Ghost Recon: Heroes Unleashed

[Jack Wachter]

3 hours ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

Is there any way to improve the range of body movement in the game into something far more natural?  I play Raven Shield a lot, and not being able to lean while moving is very frustrating.  Fighting inside structures is already very hard in the game, to not be able to lean while moving through a structure - it amplifies the difficulty in immersion-breaking ways.  So, can leaning be enabled while one's body is moving?

Annoying, but something I've gotten used to. Flashbangs are a big help here. Definitely requires practice. Maybe I should make a video where I go over various tactics that I use let others discuss their methods.

3 hours ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

I'm not a fan of the default camouflage.

Agreed, and the coloring even seems off compared to what I'm used to seeing (which is much lighter).

3 hours ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

I'd also seriously consider creating a customized and fictional camouflage, something unique to this elite group of warriors that doesn't deviate too far what's worn today, perhaps a blending of two well tested and PROVEN to be truly effective Multicam-type with Crye-type camouflages.

Could also go the plain color and/or civilian clothing look as an option. As for making a pattern, could also go for a digital pattern which is proven to be very effective. The reason UCP failed isn't because of it being digital, it's because of its poor coloring in the visible spectrum. Here is a very interesting series that details a lot about camouflage.

Notice how in the picture below, digital camouflage is actually quite effective in blending into the background noise.

As for realistic camouflage setups, Multicam would probably be the best bet for desert and/or transitional environments. Not sure about jungle or more "green" areas. Probably M81 Woodland uniforms with Multicam gear should work fine.

3 hours ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

Is there any way to organize the weapon kits by type?

I believe that it's alphabetical in HU with a few custom selections at the beginning?

The approach I used in Cloak-and-Dagger may not be a bad idea. I organized the weapons by type and used special prefixes to order them by primary. Within each type, the list is alphabetical. So you would search for your weapon by type and then alphabetical order. Below is the system in Cloak-and-Dagger SP. MP is left to w/e it ended up as since the number of kits is usually small enough to quickly scroll through them.

Spoiler

a-WACHTER_CUSTOM- (a few weapons with the MP5SD w/magnifier and MP7 as secondaries)
a-WACHTER_SELECTS- (this prefix is ADDED to the existing prefix, example: a-WACHTER_SELECTS-b-RIFLE-...)    <-Essentially weapons I liked using a lot placed first for convenience
b-RIFLE- (M4, HK416, AKS-74U, FN FAL, Mk18, etc.)
c-SMG- (MP5, UMP45, PP-91, vz. 61, etc.)
d-PDW- (MP7, MP5K PDW, P90, CBJM)
f-PISTOL- (M1911A1, TT-33, HK45, M9, PM, etc.)         <-Not used as primaries in SP
g-LMG- (MP5N C-Mag, Mk16 C-Mag, M249, Mk48, RPK-74, DPM, etc.)
h-GPMG- (M240, HK21E, PKM, M60)
i-SNIPER_BOLT- (C3A1, DSR-1, M40, TRG-42, SV-99, M99, etc.)
j-SNIPER_SEMI- (HK417 16", SVD, SVU-A, Mk17 SSR, M107, etc.)
k-ROCKET_SINGLE- (M72 LAW, AT4, RPO-A Shmel, etc.)    <-Not used as primaries in SP
l-ROCKET_RELOADABLE- (FGM-148 Javelin, RPG-7, RPG-29, SMAW, etc.)     <-Not used as primaries in SP
m-GRENADE_LAUNCHER- (Mk13 EGLM, HK69, GM-94, M32, etc.)   <-Not used as primaries in SP
n-SHOTGUN- (M1014, USAS-12, Saiga-12k, etc.)

 

1 hour ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

Wachter's and MrMoon's work just takes my breath away.

Thanks for the compliment. Hopefully some of them will see the light of day outside of my personal computer (mostly the Blood Oil reskins, want to release those at some point).

Edited April 16, 2018 by Jack Wachter

[Kyle_K_ski]

Yeah Wachter, I hear you! 

The ACUs that Apex is using are significantly darker than the real thing, which is an improvement, as the real life ACU practically glowed in the dark!  Terrible ######.

