UpAndAway

Turn the RV in RV There Yet? into a balloon-powered flying machine inspired by classic airborne-adventure cartoons.

Features

• A visible bundle of ten balloons attached above the RV.
• Physical lift and altitude hold instead of teleporting the vehicle.
• An independent throwable anchor with visible behavior.
• Airborne forward autopilot.
• Stock combat helicopters that pursue and attack the RV.
• A stock Nail Gun used as a dart weapon; three registered hits destroy the active helicopter.
• A spawnable cassette containing a public-domain 1921 recording of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries.

Controls

The keyboard bindings above assume a Russian layout. Б is the physical comma key and Ж is the physical semicolon key.

Installation

Install with Thunderstore Mod Manager or r2modman and launch with Start modded. The required unreal_shimloader dependency is installed automatically.

Status

This is an experimental physics MVP. Back up important saves. Multiplayer behavior has not been fully validated, and extreme numbers of helicopters may reduce performance.

The mod reuses stock game meshes, interactables, projectiles, helicopter logic and vehicle physics. Its custom balloon bundle and audio dependency are shipped as an Unreal Engine IoStore package.

Music attribution

Ride of the Valkyries is the 1921 American Symphony Orchestra recording distributed by Project Gutenberg and Wikimedia Commons as a public-domain recording in the United States.

Changelog

0.5.36

• Add Semicolon/Ж batches that spawn three stock combat helicopters per press.
• Stagger each batch at 300 ms intervals to avoid same-frame SpawnActor pressure.
• Assign every reinforcement the live RV target and stock shooting mode.

0.5.35

• Add a forward autopilot toggle on the physical Apostrophe/Э key.
• Require the player to be driving with F7 enabled before autopilot can engage.
• Feed constant forward throttle through the existing stable AVS flight-input loop.

0.5.34

• Capture the actual BP_Interactable_NailGun_Ammo_C projectile at construction time.
• Detect helicopter impacts against the full swept projectile segment between combat ticks.
• Prevent fast Nail Gun shots from skipping through the explicit helicopter hit sphere.

0.5.33

• Poll live Nail Gun projectile classes as a fallback when construction notifications are unavailable.
• Deduplicate captured projectiles before proximity-hit processing.
• Log the stock Nail Gun shooting/use functions when F5 spawns the weapon.

0.5.32

• Use the stock BP_Interactable_NailGun as the dedicated player dart weapon.
• Spawn the weapon inside the RV with F5; its existing pickup, animation, and LMB controls remain native.
• Capture stock nail projectiles and count their proximity impacts as helicopter dart hits.

0.5.31

• Increase the helicopter orbit radius from 32 metres to 50 metres.
• Keep the independent six-metre dart hit-detection sphere unchanged.

0.5.30

• Spawn F5 darts near the middle of the RV cabin as normal physical pickup items.
• Remove automatic dart homing and Lua-driven movement.
• Let the stock interactable handle pickup and throwing while the mod only detects proximity hits.

0.5.29

• Increase helicopter orbit radius by six metres.
• Force spawned stock dart actors and their root components visible.
• Recalculate dart direction every tick so orbiting helicopters cannot evade the test projectile.
• Increase the explicit helicopter hit sphere for reliable three-hit detection.

0.5.28

• Orbit the helicopter smoothly around the live RV with gentle vertical movement.
• Add F5 to spawn and launch the stock BP_Interactable_Dart at the helicopter.
• Count mod-spawned dart impacts and safely destroy the helicopter on the third hit.
• Keep dart movement inside the existing single combat timer.

0.5.27

• Re-resolve the live helicopter Actor on every combat tick instead of retaining stale UE4SS userdata.
• Stop F12 combat by cancelling only the owned timer; never call Blueprint functions on a dying Actor.
• Clear cached helicopter references whenever combat stops.

0.5.26

• Remove FireStarter, which starts the helicopter fire/destruction sequence rather than gunfire.
• Enforce a high airborne pursuit point and log requested versus actual helicopter Z.
• Ignore rapid repeated F12 presses to prevent accidental ON/OFF toggling.

