Oolite Bulletins

Wildeblood wrote:

Giant scanner and compass...

I can imagine that I would find that distracting in fights, especially as the lines at the upper end of the scanner overlap with the target reticle. Would the lines be drawn over or under a ship? If the former was the case, long-range sniping (which depends on pixel precision while aiming) would probably become a little difficult.

Commander McLane wrote:

Wildeblood wrote:

Giant scanner and compass...

I can imagine that I would find that distracting in fights, especially as the lines at the upper end of the scanner overlap with the target reticle. Would the lines be drawn over or under a ship? If the former was the case, long-range sniping (which depends on pixel precision while aiming) would probably become a little difficult.

As I said a few posts up, I thought it would be cool until I tried it, but the giant scanner is as good as useless. It's superimposed over the scene and sniping is impossible with the scanner there. The giant compass on the other hand, is brilliant for aiming, see the screenshots in the Sniper Scope thread.

Ganelon just about any type of function specific hud screen could be made and added using this technique and the screens could switch automatically or by n key. And nothing is to outlandish to discuss as I'm sure I will still be referring to this thread years from now. Time will make most of these ideas reality.

Commander Wilmot wrote:

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

Yes, but not yet. This will be possible when the legends section of the hud.plist is modified to allow "equipment_required" for activation just as the dials section does. You will then be able to use text or images(of words) to do what you are suggesting. And you will scarcely recognize huds after that as everything could use text and images for gauges/displays/icons. This will probably not happen anytime soon though. To do it today would require drawing the text manually using draw surrounds and they would be big and probably wouldn't look too good and it would be alot of work. No thankyou. Best to wait. May eventually code up an autosizing missile display as will probably need one for specific hud screens anyway(much later though).

One must learn to walk before they can run a marathon. Patience. Wish I had found oolite a year or 2 earlier but many cool things will become the norm eventually.

On a more related issue, I have almost finished the adjustable animated crosshair and I was thinking it might be desireable to have a basic (no weapon)crosshair when the current laser is out of range or if there is no weapon installed. If anyone thinks this would be a good idea I will attempt this as well.

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

Yes, but not yet. This will be possible when the legends section of the hud.plist is modified to allow "equipment_required" for activation just as the dials section does. You will then be able to use text or images(of words) to do what you are suggesting. And you will scarcely recognize huds after that as everything could use text and images for gauges/displays/icons. This will probably not happen anytime soon though.

For reference, and in case anyone is interested to see this in action, the code to enable the feature is already in trunk, but set to dormant state, waiting for its awakening after the release of v1.76. To activate it, you will need to be able to build from source and the macro FEATURE_REQUEST_5359 must be defined to 1.

another_commander wrote:

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

Yes, but not yet. This will be possible when the legends section of the hud.plist is modified to allow "equipment_required" for activation just as the dials section does. You will then be able to use text or images(of words) to do what you are suggesting. And you will scarcely recognize huds after that as everything could use text and images for gauges/displays/icons. This will probably not happen anytime soon though.

For reference, and in case anyone is interested to see this in action, the code to enable the feature is already in trunk, but set to dormant state, waiting for its awakening after the release of v1.76. To activate it, you will need to be able to build from source and the macro FEATURE_REQUEST_5359 must be defined to 1.

It's nice to know the end result of the routines I come up with today will have a use for the really cool stuff tomorrow.

Commander Wilmot wrote:

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

Commander Wilmot, I have made some headway on this. What I have is not perfect but is another related discovery to my work creating the Sniper Camera System prototype. Would you like a small popup submenu in the main hud itself or a full menu screen? Also my work on the last 2 projects has familiarized me with what I need to know to do a Dynamic Views Hud so just let me know whenever you are ready and I'll put it on the "to do" list.