Bombable readme
(Redirected from Bombable Readme)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Bombable |
---|
a FlightGear addon |
|
Related |
FLIGHTGEAR BOMBING RANGE, DOGFIGHTING, AND TANK SCENARIOS, ver 4.4 (for FlightGear ver 1.9.0, 1.9.1, 2.0, 2.4.0) Brent Hugh, brent .AT. brenthugh.com Available at http://brenthugh.com/flightgear/bombable4-4.zip SHORT INSTRUCTIONS: What it is: * With this distribution you can BOMB THINGS and DOGFIGHT in AI scenarios in FlightGear. * Your aircraft receives damage from weapons or when you crash; y you can shoot and bomb scenery, buildings, bridges--basically anything in the FlightGear world. * You can also do multiplayer dogfighting using Sopwith Camel (YASim) - Bombable , SPAD VII - Bombable, Fokker DR 1 Triplane (JSB) - Bombable, A6M2 (Zero) - Bombable, F6F Hellcat - Bombable, A10-Bombable, and ufo-bombable. (Note: Multiplayer dogfighting is possible with the planes listed ONLY. Look for the planes with suffix -Bombable. However, all other features of Bombable will work automatically with almost all existing FlightGear aircraft. The main requirement is an aircraft that can shoot some kind of weapon or drop a bomb--which many can.) Bombable 4.4 works with Flightgear 2.0.0 and above, including 2.4.0. It is working with the current GIT version of FG as of 9/3/2011. Improvement: As of version 4.4, Bombable no longer overwrites any existing files or aircraft in the standard FlightGear installation. It adds new aircraft and AI aircraft, but does not change any currently installed aircraft. It will overwrite files from any previous Bombable installation but will not change any other files. See the file bombable-whatsnew.txt for more details about what is new in this release. How to use: * Unzip to FG/data - preserve directory structure if your unzip utility gives you the choice. This will add files to four directories under FG/data (AI, Aircraft, Nasal, Docs). Unzip these files on top of your current installation; this will add some new files and replace any files installed by a previous version of Bombable. * AI: Choose a scenario. All scenarios have detailed instructions--you will NEED to read them. * MP: Get a partner to also load this package, both choose Sopwith Camel (YASim), both turn on multiplayer, both go to same location, and dogfight each other. You will be able to see the damage you are doing to the other person and status messages will appear with your own damage level. You may catch on fire or blow up, depending on how good the other pilot is . . . (You can use the Sopwith Camel-Bombable (YASim) or a few other aircraft for dogfighting--see separate bombable-multiplayer-dogfighting.txt for more detailed instructions.) * Note the "Bombable" options menu. The defaults are set to very easy because that is least frustrating for beginners. If you want to try the harder/more realistic options--go ahead! Key options are "Weapon realism", "AI Weapon effectiveness", and "AI aircraft flying/dogfighting skill". * In MP mode, all players should use the same "Weapon realism" settings or it won't be fair. * Best aircraft: A-10 (for bombing runs), Sopwith Camel (YASim), F6F Hellcat, or A6M2 Zero for dogfights. * To see smoke & fire effects (contrails, smoke, etc), which are a very important part of this package, you must have Particles enabled in View/Rendering Options * Suggestion: If playing AI scenarios, disable multiplayer (many of the scenarios are in the area of San Francisco where many multiplayer aircraft are typically present--and they can dramatically slow your framerate). When you install this package, be aware that it overwrites any previous version of this package you have installed. It will not overwrite any other standard FG files or aircraft. LONG DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS WITH THE ANSWERS TO ALL OF YOUR QUESTIONS This package includes: - Bombable, damagable, shootable AI aircraft, ships, tanks, and jeeps, including the A-10 "Warthog", Sopwith Camel, SPAD VII, and Fokker DR 1 Triplane and others (look for suffix -Bombable in the FGRun menu) for your dogfighting pleasure. - AI aircraft will catch fire, explode, crash, sink, etc, as appropriate when you have damaged them sufficiently. They will also work to evade your attacks. They will also shoot at you and damage your aircraft. - Flyable Sopwith Camel aircraft modded for dogfighting (use the "YASim" version as the guns don't work properly on the others), as well as SPAD VII, Fokker DR 1 Triplane, and A6M2 Zero that have working, historically accurate weapons AND that work for multiplayer dogfighting. - Dogfighting that works with AI aircraft in scenarios OR over multiplayer. - In multiplayer you can see the damage you are inflicting on the other person and also the damage the other person is inflicting on you. Although you can't see bombs or tracers from the other person (due to current