0.5.25

• Raise the pursued helicopter to 30 metres above the RV reference point.
• Pass the required initial-burst boolean to the stock MachineGunBurst function.
• Start the stock FireStarter chain after targeting the RV.

0.5.24

• Move the stock helicopter into a stable pursuit position near the live RV.
• Continuously update its target and facing while F12 combat is enabled.
• Trigger the stock machine-gun burst on a controlled three-second interval.
• Cancel the single combat loop when F12 is disabled.

0.5.23

• Make F12 toggle the stock helicopter shooting mode against the live RV.
• Reuse TargetActor, StartFire, and InitiateShootingMode discovered at runtime.
• Enable standard Unreal damage on the helicopter so existing attacks can fight it off.

0.5.22

• Add a conflict-free F12 read-only scanner for the stock combat helicopter.
• Capture existing BP_Helicopter_C/BPA_Helicopter_01_C runtime actors.
• Log combat functions, properties, class, and root without invoking unsafe encounter logic.

0.5.21

• Replace 313 rapid F6 callbacks with one 50-step, 100 ms lift scheduler.
• Ignore F6 while its current lift is running instead of cancelling and recreating callbacks.
• Make later F6 presses add another smooth height boost while keeping balloons visible.

0.5.20

• Compare the live RV by its Unreal Actor path instead of unstable UE4SS Lua userdata identity.
• Restore F6 pulses while retaining transition-generation cancellation.

0.5.19

• Cancel delayed F6 impulses immediately on a driver seat transition.
• Re-resolve and identity-check the live AVS vehicle before every F6 pulse.
• Prevent callbacks from applying physics to a destroyed or replaced RV.

0.5.18

• Enable only cooked ModActor_C recovery through AssetRegistry after Restart.
• Keep all independent StaticMeshActor spawning and experimental yaw disabled.
• Isolate the BPModLoader-compatible recovery path from the actor-pool crash source.

0.5.17

• Keep the cooked balloon Blueprint independent instead of attaching it as an RV child actor.
• Follow the RV transform from Lua so destroying the RV does not cascade-destroy the bundle.
• Reassign the surviving bundle to the replacement RV without any runtime SpawnActor call.

0.5.16

• Disable all runtime balloon SpawnActor paths after confirmed native crashes.
• Disable experimental yaw torque while retaining stable F6/F7/WASD/anchor behavior.
• Keep the cooked balloon bundle for the initial RV session without unsafe visual recovery.

0.5.15

• Fix Lua scoping so the active F7 state actually cancels the ongoing F6 impulse sequence.
• Prevent simultaneous lift and hover physics loops from applying competing impulses to the RV.

0.5.14

• Reload ModActor_C through AssetRegistry, matching BPModLoader's supported runtime reload path.
• Spawn recovery into UEHelpers.GetWorld() instead of relying on a stale vehicle world reference.

0.5.13

• Prewarm a hidden ten-balloon runtime pool while the original RV world is stable.
• Never call SpawnActor after an in-place Restart; only reuse and reveal the pool.

0.5.12

• Serialize fallback balloon creation to one SpawnActor callback per recovery cycle.
• Avoid the native crash caused by queueing nine game-thread spawns in one Lua frame.

0.5.11

• Create only one persistent F7 altitude loop per game session instead of accumulating timers.
• Add a one-second F7-to-F6 transition guard so competing physics callbacks cannot overlap.

0.5.10

• Keep post-restart runtime balloons in a hidden reusable pool instead of destroying them.
• Re-enable F6/F7 by unhiding the existing pool, avoiding the crashing second SpawnActor batch.

0.5.9

• Detect and discard a post-restart Blueprint actor whose balloon components are all dead.
• Immediately switch that state to the proven independent mesh fallback.
• Move yaw controls from NumPad-dependent keys to unused F9/F11 and log each input.

0.5.8

• Replace native-crashing direct rotation with physical yaw torque on VehicleMesh.
• Register driver hooks as soon as the runtime RV appears, before F6/F7 is used.

