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blakeace

Blake's PRADAR

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Blake's PRADAR (Player Radar) V1.2.03

pradarlist.jpg

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Video courtesy of Variable from CIA :)

More media in Spoiler:

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History:

Version 1.2.03

  • Changed: Near object information gathering moved to a second thread.
  • Changed: Reduced the number of dots and names displayed to reduce stutter. Total of 6 each.
  • Added: Number of peripheral dots displayed dynamically changes to only have a maximum combination of 8 controls displayed at once. Excluding lists. To help reduce stuttering issue introduced in game engine changes in patch 1.62.
  • Changed: Increased the range to 80m.
  • Changed: Collection area is now forward of the players view. Centre 30m unless the player is looking at the ground closer. This allows better filtering of desired focus.
  • Changed: Reduced the peripheral dot size to 50% to be less obtrusive.
  • Changed: Label size, position, range viewable, and colour/alpha value for easier viewing.

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Introduction:

Firstly just like my other addons, real life is limiting my time online, as such rather than continue to let these items gather dust on my harddrive, I thought I would release them and let the community both test the MP aspects, and hopefully enjoy their use. Hence the alpha status.

One of the things I found frustrating at times was my situational awareness, involving both my group members as well as my ability to interact with other groups effectively. The more visual clues that are available help reduce the critical communications channels to more important transmissions. Rather than the usual who's that or where are you etc. This was even more valuable to me when leading a group.

Knowing quickly where players are helps you to quickly issue orders more effectively. Espessially in time critical moments.

Using mods that highlighted names helped, but generally required you to focus your cursor over them. That is if you have one visible.

I like a minimal information display ideally, the more data presented constantly makes me feel more like a terminator visual interface than a basic grunt on the ground. Bright red names like neon signs really didn't help the immersion for me personally.

I also wanted a better sense of player distances to me of those units behind me. In the real world you would have many cues that somebody was close behind you. In arma generally it was only when you quickly

tried to duck back into a doorway as a tank came round the corner, and suddenly you find yourself moon walking on the spot.

Requirements:

PRADAR requires extended event handlers found in Community Base Addons.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=103871

Installation:

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Usage:

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Acknowledgements:

Thanks for all the help testing:

  • Vairable CIA
  • Variable's friend Mike
  • The Colonel ZSU
  • Victim ZSU

Thanks for hosting PRADAR:

  • Old Bear
  • Foxhound
  • SickBoy

Download:

news_download_a2_4.png

PRADAR

Blakes PRADAR (Player Radar) : http://www.armedassault.info/index.php?game=1&cat=addons&id=1830

Also available via Six Updater.

http://rapidshare.com/files/4242663964/Blakes_PRADAR_v1_2_03.rar

Edited by blakeace

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Hello Blake, thanks for this. I will try it out.

I hoped this addon will introduce something I really feel missing: name tags on the command panel.

When I lead coop missions with multiple players, using teamspeak, I can't know who of the players is on which slot! If I would only have the option to have the name of each player right above its number on my command panel it would be awesome.

Having the players names when looking at their charachters is a good thing, of course, but usually, when issuing orders, the leader faces the enemy, not his team.

I want to be able to take a quick look at my command bar and say "Hey Tony, since you have the AT launcher, flank right and take out that BMP, and you Overlord, since you are the medic stay back. Osku, you have the machine gun so cover the rest of us as we advance". Right now, unless I write down the name and roles of everybody on a piece of paper which is totally medieval, The above command issuing will be something like - "Who's got the AT? Who's got the MG?" and so on which is frustrating.

Do you think it's even possible to create such thing as an addon?

Thanks in advance,

Variable.

Edited by Variable
typo

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@Foxhound Thanks.

  Variable said:

When I lead coop missions with multiple players, using teamspeak, I can't know who of the players is on which slot! If I would only have the option to have the name of each player right above its number on my command panel it would be awesome.

Tbh that is currently beyond my experience with arma to even comment. When I used to have the time to play, I loved leading, but I was old fashioned and used a pad that contained any important details.

