G15 GPS Navigation...sickest idea ever :D

[[frl]myke 14]

OMG, i think i had the best idea ever for a decent use of the G15 Keyboarddisplay:

A GPS Navitool!

Since Chernarus seems to be pretty big and also includes a few km of road network, a GPS Navigation tool for the G15 Display would be soo cool. Programmable through a ingame Menu and voice output in russian. :D

Oh please please BIS, give us a way at hand to make this possible.

[sidhellfire 0]

Just buy a normal keyboard next time...

[[frl]myke 14]

Uhm...yep...thanks.....and please don't forget to take notice of my avatar.

[maddogx 13]

Oh please please BIS, give us a way at hand to make this possible.

Would require an API in Arma2 that allowed external apps to read stuff like player coordinates. Might be a nice idea, though I'm not sure how long they'd need to implement it.

Oh and don't mind sid. He slips out of his cage whenever the doctors aren't looking. We still don't know how...

[sidhellfire 0]

You have never noticed when a sarcasm kicked your ass.

[telejunky 0]

I do not use the G15 but i think it would be cool to display your actual coordinates like Arma does with Eg57 and so on... :)

[[frl]myke 14]

@MadDogX

I know it is most unlikely that BIS would implement such an API. Just liked the idea.

@sidhellfire

please use one of those smileys next time. As i'm not english native it is sometimes hard to understand sarcasm in a for me foreign language. Smileys do help me to prevent misunderstandings. So i apologize for my rude answer in my previous post.

[celery 8]

Allowing an external program to read in-game values in A2 would open a big can of loopholes for cheating. What can prevent someone from coding a compass that shows the direction to the nearest enemy?

[S!fkaIaC 10]

I would rather prefer a fully free customizable keybindings plus a resizeable window to display the actual valid keybindings for the current role.

[sidhellfire 0]

@Myke, that's the difference between sarcasm and irony.

[[frl]myke 14]

@Celery

I'm not a programmer so please forgive me if this sounds noobish for you:

i think it depends on what data are given out via the API. Let's keep up with the general idea of a GPS navigation tool as you know them from cars. Basically routing calculations are done ingame, voice output ("turn left in 200 meters") would also kept ingame. Only info that has to be exported could be "Show big icon turn left" and a distance value "200m".

Of course your point is valid but i guess this can be controlled by selecting and blocking onfos that are given out from the game itself.

As said, it's just a sick idea and i really doubt to see it in ArmA 2 at any time. I just really liked the idea and would have heard other peoples opinion about.

[sk3pt 0]

It's a good suggestion... but according to the sidhellfire equation :

G15+

G51=

-----

666 :icon_rolleyes:

[sparks50 0]

There are boat simulators that allows marine GPS units to be connected to the computer, and using the simulation mode on the GPS, you can feed it with speed and location info from the simulator.

Very handy for learning, but I dont see the same usage for it in Arma.

[[frl]myke 14]

@sparks50

i have to admit, this isn't a ultimate must-have feature of any sort, more likely something like "kinda cool gadget" and definately should be allowed or disabled by missionmaker.

If it can be of any, mostly minor, use definately depends on mission. I think to design it as an inventory item that can be picked up should be ok for the use.

Again, i don't even nearly think that it is something gamebreaking but to have it could be a nice little detail which others games don't have.

So when people asking "why should it be there" the only answer i could give is "why not?". As mentoined, as long it can't be abused for cheating of course.

[SnR 1]

Hit these guys up http://www.g15forums.com/forum/index.php

Im sure someone there will have answers

[hoak 0]

I think it's a neet cross-promotion idea that both BI and Logitech would stand to gain from... I don't know about ArmA II, but looking at the G15 SDK I think you could make this work with VBS2 -- though getting polished looking output would be a trick.

;)

[frederf 0]

I would love for such an API to be able to interface with TeamSpeak more than the G15 keyboard screen ^.^

It would be amazing to pick up a Radio item in ArmA only to have TeamSpeak pop you into the "radio" channel. Such amazing things could come from that.

[sidhellfire 0]

Mumble (TS alternative, also free) has even function, to get position data from game, and use stereo to visualise the direction of voice comming.

[sic-disaster 311]

GPS in general only points towards a certain direction, much like the waypoint markers already do.

So to be honest, it would be more of a gimmick to add this to the keyboards, although a cool one.

As a hike instructor i find GPS systems to be fairly useful for pointing you toward the general direction you need to go.

However, there are 2 downfalls to the system.

A: You can't see the terrain it sends you to, you just get a general direction. For all you know, it could send you off a cliff. That means you could walk into the wrong direction if you are not using a map because you might need to walk around something to get to the place you want to go.

B: a GPS requires 3 satellites to function. If a GPS only gets connection to 2 satellites, it cannot properly find your target location and could be offset by tens to hundreds of metres. Again, this could mean it sends you off a cliff while you should be somewhere on it.

B is not something that would translate in the game that well, because satellite reception would be totally random. Reception would be worst in wooded valleys and best on high mountaintops.

A means that you still need to use a map if you want to know the best route, and thus GPS isnt all that necessary.

Besides, as i said before, waypoint markers already serve pretty much the same purpose.

[[frl]myke 14]

@SiC-Disaster

Your points are absolutely valid and it would be definately not much more than a gimmick, no doubt about it.

Although you slightly misunderstood me (or i was describing it faulty) so i didn't thought of it as a Handheld GPS System which points just the direction the target area is. More like a car navigation system which lets you set a destination, calculates the shortest way along the road network and then led you through chernarus, showing direction fleshs on the G15 display and distance until next crossroad.

I also think that it should only be accessibly in cars, maybe even only in civil cars.

It's true, for combat/war situations it's pretty useles but we all know that ArmA2 allows all kind of missions and it would be just one more toy to use.

It's sick, it's senseless to some point but nonetheless...damn, it would just be cool. :D

[Rebel@heart 10]

that would be so nice!

[echo1 0]

Never got the appeal of the G15. By all accounts, the actual keyboard itself is meant to be pretty mediocre, and being the sort of person who doesnt look at my keyboard while using it, I would really wonder how much I'd ever use the screen. For the money they cost (particularily that of the G19) I'd rather have a cheap second monitor and my trusty side-kick.

[d3rd3vil 10]

Does G19 work in ArmA2? Would be great but I definitely don't think so ^^

[sparks50 0]

I have the G11(basically same as G15 minus the LCD screen) and I must say its the best keyboard Ive ever had. I would not call it mediocre.

[76 0]

I have the G11(basically same as G15 minus the LCD screen) and I must say its the best keyboard Ive ever had. I would not call it mediocre.

Agreed, I have a G15 and it is the best KB I have used.

The straight line key lay out (no wavy crap, the resistance of the keys is perfect, quite keystroke but loud enough to know you've hit it, the LCD screen is great for TS and only a few other things but it IS handy.

Hit these guys up http://www.g15forums.com/forum/index.php

Im sure someone there will have answers

Ask/requested in the 'request forum' but got nothing, and I haven't found one either. :)