Oolite Bulletins

Sniper Camera Systemv1.1.oxp now available

Download here:
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Sniper ... System_HUD


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EDIT: Download link held until oxp has been fixed
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Edit: RELEASE July 30, 2011

And now for my next stunt...

Download here:
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Sniper ... System_HUD

Time for some fun!


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Here are some screenshots of the prototype:


Close To Target by CommonSenseOTB, on Flickr


On Target by CommonSenseOTB, on Flickr


On Target, Reticle Lined Up by CommonSenseOTB, on Flickr


Perfect Shot by CommonSenseOTB, on Flickr


Target Offscreen by CommonSenseOTB, on Flickr


Target Too Close For Zoom Position by CommonSenseOTB, on Flickr


The design concept of this hud addon is to provide an immersive experience similar to actually being a sniper. Only the bare necessities are available in sniper mode to promote situational awareness while at the same time preventing distraction. Early on it became apparent that a sighting method that allowed for better visibility of the target was a good idea. Therefore I have forsaken the compass in favor of a custom made ring type of sight which gives great accuracy when the sight changes color and lines up with the target reticle. I have literally hit moving cargo containers at ranges over 20km. There are zoom positions from 5km to 27km at intervals of 2km. Pressing <V>key repeatedly cycles through the zoom positions in BOTH directions as part of one loop. There is a reminder to press V if the target is too close and normalizes when the target is in the nearest useable zoom position. Another first is a morphing scanner which smoothly animates the change in position and size between an area scanner and a forward targetting scanner. Definately a must see and will be a feature of new versions of my huds. The forward targetting scanner comes on when you have a target and it is on the screen so you may have a more detailed scan in that direction. When the target is off the screen or there is no target the area scanner comes on to give great situational awareness, all automatically without touching a button. There is a clearly marked stick sensitivity indicator because using the sniper camera system accurately requires fine movement and skill at aiming just like a sniper for real. Realistically speaking a ship's pitch should be 1.0 or less to have good accuracy at long range. The Cobra mk3, Fer-de-Lance and Python would make ideal sniping platforms while nimble combat ships with pitch over 1.2 would not. Now you know another reason the Fer-de-Lance is used by bounty hunters. 1.0 pitch and 3.6 roll make for ideal control of a Sniper Camera System.

The poll is to get a rough idea of the needs of active members. The first look at this hud concept will be as part of the chupacabra hud system. I have just started this and hope to have it done in a couple of weeks. A couple weeks after that it will likely come as an option on the numeric hud for specific ships or just for the player's current ship by having the player modify some information to match his ship. Awhile after that it may appear as a hud addon in some fashion. This will be influenced somewhat by the poll results.

Please post all comments, questions and ideas on the Sniper Camera System here. It is open for discussion.

I like the concept, but I would want it such that I can turn it on and off. That would be a real pain for standard flight.

Dragonfire wrote:

I like the concept, but I would want it such that I can turn it on and off. That would be a real pain for standard flight.

The Sniper Camera System is only available in "CUSTOM_VIEW" mode. Nothing outside of that is affected.

Perfect! When can I download it?

"There are zoom positions from 5km to 27km at intervals of 2km."

That seems too many. There's only 5 levels of zoom on the radar scale. To change to 27km zoom would need 12 keypresses?

Switeck wrote:

"There are zoom positions from 5km to 27km at intervals of 2km."

That seems too many. There's only 5 levels of zoom on the radar scale. To change to 27km zoom would need 12 keypresses?

You would think that the number of positions is excessive but on playtesting during its' development I found that whether you pressed <V> one time or three times didn't affect the gameplay but by having more positions(total 22 instead of 10) with smaller intervals(2km instead of 5km) and having a cycle that first goes up the positions and then down the positions in a loop, I found it was easier NOT to overshoot the zoom view that you want(ideally you want the zoom view that is just in front of the target and to be on the loop heading the direction that the target is going, either toward you or away from you.) Overshoot and you will have to cycle all the way around again. In addition I installed a handy "fool-proof" device that, if the target is closer than the current zoom view, tells you to press <V> until the the view is the one just in front of the target. The other reason to have small(2km)intervals is for immersion. Keeping that target zoomed in big on the screen as he moves adds a lot to the fun of this. Otherwise one might as well not even see the target except a dot. It is alot more fun and adds to the immersion of being a sniper.