0.5.7

• Move airborne yaw from game-used Q/E to unused NumPad 4/6.
• Recover the seated-driver state when F7 is enabled after the player entered the RV.
• Preserve the proven W/S thrust and A/D strafe implementation.

0.5.6

• Restore A/D lateral airborne movement.
• Add separate Q/E nose rotation while F7 is enabled and the player is driving.
• Remove the native-crashing swept rotation call.

0.5.5

• Make held A/D rotate the RV around yaw while F7 is enabled and the player is driving.
• Keep held W/S as forward/reverse airborne thrust instead of mixing steering into lateral drift.

0.5.4

• Fall back to independent stock StaticMeshActor balloons after an in-place restart unloads ModActor_C.
• Follow the replacement RV from Lua without depending on respawning the cooked Blueprint class.

0.5.3

• Detect a stale balloon actor when Unreal rejects attachment after an in-place RV restart.
• Destroy the stale actor and queue a fresh Blueprint spawn in the replacement RV world.

0.5.2

• Preserve an enabled F7 and its nine-balloon state while the destroyed RV is replaced.
• Reload the cooked Blueprint class from its package before respawning the balloon actor.
• Automatically resume altitude hold on the replacement RV.

0.5.1

• Respawn and reattach the cooked balloon bundle when the RV is destroyed and restarted.
• Restore the active F6/F7 balloon count automatically on the replacement RV.

0.5.0

• Added a cooked UE 5.6 ModActor containing ten pre-arranged balloon meshes.
• Package the Blueprint as a Ride-compatible IoStore bundle.
• Capture the bundle through BeginPlay without unsafe UObject scans.
• Attach one cooked actor to the RV; F6 shows ten balloons and F7 shows nine.

0.2.0

• Locate the live Winnebago actor by its Blueprint class.
• Diagnose its primitive components and physics state.
• Apply a mass-independent upward physics impulse on F6.
• Add diagnostic console commands.

0.1.0

• Added the stage 1 loader and startup log message.

0.5.37

• Added F4 spawning of a stock insertable cassette inside the RV.
• Added a cooked public-domain 1921 recording of Ride of the Valkyries.
• The cassette discovers the stock tape audio field and replaces it with the custom SoundWave.

0.5.38

• Moved forward autopilot from the console-conflicting Э key to Б (OEM_COMMA).
• Fixed Ж helicopter batch spawning with UE4SS's supported OEM_ONE constant.

0.5.39

• Forward autopilot keeps applying thrust after the player leaves the driver's seat.
• Ж-spawned helicopter groups now continuously orbit/pursue the current RV and fire stock machine-gun bursts like F12 combat.

0.5.40

• Smoothed flight/autopilot thrust from one large impulse every 64 ms to quarter-size impulses every 16 ms.
• Added the game's stock spatial helicopter machine-gun MetaSound to F12 and Ж reinforcement bursts.

0.5.41

• Added physical pitch/roll damping while forward autopilot is active.
• The damper counters suspension-induced rocking without locking airborne yaw.

0.5.42

• Replaced autopilot AddImpulse pulses with continuous AVS AddForce thrust.
• Added a two-second throttle ramp to prevent the cabin and loose objects being kicked on activation.
• Manual flight input remains physically responsive and separate from autopilot force.

0.5.43

• Fixed the broken AVS AddForce autopilot by returning to supported, low-amplitude ramped impulses.
• Removed the invalid angular-velocity damping call from the active flight loop.
• Reinforcement helicopters no longer activate the global shooting encounter audio mode that stopped cassette playback.

0.5.44

• Fixed the Unreal signature for reading RV angular velocity by supplying the None bone name.
• Re-enabled stronger physical pitch/roll damping during autopilot to suppress body and suspension shaking.

0.5.45

• Reduced airborne autopilot acceleration by over 18x to protect players and loose cabin objects.
• Extended throttle ramp-up to about six seconds.
• Removed active angular torque damping, which could itself transmit sharp motion into the cabin.