FG restrictions) you get continuous damage reports and altogether it works pretty well. - When your damage gets to 100% in multiplayer mode or AI mode there is a large explosion and your engine switches off. It doesn't go any further than that--by making you crash or anything. It basically just notifies you, "You just lost!" You can then do file/reset or reset your location ("Location" menu) to reset damage level to zero and start over. - A large number of scenarios that put you in situations to use all these ingredients. - When you crash in FlightGear you don't just wap into the ground--now you explode, catch fire, engines shut down, etc., and your damage is set to 100%. When you reset your position, damage is set back to 0%. INSTALLATION Simply unzip this file into your FlightGear DATA directory and it will put all the files into their proper subdirectories. Under Windows this directory is usually: c:/Program Files/FlightGear/data Answer "yes" if it asks you if you want to replace existing files. Answer "yes" if it gives you the option to preserve directory structure. Unzip the new files **on top of** your existing FG installation files--that is, add them to your existing files. **Do not** remove the existing AI, Aircraft, Nasal, and Docs directories and replace them with the similar directories from Bombable. Bombable (and FG!) need all the existing FG files in those directories to work. Bombable only adds a few new files to them. Again, be aware that this release will overwrite certain of your existing files: - It overwrites any previous version of this package you have installed Besides FlightGear itself, there is one thing you will want to have installed--the A-10 aircraft (regular FG version, NOT the AI version). If you don't have the A-10 installed already, you can find the download link here: http://wiki.flightgear.org/index.php/Fairchild_A-10 The A-10 appears to be the best aircraft to use to fly many of the scenarios-- particularly the ground bombing scenarios--so installing it is worthwhile twice over. HOW TO USE - MULTIPLAYER * If you are playing multiplayer dogfights, simply select the aircraft you want to use (Sopwith Camel YASim, SPAD VII, or FKDR1 YASim, A6M2 Zero), select the location you are meeting your multiplayer dogfighting partners, and start FlightGear. * The system doesn't actually take any action on your aircraft such as disabling engines or controls (with one exception--see below). It simply informs you of hits and damage levels. You and your MP partners can decide any other rules you like. * When you reach 100% damage, your engine switches off and there is a large explosion. You won't be able to turn your engines on again--until you can choose file/reset to set your damage level back to 0%. * Sopwith Camels and Fokker Triplanes are loaded with belts of 400 rounds in each of the machine guns. It is easy to use all that ammo in a short time. To re-load, these aircraft requires you to land and completely stop the engines (Zero RPM). Since the aircraft tend to get bogged down on soft ground, it is best to land on an actual runway. So--land on a runway, stop, engines off, 0 RPM, reload (in the Camel or Fokker DR 1 menu), take off--you're back in action! And, of course, a sitting duck target all the time you are landing and re-loading--but that's definitely realistic! * A6M2 Zero likewise has limited ammo--500 rounds of machine gun ammo for each of two guns, and 60 rounds of cannon ammo. Fire machine gun with 'e' and cannon with 'E'. (Triggers are /controls/armament/trigger and /controls/armament/trigger1 for those of you programming joysticks.) HOW TO USE - AI SCENARIOS * If you start FlightGear via the FlightGear Wizard (FGRUN): In the FlightGear Wizard, you will find the various scenarios listed under "Scenarios". Simply select one of them and start FlightGear. * If you start FlightGear via command line, add an option similar to this: --ai-scenario=Kansas_City_East_Bottoms_Bombing_Range * You will also need to choose an appropriate aircraft that is able to shoot guns and/or drop bombs. * You will need to start at the suggested airport and locate the targets. Instructions for locating the targets are in each AI scenario. You can read the AI scenario file directly using a text editor (scenarios are located in directory FG/data/AI by default) or mouse over the scenario in the FG Wizard and the scenario description will show. * All targets in scenarios now have flares that leave tall smoke columns (ground targets) or contrails/smoke trails (aircraft). This makes them far easier to locate visually. * For greater realism, use the "Bombable" menu item to turn off the smoke trails & flares. It is very, very challenging (yet entirely realistic . . . ) to locate moving aircraft, tanks, and jeeps visually in FlightGear without the telltale smoke trails. * Each scenario's XML file has a description attached