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zodd

Land Navigation mod

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Land Nav mod

Updated - SHOULD work properly in MP - Untested

I believe I have fixed the MP issues; Be aware that this is UNTESTED so it may not have fixed the issue...

I appreciate any testing and feedback as to if it works on dedicated/hosted MP.

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There are many aids to land navigation present in real life that are not in Arma. These are often made redundant by difficulty settings (eg. Showing location and direction on the map) but on higher difficulty settings or in specific situations, these real life aids come in handy in game. This mod is an attempt to bring some of these real life options in game.

It is fully functional in SP and has been tested in hosted and dedicated MP without any issues (supports JIP).

CHANGELOG

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DOWNLOAD LINK

V1.3/B]

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=24012

(MP fix - UNTESTED)

Contents

The contents of this mod are:

1. Hand Angles – A convenient way to get an approximate angle is using hand angles. While hand angles are not as frequently applied in navigation, they are used extensively in target indications.

2. Pace counting – The main low tech way to keep track of your distance travelled is pace counting. This is handy for both paces and bearing navigation (Fundamental land navigation technique – especially used in thick terrain or terrain without key landmarks)

3. Vehicle odometer and trip meter – Self-explanatory; allows you to track distance travelled in vehicles.

4. Map protractor - Allows you to get accurate 8-10 figure grid references and accurate angle measurements.

Current Issues

1. The hand angles and protractor roamers seem accurate on all displays apart from TFT (The other multi monitor aspect ratios appear fine)

2. The protractor sets how the map handles mouse movement - You wil notice once this is run you wont get the hint near the cursor showing the grid reference and ASL altitude of the terrain. It also means if any other mods are setting that particular event handler it probably wont work (None that I know of at this stage though)

3. The vehicle odometer works for all vehicles present in game but will not work for vehicles spawned post mission start. If this is a sought after feature, a workaround can be implemented. - FIXED; can be added by placing basic options module. Able to modify countdown time to check for new vehicles (defaults every 10 seconds)

4. The scale is set for Stratis ideally. On Altis, the string is thinner and the map doesn't open at a zoom level aligned to the roamers (I am guessing the ctrlMapScale command is dependant on map size as opposed to tied to firm values like 1:25000 etc). Doesnt affect usage at all - the string is still wide enough and you can zoom the map as per normal to align the roamers.

SETUP

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USAGE

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HAND ANGLES

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PACE COUNTING

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Vehicle Odometer

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Map Protractor

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This mod has progressed from this thread:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?170749-Navigation-Aids-(pre-release)-Hand-angles-Pace-counting-and-Vehicle-Odometer

There are further videos on usage in there if you are still unsure.

Enjoy! Hope you find it helpful!

Edited by Zodd
Updated DL link to Armaholic. removed SP only backup - not needed
  • Like 1

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Cheers mate - appreciate it!

One little update - The scale is set for Stratis, on Altis, the string is thinner and the map doesnt open at the same zoom level (I am guessing the scale command is dependant on map size as opposed to tied to firm values like 1:25000 etc).

Far from game breaking but if it gets updated I might look for a middle ground!

---------------

HOTFIX V1.1 added

- Amended mod to take world size into account when scaling - roamers should be accurate on most maps and string size consistant

Edited by Zodd

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Guest

Release frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

===============================================

We have also "connected" these pages to your account on Armaholic.

This means in the future you will be able to maintain these pages yourself if you wish to do so. Once this new feature is ready we will contact you about it and explain how things work and what options you have.

When you have any questions already feel free to PM or email me!

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This is excellent! VERY nice for missions set with no GPS especially. Has anybody tried running this with AiA yet? I just woke up and haven't had the chance yet :)

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ArmA noob here. I'm having some trouble getting the hand angles to work. I placed the module in the editor and made sure that the setup will load them. Everything else appears to be working but I think that the problem I'm having is figuring out how the hotkeys work. I've tried setting buttons in the custom controls configuration menu but they don't seem to work.

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Ok -

1. Firstly are you disabling nav actions? If they are disabled, the hot keys wont work either.

2. Try using the mousewheel menu (cycle hand angle and toggle hand angle actions). That will make sure it is actually working and there isnt some hidden sneaky bug.

IF MOUSEWHEEL ACTION DOESNT WORK:

Are you running any other mods? If there is something that is displaying another resource on screen it might be using conflicting layers. (Especially if the other displays work but hand angles dont). Try disabling the other mods and see if it works.

Otherwise - what map are you using? Dev build or normal?

