Destroy all aircaft

[41Sqn_Banks]

The problem is likely not in aircrafts, but in the side actors such as smoke, debris and craters from bombs, which creates the game itself, and does not remove properly.

The problem is that the not destroyed aircraft just sit on an airfield with empty tanks and guns and didn't move at all

Originally Posted by Octocat

Also, small remark:

Generally, it is better to use explicit conversion, because in case Foo foo = something as Foo; if something is not Foo, operator "as" return null reference, and in the file log.txt you can get uninformative message "Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

If you use explicit cast Foo foo = (Foo)something; if something is not Foo, cast operator throw an exception immediately, and in the log.txt you get more informative "Unable to cast object of type 'Bar' to 'Foo'".


I also want to say thank you for the source of DCE. Nice work.

That's why there is a "if(something is Foo)" before the cast to prevent any exception But I agree if I'd forget the check the cast exception gives better feedback.

As a note to your example:

private void DestroyAircrafts(IGamePlay game)
{
  foreach (int army in game.gpArmies())
    foreach (var group in game.gpAirGroups(army))
      foreach (var item in group.GetItems())
        ((AiAircraft)item).Destroy();
}

The functions of IGamePlay that return an array of something do not return an empty array but return null if there is nothing to return. In this case your code will throw a reference null exception. It's better to check the return value before using them in the foreach loop, e.g.:

if (GamePlay.gpAirGroups(army) != null && GamePlay.gpAirGroups(army).Length > 0)

About the initial problem: Looks like I have to look a bit closer to see what causes this.

[41Sqn_Banks]

Oh wait I had an idea:

If I destroyed the Aircraft this should change the content of the getItems() array. This will confuse the foreach loop and it will skip some aircraft.
Obviously the aircrafts are destroyed with a small delay, that's why it is working for some aircraft and some not.

Solution: Store the aircraft to destroy in a seperate list first. Then loop over this list and destroy the aircrafts in it. This way even if the content of getItems() is changed, the content of the list stays the same

I'll check this and report back.

[41Sqn_Banks]

Originally Posted by 41Sqn_Banks

Oh wait I had an idea:

If I destroyed the Aircraft this should change the content of the getItems() array. This will confuse the foreach loop and it will skip some aircraft.
Obviously the aircrafts are destroyed with a small delay, that's why it is working for some aircraft and some not.

Solution: Store the aircraft to destroy in a seperate list first. Then loop over this list and destroy the aircrafts in it. This way even if the content of getItems() is changed, the content of the list stays the same

I'll check this and report back.

This was the solution. I updated the code in the first post. I think this topic is something for Ataros scripting collection

[Octocat]

I am absolutely sure that group.GetItems() does not return a direct reference to an internal list of aircraft, but makes a copy. So the trick with the list is not needed.

[41Sqn_Banks]

Yes it returns a copy. However as I used a "for" loop I got the updated copy of the list for every iteration of the loop. Hence the list has changed for every iteration and the indices didn't match anymore to the updated list.

I changed the code to use a "foreach" loop. It's now the same code as yours, only added checks against null references.

[KG26_Alpha]

Ok

Whilst its nice of you to be putting these scripts up for general use...........

Originally Posted by 41Sqn_Banks

Edit: Even better code to destroy all aircraft

Perhaps for the sake of those that don't understand why you would want to have to use such a script,
you can in future put an explanation of the scripts use and reason of its need.

I understand clearing old aircraft frees up the missions resources and clears old planes from airfields etc etc.

Not everyone will know that though.

Thxz