Any of the more recent skins that I'm seeing would be a major step up, in my opinion.  Going with a more mixed up "civilian" look isn't a bad idea, although the operatives could run the gambit, from the hardcore "pure futuristic tactical" look (with baclavas that cover the mouth), to a somewhat "friendlier" looking civilian type, tactical colored and equipped clothing. 

Having camouflaged weapons would also be The Bomb. 

If you ever release those skins, please also do so in a version that's totally compatible with Heroes Unleashed.  That would ensure a ton of downloads.

Out of all of the "Extras" kits that Apex so kindly included, my favorite, easily, is the one customized for Navy SEALs.  Most of the firearms include scopes, which is always a big bonus for me.  I think that the HKs also include a "two-stage" magnification filter, which is REALLY nice, and would be great to see featured on at least one of every weapon that's included with HU. 

Love this stuff!

[ApexMods]

9 hours ago, nyleken said:

Decided to actually run through a Black Ops mission to the end. Had a blast, except for the part where 2/3rds of my team got wiped out by the warlord ambushing us. Concealment is no joke, I legitimately could not see his squad despite the tracers flying around. I was forced to flank him by using the river bank as cover, which actually worked for once! ###### was advancing due to our low volume of fire, so I didn't see him at first. Fortunately his last remaining teammate exposed himself, and the warlord was right next to him.

RESULTS: 4 KIA, infil zone successfully defended, intel retrieved, 2 Ghosts reach exfil zone. Pyrrhic victory.

Lesson learned: always secure an area before moving on. Bounding overwatch recommended.

Nice mission report, nyleken!

Always a good idea to cover all angles when moving in GR.

8 hours ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

THANK  YOU once more for all of your hard work Apex!

Supplying additional and alternate mods that work with HU is a very thoughtful bonus.

I'm having issues with reloading Saves from the GR campaign, Mission 1.  I'm hoping that a potential workaround from half a year ago will work for me.

Thanks, Kyle. Much appreciated!

All save game issues with campaign missions should be resolved, a workaround no longer needed. I have no idea why mission 1 should give you any trouble loading saves.

8 hours ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

Is there any way to improve the range of body movement in the game into something far more natural?  I play Raven Shield a lot, and not being able to lean while moving is very frustrating.  Fighting inside structures is already very hard in the game, to not be able to lean while moving through a structure - it amplifies the difficulty in immersion-breaking ways.  So, can leaning be enabled while one's body is moving?

There's no easy way to add moving while leaning, as this would probably require changes to the game executable.

8 hours ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

I'm not a fan of the default camouflage.  While I understand the reasoning for its presence (timed for 2008), for a multitude of very valid reasons, it's a camo that's been/being rightfully abandoned, and going with Multicam, particularly the one developed by Wombat50, would be far more ideal.  I'd also seriously consider creating a customized and fictional camouflage, something unique to this elite group of warriors that doesn't deviate too far what's worn today, perhaps a blending of two well tested and PROVEN to be truly effective Multicam-type with Crye-type camouflages.  Continuing to supply different types of helmets/head-gear based on the class type would also be appreciated (baseball hats for a sniper in urban environments, Ghillie suit for flora, etc.).

I don't particularly like UCP either, and mainly implemented it for authenticity reasons. I have something new planned for future HU updates, but cannot say how long it will take to complete.

8 hours ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

Is there any way to organize the weapon kits by type?  And to list them in an order that helps ensure the fewest number of clicks?  As it stands right now, clicking through there'll be carbines, then SMGs, the full length rifles, then back to more carbines, then some marksmen rifles, then more SMGs.  It doesn't stay true to a predictable pattern.

For example, for Riflemen one could start out with a full-length and suppressed assault rifle, one that has a magnifying scope and tandem-mounted holosight attached to it.  The most effective rifle would be the default listing, and then alter from there.  So, for Riflemen it would be: full length assault rifles (all of them listed in one cluster and not broken up into micro-clusters), carbines, SMGs, marksmen rifles, and finally LMGs. 

Demolitions would start out with a carbine, then SMGs, full length assault rifles, etc.

Aside from a couple of default primaries for each soldier class, HU's weapons kits are sorted alphabetically. I guess it's a matter of personal preference how to best sort them, and I'm working on something to let players more easily customize their single player kits to their individual taste.