Ultimately it would have been nice to be able to read/write the specific custom views descriptions as a script could keep the target view correct and close at 500m intervals without ever having to press a button, but that's not going to happen anytime soon. What I have created is of course a compromise, but one that in 3 straight days of playtesting with minor tweaking during that time is quite fun and playable.

In a couple of weeks you will have a chance to try it out for yourself. Who knows, you might find out you really like this Sniper Camera System.

I like the concept of a Sniper Camera System OXP, and I think it would be good in conjunction with the Sniper Scope. I am a sniper, and I have hit Cobras (both Mk.1 and Mk.3) at 20 KM, but it takes a lot of time to target, and a scope would be useful.
The scope could also be used by traders and Adder pilots to get a better view of a ship far away, to guess if it's a pirate.

CommonSense, you're a genius, you keep doing things that were thought to be impossible!

I love it!

On the edge of insanity would be a closer description. There was a good reason to hold off on releasing this as further tests showed that using the Save Anywhere oxp was causing a misalignment of the synchronization of the huds to their respective views. This happened when reloading a save anywhere savegame only and is due to the unique method I use and is in no way a bug just an odd behaviour that I would not have caught until using save anywhere extensively in testing. That's the bad news. The good news is that after over a day of experimentation I have made a workaround for this specific problem. Delays, delays, but the show goes on.

So far I see that 67% want equipment added as the method to attach this to the player's ship. In light of this newly discovered problem that may not be such a hot idea. The equipment has to be installed at a mainstation only to avoid this bug. Also I would also have to attach a script to the ship itself meaning that any other future oxp's that attach scripts to the ship will be in conflict. Is there a simple way to check by JS what ship the player is flying? Also the views would be changed to accomodate the oxp and if the equipment is not installed you would still have the views. Not too realistic. Right now I'm leaning towards developer installed in specific ships so everything can get a custom job to smooth out any potential problems. An addon hud that you only place in your addons folder if you have the ship and want the Sniper Camera System is also a good option here. Nothing's impossible but that's just how things sit right now.

To help make a decison on this as well as other fine details, I will need 3 playtesters. The playtesters must be objective and open to the idea of sniping. Also it will be required that they have the corrected SaveAnywhere.oxp and use it extensively. For this test the sniper camera oxp will be connected to a standard hud and will only work with a standard cobra mk3. Just place in the addons folder. I will require the playtesters to put it through the wringer to get it to fail and use a fair mix of other non-hud oxp's just for good measure.

Serious playtesters may send me ONE PM and I will send the chosen 3 a PM on SUNDAY and I will have the test ready to go by MONDAY. Playtesters will report their results on this thread by FRIDAY at the latest.

The poll is still on so any who want to may keep voting and be honest as it may ultimately affect the form of this oxp. Your vote still counts.

I await the PM's of serious playtesters and you will be notified on SUNDAY by PM. Cheers!

Something's come up and I've cancelled the playtest. The project was going to be frozen for the 5 days of the playtest and what I'm doing should take a few days or so. This should not add any delay overall but will do my best. The current prototype is pretty decent and I will just rely on the oolite community to give their assessment once it's available. See yah!

Well I've made a decision on the form of this oxp and it will be as a hud addon that affects certain ships and the equipment will have to be bought to allow the Sniper Camera System to work which will allow it to be damaged and if the camera has not been purchased the view will be blocked. Put the oxp in and out of the AddOns folder, couldn't be simpler. In the last couple of hours I have a version that will work with any main hud, yes that's right. The stock hud, the generic hud, the numeric hud, do I need to test any others? The generic hud was the tough one as the alert conditions want to switch the huds and desynchronize the custom views from the different sniper camera system ones. The oxp will have a shipdata-overrides.plist for the custom views of the core ships. Any developer that wants compatibility with the Sniper Camera System can include the custom views with thier own ship.oxps. The oxp will also come with a blank listing for any players that want to use it with thier existing ship. Just relabel and if the weapon position x,y is not 0,0 for your ship then change it in the list to match your ship.
This form should accomodate 90% of the needs of everyone while at the same time not change important things in ships like scripts(some huds are attached this way). Add the main hud compatibility and I think we have a winner. Stay tuned as the oxp polish may be dry in the next couple of days.

And now for my next stunt...

Download here:
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Sniper ... System_HUD

Time for some fun!

Mediafire is refusing to cough up the download because I'm not logged into Facebook, or something.

Wildeblood wrote:

Mediafire is refusing to cough up the download because I'm not logged into Facebook, or something.

I've never logged into facebook and it works just fine. Just tested now. Anyone who wants to post a test result feel free to do so.