Changing the scope zoom levels..

[vanjast]

I've done a forum search .. with no results !

Does anybody know how to do this, I've changed every possible Cameras.dat file values wrt the scopes, and even set only one zoom value.... absolutely nothing works (even trying to change azimuth and elevation values is a dead loss). It seems to be hard coded... Does anybody else have this 'problem'?

I would like to change the FOV of the Obs scope to 60.
:)

[Nisgeis]

It's called 'AngularAngle' or something similar and it's under the zoom levels array.

[Sailor Steve]

132: Node -_Dummy_Cam_Obs_Periscope (open that one)

133: Node -_Dummy_Cam_Obs_Periscope (the numbers may be different, but that's the correct name)

Optical

In the Optical window open ZoomLevels. Click on one and change the value in the window at the bottom.

[vanjast]

Ja, I've done all that, but it makes no difference ?

Would have something to do with screen res - I'm running on a laptop a 1280x800?

[CapnScurvy]

Hi Vanjast,

The "Optical" parameter under the various object nodes of the Camera.dat file will change the magnification and/or zoom levels (either adding or subtracting the number of the zoom levels) of that particular object. The below image has my MaxOptics Camera.dat file opened to the Attack Periscope object with the "Optical" parameter opened further. With MaxOptics I added an additional Zoom level by Right clicking one of the zoom levels array and clicking the "Add Array" heading found in the menu box. The magnification was changed for each of the three zoom levels by the specific value found in each level. The "third" zoom level that's highlighted is 8x times the normal setting.

Unless you want to get into more trouble than you want, don't mess with the AngularAngle parameter found in the "CameraParams" node group, unless your wanting to change the optical view as the Optical Targeting Correction mod does. I see you're trying to have a 60 degree fov for the Observation scope. To get it, you will need to have a "backdrop" of sorts to measure the FoV that you have with the Observation periscope you use. The sea is a poor place to find permanent stationary points to measure. Try using the test mission found HERE (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=2860) that will give you a starting basis for measuring the Observation periscope you have now. It has a stationary sub, with stationary ships set in front of you to measure specific horizontal distances with the compass bearing. You will need to change the "AngularAngle" of the Obs_Periscope object parameter to have the Observation scope get the 60 degree fov that your looking for. I don't know from where your starting from so I can't help you in telling whether you need to increase or lower the AngularAngle value to achieve want you want. By knowing what the Fov is before you start tinkering around will help with the changes you make, and see if you're heading in the direction you want. To measure your starting FoV make sure the edge (either left or right) of the Observation scope is on a specific ship part that you will find again when you do the measurement. Once you have this spot picked out, read the degree of the compass (be very picky about the center line position, don't fudge a little about the accuracy). Now, move the compass center line onto the ships reference point you had picked out and subtract the difference in where the compass bearing is now, compared to where you started. Multiply by 2 and that's your total FoV for the scope overlay you're using. There are different scope overlays, different sizes (maybe you made one yourself), the total FoV can be different for each. The stock periscope overlay (the game calls them a "periscope_mask") uses the same one for both the German and American sides. The FoV for it is about 36 to 38 degrees, depending on what game resolution you use. It should read 32 degrees to have the stock game overlay match what was authentic (for the American side), and what is divided onto the scope lens as Telemeter division marks.



http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w132/crawlee/Magnification.jpg

[Sailor Steve]

Ja, I've done all that, but it makes no difference ?

Would have something to do with screen res - I'm running on a laptop a 1280x800?
Did you save it before you closed it?

I've made those changes more than once, and it has worked every time for me.

[vanjast]

I'll give you indication of what I've done..

Adding zoom levels:
I've made 5 Zoomlevels, and also make only 1 zoom level :- No change and I still get 2 zoom levels and the zoomlevel remains the same, even after setting it to 0.2 or 15

I set the Restricted Rotation parameters.. and nothing happens
I change the CameraParams and sweet f'all changes.. and I'm really p*ssed orf cause I feel that I'm going around in circles.. which I am :(

I've done the same to the Periscope and ObsScope... there must be a 'lock' of some sort in the code or other settings, which will enable me to change this lot..
SSteve - yes I save it every time and when I bring the file back into S3D.. my changes are there.

I'll carry on bashing my head against the wall :)

[CapnScurvy]

I know you will need to change the Optical "MaxZoom=10.0" value if you are trying to magnify greater than a 10x setting. For instance, in my image I have the third zoom level set to 8x, the stock MaxZoom=10.0 is good for this magnification since it is "higher" than what I'm using for my largest magnification. If you go to 12x power, move the MaxZoom= up to 15 or something larger than the magnification you choose.

