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Sounds good to me!
@Blitzen
I found an old post by Nephilim:
http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost....24&postcount=6
Which shows some pix of his completed & excellent looking RQ1 Predator UAV model from back in 2005.
He stated that the model was done but that the scripting was still being worked on.
I managed to get the UAV control working remotely via the radio without needing to walk up next to it.
However, getting it to fly or patrol autonomously is proving to be more of a challenge. setPos does not work for this addon - the drone will fly erratically & simply drop from the sky when created even if it's engine is turned on & it is set to "Flying" (or flyInHeight is used).
Control system: uses several sliderSetPosition/Range/Speed to assign setVelocity values that allow the player to manually control the UAV by clicking on the slider buttons in the control dialog.
I haven't figured out how the initial takeoff is achieved after the drone is turned on (using the sliders before switching on seems to have no effect).
Vehicle config: the Side is set to "4" ("Empty" in mission editor) and hasDriver/Gunner/Commander are set to false so options are limited when placing it in the mission editor.
Setting the UAV to Side=1 (West) & hasDriver=true enabled the drone to be placed in the mission editor & it starts the mission flying in a straight line. It can then cycle through a circuit of waypoints (although it looses altitude & crashes after a while).
I tested using a aircraft takeoff script from Ofpec (takeoff.sqs) which works well with standard aircraft but did not help with launching the DragonWarrior & resulted in yet another crash.
I think the addon's Config.cpp uses vehicle class "Plane : Air, Cessna" which may be affecting the flight model & controls.
BTW, the author appears to have given permission to reuse/modify this addon in some of the script comments within the PBO (translated from French). A lot of impressive coding went into this addon & it could possibly serve as a great starting point for further UAV addons...
Last edited by f00bar; Mar 9 2011 at 20:38.
I believe that this is caused, as you have found, due to the drone being set to "empty." If you take an empty plane or a helicopter and place it in the editor with its status set to "flying", it too will crash to the ground.Originally Posted by f00bar
I think that the initial takeoff is "pre-set." The drone seems to move a certain distance in the direction it is facing, and then the settings from the sliders kicks in.
Too bad the FDF people havent given permission
I've been doing some fooling around with the drone, and it seems that you cant control it while you are in an aircraft/plane...? That stinks because it would be neat to use the drone to find AA units then take them out with a helicopter, etc.
It would also be really cool to add a laser targeter to the drone...
Last edited by Blitzen; Mar 11 2011 at 02:44.
I managed to get a helicopter recon test mission working where the player starts out flying in an OH-58 Kiowa and is able to use radio channel Alpha to "deploy" a UAV while flying. The drone magically appears on the ground beneath the chopper & then the player can use radio channel Bravo to start the drone & control it.
Another version of this mission starts out with a DragonWarrior unit as a member of the player's group with both flying around.
The only caveat with this is that the drone must be issued a "move, stop" order so it hovers in place (it will hover indefinitely) or else it will eventually fly too close to the ground & crash. The player can control it & direct it to several locations but must continually issue stop orders to prevent the UAV from flying in a continuous straight line. It reminds me of the old videogame "Asteroids" as once thrust is applied the craft will continue moving along that vector until reverse thrust is used.
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