5 hours ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

Out of all of the "Extras" kits that Apex so kindly included, my favorite, easily, is the one customized for Navy SEALs.  Most of the firearms include scopes, which is always a big bonus for me.  I think that the HKs also include a "two-stage" magnification filter, which is REALLY nice, and would be great to see featured on at least one of every weapon that's included with HU. 

That multi-stage magnification is available for all weapon optics in HU that feature variable zoom in reality. Scopes with fixed magnification in real-life only have a fixed zoom level in HU, as well.

[ApexMods]

A little heads-up for those who experience save game issues or crashes.

Please make sure your download is uncorrupted / unpacks without errors!

There are reports of WinRAR / other third-party archive tools corrupting content.

To be on the safe side, use the original 7-zip utility (PC) or the Keka archiver (Mac).

[Kyle_K_ski]

Hello Apex,

I've been thinking about the setting up of weaponry, and its displaying by kit-order.

Here are my thoughts for your consideration...

(1.) Whenever possible, supply camo-versions of the firearms.  Don't drive yourself crazy by offering a ton of different skins.    Just come up with one camouflage pattern, a "universal" one, dominated by a range of grays, with hints of coyote brown and olive greens.

(2.) Setup versions of each weapons system, and order them by the likelihood of their usage.  This will save the players clicks, give them more play time, and reduce their frustrations.  Hopefully!  

Something like this...

I. Super-Macro-Sort: By Class' Primary Needs

     A. Sniper Class= 1. Sniper rifle   2. Marksman rifle   3. Anti-material rifle   4. Assault rifle

     B. Rifleman Class= 1. Assault rifle   2. Carbine   3. SMG   4. PDF   <---All of these with/without drum magazine variants

     C. Support= 1. Machinegun   2. Light Machinegun   3. Heavy Machinegun   4. Assault rifle with drum magazine   5. SMG with drum magazine

     D. Demolitions= 1. Carbine   2. SMG   3. PDF   4. Assault rifle

 

II. Macro-sort: Suppressed weapons listed first. 

      A. Sniper-scoped version (ex. large and heavy scope)

          A.2. With an underbelly grenade launcher

      B. Marksman-scoped version (ACOG with a tandem-mounted red dot Holosight; preferably Reflex-styled & mounted to ACOG's roof)

          B.2. With an underbelly grenade launcher

      C. Just a red dot Holosight

          C.2. With an underbelly grenade launcher

      D. Iron sight

          D.2. With an underbelly grenade launcher

 

III. Macro-sort: Non-suppressed weapons listed second.

      A. Sniper-scoped version (ex. large and heavy scope)

          A.2. With an underbelly grenade launcher

      B. Marksman-scoped super-tactical version (ex. an ACOG with a tandem-mounted red dot Holosight; preferably Reflex-styled & mounted to ACOG's roof)

          B.2. With an underbelly grenade launcher

      C. Just a red dot Holosight

          C.2. With an underbelly grenade launcher

      D. Iron sight

          D.2. With an underbelly grenade launcher

 

(3.) Ideally, we'd also get a boost in the quantity of ammunition that was carried as well.  x7  30-round magazines, x4-6 hand grenades, etc.  I don't know what SF typically carry for a mission, but the light infantry veterans I know spoke of carrying nothing less than x7; typically x10 magazines.

(4.) Also, is it possible to "trick" the system to allowing for sidearms while carrying grenades?  Here's an example of what I mean...

We'd rotate through weapon-system options like this:

    1. The regular weapon

    2. The weapon with an UBGL 

    3. The weapon that APPEARS  regular, but is setup in CODE as if it has an UBGL, and when the "invisible-UBGL" is activated a sidearm is used.  The sidearm would be VISIBLE and the main weapon put away.  It's important that the sidearm be visible, for those of us who use the mod that supplies a first-person-view of one's body or the third-person-view.  It'd look silly if it couldn't be seen in video replays as well.

I hope that one gets what I'm trying to convey here.

 

Keep up the great work Apex.  I'm enjoying it thoroughly.  I can't say "Thank you!" enough!

