AAA - Tracer Visibility and "Wake Up" Time

[+swambast 670]

Hi All,

 

Pertains to all versions I supposed, but just for context I'm running YAP2 (Wings Over Vietnam, patched to v08.30.06).

Two quick questions please as I slowly expand my knowledge on the "weapons side":

 

1) What variables control the visibility range of tracers?

I notice after a while the visibility somehow limits the actual distance the tracers go into the sky, as well as the number of tracer patterns being fired from each AAA. That is, the number of AAA displaying tracers is reduced, and so is the actual distance that the tracers fly.

2) What variables control the "wake up" time of each of the AAA?

Strangely enough, I've observed that the first-pass through the target area (even if I'm the last strike package), does not seem to expand to include all of the AAA. Only after circling around the target area a few times, do they seem to "wake up" and start opening up. Any ideas on that one?

 

Finally, bonus question, which AAA for WOV is considered most deadly?

 

Thanks,

Steve

[MigBuster 2,875]

1. not sure - there may be a tracer.ini or something like that in your effects folder that you might be able to change

 

 

2. thats what should happen - am glad the game recreates that to some extent - one of the reasons your not supposed to keep flying over the same target

 

 

Bonus Question: The most deadly flak by far was in YAP1 - even the higher up stuff (M1939) was lethal - havnt played YAP 2 yet as the system cant really handle it.

Edited August 9, 2009 by MigBuster

[+Stary 2,426]

Swambast, the tracer visibility range is controlled via weaponseditor -it's influenced both by:

 

MaxVisibleDist=4000.000000 <-in meters, value from gundata.ini, specify the visibility range for given gun's tracer

 

and

 

TracerDistFactor=0.002000 <-this one specify how big the tracer will appear in the distance, the round yellowish/green (based on choosen tracer graphics, many possible) "dot" you see from far away; please note, to certain range (I don't know to which exactly) tracer is displayer fully detailed, as a "point" (using the tracer.tga) and streak attached to it (streak -being half of the tracer.tga, stretched to the distance specified in gundata), followed by tracer smoke effect (tracersmokeemitter.ini, very easy to customise via ini edits, may require copying to custom ini file from particlesystem.ini)

 

 

 

Since SF2 all the tracers have smaller TracerDistFactor= IIRC (so they look better in distance =smaller)

 

Also the very important is the minimum velocity at which bullets are calculated and displayed, it's on top of bulletobject.ini,

 

[GunData]

GunTypeList=GunData.dat <-gundata ini converted by editor

BallisticData=G1.dat <-TK's ballistics data, hardcoded

ArmingTime=5 <- don't know what this exactly means, maybe for time-fused projectiles

MinBulletMach=0.7 <- minimum projectile velocity, below this speed projectile is removed from game world and no longer calculated. I HIGHLY recommend setting this to MinBulletMach=0.3, but requires bit more computing power from CPU.

 

edit:

 

from my experience most deadly AAA are small caliber guns, don't have YAP; also there were some accuracy/blast radius changes regarding flak through WoV patches (I think SP2 patch level flak was deadlier than in v08.30.06)

Edited August 9, 2009 by Stary

[+PureBlue 71]

2) What variables control the "wake up" time of each of the AAA?

Strangely enough, I've observed that the first-pass through the target area (even if I'm the last strike package), does not seem to expand to include all of the AAA. Only after circling around the target area a few times, do they seem to "wake up" and start opening up. Any ideas on that one?

 

I'm not sure the AAA in the game has "wake-up" times. The way YAP has them is to define them in the Mission file (msn) with StartTime=X variables. (X is in seconds). So, first they fly the mission and calculate the times when the Strike Packages and your flight approximately arrive on target. Some AAA is already on duty ready to attack you and more AAA comes up as time passes with StartTime's set properly, simulating the environment getting even more dangerous. Good planning of the mission, unfortunately not a feature of the game AFAIK.

[+swambast 670]

Thanks guys, for the replies:

 

@MigBuster:

thats what should happen - am glad the game recreates that to some extent - one of the reasons your not supposed to keep flying over the same target

 

I agree, but I specifically meant to call out that I was the last in the strike team. When a target area gets bombed by 20+ aircraft and I'm coming in on the last strike team, I don't think it makes sense that the AAA still has to wake up....? I mean, wouldn't at that point 10-20 minutes later most alert AAA have already come alive - would think so.

 

@Stary - that seems to be just what I'm after, thanks a lot! Can't wait to give those adjustments a try - not being a weapons editing guy, I assume I make the changes in the respective .ini or and then use the Weapons Editor to repackage it to create the GunData.dat?

 

@PureBlue - Hey man, thanks for the reply! I looked over most of the YAP .msn files and almost all of them have the AAA set to a StartTime=0 so I don't think that's it. It seems to be maybe a visibility / limitation setting maybe...I'll test out Stary's lead and see how I progress.

 

Also, I've gotten what I perceive to be some better results tweaking some of the other variables such as GunMinAltitude, GunStabilization, BallisticComputer, etc. based on the knowledge I learned from this thread - if you haven't seen it, it's most interesting:

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showt...acers&st=40

 

I took what Jaeger had, and compared it line-by-line to YAP2 .INI files, and tweaked them up accordingly. Although more testing is needed, it is clear when flying the Thai Nguyen Steel mission, many more aircraft were getting damaged. I then did a major update and placed perimeter AAA where it should be, clearly that area was not protected by just 2-3 AAA sites per the mission file, so I did more research and have been integrating my results into the mission for personal use. Have to post some screenies soon of what it looks like, but I'm slowly getting the results I'm after...which is perfect timing considering I'm currently reading "When Thunder Rolled..." Anyway, thanks again!

 

Steve

[+Stary 2,426]

Swambast, open the gundata.ini in guneditor, change the tracer sized and distfactor for guns you desire, and save it as gundata.dat file. Backup original file of course.

[+swambast 670]

Stary, that was extremely helpful - I think I'm getting real close to the results I'm after. Can someone provide greater insight into what the variable "MaxLightRange" does?

[+331Killerbee 840]

It's a Varible Thats set to Random Effects. This Entry determines the UpperEnd Limit that Light is produced.

 

The "MAX" is the UpperEnd. A "MIN" Entry is the LowerEnd. "Range" meaning the MIN-MAX as a whole.

Edited August 19, 2009 by 331Killerbee