Athena - An ARMA 2nd Screen Application

[skruis 180]

Yea, Altis and Chernarus take a little while. Did you try exporting any other maps or is that the only one? I'll look into the 'setCaptive'. With regards to the map detail, that's all automatically generated by the export scripts and I'm pretty happy with how it looks so I don't think I'll be tweaking it any further. Here's some snaps of my setup:

 

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[Tankbuster 1733]

No, I didn't export any other maps. I do have cup terrains maps full installed, are there any you are particularly interested in?

[skruis 180]

Not really. More than anything, I just want to make sure that another user, not me as the developer, can actually make it through an import. I know the Altis one could take, depending on your computer, 15 minutes or so, but the others, besides Cherno, should be much faster ... so I was just curious to hear opinions on the process. Re: CUPS, I use the same terrains mod and I was able to export all of the CUPS terrains w/o issue ... except the ship from Utes doesn't get exported. That's the only issue I'm aware of.

[1212PDMCDMPPM 200]

skruis,

I just tried the test version:

working like a charm with SMD Sarhani and Daryah, import stuck at "processing tree data" on N'Ziwasogo (but there's really a LOT of trees on this map).

 

I need to do more test with markers to make sure hidden markers (by script) are really hidden in Athena.

 

Also, a small letter coding with french characters (cf mission name):

[skruis 180]

Yea, the trees and forest calc take a while. On Cherno, the forests take as long as the terrain. Marker support is ... so/so. The next version, after this version, I'm going to focus on a visual overhaul of Athena, making it more like an MFD kind of interface, and overhauling the markers. I'll look into the language issues as well. Thanks!

[1212PDMCDMPPM 200]

Small update: I manage to generate N'Ziwasogo, it just took between 3 to 6 hours (can't tell, I was not staring at the PC :) ).

Another thing: color heightmap is hard to use on maps that are at 0 m as default altitude. Daryah is such a map. Takistan should be in the same situation.

 

Do you want me to upload the generated maps somewhere ?

[Tankbuster 1733]

Small update: I manage to generate N'Ziwasogo, it just took between 3 to 6 hours (can't tell, I was not staring at the PC :) ).

Another thing: color heightmap is hard to use on maps that are at 0 m as default altitude. Daryah is such a map. Takistan should be in the same situation.

 

Do you want me to upload the generated maps somewhere ?

Blimey. What a star! :)

[1212PDMCDMPPM 200]

Can you try this link ?

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B851cXnpd7EMNER3cW1wT3Bfd0E&usp=sharing

 

EDIT:

Maps included:

- SMD Sahrani

- Daryah

- N'Ziwasogo

- Sông Bin Tanh

- Isla Duala

[skruis 180]

1212, 3-6 hours, that's crazy but, um, thanks! :-) Out of curiosity, you didn't 'pause' the game or hit 'escape' and then leave it to run because in single player, that would 'pause' the game and the scripts as well. I might have a different algorithm for detecting 'forest' tiles. I'm sure it will cut down on that 3-6 hour export greatly.

 

I downloaded the maps you posted ... are these the ones you had issues with?

 

1. Isla Duala - looks good to me.

2. Ziawosogo - all those trees! and the rendering error w/ the black 'blob' at the bottom. Will investigate that.

3. Daryah - None of the roads exported (are there roads?) and I'm not sure why the color heightmap is mostly orange w/ no green.

4. Bin Tanh - Another rendering error w/ the river. Will investigate that. That kind of thing happens when it overlaps itself while drawing the contour.

5. SMD Sahrani - What's different about this from normal Sahrani from CUPS or is this just a non-CUPS version of Sahrani?

 

Re: the color maps on 0 altitudes, is it because the forests blend in or because the heavy green drowns out other objects like buildings? Or do you mean that it's hard to use on maps that are essentially flat? If they're largely flat like Daryah (Takistan has a lot of mountains though), there's not too much I can do on those. Athena, for performance reasons, will contour at every 10m vertically (up/down) from 0 and the 'shading' for the heightmaps applies at every 10m interval. It's beyond Athena's current capabilities to generate a more detailed heightmap that's relevant for flat terrains where 1m or 2m vertical changes are important. For flat terrains, I wouldn't both with Athena for 'vertical' information and use it primarily for relative positioning.

 

Thanks again for your effort w/ exporting that map and posting them!

 

-bus

[1212PDMCDMPPM 200]

About:

- N'Ziwasogo: I didn't pause the game. Just alt-tab and started playing Diablo 3. Before going to bed I realized the map was indexed :)

- Daryah: there's nearly no roads on this map. And I think the default altitude is much higher than zero.

- Sông Bin Tanh (from the same map maker than N'Ziwasogo): more trees but took far less time.

- SMD Sahrani: more enterable buildings, supposed to be of less quality than the CUP version. Still working fine.

 

About color map and zero altitude: I was refering to the issue in Daryah. The fact that no point are starting as green (choosing render mode - height map color).

 

I've added Takistan, Bystrica, Aliabad, HazarKot, Zargabad and Mana (same link).

Zargabad seems to have missing buildings (in the main city), same for Mana. I didn't checked the other maps.

 

EDIT: 

just tried on Thirsk Winter (also added) and I confirm that a lot of (A2?) buildings are missing.

