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De_little_Bubi

Working Rear-view mirror

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Yes real working Rear-view mirrors would be great.

I play arma with friends on private server with 3rd person view off.

Everytime i try to park a 5t truck, support trucks etc i hit something :/

Its very bad if you want to reload your helicopter and you crash it with your ammo truck while driving backwarts against it.

It would be also cool if you can move your head out of the window and look behind. maybe with trackIR ^^ but real working rear-view mirrors would do it.

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Well the scopes in ACE mod ( and maybe in vanila arma , didnt check) have reflections . Just copy paste the codes and voila , you get rear view mirrors

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Yes, this would improve vehicular usage extremely.

As I said in another thread, both you and the AI should be able to park a car with relative ease and adhere to traffic rules when in careless or safe mode.

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great smile_o.gif think this workaround will do it for arma by now (hope its working with 3rd person disabled, have to test)

as arma2 suggestion still: real working mirrors^^

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Yeah that works to , but the sucesfull implementation of that in the actuall rear view mirrors would be great / more realistic.

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Well if you have working mirrors, and given it's not true raytracing, it means it's some sort of rendered picture mapped on a polygon.

Which also means : working tv screens in vehicles...

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Well if you have working mirrors, and given it's not true raytracing, it means it's some sort of rendered picture mapped on a polygon.

Which also means : working tv screens in vehicles...

Raytracing? I think there is only some crude versions of raytracing in the game, probably for parralax mapping, etc only.

Working FLIR screens in helicopters would be awesome though. That had to be implemented in Operation Flashpoint imo.

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Well the scopes in ACE mod ( and maybe in vanila arma , didnt check) have reflections . Just copy paste the codes and voila , you get rear view mirrors

That's an environment map effect, it's not a true reflection.  It's an overlay texture that reacts to normal angle and object position.  It doesn't have anything to do with what's actually going on around the vehicle.  All reflections in ArmA are this way.

Mirrors and stuff like that are done in real time by setting up a camera that's constrained to the viewer's movements. The output of that camera is then rendered to the texture of some poligon. This also means you need to render the whole scene twice (or at least elements of it as some tiny mirror doesn't need the same detail as the 1st person view), which is costly to process. I think it would be pretty sweet, though.

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maybe it could be a graphics option (if you have a top-notch system) you could set 'mirror reflections' on and off ingame like you can change shadows and AA etc in ARMA1...

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Well the scopes in ACE mod ( and maybe in vanila arma , didnt check) have reflections . Just copy paste the codes and voila , you get rear view mirrors

There not real reflections of the world your in, just simple a rendered picture making it look like a reflection.

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hurray yay.gif

just found this:

Quote[/b] ]

Some of the new Features in ArmA 2 are as follows:

* Multicore support

* Bump texture mapping

* Parallax occlusion mapping

* New glass, metal shine and reflections

* Micro AI

* Built in-dynamic conversation system

* Dynamic shadows

* New normalized textures

* New shaders

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ArmA_2&oldid=267588665

(but dont know what source wikipedia used :/ )

but sounds good smile_o.gif

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New Reflections does not mean True Reflection. Just an upgraded reflection map system (Shader model 3)...

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New Reflections does not mean True Reflection. Just an upgraded reflection map system (Shader model 3)...

Exactly. True reflection is only possible with full realtime raytracing. Which is a feature introduced only recently with Shader Model 5.0 which is the new HLSL model from the all new (Windows 7) DirectX 11 API.

And the hardware which should make that possible isn't even out yet!

Now we can only hope that render-to-texture targets will be included in Armed Assault.

I believe that is actually an ancient DirectX 6 feature btw. rofl.gif

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My guess is that they don't use render to texture in their engine because most systems have problems rendering one scene, never-mind two.  Also, then you have to figure out how to handle new LODs in the new camera and figure out how to balance them with the LODs in the main scene in case the game starts to lag.  It's not like BIS aren't sophisticated enough to integrate it.  Pointing out that RTT is so old is like saying 'spoilers have been around since the 20s, why doesn't the new audi have one'.  It's not a relevant fact.

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It would be great also, to have ability to stick your head out of the driver window and look around. Especially useful, when your front window glass is damaged/covered by mud, dirt (yes I know, not the case tounge2.gif).

The mirrors may be a killer on performance, so ability to turn them off is a must, and thus having driver able to look around; either by looking outside the driver window, or twisting backwards to look thought back window in sedans, will reflect well.

PS When looking back by twisting inside a vehicle to check rear window in vehicles that don't have it, would simply add functionality to check the cargo. (count players in it, and their status etc.). Lean left-right keys would be proper.

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sidhellfire did you try the ALT key?  tounge2.gif

The question is how often people are looking in the rearview mirror during combat? Is it a "must have" feature or only a "nice to have"?

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With the freelook you can't actually see anything that is behind you. We're not an owls, so it must stay as it is, but ability to turn body in a seat is quite important.

In Mi-8 I would be able look out of the window and check terrain, in a HMMV I would be able to check if there is room left. And yes, being able to see what's behind me is essential. Do you think that mirrors are mounted on the military vehicles for being road-legal?

As a part of convoy I am unable to determine what actions should I perform without any knowledge what had happened behind.

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no problem, I would like to see it working too but there are many other things to improve and fix... its not one of the main reasons on my list to buy this game or not. wink_o.gif

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Quote[/b] ]With the freelook you can't actually see anything that is behind you. We're not an owls, so it must stay as it is, but ability to turn body in a seat is quite important.

There are mods out there that extends the freelook angle limitation. I agree that we are not owls, but turning body would be an overkill in a game. Extended freelook kind of simulates the idea of turning body.

I'd like the idea of working mirrors. If not possible, I could definately live with spooners camera method. The point is: I'm able to maintain situational awareness of my close surrounding environment. The game should allow me the same thing, even if the methods of doing so is not 100% accurate to real life.

Another example: This '2D window' that tank drivers is forced to using (as opposed to the M113 which have 3D interiour). In real life I could move my head in all six directions in order to change (only slightly) what is shown in that window. Lift my head so that more ground is shown in the window, and I have increased my awareness. Currently, the only solution now is 3rd person which I hate being "forced" to use. Even with 3D interiour (M113, UH60 etc), the only thing you can do is 'tilt' your head (2 and 8 on numpad, or freelook) for slightly changed viewpoint.

I keep wondering, how will 6dof TrackIR be in ArmA2, and how bad this will be for tank drivers if they only get drivers 'optics' and no proper interiour views.

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(Neat topic you have here.)

In the flight simulator "Lock On," there was an option to turn on mirrors full-time, and if they are on, what level of detail to use for the reflection. Even with the mirrors off by default, there was a key to "flash" them when necessary. Like people here say, it does eat up resouces to have mirrors on.

Maybe Armed Assault II could also have a button to turn on the mirror. Although to some people that would look unrealistic, to have the mirror materialize at the push of a key, then disappear. The other option is to reduce the LOD in the mirror reflection (how detailed does your helicopter have to be to avoid bumping into it?).

Also, a mirror isn't a simple camera view drawn on a texture. The image has to be switched left-right. Is that hard to do, does anyone know?

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Render to texture opens a lot more possibilities than mirrors :

- Working TV screens and monitors ingame : TV, UAV control, FLIR, MFDs, security cams... (all gameplay features).

- Reflective sea

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