Remote Control Tutorial

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Remote Control allows a player (remote-controller) to take control of another unit (drone, or remote-controlled) that is different from the local player unit.

only a human player can remote-control another unit.
players cannot remote-control other players.
only one unit can be controlled at the same time; remote control has to be terminated before controlling another unit.
when a player takes control of a unit that is controlled by another player, the unit is transferred to the new owner and the previous player control is terminated.

The remote control is handled locally, which is why it is important that all arguments for remoteControl, remoteControlled and isRemoteControlling commands are Local argument local. Exception is remoteControl's target argument, for which locality Global argument does not matter, in which case the unit will be moved to the controlling player machine's locality. When the player is controlling the unit, the unit is local to player.

How To

Take Control

Executing remoteControl transfers the movement control. In order to take full control, the camera also has to be transferred - using switchCamera and ideally before remoteControl usage; the point of view and the firing control are then transferred. In some cases remoteControl is enough and the cameraOn transfer happens automatically.

otherUnit switchCamera "INTERNAL";
player remoteControl otherUnit;

Obtain Remote Control Information (Arma 3 v2.14)

The remoteControlled command works for both cases and can return either the player controlling the provided UAV or the UAV controlled by the provided player, depending on the argument used.

Note
Before Arma 3 v2.14 and remoteControlled, see remoteControl examples for a workaround.

Get the Remote Controller

private _drone = remoteControlled player;

Get the Remote Controlled Unit

private _player = remoteControlled _drone;

Ensure Proper Disconnection

Remote Control termination can automatically transfer the camera back to the player but might need to be forced in some cases.

When player controls a unit and the unit dies, the control stays with that unit. After a short time, the dead unit is removed from its group. This will make remoteControlled on this unit return objNull, but isRemoteControlling for the controlling player will still return true and the player will remain stuck in remote control mode. To exit this mode, the following can be used:

player remoteControl objNull;
switchCamera player; // if needed

// remote control can also be terminated when only the drone is known
objNull remoteControl _drone;