A proper kneeboard

[Stellaris]

Y'know, having the kneeboard pop up and float in front of your face is kinda distracting.  How about putting it down where the pilots knees are (or would be, if we had pilot modeled).  That way you can just glance down and see whatever you need on your kneeboard.

Same thing with the text/radio buffer.  And come to think of it, the damage list and the red R for Record.  I'd really like it if these things didn't interrupt the immersivity by floating in your outside view.

The kneeboard at least should be straightforward, just give it a different home position in the aircraft.  Those who like it up in front of them could still even pull it up.

Paul

[The Fugitive]

It is not really a kneeboard, it is instead an interface to be used in the game to control many options not available on a kneeboard. So I guess it's oa kneeboard in name only.

[Stellaris]

You are correct, it isn't really a kneeboard, it's an interface brilliantly disguised as a kneeboard.  And its disguise would be ever so much more clever if you could look down and see it exactly where you expect to find a kneeboard - ie, on your knee.

[caldera]

Only bring up the clipboard while you are looking down.

BOING! Another wish granted. 

[Stellaris]

A good suggestion, but not really a solution.  The issue is that the clipboard is fixed to the view, as opposed to the plane.  This ruins the immersion, as you've got this disembodied clipboard floating in your field of view - even if you're only looking down when you call it up.  It's not that the current clipboard is a bad paradigm - in fact back when everyone had to choose their views on the keyboard I think it probably worked better than forcing a look-down (and another keychord) to see it.  However I fly with TrackIR now, and it takes away from the tremendous immersion gain that TrackIR enables.  When I fly (in the real sky), I have everything on my own kneeboard, set up for easy access, and I can just glance down as necessary.  It's the glance down that I'm looking for here, which is enabled by having the kneeboard fixed to the knee-ish position.  The button-push - float around in front of you -button-push model is much less intuitive, and it gets even more immersion disrupting when you have to mouseclick for something and the clipboard is fixed against a moving field of view.

Obviously a simulation can't fully simulate reality and our long-suffering host and developer must choose carefully where to put the programming talent's efforts.  However this is a very simple fix, with a large amount of immersion gained in return - just move (or make optional) the home-co-ordinates for the clipboard.  Ideally the text buffer and radio controls should be on another kneeboard - but I recognize that this is not something Hitech or the coders could do as easily.

One small step for the coders, one giant leap for immersion.

Paul

[bongboy1]

-1

[Karnak]

Due to resolution limits of PCs it wouldn't be readable when on your knee.

[Stellaris]

It'd be readable on my screen which is 2560x1600 - but simply having a checkbox to select the home position as either on your knee or stashed beside your seat (or wherever) without otherwise changing the interface behaviour would still allow those running on laptops/CRTs/etc to have it work the way it always has.  It's important to maintain backwards capability with older systems, but at the same time you don't want to be chained to 2005's technology.

[guncrasher]

if you have a button set to look down then you can also have a button set to bring up the clipboard and quickly put it away.  that's what most of use do.  if you think about it it's really the same thing.

good thing it's not like in AW when you had the map take the full screen.  I got shot down many times while looking at the map and not realizing somebody was shooting at me.


midway

[Stellaris]

Well, the whole point is I >don't< have a button set to look down.  The old system worked fine when I had to push buttons to steer my head, since the view was always fixed.  However now all my looking is done with TrackIR.  It's very fluid, intuitive and immersive - as long as I don't have the clipboard pulled up.

Not sure why everyone is throwing up obstacles here - This is one of those rare improvements that comes without a tradeoff.  Simply provide a checkbox option in the view menu to set the home position of the kneeboard to either be on the knee or wherever it is in the plane right now.  For those who want to bring it up and fly with it in their field of view, they can continue to do so.  For those with TrackIR, there is now a more immersive and intuitive option.  Were I coding this I'd guesstimate an afternoon to put it together - mostly to make new option look pretty in the menu and set the new co-ords for the planes.  Obviously that depends on the details of the code itself, but let's credit HTC with good practice seeing as they've got some experience in the last fifteen years.  No cost to the current paradigm, no additional loads, and 4 hours of work?  I doubt you'll find many items on this wishlist that offer the same cost/reward ratio.

Paul

[Karnak]

Even at 2560x1600 it probably wouldn't be readable.  If it is, that would still be a feature that, I would bet, less than 1% of the players could use.  I would guess that 1080p is the most commonly used resolution now.

