Oolite Bulletins

OK, I think I've got all the issues sorted now, including pixel-perfect alignment on the underlays!
XenonHUD_beta.oxz v3.8.3

Haven't tested the hi-contrast yet, but I have an unrelated request: is it possible to display the name of the currently selected pylon equipment? With so many options to choose from, the icons are not always enough to remind me of what I have there.

Milo wrote: ↑Mon Jun 29, 2020 1:56 am

Haven't tested the hi-contrast yet, but I have an unrelated request: is it possible to display the name of the currently selected pylon equipment? With so many options to choose from, the icons are not always enough to remind me of what I have there.

And some missiles have very similar icons...

I'll have a look and see what I can put together.

*pulls duct tape out of toolkit*

The smaller alert level circle to the lower left of the scanner seems to have vanished in the latest beta version. Instead there is a *** Mass-locked *** indicator near the cross-hair during yellow alert and the scanner itself changes to red in red alert. I don't recall seeing the text mass-locked indicator before. I don't really mind these changes, just wasn't expecting them.

That one's a design decision on my part. I though the indicator light was a little tacked on, so I thought I'd add the indicator to the central crosshair section. It might be a little large though, with "*MASSLOCK*" taking up a lot of space. I'll work on toning it down somewhat (maybe with just "ML" or some other acronym).

Just having a look at adding the description of the currently selected missile to the HUD and... it's going to need a core code change. I can list all the missiles, but there's no way (at present) to determine which of them is the currently selected one.

Anyway, I've added a PR to expose the the "activeMissile" property (which is an index to an item in the player.ship.missiles array), so I should be able to get something working eventually.

Speaking of missiles, when the pylons are displayed, the current target name is hidden (in the lower left corner). Try targeting something and alternate pressing r and t. The target remains hidden by the pylon display even if you disable weapons.

Had a chance to test the hi-contrast, very nice now.

Milo wrote: ↑Mon Jun 29, 2020 2:59 pm

Speaking of missiles, when the pylons are displayed, the current target name is hidden (in the lower left corner). Try targeting something and alternate pressing r and t. The target remains hidden by the pylon display even if you disable weapons.

That's a core feature of the missile display. When the "ident" mode is on, the missiles are hidden and the current target is displayed.

What is the benefit of hiding the target when showing missiles? I've obviously missed something basic here but I don't understand the point of it.

Milo wrote: ↑Mon Jun 29, 2020 11:32 pm

What is the benefit of hiding the target when showing missiles?

I have no idea! If I was to guess, I would say that if you're in "Ident" mode, that's the thing you want info on, more than the number of missiles. But I'm not sure. Before my time, as it were.

Also, you can't fire a missile while in "Ident" mode. So, number/type of missiles is kind of moot in that mode.

Here's the latest beta, which incorporates the change to show the currently selected missile name below the missile icons: XenonHUD_beta.oxz (v3.8.4). You'll need the latest version of Oolite (commit a2a6770) for this to work.

I've also done some further tweaks to the alert/warning messages that appear in the central HUD area.

The current pylon name feature is working perfectly. I've run across an issue with the hi-contrast mode, however. In fact, two issues. The first is minor: it seems that if my crosshair is on the sun, the mode activates, but if my crosshair is off the sun, it deactivates. The second issue is also minor but more irritating: when docking with a Kiota habitat station near the sun, with the station between me and the sun (with my cursor aimed at the sun but with the station intersecting that line, whether aimed at the "opening" or at a solid part of the station), the HUD flickers rapidly. I guess it's switching hi-contrast mode on and off. Maybe putting a delay on the off-transition of hi-contrast mode would help with both issues.

Things I have in my current HUD that I miss in Xenon HUD:

- the 10 MFDs, but I could do with 9 by making some I use change with alert condition

- the numeric values for ASC target distance (data_source="combatSCTDist") - I find the distance useful when there are several beacons with the same label, as D for derelict for example, or R for RockBeacon with RockHermitLocator, so I might diferentiate between them

- the numeric value for speed and/or the change from green to red bar when above cruising speed - the indication of above cruiseSpeed is important for me because I run HardWay and speeds above cruiseSpeed cost double in fuel, the numeric values I can do without, since Combat MFD shows it.