The A2A Simulations Community

I've just bought a Samsung 24" monitor and running BoB2 at 1920x1200 is just amazing. However, Stickman's compass, EPI and fuel gauge are appearing oval in shape now. I seem to recall seeing something mentioned in the past about this but not sure where.

Is it down to me to alter something in a file or do I need to install a different version of the mod?

Cheers.

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Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz clocked to 3.00GHz, Thermaltake Armor case with 650W PSU, 4GB 1066MHz DDR2, 500GB SATA2 HDD, ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR5, Realtek 5.1 Audio, Vista Home Premium 64 & XP 32 dual boot, Samsung 24" 1920x1200 monitor

Fleetboy,

There is no different version of the mod.

One of the BDG guys has a wide screen monitor, and he tried unsuccessfully to get the Compass and EPI truly circular.
I think he could get the fuel gauge goodly round, tho.
It may be that the Compass/EPI will never look correct with wide screens. He gave up after trying many different height and width values.

In the 2dGauges folder each aircraft has a Configuration file.
Herein each gauge can be configured as to it's height and width.
I made my values for a 1280 x 1024 3D resolution.

To adjust these, open the aircraft's file, and near the top, look for the gauge you need to adjust
for GaugeWidth and GaugeHeight. Example, mine for 1280 x 1024:

//rotation compass - a dial with a rotating circle in the center indicating heading
{
Name = heading
ScreenPosition_X = 4
ScreenPosition_Y = 3
GaugeWidth = 90
GaugeHeight = 85
GaugeType = 1

//Enemy Position Indicator
{
Name = EnemyPositionIndicator
ScreenPosition_X = 9
ScreenPosition_Y = 11
GaugeWidth = 40
GaugeHeight = 40
GaugeType = 9

//Fuel
{
Name = fuelContents
ScreenPosition_X = 560
ScreenPosition_Y = 410
GaugeWidth = 70
GaugeHeight = 65
GaugeType = 1 //1=dial with rotating pointer

------

Try the fuel gauges first, and try to get them look as goodly round as you can.
If they are not almost perfectly round, they will not read true, thus worthless.
If you can get the fuel gauges OK with your wide screen, then you can try to get the Compass round.
Good luck, but you may find that it is impossible. If you do find values that work, please tell me. I need to know.
Scott made the 2D Gauges system before wide screens came out.
Maybe you best tell the Compass to never show. You can eliminate it, or other indicators not desired, with this line:

DrawWhen = 0 //drawWhen: 0=never, 1=all views, 2=virtual cockpit only, 4=outside views only

I do not have a wide screen monitor, other wise I would have found values for wide screen resolutions already, if they exist.
Indeed, my cheapo monitor can only achieve a BoBII resolution of 1280 x 1024 max!
Well... that's me, always a day late, and a dollar short!

_________________
"Toto! I don't think we are in Kansas anymore!" Dorothy, OZ
"sniff.. sniff.. Snort! ARF! GGRRRR! ARF! (Tod der stinkenden republikanischen Partei, diesem ignoranten religiösen Monstrum.)" Toto

I'm using an LG 1920 X 1200 screen and have managed to get all the gauges close to round.
The compass and EPI took a bit longer, had to keep adjusting their positions after adjusting diameters so they
overlapped correctly.
They are not 100% but close. Would this cause a problem with their accuracy?

Hi Mudcake,

What values did you use in the aircraft files to get the best results? May save me some time messing about trying different combinations.

Great monitor the LG, I was going to get that one but I found the Samsung on a special price of £178 +vat and delivery so couldn't resist it. BoB is now even more amazing!

Cheers

_________________
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz clocked to 3.00GHz, Thermaltake Armor case with 650W PSU, 4GB 1066MHz DDR2, 500GB SATA2 HDD, ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR5, Realtek 5.1 Audio, Vista Home Premium 64 & XP 32 dual boot, Samsung 24" 1920x1200 monitor

mudcake, that is good news.
Can I see a screen shot of them? Also please tell us the GaugeHieght and GaugeWidth values you found to work.

As for accuracy, the compass "north" line and rotating ring graduations should be lined up good. Other lines do not matter as much.
You may need to move the ring or the EPI a little.

