a search in the effects for it, then you can find all thous effects in: \objects\Effects\vehicles\ade\ade_helidraft\

hope that helps

[R-DEV]Rhino wrote:hehe, best way is to look at the .tweak files, let me take a quick look

yep, looking in the: \objects\Vehicles\Air\gbthe_merlin\gbthe_merlin_main_rotor\gbthe_merlin_main_rotor.tweak

you can find the line of code: ObjectTemplate.addTemplate ade_heliDraft

So that to me sounds like the most likely one, so then do a search in the effects for it, then you can find all thous effects in: \objects\Effects\vehicles\ade\ade_helidraft\

hope that helps

Aha. I have found the sand one.

M.Warren wrote:I disagree.

I appreciate attention to detail, but I feel this will produce more of a negative impact on the game than intended. If there is infact that much dust kicking up people will most likely freak out as they can't see where they're landing.

Actualy if im not mistaking if a chopper lands the dust is comming up at the end of the rotor blades, so the chopper pilot is able to see around 5 meters, so he can see where hes landing and the troops that are disembarking are in a dust free zone if they stay under the rotors. if the go farther than the tip of the rotor they meat the dusty zone

a little picture with the explanation how it is IRL.




Light Blue = dust free zone.
Red = dust zone
brown = sand

Can someone confirm this.
dunno for sure

Okay, but it would not effect any players with Low/off settings, because the dust just does not show. And i think if u had your settings on fairly high u would not see the dust from far away.

If the people with Low/off settings and would see it, then they would probebly get a huge amount of lag and crash.

How do I try my effect ingame, want to have a look at how stuff comes out.

All I have done so far is edit numbers. I need to find a good tutorial that tells me all about effects.

edit them in the editor, play them in the editor, its all trial and error till you get something that looks right.

Then to test it ingame, you pack it into your mod (I advise you use pr_edit since you dont want to screw up your game) and then if all is working it should work fine ingame. Thou its much easier/faster to test in the editor and you can get a pretty good idea on what it looks like.

Yeah, hopefully I have put it in right, just waiting for a chopper on kashan now. I have made a pr_edit folder.

I can see it in the editor, but it looks like a big cloud, so I want to see it ingame.

EDIT: definitely went over the top with that one! What do I change to make the dust disperse out more, not bunch up in the same place?

Landing in Kashan/Desert maps should be like brown-out landings. At a certain moment it's almost impossible to see things and you're basically down to the technology/feeling. Having this in PR would be awesome but would be very hard because by landing at a certain angle/etc would lessen the effect in real life but not in PR..

thanks for the replies guys!


Would this really cause alot of lag for players? its a partical effect right?


83.71% of PR players (by poll) are using Med - High graphic settings.

I am sure of the 16% low players there are alot who are devoted to the game. However should this 16% really hold the mod back from advancing into something more elaborate?