OzDeaDMeaT DCS API Question: Can we please have a way of addressing tree's / bushes or get more terrain types available for us to scan for.

[OzDeaDMeaT]

I am trying to automate unit placement on DCS maps and I am continually met with the same issue across all of the terrains. I can check for buildings, etc when placing a unit, but I can not check for trees or bushes. Here is a basic run down of what I am trying to do.

This is the location checklist executed every time a unit is going to be placed.

1. Is the terrain flat or near flat (i.e. not a cliff)
2. Is the location NOT in a building or object. (was hoping this element would work for trees etc)
3. Is the location surface land.SurfaceType.LAND

What I am getting is units NOT spawning in buildings (good thing) but units spawning all throughout forested areas, sometimes HEAVILY forested areas. Now there is an element of realism to be found by parking tanks under trees etc, but it does negatively affect the userbase playing the missions as they need to look for hours to find a single target.

What I am hoping for is for someone to tell me if there is a way at all to tell the game to not consider locations under tree cover as viable spawn locations.

Ideally there would be a way to make other terrain SurfaceTypes like Forest, Heavy Forest, swamp etc etc like terrain developers have access to while generating terrains (I have some professional experience in Terrain development) and making those terrain types available to us scripters and mission makers through the Mission Scripting Environment API so we can better distinguish where we want units to spawn.

Any help or clarification would be greatly appreciated and if there is no way to do this currently, I hope that we can start a discussion with ED to make the DCS API's more powerful for us scripters.

 

[OzDeaDMeaT]

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