I'm beginning to wonder if you don't have some other problem. A corrupt Silent 3ditor install, or a "mod soup" issue that has you using a bad Camera.dat file? You may need to scrap the Camera.dat file you're using and get a new one from the stock game. The stock creation date on this file is "10/29/2007 12:08PM", least that's what my original SH4 game patched to 1.5 states.

[vanjast]

I have been thinking about uninstalling all mods and trying again with the basics...
I'm also thinking of changing the cameras.dat filename to test whether S3D actually saves the changes, or store them in a temp file - Will do this later.

I have the retail (box) versions of SH4 and UBoat Missions - Don't know whether this makes a difference.

[Nisgeis]

How are you making the change - in S3D on the file in place, or are you using JSGME to install it each time. If you are doing it in place, then be careful you haven't made a backup copy in the game directory - as it will load that file too and possibly override any chages you want to make.

[Hylander_1314]

How are you making the change - in S3D on the file in place, or are you using JSGME to install it each time. If you are doing it in place, then be careful you haven't made a backup copy in the game directory - as it will load that file too and possibly override any chages you want to make.

Where would a backup copy be stored?

[Nisgeis]

Where would a backup copy be stored?

Anywhere you put it. When I first started modding, I wanted to change cameras.dat, so I made a backup and called it cameras.old or cameras2.dat or something like that and then changed cameras.dat. But, anything in /data/library gets loaded by the game if it's just there, so you get duplicates od the IDs of the things you changed and it stops your changes from working. None of the things I changed had any effect, I eventually cottoned on when I deleted the whole file and the game still had the camera settings and that's when I realised it loaded everything and not just a specific set of named files.

[Hylander_1314]

Ahhhhhhhhh! Okay. I see what you mean. So don't keep backups in the game's folder.

Yeah, i too caught onto that back in the old Red Baron 3D days. I forget what it was, but the same thing happenned. Had me perplexed for for a week. Then I finally got it.

So anymore, I make copies of the original files I mod, and then tuck them away incase I biff something up. And any changes made, are to a file that I have in the Modding File on the desktop, which I then copy and paste to the game folder.

I know it's a bunch of extra stuff, but it saves a lot of possible grief in the long run.

Thanks for the info though!

[Sailor Steve]

Adding zoom levels:
I've made 5 Zoomlevels, and also make only 1 zoom level :- No change and I still get 2 zoom levels and the zoomlevel remains the same, even after setting it to 0.2 or 15
Let me understand this - you're adding new stuff, and fiddling with it?

Okay, right there you've stepped outside of anything I know. I have no idea if that can even work. What I know is that you can change the Zoom Levels with S3D. Beyond that, for all I know it isn't working because you're trying to do something it can't. Or not. It could be anything. Novice out.

[vanjast]

I made all those changes to see if something would work. I've had this little voice telling me the problem was with S3D, but thought this was stupid and ignored it. After exhausting all options I'll play with the backupfiles of S3D today.

Thanks all
:)

[CapnScurvy]

Nisgeis, is absolutely right about leaving backed-up or changed files with slightly different names left in the folders the game goes to look for them in. I've seen this too, the game picks up a file you left hanging in its "parent" folder and the game reads it over the intended file with the correct name?! Weird, but true.

This also goes along with good management of JSGME. When I work with changing a particular setting I try not to have anything else loaded in JSGME. Talk about a mess, if you activate one mod change through JSGME. Start the game to see what happens, realize you need to do something different, end game, but forget to remove the mod from JSGME before you tinker some more, then run the game again. The last tinkering you did won't show up in game because the file JSGME loaded is the first file you activated, not the second. To correct this error, get out of the game, and remove the mod you're working on from JSGME. I'll even close out the JSGME application (it's like crossing your fingers for luck), then open JSGME and reactivate the mod. This time it will have the latest tinker you did.

Where the "mess" really gets huge, is when you have more than one mod you're activating and you do the above Boo Boo. JSGME does a great job of keeping track of what was last loaded trough it. So you have mod 1 and 2 loaded in JSGME (in that order), and you decide to tweak something with mod 1. You do the "Boo Boo" and decide to pull mod 1 from JSGME without removing mod 2 first. Now, you have JSGME not being able to know whether to take a crap or go blind!! It had you're ducks all in a row until you decided to pull one mod out of sequence over the other.