  Variable said:

I want to be able to take a quick look at my command bar and say "Hey Tony, since you have the AT launcher, flank right and take out that BMP, and you Overlord, since you are the medic stay back. Osku, you have the machine gun so cover the rest of us as we advance". Right now, unless I write down the name and roles of everybody on a piece of paper which is totally medieval, The above command issuing will be something like - "Who's got the AT? Who's got the MG?" and so on which is frustrating.

I have to admit I never used it while leading, especially with our group, the loadouts could change quickly depending on circumstances.

About the only thing I could even suggest is adding something like the example code below that at least creates a current list of group members and their group number? Just drop the code snippet into your player character init, in the editor ensuring you are in a group. Preview it, then press and hold the watch key. Not ideal, and in the wrong area, but could be a sort of workaround?

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Edited by blakeace

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  blakeace said:
the loadouts could change quickly depending on circumstances.

That's right, but the AT, MG, etc. symbols update accordingly as well.

I have zero knowledge in scripting, but I will try to look at your suggestion.

I tried the addon. The name indication is absolutely great, it's not too dominant, thus not affecting too much on immersion and is really helpful when leading.

However, I'm afraid that the side halos are not so helpful, too dominant and affect deeply on the immersion, according to my opinion.

Basically, I want the name indications, but not the halos. If you could make the PRADAR menu include an option to remove them it will be just great.

Thank you for you efforts!

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  Quote

Updated to Version 0.1.1a Fixed problem where all vehicles were tracked at the sides instead of friendly manned vehicles.

https://rapidshare.com/files/217739514/Blakes_PRADAR_v0_1_1a.rar

Updated first post with a small fix.

  Variable said:
That's right, but the AT, MG, etc. symbols update accordingly as well.

Cheers I didn't know that re the icons, I wasn't aware being the paper and pen dinosaur I am :P

  Variable said:

I have zero knowledge in scripting, but I will try to look at your suggestion.

After your comment, I thought having a quick list of your group wasn't a bad idea, code was as a sample to gather feedback to see if it was in any way worth while looking at adding that into this addon? Plus the example is within my knowledge base too.

  Variable said:

I tried the addon. The name indication is absolutely great, it's not too dominant, thus not affecting too much on immersion and is really helpful when leading.

Thanks, was hard trying to find a balance between playability and immersion lowering.

  Variable said:

However, I'm afraid that the side halos are not so helpful, too dominant and affect deeply on the immersion, according to my opinion.

Basically, I want the name indications, but not the halos. If you could make the PRADAR menu include an option to remove them it will be just great.

I'll see about an option to turn them off. Have you looked at the different menu options to alter the dots visibility? There is three High, Low and off. Though on off they still appear when the names are displayed at high level. If you comments are with the latter setting, maybe where I set it to show the last visual setting of low and high so when set to off and the names selected the dots display on low?

Thanks for the feedback too, much appreciated.

Cheers Blake

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  blakeace said:
I'll see about an option to turn them off. Have you looked at the different menu options to alter the dots visibility? There is three High, Low and off. Though on off they still appear when the names are displayed at high level. If you comments are with the latter setting, maybe where I set it to show the last visual setting of low and high so when set to off and the names selected the dots display on low?

Thanks for the feedback too, much appreciated.

Cheers Blake

You are welcome. About the menu items, I don't really follow... You are referring to the menu that opens when pressing both lean buttons, right? Yes I played with its settings, but none of the options caused the dots to disappear.

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  Variable said:
You are welcome. About the menu items, I don't really follow... You are referring to the menu that opens when pressing both lean buttons, right? Yes I played with its settings, but none of the options caused the dots to disappear.

