Enhaced reality settings

[von Baur 54]

First draft, with notes. Tell me what you think. Remember that what you're seeing are static shots. What may appear to be terribly obvious in these pictures is much less so in a twisting, turning furball.

 

First, six enemy aircraft in formation at a distance.

Note how, on the top two lines where the labels overlap, they are lighter and less transparent, making them easier to see. This gets more pronounced as the labels get tighter and overlap more, which will make it easier to spot a large group at a greater distance, when the actual dots might not be visible at all, depending on what your graphics card is capable of. Also, look at the distance. These planes are less than 2200 yards away, or about a mile-and-a-third, at which point a person with eyesight good enough to get into the air service should be able to spot and maybe even identify them.

 

Next, the same planes much closer.

Of note here is how hard it is to see just the label when the plane is obscured by a wing (did you see the Albatros to the upper left corner?). Also, notice how the bottom enemy aircraft's label shows up exactly the same color as the friendly airfield's to its left. Again, in the confusion of a dogfight, this is going to force you to pay more attention to the object than the label.

 

Finally, this shows that not only the aircraft labels were changed, but so was the strike/damage info at the top center.

The red warning in the second picture was the "waypoint reached" thing (I'll have to find and change that next). But in this one you can see that my having hit my target is not as noticeable with these settings. The down side, IMO, is that neither is my having taken damage. If my forcefeedback stick gave me an indication of damage I wouldn't mind it, but it doesn't and those warnings are all I've got to tell me I'm being hit. I like to know when I'm being hit. I'll have to work on that, but like I said, this is a very preliminary test...kind of a 'proof of concept'.

 

As you can see, all objects now appear as white dots on the TAC. In the first one the TAC's range was at its default of 8NM and all objects were selected. In the other two it had been changed to my standard of 2NM and aircraft only. Also, I've left the Human Friend Color setting where it was and changed the Human Enemy Color to match it, thus leveling things in that respect while keeping the ability to distinguish fellow humans from the random electrons in the game. Unfortunately I was only able to test it offline, so I have no screeshots of that...yet.

 

Personally, I like this and will probably keep it or some form of it, at least for offline flying, whether it's ever adopted for the Sunday campaigns or not. I've never been a big fan of the red/blue thing, just never had the motivation to get in and mess with it before, thanx Vasco. Now, if I ever hit the lottery and can afford this (http://www.vrealities.com/pisight.html), all bets are off.

 

 

*edit*

BTW, if you'd like to try this on your own, you need to go to the ViewUI file (typically in Documents and Settings\your user folder\Application Data(might be a hidden folder)\Microsoft\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields), right click and select edit, then go down about one-third of the way and change the FriendColor, EnemyColor, TargetColor, Bogiecolor, and GoalColor to 0x1FCCCCCC. As always, you'll want to make a copy of the file first, so you can swap it back if you don't like the results.

Edited January 10, 2010 by von Baur

[Red-Dog 3]

Cracking idea Von Baur, It's a good mix , i'am changing my labels as we speak.

[Firecage 1]

Well I have always wanted to get somewhere between labels and none.... I think you have a great idea on this. I find the screens just will not let you see as well as the human eye in a real enviroment. Then I turn labels on and it kinda ruins the mood but at least I can figure out where planes are at. THis looks like it will provide a good half way or better option.

 

Any mods you come up with would be very welcome IMHO.

 

And now im otw to try this out.

 

And thank you for taking the time to work this.

[Vasco 3]

This does look good.

 

Well done von Baur!

 

Vasco

 

Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

[themightysrc 5]

Hi Von,

 

Is it possible to get rid of the blue text on the right of the screen? Actually, is it possible to lose all of it except the ammo and fuel lines? That would be handy.

 

Great idea about the labels - can you ditch enemy labels completely, but keep those of your own side?

[von Baur 54]

Thanx for the feedback, guys! Kinda makes it worth having stayed up until past 3AM running it down and testing it (it really wasn't that hard..between frozen drain pipes, wanting to watch the playoffs and falling asleep watching the playoffs, I didn't actually start until 12:30). Particularly since it's all been so positive so far. Now it's off to do the ferrets and then I'll back. I'd love to test this online and see if all players are light blue, friend and foe alike. Maybe someone will be online in an hour or so.

 

Simon, the hud colors are about two-thirds of the way into that file. The first is listed HUDText Color and the second HUDTextMetric Color. I'm not sure what the "0x" at the front is but the rest is pretty simple, actually. The first two characters control the level of transparency and the last six are RRGGBB, with 00 (that's double-naught, not the letter O) being the highest value and FF the lowest (16 bits, 00-FF gives 256 levels, for those of you as unfamiliar with this crap as I was last night). Here's a link http://www.pagetutor...gcolors216.html to the color chart I used last night. So it should be fairly easy to wash out the colors and make them more or less transparent to your taste. You can also drag them to the lower right, as I've done, by grabbing the left side of the text area with the mouse. At this point, I don't believe you can eliminate lines you feel are unnecessary, but play around with it. I may change the color, but I'm ok with the default settings because I only pop it on briefly to check ammo and fuel (in planes without a modeled fuel guage) and then turn it right back off.

