Button to set objects at ground level affects waypoints

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

Hello,

A couple of days ago I used the button of the editor to set all the objecs at ground level, but I detected it changed to ground level all the waypoints of the AI and AI that spawned in the air. Did anyone had the same issue? I think that button never did that and should do it. Thank you!

[Jaegermeister]

That would depend on what groups you have selected at the time you activate the "set to ground" button. If you had all groups selected, then it would have set all waypoints, planes, vehicles, objects, attack area commands, effects, MCUs and everything else to ground level. 

 

As far as I know, it has always set selected groups to ground level.

[IckyATLAS]

This is why it is very important to group objects wisely and give them appropriate names that reflect their content and the mission construction logic.

 

Edited November 23, 2023 by IckyATLAS

[Jaegermeister]

Right, and why you should place effects and vehicles in separate groups so you can just select the group and set to ground level to make sure everything is where it should be 

[IckyATLAS]

In my missions all ground effects are in multiple groups but that contain only them.

The naming allows to select them together easily and then bring all the ground effects down.

This is necessary because the editor has bugs and from time to time totally at random you get the effects moved at a given altitude like 350 meters or other values.

Never understood why this happened but so it was.

In my missions I have many industrial chimneys in different parts of the map that are active with smoke black, grey or white.

These smoke effects used for chimney must be grouped separately from the ground effects, because these chimney smoke effects are not on the ground but on various altitudes that depend on where the chimney is on the map and how tall the chimney is.

So here the issue is more complicated as when the editor messes the altitude effects (for no visible reason by the way) because each chimney altitude is different.

The only solution here is to always save each chimney smoke group that you create in a file. So that if you see that smoke effects are messed up then you just delete the group and recopy your group from the saved group file. I have a Main Chimney smoke group that contains all the chimney smoke groups which is helpful depending on how many groups are messed up.

This to work, you need to have in the given smoke group the MCUs that allow the chimney to work and activate the smoke. So in my group I have one entry point that allows to have the smokes activated or deactivated from the player plane. If the player plane is nearer of a certain distance then smoke is activated and if it is farther of a certain distance then it is deactivated. All this mechanism is encapsulated in the group so that all internal links are preserved, so that if you recopy the group the only link that is lost is the one that object links the MCU CheckZone to the Player Plane.

Conclusion if I have Chimney smoke groups that get messed up, I just delete them and replace them by copying them from backuped group file.

Then I just have to restore the object link to the player plane. By wisely naming these MCUs you can select them all in one shot and restore all the object links in one click.

Voilà

Edited November 24, 2023 by IckyATLAS

[Jaegermeister]

All that makes perfect @IckyATLAS , and I have found basically the same to be true.

 

What I have also found it that copied effects or effects placed from a group file change altitudes. If they are selected from the object library and placed at their permanent location, they do not move. It appears that the altitude bug has something to do with not being at their original height from when they were created. This is not 100% tested, but it seems to work.