 

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Kyle_K_ski

[nyleken]

Here's some relatively low-res eye-candy

[shooter_01]

On 11/04/2018 at 21:39, Eisenhauer said:

Hello, congratulations on the release, unfortunately it crashes in the dedicadet server mode

yeah  same problem here game crash on startup 

 

[wombat50]

2 hours ago, shooter_01 said:

yeah  same problem here game crash on startup 

Can you elaborate:
1. Using any mods besides Desert Siege, Island Thunder and HU VERSION  1.0.0 ?
2. When trying to join the dedicated server does the server crash too?
3. If you try again will you save the client ike.log and post it here? Not to be confused with the ikeCrash.log
4. Does your game crash when a mission or gametype starts or at some other point? 
5. List anything else that might help track down the issue.

Any and all help is appreciated. 

Edited April 17, 2018 by wombat50

[Kyle_K_ski]

Apex,

Is there any way of giving the player more control over the tandem-mounted scope/Holosights system?

What I mean by this, is that as it currently works, a player has no choice but to click once to aim with the Holosight, click once more to get to the magnifying scope, and then click once more to get back to the "from the hip" view.  This "hardwired loop" is dangerous.  There have been times where I wanted to immediately zoom out, and I couldn't.  In fact, I was forced to zoom into a greater magnification before I could attain the less-magnified view.  

Could a quantity of clicks be assigned to trigger a particular aiming mode?  One click to go transition from "low-ready," with the next one click transitioning back to "low-ready."  Two rapid clicks goes from "low-ready" to the magnifying scope.  From there, one could either choose two rapid clicks to go back to "low-ready," or one click to go to the Holosight.  This is a pattern that could be quickly learned, and allow the player a much more believable range of timely tactical responses.

[nyleken]

Bit of a dumb question but how well would your cmbtmodl (and maybe even the Heavy Armor add-on) mesh with vanilla Ghost Recon? Asking because I've given up tweaking my own since it never got quite to where I wanted it to go.

[Kyle_K_ski]

Sound Effects

This game, like Raven Shield, desperately needs supersonic bullet cracks.  Their total absence is glaring after years' worth of playing other titles that correctly implement their very terrifying and super immersive presence.  It raises the tension in games to a whole higher level.

Last night, I ended up on a couple of "war rekt" threads on 4Chan.  There is a sizeable quantity of those recordings that demonstrate that one hears the bullet crack even as rounds impact nearby objects.  The bullet crack is significantly louder than the sound of the impact, and, needless to say, always slightly precedes it.

What I'm about to suggest/advise, is something that I've already posted on All Rainbow Six's (AR6) forums.  AR6 is an AMAZING group of modders trying to push Raven Shield into the stratosphere.  Raven Shield's community has some hardworking and generous members.   Akpin comes up with some of the best operative/tango skins I've seen.  Is it possible to integrate some of the work that the Raven Shield modding community has created into GR...?  

 

A basic question: can GR's engine assign a sound effect to a MOVING round?  If so, then the most likely "easiest" solution is to assign a recording of a bullet crack to every supersonic round that's fired.

If GR's engine canNOT have a sound effect assigned to traveling rounds, then the only viable option that seems left is to create new recordings of all impact sounds, and have them preceded by, and slightly "overlapped with" significantly louder bullet cracks.  We'd thus hear bullet cracks whenever an incoming round strikes a material on the map.

 

Much more of Akpin's great skins can be found HERE.

 

Edited April 18, 2018 by Kyle_K_ski

[Proximity_13]

The Kafee Soundpack mod has some pretty good bullet sounds. More along the lines of loud whizzing sounds than a supersonic crack, but it does the job well.

Edited April 18, 2018 by Proximity_13

[nyleken]

Ghost Recon uses hitscan for ballistics, not projectiles. There is no moving round involved.

 

Wachter implemented supersonic cracks into the game by replacing the whizz sounds, though.

[Jack Wachter]

1 hour ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

This game, like Raven Shield, desperately needs supersonic bullet cracks. 

Also since when does Raven Shield have supersonic bullet cracks?

1 hour ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

Is it possible to integrate some of the work that the Raven Shield modding community has created into GR...?  

Pretty sure they are different engines and that it would be very difficult to do so. Probably better to just create new assets or work with existing ones as permissions allow.