IF MOUSEWHEEL ACTION WORKS:

Double check your user keys - should look something like:

Use%20Action%20keys.png

Again - are you running other mods? If you are they may be intercepting the hotkeys... Try run it with other mods disabled.

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Turns out that Drongos Artillery was conflicting with it somewhere. Thanks for the help. This mod is really cool.

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Ok, does it work with Drongos Arty on if you use the mousewheel menu?

If it does - it is a hotkey issue. If it doesnt, it is an image layer issue I think... Both quite fixable (Will add to the to do list when confirmed)

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Top notch work and troubleshooting Zodd! I'll be testing this with a few different mods tomorrow and will be sure to share any results of interest. On a tangent, would it be possible to get this in a script based version? Has anyone really tested this in multiplayer? Dedicated and listen servers? I play mostly SP or COOP where I host the mission on my client machine (three or four players usually).

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Excellent work!

I have a recommendation/request: Ranger beads to keep track of how far you have gone. Not sure it is a must but another immersion feature that could be added.

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DoRo - We call them pace counters - check first post, already in (Pace counting section - Default distance set to 100 for lower beads but you can customise this by in game pacing) and what I consider a key part of this mod!

Oktyabr - Thanks - I cant say it has been exhaustively tested but the script version was tested as much as possible and had no issues with SP/MP/Dedi/Hosted/JIP so the expectation is that it is fully MP compatible! (As long as I dont piss off the Arma Gods somehow and they curse me!)

Also - I havent tried it with AiA but it works fine with A3MP so I dont forsee any issues with AiA.

Script version - It is possible (Originally how it started). The problem with a script version over a mod is the images - If you just have it as a script, the mission file becomes about 20mb! Having it as a mod allows the mission files to remain small.

I have already started work on V1.2 and fully implemented the "Future definable variables" in the first post. This allows you to have all the control that the script version has with in editor modules.

Basic config covers things like default pace counter settings (Distance, random offset simulating human error for default setting, specifying distance of individual paces to align with your own real world pace distance if you want for training)

Advanced config is purely designed for compatibility with other mods. The main forseeable conflicts this mod would have is with other mods using the same User Action keys, or using the same layers for images.

Rather than editing the mod and repackaging it whenever there is a conflict (or waiting for the opposite mod to work on it) the advanced module lets you override the default layers/keys and specify which will be used in your mission. The only shortfall this has is if you are used to a certain hotkey and the mission designer has overridden the keys without telling you, it might be hard! May put in a hint if it is changed....

NOTE that the two config modules are purely optional and only for mission designers that want more control over the specifics. Standard use remains as easy as placing the main module then starting the mission!

Whilst the advanced config is designed so I DONT have to repackage the mod whenever there is a conflict, if it becomes apparent in the short term that the default layers are being used by another mod(s) I will change them for general ease of use!

1.2 will not be released just yet - rather the intent will be to hold off and attempt to address any important shortfalls/issues identified after people have a chance to play with it!

edit -

Will add in support for spawned vehicles having the odometer added by checking every 10 seconds for new vehicles. This will also be configurable in the basic config module (set to 0 to disable)

Edited by Zodd

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Fantastic work, I've always loved landnav, especially in basic at night time while being hunted. ;)

In regards to the protractor, is it possible to lock the map at a 4 digit grid scale and be able to zoom in and actually read the map/protractor?

Also, would it be at all possible to have a "scrap piece of paper and a pencil" to find distances on the map for curving routes?

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Cheers B00ce

Unfortunately the map scale isnt aligned to a set distance (ie. you cant set to 1:25 000 etc) - It also means that different size islands will have different values for the 'scale'. At this stage I dont think it is feasible to anchor the protractor to a set scale and zoom in/out from it (or at least doable without massive headaches). How hard is it for you to read? It shows fairly clearly to me.

Distance measurement is the next thing I am working through. I am toying with a few ideas but I think (at least at first) the distance measurement will just be a basic hint about the distance represented by the string length.

I would like to implement something a little more life like (such as the paper/pencil method) however in the meantime, that is pretty much exactly what I do (literally.... Holding paper up to the monitor....... haha it works at least!)

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Looks like you need to update your "setup" in the first post for v1.1? You should consider including a readme with the setup inside the download too. :)

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  Zodd said:
Ok, does it work with Drongos Arty on if you use the mousewheel menu?

If it does - it is a hotkey issue. If it doesnt, it is an image layer issue I think... Both quite fixable (Will add to the to do list when confirmed)

After I disabled Drongos Arty the option for the hand angles appeared in the mousewheel menu and the hotkeys started working. Neither one worked with it turned on. However, now that I re-enabled it to confirm this, It continued working. I'm not sure if maybe it hijacked something because it was initially loaded first or what but it seems to work fine with it now.

