Cursor / Gunsight

[AWwrgwy]

I'm going to flat out say there are things alot "gamier" in the game you could worry about Anax. Such as the constant use of late-war British and Russian point-interceptors for *everything*...

I'm also going say that if you can't make the shot without raising your head in most planes, you probably can't make it with raising your head.

I use a little red cross for a mouse cursor. Even in Fw-190s, where you can only raise your head position 2 millimeters or so, not so much to see over the nose but because the way the lighting is modeled on the reflector glass gives me the %@%$@%Y%@%$ just trying to SEE the other plane sometimes. I don't consider being able to see the other guy's fluffluff'ng wingline and whether he's inverted or not "cheating".

The tinted gunsight gives me fits in a lot of planes when I'm tracking a bandit over the water or over trees.

Both are true.  The reflector glass should be "invisible" shouldn't it?  It's as bad as the canopy framing for me sometimes.

And, realistically, the gunsight is just a reference point for where you are going to fire.  Unless you are on someone's dead six and both flying straight you are not firing through the sight.  It is a point to judge lead.  It's no K-14.



wrongway

[Banshee7]

The gunsight I use.  All the other junk just gets in the way. 

[Eustace]

Look at it from Anax's point of view. Its only "gamey" if it shoots him down.

Lately he's been on an IL-2 vendetta. Boy, a lot of drama for your cartoon tank getting whacked out a few times.

Eustace how do you use this cursor exactly? Thank you. Can you use it in the game in an IL-2 in leiu Of your regular cursor? Also could I get a white one?

Thanks again.

If you use this cursor, it replaces the triangular default cursor you normally see, so keep in mind when you're using the cursor as a cursor, the cross-hairs will be moving with it.  That's why it needs the arrow in the upper left hand corner.  The arrow is the "roll-over" hot spot.  If if wasn't there, the hot spot wouldn't be marked, which makes it difficult to know where to position the cursor in order to click on something.

If you replace the default cursor with this one, it would be available in any plane you fly of course, but it sound's like what you want is a custom gunsight, which can also be made.  If you can tell me what you want in a gunsight or better yet make a drawing of it and send the picture to me, I can make it.

Why would you use a cursor/gunsight?  Well, the default view from many GV guns is somewhat obstructed.  If you press page-up you can raise the view above the obstructions, but by doing this you also raise your view above the original gunsight and lose your aiming point.  To get around this, you start with the default view and then put the cursor/gunsight crosshairs over the original gunsight and press "H" to lock it in place.  Now when you page up, the cursor moves up and you have an aiming point.  You can also do this and then switch to guns that have no gunsights, such as GV hull guns or the 37mm gun in front of the PT boats.  And, as some have suggested, you can use this in planes where vision over the nose is obstructed.

So far, I've only been able to use the colors in the palette of the original cursor, which are black, white, shades of gray and red.  But I see Ghost has one that uses green, so I guess I can use the palette too.  Also I've tried different sizes, even up to 128X128, although having a sight that big attached to your cursor is a bit distracting.  I originally used white, but it doesn't show up as well as red when the lines are only 1 pixel wide.  I'll try 2 pixels lines in white and post it here later.

[Eustace]

Eustace how do you use this cursor exactly? Thank you. Can you use it in the game in an IL-2 in leiu Of your regular cursor? Also could I get a white one?

Ok here it is in white with a smaller arrow "hot spot".  To use it, first move or rename the default cursor (cursor.bmp) in the HTC/Aces High directory.  Then rename this one cursor.bmp and place it in the HTC/Aces High directory.

It is important to either save the original cursor.bmp into a backup file or rename it.

[Rich46yo]

Oustanding. Thank you sir.

[Steve]

I have been playing this game for years and have no idea what you guys are talking about.

[Tec]

I have been playing this game for years and have no idea what you guys are talking about.

Steve you nub.  It's the same way you set your head view for every other direction in the plane and save it with F10.  On some rides in the forward view you can actually page up over the sight.  Some guys put their mouse cursor on the piper or place a dot with a sharpie then set it as high as it goes.

[BnZs]

I have been playing this game for years and have no idea what you guys are talking about.

Yeah you do. I've seen some of your deflection shots in a Pony. 

[Rich46yo]

I tried the white one and its a real winner. Your targets and background are often dark and the white crosshairs are far easier to pick up. I installed the white one last night and then right away killed a Tiger in one pass, coming down at a very steep angle.

A good way to break in new sights.

[Ghosth]

Eustace, I use Irfanview to open, mess with gunsight's and cursors.
It lets me edit palette colors and a few other cool things.
Its freeware btw. Google it or www.irfanview.com

It always opened and saved virtually any graphics file known to man. (including saveing as windows icon files)
But never used to be able to do creation like Paint does.
But a recent upgrade added a paint toolbox and a few other cool things.

Easy to learn and use for the average person. And of course the price is right. 

[EskimoJoe]

The gunsight I use.  All the other junk just gets in the way. 

I have the same one in my LALAs, my NIKI, and my SPIXTEEN, except above it there is a little arrow pointing to the dot and words that say "shoot here" in case I forget.

[Banshee7]

I have the same one in my LALAs, my NIKI, and my SPIXTEEN, except above it there is a little arrow pointing to the dot and words that say "shoot here" in case I forget.

I made my sight...i have the same sight you're speaking of, too

[Steve]

Steve you nub.  It's the same way you set your head view for every other direction in the plane and save it with F10.  On some rides in the forward view you can actually page up over the sight.  Some guys put their mouse cursor on the piper or place a dot with a sharpie then set it as high as it goes.

Oh hmmm. I do move my head up so only the bottom half of the default sight is visible but I don't mess with mouse pointers or sharpies.  I really had no idea.

[Eustace]

Eustace, I use Irfanview to open, mess with gunsight's and cursors.
It lets me edit palette colors and a few other cool things.
Its freeware btw. Google it or www.irfanview.com

It always opened and saved virtually any graphics file known to man. (including saveing as windows icon files)
But never used to be able to do creation like Paint does.
But a recent upgrade added a paint toolbox and a few other cool things.

Easy to learn and use for the average person. And of course the price is right. 

I'm using Paint Shop Pro.  I think I figured out the cursor palettes.  The first color in the palette is the "invisible" color, right?  Then the order of the colors after that doesn't matter as long as they are from the 256 color palette.  I edited the palette by changing the color used for the gunsight and was able to make red, green and yellow ones that worked.

Thanks for your help.

[Eustace]

I broke all the links when I updated the page on which I had the cursors.  I am unable to edit my posts at this time due to my Zinc status (I think...) so I am posting the new page link here.  I made some new cursors and included directions on how to use them.  There is also a link to some screen-shots of the cursors in the game.