which tells which airport to start at and how to locate the targets, and other vitally important details you will need to know to use the scenario successfully. * You should be able to read the scenario descriptions from within the FlightGear Wizard--hover the mouse over the scenario's name. * Or you can simply open the scenario files (XML filesin FG/data/AI). They are ordinary text files and you can open them with any text editor and the description with instructions is right at the top of the file. * To see the smoke and fire when you bomb or damage your targets sufficiently, you will need to have "Particles" enabled (found in the FlightGear menus under "View/Rendering Options". * Several options should appear under the "Bombable" menu when you start FlightGear. You can turn off all visual smoke trails and fires if you like, enable or disable multi-player mode, and set Easy Mode or Super Easy Mode, or Super-Duper Easy Mode (just enable BOTH Easy and Super Easy Modes). * I believe that the realism level with both Easy & Super Easy Modes **disabled** is approximately correct. In real life it is very, very difficult to accurately hit a target using a machine gun or canon from a fast-moving, bouncing aircraft. Trying to get enough lead into a target to actually to it serious harm is NOT an easy thing to do. Normally to completely disable an aircraft or vehicle you have to strike it multiple times with very great accuracy. And that is not easy! Yet there is always the chance of a single, lucky shot completely disabling an aircraft or vehicle--and that happens under these scenarios as well. But normally it is a matter of putting a decent amount of armament right on the target and (with Easy Modes off) that is not necessarily very easy to do. * However for starters I definitely suggest enabling BOTH Easy Mode and Super Easy Modes (which is the default), and leaving smoke trails & flares on (also the default). Doing that will greatly reduce the frustration levels in your first missions. As soon as you become more proficient, gradualy disable the easy modes for a more realistic and challenging experience. MULTIPLAYER DOGFIGHTING * Multiplayer mode is enabled by default so if you and another bombable-enabled Sopwith Camel are in the same general area you can just start dogfighting and it will just work. You can disable multiplayer communication via the Bombable menu. * See the separate readme for more detailed instructions for dogfighting over multiplayer. * Also the enclosed "Dicta Boelcke" for advice and instructions for dogfighting from WWI-era aces. Those instructions and advice carry over perfectly into the FG world! FLIGHTGEAR VERSION Ver. 3 of this package has been tested fairly extensively with an Aug 2009 CVS version of FlightGear. It has been tested some, and should work fine, with FlightGear ver 1.9.1. It has also been tested with FlightGear ver 2.0 and works well. Ver. 4.X works with FlightGear Version 2.4.0. It has been reported to work with earlier 2.X.X versions of FG and also with the GIT version of FG as of September 2011. SCENARIOS - LISTED FROM EASIEST TO HARDEST Successfully flying the aircraft and hitting targets is quite difficult. Unlike other combat simulators, the aircraft, bombs, and bullets in FlightGear are realistic. That means you first need to learn how to handle your aircraft and operate its systems, and then practice bombing and shooting runs of varying degrees of difficulty. The scenarios in this package in approximate order of difficulty, easiest to hardest: San Francisco Bay Ferry Invasion - KSFO - The ferries are very large, fairly slow-moving (~20 knots), and perfect for practicing dive bombing and/or strafing techniques. The ships are quite easy to hit but it takes quite a large number of hits to damage and sink them. Marin County Sopwith Camel Invasions - Marin Ranch, CA35 - A large number of Sopwith Camels are flying directly over the airport. Engage and destroy as many as you can--if you can destroy any at all! Be sure to choose the Sopwith Camel-YASim version as your aircraft (the other Sopwiths fly but have some serious problems with their guns). You can also use the SPAD VII or the Fokker FKDR1. Marin County Zero Invasions - Marin Ranch, CA35 - A number of A6M2 Zeros are flying directly over the airport. Engage and destroy as many as you can--if you can destroy any at all! Best choice for your aircraft is the A6M2 Zero (non-JSBSim version) as your aircraft The "Zoo" versions have numerous aircraft, all of which will follow you and swarm around you. The "Simple" version have one two or three aircraft. You use the "Bombable" menu to turn off the fighter attacks if you like--then the fighters will simply fly in a straight line and you can try to follow them and attack. You can also select Easy Mode (or Super Easy Mode; or both together) to make the AI aircraft turn and twist less vigorously--and