Oolite Bulletins

I would really like, for one, for the crosshairs to actually SHOW where my laser is going to end up (instead of being just above), and for it to adapt to a 12 missile set. I'd also love decent icons/identifications for each item in my pylon mounts...a lot of the stuff from the "Bombs and Missiles" OXP just shows up as a standard missile...confuuuuusing!

I also like the adapting battle/standard flight mode.

Commander Wilmot, Hud upgrade oxp's that maintain full compatibility with each other can be done simply by establishing a set of missionVariables to govern priorities and some interactions. The question is exactly what variables should there be. Only experience can tell. I have currently 3 for my experimental stuff from before but once I know a little more I will have a good idea about what will be needed and then I will make a proper framework/template that can be used for myself and other hud oxp developers. It doesn't need to be hardcoded so I see little point to suggest on the Looking Ahead Forum.
Dragonfire, I actually just started on a few upgrades to the numeric hud.oxp and one of them is an animated adjustable crosshair. If what I want to do works you'll see it on the next version of numeric hud. No promises though. Zireael had suggested to have a flashing red color behind the energy and shields when they are critical and I have implemented that today but I'm not sure I'll leave it in as it's not quite what I would like to see and the alternative for that is hud switching and I'm not doing that for this specifically. Missile Pylon Icons are the purvue of the oxp weapon developer. Things have improved in that area and it will be up to those oxp authors to upgrade the descriptions for thier icons. Someone on the board has been doing some nice work on this but I honestly forget who it was. If anyone knows they can post it here. When you say adapt to a 12 missile set, are you referring to a missile display that stays the same size but the size and spacing of the icons changes to allow more missiles to fit? I think Killer Wolf was looking for that kind of solution for his dynamic hud to allow more missiles to fit. It is possible to do I believe but would be a lot of work as each combination of missiles has to have the coordinates and other info set for it and then using equipment switching and scripting the proper display would be swapped in automatically depending on the ship's missile capacity.
As always, thanx for posting.

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

When you say adapt to a 12 missile set, are you referring to a missile display that stays the same size but the size and spacing of the icons changes to allow more missiles to fit?

On the standard HUD, if you have a lot of missiles they run over the clock, which is centred directly below the scanner display, and make a mess. Avoiding this problem is simply a matter of moving the clock further to the right. It's just editing a single number in the HUD.plist file.

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

Commander Wilmot, Hud upgrade oxp's that maintain full compatibility with each other can be done simply by establishing a set of missionVariables to govern priorities and some interactions.

You might want to use script properties / OxpConfig instead of missionvariabes.

example :
Shield Cycler has this.deactivated (boolean) in the body of the code.

If someone wants to disable shield cycler funtionality completely from another script all they need to add is :

Thanx Lone Wolf for the reminder. At this point a wait and see approach will prove fruitful and prevent any blunders due to unknowns that will be known in the next 6 months I'm sure.

My thought was just that the "n" key for triggerable equipment is getting over used; and that maybe a key function to trigger a hud upgrade and functions to cycle through hud upgrades would be useful.

Commander Wilmot wrote:

My thought was just that the "n" key for triggerable equipment is getting over used; and that maybe a key function to trigger a hud upgrade and functions to cycle through hud upgrades would be useful.

Ok, I see your point now. Hmmm. How would it be different than right now where you make a script and have different function triggers. What conditions would you say should trigger a hud(switch?) that aren't available right now? Please elaborate on this. Right now I make a lot of my own triggers as well as use some built-in ones. You may be right. What ideas do you have for new triggers or built-in triggers specifically for the hud? Please and thank you Commander Wilmot.

Commander Wilmot wrote:

My thought was just that the "n" key for triggerable equipment is getting over used; and that maybe a key function to trigger a hud upgrade and functions to cycle through hud upgrades would be useful.

Love THAT idea!

Dragonfire wrote:

and for it to adapt to a 12 missile set.

Yes, that would be a good idea. Many HUDs seem to be designed with only the Cobby's 4 missile pylons in mind, so in a ship with more missiles some other part of the HUD is overflowed. For the basic in-built HUDs this may be because the in-built ships don't have many missiles. But of course this is entirely different for OXP ships.

This is going to be a kind of an "out there" idea, but i was thinking it might be done by using some sort of spin-off perhaps of the animation technique you've come up with.

The space compass. It is probably only second to the main scanner for being the panel display a lot of us use most. Would it be possible to set it up to have a mode where it would switch very fast between all the targets it con show in the direction you're facing at the moment? Basically like if one pressed the "/" key repeatedly very fast. If it can be done fast enough, it might be a bit flickery, but one could see all the possible locations on it for a given system for the direction one is facing at the moment.

