Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Zigrat on April 20, 2001, 12:21:00 PM

Title: icon idea
Post by: Zigrat on April 20, 2001, 12:21:00 PM
how about if instead of a range finder, we have opacity adjustment

when con first comes visual, the opacity of its icon starts increasing slowly up until full brightness at say, d300. This would (a) make total icon size smaller (b) still give IFF, but wouold make IFF harder at long range ( IE because the icon would be nearly transparent it would take you a second to identify it at 6000 yards, you would have to "focus" on it like IRL) while at close range it would be easy.

I think this'd be much more like human depth perception than having auto rangefinders.
Title: icon idea
Post by: BigJoe on April 20, 2001, 12:36:00 PM
Maybe icons could appear at maximum range or maximum effective range of the weapons you carry?
Title: icon idea
Post by: mason22 on April 20, 2001, 12:38:00 PM
hmmmm, i likey.  seems like it may cause more stress on the fr or 3d engine because of the multiple transparent effects.

i would like to see what it would do though, sounds cool.
Title: icon idea
Post by: Zigrat on April 20, 2001, 12:47:00 PM
bogjoe so the f4u gets icons further out than the 109? thats rediculous

my suggestion is better imo  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)

Title: icon idea
Post by: mx22 on April 20, 2001, 01:19:00 PM
I think having no icons or transperant icons is impossible in MA where your enemies may fly the same plane as your friendlies. In RL you can look at a shape of the plane and pretty much guess what it was, but in MA realizing that plane below you is, lets say P-51,  does not lead you to any conclusions.
My dream is that one day graphics will be good enough to look like real thing and I'll have a big monitor. Then you can turn off the icons and I still will know what I'm fighting. Until then, lets keep the icons, at least in MA.

mx22
Title: icon idea
Post by: Sancho on April 20, 2001, 01:40:00 PM
Seen this idea before... I like it.  Doubt it will be implemented if it causes a big framerate hit though.
Title: icon idea
Post by: Karnak on April 20, 2001, 01:46:00 PM
In WWII pilots could also "interogate" a distant aircraft with IFF.  It was primitive, and had a bad failure rate, but it usally told you if it was friendly or not.

------------------
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For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother

Bring the Spitfire F.MkXIVc to Aces High!!!

Sisu
-Karnak
Title: icon idea
Post by: Zigrat on April 20, 2001, 02:11:00 PM
agreed, if tehres a large framerate hit then its notgood, but i dont think the FR hit would be too large
Title: icon idea
Post by: Zigrat on April 20, 2001, 02:14:00 PM
plus it makes for much smother transitions

right now at d6.1 theres no icon

at 6.0 icon

this idea would make it "fade in"
Title: icon idea
Post by: AKSeaWulfe on April 20, 2001, 02:21:00 PM
Since Animal and Dejavu have completely missed this thread:

This thread belongs in the Gameplay feedback forum and not in the General Discussion forum. The General Discussion forum is for discussing things that already exist in the game and not on how to improve them.

Thank you, come again.
-SW
Title: icon idea
Post by: skernsk on April 20, 2001, 02:29:00 PM
I like it the way it is now.
Title: icon idea
Post by: mx22 on April 20, 2001, 02:48:00 PM
Now that AKSeaWulfe told us his opinion on all this, we can countinue as before (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/wink.gif)

mx22

 
Quote
Originally posted by AKSeaWulfe:
Since Animal and Dejavu have completely missed this thread:

This thread belongs in the Gameplay feedback forum and not in the General Discussion forum. The General Discussion forum is for discussing things that already exist in the game and not on how to improve them.

Thank you, come again.
-SW

Title: icon idea
Post by: BigJoe on April 20, 2001, 04:22:00 PM
lol   oh... ok    (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
Title: icon idea
Post by: Gunslayer on April 20, 2001, 04:31:00 PM
As always, the anal retentive SW has told us where to post. Now as soon as he starts paying for my Aces High account, I will listen too him.