Yep the action menu items. In it's current state, if you select off, the dots will only appear when you use the space bar. Which minimises when they appear at least. But still is able to give you quick feedback to units around you while the space (force commanding) is pressed. Well that's what it is supposed to be doing on that setting anyway :)

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  blakeace said:
Yep the action menu items. In it's current state, if you select off, the dots will only appear when you use the space bar. Which minimises when they appear at least. But still is able to give you quick feedback to units around you while the space (force commanding) is pressed. Well that's what it is supposed to be doing on that setting anyway :)

I see. Well, I can definitely say that I prefer not having them at all even when spacebar is pressed (I'm a bit immersion fanatic as you can see hehe). So now after reading again your thought, I understand you suggest that when on "off", the dots will be in "low" intensity? If so, that would be much much better... :)

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  Variable said:
I see. Well, I can definitely say that I prefer not having them at all even when spacebar is pressed (I'm a bit immersion fanatic as you can see hehe). So now after reading again your thought, I understand you suggest that when on "off", the dots will be in "low" intensity? If so, that would be much much better... :)

I don't see much of a problem setting this up, and the more versatile it is the better people can set to their own preference.

I had a play with the names idea.

grouplist1.jpg

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  blakeace said:
I don't see much of a problem setting this up, and the more versatile it is the better people can set to their own preference.

I agree.

  blakeace said:

I had a play with the names idea.

woooooooohoooo! man, you rock my world! :yay: I have been fantasizing about the names on the command bar for ages! When will it be usable?

Edited by Variable

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  Variable said:
woooooooohoooo! man, you rock my world! :yay: I have been fantasizing about the names on the command bar for ages! When will it be usable?

Well I've pretty much finished the code, updated the menus for toggling this on and off. Also finished altering the menus so that you can select high and low dot brightness with an option for toggling the dots on and off. Though they will always appear with the force commanding button is held, but they retain the last brightness setting when visible.

As to when I just need to play with it a little to ensure I haven't missed a problem anywhere before I upload it. I also need to test that the group list names and numbers update correctly when units either leave or die. Hopefully in a few days.

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Thanks a lot Blake, this will have a hugh playability impact on me, and, dare I say, my team. I'm really looking forward to this!

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Update:

0.1.2a

Changed menus to allow dot visibility setting to remain whether dot are set to visible or only when names are displayed.

Created a list of the group names with their corresponding group number to match the icons the leaders have at the botton of the screen.

Created a menu item that toggles whether the group list is displayed when pressing force commanding.

Updated First Post.

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Can't wait to get home and try this. Name tags on the command bar was something I hoped for for 7 years, since I started playing OFP.

Thank you very much Blake, I will let you know my inputs.

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Blakeace, I have played several huors of coop missions with friends with the updated PRADAR and these are my findings regarding the names bar, along with screenshots (click to enlarge):

Design issues:

1. The names bar is just a bit too high. This cause the last text chat line to block it, when a battle is going on it will always be blocked, because of all the reporting that goes on, and this is a problem of course... See screenshots:

6236735535_75bef1726d_m.jpg

6236737439_298abf495a_m.jpg

2. The names are too much to the left, making the last name not appear right above the corresponding soldier symbol.

3. It will be better to make the names centred to the middle of each symbol. Right now they seem to be aligned to the left of the symbol, makes the eye disorient a bit when trying to allocate each name to each symbol.

4. If the background line could adapt its length to the legth of the names and not go all the way to the left it will be better...

Bugs:

1. Most of the times, sometimes from the beginning, and sometimes during the game, the numbers dissapear. See screenshot:

6236736437_166d06d69d_m.jpg

2. At one case, I think right after I got out from a car, the PRADAR disappeared completely, with no option to reboot it.

3. At one occasions the numbers were replaced with an "HO". See screenshot:

6236737127_f76d6f1957_m.jpg

I hope you can fix it all, it's a great implementation of a much needed feature! :)

Edited by Variable

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Cheers Variable, I appreciate the in depth feedback. I'll see what I can figure out.

Edit:

First findings, not sure re getting out of a vehicle, but made a couple of changes to see if that helps as I wasn't able to replicate at this stage.

Group numbers was my fault, the only reference I could find was extracting from default unit names, which doesn't work if units have a custom name. Which I use a lot and should have known! Haven't found another way to get these values at this stage.

Alignment, positon and the text boxs size, are a hard one as well. Problem is different people use different sized icons, and they are prob different between screen resolutions possibly. The list is just a single text. aligned with my personal icons positions. I haven't yet found a way of retrieving the position, number and type values from them which is really where I would like to gather the info from. So at this stage I can only really offer a player list.