If that's possible, maybe even go "whole hog" and revisit the idea Wildeblood had earlier, and make the navigation compass very big and centered where the crosshairs would usually be. If we could switch to and from that, it could be the beginning of what we could call a "navigation screen" and the HUD would begin to edge into being more of an MFD (Multi-Function Display) as are common on aircraft and spacecraft in current times.

Most of the time, I'd rather have something laid out like CommonSenseOTB's numerical HUD. It's very functional and easy to use and I like the high visibility on critical data. That HUD has a space compass that's larger than some, and I very much liked that. It's highly functional and easier to see where you're heading. But it could be cool to have a more precise expanded "navigation screen" so when you hit a system or launch from a station you could switch to it, give the ship a spin to see all of what is available in the system, "set your course", then switch back to the regular screen, throttle up, and "We are underway, Commander.."

Sure, a smaller space compass on the main HUD works. It's great, and there's no arguing with what has worked for years as def being good and something to keep. But if a "high precision" nav screen was added, it could be fun, and the space compass as it is sorta resembles some waypoint/beacon navigation displays on actual jets and spaceships. That could be good immersion factor for those who are inclined to such things. But basically it'd be nice to hit system, call up the nav screen, check what facilities are available in the current system, turn your ship to "set your course" and then switch back to the regular "cruise HUD" and it's game on!

I think it would be of more interest for the players who have a lot of OXPs that add dockable/useful/interesting destinations into the game. The "vanilla game" doesn't have a lot of those, and as such the normal small space compasses wouldn't take but a couple seconds to cycle through. But if you've "fleshed out" your game with OXPs that add places, i can take several to many keypresses to check on all of what is available. I don't think a dedicated navigation screen would be anything critical to gameplay, we've gotten along for a long time with just one HUD mode. But it could make a hot "new toy" for Commanders that like tech savvy stuff and maybe get into their role a bit now and then. I can see it as a ueful addition for some, particularly for maybe players that have big cargo ships and run cargo contracts, since even a few minutes can sometimes be the difference between getting paid well and having a hold full of Trumble Smoothies that nobody wants.

I've been experimenting with the compass all week, so I'll butt in here.

Ganelon wrote:

The space compass. It is probably only second to the main scanner for being the panel display a lot of us use most. Would it be possible to set it up to have a mode where it would switch very fast between all the targets it con show in the direction you're facing at the moment? Basically like if one pressed the "/" key repeatedly very fast. If it can be done fast enough, it might be a bit flickery, but one could see all the possible locations on it for a given system for the direction one is facing at the moment.

It can't be done, because it has only one "beacon" mode, no matter how many beacons there are. It cycles through planet, station, sun, target and beacon mode. When it gets to beacon mode, you can cycle through the individual beacons, but that's actually a separate function. A script that automatically cycled through the modes would only ever show the first (N) beacon. There is no way to cycle through the individual beacons automatically.

Ganelon wrote:

If that's possible, maybe even go "whole hog" and revisit the idea Wildeblood had earlier, and make the navigation compass very big and centered where the crosshairs would usually be. If we could switch to and from that, it could be the beginning of what we could call a "navigation screen" and the HUD would begin to edge into being more of an MFD (Multi-Function Display) as are common on aircraft and spacecraft in current times.

I've done it. I'll post some screenshots tomorrow-ish maybe. (Anyone care to recommend which site is best for uploading images?) A giant scanner is not actually as useful as I imagined it would be. The scanner is not that precise, so making it bigger just makes it bigger but doesn't allow more precision. A giant compass is also pretty lame, but for a different reason. It's very precise, but when enlarged the lines stay thin but the beacon letters are enlarged and fuzzy and obscure much of the screen. This is what CommonSense predicted, I think. If the letters remained small, an enlarged compass could be cool.

Wildeblood wrote:

Anyone care to recommend which site is best for uploading images?

I've never had any problems with ImageShack.

I use Photobucket (they've just given me "unlimited" storage capacity for photos)

I was wondering, could the missiles be displayed with their names, or a sensible abbreviation of their name, instead of with an icon.
For example:
1. intercept missile
2. ecm hardened missile
3. ecm hardened missile
4. quirium cascade mine
5. quirium casade mine
6. ecm hardened missile
7. ecm hardened missile
8. intercept missile

Ganelon wrote:

But it could be cool to have a more precise expanded "navigation screen" so when you hit a system or launch from a station you could switch to it, give the ship a spin to see all of what is available in the system, "set your course", then switch back to the regular screen, throttle up, and "We are underway, Commander.."

Giant scanner and compass...