Better lighting

i was wondering, saw a video of someones test mission assault the underground bunker. they were using a flaming torch too light the corridors inside the tunnels. my thoughts were could these be used to light the inside of buildings in dragon rising, obviously night missions too add to the feeling the towns are occupied, also if there is such a thing in the coding for incidental lighting switch the lights on in buildings, i always thought the airfield should be lit up like a xmas tree being an airfield an all. flashing lights and all that, anyhow you get what i mean i hope cheers dewi.

Hi dewi,

The mission you are referring to is by animus and he made it using a small camp fire particle effect and a spade handle. I've done this myself and you have to be precise with positioning both so it looks effective. I also have played with lighting fx in other ways. It is a fave tool of mine. In steel diamond when you go in the building with ammo at the start you will see it is lit up. I don't use the fire for this I use a destroyed vehicle particle effect. So in some ways yes it can be done to an extent. I'll pass you over some if you like. Thing with particle fx though is they are limited on how many you can have at one time. I have an mssn somewhere for streetlights I'll pass aswell if you like.

Unfortunately we can't do anything about blinking lights in terms of a switch for them. But it could be tried using a timer in the script. This again would be limited to white light.


Cheers

Md

white lights blinking down the runway would be awesome, also as you said were limited too the amount of particle effects used, as the towns are not that big i was thinking light some buildings internally and not others adds to the realism in my opinion,i know nothing about coding just food for thought for all you coding wizards:) Also if i remember correctly some of the huts have fireplaces inside so maybe some kind of flame effect placed there would light the building aswell as not look out of place.mdog your the man for this mission:cheers:

Having food for thought from things like this is a good thing. We need new ideas and a renewal of missions to stop the game going stale.

You know I knew nothing about coding when I got DR, thankfully tj dagger and Tvig have been on hand to help. I didn't have a clue for about a year. I still don't know a lot. I know how things work in the editor just from playing about abit and "having a go!" That's all it takes, I wanna get people with your mindset to see that they shouldn't be scared of it. I got some video tuts I wanna put up that are basic things to get people started. It'd be real great if we had mission makers again and that it wasn't left to a very minor few.

I'll have a playwith the runway lights later and see what I can do. Believe me I'm no whizz at coding mate Tvig and tj will second that big time. At the moment within our forum I think they are only guys who can achieve things like this without have a headache.

dewi316 wrote:mdog your the man for this mission:cheers:

As the chorus to that video goes in Music of the moment! AAAALLL IN DUE TIME! lol!

Mdog wrote:

dewi316 wrote:mdog your the man for this mission:cheers:

As the chorus to that video goes in Music of the moment! AAAALLL IN DUE TIME! lol!

no worries mate, take your time and try too enjoy the game. all your hard work on this game and the forum is very much appreciated. i"ll save my ideas for the sound and speech department till the weekend still finalising the details

LOL! already had a few of them today aswell: LOL!

There's a German guy who's done a few basic tutorials, I've just put the English ones up under 'basic tutorials'

https://www.youtube.com/user/OFDRMISSIONS?feature

Lot more playlists up now, but only a fraction of what needs doing.

I have a mod under construction to deal with particle effects in relation to objects. It will be tied into a basic placeable spawner script.
For example you could make a lit torch the way mdog describes above with the camp fire and shovel handle or a flame on top of a drum. If the shovel handle or the drum are destroyed then the flame goes out.

tjdagger wrote:I have a mod under construction to deal with particle effects in relation to objects. It will be tied into a basic placeable spawner script.
For example you could make a lit torch the way mdog describes above with the camp fire and shovel handle or a flame on top of a drum. If the shovel handle or the drum are destroyed then the flame goes out.

excuse my ignorance so could this be placed inside a large hut or building in the fireplace too make the building look lit up from outside at a distance? if so i"d love too see that on a night mission.

something like this!

https://youtu.be/GcTuTlt_ABo

TJ actually helped out with this and has managed to refine it a bit better than the video. But this could work really well.

You have him to thank for the code, I only placed the markers on the map. Which tends to happen a lot.

dewi316 wrote:

tjdagger wrote:I have a mod under construction to deal with particle effects in relation to objects. It will be tied into a basic placeable spawner script.
For example you could make a lit torch the way mdog describes above with the camp fire and shovel handle or a flame on top of a drum. If the shovel handle or the drum are destroyed then the flame goes out.

excuse my ignorance so could this be placed inside a large hut or building in the fireplace too make the building look lit up from outside at a distance? if so i"d love too see that on a night mission.

Yes, however the view distance of particle effects varies depending on the effect itself. Things like the shock wave from a tank firing can be seen for miles, where as a camp fire can only be seen from a couple hundred meters at best.

Dewi, are you interested in learning to code? Or perhaps learning to use some of the modules being created?

