Athena - An ARMA 2nd Screen Application

[skruis 180]

Well, that seemed easy. I have the grid references complete. One thing I want to point out is that the grid lines in the exported topography images do not match up with ingame grid lines so keep that in mind.

I'm going to package the new version and post it for download later tonight.

Thanks,

Bus

[skruis 180]

Ok, changes released. You can download the updated version @ www.athenamod.com.

Changes:

•Fixed - Additional localization issues

•Added - 6 Digit grid support for target unit and cursor position

•Added - Ability to import user supplied images for maps

•Added - Chunked image loading based on viewing rectangle for reduced memory usage

I removed the images from the game download and provided them as separate downloads on the athenamod.com/downloads.aspx page. All of the images were exported from the Arma3 editor via the ExportNoGrid parameter. I do have versions of Altis and Stratis that are stitched together from the ingame editor but the Altis one is huge (440MB) so I'll be posting that on a 3rd party site if anyone is interested.

I'm already aware of 1 issue: if you switch maps randomly, the visible chunks may still display image data from the previous map. If that happens, simply scroll off to the side and back. That will force the chunk to reload the image data. I'll have that fixed in the next version.

[Guest]

Thanks for sending us the updated version :cool:

New version frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

Athena mod v1.0.0.14 Alpha

[1212PDMCDMPPM 200]

Thx skruis !

I'm going to test this new version tonight.

[skruis 180]

@Foxhound, thanks for frontpaging it :-)

@1212, let me know if you run into any issues.

Thanks!

Bus/skruis

[ChuWie 11]

Thanks for the update skruis :)

Didn't had much time to test around as much yet, but so far I noticed a massive performance increase. The lags are gone and it runs buttery smooth.

Great work skruis! I'll report back in when I've done some further testing-/play sessions.

Cheers

[skruis 180]

ChuWie: That's awesome news! Thanks for letting me know. Keep in mind though: the further zoomed out you are, the more memory Athena is going to take up. That 'shouldnt' impact your play because being zoomed out doesn't lend itself to tactical usage but I wanted to make sure you were aware.

Also, importing the maps...was it a hassle?

Thanks,

skruis (bus)

[ChuWie 11]

I was a bit confused of why it took so long and the progress bar stopped/freezed halfway through when importing Altis map.

Since I had no clue of what waiting time could be normal I forced it to quit after 2 minutes and redone the process. It finished then after 1-2 minutes :D

[skruis 180]

Yea, I forgot to mention that about Altis :-) The 'real' progress indicator is the population of the My Docs\Athena\Maps\MissionName folder. It'll continue to fill with up 100 images and then a map.txt I believe. Once that's finished, the maps imported. Watching that folder will let you know how far you are through the import process. That being said, Altis takes the longest to import so it's probably a non-issue now.

skruis (bus)

[kecharles28 197]

Updated mod v1.0.0.14 available at withSIX. Download now by clicking:

[skruis 180]

Kari: Thanks!

All: So, I'm kind of liking the ExportNoGrid maps but I'd like to work around some of the issues we're going to experience while using them. I'm planning on having a user selected option to 'draw grid lines' on the map. And then that got me thinking about other things I can draw on the map. With Greenfists help, I figured out a way to 'dump' all of the location data from inside ARMA to a JSON file via the Athena extension. That data contains city names, mountain names, location names and what I thought were hill #'s but turned out to be 'mount' elevation indicators. I think displaying city names and such is a no brainer. Does anyone use the elevation numbers and would you want them drawn on the Athena map? Altis has a LOT of mount elevation indicators so I wasn't sure if that would introduce unnecessary clutter.

Thanks,

skruis (bus)

---------- Post added at 20:54 ---------- Previous post was at 20:43 ----------

Yea, there are 9000+ "Mounts" in Altis...skipping those.

---------- Post added at 22:07 ---------- Previous post was at 20:54 ----------

So, that was easy.

Edited May 12, 2015 by skruis

[skruis 180]

Ok, and with the grid lines. The first image is zoomed out w/ grid lines set every 1k and the 2nd is zoomed in w/ grid lines set every 100m. The transition happens automatically depending on the zoom level.

