[The_White_Crane]

Ideally I'd like to change the default HUD to use the lead sight a la Ace Combat, rather than the lead indicator; I just like that setup more.
But I cannot seem to find any way to hide the default lead indicator. I've tried replacing it (and it took me ages to figure out that it would only take a .ani, since as far as I can see that isn't actually documented anywhere, certainly not on the wiki page for the hud_gauges.tbl) and I can make it display my own indicator, but it still displays the default one as well!
And unfortunately, the hud toggle option for the lead indicator also toggles the lead sight, which seems like something which probably should be changed.
Does anyone know anything that might help me with this?

(What I think would be really nice to have, if I could manage it, is the lead sight for primaries, and the lead indicator for secondaries...)

[Shivan Hunter]

Been a while since I've messed with hud gauges... I also see the odd behavior where it won't disable the default indicator. Try this - I replaced the default one with a blank image, and enabled both a custom lead indicator (with a blank frame 2, for primaries) and a lead sight (with a blank frame 1, for secondaries). So all of them are being rendered but most of them are invisible

[0rph3u5]

Modifying HUD Gauges is a bit tricky because the table format is such a way that you cannot override the default entires via -hdg.tbm without overriding the whole thing with a .tbl of your own. Trying to modify a default gauge is likely to just add a duplicate of the same gauge.

Are you running a mod without third party dependencies?

[The_White_Crane]

Been a while since I've messed with hud gauges... I also see the odd behavior where it won't disable the default indicator. Try this - I replaced the default one with a blank image, and enabled both a custom lead indicator (with a blank frame 2, for primaries) and a lead sight (with a blank frame 1, for secondaries). So all of them are being rendered but most of them are invisible

No dice, I'm afraid. The default lead indicator still shows.

Modifying HUD Gauges is a bit tricky because the table format is such a way that you cannot override the default entires via -hdg.tbm without overriding the whole thing with a .tbl of your own. Trying to modify a default gauge is likely to just add a duplicate of the same gauge.

Are you running a mod without third party dependencies?

I'm not quite sure how to answer your question. I've created my own hud_gauges.tbl flagged with $Load Retail Configuration: Yes so that it inherits the base game HUD, and then in that .tbl I've defined my own Lead Sight and Lead Indicator gauges. But for some reason, the custom Lead Indicator does not override the default. I'm running my mod on top of the MediaVPs by using the "-mod" command line parameter; I've tried with both the FS2 upgrade project and the FSPort MediaVPs, but the same problem occurs with both.


If I could get a copy of the base game hud_gauges.tbl I would try just overriding the whole thing and leaving most of the settings identical except the lead sight and indicator, but as far as I can see you can't actually find hud_gauges in any of the .vp files, and the documentation suggests it's implemented in the game code...

[Shivan Hunter]

No dice, I'm afraid. The default lead indicator still shows.

I'm unsure how. I've tried putting my files in FS2/data and running (through Knossos, but that shouldn't be necessary) both the MediaVPs and plain FS2, and also putting those files in my own mod folder which depends on the MediaVPs, and it all works. It also works if I put those files in FS2/data, put a FSO exe and dlls into the FS2 folder, and run it directly without Knossos. So I have no idea how it's not working on your end

(The secondary lead indicator in my mod looks just like the default one, so you might not notice right away - it's only once you see the primary lead sight that anything looks different. Also, are you sure you didn't do something like "data/data/hud"? Just checking. I've done that a few times lol)

Unfortunately I'm not sure if a default-like hud_gauges.tbl exists - I thought I had one at some point, but it's been quite a while. Maybe someone else has one.

The MediaVPs mv_root.vp does have a -hdg.tbm that may be messing with your configuration. What happens if you run only your mod without the MediaVPs?

[The_White_Crane]

Well, it turns out I found a workaround, kind of. Ish.

I just need to make sure that my custom lead indicator .ani uses the same file name as the original. Then it will overwrite it. But I also needed to create a blank .ani to replace the "2" version, or for any non-blank frames it would display both.

So what I have now (for FSPort at least) is my new lead indicator as lead1_fs1.ani and a .ani file with three blank frames as 2_lead1_fs1.ani. And that works! I've got a lead sight for primary weapons, and a lead indicator for secondaries, which is exactly what I wanted to achieve!

I imagine that for the FS2 upgrade I'll need to change the filenames to match the lead indicators in that HUD, but that's no trouble.

Thank you both for your help. <3

[Shivan Hunter]

Ahhh, you were using the FSPort! That's why mine didn't work lol. (Mine worked the same as yours, by replacing the default "2_lead1" with blank frames, but "2_lead1" isn't used by the Port)

It's not a problem that your custom gauge is called "lead1_fs1" but it doesn't have to be - that ani is normally for a smaller, 640x480 HUD that's basically never used anymore. So you could ignore it or replace it with blank frames as well, and call your custom gauge something else entirely.

Anyway, glad you got it working!

[0rph3u5]

I was fishing for the information if you are using the MediaVPs or any TCs. While I trust you know what you are doing, knowing which kinds of mods you are also running can help troubleshoot any conflicts your mod has with other stuff. The MediaVPs in particular have a lot of components to keept track off when you are developing, like mv_root-hdg.tbm, which governs, among other things, high resolution support for the HUD.

When you are using FSPort there is also a need to keep track of its components, which I see you now do.

[SL1]

I'm trying to reconstruct my FS2 Open setup on a different computer, and getting the lead sight to work is a major part of that, because I got so used to it with my old setup that playing the game without it just feels wrong. Anyway, I'm having a hard time with it. A few years ago, Axem helped me out by posting a VP that enables the lead sight, so I've been trying to use that, and it makes the sight appear, but the problem is getting rid of the default lead indicator and center reticle. I seem to recall that the way I did it last time was to edit the table so that the lead indicator and center reticle were replaced by a transparent pixel. It seems to work for FS2, but not FSPort. When I try to do it with FSPort, the game crashes when I try to start a mission. I'm not sure what to do here. As far as I know, I'm doing something that used to work. Maybe FS2 Open handles things differently than before? I don't know.

What I'm trying to accomplish is to have a lead sight for both primaries and secondaries, and to make the default gunsight and lead indicator completely invisible. I'd really appreciate some help.

Edit: Well, it looks like I've found a solution. For whatever reason, FSPort just can't tolerate trying to replace the center reticle, but it doesn't mind moving it off the screen, so I changed its offset to -1900 and now it's gone. Replacing it works fine in FS2, though. I wonder why.