[Shivan Hunter]

I'm designing a 1080p HUD with large gauges so I have one that looks good without having to be scaled up, and there are a few things that don't seem to be possible. I know many of these things are unimplemented features that I need to request, but some may be undocumented features or I just missed them because I'm dumb. I'm going to open a mantis report soon but maybe there's something that is possible that I've missed.

the entire WIP HUD, for reference

The most outstanding problem: (the others are just annoyances, this is a significant usability issue for large radars. I didn't realize how much I relied on this gauge until I couldn't use it properly)








Many screenshots overlayed to show the effect:


Another way to put this problem is that the wingman gauge moves its origin when >2 wings are present, and I can't find a way to change that:


So, how many of these are fixable with the current hud_gauges.tbl? Should I just submit a mantis report?

[niffiwan]

Your new HUD looks pretty sweet! 

With the radar, what size image are you using? Could you also post the image, and the relevant table snippet?

Lastly, have you played with the "scale gauge" option (I suspect it won't help, but should confirm anyway).

[Shivan Hunter]

Thanks!

I have played with scale gauge - it does nothing, since the HUD is 1080p and I'm using 1080p. (a way to scale specific gauges independently of this setting would be cool though)

The relevant gauge stuff is 2 images and an eff, easier to just upload the entire WIP hud since it's tiny: https://app.box.com/s/oump76vfhddx4pi7i9524auiqaruflsi

[edit] the image is 500x300, and the table snippet is

Code: [Select]

Position: (710, 760)
Infinity Distance Offsets: (500, 300)
Long Distance Offsets: (500, 300)
Short Distance Offsets: (500, 300)
(the radar range position is WIP, I just edited them to see if it would make a difference)

[Yarn]

I can try to implement the features that you want. A few of them, though, are already possible:

• You should be able to widen the directive text by using "Max Line Width:".
• Shield gauges (or any gauge, for that matter) can be enlarged or shrunk by placing them in a different HUD configuration. (Yes, FSO will happily use multiple configurations simultaneously if it sees them.) Make sure you do not disable gauge scaling, or this may not work! (I'll still look into adding a more direct and intuitive way to scale gauges, though.)
• Regarding the wingman gauge, you're asking for it to display the wings in reverse order (with Alpha on the right), correct? Or are you just asking for the header to stay put?
• I know you didn't bring this up, but you can set the size of the size of the head animation by using "Animation Size:".

[Shivan Hunter]

Thanks! Max line width works for both directives and the escort list. Those weren't there back when I was first doing this HUD, guess I should have gone back and looked.

Wingman gauge: Just asking for the header to stay put (ideally, there should be an option for the header to stay put, and also for the gauge's origin on the screen to stay put - for it to widen to the right instead of the left. But that second one's not what I want here, I just need the header to stay put when it widens to the left).

I know about the head, that's a 3.7.3 feature and I'm running on 3.7.2 since that's what my shortcut points to and I'm too lazy to change it until I need to

[EDIT] Hmmmmmmmm. I fiddled with the shield icon using your advice, and it looks better.  It's pixelated, which of course is necessary because I'm scaling it, but it got me thinking... I could redo all the shield graphics

[EDIT2] I tried to fiddle with the target brackets gauge, but there's no field for text height, so the text next to the target runs into itself:

this is generated by a commandline thingy IIRC, so idk what should be done about it.

[EDIT3] About 2_lock1.ani and 2_lockspin.ani... first off they're named the wrong way around, lockspin is the circle thingy after lock is acquired and I'm assuming this is just because , but also, lockspin seems to have unused frames. It has an animation in which the segments of the circle move together, but I've locked on to quite a few targets in my time, and I've never seen these frames used, the last one just appears and starts blinking. Has it been this way ever since retail?

[Yarn]

Wingman gauge: Just asking for the header to stay put (ideally, there should be an option for the header to stay put, and also for the gauge's origin on the screen to stay put - for it to widen to the right instead of the left. But that second one's not what I want here, I just need the header to stay put when it widens to the left).

Just so you know, you can have the wingman gauge expand to the right by using "Expansion Mode: Right".

[EDIT2] I tried to fiddle with the target brackets gauge, but there's no field for text height, so the text next to the target runs into itself:

this is generated by a commandline thingy IIRC, so idk what should be done about it.

Looks like the target brackets aren't accounting for the actual font height. I'll get that fixed.

[EDIT3] About 2_lock1.ani and 2_lockspin.ani... first off they're named the wrong way around, lockspin is the circle thingy after lock is acquired and I'm assuming this is just because , but also, lockspin seems to have unused frames. It has an animation in which the segments of the circle move together, but I've locked on to quite a few targets in my time, and I've never seen these frames used, the last one just appears and starts blinking. Has it been this way ever since retail?

It's definitely an SCP bug. Retail uses all the frames every time as expected, but FS2 Open only does so once, after which it only uses the last frame. The problem is most likely due to a counter not being reset whenever a lock is acquired.

[Shivan Hunter]

Wingman gauge: Just asking for the header to stay put (ideally, there should be an option for the header to stay put, and also for the gauge's origin on the screen to stay put - for it to widen to the right instead of the left. But that second one's not what I want here, I just need the header to stay put when it widens to the left).

Just so you know, you can have the wingman gauge expand to the right by using "Expansion Mode: Right".

Ahhh. I saw that on the wiki, but its "valid values" entry said "Right", so I included the quotes in the tbl and it didn't work. I've changed the wiki entry.

Thanks for all the help!

[Yarn]

The target info fix will be in the next nightly build; no table edits are required to utilize it. I couldn't figure out how to fix the lock animation, though, so I posted an issue on GitHub here: https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/issues/456

[Yarn]

I figured this out just now: For the speed gauge, you can "Orbit Center Offsets:" and "Orbit Radius:" to set the position of the player's speed.

[Talon 1024]

About the radar... How about adding some new properties to the radar gauge in hud_gauges.tbl to define the position and size of the radar circle?

Circle Center Position - (Float, Float): Defines the relative X and Y coordinate of the center of the radar circle, from the top-left of the gauge.
Circle Size - (Integer, Integer): Defines the width and height of the radar circle.

EDIT: I just read through a bit of the code, and adjusted my suggestions accordingly.

[Shivan Hunter]

Yarn: w00t!

[Yarn]

The new features are ready for you to try out. Here's a Windows build that you can use:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/89353583/FreeSpace/Patches/more_hud_table_options_build.zip

Here are the new parameters:

• Wingman Status
  
  • Fixed Header Position: If set to true, then the header text stays in its normal position, even if more than two wings are displayed. Should be placed after "Header Offsets:".
• Extra Target Data
  
  • Dock Max Width: Sets the maximum width of the docking status. Should be placed after "Dock Offsets:".
  • Order Max Width: Sets the maximum width of the current order. Should be placed after "Order Offsets:".
  • And no, there's no "Time Max Width:" because that line is never cut off.
• Radar
  
  • Radar Center Offsets: Sets the position of the center of the radar. Unlike many other parameters, this one takes floating-point values. Should be placed after "Filename:".
  • Radar Size: Sets the size of the radar. Should be placed after "Radar Center Offsets:".

[Shivan Hunter]

Um. Did you mean to give me FRED builds?

Also a question since I can't test yet: Is the "Radar Center Offsets" still in pixels, or in that weird 0.0-1.0 portion of the screen?

[Yarn]

Oops! Yeah, I meant to give you game builds. Download the zip file again to get them.

And yes, "Radar Center Offsets:" is in pixels. It takes floating-point numbers because that's how this particular field is stored internally.

[Shivan Hunter]

Awesome, this works swimmingly! Thanks!