All I can say about this problem, you had better remove all mods. Let JSGME give your stock files a look see by going through the "Tasks..." "Compare game files to snapshot" (you did take a "snapshot" after loading JSGME the first time didn't you?) and hoping there isn't anything out of place besides a couple of test missions you made, or a screen shot or two. If there are larger changes to the "snapshot" to specific files that you know shouldn't have any changes, you may need to look at a fresh install of the game.

JSGME keeps it's files it overwrites in a folder in MODS/!backup, you may see if there are any loose files in there after removing all mods.

[vanjast]

Well, finally got things A-OK... after 2 re-installs and same mods installation procedure. I reinstalled S3D-version 0.9.4 and traced(saved) the cameras.dat file through all patches and mods.

I don't think it was S3D, but maybe a corrupt Cameras file coz before the reinstall, I deleted this file to see if the game would run without it, on 'default' settings... and it did !!!! and these settings were the ones I was getting all the time, so somehow the game 'lost' the cameras file.

With the re-installations, I used the default folders provided by the game - I usually change this to my game folder and am not sure whether this also could have been a factor.

:)

[vanjast]

Ja.. Capt.
I'm very piccy about my mods, in the soup and usually only run a few.
I'm sticking with the GFO 1.6 + RealEnv + RSDC plus other mods that do not interfere with these. I'm also adapting your scope skins, and zooms as they really give a nice feel to the game.

I stopped my nav mod sometime ago coz of this cameras problem, but didn't realise what the problem was or had the time to play with it. Now that I'm getting back into it I would like to Real Nav ... so here comes my sextant in the obs-scope.


Ye olde man and his boat :)

[Nisgeis]

If you deleted the file and it still worked, then you must have had a duplicate copy somewhere, as otherwise it wouldn't have worked at all. That would be why one of your changes were being taken into account! Glad you got it fixed, if by a bit of an extreme solution :DL.

[vanjast]

If you deleted the file and it still worked, then you must have had a duplicate copy somewhere, as otherwise it wouldn't have worked at all. .
Dunno... all the copies had different letters added onto 'Cameras' filename => CamerasA, CamerasB... etc.
:)

[Nisgeis]

In the game directory? They would all have been loaded up at run time and overwritten all your changes. The game doesn't care what you call the files, it just loads everything.

[vanjast]

So you're saying, in this case, it loads every *.dat file under the ..\data\.. folder, and works out what goes where, from each files internal ID parameters.

IOW.. I have to save the backup files 'out of' the game '\data\..' folder, otherwise the game sees multiple camera.dat IDs, then aborting to default settings, or just using the last IDs loaded ??

Ohhhhh! this is such 'cheapskate' development... yukkie yugh!!

:(

[Nisgeis]

It's actually quite useful, as you don't need to modify existing files, so you can get mods with better compatibiltiy, as you can add new things without overwriting an existing file.

I can't remember if the game will load files without a 'standard' extension - I think if you call it cameras.old iit may still load it up. Not sure about though, I think its just /data/library that gets loaded up automatically, but if in doubt don't put any backup files in the game directory at all. Always mod through JSGME anyway as it's much less likely to go wrong and it keeps the files tidier and roll back is easier.

[vanjast]

The problem comes with identifying which is the correct file.. too many complications are intoduced. Explicit file usage is the only way to go...
:)

[CapnScurvy]

Yeah!! :O:

Hope it comes out like you want.

I know you can make several zoom levels for the Periscope cameras. They toggle from one to the other with the mouse wheel. I've just finished putting a zoom feature onto the radar screens, so you don't have to squint at the scopes to see the blips.

[Nisgeis]

I've just finished putting a zoom feature onto the radar screens, so you don't have to squint at the scopes to see the blips.

Did you get round the problem of that interfring with the mouse wheel also being used to step through the bearing? I couldn't get round it, so I had to abandon it.

[CapnScurvy]

Did you get round the problem of that interfring with the mouse wheel also being used to step through the bearing? I couldn't get round it, so I had to abandon it.

No, you still move the bearing by continuing to roll the mouse wheel.

For those who don't know, putting the ability to zoom magnification onto the radar screens also moves the bearing in small, single degree steps when in the "focus" mode. This happens once the top magnification is achieved and you decide to continue to roll the mouse wheel.

I don't see much of a problem with it though. If you make the magnification great enough, (like having the PPI radar screen fill up the monitor screen like just before doing a "face plant" into a pizza) you won't be too tempted to keep trying to get closer (OK, I'm exaggerating a bit).

Besides, the extra ability to fine tune the bearing (granted it only moves one way depending on whether you are zooming in or out) may be useful.