Athena - An ARMA 2nd Screen Application

[Snoman 0]

That's good news! I would suggest that users can decide how small is too small for themselves, and set the slider accordingly. Sometimes when you want to zoom right in and draw stuff it's not usable as it is now. Obviously there's a trade-off, but it'd be good to have the option, please.

[skruis 180]

I wasn't 100% sure either way. Make it too small and a user will post in the forums about how it's unusable with a mouse even though they changed the setting ;-)

[Snoman 0]

I do understand your position. Keeping everyone happy is pretty much impossible. That said, I'd suggest that a default setting of a reasonably large brush, with the option to go nice and small, would come closer to that impossible goal.

 

I look forward to seeing what you come out with next, either way.

[Tankbuster 1746]

Morning all. :)

 

Couple of things to report with one slightly shaky handheld screen shot,

 

The blue marker was originally red and a circle, but is changed to blue in script to show the completion of the task. Athena changes the colour OK, but get's confused with it's shape. There's no change in the shape in code - it's always a circle.

Also, Athena isn't scaling the markers very well. I know this is something the game doesn't do very well either but thought it was worth mentioning while it could be shown in a screenshot.

 

**edit. stop/starting Athena does fix this.

 

***another edit. Next time, the markershape didn't mess up. How odd.

[skruis 180]

@Tankbuster I think I know what's happening here. A change to the marker is detected and it's converting the marker into an 'icon' instead of keeping it as a 'shape'. Shape markers should not scale at all. Only icons should be scaling and because the 'change handling logic' is flawed, we're seeing the marker being converted into an icon and then scale.

[Tankbuster 1746]

Yes, that would explain what I'm seeing. No biggie, but thought you'd want to know.

[skruis 180]

Hey guys! Just wanted to post an update. My real life work load increased a bit so I had to take a short break from Athena and ARMA. Will be getting back to it and implementing fixes for your reported issues soon.

[crosus97 10]

are an error on your downloadpage

 

 

[skruis 180]

@crosus97 The website is very much out of date. After spending so much time on the mod/app itself, I just didn't have time to update the site...I felt like I was wasting time whenever I started to update the site. If you download the version posted on page 1 of this forum thread, it will be x64 compatible and much better than the one available on the website. Sorry for the hassle.

[skruis 180]

Watched Microsoft's Build keynote today. Some of the changes to UWP and .Net have a lot of impact on what I can do with Athena. Very excited for the Fall Creators Update , .Net Standard 2.0 and the upcoming version of Xamarin :-)

 

Also, half the emails I get about Athena are because people are using older versions. Updating the website is going to be a priority now.

[Tankbuster 1746]

I guess that you're busy with much less fun stuff right now, so I'll briefly say that Athena seamlessly imported Malden 2035 from the game and looks lovely flying around in a helicopter.

[skruis 180]

Unfortunately, I have been a little too busy to make any meaningful progress. That being said, I still found some time to work on Athena but it was 'behind the scenes'. So, I've simplified the data in/out and the data collection functions in the mod/extension and overhauled the communications between the extension and the relay. As part of the streamlining, the frame rates in both ARMA and Athena increased so that's a positive. Additionally, I worked with Liquid Tracer from Nopryl (nopryl.no) to help them get ready for their annual Summer LAN event and as part of that, created a 'server' mod that works with the unreleased 'logger'. LT used the logger to record their sessions and then opened the saves in the Athena desktop application. They used a projector/screen combo to debrief after each of their sessions:

 

 

I have to say, this is something I've always wanted to see Athena used for: AAR as part of a face to face community event...so, for me, this was exciting. LT had some feedback and I'll be incorporating that into Athena and the logger which I plan to release once it has some meaningful integration with the ACS (Session saves get auto-uploaded to the ACS w/o any admin interaction).

 

Tank: That's great news about Malden!

 

-bus

[SnakeDocc 72]

So just to be sure, if I want to try Athena I use the link in the main topic post correct?

 

I can't tell if I'm doing something wrong or if this isn't a feature, do the Athena map drawings appear on the in-game map as well? 

[skruis 180]

Yes, use the one in the first post of this forum thread. At this time, the drawings made in Athena do not appear in game. BIS hasn't exposed any functionality to tie in to the drawing system.

 

-bus

[SnakeDocc 72]

Ahh that sucks I really want to use this in my unit but I can't force everyone to get a second monitor/laptop (how people live without two monitors is beyond me), would be ok if only command and control needed it for input and the infantry could use their in-game map to see it all.

[skruis 180]

Some users appear to use it for JTAC (coordinating air/ground assaults). Pilots seem to really enjoy using it.

[Sgt P. Greene 1]

Is there a possibility of using ACS to track across multiple servers?  My unit has multiple operations that take place on separate servers at the same time (due to size constraints), that happen in relative proximity to each other.  To be able to monitor the positions of everyone across each server on one app would be phenomenal.  Would it be something like hooking multiple servers up to one ACS?

[skruis 180]

Yep. So, the actual parts required for collecting information are the @athenasvr mod and the logger utility. The logger interfaces with the svr mod and collects the data. Then it will upload it to the ACS, which is just a stand alone exe, which will serve as the repository through which Athena users will be able to download the replays. So, you'll need to run the @athenasvr mod on each server and then run the logger.exe, once per server, and then each running logger utility will collect the data for the appropriate server.

