> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://davedev.gitbook.io/wiki/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://davedev.gitbook.io/wiki/immersive-helicam/resource-information.md). # Resource Information DaveDev's Helicam turns any helicopter into a full aerial camera simulation: EO/IR sensors, entity tracking, a map overlay, and a networked searchlight. ### :shield-exclamation: Compatibility * **Framework Modes:** Qbox (`qbx_core`), QBCore (`qb-core`), ESX (`es_extended`), ox\_core, and Standalone. Set `integration.framework` to `auto` and the resource picks the one you run. * **Server Requirements:** FXServer artifact **25770** or newer, and **OneSync** enabled. Helicam declares both, so it will not start without them. If OneSync is somehow off at runtime, the console will notify you. * **Database:** `oxmysql`, and only when `persistence.mode = 'server'` with the `oxmysql` provider. No database is needed when you select `local`, also known as "KVP" mode. * **File permissions:** the camera writes no files and needs no added permissions. Only the optional map editor does, and only on artifact **25987** or newer — see [Main Installation](/wiki/immersive-helicam/resource-information/main-installation.md). * **Postals:** Any resource that uses a flat postal JSON file, specifically the `nearest-postal` family. **You supply the postal file** — Helicam does not include one. Link your `.json` file in the `config.lua` and the Helicam will read it. * **Languages:** English, Spanish, French, German, Polish, and Brazilian Portuguese. Players can switch language from the F10 settings menu (operator panel). {% hint style="info" %} Most servers install the camera, add `ensure DaveDev_Helicam`, and stop there. The provided map already covers Los Santos, Blaine County, and Cayo Perico, and every setting has been configured to provide a solid experience out of the box. {% endhint %} {% hint style="info" %} **ox\_core has groups rather than jobs.** Any group you name in `access.allowedJobs` or `identity.jobs` is matched, so job gating and department names behave the same as on every other framework. ox\_core is never required — Helicam talks to it through its exports and does nothing at all if it is absent. {% endhint %} *** ### :plus: Features **Player Experience:** * Four sensor modes — day/colour, night vision, thermal, and FLIR — with day and night exposure profiles you can adjust in flight. * Entity tracking with tap-to-track and hold-to-lock-a-point, plus obstruction handling: the display reports the target is obstructed, then predicts its path, then releases the track after some time has elapsed. * Plate reading on tracked vehicles, limited to the plates a vehicle physically carries. Dirt Bikes, Bicycles, and your own configured vehicles, etc. will not display a license plate. * A networked searchlight, aimed by hand manually or slaved to the camera and its tracked target, with beam width and brightness on the scroll wheel + shift/control modifiers. * A map overlay drawn over the terrain: road centrelines and street names, a terrain-following reference grid, and labels for postals, districts, and landmarks. * Crew markers are visible to any occupant and are created by the operator by pressing M. Up to eight at a time, named or numbered. * A pilot display that mirrors the operator's tracked target as an on-screen marker and a map blip — and keeps the lock and the lit searchlight on that target if the operator closes the camera. * Cabin audio that band-limits the game's sound so the aircraft reads like a headset feed, either for the length of a camera session or the whole time you are aboard. * The game map opens over a live camera, so an operator can drop a waypoint for the pilot without shutting anything down. * An operator panel (F10 Menu) with HUD colour, size, font, units, language, and sound, saved between sessions. **Server & Integration Experience:** * Automatic framework detection, with a forced mode when you need one. * Access control by ACE permission, by job and grade, or both at once. Or, open if you prefer. * Sensor modes you can lock or switch off outright: night only, over water only, an altitude band, particular helicopters, or particular jobs. * Identity profiles that give a particular job, helicopter, or livery its own unit name and callsign, with automatic numbering for units that share one — plus a plain per-job callsign list when a profile is more than you need. * Per-airframe camera mounts, allowed-model lists, and plate overrides for addon vehicles. * Player settings saved locally (*recommended*), in your database, or not at all. * Lifecycle hooks that fire your own events and exports when the camera opens and closes (hiding HUD, logging, etc.) * Client and server exports for driving the camera, reading its state, and clearing a player's searchlight. * Community map packs that install by dropping a folder in — no `ensure` line, no configuration, and no map editor needed (Requires the "DaveDev\_Helicam\_Packs" folder during installation). * An optional in-game map editor for changing the roads, names, and grid the camera draws (DaveDev\_Helicam\_MapEditor — included with your purchase). {% hint style="info" %} Every server-side decision stays securely on the server. Jobs, grades, department context, seat access, and searchlight updates are all resolved and validated server-side, never trusted from the client. {% endhint %} *** ## :laptop-code: Development Limitations During the development process, we've found a few limitations that prevented us from getting a perfectly flawless setup. Below are some transparency items and paired explanations that hopefully can answer any questions you may have regarding known or related issues with the resource. {% hint style="warning" %} *These discoveries may change based on our findings or fixes that we've pushed to the resource. Check our update patch notes for potential fixes/workarounds to these issues!