Hard Light Productions Forums

General FreeSpace => FreeSpace & FreeSpace Open Support => Topic started by: Doresh on February 07, 2011, 10:25:57 am

Title: Confusing Distance Formatting
Post by: Doresh on February 07, 2011, 10:25:57 am
Greetings, fellow FreeSpace fans  :D !

I'm a long-time FS2 Open player (great work, guys!) who recently installed the whole package for his new PC (Windows 7 64 bit).

While playing, I quickly noticed that there's something off about how the distance to a target is formatted: The HUD won't show a 0 on the single digit position. So instead of "1050", it's displayed as "105".
First I thought this might be because I played in Widescreen, but "normal" resolutions suffer from the same mistake. So, any tips on how to put the 0 back where it belongs?

I currently play with the latest versions of FS2 Open and MediaVPs. The only features I use are for nicer graphics, 3D Models on the ship and weapon select screen. "Enable info next to target" is the only HUD feature I've checked.
Title: Re: Confusing Distance Formatting
Post by: General Battuta on February 07, 2011, 10:27:07 am
Whoa. Really? That's bizarre. Can anyone (who is not stuck at work) confirm?
Title: Re: Confusing Distance Formatting
Post by: Zacam on February 07, 2011, 10:50:30 am

I cleared up to 6 digits in HUD, Targeting and Target Info before I got bored and jumped out.

Trailing zero's on all accounts (including "Distance: 0")  displayed just fine.
Title: Re: Confusing Distance Formatting
Post by: Doresh on February 07, 2011, 05:18:24 pm
Ooops, now I checked more closely, and it's not the 0 that's disappearing, but 1! And it's not like it's just so slim that I overlook it. The digit really disappeared.

I also realized that my HUD puts a "0" in front of distances if those distance would be a single digit otherwise ("09" instead of "9").
Title: Re: Confusing Distance Formatting
Post by: Doresh on February 08, 2011, 08:34:11 am
Okay, found the problem: I have the German version of FS2, but I changed the language in the registry to play it in English. This somehow messes up the distance indicator.

So, are there any German FSO players out there who have the same problem?

P.S.: What's the deal with this double-verification (each with his own crappy font)? I'm already registered! What more do you want, forum  :ick: ?!
Title: Re: Confusing Distance Formatting
Post by: Jeff Vader on February 08, 2011, 08:52:24 am
P.S.: What's the deal with this double-verification (each with his own crappy font)? I'm already registered! What more do you want, forum  :ick: ?!
We had issues with spambots registering and posting crap not long ago. If I've understood things correctly, the first three posts of a user require that verification ****. After that it is gone.
Title: Re: Confusing Distance Formatting
Post by: Lucika on February 08, 2011, 03:23:45 pm
Someone really should add a notification that this is only for 3 posts.
Title: Re: Confusing Distance Formatting
Post by: Goober5000 on February 09, 2011, 02:11:37 pm
It's only for two posts IIRC.  Just checked, it's three.

And really, many forums require post verification -- sometimes on a lot more than two or three posts.  This isn't something unique to our site.

P.S. Where would you have us put the notification?  In the sign-up agreement?  How many people read those?
Title: Re: Confusing Distance Formatting
Post by: Lucika on February 09, 2011, 02:29:09 pm
I'd probably put it where the "The topic wasn't touched by anyone since 30 days" text is, stating that "captcha is only required for the first three posts" or sg... as others have stated as well, we really should avoid turning anyone down.
Title: Re: Confusing Distance Formatting
Post by: Fury on February 09, 2011, 11:47:33 pm
And really, many forums require post verification -- sometimes on a lot more than two or three posts.  This isn't something unique to our site.
I would be in favor of removing any post-registration verifications, they're way too annoying. Especially if someone already frustrated seeks for help with some FS problem. We can try different things with registration verifications to reduce amount of bots getting through, but nothing, not even post-registration verifications help if there is a human being doing the dirty work.
Title: Re: Confusing Distance Formatting
Post by: Goober5000 on February 10, 2011, 10:03:29 am
Suppose we drop it down to only one post.  Because I can see a possibility where a human would register a nickname, then turn it over to a bot.
Title: Re: Confusing Distance Formatting
Post by: Doresh on February 10, 2011, 04:08:52 pm
And really, many forums require post verification -- sometimes on a lot more than two or three posts.  This isn't something unique to our site.

Well, never been in one of those forums.

post-verification is not the bad part. It's how you are forced to verificate TWICE per post, and figuring out the correct words can be a guessing game more often than not.