Just downloaded it and tried for a few minutes...seems to work great! I'm going to love this in game!

Hi,



cool

Just to give everyone an idea of what I was talking to Domino about (and sorry for folks that I did it as a PM rather than direct post, but wasn't sure how the idea would've been received or if he would do different/multiple layouts), when I initially saw this thread and watched the vid it took me back to when I used to play the Earth 2150 series of games (and anyone who's played them probably knows exactly what I'm talking about).

Earth 2150 series allowed a split view, only it kept your "main" view as being the larger/dominant screen and put the extra cams as smaller views on the side. If you double clicked within one of these smaller views, it would actually switch places with the main view, so the cam you had in the main view is now in one of the smaller ones and the smaller cam became the main.

@Domino,

A hot key would work perfectly fine. I kind of like that double click idea you have.

Hi,



cool beans...

so, just to clarify, what do you want to happen when the hot key is pressed..

1. the main cam jumps to the split cams position
2. the views are switched..

both are 100% possible although #2 needs a little more work..

im happy to do either.. although i think i would like the cams to switch, if this choice is more liked ill also try and add in that if a unit is being tracked in a smaller split it will still track this unit in the main viewer..

i think having the camera switch places would be the best option.

Agreed

oh i also forgot to mention, but i would like to request that an alternate main screen split with the smaller views on the left side please , i know some people may like the views on the right, i would prefer them on the left that way everyone can be happy

Hi,

Ok, the hotkey will swap out the views and ill do my upmost best to keep a tracked unit.. shouldnt be to hard.. already thought of a way to do it..

ill also add the left side splits for you LT and at some point ill do a minimod that changes the ui layout to the one you described in an earlier post.

cool beans

i just cleaned up and changed the worldview code.. that was just a quick mock up in the beta to get it working.. done it properly now. now onto tracking and the switch views..

man, this thing is just soo awesome. im surprised no one ever thought or tried to come up with this idea before now, like when the community was really active. i wonder if gpg ever planned to include this in the stock game, if no why the hell not? XD

anyway keep up the great work domino.

Hi,

Glad you like it

i think some of the problem why no one changed this before is because when you look at the layout files in ui/game/layouts .. they look awfully complicated.. when infact they are not that difficult once you understand the concepts and ofcourse the same as unit modding you have to learn all the umm "commands" there is also a little math involved.. (just for placement of "objects") on the screen.. i mean im no expert.. far from it lol... but i have learned from doing this mod actually how easy it is to get something on the screen exactly where i want it.. ive experimented a little..

i think most people head straight for construction.lua which then leads them to its layout file.. which at first glance looks like a total mess and garbage however.. the actual tecnique used in these files is very.. ummm methodical and quite an eye opener not to say very well made.. they put a SH!T load of thought into the layouts and how we as modders can use n abuse the whole ui.. there is a bit of a learning curve a first... but after a short while its easy to add basic things in the exact position you want them.. as with all supcom to do a certain thing you have to find an example within a layout file.. but they have near enough all the things you could possibly need.. to do anything with the ui.. you just gotta find it

the ui is like a family tree... it starts at the top with one box then you have branches off that box.. the top box is the parent (mapGroup) everything else is a branch off this.. and so on and so forth.. i think they may have given us to much with the ui.. that it turned into an unreadable mess.. however.. look deeper and you see what a nice job they did.. i am trying desperately to learn as much as possible in the shortest space of time.. i still know nothing.. but structure.. its a good starting point.. in understanding how everything is linked together.

maybe they left it out because of the strain on the gfx card.. i lose around 10fps per split ... speaking of which.. what fps do you get with how many splits?

with a eight splits i got around 9-12 fps, and this is with basically only the commander on the screen, i bet that if i were to attempt an eight split in the middle of a heated match my fps would probably bomb and crawl. some tests with the main view 4 way split i was getting around 15 fps towards the end of the match. wasn't a super heated match with units all over the place.

if gpg did consider this feature then the main reason they probably didn't go through with it is probably the impact it has on performance. either way this is cool

With today's faster graphics cards, the FPS won't suffer near as much. I'm running a Sapphire 6870, and I don't see much frame drop. Of course, I haven't tried this yet in a game with hundreds of units...probably will this weekend.

