ZAM - Zulu-Alpha Modifications

[Variable 322]

First of all, thanks for this great mod! I have it set to the left windows key which is also set to my "command" control. However, it seems to disable the "command" control - when I click left windows only the labels are activated, but not the command control. Can this be fixed?

[phoenix_za 23]

First of all, thanks for this great mod! I have it set to the left windows key which is also set to my "command" control. However, it seems to disable the "command" control - when I click left windows only the labels are activated, but not the command control. Can this be fixed?

This seems to be a limitation of the action key system. What Alwarren mentioned, would be a fix that I have to implement on my side.

[phoenix_za 23]

I updated to 1.0.3. Note that now to change your keyboard keys, you need to go to Main Menu, Configure -> Controls -> Configure Addons -> ZAM (The keys will only be visible after 5 seconds into the game).

You can now use more keys and modifier keys, thanks to the CBA keybinding API.

The defaults keys for tap and showNames are 't' and 'y' respectfully.

CBA_A3 is now a dependency.

[kecharles28 197]

New update v1.0.3 available at withSIX. Download now by clicking:

[Guest]

New version frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

ZAM - Zulu-Alpha Modifications v1.0.2

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

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!

[Variable 322]

I updated to 1.0.3. Note that now to change your keyboard keys, you need to go to Main Menu, Configure -> Controls -> Configure Addons -> ZAM (The keys will only be visible after 5 seconds into the game).

You can now use more keys and modifier keys, thanks to the CBA keybinding API.

The defaults keys for tap and showNames are 't' and 'y' respectfully.

CBA_A3 is now a dependency.

Thanks. However, I still can't use the left windows key without ZAM cancelling the other function of the Windows key (in my case the "command" control).

[phoenix_za 23]

I have updated ZAM to 1.0.4, which updates showNames to 3.2. The highlights of the update is the major change in how zoom is handled, so that now it works with any optic and with any vehicle (observation pods or gunnery systems). It also detects if thermals are used and disables the name tags while its used. This is because IRL AFAIK Thermal Imaging is not suitable for visual ID, unless its super high res and the target has clear distinguishing features. Fade handling with distance has been tweaked to deal with the vastly increased distances, including the addition of atmospheric distortion, so that with massive distances of several KM, the name tags will be severely faded. Also night time penalty has been changed to up to 50% faded on top of all other factors, even with NVGs, to simulate harder ID at night with NVGs.

Thanks. However, I still can't use the left windows key without ZAM cancelling the other function of the Windows key (in my case the "command" control).

There's nothing I can do about that right now (that I'm aware of), though fortunately you have many more options now for key-bindings thanks to CBA.

[sonsalt6 105]

New update v1.0.4 available at withSIX. Download now by clicking:

[Guest]

Thanks for informing us of the updated version :cool:

New version frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

ZAM - Zulu-Alpha Modifications v1.0.4

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

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!

[phoenix_za 23]

I updated showNames again, this time with a requested feature and another related useful one:

showNames V3.2.1 - 15-08-2014:

- Added optional feature to show group names for other groups (ZAM_showNames_group_names).

- Added optional feature to show team names for current group using toggle (ZAM_showNames_group_teams).

- Added key to toggle group names (default Ctrl-y and configurable in cba key-binding menu). Default toggle mode is off.

The requested one was team names, which is for example displayed as

®Phoenix

for myself in team red. Other name tag mods such as ShacTac and AGM use colors, which I cannot due to several other features that showNames has, mainly simulating ID difficulty with darkness (black name tags) and TFAR support, which varies brightness of a color to indicate relative loudness. If you are not in a team (team 'white') then no team indicator is displayed.

The other feature is for showing group names. This can be turned on mid game by pressing CTRL-y (or anything else you want by changing it in the cba key bindings menu like the other keys). The group name will be displayed as a prefix in square brackets. For example:

[Alpha-1-1] Phoenix

. The toggle key allows you to easily and quickly disable or enable it depending on when you use it, since the group name can take up a lot of space.

Note that the group name of the group you are in is never displayed.

On another note, some people in my community pointed out some concerns with this added information available to the player, in that it may adversely effect realism and immersion. Any of these features can be disabled by editing your userconfig or by the mission maker. For example, to disable ranks, group names and team names in your userconfig, set these following variables to false like so:

ZAM_showNames_conf_ranks = false; 	// Enable ranks
ZAM_showNames_conf_group_names = false; 	// Enable group names for other groups
ZAM_showNames_conf_group_teams = false; 	// Enable team names for current group

Or if you are a mission maker, then you can overwrite whatever the players set by defining the following variables anywhere in the mission:

ZAM_showNames_ranks = false; 
ZAM_showNames_group_names = false;
ZAM_showNames_group_teams = false;

Note that the only difference between these variable names and the ones in the userconfig is that '_conf' was taken out of each one.