[skruis 180]

I took a look at Zargabad, the only missing buildings I could find were actually ruins or rubble. Can't seem to find a download for Mana, do you have one? Re: Thirsk Winter, there are some missing 'ruins' but ... yea, those should be visible. I had hidden ruins just because most of the ruins in A3 tended to be blown out houses w/ just rubble and no semblance of walls or structure but the ones in Thirsk do ... and that offers some strategic advantage so yes, it should be visible. Will show ruins in the next version. Also, for Thirsk, some of the boulders are displayed as 'building like objects' in A3 but are not displayed in Athena. I'm not going to be showing large rocks in Athena so the 'many missing buildings' in Thirsk is really a few missing buildings and some rocks.

[1212PDMCDMPPM 200]

Thx for your quick reply !

 

Mana is available here:

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=12629

 

For Thirsk, I noticed that the gas station is also missing.

 

 

EDIT:

Just to be clear, I'm not asking for Athena to display all buildings, I'm just trying to give you all the feedback I can.

In fact, I've even work on how to hide the default arma map to replace it with a more inacurate one ;) 

 

Do you want me to index more maps or shall I wait because you might update the indexing part of Athena ?

[skruis 180]

1212, No worries. Didn't mean to come off argumentative. If I did, I apologize. The debate in my head about what to show and what not to show spilled into a conversation in a forum :-) Please don't read into it. I'll take a 2nd look at Thirsk.

 

"In fact, I've even work on how to hide the default arma map to replace it with a more inacurate one" - Oh, you mean the ingame arma map? lol

 

Um, if you want to import more, go for it. You might have to re-import later to get them perfect but I'll investigate everything you reported. It's all appreciated :-)

 

-bus

[1212PDMCDMPPM 200]

You don't have to be sorry ! It's just me that realized I may sound like the guy that keeps asking things. :) 

 

"In fact, I've even work on how to hide the default arma map to replace it with a more inacurate one" - Oh, you mean the ingame arma map? lol

 

 

Yes. Here's what I manage to do:

 

I'll try to find some time to index other maps and don't worry if I have to do it again ! :) 

[Tankbuster 1733]

Something I've just noticed... Locations defined in the map are shown by the Desktop, but ones added in script aren't. They aren't there when the map data was created so they won't be shown?

//init.sqf

if (worldName == "Altis") then
	{
	_location = createlocation ["NameLocal",  [20983,7242,25.656], 100,100];
	_location setText "Feres airfield";
	_location = createLocation ["NameLocal", [23145,18443.621,3.1900], 100, 100];
	_location setText "Almyra airfield";
	_location = createLocation ["NameLocal", [9155.25,21538.2,16.0988], 100,100];
	_location setText "Abdera airfield";
	};

 

 

[Tankbuster 1733]

 I'll look into the 'setCaptive'. 

 

 

Although desktop can't following me while I'm setcaptive true, it can pick me back up again when going back to setcaptive false by reselecting my player object in the 'following' dropdown.

[skruis 180]

Tank, I didn't even know creating locations mid-mission was a 'thing' :-)  so your conclusion is correct. Currenlty, locations are only 'polled' during map export but I'll look into ways to support that w/o re-exporting every 'location' every frame.

[Tankbuster 1733]

Ooooh Love this. Will check it out. I have 2 screens but still +1 for Android port! :)

For those with Androids, check out iDisplay. It emulates a second monitor and displays output on Androids.

Just requoting myself from a year ago so that users who think everyone who isn't running Windows for their second screen is locked out of this particular party....

 

http://getidisplay.com/

 

Edit:

Oh dear. Ignore the above, for Android at least. This used to be good, now it's terrible. Shame.

[skruis 180]

Tank, thanks! Also, the application 'does' support running ARMA on one PC and the Athena Desktop application on a 2nd PC (Windows Tablet, Laptop/Notebook, etc.). I myself run ARMA on my main PC and then Athena on my Surface Pro 4 (Windows Tablet) but any 2nd Windows machine will work as well.

[Tankbuster 1733]

Tank, thanks! Also, the application 'does' support running ARMA on one PC and the Athena Desktop application on a 2nd PC (Windows Tablet, Laptop/Notebook, etc.). I myself run ARMA on my main PC and then Athena on my Surface Pro 4 (Windows Tablet) but any 2nd Windows machine will work as well.

Yes, I didn't mean to say what I did. :)

 

When iDisplay worked (and looking at the feedback in the Play store, it no longer does), you could make your phone or tablet into another PC screen, then drag the Athena desktop  to that screen. So you sort of had Athena Desktop on an Android. But it's crap now and from what I can see, there's no worthy successor. I therefore, insist you make an Athena Deskop for Android! :)

[skruis 180]

Ha, maybe, we'll see. I've been looking at Xamarin as a potential cross platform 'thing'. Odds are against it though.

[1212PDMCDMPPM 200]

Bus, for the AAR version of Athena, do we have to use a separate addon ?

[skruis 180]

1212, the clients will not but the server will have to run the athenasvr addon (in development, yet to be released). It'll create save files using the exact same format as if you clicked 'record' in Athena but it will include all data, not just for your side. It will zip the data so that's easy to share w/ your Athena users. Additionally, I plan to add 'synced' playback so that you and others can connect to the same server and someone can initiate a replay and have the playback sync'd across each of the Athena users but that particular feature will come later. Initially, the files will be made available and each user can play them back separately.

[fathersarge 46]

While an android port would be cool, I wouldn't want the main branch suffering for it haha

 

I use Athena on my touchscreen laptop during games and let me tell you what, it is an incredibly powerful tool

[Tankbuster 1733]

Here's what I managed to set up using my (brand new and lovely A10 70F) Android, twomon , the google sdk usb driver and Athena.

 

Apologies for the portrait mode video, under normal circumstances seeing that makes me hurl, but here it gets the two monitors in shot better.