project reality header
Go Back   Project Reality Forums > Developer Blogs > Arab
21 Sep 2024, 00:00:00 (PRT)
Register Developer Blogs Members List Search Quick Links

Rate this Entry
Working Smoke Grenades against bots
Posted in: Features
Posted 2018-09-23 at 02:55 by Arab



Update 10/11/19: Due to a series of misunderstandings and lack of communication to the original author, this feature has been falsely credited under ArmourRus. The real creator of this feature is MaxPV1981 (MaxP). Apologies to MaxPV1981 for any trouble caused. -[R-DEV]Arab


Hello all!

Today I'm proud to announce that smoke grenades will finally make a come back in COOP!

The reason why they were taken out is because they never worked against bots. They were able to see through them, making cover useless. This has been a problem in Battlefield 2 since it's release, and therefore many servers opted to prohibit using smoke grenades against bots.

...Until now.

So I am pleased to say that all smoke grenades will now properly against bots!

So some history. Originally, the first attempt to make it work was by SatNav in the BF2SP Community, a talented veteran BF2 modder who has contributed a lot of knowledge and helped many out in modding the BF2 Engine and modding in general. The concept was to spawn a particle of a invisible sphere Collision Mesh whenever the weapon fired but it only worked in local/offline, not in an online environment.

Modders have been trying to make this work in an MP modding to no avail, until a modder called MaxPV1981 managed to achieve this seemingly impossible feat!

Special Thanks and Credits to MaxPV1981, the original author who manage to make this work online and refined the system further who is the developer behind AIX2 Reality BF2 COOP Mod. He is the author behind the system below, and small tweaks have been made by me for PR COOP's gameplay.

How it works:

The smoke grenades spawn an invisible sphere collision mesh which is created as a Projectile to be used against bots. Using the napalm system (GLU-1) to create a spawner, it spawns an invisible Player Controlled Object whenever the Smoke Grenade projectile is fired!

Smoke Grenades and UGL SP versions are created to use each spawners with varied delays and only for _sp kits/factions. This is to ensure that it remains in the COOP gamemode only.

How to use:

For Smoke Grenades: A 15 second delay when the projectile lands. Simply wait for the smoke effect to completely fill at its peak before moving.

For UGL's: A 1 second delay when the projectile lands.

It is also included for the new ninja _sp kits so admins can freely use it against bots!

These apply for all smoke grenades including Underbarrel Grenade Launchers but not Signal Grenades.


The same system will hopefully be incorporated for Vehicle Smoke Launchers too (If it works), allowing smokescreens to work against bots too.


This feature will make gameplay more immersive and realistic, allowing teammates to make revives safely, provide cover or as a distraction.

Expect this feature to ship out with the v1.6 update when it's released!

See you on the battlefield!
Updated 2023-08-27 at 05:18 by Arab
Views: 60587 | Comments: 20

Main  |  Next Entry »

Comments
Total Comments: 20
  1. Old Comment
    Finally
    thanks for your hard work
    Posted 2018-09-27 at 20:47 by  is offline
  2. Old Comment
    milosv123344's Avatar
    I can't believe we finally lived to see the day, thank you so much for your hard work!
    Posted 2018-10-01 at 22:33 by milosv123344 milosv123344 is offline
  3. Old Comment
    Hey Arab, that's great news, waiting so long for that, being a player that mainly plays coop.
    I am wondering if this solution would be applicable to bushes in maps with a lot vegetation as well, cause bots technically view though bushes which makes such maps a whole different experience in coop compared to playing them in p vs p.
    Posted 2018-10-14 at 22:04 by Dr. Phil Perlmutter Dr. Phil Perlmutter is offline
  4. Old Comment
    Hm, are we going the absolutely same way with somebody, or is it my config?
    I've implemented the same a year ago or so.
    I gave a tweak to some modders too this summer:
    http://www.battlefieldsingleplayer.c...howtopic=15744
    I wonder 'cause there is a some irony: I used "the napalm system (GLU-1) to create a spawner, that spawns an invisible Player Controlled Object with mapped materials and detonation code that uses the collision mesh when the projectile is activated", then I've implemented the smoke greande, based on SatNav colmesh, and also the vehicle smokescreens.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez9QSLDrSnA
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVKJDHKQByk
    In process:
    https://youtu.be/QkhXfW_xT4s

    I'm very grateful to PR team for their mod, as it brings me to modding, and I always glad to share my work with them, like it was with AI bomber cars implementation (but you've made your own) or other stuff. I never asked nothing for my own work, but if it is my work, it will really hurts me. I've spend years to implement this feature, and only a couple of people thanked me...

