An upgraded compass, finally?

[Black² 10]

It is how the army measures angles. They don't use degrees for a lot of things, but milliradians, which there are 6400 of in a circle (roughly, NATO uses 6400, Warsaw Pact used 6000, 6283 is the real measurement).

The cool thing is the measurement tricks you can do easily with them, like finding lateral and height distances, and also ranges just using binoculars mil markings. Roughly 1 mil at 1000 meters is 1 meter left/right or up/down. You can reverse that as well so that for every 1000 meters 1 meter is 1 mil. So you can take a known measurement, like the height of a T-72 or a door and derive the range to the target.

Thats how they did things before easy access to laser range finders and GPS. ;)

this exactly, if you know the height of a average door you only have to do an easy calculation with mil's.

epic system and I vote for yes we should have this.

[NoRailgunner 0]

Guess we will see even more/better tools like laser range finders and GPS in near future. It has to be working, fast and precise.

I doubt that 50% of players are able to calculate properly in stress/combat situations. They have to practice and train such stuff ingame but that can be a bit "too boring" for many players. ;)

Maybe we will see some good tutorial/training missions and some learning-by-playing missions/campaigns in A3? Something to say "play mission <Blind man's bluff> to get used to orientation, compass and map reading in A3!"

[noubernou 77]

Thats why at UO we have mission makers that make 80s style missions. :D No fancy tools.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

@CameronMcDonald: But glow is less than with lowered brightness, right? Try also at night, much less annoying NVG glow where it shouldn't be, yet still subject to extreme bloom where appropriate (looking at lightsources etc).

I agree it's annoying, and I've suggested to reduce the whiteness of the texture, but hasn't happed yet. Still, I don't find it that problematic.

[nodunit 397]

The best solution for bloom would be materials, having a way to define what material or faces should glow would solve many problems such as things that should not glow IE cows and other bright colors.

that still leaves glare though, perhaps the specular should be 'black' or almost.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

@CameronMcDonald: But glow is less than with lowered brightness, right? Try also at night, much less annoying NVG glow where it shouldn't be, yet still subject to extreme bloom where appropriate (looking at lightsources etc).

I agree it's annoying, and I've suggested to reduce the whiteness of the texture, but hasn't happed yet. Still, I don't find it that problematic.

Yeah, you can see it when you turn away from the sun, which is reasonable, I spose. Ideally, it'd be nice if the compass face was exempt from bloom (because brightness is only part of the issue - it's PP and HDR that's killing it).

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Maybe someone should try replacing the texture on it to something more grey? Afaik the more there is of bright pixelated areas, the more subjective it is to bloom. And the background for this is pretty much white already iirc.

[Mr. Charles 22]

With a real 3D compass in ArmA3, this "bug" would be nonexistant, as you could keep the direction, but move the compass into one's own shadow.

[SPC.Spets 21]

maybe they shoul add this commpass mentioned, and another one more simple like the actual default. Anyway, I think there is already a mod with a compass with this characteristics for Arma2

[Beagle 684]

It is how the army measures angles. They don't use degrees for a lot of things, but milliradians, which there are 6400 of in a circle (roughly, NATO uses 6400, Warsaw Pact used 6000, 6283 is the real measurement).

The cool thing is the measurement tricks you can do easily with them, like finding lateral and height distances, and also ranges just using binoculars mil markings. Roughly 1 mil at 1000 meters is 1 meter left/right or up/down. You can reverse that as well so that for every 1000 meters 1 meter is 1 mil. So you can take a known measurement, like the height of a T-72 or a door and derive the range to the target.

Thats how they did things before easy access to laser range finders and GPS. ;)

The point is that a NATO military compass will show only 100 milliradians beetween the marks.,not single ones. The scale will read out from 1 to 64 instead of 1-36 on a degree scale. Edited June 28, 2011 by Beagle

[noubernou 77]

The point is that a NATO military compass will show only 100 milliradians beetween the marks. not single ones. the scals wil read out from 1 to 64 instead of 1-36 on a degree scale.

:confused: I know?

Most US military and NATO compass show degrees and mils: http://www.gadgettown.com/images/J-outdoors/K00822.jpg

---------- Post added at 02:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:36 PM ----------

maybe they shoul add this commpass mentioned, and another one more simple like the actual default. Anyway, I think there is already a mod with a compass with this characteristics for Arma2

If you never use mils there would be no difference between the one that is in ArmA2 right now and the one I hope they put in ArmA3. It isn't more or less complex. :rolleyes:

[Beagle 684]

:confused: I know?

Most US military and NATO compass show degrees and mils: http://www.gadgettown.com/images/J-outdoors/K00822.jpg

---------- Post added at 02:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:36 PM ----------

If you never use mils there would be no difference between the one that is in ArmA2 right now and the one I hope they put in ArmA3. It isn't more or less complex. :rolleyes:

You will have to admitt that the scale is hard to read in the army lensatic compas, hence the lense...that won't work with the usual 2D version on a map. btw. your link shows a copy of that model, not the Original one.

[noubernou 77]

You will have to admitt that the scale is hard to read in the army lensatic compas, hence the lense...that won't work with the usual 2D version on a map. btw. your link shows a copy of that model, not the Original one.

That is true, but degrees are used as well in the military so getting rid of one or the other is not very good.

As for the size in game that is solved rather easily. ACE and a number of other mods just make the model zoomed in more on the screen. We replicated the VBS2 style lensatic compass in ACE as well where the actual lens is functional.

---------- Post added at 05:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:46 PM ----------

With a real 3D compass in ArmA3, this "bug" would be nonexistant, as you could keep the direction, but move the compass into one's own shadow.

That already sort of works. If you bend over your shadow will begin to cover the compass while it is open.

[dale0404 5]

I'd like to have the compass, GPS, and watch modeled on the character so that all you have to do is either look around in freelook to see them, or press a hotkey and it will actually pull them up in view a la Metro 2033.

Say for instance you want to check the time, then press the hotkey and your character will turn his wrist so you can see the watch, or pull out the GPS/compass in one hand.

Having them just pop into view is kinda lame IMO. But yes, an actual "milspec" compass would be nice too hehe

I like this.