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Haha as fun as mag variation would be, it would only be a brief sidenote!

V1.1 had no change to setup - was just updating you on what I was working on for 1.2.... Speaking of...

First post updated with V1.2!

This will probably be the last update for a while, it has all the customisation and functionality needed (I think?) for at least the short term... Now I will wait for feedback and (hopefully no...) bugs!

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V1.1 - Hotfix for protractor/map size over different maps. Added compatability with previous maps (eg. A3MP)

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V1.2

ADDED:

- Basic and advanced configuration option modules (see below)

- Support for spawned vehicles (Can be customised in advanced config module - toggled on/off and duration between checks for spawned vehicles specified)

- Automatic hint of user keys if advanced config is specified in case user keys are changed (can be turned off)

- Distance measurement with the protractor string (hints) when in protractor map screen. (On by default, can by turned off in basic config module)

MODULES: Place in the editor via the modules [F7] menu. Modules are located under ZODD in the category menu.

Load ZOD_NAV modules - Basic editor module required to use. Allows you to specify:

Init hint (Show a hint when each element has been initialised. Default to off)

Hand Angles (Load the Hand Angles functionality - default to on)

Pace Counter (Load the Pace Counter functionality - default to on)

Vehicle Odometer (Load the vehicle odometer functionality - default to on)

Map Protractor (Load the map protractor functionality - default to on)

Basic Config - Allows you to specify:

Pace counter default distance (Distance it is set to prior to being configured - default 100m)

Random offset from default distance (A random number between 0 and the offset will be added or subtracted from the default distance to simulate human error. Default set to 0)

Default pace distance (Distance of one 'pace'. Only effect is number of paces hinted per 100m. Mainly useful for aligning the pacing to your real world pace distance. Default 0.7m)

Hint recalibration distance (Hints the exact distance calibrated when recalibrated. Default to off)

Include Spawned Vehicles (Runs a check for new vehicles to add the odometer to. Default to on)

Spawned vehicle check duration (How often the mod will check for newly spawned vehicles. Default to 10 seconds. Only needed if the above is set to on. Avoid setting too low to minimise lag)

String distance hint (Show the approx distance (to nearest 10m) between the middle of the protractor and the end of the string. Default to on)

Advanced Config - Allows you to specify:

Add hotkey hint action (Adds an action to players which will show a hint of the current hotkey settings. Highly recommended if you change the hotkeys or for people not familiar with the mod. Default is on)

Pace count toggle hotkey (Allows you to choose specify the hotkey for toggling pace counting (User 1 - User 20) or specify No Hotkey. Default to User17)

Hand Angle toggle hotkey (As above for toggling hand angles on/off - default to User15)

Hand Angle cycle hotkey (As above for toggling cycling hand angles - Note it will also toggle them on if they are not displayed. default to User16)

Hand Angle Layer (Defines the layer the hand angles are drawn on. This is designed so if another mod uses layers that conflict, you can change the layers this mod uses. Only recommended if mod compatibility issues arise. Default to 6)

Pace Count Layer (As above for pace counter - Default to 7)

Veh Odo Layer (As above for Vehicle odometer Default to 989)

Protractor Layer (As above for the protractor - Default to 11)

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Thanks for the headsup about the update :cool:

Updated version frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

===============================================

We have also "connected" these pages to your account on Armaholic.

This means in the future you will be able to maintain these pages yourself if you wish to do so. Once this new feature is ready we will contact you about it and explain how things work and what options you have.

When you have any questions already feel free to PM or email me!

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This looks like a great addon and really useful. I have got it working in SP but I cannot get it to work in MP. I tried this evening running an MP game with a friend here in England and another in the US. The person hosting the game could use the addon but the two joining the MP session could not. There was nothing in the mouse wheel or key option. We tried this several times and eventual took out all of our mods and left only LandNav but still it was only the host who could use the addon and the clients could see nothing and do nothing. A great shame as this is such a brilliant addon. We installed the mod as per the read me, is there anything else we need to do to get it to run in MP sessions?

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To further Grab's question, we ran the mod on a dedicated server and no-one could use it.

This is an excellent mod we fell would really benefit our group.

Thanks again!

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Gday all,

Apologies for the delay, I have been outside busy a fair bit.

Hmmm I dont know what is causing it - I will have a bit of a poke around - seems strange that it works sometimes and other times it doesnt...

Try add the additional setup modules and turn the init hint on - does it say anything?

Also does the vehicle odometer work in those instances?

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