SPON releases

[law-giver 189]

Hi Spooner

I'm trying to use your rear mirror script but in the demo it doesn't work for me holding shift etc. Is it shift <a> or <d> or shift <leftarrow> or <rightarrow>.........?

[Spooner 0]

Assuming you have the standard ArmA keys defined, you should be holding down <left-shift>+a or <left-shift>+d or <left-shift>+<left-arrow> or <left-shift>+<right-arrow> (regardless of what movement keys you have configured, it will use any of those, but it will always use <left-shift> with it).

Someone has recently pointed out to me that using shift is a bit...foolish...since shift is used to give a "turbo boost" when you are driving. Thus, people who drive fast will keep accidentally looking in the mirror. You also have the issue that you can't turn left while looking in the left mirror or turn right while looking in the right mirror. I really need to change the keys, but there aren't a lot of options available that don't interfere with something or are too far away from where you'll have your hands while driving. Anyone have any ideas?

EDIT:

I hope you weren't trying to use the mirrors in the broken Humvee (shattered windows), since mirrors don't work if the vehicle is too badly damaged. You also can't use them in the Strykers unless you are turned out.

[M.Andersson(SWE) 4]

alt and right ctrl is almost allways reconfigured...

I dont use alt or ctrl in game as i use mouse and

flightstick to fire..I use alt as a TS button...

I DO NOT speak for eveyone else..But thouse two buttons

are the easiest to delete in config...

[law-giver 189]

@Spooner

Quote[/b] ]Assuming you have the standard ArmA keys defined, you should be holding down <left-shift>+a or <left-shift>+d or <left-shift>+<left-arrow> or <left-shift>+<right-arrow> (regardless of what movement keys you have configured, it will use any of those, but it will always use <left-shift> with it).

I have the default key setup and used the none damaged vehicles but it still didn't work for me. Shift key as you said just gives me a boost turning left or right depending on the key i press.  

[Spooner 0]

Well, I know everyone else who's tested it hasn't had a problem. Not that that helps, but I can't see why there would be anything fubar.

One likely option is that you are using a script in an addon that captures key-presses which is "stealing" them from my script. If you think that is a possibility, then try running ArmA without that addon (or with no addons if you don't know of one specific addon that is responding to key-presses).

If that doesn't work, I am not sure what the problem is at all

[law-giver 189]

@Spooner

I thought i'd removed the addons i thought would do that but obviously there is another sneaky one. I tried with all addons removed and it worked perfectly.  

You can breathe a sigh of relief. Now i will have to track down the offending addon tomorrow. Will post tomorrow which one it was just for curiosity's sake.

Looks cool mate, thanks for responding so soon.  

[Spooner 0]

Released:

* SPON_viewVector v0.1.1 (direction the player's screen is "looking", rather than body or weapon facings)

Quite a small function I wrote for SPON Map, but I thought it would be useful for other scripters.

[Spooner 0]

I haven't stopped thinking about the RearView keys, but nothing seems to be perfect. My proposed keys are:

<look> + <rotate-right> / <rotate-left (defaults to Left-alt + X/C, which is what I'll refer to them as for this post).

In land vehicles, the rotation buttons have no other keys assigned by default, except "turn in", but there is always the possibility that they have been reused manually by the player for something else. In air vehicles, you would therefore be no longer to "look" while rotating in a helo, unless you turned on free-look (double-click L-alt) , but I think that wouldn't be a massive loss (compared to not being able to "look" while turning in any vehicle if I made it "look" + A/D).

I am also planning to "lock" rear-view on with just one key, so it is easier to maneuver when using this view with less fingers than before ;P

alt down

C down (starts to look through right mirror).

C up (rear-view stays on)

use WASD to maneuver

alt up (stops rear-view)

Alternatively, alt+x/c to turn on mirror then alt+c again to turn it off.

Or double-click x/c to toggle on and double-click x/c to turn it off again (could be easy to do by mistake?)? Or alt + double-click x/c to toggle on and alt + double-click x/c to turn it off again (with the option of holding the keeps for a temporary view of course)? Either of these have some consistency with leaning and other toggling commands.

Any comments on this before I implement it?

(only Mi17 has mirrors on the model, but I think it might be reasonable to give them on Blackhawk as well, if not on attack helos?)

---

I've also decided to implement binocs inside vehicles, both when inside a vehicle that has windows (e.g. Humvee) and when turned out (e.g. T72 or Stryker). Would mean assuming the player hadn't redefined their binoc key (default B) as something used in operating the vehicle, but I think people can probably cope with that. There wouldn't be a pretty animation and no-one else would see the binocs, as they would just be scripted in, but I'd rather have the functionality without the graphics than not have it at all. I'm a bit busy at the mo, so this will be on the back-burner for a while. Any comments welcome though!

[.kju 3240]

Maybe it is just me, yet I find it a bit hard to imagine it.

At least I would need to test it ingame to make up a good mind.

Not sure if you mean that alt + mouse to turn the head

independent to the body is no longer possible in helos.

Well if you mean that, this function is pretty critical for a piloting

a helo vs proper enemies (humans) in PvP play.

[Spooner 0]

No, by "rotate", I mean the rotate on the spot action for helos (X or C by default). This has little effect if you are moving and no effect if you are moving at any speed. Moving the mouse right or left banks you in those directions, not rotates you around your central vertical axis. Thus, by picking an action that is not used in vehicles (Well, X/C are used to turn in, but freelook+X/C isn't a key combination you'd normally use) and has limited use in helos, I thought it might be the safest from the options available (and the player can change the keys anyway).

EDIT: The keys proposed are actually called "Left Pedal" (default: X or delete), "Right Pedal" (default: C or End) in ArmA. Sorry for confusing you by using the wrong terms. As you say, it is probably best I try it out and people can tell me how they feel then. I just wanted to see if anyone had obvious reasons why I really shouldn't try this combination.

[.kju 3240]

Got it now. Thanks Spooner.

If you have reconfigured most of the keys..

[Spooner 0]

Absolutely, if you've reconfigured all the keys then you could still be stuffed. But any other options I've considered stuff you if using standard keys as well as slightly or greatly reconfigured the keys

[.kju 3240]

Not idea if you brought it up already Spooner.

Why not use an external file to let people reconfigure the settings

if they don't like it?

(You could even add an ingame settings menu to change them

ingame like ECT).

[Spooner 0]

I'm extremely keen to avoid adding an in-game key-setting menu, since you'd need to alter the key settings (for this and the other SPON components that use keys) each time you played. This would only get worse as I make more SPON components (and hopefully if others decide to share SPON key handlers once the addon version is released).

I have seriously considered a config file in \dta that could be edited by the player (even considering writing a very simple YAML parser to make the format a bit more easily editable and to remove the exploits possible if you just #include a \dta file directly into config.cpp or run it as SQF. I'd also be able to use the parser for all the player-config in my scripts, such as prices in SPON Money, since asking people to make complex config from arrays or in "valid" cpp format requires people to understand rather a lot and put up with ArmA crashing if they make the slightest mistake). Not sure if this still wouldn't just be a lot of work to serve the tiny proportion of the community that are prepared to open notepad...

Ultimately, pleasing most of the people most of the time will have to do for now. My own fault for having so many scripts released at once (and not so many of them being "finished"). So, choose the best ArmA key actions I can and hope that people can edit their key settings within ArmA to change if they are completely incompatible (Yes, I know SPON key handlers don't update with changes in player config during a game, but that is something that I do need to sort out).