Docking clearance notifications

[SiriusCG]

Howdy ...

Is there a way to turn off the green notification text when using the docking clearance protocol option? It seem a bit redundant to have basically the same info displayed in two places on the screen and I prefer the layout of the Communications Log output.

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Dockin ... r_later%29

Thanks.

[another_commander]

It is not possible to turn off the green text at this time without direct core code changes. Note that these messages are like any other comms message: they are meant to appear both in the area dedicated to messages and the communications log, then fade out.

[SiriusCG]

Thx AC, I kind of thought it was a code change ...

Cheers.

[Commander McLane]

It is not possible to turn off the green text at this time without direct core code changes. Note that these messages are like any other comms message: they are meant to appear both in the area dedicated to messages and the communications log, then fade out.

Let me ask the other way round: Would it be possible to disable the displaying of the whole log when a new comms message arrives, and limit the log display to its keypress only?

[another_commander]

Let me ask the other way round: Would it be possible to disable the displaying of the whole log when a new comms message arrives, and limit the log display to its keypress only?

Yes but, again, only by making changes to the core code. Having said that, personally I prefer the log displayed with some of its history, as it is now.

[maik]

It is not possible to turn off the green text at this time without direct core code changes. Note that these messages are like any other comms message: they are meant to appear both in the area dedicated to messages and the communications log, then fade out.

They get in the way quite badly when you're in a fight and suddenly get a multi-line message about an incoming email, obscuring your opponent.

I think that displaying them in one place only is sufficient and the comms log gets in the way the least. So I would rather remove the green text in the middle of the screen. Or have a key toggle for message display, and turn off message display altogether when you're in a dangerous/red situation, just like TAF resets itself to 1.0 in that case.

[Ganelon]

It does mess up one's ability to see and aim sometimes. Even if it was off to the side a bit so the center of the screen was clear, it would be a help. I mean, I guess we all manage, but an info display that can cover the main action def isn't optimal for the actual gameplay.

[Cody]

I’ve just been in a ‘nice’ firefight… what obscured my view most often were the cargo related messages, especially when I’d had five or six pods shot-off in quick succession, plus flown through a bunch of pods, scooping a few. Those I could do without, at con-red, but I need the combat-critical messages. A smaller font size might help… but I’m well used to it now, and it’s all part of the frantic chaos of combat.

[Ganelon]

Maybe if the text was somewhat transparent?

In Elite, most messages were center screen, if I recall right, but screens were smaller and smaller txt didn't make sense at that sort of resolution. And there were a lot less messages to cope with, I think.

[SiriusCG]

I wonder if it could be incorporated into a "HUD element" using smaller text?
Kind of a "message screen" part that could be placed in a custom HUD ...

Just thinking out loud ...

Cheers.

[Kaks]

I seem to recall you can tweak the transparency of all comms messages with one plist setting, unless I'm very wrong...

Edit: yep, inside hud.plist you can configure both message_gui and comm_log_gui to override the standard position, transparency, etc., in fact a whole lot of settings!

If you combine that with the switchable hud concept, you could make a combat mode hud to 'show' totally transparent messages - can't stop oolite from wanting to show them, but hey, if they're invisible when 'shown'...

Unfortunately there's no actuall wiki documentation on what can be put inside hud.plist...

Just tested it with a copy of hud.plist put inside AddOns/Config!

What you need to do to make the messages almost transparent is to make this change

Original hud.plist snippet:

Code: Select all

	overall_alpha	= 0.75;
	reticle_target_sensitive = no;
	cloak_indicator_on_status_light = yes;
}

not-quite invisible messages:

Code: Select all

	overall_alpha	= 0.75;
	reticle_target_sensitive = no;
	cloak_indicator_on_status_light = yes;
	
	message_gui =
	{
		alpha = 0.25;
	};
	comm_log_gui =
	{
		alpha = 0.25;
	};
}

Amongst other things, the hud message line does display stuff like equimpment failure, which missile you're targeting, etc.. stuff you really do want to be distracted by, especially in the middle of a fight!

[Ganelon]

That works.

Having tinkered with it a little, .15 is just about exactly the amount of transparency I had in mind.

Thank you, sir.

[SiriusCG]

Thx for that Kaks! Giving the text a bit of transparency works well.

Cheers.

[another_commander]

Good memory there Kaks, I had completely forgotten about the message_gui setting in hud.plist. Anyway, this setting offers some really good options to those who think that the messages get in the way, as it allows customization of not only initial alpha, but also things like coordinates of messages, font size and even message window dimensions. Below is an example. With this message_gui setting in the default hud.plist:

Code: Select all

message_gui =
{
	width = 210;
	height = 160;
	x = 200;
	y = -50;
	row_height=12;
};

we get this for our messages:
Hopefully this should be OK. You could even design a hud with a near-transparent background in the area of your messages to simulate a HUD sub-screen.

[Commander McLane]

That's excellent!

Question: can you do the same with comm_log_gui?