SPON RearView

SPON RearView v0.3.0

Civilian cars have central mirror as well as side mirrors:

Military vehicles and trucks just have side mirrors:

Stryker and M1 Abrams now have extra camera views when turned in (The Stryker also has mirrors when turned out):

- Released 2008-09-20

- Install size: 32k (mission scripts) / 87k (addon version)

- (mission version) 100% scripts with no addon dependencies

- (addon version) Requires XEH (1.7 or higher), but this is included in the release.

- Requires ArmA 1.09 (or higher) and SPON Core (v0.5.1 or higher).

- See attached README.html for full details

Downloads

OFPEC

ArmAholic (mirror)

ePrison.de (mirror)

SPON RearView@YouTube (By SpetsNazCU)

Overview

Gives the driver/pilot of most vehicles working rear-view mirrors and/or remote cameras.

Requires that the SPON Core be installed in the mission (v0.5.1 or higher). Both SPON RearView and SPON Core are available in two versions: One is a client-side addon and the other is mission-script-based, which does not require any addons to be installed on client or server. Both require ArmA 1.09 or higher.

To remove the annoying crosshairs on the RearView, you can use TrueCrosshair-Veteran which is part of the TRUE mods. This will also disable name tags, but you could consider SPON Recognise to give you better tags anyway!

Features

  * Pressing <vehicle-turbo> with <turn-out>, <heli-rudder-left> or +<heli-rudder-right> (defaults to LEFT SHIFT + Z/X/C) will change view to looking back through the left, central or right-hand mirror. For the turned in driver of the M1 Abrams and Stryker, you get a remote camera view (left, rear or right) instead. This view will be held until <vehicle-turbo> is released.

   * Implemented for all vanilla ArmA and Queen's Gambit vehicles that have mirrors on the model (including the Mi17 helocopter). Stryker mirrors are available, but only when turned out (turned in, they get remote camera view instead). Also implemented for many vehicles that lack actual mirrors on the model (military and heavy vehicles just get left/right mirrors. Civilian vehicles get central mirror as well).

   * Automatically allows mirrors in all vehicles in mission at start, or that are created during the game (each vehicle is checked the first time that the player tries to look out the mirror).

   * Mirrors become disabled when a vehicle is badly damaged (at > 60% damage taken).

   * NOTE: For demonstration and testing purposes, the demo shows the exact mirror positions it has defined with green or red dots - this doesn't happen in the normal execution of the script!

Limitations

   * View is not actually mirror reversed, but rather the player sees from the position of the mirror looking backwards. Just pretend you are sticking your head out the window if this worries you!

   * Vehicles not present in vanilla ArmA or Queen's Gambit won't have mirrors defined (they don't inherit from standard vehicles) or may have mirrors in the wrong positions (they inherit from standard vehicles and change the model significantly).

   * Cannot use vehicle turbo or the helicopter rudders while in mirror view.

   * While using the mirror, you will hear what you would hear if you were in the position of the mirror itself, not what you would hear inside the vehicle.

   * While using mirrors, you have access to standard movement controls, but not to actions or non-movement keys.

   * Motorbike mirrors are set a bit back and always face directly backwards. This is because it isn't possible to work out the rotation of the front wheel of the bike relative to its body, and therefore the actual positions of the mirrors.

Known Issues

   * While looking in the mirror, vehicle turbo will still be engaged if moving forward (unless you use slow-forward, which defaults to Q) [Reported by USM-CPT.Dyson]

Plans

- Definite

   * Allow for "strict" mode, which disables mirrors on vehicles whose models don't show an actual mirror.

   * Allow third-party (non-BIS) vehicles to record mirror positions in config.

- Possible

   * Give gunners/passengers ability to look backwards

   * Add "look down" or "look out" view for helicopters.

Credits

   * Loki the Test-monkey!

   * Testing and feedback by members of the Regiment of Grenadier Guards [RGG] squad (http://www.rggsquad.co.uk). Thanks fellas!

   * Thanks to those who helped me out on the OFPEC forums or gave feedback on the BIS forums.

   * Thanks to Solus for allowing me to include the XEH addon in the release (and, of course, for making the great addon in the first place!

Change Log

v0.3.0

- Added

   * External cameras for turned in M1 Abrams and Stryker drivers (left, right and rear).

   * Addition of third mirror position (central) for several civilian vehicles.

- Fixed

   * View continually switches if left/right mirror keys are held down (Sorry, introduced in v0.2.1).

   * Rearview doesn't have night vision, even if the player is using it (to get NV in mirror requires ArmALib. However, in this case, you get lots of HDR effects whenever you change view, unless you use something like Shole's S_NVG to get a controlled aperture size).

(See readme.html for full details of changes before current version).

<a href="http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard311/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=70;t=74601" target="_blank">

</a>

just got done testing it out. works great!

this one is staying in my addons.

Good and useful stuff Spooner

One question. Is it possible to have the normal 1st person view

combined with like a view into the center mirror of a car?

I guess its either camera or player entity eh?

The bus uses left mirror and centre mirror (which replaces the right mirror), since there isn't a right mirror on the bus model and it is nice looking down the aisle. No plans to add centre mirror for other vehicles, since the two side ones cover it really (already struggling to find enough keys that are likely to be unused ;P ).

It is either switchCamera or nothing, since you are normally looking out of a player proxy, not the player entity (try switching to player camera when in a vehicle and you'll see something odd!.

Using a "real" camera view works even worse, since you have no control while using it, so you couldn't drive at the same time.

Thanks for the insight again Spooner!

v0.2.1 released!

- Added

   * Gamelogic, "SPON RearView (Require)" added to allow you to force SPON_RearView.pbo to be loaded before playing the mission.

- Fixed

   * You need Queen's Gambit addon to try out the demo mission (there were no QG vehicles in the demo, but I'd added them temporarily in order to set their mirrors correctly).

   * Mirror view can mess up in cutscenes or with other remote camera usage.

SpetsNazCU has made me a truely awesome video; I never knew mirrors were so exciting! Thanks!

SPON RearView@YouTube

Mirror by ePrison.de

SPON RearView v0.2.1 by Spooner

Regards,

Stavanger

Thanks for that! Feel free to mirror anything else of mine (And that goes for anyone else wanting to mirror it, as long as you include a link to BIS and/or OFPEC release threads).

EDIT: By the way, to remove the crosshairs on the RearView, you can use TrueCrosshair-Veteran which is part of the TRUE mods. This will also disable name tags, but you could consider SPON Recognise to give you better tags anyway!

v0.3.0 released!

- Added

   * External cameras for turned in M1 Abrams and Stryker drivers (left, right and rear).

   * Addition of third mirror position (central) for several civilian vehicles.

- Fixed

   * View continually switches if left/right mirror keys are held down (Sorry, introduced in v0.2.1).

   * Rearview doesn't have night vision, even if the player is using it (to get NV in mirror requires ArmALib. However, in this case, you get lots of HDR effects whenever you change view, unless you use something like Shole's S_NVG to get a controlled aperture size).

EDIT: forgot to mention that you now look left with shift+Z, centre with shift+X, right with shift+C (assuming default key layout).

great feedback tomorrow evening after testing

Armaholic mirror updated:

- SPON RearView v0.3.0

Mirror updated by ePrison.de

SPON RearView v0.3.0 by Spooner

Regards,

Stavanger