The trick with coding is to be able to break down what you want to happen into logical steps. I can help you with this. I can also write modules that, with a little basic understanding are easy to use.

Mdog wrote:something like this!

https://youtu.be/GcTuTlt_ABo

TJ actually helped out with this and has managed to refine it a bit better than the video. But this could work really well.

You have him to thank for the code, I only placed the markers on the map. Which tends to happen a lot.

Haha that's F------ AWESOME! Wicked job TJ!! I like the sounds of Tank shockwaves too!!

Mdog wrote:something like this!

https://youtu.be/GcTuTlt_ABo

TJ actually helped out with this and has managed to refine it a bit better than the video. But this could work really well.

You have him to thank for the code, I only placed the markers on the map. Which tends to happen a lot.

thats spot on, would love to see the effect full screen and maybe closer in standing at one end of the runway with the strobe effect towards you, also if possible with maybe the middle floor of the control tower lit up electrically using a particle effect or torches, on a technical note just wondering would this effect the entity limit or is it like secondary incidental code that would not effect lets say the amount of pla protecting the airport, once again top marks Mdog this is excactlly what i was thinking with the runway

I went to bed last night at around 1am, not long after I posted that video on YouTube, so I never got a proper go of playing around with the lighting fx. I did want to place the odd light here and there in the buildings, but I also thought of another, but I'll keep that quiet and surprise you with it and see if you notice it when I show it to you.

anyway, keep em coming I'm sure we can devise some wicked missions outta these ideas. That's why the forum is here! Nice one!

MD

Mdog wrote:something like this!

https://youtu.be/GcTuTlt_ABo

TJ actually helped out with this and has managed to refine it a bit better than the video. But this could work really well.

You have him to thank for the code, I only placed the markers on the map. Which tends to happen a lot.

MD, that looks pretty cool mate. Is there any chance of getting a look at the code you used to do it? I've found that even with my very basic knowledge of LUA, I'm able to read code and understand it. Like any language though, it's much easier to understand something than to put together your own sentences, but I'm still working on it. I know I've been quiet lately as work and family has taken priority a bit, but I've still got my campaign in mind and since it's based on a pilot's experiences, I'll be using the airfield alot. Also, if I can see the code I can try to modify it and apply it to a heli pad. Ideally, I'd like strobe lighting around a heli pad in a PB, but only visible through NVGs.
Cheers
RC

Hi Rockcop,
below is an mssn file.

http://filebeam.com/9ddea646616a8d22f8a7c14399cf4d51

here is the code...

Code:

function onMissionStart()
particle_zones_sets = {
["triggerzone"] = {"runlights",100,300},
["triggerzonei1"] = {"runlightsi1",100,300},
}
particle_setID = {}
particle_table = {}
end

function onEnter(zoneName, unitName)
   if particle_zones_sets[zoneName] and OFP:isPrimaryPlayer(unitName) then
      particle_setID[OFP:activateEntitySet(particle_zones_sets[zoneName][1])] = {zoneName,particle_zones_sets[zoneName][2],particle_zones_sets[zoneName][3]}
   end
end

function onLeave(zoneName, unitName)
   if particle_zones_sets[zoneName] and OFP:isPrimaryPlayer(unitName) then
      for i,v in ipairs(particle_setID) do      
      --   OFP:displaySystemMessage(v[1])
         if v[1] == zoneName then
            OFP:destroyEntitySet(i)
            particle_table[i] = nil
         end
      end
   end
end

function runwayLights(index,set,loopcount)
   if loopcount >= 0 then
      loopcount = loopcount - 1
      OFP:displaySystemMessage("lighting "..loopcount)
      if index == #particle_table[set]then
         OFP:stopParticleSystem(particle_table[set][index])
         index = 0
      end
      indexi = index + 1
      OFP:stopParticleSystem(particle_table[set][index])
      if loopcount > 0 then
         EDX:serialTimer("runwayLights",particle_setID[set][2],indexi,set,loopcount)
         OFP:startParticleSystem(particle_table[set][indexi])
      end
   end
end

function onSpawnedReady( setName, setID, tableOfEntities, errorCode )
   if particle_setID[setID] then
      particle_table[setID] = tableOfEntities
      EDX:serialTimer("runwayLights",particle_setID[setID][2] ,0,setID,particle_setID[setID][3])
   end
end

...feel free to ask questions.

Tim I haven't posted it up because it still crashes when you re enter the zones I've been waiting to catch you on skype to tell you about it.

Another note that we figured out was the player had to be looking in the direction for light effects to be seen. While this seems obvious the issue was discovered when using effects that SHOULD illuminate the surroundings around you from behind - much like lightning would.

The bigger mind bender is are shadows are being processed from the source ONLY then or always - consider a search party with flashlights in the woods or shipping warehouse.

When creating a mission can you change the time of day and if so how do you do it? I want to do a night mission:) ok sorted worked it out thanks