1 hour ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

can GR's engine assign a sound effect to a MOVING round?

There are 4 sounds for the whizzing of bullets that fly near you. Based on the effect file in HU, seems this sound's max range is 5m.

In Cloak-and-Dagger, I went ahead and implemented supersonic bullet crack. For some reason in MP, seems that only the host can hear the sounds though. As host, can hear the sounds but seem to happen less than in SP (not extensively tested though).

I did some testing of mixing the bullet impact sounds with the supersonic bullet crack. Leads to unrealistic result, so simply replacing the 4 whiz sounds is what I've found to produce the best result. Sadly the effect isn't gun specific, so you can still hear the sound sometimes even if the enemy fires an MP5SD or other subsonic weapon at you. Though subsonic weapons are in the minority, so not a big deal.

 

Personally, I would like to see a weapons sound overhaul for Heroes Unleashed. Not a fan of HU's weapon sounds, especially AKs sounding particularly weak. Considering that thales100's real weapon sounds exist, I'm curious why I don't hear more of those in HU (Apex, where do the majority of your weapon sounds come from?). The below video is a test for Cloak-and-Dagger featuring thales100's weapon sounds (not in the current released version) and supersonic bullet crack (added in version 1.3.0).

The sound overhaul makes firefights feel way more believable (to me at least). While I know of sounds from other mods that have more of a "cool" factor, I'll probably just stick with thales100's real weapon sounds for any mod work in the future.

 

[nyleken]

thales100's sounds are phenomenal and easily better than what vanilla shipped with. The Minimi sounds might be my favorite.

Don't know where Apex sourced his sounds from but I'm pretty confident that the suppressed M4 sounds are from vanilla.

[Kyle_K_ski]

Wachter!

What I heard in the YouTube video was wunderbar! 

I'm still going to try your "supersonic crack-heavy" sound effects pack.  I'm going to try that first, and then try thales100's (which I've even to download yet).

It certainly looks like you did what I suggested to AR6's development team: add the supersonic crack to struck objects effects.  I'm eager  to experience it in-game. 

And Raven Shield doesn't have supersonic cracks, which is why I suggested to them what I wrote here.

I'm pretty certain that both GR and RS use the Unreal Engine.  The sound effects limitation in multiplayer is the same exact issue they have in RS.

Okay, I'm off to download thales100's work, and then I'm trying a firefight mission.  Then job-related work to do.  I have to keep my priorities straight!   

[Proximity_13]

Every time I played this level (Athlete Training) I always thought I should get a screenshot. Finally got around to it!

Edited April 19, 2018 by Proximity_13

[Kyle_K_ski]

AMAZING work Wachter!  Your sound pack is VERY well put together.  The sense of menace is overwhelming once one starts hearing those supersonic cracks - just "heart in your throat" stuff!

THANK  YOU!

I did numerous keyword searches for thales100's sound effects mod, but have had no luck in locating it.  I found a very large package of "raw" weapon sound effects, but as far as I can tell, these are source files, to be used in any mod, and are not yet setup to properly run in GR.  Am I correct on this?

If anyone does have access to a working download link to the sound effects package of thale100's I keep getting referred to, I'd greatly appreciate it being posted below so that I can try it out.  

In the meantime, I'm happily using Wachter's superb work.

Wachter, would you mind if I directed the AR6 development team to your fantastic work?  They might want to incorporate your far superior sound effects into their huge upgrading of Raven Shield. 

[Jack Wachter]

1 hour ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

It certainly looks like you did what I suggested to AR6's development team: add the supersonic crack to struck objects effects.

I tried it, but ended up not liking the result. The problems exist mostly in close range situations (CQB, shooting an enemy danger close, etc.) in that you hear the sound too much to the point it becomes immersion breaking. Based on research and talking to someone with combat experience, in CQB you hear bullets hit the wall behind you but not the crack. Keep in mind that in the video, the supersonic bullet crack is NOT combined with impact sounds. While the enemy is forced to use full auto if available, I find that I still hear plenty of snaps. As far as I can tell, changing ONLY the whiz sounds produces the most realistic result.