become *much* easier to shoot. Lee's Summit Bombing Range - KLXS - Static targets in a fairly flat area, all targets in obvious locations near each other. However, the M1 Abrams tanks are very small in comparison with the large ferries. EVen static tank installations can be challenging to locate and hit. Kansas City East Bottoms Bombing Range - KMKC - Static targets in a fairly flat area; a large number of targets, over a quite large area; some targets are quite easy to find but others are quite difficult; tracking targets for repeated bombing runs in a flat, featureless area can be quite challenging Kansas City East Bottoms Tank Columns one - KMKC - Moving targets, all grouped together, in a fairly flat area Kansas City East Bottoms Tank Columns two - KMKC - Slightly faster moving targets, all grouped together, in a fairly flat area Kansas City East Bottoms Tank Circulators - KMKC - Moving targets in a flat area, but individual movement, not in formation Sun Valley Bombing Range - KSUN - Static targets in mountain valley; mountains interfere with flight and preparation for bombing runs Sun Valley Tank Invasion 1 - KSUN - Moving targets in mountain valley Sun Valley Tank Invasion 2 - KSUN - Moving targets in mountainous area--quite challenging! Sun Valley Tank & Jeep Invasion - KSUN - Jeeps are much smaller than tanks, much harder to see, much harder to hit. Columbia CA Tank Invasion 1 & 2 & Tank/Jeep Invasion - O22 - Moving targets, narrow valley & mountainous--very challenging! Pine Mountain Lake CA Tank Invasion 1 & 2 & Tank/Jeep Invasion - E45 - Moving targets, even narrower valley with tanks right in the bottom--very, very challenging! San Francisco Cessna Invasion - KSFO - A fleet of moving Cessnas is quite difficult to locate and hit. The Cessnas are fairly slow-moving and can't take much damage, so they would make a good target for a number of FG aircraft with simple machine gun armament. San Francisco Warthog Invasion 1 & 2 - KSFO - Tracking the low-flying Warthogs through the bay, under the bridge, and through the mountains east of Oakland is quite challenging. Hitting a fast-moving A-10 with a canon is quite challenging--you'll soon discover why guided missiles were invented. Marin County WW II Bombers with Cover - CA35 This features a squadron of six B-17 bombers with fighter cover far above them. If you take off from runway 4 of the Marin Ranch airport, climb straight ahead to 5000 feet you will meet the bomber squadron there. How many of the bombers and fighters can you knock out with your limited supply of ammo? Best aircraft is A6M2 Zero. All tank/jeep scenarios All scenarios involving M1 Abrams tanks or Jeeps can be made harder by using the menu "M1 Abrams/Change livery color" to change the color to camouflage and/or by using the Bombable menu to turn the vehicles' flares off. The whole issue of finding and tracking small, camoflauged, moving ground targets is a very difficult one but also a very realistic one. In some of the scenarios it is very difficult indeed to keep track of moving targets that blend into the terrain very well when seen from a distance. You can also use the Bombable menue to disable smoke trails & contrails for aircraft. Tracking and following the Sopwith Camels or A-10s through the mountains without smoke trails/contrails to guide is you is a pretty good visual challenge. AIRCRAFT Any aircraft that shoots guns or drops bombs can (at least in theory or if set up correctly) damage the targets. The Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt is a great choice - http://wiki.flightgear.org/index.php/Fairchild_A-10 If you are using the A-10 Thunderbolt, carefully read the FlightGear wiki page explaining how to operate the aircraft, use the bomb sight, etc. The F16 (3D cockpit version) seems to work well also, though it lacks bombs. SPAD VII and Fokker DR 1 Triplane (versions included with this package that include working guns) work well to dogfight the AI Sopwith Camels. If you are using the Sopwith Camel: Note that the UIUC and larcsim version DO NOT HAVE PROPERLY WORKING GUNS! I am not sure why the guns don't work--it must be an internal Flightgear error of some sort. The only Sopwith Camel that works properly with guns is the YASim model. A6M2 Zero, included with this package, is excellent for dogfighting, AI scenerios, and general flying. Can gun/bomb impacts be detected for all aircraft? FG allows aircraft designers wide latitude in choosing the internal variable that monitors the "impacts" of their armament are detected. The bombable system checks all the most common ways of reporting armament impacts and should work with all aircraft with armament set up to report impacts in the FG CVS version as of August 2009. Beware there were a lot of conditions mentioned in that paragraph! Not all aircraft have armament and not all armament is set up to report impacts. In