[Sgt P. Greene 1]

That's awesome! Would this be able to present the information from these multiple servers in real time on the ACS like the tracker, or just for the record replay functionality?  Like being able to watch both servers operate on one instance of tracker.

[skruis 180]

Short Answer

Yes, it's possible and it's a planned feature.

 

Long Answer

Well, technically, the ability for the actual game server to deliver updates over the Internet to a client is already possible (in the version I'm working on now). So, there are a few components to Athena:

 

1. Mod (@Athena, @AthenaSvr, @AthenaDesigner)

2. Relay

3. Clients (Athena Desktop.exe, Logger.exe [will be renamed probably]

4. ACS

 

The mod collects data. The relay distributes the data. The clients present it. The ACS is just a meeting place for clients.

 

So, with that topology in mind, it is absolutely possible, in the in-development version, to get real time updates directly from the server's @AthenaSvr/relay combo or for that matter, any other player's @Athena/relay combo. The clients allow you to change the IP/Port combination that they will connect to in order to receive updates. By default, it points to the local computer and the default port of the relay.exe. So, let's say your game server admin opens up the port for the relay.exe on the server...there's nothing stopping you from configuring your Athena Client to connect to that IP/Port over the Internet and receive updates directly from the server's relay.exe. This could be used by someone that would, for example, create a web site that would act as an Athena client...and that is something that's completely doable...even the map exports could work with a website. So, a mission starts and the webserver doesn't have the map file. It could send the map export request to the server (if I added map export functions to the @AthenaSvr mod), receive the map data, process it and render it to images behind the scenes and then deliver those images over the web in a tiled format. The full Athena client isn't image based. You actually see an image in the end but it's more dynamic whereas the website would have to be more static because of the nature of web delivered applications.

But logistically, it makes more sense to route all of that through the ACS but because of that, there will be more of a delay between the updates. So, let's say the server admins run the ACS on Server 1 but the Arma3Server.exe is running on Server 2. The A3Server relay will collect data as fast it can and relay it to the ACS. The ACS is currently discarding all but 1 update per second. I guess I would configure it to forward more or even all of the live frames to the ACS and then the ACS would forward it to all 'witness' clients (Athena clients that are watching via the ACS and not via their own game). That extra hop will add some delays so the updates will not be nearly as frequent as they would be if you were getting updates directly from Arma running on your own PC. The local updates are all in local memory essentially. Yea, they may be transferred over pipes and then a socket connection but none of that data actually is transmitted over the 'wire' (unless you run Athena on a separate computer). In the ACS delivered scenario, there's the 'wire' latency between the server and potentially the ACS server and then from the ACS server to you so it'll definitely be more of a slideshow but yea, it's possible and it's planned. Just not sure how to secure it from cheaters...

[Sgt P. Greene 1]

This is fantastic.  Even if it was a slideshow, since it's more strategic level information, that would be a total game changer.  Looking forward to seeing how all of this turns out!

[KillerKrapfen 0]

@skruis is there a way to enlarge the locations text, or use another color? (using the beta version). Sometimes its hard to read those names (especially if you zoom out on large maps eg. Altis).
 

[skruis 180]

@KillerKrapfen Can do. Are you more interested in your own custom locations, existing locations or both? I believe I'm allowing the text to scale at 1:1 with the map itself. I could 'counter' that scaling at a different rate or I could make the font heavier as you zoom out (bold).

[iWazaru 11]

Hi Skruis,

 

that's a great job that you do with Athena ! Thanks for that !

 

Im using it without trouble since some week, on the same machine with a second screen.

But recently was born the need to use it with another pc... And no way to have this working.
 

- DownLoaded the folder from the first post,

- Same used on ArmaPC, and the other (Windows 10)

- Put IP from armapc in appsetting of my new machine.

- Launch arma as always with the @athena.

 

On my arma machine, everything is okay with the app. (on the loopback ip)

On my other's machine, nothing happen when i push start.
Tryed on a windows 10 ( she's under Domain, professionnal machine)

and on a personnal windows 7.

 

Nothing happen.

 

 

Trying to down firewall on the 3 pc for test.
all ip are static, ping & shared folder works.
I see TCP connection between the two pc with wireshark.
I've try to copy the map folder in the machine that dont have arma,

try to give shared way to the app...

try some indian incantation...

but no way to have something shared to the app.

Do i have missed somethings?
What do i wrong...?

 

Thanks Skruis

 

 

 

[skruis 180]

iWazaru,

 

Some questions:

 

1. What are the IP addresses of both machines?

2. You've said you can ping but I just want to confirm that you can ping either machine from the other?

3. You've said you did but I just want to confirm you've disabled the firewalls?

4. What are the 'regions' in use for your Windows 10 localization settings? (I've had issues with localization in the past)

5. In the @Athena folder, there is a relay.exe.config file, set the 'debug' option to 'true'. This will create an 'Athena.Extension.Debug.txt' file in your My Docs\Athena\Data folder.

6. In the @Athena folder, there is a Athena.Extension.Settings.txt file, set the 'ath_debug' option to 'true'. This will create an 'Athena.Relay.exe.log' in your Arma 3 folder.

 

Both of those debug options will cause the generation of log files, send those log files to my email address seankruis_AT_hotmail_DOT_com

 

Thanks,

 

skruis (bus)