PRV-11 Side Net Height Finder - Need Help with Animations!

[Whiskey11]

Greetings all, I decided to try and hijack ED's lovely 3D model for the PRV-11 Side Net from the Caucuses and implement it into DCS World.  This is an early build, and I'm only releasing it because I think you all might be able to help me.  BUT, lets talk about where we are at.

The PRV-11 Side Net is a height finding radar commonly associated with the SA-2 and SA-3.  It was also usable with the SA-5, although they preferred more modern Height Finders like the PRV-13 or PRV-17. 

P-14 in the background is the P-14 mod: Link to the P-14 Mod

So what does this "Alpha" build include?  A very basic sensor based upon the P-14 mod's code.  The height finder is animated, but the animation is "bugged" in the sense it cycles from all the way up to down just fine, but then jumps from all the way down to all the way up.  Looks a little janky.  The sensor itself cannot pivot (yet) in azimuth without using scripting (Argument 8 is the azimuth, Argument 7 is the height finder radar's angle).  The sensor is also "all seeing" in that it currently has 360 degree coverage as I have not figured out how to get it to actually track onto a target as you'd expect... still a WIP Alpha build.

Things to Do:
1.)  Fix the animations
2.)  Set it to track in azimuth whatever target the track radar is looking at.
3.)  Fix the sensor so it has a fixed beam width and can't see where the radar dish isn't pointed at.
4.)  Associate it with the modded SA-5 (Link) and work on modded versions of the SA-2 and SA-3

How YOU can help:
If you know how to address some of the above issues, I'm all ears so I can get this working!   The animation argument for the PRV-11 is set to "locator_rotation" which seems to at least animate the dish.  I've tried others and have been unsuccessful.  The only things I've seen with oscillating radar dishes like this is the RSP-7 Soviet Airfield Approach Truck, similarly buried in ED's Caucuses code, and one of the Forrestal's radars... sadly, the later is tied into an animation argument which moves ALL radars and the specific radar itself is coded so both -1 and 1 on the model viewer are in the same spot to avoid the animation glitching problem the PRV-11 has...  

I might have a lead on #2 using the SN-75 Amazonka Height Finder radar with the SA-2 in game, but need to do some searching first.  #4 is easy.  #3 is a bit more complicated.

Any and all help is appreciated!  Thanks!

PRV-11 Side Net.zip

Edited February 21, 2024 by Whiskey11

[flanker1]

good luck! very nice idea and great addition, hopefully you will get it to work!!!!

[Whiskey11]

On 2/22/2024 at 5:18 PM, flanker1 said:

good luck! very nice idea and great addition, hopefully you will get it to work!!!!

Getting closer!  Managed to get it to track targets in rotation about the base by effectively turning it into a Square Pair with no missile tracking channels.  I added it to my modded SA-5 for testing purposes... however... the tracking of targets laterally has the animation backwards... If the target is going left to right across the screen, the radar tracks it right to left.    I haven't messed with any of the sensor data because honestly, none of that matters until it is animated correctly anyway. So animations continue to be an issue. =\

[flanker1]

1 hour ago, Whiskey11 said:

Getting closer!  Managed to get it to track targets in rotation about the base by effectively turning it into a Square Pair with no missile tracking channels.  I added it to my modded SA-5 for testing purposes... however... the tracking of targets laterally has the animation backwards... If the target is going left to right across the screen, the radar tracks it right to left.    I haven't messed with any of the sensor data because honestly, none of that matters until it is animated correctly anyway. So animations continue to be an issue. =\

great news, maybe you can make a short video to show the issue? i am sure there is help anywhere in the depths of this forum!  can t wait to try the mod. 

[joey45]

13 hours ago, Whiskey11 said:

Getting closer!  Managed to get it to track targets in rotation about the base by effectively turning it into a Square Pair with no missile tracking channels.  I added it to my modded SA-5 for testing purposes... however... the tracking of targets laterally has the animation backwards... If the target is going left to right across the screen, the radar tracks it right to left.    I haven't messed with any of the sensor data because honestly, none of that matters until it is animated correctly anyway. So animations continue to be an issue. =\

How is the model set up in the 3d software?

[Whiskey11]

9 hours ago, joey45 said:

How is the model set up in the 3d software?

So it's the ED PRV-11 from the Caucuses.  It can be found in <your DCS install>/bazar/world/shapes/prw-11.edm.  Animation Argument 7 is the radar dish up and down movement.  Animation Argument 8 is the base rotation.

Animation Argument 7 -1 position is all the way down and 0 is neutral and +1 is all the way up
Animation Argument 8 -1 position is -180 degrees of rotation (so rotated to the left 180 degrees) and +1 is +180 degrees of rotation (rotated to the right 180 degrees)

Those are the default built in arguments.  Because it's an ED EDM, I'm not sure there is a way to import this into a model viewer to tweak the animation arguments (that was my first thought for fixing the radar dish articulation "glitch")... not one I've found, but I'm also not a 3D modeler (hence using ED's model).

I'm REALLY perplexed by the inverted tracking though.  You can literally put this next to my modded SA-5 Square Pair and watch them track the same target.  The Square Pair is right on the target, but the Side Net is mirrored the Square Pair. 

[Shepa-irkut2]

Very good idea! You guys are great. I really want to try your mod. I wish your great idea - GOOD LUCK! ))

I have RSP-7T, P-37, PRV-11 models, which I took from a map of the Caucasus. It is also possible to import them into Blender 3D. But I don’t have the opportunity to make animations for them, I don’t know how (
Who will help?

Edited May 21, 2024 by Shepa-irkut2

[tripod3]

11 hours ago, Shepa-irkut2 said:

P-37,

Hi, P-37 exists in this mod: