Using the radio sometimes can not hear

[TWRoach]

Arma 3 Version: 1.66 stable
CBA Version: 3.1.2 stable
ACRE2 Version: 2.3.0 stable

Mods:
@ace3
@acex_a3
@CBA_A3`
@acre2
@rhs_usf3
@rhs_afrf3
@rhs_gerf3

Description:
Use the radio Sometimes PlayerA can not hear PlayerB PlayerB Can not hear PlayerC But PlayerC can hear Player AB Whether near or far The radio will have random problems
He was next to me without any terrain blocking
sorry my English is bad I use Google Translate

Steps to reproduce:
Multiplayer Random situations occur as long as the use of radio communication

Where did the issue occur?
Dedicated

Placed Modules:
Difficulty Settings -we Disabled the
Signal Loss
Signal interference
Ignore Antenna Direction

RPT log file:
https://mega.nz/#!0QViARIa!sfYf9nxr503BfqgicTDyRgOE0Gn56p-J3YEkfQ_XNhg

[Sniperhid]

In that server log it seems 5 missions are loaded and acre_api_fnc_ignoreAntennaDirection is only set on one of the 5. So it seems it isn't reliably being set. Perhaps the other 4 missions are old missions or in the module the ignore antenna direction option is not being set.

I also see this in the RPT:

  Error position: <=[true] call acre_api_fnc_ignoreAntennaD>
  Error 保留的變量表達
Error in expression <=[true] call acre_api_fnc_ignoreAntennaD>
  Error position: <=[true] call acre_api_fnc_ignoreAntennaD>
  Error 保留的變量表達

In reality radios that are close (next to each other) will have interference issues and will not pick up the other radio. I believe setting the ignore antenna direction option to true should prevent this though.

[TWRoach]

Thanks for the solution We will test it tonight
btw We found that the use of radio will cause fps low This is a known problem?

[TWRoach]

Enable ignore antenna direction is useful
But sometimes still will not receive radio at least not very frequently
This is our rpt record tonight
https://mega.nz/#!FZ8hmazC!AKP5lPlmVj9z9oT_bgAneGkfzkDFBDrNol1cPo2tvkY

[Sniperhid]

Firstly that's good to see that acre_api_fnc_ignoreAntennaDirection is now set on all missions.

Without further information it will be hard to help.

Next step is to find get more information from the effected clients. In this case the client RPT would be useful alongside enabling somethings -> http://acre2.idi-systems.com/wiki/frameworks/radio-signal-debugging

Set ACRE_SIGNAL_DEBUGGING = 1; on a client to enable signal logging. What would then be useful is perhaps indicating

Setting: acre_sys_signal_showSignalHint = true; May also help show the signal strength ingame.

This page on our wiki gives a bit more information on logging signal strength - http://acre2.idi-systems.com/wiki/frameworks/radio-signal-debugging

[Sniperhid]

Closing due to inactivity

[TWRoach]

Sorry Enable ignore antenna direction has been useful solved
But this week the same radio problem
We tried to turn on signal logging
Please look at the rpt file -
https://mega.nz/#!NdVkQB5L!V6Gn8G01uVjrHsnQy9JSv1DfKLsvnYLG13usgTSl8O4

Sorry GOOGLE translation

[Sparfell]

As discussed in slack, my group is experiencing a similar issue. The issue happens randomly, not every missions are affected and sometimes only a few coms are affected in a single mission.
ignoreantennadirection is set as true serverside with CBA settings.
terrain scalling = 1

For instance, last night a ran a mission with acre_sys_signal_showSignalHint = true;
The only few coms I couldn't hear were the ones from a teammate only 2 or 3 meters from me (it was my spotter as a sniper team). Radio was PRC148 and PRC117F.
For these missing coms, showSignalHint displayed a hint with the correct transmitter but it indicated "0%" at the end of the hint.

RPT :
http://pastebin.com/D0mFM549

acre_dll.log :
http://pastebin.com/15Z23qia

Server RPT : (affected mission starts at line 3889)
http://pastebin.com/rWmPquZb

I havn't tried ACRE_SIGNAL_DEBUGGING = 1; yet, I'll do it next time. Same for the lowering of terrain scaling

[TheMagnetar]

This may not be an issue at all. Radios in ACRE that are so close to each other won't receive any transmission. This is because radios in ACRE2 are configured to work in the far-field and this is roughly twice the lambda of your signal.

lambda = (Speed of light in m/s) / (Frequency in Hz)

On what frequency were you transmitting/receiving?

Edit: 50Mhz gives you a lambda of 6m, so in theory you should not be able to hear anything below 12m as long as there is nothing that reflects the signal.

[Sparfell]

In this case it was default frequency for channel 2 on PRC148/117F.

Ok, this is interesting but when the issue mentionned in the openning post of this ticket happens on a large scale (most or every players in the mission are affected), the distance between players doesn't really matters. For instance, a player A stands 200meters away from B and C ; and B and C are standing next to each other. 1 time out 3 both B and C will hear the transmission from A. 1 time out 3 only B will hear. And 1 time out 3 only C will hear.

I'm convinced this an issue because there is a huge gap between when there is no issue and when the issue happens. When it happens we better throw our radios away as the coms are not reliable at all in an ununderstable way.
As I said I will try to provide more meaningfull feedback next it happens on a large scale.

[Soldia1138]

My guess is rather an underestimation of the diffraction loss. If the signal hint shows 0% , the loss is too high so the signal is too bad for the receiving radio. While terrainloss set to 1 is pretty aggressive, you might want to decrease that.
You can easily test that with two players. Place yourself in a position where you have 0% signal quality. And then decrease the terrainloss in steps of 0.1. you'll get an impression of the effect.

The Formulars used in signal calculation are based on a widely spread and confirmed model used all over RF application simulation. However there might be an issue with our LOS detection. I need to check that out. But as soon as there is terrain between TX and RX the impact on signal is high. Which is real for all kinds of wireless communication.

[Sparfell]

@TheMagnetar Is there a way to disable the feature you are talking about ? (Radios in ACRE that are so close to each other won't receive any transmission)

[TheMagnetar]

Yes, by lowering the terrainLoss setting in CBA_settings for ACRE2.

[Sparfell]

Ok thanks. That's what I did on our server. I'll come back here later in order to tell you if the "issues" with experienced are gone.

[Sparfell]

Hello. After about a month with terrain loss at 0.5, I can say we managed to reduced the issue but it seems it still happens occasionaly. I see someone else reported what I think is a similar issue in this ticket : #264
At least the experience displayed in the video is pretty much identical to what we usually experience.
I hope you guys will be able to find the root of this issue. Best luck.