* {% endhint %} {% tabs %} {% tab title="Resource Monitor" %} **Resource Monitor:** The camera draws every frame while it is open, and the map overlay walks road and grid geometry on a slower cadence of its own. Both cost more with the road overlay set to `Road Splines & Labels` than with street names alone, and more again at a large overlay radius. With the camera closed, the resource is idle. It does no work at all until somebody opens it, so a server full of people who never use it costs nothing. {% hint style="info" %} ***TLDR;** Cost scales with what you switch on. Road splines and a wide overlay radius are the two settings that most affect the number. Try them on your own server before you decide a radius is safe.* {% endhint %} {% endtab %} {% tab title="Sensor Rules" %} **Sensor rules are not an access control:** `sensors.rules` They let you lock a mode to night, to water, to an altitude band, to particular helicopters, or to particular jobs. It is a good way to shape how an air unit is meant to operate. Those rules run on the **client**, because the sensor modes are client-side visual effects that a modified game can switch on with or without Helicam. The server does not police them, and pretending otherwise would be worse than saying so plainly. {% hint style="warning" %} Treat the rules as something that keeps honest operators honest. Anything that genuinely must not be bypassed belongs behind `access` — jobs, grades, and ACE are all resolved and enforced server-side. {% endhint %} {% hint style="info" %} If you would rather a mode simply did not exist on your server, `disableAndHide = true` takes it off the wheel and out of the F10 startup list entirely, which is much cleaner. {% endhint %} {% endtab %} {% tab title="Controller Support" %} **Controller Support:** Controller support is **experimental in this build**. Every camera action has a pad binding, and the analogue controls — zoom, beam width, brightness, and FLIR exposure — utilize trigger and bumper combinations. **What to expect:** * Buttons that conflict with GTA's own bindings. Helicam suppresses the gameplay controls it owns while the camera is active, but conflicts may still occur. * Strange and/or counter-intuitive sensitivity compared to keyboard/mouse controls. * Not all functions have a controller keybind, like the Markers feature, which requires keyboard input (naming it & pressing the Enter button). {% hint style="warning" %} As always, if a controller or other similar external device is connected, FiveM may read its inputs. This can cause weird drifting or misinputs. If you have difficulties setting your keybinds, this is likely the reason. Unplug your controller, and set your keybinds afterwards. See if that helps you! {% endhint %} {% endtab %} {% tab title="Road Splines" %} **Road Overlay (Splines):** The road overlay has three settings: `Off`, `Street Names Only`, and `Road Splines & Labels`. The panel marks the third one as **Experimental** and **may lower FPS**, and it means it. Street names alone are cheap: they are placed as text. Splines draw the actual road centerlines over the terrain, and the cost rises with the overlay radius and with how dense the road network is under the aim point. Downtown at a large radius is the worst case; open country at a small radius is barely measurable. {% hint style="info" %} Road lines can be tinted by elevation, which shades them from blue near sea level to red on the high passes. Overpasses and highways will read as separated lines, instead of a hearty serving of spaghetti. {% endhint %} {% endtab %} {% tab title="Graphics Mods & FLIR" %} **Graphics Mods:** FLIR and thermal imaging are produced with the game's own post-processing. A graphics mod that takes ownership of those same effects can wash the image out, tint it, or flatten it entirely. The Helicam does not control this behavior, and as a result, we unfortunately cannot assist with support-related inquiries resulting from Graphics Pack conflicts. I have personally tested this resource utilizing QuantV, and have found no issues whatsoever. {% hint style="warning" %} We cannot correct a graphics mod that overrides these effects. Turn the mod off while using the camera, or choose one that does not conflict. {% endhint %} {% endtab %} {% tab title="Saved Settings" %} **Local Settings and Version Stamps:** With `persistence.mode = 'local'`, FiveM stores each player's settings on their own machine, filed against the **resource name** — and it shares that file across every server they join that runs a resource of the same name. Saved settings therefore carry a version stamp, and Helicam accepts a profile only at the version the running build writes. Anything else is refused and the defaults load instead. {% hint style="info" %} This is why a player may report that their settings "reset" after an update. A profile written by a different build must not be reinterpreted by this one, so refusing it is the safe outcome rather than a fault. {% endhint %} Servers that would rather keep settings central can set `persistence.mode = 'server'` and store them in your own database instead. {% endtab %} {% endtabs %} *** ## :comment-question: Frequently Asked Questions > ### **"Do I need the map editor?"