    Quote:
    I am wondering if this solution would be applicable to bushes in maps with a lot vegetation as well, cause bots technically view though bushes
    Technically it is very simple to make bots to not see through the leaves, and it doesn't needs any tricks, but it would be a very bad decision, 'cause their behavior will become very weird.
    Posted 2018-10-17 at 12:51 by MaxP MaxP is offline
    Updated 2018-10-20 at 01:59 by MaxP
  5. Old Comment
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MaxP View Comment
    Technically it is very simple to make bots to not see through the leaves, and it doesn't needs any tricks, but it would be a very bad decision, 'cause their behavior will become very weird.
    Is that a fact or speculation?? Cant bots have a code that will let them know they can walk through a special object that is a vegetation but cant see through them? Lot of maps are unplayable CoOp because of this issue, like Sareeme which is my favorite!
    Posted 2018-12-03 at 21:09 by space1 space1 is offline
  6. Old Comment
    It's reported that if it is made cannot see through leaves the bot would be not working well fighting at open space.
    Posted 2018-12-14 at 04:31 by ssd21345 ssd21345 is offline
    Updated 2018-12-14 at 04:38 by ssd21345
  7. Old Comment
    Insanitypays's Avatar
    I'm late to the party here, but this is impressive stuff
    Posted 2018-12-30 at 03:59 by Insanitypays Insanitypays is offline
  8. Old Comment
    Arab's Avatar
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MaxP View Comment
    Hm, are we going the absolutely same way with somebody, or is it my config?
    I've implemented the same a year ago or so.
    I gave a tweak to some modders too this summer:
    http://www.battlefieldsingleplayer.c...howtopic=15744
    I wonder 'cause there is a some irony: I used "the napalm system (GLU-1) to create a spawner, that spawns an invisible Player Controlled Object with mapped materials and detonation code that uses the collision mesh when the projectile is activated", then I've implemented the smoke greande, based on SatNav colmesh, and also the vehicle smokescreens.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez9QSLDrSnA
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVKJDHKQByk
    In process:
    https://youtu.be/QkhXfW_xT4s

    I'm very grateful to PR team for their mod, as it brings me to modding, and I always glad to share my work with them, like it was with AI bomber cars implementation (but you've made your own) or other stuff. I never asked nothing for my own work, but if it is my work, it will really hurts me. I've spend years to implement this feature, and only a couple of people thanked me...


    Technically it is very simple to make bots to not see through the leaves, and it doesn't needs any tricks, but it would be a very bad decision, 'cause their behavior will become very weird.
    Hey MaxP, sorry for the long reply.
    It's actually from ArmorRus who has given me permission to include it. It is from the Zone of Continuous Fire 2 mod:
    https://www.moddb.com/mods/zcf

    With anything, we ask for permission before we include it for release as we avoid plagiarism of any kind, respecting artist's decision to include them in the game or not.

    Updated the main post.
    Posted 2019-03-03 at 05:49 by Arab Arab is offline
    Updated 2019-11-10 at 10:27 by Arab
  9. Old Comment
    Is this possible to use for aircrafts as CHAFFS that will somehow block the lock on?
    Posted 2019-04-10 at 14:22 by itl0g itl0g is offline
  10. Old Comment
    Mineral's Avatar
    We would like to make a statement on behalf of the team and particularly one of our developers. We hold the individual rights of mod-creators in high regard as much as our own. We take pride in our own work and protect it. Therefore, we also respect the rights of all creators to the best of our abilities. But sometimes we make mistakes, and it's then our duty to rectify them as best we can.
    Therefore, we hereby apologize to MaxP for incorrectly crediting the author of the work on the smoke for AI code he created and for not correctly verifying our source of the code. We meant no ill-will or had no attempt to steal or claim his work. We will correctly credit him in the future for his work and thank him for allowing us to implement his work on the smoke for AI code into a future version of Project Reality:BF2.
    Unravelling all the mistakes we made took quite some time and we will not stop there. We are eager to prevent this from happening again and will adjust our procedures to learn from this. We are looking forward to more collaboration within the modding community and encourage anyone to share their work.
    Posted 2019-11-10 at 10:32 by Mineral Mineral is offline
 


All times are GMT. The time now is 11:26.