Observation Balloons linked to Static Cameras
Posted: Sun 30 Nov 2014 6:52 am
In a discussion at SEOW HQ last night Badger came up with the idea of generating static cameras located at each stationary observation balloon in SEOW campaigns. Apart from a DB structural change, the coding required to support this idea would be pretty light.
The following objects are in IL2/HSFX7
ObservBalloon_30m
ObservBalloon_60m
ObservBalloon_90m
Each Static Camera object can have its location, height and nationality (neutral, red and blue) set by parameters in the mission file, so in principle SEOW can manage these parameters easily.
How could we play with such a feature?
Hosting Settings
The Views page in the host Difficulty Settings menu contains some settings that must be enabled:
No External Views OFF
No Player's View ON (Player can see his/her own plane in external view before takeoff)
No Enemy Views ON
No Friendly Views OFF
No Aircraft Views ON
No Carrier Views ON
These settings should allow players to see cameras corresponding to their own Observation Balloons, but nothing else. This is the kind of restriction that we like at HQ - others may want to use different settings.
One problem is that there is presently no way of labelling each camera to let the player know where the camera is as the player cycles through all available cameras. It would be great if there was a "camera labelling mod" that showed a simple text label on-screen for each camera. SEOW could write the appropriate labels to the mission file, so players would know where they were and what observation balloon unit they were "manning".
Camera Zoom Configuration
In each player's game conf.ini file there is a section with settings for camera view panning/zooming. Each player controls these settings - the server admin cannot influence these through hosting settings. Here is the relevant section from conf.ini:
The MaxLen parameter determines how far you can move away from the camera location in-game. The value above is 3000 m = 3 km. This is not a bad distance for even a 30 m Observation Balloon, remembering that after moving the MaxLen distance you can still zoom your view to see further. Of course, some deluded players may even increase their MaxLen parameter to gain a hidden advantage on other players, but in some respects this can be controlled by choosing your opponents carefully!
So, in summary, the idea is plausible and able to be incorporated in SEOW without too much work. It is not secure in that it may be gamed by some people, but in trustworthy hands it could really add interest to ground action and reconnaissance.
Cheers,
4S
The following objects are in IL2/HSFX7
ObservBalloon_30m
ObservBalloon_60m
ObservBalloon_90m
Each Static Camera object can have its location, height and nationality (neutral, red and blue) set by parameters in the mission file, so in principle SEOW can manage these parameters easily.
How could we play with such a feature?
Hosting Settings
The Views page in the host Difficulty Settings menu contains some settings that must be enabled:
No External Views OFF
No Player's View ON (Player can see his/her own plane in external view before takeoff)
No Enemy Views ON
No Friendly Views OFF
No Aircraft Views ON
No Carrier Views ON
These settings should allow players to see cameras corresponding to their own Observation Balloons, but nothing else. This is the kind of restriction that we like at HQ - others may want to use different settings.
One problem is that there is presently no way of labelling each camera to let the player know where the camera is as the player cycles through all available cameras. It would be great if there was a "camera labelling mod" that showed a simple text label on-screen for each camera. SEOW could write the appropriate labels to the mission file, so players would know where they were and what observation balloon unit they were "manning".
Camera Zoom Configuration
In each player's game conf.ini file there is a section with settings for camera view panning/zooming. Each player controls these settings - the server admin cannot influence these through hosting settings. Here is the relevant section from conf.ini:
Code: Select all
[HookView Config]
AzimutSpeed=0.1
TangageSpeed=0.1
LenSpeed=1.0
MinLen=1.0
DefaultLen=20.0
MaxLen=3000.0
Speed=6
LeanF=0.39
LeanS=0.39
Raise=0.2
RubberBand=0.5
So, in summary, the idea is plausible and able to be incorporated in SEOW without too much work. It is not secure in that it may be gamed by some people, but in trustworthy hands it could really add interest to ground action and reconnaissance.
Cheers,
4S