If Ravenshield has sounds specifically for bullets whizzing by, then I suggest only having those incorporate the supersonic bullet crack. If not... that sucks.

38 minutes ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

I did numerous keyword searches for thales100's sound effects mod, but have had no luck in locating it.  I found a very large package of "raw" weapon sound effects, but as far as I can tell, these are source files, to be used in any mod, and are not yet setup to properly run in GR.  Am I correct on this?

You are correct. They are raw weapon sounds in the .ogg format. In order to make them work, they have to be converted to .wav with specific settings (20kHz, 16 bit, mono IIRC). There's other details to making sounds work that I won't go into detail here.

39 minutes ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

Wachter, would you mind if I directed the AR6 development team to your fantastic work?

That's fine with me. Though to make sure proper credits are given, here's the video I got the sounds from:

The person who made the sounds has a variety of videos on his channel and states that his work is free to use as long as proper credits are given.

 

ONTO OTHER MATTERS.

Has anyone gotten MP to work right with HU v1.0? I tried with nyleken using Evolve and it seems that the host is safe from crashes, but other players will crash early into missions. Haven't extensively tested it and when I crashed, Ike.log had nothing useful to say.

[nyleken]

8 hours ago, Kyle_K_ski said:

I'm pretty certain that both GR and RS use the Unreal Engine.  The sound effects limitation in multiplayer is the same exact issue they have in RS.

Only Raven Shield and the PS2 version of Ghost Recon 2 use the Unreal Engine. OGR uses an in-house Red Storm Engine.

[wombat50]

9 hours ago, Jack Wachter said:

ONTO OTHER MATTERS.

Has anyone gotten MP to work right with HU v1.0? I tried with nyleken using Evolve and it seems that the host is safe from crashes, but other players will crash early into missions. Haven't extensively tested it and when I crashed, Ike.log had nothing useful to say.

Is it a specific mission or gametype? Is it a specific kit restriction? Is it joining a dedicated server or a listen server(that is the host plays and serves one one computer) or thru something like Gameranger(not sure how that works)?
 

[Lmoy]

2 hours ago, wombat50 said:

Is it a specific mission or gametype? Is it a specific kit restriction? Is it joining a dedicated server or a listen server(that is the host plays and serves one one computer) or thru something like Gameranger(not sure how that works)?
 

Eisenhauer up above said it crashes in dedicated server mode.  Additionally my comment a few days ago I reported that I got crashes fairly early on in the mission, and instantly if the client player's fireteam was commanded to go on recon. I only tried this in co-op mission mode, but I can try other gametypes if need be. I was playing via Gameranger.

Apex said it works fine in LAN mode, so maybe the issue is the dedicated servers aren't transmitting the full data from the host to the clients? I don't really know how these things work, but that's what it's sounding like.

I have yet to try setting up a server in-game, so maybe that's the solution.

[Jack Wachter]

5 hours ago, wombat50 said:

Is it a specific mission or gametype? Is it a specific kit restriction? Is it joining a dedicated server or a listen server(that is the host plays and serves one one computer) or thru something like Gameranger(not sure how that works)?

Used Evolve, tried a couple of missions from the campaign (the new ones). Doesn't seem to be tied to any specific kit restriction. Also didn't try for that long, so don't have specifics like Lmoy has stated up above.

[Lmoy]

2 hours ago, Jack Wachter said:

Used Evolve, tried a couple of missions from the campaign (the new ones). Doesn't seem to be tied to any specific kit restriction. Also didn't try for that long, so don't have specifics like Lmoy has stated up above.

The host always works perfectly fine, but anyone else will crash quickly. This didn't happen to you?

Edit: misread your post, sorry.

Edited April 19, 2018 by Lmoy

[Eisenhauer]

In Lan-mod, it also crashes, no matter what you set, as soon as an action of the client is executed, for example, I call the comandmap on a soldiers crash. I've tested it with my Server PC 1Gbit lan and my Client PC 100 Mbit lan, then I swapped pages synonymous crashing.So as I said the 1.0.0b9 version always worked, but the enormous amount of data of the new version seems to be the Problem. The information from Client to server need too long. Already at the start one notices how large amounts of data are loaded. weir in Lan two PC with 1 Gbit can yes test whether goes then the data flow faster.