[IanSky 29]

Make this for android so it's possible to use your smartphone or something. The idea is great, but for single screen players it would be awesome to utilize some other means of constantly keeping track of the battlefield. GJ

[skruis 180]

Ian: An Android port, because of my limited availability, is not very likely. I don't know how helpful this will be but as a work around, laptops are common enough and windows tablets are cheap enough, it's possible to run the Athena Desktop app on a completely different PC than the one you're playing the game on. There's a settings.cfg file in the @athena mod directory that lets you specify where to store the output from the mod. You can then 'share' that folder with other computers on your network. On the computer where you'll be running the Athena Desktop application, you can configure Athena to 'pickup' the data files from the share.

[skruis 180]

Here's a screenshot with inking support demo'd. The 'ink' support is pretty basic right now. I have to add controls for controlling stroke width, color, etc. but from looking at the pic, you can start to get an idea of where I'm heading with the ink support: for mission designers, you can have an offline map for you to markup. For mission planners, you can take the official map and augment with quick notes. You also do not need to have a stylus or pen: inking support is enabled for mice as well.

[skruis 180]

Here's a better shot of the inking support. I've added some tools on the left side to control color, thickness and for the mouse users, the ability to determine whether they're inking, selecting or deleting.

[James Sullivan 5]

This mod can work with another maps ? Like Reshmaan ? (arma 2 map)

[skruis 180]

Sartax: Yes. I have a selection of precreated map images on the website for download but it's entirely possible to create your images (Map Editor, Shift+NumpadMinus, type 'ExportNoGrid'), clip the image to the ingame map dimensions and then import the image into Athena. You need the map image, the map ingame dimensions (Altis is 30720x30720 for example) and the ingame name of the map.

[skruis 180]

I've added the ability to save the markup in Athena to a formatted file and then to reload it later. The save files include the game exported data and the ink so it's possible to 'sketch out' your mission ideas in Athena without having to be in ARMA itself. I know for me, I have my Surface with me all the time so it's convenient to markup the map when I'm away from my gaming desktop. Because the data is saved to a file, you can save it to OneDrive, Google Drive, etc. and access it from your other PC's and/or e-mail it to other Athena users. Additionally, the ink works while a mission is in progress so you can make quick markups to the Athena map using the ink feature as well. I'm going to wrap up a couple of features and prepare to release.

All of that markup came out to 44KB when saved to disk.

Thanks,

skruis (bus)

Edited May 19, 2015 by skruis

[skruis 180]

Here's a screen of an actual mission I'm planning for Bravo Co. It was sketched out on my Surface Pro 3 w/ the pen. I saved the markup and I'm sending it to another member of the group for them to review using Athena on their PC.

Edited May 19, 2015 by skruis

[skruis 180]

Ok, I have a few new features and they're at the point where I don't think anyone will yell at me for including them :-) I'll post it tomorrow morning (CST). Off the top of my head, some of the improvements are:

1. Toggle-able grid lines on map

2. Toggle-able location names on map

3. Label for the current zoom factor

4. Ink support

5. Ink save/load

6. Added rotation support for markers

There's also an update for the @athena mod itself. It adds support for a function that allows you to export the 'location names' from any map. One of the limitations of using the ExportNoGrid method for creating custom images of the maps is that Arma doesn't export location names such as city names. The function that comes with the @athena update will collect the location names, dump them to a Locations.json file and then all you have to do is place that Locations.json file in your Athena\Maps\MapName folder. Athena will automatically look for the Locations.json file when it calls up the Map and display the location names in their proper place. It's kind of cumbersome but ... it works.

So anyways, something that I wanted to fix that just annoyed the crap out of me every time I saw it was Marker rotation. I sat down and finally added support for rotated markers.

So, the rectangles and the ellipses look great. The icon based Markers (Flag, Marker, Objective, Dot, etc.) are all super small. I haven't included any logic to have them scale as you zoom in and out so based on your zoom level, they're either easy to see or you probably won't see them. In practice, it's not going to really matter because you'll be zoomed into a tactical level while playing the game. At that level, the markers will be easily visible so, it's a minor thing but it's still on my radar.

