Oolite Bulletins

Oh yes, it needs a bit of detailing, but testing it last night does suggest that this could be the way to go. I'd rather have a unique appearance rather than just reproduce something that already exists. Watch this space.

@mossfoot - to answer one of your previous comments, curved dials are non-trivial. The dials are boxes. That is all they can be, so curved ones have to use a totally novel approach. I had a look at the Chupacabra HUD to see how that works, and to call it complicated is an understatement! The script is over 2000 lines long alone.

@Cody - I had an early night and only saw your post this morning. Glad you sorted it out

Smivs wrote:

@mossfoot - to answer one of your previous comments, curved dials are non-trivial. The dials are boxes. That is all they can be, so curved ones have to use a totally novel approach. I had a look at the Chupacabra HUD to see how that works, and to call it complicated is an understatement! The script is over 2000 lines long alone.

Gotcha. In which case you're on the right track for sure. Very nice!

What about incorporating a telescopic/sniper view into the set like Milspec4000? (it does almost look like it's ready to zoom in )

mossfoot wrote:

What about incorporating a telescopic/sniper view into the set...

No, because that's a cheat

How's this looking? I've adjusted the alpha (transparency), made the dial background transparent and added a discrete border around the dials.

Smivs wrote:

Glad you sorted it out

Yeah, I got there! It's just as well I ain't got no artistic capability, or I'd be completely re-designing Fighter Hud!

Smivs wrote:

mossfoot wrote:

What about incorporating a telescopic/sniper view into the set...

No, because that's a cheat

How's this looking? I've adjusted the alpha (transparency), made the dial background transparent and added a discrete border around the dials.

I'd say you're almost there for what you're aiming for. Really at this point it is probably just tweaks based on personal preference you're probably going to hear from people. I'd give that version a whirl!

If you're looking for future projects for further enhancements, what about something to fill the empty space that's left behind when this goes up? Perhaps an image of the enemy ship with its ship type and ID listed? Mildly useful (to have a visual reference even when the ship is a dot in the distance or behind you out of sight) and fills the void.

v4.1 now available

This is just the graphical update to the Red Alert dials, as pictured above. It looks good and works well in testing, so I hope you all like it.
Thanks to everyone who complained about the blocky, un-sexy first version - I was never totally happy with it, but let it go, which was silly. Thanks for the kick up the bum

Regarding the space left when these dials move to the centre, I have left that for now. I am hoping that in future versions of Oolite it may be possible to move the Console messages based on alert condition. This is currently not possible, but eventually I would like to move the Console from the bottom-right corner into a more visible location, specifically where these dials are normally positioned, and to make it (the console) a bit bigger in Red Alert as you tend to get a lot of messages as you are getting pounded!

Any chance of adding Ultrazoom and non-linear scaling? I upgraded to v4.0 of CombatHUD today (will try 4.1 shortly) and found it somewhat disconcerting not to have them enabled anymore. (I'd forgotten that was a manual tweak)

Also just to confirm is showWaypoints (or whatever it's called) enabled here? I expected to be able to see the docking waypoints during docking, but perhaps the docking computer uses a different process for its waypoints... I couldn't think of any other way to test that feature, as I haven't been able to get the debug console working remotely with the Pandora build

- Neelix

Neelix wrote:

I expected to be able to see the docking waypoints during docking, but perhaps the docking computer uses a different process for its waypoints...

Nothing in the core game uses waypoints (and so far as I know, no OXPs yet either). Perhaps once enough HUDs support them...

cim wrote:

Nothing in the core game uses waypoints (and so far as I know, no OXPs yet either).

We were hoping to use waypoints in HIMSN - but the OXZ has been long-stalled due to RL.

Hi Neelix, I think the majority don't use/want the ultra-zoom and non-linear scaling features, and they are not enabled on the default HUD, so I decided they should not be enabled as part of this HUD. I included the code (set to "yes" but commented out) in the hud.plist, with instructions about enabling this on the wiki and in the readme for anyone who wants them.

The Waypoint feature is included in the HUD, but as cim mentions they are not yet in use it seems.

New Red Alert feature looks great, Smivs! Only one problem...upon actually using it, I find I truly despise having anything in the middle of my screen other than my target, and the cross-hairs I'm trying to stick to it!

Any chance of a configurable version, that would allow the feature to be disabled? I really like the basic layout of Combat HUD (quickly settled on it after testing several HUD's), but I've had to switch to Compact HUD since you've implemented the Red Alert changes.

demon59 wrote:

New Red Alert feature looks great, Smivs! Only one problem...upon actually using it, I find I truly despise having anything in the middle of my screen other than my target, and the cross-hairs I'm trying to stick to it!

Isn't that kind of the point of it?

The screenshot on the wiki shows two MFDs active at the same time, but I've only been able to activate 1 (and switch it between displays) How to I activate the other?

- Neelix

@Neelix
' ; ' activates the MFD and switches it, ' : ' activates the second. Check the Oolite Reference Sheet

@demon59
I'm sorry you don't like the feature . Is it the whole 'dials by the crosshairs' aspect you don't like, or just the new graphical update? I ask because it would be easy to produce a new HUD based on CombatHUD but where the dials just stay where they are (as in the original version) for anyone who likes the standard HUD but doesn't want the Red Alert feature at all. If there is a demand I would be happy to do this.

Smivs wrote:

@Neelix
' ; ' activates the MFD and switches it, ' : ' activates the second. Check the Oolite Reference Sheet

@demon59
I'm sorry you don't like the feature . Is it the whole 'dials by the crosshairs' aspect you don't like, or just the new graphical update? I ask because it would be easy to produce a new HUD based on CombatHUD but where the dials just stay where they are (as in the original version) for anyone who likes the standard HUD but doesn't want the Red Alert feature at all. If there is a demand I would be happy to do this.

Hrm... I suspect I owe Milinks an apology... I can't get that to work on the pandora... might need to reassign it...

- Neelix