addition, a lot of the aircrafts' armament is fairly weak--you're going to have to hit an M1 Tank, or a 3500 tonne oceangoing ferry, with a WHOLE LOT of the light machine gun bullets from the F-16's standard machine gun, for instance, before there is any noticeable effect. On the other hand, that machine gun could easily take out a Cessna or a jeep. However these scenarios, in theory, should work with these aircraft in the current FG CVS (as of August 2009): A-10 Arsenal VG-33 B-1B BF109 BO105 F4U F-16 F-117 FW190 Horten-O Hunter IL-2 LA-5 ME-262 ME-262 HGIII Seahawk Sopwith Camel SPAD VII Spitfire Submarine Scout Vulcan 2B Note that not all of these have actual weapons--some may have something like a drop-tank that is ballistic and can impact other objects. Again, you'll have to hit the M-1 with a lot of drop tanks before you disable it, so such an aircraft may not be your best choice . . . The scenarios will likely work with many other aircraft/armaments, particularly if those aircraft use the standard impact report mechanism in FlightGear. MODDING AIRCRAFT AND SCENERY OBJECTS TO BECOME BOMBABLE If you are an aircraft designer and would like to make your aircraft bombable, see separate file "bombable-modding-aircraft-for-dogfighting.txt" for details. FILES INCLUDED Included files go in several places--as indicated in the directory structure of the zip file. If your FG is set up in a normal configuration you should be able to simply unzip the file in your top-level FlightGear directory and everything will end up where it belongs. However if you prefer to do it by hand, here are the details: 1. SCENARIOS TO FG/data/AI: The XML files in the top-level directory are AI scenarios. Copy them to the FlightGear/data/AI directory (exact name will vary according to your operating system and installation options). 2. AI Aircraft files to FG/data/AI/Aircraft: Copy the entire Fire-Particles directory to the FlightGear/data/AI/Aircraft. Do the same with all the aircraft directories in the zip file under dad/AI/Aircraft, including M1-Abrams, jeep-bombable, ferry-bombable, c172-bombable, A-10-bombable, etc. 3. Regular aircraft (non-AI) to FG/data/Aircraft Copy the entire sopwithCamel-guns directory to FG/data/Aircraft. If you currently have a sopwithCamel directory this will overwrite it. 4. bombable.nas to FG/data/Nasal Copy the files "bombable.nas" and "mp_broadcast.nas" to FG/data/Nasal. mp_broadcast.nas is now (9/2009) distributed with the CVS version so if you have that file already you can skip that step. KNOWN ISSUES See the to-do file enclosed with the distribution for a list of current issues. CREDITS The M-1 Abrams tank was created by Emmanuel BARANGER - David BASTIEN. The version included here has been fairly heavily modded to allow tank movement, change of livery, etc. If you have installed the Baranger/Bastien version of the M-1 Abrams you can simply remove those files and replace them with this modded version, which is fully backwards compatible. See the original M-1 Abrams and a bombing scenario for it here: http://croo.murgl.org/fgfs/AG-demo/index.html This demo has the idea and all of the basic techniques that have been carried out more extensively and systematically in the Bombable package. Sopwith Camel, SPAD VII, Fokker DR 1, and A6M2 (Zero) aircraft were all created by other people as acknowledged in the author lines in those files. The only contribution in this package was to add or modify guns so they work properly and/or create AI versions of the aircraft with the bombable modifications added. Bombing scenarios in the package, creation of the "bombable.nas" resource file (modified from the original M1 Abrams tank nasal scripts and others), modding of the Fire-Particles objects (based on Fire-Particles submodels in the M1 Abrams tank), and modding of other AI aircraft to make them bombable and add other features, is by Brent Hugh. brent@brenthugh.com LICENSE & DISTRIBUTION Many/most aircraft and miscellaneous files that are included here are from a FlightGear distribution or CVS version, and so licensed under the GNU General Public License. See the details Any modifications to these files made by Brent Hugh and any files written or created by Brent Hugh (particularly bombable.nas, bombable documentation files, and modifications to aircraft files) are released under the GNU General Public License: // Copyright (C) 2011 Brent Hugh - brent@brenthugh.com // // This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or // modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as // published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the // License, or (at your option) any later version. // // This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but // WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of // MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU // General Public License for more details.