As far as a frame hit, there would really be none. What zigrat is talking about would be a transparent texture, and a very small one at that. For axample, the smoke that comes out of planes when you shoot then, are made up of hundreds of textures. What zig is talking about would be just one texture per plane, so even if you had 20 planes on the screen it would still be just 20 textures as oppsed to the hundreds that spew from a plane every time you shoot it. I think its a great idea.
Title: icon idea
Post by: Citabria on April 20, 2001, 04:48:00 PM
I love it!

zigrats fade in icon idea rules!
Title: icon idea
Post by: AKSeaWulfe on April 20, 2001, 04:52:00 PM
 
Quote
Originally posted by Gunslayer:
As always, the anal retentive SW has told us where to post. Now as soon as he starts paying for my Aces High account, I will listen too him.

First time I've told anyone where to post. Oh but wait you missed the joke completely. I will explain it to you.... no wait I won't. You still wouldn't get it.
-SW


Title: icon idea
Post by: Furious on April 20, 2001, 05:22:00 PM
Zigrat,

This is the best icon solution I have seen.  I like it alot.

One would have to keep an eye on a con much longer in order to positively ID it, This is a nice compromise since "no icons" in the MA is not practical for many reasons.

It'll make bounces more realistic, because you could sneak in closer before the neon alarm goes off.

If a fade effect is not possible due to FR hits, perhaps increasing and decreasing the icon size would work.

F.
Title: icon idea
Post by: Tac on April 20, 2001, 05:58:00 PM
Well, if there is no way for others to live without icons (I mean, sheesh, you played SWOTL, Aces of the Pacific and many other sims without them), then at least get rid of the laser range finders.

Alpha blending the icons may be good, but also keep in mind that there are color blind/hue blind players which may be severely handicapped by this.

Best idea ive seen so far is to remove the laser rangefinder numbers and replace the distance indicator with symbols indicating a set amount of yards.

Ex:

Old:

B-26
d6.0

New:
B-26
++++ (+'s in yellow color, each yellow + = 1.5k distance)

Old:
B-26
d900

New:
B-26
++++ (+'s in red, + = d250)

Distance shown in red +'s are rounded up to the nearest 100, so 4 +' in red would be 1k (yet the plane really is at d900). By putting each YELLOW + be d1.5 instead of d2.0, the player will not get an exact ranging (as with red +'s, yellow +'s are rounded up to the nearest 500yd, so if con is at d3.2, icon would show symbol equivalent to d3.5), but will have a very good idea if the con is moving away or moving closer.

Comments?  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
Title: icon idea
Post by: Zigrat on April 21, 2001, 02:55:00 AM
yes i dont like the ++++ idea, again thats more symbols being where they shouldnt

i like my idea, combined with a ability to adjust colors from just green red to green burple yellow blue or whatever like in warbirds, plus the transparency idea


i really dont believe in no icons for MA, but i like my idea as a good compromise.
Title: icon idea
Post by: LLv34_Camouflage on April 21, 2001, 06:10:00 AM
Very good idea Zig. Definately worth looking into.

Camo

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Camouflage
XO, Lentolaivue 34
 www.muodos.fi/LLv34 (http://www.muodos.fi/LLv34)

Brewster into AH!

"The really good pilots use their superior judgement to keep them out of situations
where they might be required to demonstrate their superior skill."
Title: icon idea
Post by: Fokker on April 21, 2001, 09:04:00 AM
I can see this work well for us with hi res and 32-bit color.

How would it work for lads with 800x600 and 16-bit color?

To work it need to be fair for all pilots.
Title: icon idea
Post by: Tac on April 21, 2001, 10:49:00 AM
I hate icons ziggy  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)

Alpha blending the icons would still handicap hue blind/color blind pilots a lot more, even with an icon color RGB bar. I like the idea a lot, but i know i would only see that icon 1/3rd of the time when compared with a non-hue/color blind pilot.  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/frown.gif)
Title: icon idea
Post by: Gunslayer on April 21, 2001, 12:36:00 PM
Sorry, SW i guessed i mistook you for another AK. You guys all look alike  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)