[guncrasher]

stellaris look down on your knee and imagine what size the clipboard would have to be for you to tell the details that you need.   your wish doesnt make any sense unless when yo look down you look at the current clipboard that we have.


midway

[Stellaris]

Good points both Karnak and Midway - No point in implementing something that won't work right from the word go, so I zoomed the clipboard all the way out, which makes it of about the size it would be in the knee position.  I then progressively reduced my display resolution all the way down to 1024x768 and evaluated the readability.  Long story short, the kneeboard text is legible at all resolutions, even to my aging eyes.  The map display is also fine - though I'll caveat this to say that I usually fly with it zoomed in to show just the closest 4 sectors.  If you have the whole map, it gets a bit cluttered.  I also have to say, it feels quite natural and intuitive to be looking down for the map exactly where I'd normally have my map.

A couple of points did come up in this admittedly simple test, both mouse-related.  One is that the current kneeboard always displays "flat" on the screen, and this is a good thing for mouse clickability.  It might awkward for clicking at the 130-or-so angle that it would be in the knee position (or maybe not, but we're all used to the flat surface paradigm for mouse movement).  The second is that at this size it takes more precise clicking, which some might find finicky.  Both these and any residual readability concerns can be addressed by simply letting players choose plane-relative or view-relative display for the clipboard, with the ability to set the plane-relative co-ordinates as they like.  This also takes away a lot of the work in having to set the knee-position for each plane - so it's a win-win.

@Karnak - you also have a good point concerning how much this would be used.  However as the game becomes richer, it's inevitable that more and more features will be used by fewer and fewer players.  How many pilots use the GUI options to alter the preferred radar colors for friendly and enemy?  Yet there the options are, taking up clipboard real estate.  How often does anyone actually see anyone's custom nose-art?  Yet the custom nose-art code exists, and it's cool to have it.  I can't say how many people would use plane-relative kneeboard option (though I think a lot of more advanced pilots will find it useful)  However I can say for sure it's a more meaningful and useful option than allowing enemy radar blips show as purple rather than red.

And again, it's available for a very small coding effort, which makes the cost/reward ratio very attractive.  Just not having to listen to me go on about it would be worth the effort all on it's own!

Cheers!

Paul

[Tinkles]

Good points both Karnak and Midway - No point in implementing something that won't work right from the word go, so I zoomed the clipboard all the way out, which makes it of about the size it would be in the knee position.  I then progressively reduced my display resolution all the way down to 1024x768 and evaluated the readability.  Long story short, the kneeboard text is legible at all resolutions, even to my aging eyes.  The map display is also fine - though I'll caveat this to say that I usually fly with it zoomed in to show just the closest 4 sectors.  If you have the whole map, it gets a bit cluttered.  I also have to say, it feels quite natural and intuitive to be looking down for the map exactly where I'd normally have my map.

A couple of points did come up in this admittedly simple test, both mouse-related.  One is that the current kneeboard always displays "flat" on the screen, and this is a good thing for mouse clickability.  It might awkward for clicking at the 130-or-so angle that it would be in the knee position (or maybe not, but we're all used to the flat surface paradigm for mouse movement).  The second is that at this size it takes more precise clicking, which some might find finicky.  Both these and any residual readability concerns can be addressed by simply letting players choose plane-relative or view-relative display for the clipboard, with the ability to set the plane-relative co-ordinates as they like.  This also takes away a lot of the work in having to set the knee-position for each plane - so it's a win-win.

@Karnak - you also have a good point concerning how much this would be used.  However as the game becomes richer, it's inevitable that more and more features will be used by fewer and fewer players.  How many pilots use the GUI options to alter the preferred radar colors for friendly and enemy?  Yet there the options are, taking up clipboard real estate.  How often does anyone actually see anyone's custom nose-art?  Yet the custom nose-art code exists, and it's cool to have it.  I can't say how many people would use plane-relative kneeboard option (though I think a lot of more advanced pilots will find it useful)  However I can say for sure it's a more meaningful and useful option than allowing enemy radar blips show as purple rather than red.

And again, it's available for a very small coding effort, which makes the cost/reward ratio very attractive.  Just not having to listen to me go on about it would be worth the effort all on it's own!

Cheers!

Paul

I would very much enjoy having this, I have to constantly bring up my clipboard is quite annoying and repetitive. I think having a kneeboard would be very beneficial for those whom use it. Those whom don't, there is always the option to turn ON or OFF. 

+1   


 

[Stalwart]

The clip board is a clever interface metaphor that took me a while to learned to use it effectively.  I found it distracting when I first switched from Warbirds 2.7r3 over to AH.  Having the clip board visible on your knee when looking down would be a neat trick, but I don't imagine it would add to its usability at all.