Hi,

Thx for the info guys

i see frame rate loss of around 10-12fps per split.. on 8 way split my fps is around 20 :/
i think its time to upgrade my gfx card... i have a nvidia gtx 260 .. maybe supcom doesnt like my card everything else i throw at it does.. :/


ps completed... tracking units now...

just gonna start the code to switch cams.. should be easy enough

Hi,

update time,

Just finished work on the hotkey cam switch function, it works awesomely..
just going to try adding tacking the same unit if the focus cam is tracking a unit :/ ..
i think this "should" be possible..

im also going to try adding some kind of alert per split if the split is tracking a unit..
currently im just using the normal tracking gfx that appear under the main menu on screen 1.. (options menu) however it looks cluttered when tracking 3+ units..

so imma try adding something small to each split.. fingers crossed i can do this... i think i can.. i can add stuff to the main screen area np, just not sure how to add them to different map groups.. ill figure it out.. it should be that hard right..

also going to add the left side 4 splits playout for LT

just a quick note... im not able to save layouts .. your going to have to set them manually on each new game.. this is because the main view CANNOT change until the camera has zoomed into the commander and input unlocked on initial warp in.

for tracking a unit there isnt multiple keys its just one key.. you move the mouse to the split you want to track a unit on and press "T" .. to stop tracking that unit on that split get the mouse on that split and press "T" again..

to splits view to the main viewer gett he mouse over the split and press ctrl + t and the main viewer will snap to that exact position of the split cams...

infact when snapping to the split cam views.. we can add something cool.. rather than snap.. i can move the cam up (zoom out) and then zoom in to the position of the split... that might look cool.. i can make it happen fast.. like 2 seconds... or 3.. or 1.. i think that would be cool.. you decide.. snap or zoom..

any requests from anyone ... something you want adding to this mod..

As usual Domino - outstanding work. My usual twice-a-week gang will be dropping thier jaws on the floor when they see this.

As for the FPS hit - hey - if you've got the hardware - go nuts. If not - it's just a simple matter to tailor the layout to one that doesn't tax things very much at all. I know for most all of the folks I play with, it won't be an issue.

Features ? I mean really ? Did you miss anything ? I can't think of anything, but as I use it more and more, if anything becomes apparent, I'll speak up.

cool beans, glad you like it pal it certainly adds more to FA for me atleast i feel like i have lots more control on what is happening on the battlefield..

indeed if you have a shiznit pc, you will defo beneifit from this mod..

Hi,

i just thought of something i can prolly add.. id like this...

on "another" hotkey i can add in support something like this..


when the hot key is pressed it starts like a mode... cam placement mod..
now you move the camera to a different position and press another hotkey
which saves this camera position... you move to another position, press the hotkey
and this cam position is saved.. and so on and so forth.. when you have finished placing position you press the initial hotkey again to end the mode.. what then happens is that the split cam.. will jump to the first set position level out (pan) and then rotate... when rotate is finished.. it will jump to the next position and do the same.. and so on and so forth.. it will keep cycling all cam position and rotating until they initial hotkey is pressed again.. or.. you change the cam manually by zooming or clicking.. this would BE A AUTO CAM and could be quite good.. you can get it to check multiple advantage points... and act accordingly.. with your army of oz..

what do you guys think of that idea?

Hi,

Update,

with regards to showing a ui graphic in each split then the split is tracking a unit..
ive been able to 100% figure this out.. the code to drive this ui is near enough complete.. turned out to be very easy

what this means is that each split will indicate if its in tracking mode. much like the normal unit tracking does.. or if its in view cycle mode.

with regards to the previous post about my cam cycling idea.. this is 100% possible.. seeing as no one posted whether or not they like that idea.. imma add it anyway. cause i like it ive already started the code to add it..

also added the left side 4 way split..

Domino;

Used it in a 6 player game this evening, everyone has dual monitors, and it was widely praised as a 'must have' mod.

The ability to 'track' units will be very welcome, and the only other request was the ability to lock camera rotations. Other than that, you've knocked this one right out of the park.

Again, congratulations and many thanks.

Hi,



AWESOME!

Thx

Used the mod over the weekend with my group of friends, and everyone loved it! Great work, no one had anything but positive comments!

oh hey, quick question have you updated the beta at all? or is still the initial release? just curious since you didn't really change anything in the first post and i feel as thought im missing something here

Hi,



Cool beans!




no mate i havent changed the op nor have i released another version yet..
im still working on it.. solved many things.. however im still working on showing the
ui tracking gfx and text in each split.. i had got to about 90% complete.. but then realised id done it wrong.. so had to restart that part..

Hi,

This post is just regarding performance, in a previous post i said iw ould test it on
windows 7 to see what performance is like on that.. i thought there wouldnt be much differance from win XP, however i was wrong, i notice a large increase in performance on windows 7 .. infact id go as far as to say there is 100% increase in performance.

with win Xp on 8 splits.. 4X4 on each screen.. my fps were around 15fps,
on Win 7 im getting 30fps with 8 splits..

on a single 4 way split i get around 45-50fps on Win 7,

so defo win 7 is better for supcom... on my system...

Hey Domino, can you shoot me a copy of the latest and greatest ?

Resin