** No. The camera is the product; the editor is an optional development tool for people who want to change the roads, names, and grid it draws. It comes with `DaveDev_Helicam_Packs`, but that folder works on its own — **you can install packs without the editor.** See [Map Editor](/wiki/immersive-helicam/map-editor.md) if you do want to edit the map. > ### **"Which helicopters get the camera?"** Every helicopter, out of the box. `access.openAccess` is `true` by default, and while it is true, the model list, the job rules, and the ACE check are all cleared before anything reads them. Set it to `false` first, then set the rest. {% hint style="info" %} If you leave `openAccess` on and configure job or ACE rules anyway, the server console says so on startup rather than letting you believe the camera is locked down. {% endhint %} > ### **"Can I stop people using thermal or night vision?"** Yes, two ways. Lock it with a rule in `sensors.rules` — night only, over water only, an altitude band, certain helicopters, or certain jobs — and it stays on the wheel dimmed, with the reason shown. Or set `disableAndHide = true` on it and the mode is gone entirely. See [Main Installation](/wiki/immersive-helicam/resource-information/main-installation.md). {% hint style="warning" %} These rules are client-side and are not an access control. Read the **Sensor Rules** tab above before you rely on one. {% endhint %} > ### **"My custom island has no roads. Is that a bug?"** No. Helicam draws map data that was baked ahead of time, and it does not look for roads during gameplay. To see those roads, install that map's community pack, or build one with the map editor (and optionally share it with the community to help us out!) > ### **"I have a community pack. What do I do with it?"** Drop the folder into `DaveDev_Helicam_Packs/packs/` and run `restart DaveDev_Helicam_Packs` in the server console. That is the whole process — one restart, no `refresh`, no `ensure` line, no configuration, and no map editor. Restarting the whole server does the same thing if you would rather. And if you would rather not run the packs resource at all, the same folder can go into `resources/` with its own `ensure` line instead. > ### **"Does this work with ox\_core?"** Yes. Set `integration.framework` to `auto` and it is detected like the rest, or force it with `ox`. ox\_core uses groups where the others use jobs, so name your groups in `access.allowedJobs` and `identity.jobs` and everything behaves the same way. > ### **"How do I install this resource?"** Steps to install this resource, and even how to download it from the CFX Portal, can be found in [Getting Started](/wiki/immersive-helicam/resource-information/getting-started.md)! > ### **"How do I get support for my products?"** Support is handled through our [**Discord**](https://discord.gg/wgPZTwFgaz)**.** While we’d love to be a big team, we’re unfortunately not, so please allow up to 48 hours for a response. *Response time varies depending on the volume of tickets we receive.* If you notice anything in the wiki that could be clearer or more helpful, please let us know in your ticket! We'd love to make the process easier for everyone, and your assistance would be greatly appreciated. *** ## :heart: Credits & licences ### :font: Typefaces Helicam includes two typefaces, both licensed under the **SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1**. The complete licence text for each is included with the resource, beside the font it covers, in `DaveDev_Helicam/web/assets/fonts/`. **Press Start 2P** > Copyright 2012 The Press Start 2P Project Authors (), with Reserved Font Name "Press Start 2P". **IBM Plex Sans** > Copyright © 2017 IBM Corp. with Reserved Font Name "Plex" Both are licensed under the SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1. This Font Software is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, **WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND**, either express or implied. See the licence for the specific language governing permissions and limitations. The full licence and its FAQ are published at [scripts.sil.org/OFL](https://scripts.sil.org/OFL). {% hint style="warning" %} These notices are a condition of the licence rather than a courtesy. If you redistribute or repackage Helicam's web assets, the `-OFL.txt` files have to travel with the fonts they cover. {% endhint %} ### :map-location-dot: Map and node data The road network the overlay draws is built from GTA V's own vehicle navigation nodes. Getting at that data in a form anyone can work with is somebody else's years of effort, and it is worth naming: * [**DurtyFree**](https://github.com/DurtyFree), for [gta-v-data-dumps](https://github.com/DurtyFree/gta-v-data-dumps) — the open collection of GTA V data, including the vehicle node dumps, that the road overlay is built on. * [**Pleb Masters**](https://forge.plebmasters.de/), for Forge and the tooling around it, which the GTA V modding community has relied on for years. {% hint style="success" %} Neither asked to be credited here. A great deal of what the camera draws would have been far harder without their work, so we would rather say so. {% endhint %} *** *Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive are not affiliated with, and do not endorse, this resource. A legally owned copy of Grand Theft Auto V is required.*