The fuel gauges do not have to be perfectly round to give you a fairly decent indication of how much you have. The rounder it is, the better the accuracy.

_________________
"Toto! I don't think we are in Kansas anymore!" Dorothy, OZ
"sniff.. sniff.. Snort! ARF! GGRRRR! ARF! (Tod der stinkenden republikanischen Partei, diesem ignoranten religiösen Monstrum.)" Toto

These are the settings I used. Haven't spent much time tinkering with all the settings and gauges.
Also this is my first time adding a screenshot. Sorry if it doesn't work

rotation compass----
ScreenPosition_X = 8.1
ScreenPosition_Y = 7.9
GaugeWidth = 70.5
GaugeHeight = 84

EnemyPositionIndicator----
ScreenPosition_X = 3
ScreenPosition_Y = 1.9
GaugeWidth = 40
GaugeHeight = 36

TurnCombo---
ScreenPosition_X = 282
ScreenPosition_Y = 310
GaugeWidth = 66
GaugeHeight = 80

fuelContents---
ScreenPosition_X = 560
ScreenPosition_Y = 410
GaugeWidth = 55
GaugeHeight = 65

Ah! Very well done. I thank you for your time to straighten it out, and the values, mon ami!
Duly copied to my documents for when the next guy asks for it.
The compass may be off a degree or 2, but looks fair relatively workable to me.

I know damn well that it took you a lot of precious time to find these values.
You have earned a special texture change favor from me, if it is in my power.
You are now on my favorites list, mudcake.

Aloha!

_________________
"Toto! I don't think we are in Kansas anymore!" Dorothy, OZ
"sniff.. sniff.. Snort! ARF! GGRRRR! ARF! (Tod der stinkenden republikanischen Partei, diesem ignoranten religiösen Monstrum.)" Toto

Thank you Stickman, but it's nothing compared to the work you guys have done.
Yes the compass is a little off. Will try smaller decimal points to see if that helps.
I think I will put the turn indicator in a corner. As it is now it gets in the way of
targeting the enemy as I close.

Also, can I jump from the game without quiting it to edit files then go back into game?

Osram made such a function back in BoB1 days, for textures.
It only works in windowed mode, so I never used it.
I am an old blind man, barely can see, or lift fingers to pull out my ear plugs!

_________________
"Toto! I don't think we are in Kansas anymore!" Dorothy, OZ
"sniff.. sniff.. Snort! ARF! GGRRRR! ARF! (Tod der stinkenden republikanischen Partei, diesem ignoranten religiösen Monstrum.)" Toto

I tried with window mode set to ON, but gauges come out oval and not as they appear when in full screen.
Looks like I'll have to test the slow way. Thanks

Yes, in order to achieve windowing, the 3D is opened in a smaller resolution, so if something is resolution dependent like 2D circles in wide aspect ratio, they will appear different unless the window maintains the same aspect ratio. Unfortunately there is no user control on the size the program selects for the window. I would like to run with a 1024x768 window on a monitor at 1152 x 864 for editing work, but the program always selects 800x600 for the window.

Drakon Head Debris

I have been looking at BobII debris too long, disliked it, and wanted something else.
What I want is something that looks like small chunks of debris flying about,
but has more jagged edges, and some "personality" to it, especially when the chunks fly close by to you.

After trying several themes, I settled upon using dragon heads, as this seems appropriate, and looks OK to me.
Also, I like to have some fun!

--------------------------------------

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nzolginldn5

INSTALLATION:
This mod is assembled for use with JoneSoft Generic Mod Enabler.
Extract the zip to the MODS folder in BoBII.

--------------------------------------

These are the old debris textures, 1,2, and 3:


I replaced the old "stick" debris_1 texture with a dragon head that also has long curling jagged "mane".


I replaced the old "dot" debris_2 texture with a dragon head that has a triceratop's jagged "mane".


I replaced the old "safety pin" debris_3 texture with this dragon head, no mane.


Now, the debris will not look any bigger in game than before, but I have made the textures bigger, from 128x128, to 256x256.
Should not hurt performance, as these things do not generate very often, unless you are shooting, and hitting, real objects.