 

As far as dropping enemy labels completely, sure. Just set the first two characters after the 0x to 00 and that should render them completely transparent. I haven't tested that, btw, so don't quote me, but logic dictates that if FF is 100% opaque then the other end of the scale should be 100% transparent.

[Burning Beard 14]

I just did a quick test and found that the totally transparent is 0x1f0000FF. I put that in for friendly labels and they disappeared.

 

Beard

[Vasco 3]

von Baur,

 

Once you've decided on settings that you're happy with, can you create a file that we can all download?

 

Vasco

 

Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

[Axgrinder 0]

Most Excellent VB! Yes, downloads please when you get the settings the way you think they look best!

 

Note: as far as damage and hit text at the top/center of the screen, I think there is a key command to turn those off and on. I think it's shift+Ctrl+D or something like that.

[VonGuber 2]

Good Job! That's not nearly so obnoxious as those red things.

[Red-Dog 3]

Hi Von Baur, just tried my new labels and they haven't changed, any idea's? I used "0x1FCCCCCC"

 

 

[Axgrinder 0]

Shift + D turns off damage text up top!

 

Red Dog, you must change the ViewUI.xml file in your hidden file called App Data NOT the Viewui.xml file in your OBD game file.

Edited January 10, 2010 by Axgrinder

[von Baur 54]

By popular demand, this is a copy of my ViewUI file. Not sure it will work this way. If anyone has trouble with it let me know and we'll work out an alternate method.

 

ViewUI.xml

 

The path, once again is

OS drive:\Documents and Settings\your user folder\Application Data(usually a hidden folder)\Microsoft\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields

If you've got the folder arranged by type it will probably be all the way at the bottom. There's also a Master Copy of ViewUI in there. DON'T TOUCH IT!!! It's got the default settings in case you hopelssly screw up the ViewUI file. The simplest way to do this is to download this to wherever you like, copy the current ViewUI file, then drop this one into the CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields folder.

 

I've changed the TargetColor to yellow so that targeting can be used as in the second flight. Of note:

Your TAC will be smaller than default and located at the bottom center. Move it to wherever you like, but I found that the least obtrusive;

The HUD text will be at the lower right in the default blue. Pilot health and possibly one other line are offscreen to the bottom, as I didn't feel they were important. Put it where you want it;

If you use the WWII HUD dials you'll need to change them back, too. I only have airspeed and attitude (and I only use them to maintain decent flight in bombsight view).

 

The nice thing about this is that it doesn't have to be the same for everyone, so any changes won't prevent connecting.

[themightysrc 5]

VB,

 

That link brings up a window in Firefox - any chance of moving the file to the download area? I could cut and paste, but I'm guessing it would be easier as a download for most people.

 

Cheers,

Si

[sitting_duck 3]

right click on link,,,save target as....

[themightysrc 5]

SD,

 

Doesn't work - well, not with Firefox...

[Burning Beard 14]

The way I did was to copy it to notepad then saved the file as ViewUI.xml. I then pasted it OFF directory in the Application Data\Microsoft folder.

 

Beard

[RCAF_Dudley 0]

In Firefox, right-click on the link and select Save Link As...

[GaryR 0]

By popular demand, this is a copy of my ViewUI file. Not sure it will work this way. If anyone has trouble with it let me know and we'll work out an alternate method.

 

ViewUI.xml

 

The path, once again is

OS drive:\Documents and Settings\your user folder\Application Data(usually a hidden folder)\Microsoft\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields

 

In Vista 64 (and I think Win7) Microsoft has renamed "Application Data" to "Appdata" and the Application Data folder is actually what is now called a "junction", which merely directs programs to the Appdata folder. The ViewUI.xml file is located in OS drive:\Documents and Settings\your user folder\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields.

 

I renamed my ViewUI.xml ot OriginalViewUI.xml and copied Von Baur's file over. About to test it now.

[von Baur 54]

Thanx for the Vista translation, Gary. I only speak XP. And thanx to Duck, Beard and Dudley for helping people use the link. I can look into posting it on the download page tonight. Things have been a little more unhinged around here than normal the last couple of days.

[Red-Dog 3]

Worked a treat Von Baur thanks mate.

[von Baur 54]

Tried putting this on the downloads page, didn't work. Said it was the wrong type of file. Sorry.

[Firecage 1]

Well I finally got the ice to thaw enough and got internet back. My cable delivery wire had a limb fall and busted the calbe to the house. took a few days for cox to get it back up.

 

One thing I seem to notice and I wanted to have others see if its the same. In single player mode the colors seem brighter than the same settings in an online game. Not sure why im seeing them clearer in single but I was wondering if its just me?

[Axgrinder 0]

How much rum did you have when you flew single player?