Edited by blakeace

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  blakeace said:
Cheers Variable, I appreciate the in depth feedback. I'll see what I can figure out.

Edit:

First findings, not sure re getting out of a vehicle, but made a couple of changes to see if that helps as I wasn't able to replicate at this stage.

Group numbers was my fault, the only reference I could find was extracting from default unit names, which doesn't work if units have a custom name. Which I use a lot and should have known! Haven't found another way to get these values at this stage.

Alignment, positon and the text boxs size, are a hard one as well. Problem is different people use different sized icons, and they are prob different between screen resolutions possibly. The list is just a single text. aligned with my personal icons positions. I haven't yet found a way of retrieving the position, number and type values from them which is really where I would like to gather the info from. So at this stage I can only really offer a player list.

Yeah, my command bar is a bit tweaked by an addon, sorry about forgetting to mention that. I'm not certain whether it's changing the size and position of the command pannel though.

In any case, I think you should design the names bar for the vanilla bar and state in the readme that addons that change the HUD might cause inconsistencies. Personally, I will let go of any other addon just to use yours, and I think many others will as well :)

Edited by Variable

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Update:

Version 0.3a Uploaded First post updated with new download.

Fixed Menu items not properly resetting after rebooting PRADAR.

Changed code to hopefully eliminate PRADAR not functioning after exiting a vehicle.

Remove group numbering which didn't work if custom names were used.

Moved Icon label position to below the icons.

Added the ability to alter the group names positions.

Added a quick abbreviated list of groups primary and secondary weapons or vehicle positions.

Added menu item to toggle group labels and list on and off.

Added option to allow Labels while in a vehicle.

Added menu item to toggle labels on and off while in a vehicle. Menu not available in vehicle need to select prior to boarding.

@Foxhound - As always thanks for hosting.

@Variable - Thank you again for your great feedback.

pradar4.jpg

pradar5.th.jpgpradar6.th.jpg

Edited by blakeace

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Blakeace, great job!

Gave it a try during yesterday's CiA coop night and it was a great experience. The lower position is a great location for the name tags.

  • Entered and got out of many vehicles, didn't reproduce the disappearing PRADAR.

  • Although some inconsistencies that are hardly noticed, the alignment of the names is much improved.

  • How is the list on the right turned on? There isn't any option for that on the menu.

  • It was a good decision to let go of the numbers next to the names in the bottom bar, since we have the vanilla number on the icon itself.

P.S - Is there an option to permanently show the bottom names bar? It's so useful I think in some cases I would like to leave it on permanently...

Thank you very much for this great addon!

Edited by Variable

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  Variable said:

Entered and got out of many vehicles, didn't reproduce the disappearing PRADAR

Awesome, not sure what was going on there but hopefully the changes worked.

  Quote

Although some inconsistencies that are hardly noticed, the alignment of the names is much improved.

Unfortunately without being able to derive the icons positions, this was the best alternative I could think of. Depending on players names and what letters they contain can affect things, but at least there is an option for tweaking now.

  Quote

How is the list on the right turned on? There isn't any option for that on the menu.

Hold down simultaneously lean left(Q), lean right(E), and force commanding(space).

  Quote

[*]It was a good decision to let go of the numbers next to the names in the bottom bar, since we have the vanilla number on the icon itself.

True.

  Quote

P.S - Is there an option to permanently show the bottom names bar? It's so useful I think in some cases I would like to leave it on permanently...

Not at the moment, but it wouldn't be hard to implement a menu option to toggle between on and while holding space.

  Quote

Thank you very much for this great addon

You welcome, thank you for all your great feedback and patience with this addon. It is very much appreciated.

@Foxhound - Cheers for your patience with all the changes, and for hosting them.

Edited by blakeace

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You are welcome. I am thinking of making a video of showing its features it in combat to promote it for CiA coop nights leaders. I'll let you know once I have something done.

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  Variable said:
I am thinking of making a video of showing its features it in combat to promote it for CiA coop nights leaders. I'll let you know once I have something done.

I would really like to see how you utilise it, thanks :)

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