You might also be wondering what that ugly "I" button is on the left. That's the "Ink" button. I could use a fancy graphic for the button but fancy graphics take time and I have a lot of stuff that I want Athena to do before I take the time to pretty her up. So, when you press the ugly "I" button, it expands the Ink controls and puts Athena into "Ink" mode. You can then use a mouse or a stylus (preferred) to mark up the map. When you're finished, tap the "I" button again to turn off "Ink" mode and Athena will respond to your mouse/stylus/touch inputs as it normally does: to pan around the map. Put simply, "Ink" rocks for mission planning. By forcing myself to focus on Mission Design outside of the editor, it kind of forced me to change my Mission Design workflow and I'm generating better thought out missions as a result and once I get into the editor, I'm actually creating them faster because I'm referencing a plan that I saved in Athena. If you're collaborating with someone, save your "Ink", send them the file and have them open it in Athena on their end. Just make sure they've already imported the map. I love "Ink" and the only thing that might make "Ink" better ... is markers :-)

Thanks,

skruis (bus)

Edited May 22, 2015 by skruis

[bigpoppablunts 53]

This is great work skruis. Glad to see you adding more options.

[skruis 180]

Blunts: Thanks!

All: Athena 1.0.0.17 and the updated @Athena mod have been released and can be downloaded from www.athenamod.com!

Athena Desktop 1.0.0.17

Changes:

•Added - Marker Rotation support

•Added - Toggle-able grid lines

•Added - Toggle-able location names

•Added - Support for map specific locations.json files

•Added - Toggle-able ink visibility

•Added - Ink support (Ugly "I" button on left)

•Added - Ink Save/Load

•Added - Label to indicate zoom level

•Changed - Zoom step to 0.1 instead of 0.2 (smoother zoom in/out)

•Fixed - 6 digit grid coords were pulling Y value from Top to Bottom, not Bottom to Top for mouse cursor pos

@Athena mod 5/22/2015

Changes:

•Changed - Function names

•Added - Function for exporting location text (ATH_fnc_Export_Locs)

Please update and let me know if there are ANY issues. I will do my best to resolve them ASAP.

Thanks,

skruis (bus)

Edited May 22, 2015 by skruis

[kecharles28 197]

Updated mod v1.0.0.17 available at withSIX. Download now by clicking:

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

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[skruis 180]

I just got a new feature working and it's ... amazing. I've had a huge grin on my face as I've playing with it for the last half hour. I call it Multi Ink. Ink was the 'big' feature of the last release and with the upcoming version, I'm taking it a step further with Multi Ink. When you and other Athena players are connected to an Athena enabled server, when you ink on your Athena, it will, in the upcoming release, appear in Athena on their end and vice versa. No 3rd party services, no plugins, nothing but the @athena mod and app. Each Athena enabled player's ink will be presented in a separate layer whose visibility you can toggle on and off.

My Screen (bus)

My Friends Screen (Klicky)

The first thing I want to draw your eye to is the top right. Notice the visibility buttons have been replaced with a layer control. The checkboxes toggle the visibility of the layers. The next thing I want you to notice is that in each picture, the other player(s) have their own layer in your Athena. In the Bus image, you see a layer for Klicky. In Klicky's image, you see a layer for Bus. Now, for demonstration purposes, I've had Klicky draw his items in blue and I've drawn mine in Red. Just so you know, any player can use whatever color they want at any given time for any given stroke/line/shape that they draw and that stroke/line/shape will then appear on the other players Athena in that same color. I've just specified blue/red for klicky/bus for demonstration purposes. Additionally, notice the names of the layers. The layers are generated in the following format by default "Player - Ink". On each computer, I renamed the layers to "Player - Ink - Color" again, just for demo purposes.

How long does it take for a drawn shape to appear on another players Athena? A few seconds. But I'll quantify that by saying that it's only 2 players on a LAN and I was the host. But even still, this is yet another feature that can take coordination to the next level.