The reason why these features are justified (and at the same time may not be) is based on the same logic that you would be able to identify another person that you should be familiar with (in this case someone in the same unit as you, or in Arma all units of the same side and HVTs\VIPs) by many factors, such as facial appearance, attire, weapons, insignia, height, weight, hair, complexion etc. And if you recognize that person then it would follow that you also know their name and in the case of these new features, if you where an operator IRL you should also know their rank, group and team (if in the same group) based on their name, and so the game gives them to you for practical purposes.

However in many communities where the players are familiar with each other, some of this information may be redundant and detract from realism; The name tags are necessary due to a lack of unique distinguishing features (as mentioned above) for the player models, however once you know their names and you play in a community with permanent groups, teams and ranks, then you wouldn't need the game to tell you that information as their name is enough, and making that connection yourself adds to immersion.

As you may have noticed, there is some ambiguity as to what would be applicable depending on the circumstances of play, which is why these options are available and that there are multiple ways to disable them.

Finally, some of you may have noticed a problem when trying to rebind zam_tap to another key. This is due to a bug in the CBA key-binding if I'm correct. Please up-vote the bug report here: https://dev.withsix.com/issues/75003

Edited August 15, 2014 by Phoenix_ZA
CBA bug

[Variable 322]

The requested one was team names

This is great! Thanks a lot Phoenix! Voted up.

[Guest]

Thanks again for informing us of the updated version :cool:

New version frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

ZAM - Zulu-Alpha Modifications v1.0.5

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

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!

[sonsalt6 105]

New update v1.0.5 available at withSIX. Download now by clicking:

[Ian Bones 35]

I had an idea: Could you outline the names in black? Sometimes if the nametag is in front of the sky for example you can hardly see it. If you would outline it in black this problem would be solved and it wouldn't change any night-visibility.

Also it would be good if the names where a little thicker. Excuse my english ... just woke up -.-

[phoenix_za 23]

No problem :)

There are 3 good fonts I can choose from, each just different boldness levels of the same font (Purista). The font used for players outside of your group is the lightest one and the players inside your group the boldest one. I can use the middle one for people outside the group and hopefully the name tags for the people inside your group should still stand out. As for the outline, there is no direct way of doing that, however I do have an idea on how to do it that may add a small hit on performance. I'll look into adding it into the next version.

[Variable 322]

Is it possible to increase the update rate so that the names will be more stable? When moving they "jump" and make it hard to see who's who. In moving vehicles it's impossible.

[phoenix_za 23]

In older versions, all the calculations where done in the frame event handler, which means everything updated really fast, but it caused a huge hit on performance when there was a large number of names to show. In the current version, all calculations are offloaded into a separate helper thread, whose rate is controlled by ZAM_showNames_var_pressLoop_delay. However that delay isnt realy listened to, as that helper thread is controlled by the Arma scheduler, which can be pretty strict. Ideally I would rewrite the helper thread into an FSM, which would provide much greater control over loop frequency (updating). In the mean time, I can separate the positional updating and put it into the frame event handler, which should help a lot without giving a noticeable hit on performance.

[phoenix_za 23]

I'm separating our showNames from the rest of the package here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?185380-ZAM-ShowNames&p=2814716#post2814716

It will be found separately on Armaholic and PWS as @zam_shownames.

I made the name tags much smoother, fixed TFAR and improved it a bit and added support for ACRE, including variable volume curve with that (eg: @st_acre_volume).

I couldn't fix the helicopter bug where the names go all over the place but I think I improved it. I'm not sure it is possible to fix unless I take a completely different route with the name tags.

@ZAM will only include tap and res and I will stop working on them, unless there is still interest on them. Personally I'm using tap in AGM and persistence in ALiVE.

[Guest]

Thanks for informing us of the updated version :cool:

New version frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

ZAM - Zulu-Alpha Modifications v1.0.6



Community Base addons A3

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

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!

[kecharles28 197]

Updated mod 1.0.6 available at withSIX. Download now by clicking:

[kecharles28 197]

Updated mod v2.0 available at withSIX. Download now by clicking:

Hey Poenix ZA , you can upload updates or new mods to withSIX yourself now!

Make your own promo page, get the power to release your work at your own point of choosing.

To learn more, follow this guide.

[kecharles28 197]

Updated mod v2.1 available at withSIX. Download now by clicking:

[Sir Nutty Walrus 9]

Hello, I recently downloaded your mod. So once I loaded the mod and started the game a message shows up saying zam.hpp not found. I look at the folder and its there. help.