---------

Some pics:

Here I am doing Flak suppression before the Stukas bomb. Er.. a bit late, as this is the third destroyer I suppressed!
Shows all three debris types flying back near me:


A more typical look that you see in game, as I try to rake this dog with my draco claws:


Lots of debris can generated whence trying to clutch fish with draco talons!


Personality.
When I crash, I don't want sticks and stones, I want death to look like HELL!
The red out death:


The time between life and death,
is shorter than a man's breath.


---

Some more pics:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v41/v ... ck/Debris/

_________________
"Toto! I don't think we are in Kansas anymore!" Dorothy, OZ
"sniff.. sniff.. Snort! ARF! GGRRRR! ARF! (Tod der stinkenden republikanischen Partei, diesem ignoranten religiösen Monstrum.)" Toto

Hello Stickman I find when playing campaign my weather seems almost always fine, never ever raining. I did a search on weather and I read that you (I think) did a mod with accurate weather for the specific day of the campaign. Is that right and is it a mod that can be installed?

WB

_________________

BOB2 Aces mission package (24 missions)
and Alan Deere mission package (14 missions)
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=12021&start=15

Whirlybird,

The guy that made the weather effects, also researched the historical weather during the period that BoBII covers.
This weather conditions information can be found on the web fairly easy, because I found day by day accounts of weather conditions when I changed it.

Indeed, it was truly more rainy in July and parts of August, as I recall, than I/we have offered as stock.
Why did I edit out the RAIN phases and replace all of them with POOR?

Some of the BDG thought there was too much rain in the game (or should I call it a simulation?) to be enjoyable to play.
"Aha!" I said.
"So sometimes we should ignore the history, in favor of game play? I suggested that we have unpredictable, variable weather conditions, but you UK guys shot that idea down, in the interest of sacred history.
Now you want the historic Campaign weather conditions perverted to be fairer? " I thundered.
"Err, yes... well... in this case only. Sometimes we need to sacrifice History a bit, for Playability." was the reply.
"OK. I agree. Though, I still vote for unpredictable variable Campaign Weather."



So.. what I did, basically, is change 100% of the RAIN phases to POOR phases, and about 25% of the POOR phases to FAIR.
This was a mod of mine, that was accepted as stock issue. Few of my mods do. Totally historic, not!
Remember, the POOR weather still gives some of us poor frame rates. RAIN, might as well not fly at all.
Also, making the weather fairer is always to the advantage to the attacking Germans, so I secretly smiled.



No, it is stock issue from Early WoV BoBII days.

Anyone can easily modify this. It is in the Weather folder, as ye may expect.
Therein be a Campaign config file, which opens with NotePad.
Here is one day where I removed all RAIN, and replaced with POOR, and couple POORs with FAIR:


NOTE!
The descriptions of each days weather, I have never edited.
They are as Miro, the original maker of this file, made them, from his research.

Again, anyone can easily edit this Campaign file. I only spent one day "clearing the skies" perverting it!
In all cases, I tried to follow the time of day, and prevailing winds from the Atlantic, considering the given reports,
but what the hell do I know? Being an ignorant Hawai'ian wishes I could play a Merlin Campaign sim at Coral Sea or Midway!

_________________
"Toto! I don't think we are in Kansas anymore!" Dorothy, OZ
"sniff.. sniff.. Snort! ARF! GGRRRR! ARF! (Tod der stinkenden republikanischen Partei, diesem ignoranten religiösen Monstrum.)" Toto

The original BoB2 cd came with a fairly wet weather file (\weather\campaign.ini), but in the original issue, the weather values were given as Good/Fair/Cloudy/Poor. This sequence was changed in an early patch to Good/Fair/Poor/Inclement, so the original file no longer works. A replacement file was provided with the patch (maybe 2.02 or 2.03). As I recall it was also built by Stickman using fresh research (it was not a simple search and replace of the previous file, as I can attest having looked). Shortly afterward the reduced-rain file was included in a subsequent patch, overwriting the intermediate file.

Anyway, I have that file available here, so you can reconstitute the wet weather on the current game: http://www3.telus.net/v1ncent/bob/Campaign.zip
Just drop it in the \weather\ subfolder.

I believe that PappyCain also built a historic weather file, which may be different again. I can't find a link to it right now, but he may be along to offer it.