[WIP] New Dial Layout for Chrono

McBob · 04-13-07, 07:38 AM

While playing SH4 I have always found that having the minute and second hands in the same small dial of the chrono for the torpedo run is a little cluttered. Especialy with what appear to be slight errors in the size of the hands.

Recently I installed Redwine's historical chronometer mod.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=111261

This corrects the size of the hands and also, in my opinion looks far better than the stock chrono. However I also noticed the addition of an extra small dial at the top of the chrono.

This new dial adds to the historical appearance, but is unfunctional. However I have managed to mod the code to move the minute hand to this dial.

Impact @ 3mins 15 seconds

It appears to work fine @ 1024, but is a little small at higher resolutions. The hands need a bit of tweaking and some of the marks on the new dial are slightly out (each is meant to be 1 minute apart).

The minute hand goes from 0 - 8. I feel that this is enough, but I could adjust it if necessary.

If anyone is interested, work permiting, I could release the current 'beta' version now. Hopefully I will be able to finish it properly over the weekend - I intend to have it available in various sizes. Unfortunately I don't currently have internet at home so this will not be released to Monday at the earliest.

Many thanks to Redwine for his execelent work and also DarkShip and Castrorp345 who began the process.

CaptainCox · 04-13-07, 07:53 AM

I really like that mod but! I would like to see the "starter button" look more like this.
and also notice the hight.

Redwine · 04-13-07, 09:12 AM

Just Great ! McBob !

The matter is... the unreal is to have 4 needles in that small dial...

When i made the mod i was thinking in to move two of them away, the logical place was the upper half small dial.

There was a problem, was not enough to move the neeedles, it was needed to move the "zero" of them too.

And now you will have a limited quantity of minutes in account.... because it is a half dial.

Finally i decide to not do it, why for... i was scare to manage the coordinates, to crop textures and coordinates are not so easy to edit as in SH II in example.

Plus, there was the problem to edit the 1024 ini, as you can see, in my mod it is not needed, so it makes the mod more easy to install, more compatible and manual editing free.

Plus there was the problem of the diferent resolutions... i not sure if there was people using diferent resolutions with a resolution fix or some thing.

Finally i decide to let the 4 needles together, as in stock, but i give them different apparence, diferent look, as you can see in my mod, to make them more easy to recognize....

But if you can do it, please.... do it !!!!

Will be great to have the 4 needles separated 2 by 2 into two small dials instead 4 into only one !!!

Great job !!!

McBob · 04-13-07, 09:55 AM

Thanks for the comments.

Captain Cox - I will try and make these changes at some point, but my image editing skills are a little lacking. Plus I think it is quite tricky to change the code to compensate for the new postion of the start & close buttons.

Redwine - Changing the start angle and increments for the new dial is actually quite simple. It is a straight forward change in Dials.Cfg. However repositioning the hands was a lot more complicated. This was a lot more down to trial and error - as I am not sure what all the data within the menu1024_768.ini entries does. Thanks again for your work - as I have just mentioned my artistic skills are not the best.

I have uploaded this Beta version to

http://files.filefront.com//;7229470;;/

I have included in the readme the changes that I have made to menu1024_768.ini and dials.cfg.

I must stress that this is largely untested, esplecially at large resolutions. I would greatly welcome any feedback. Also if anyone knows what each value in:

Pos=154,-177,4,4
Zone= 566 591 3 3 0 1 0x29020001 0.5 -0.525 0x29020006 -0.5 0.5 0 0

represents then that would be great. So far, in the example above, I understand 3 3 & 0x29020001 0.5 -0.525 0x29020006 of the Zone line

The General · 04-13-07, 09:58 AM

That's a nice looking chronometer. Is it possible to have it only appear when you click on the button on the T.D.C? It kinda gets in the way on the map when the accelerated time kicks in.

McBob · 04-13-07, 10:19 AM

I do not like the fact that it automatically pops up either. I have looked, as I believe have others, but can not find away to stop this happening.

This is why I have made this one slightly smaller. I think the size is good when playing at a low resolution. However at high resolutions it looks a bit small. I am not sure if there is something wrong with my code or whether the only way around will be to make a second larger version.

I don't think it is an issue for the Devs to look at yet, but may be at a later date it would be nice if the could put something in the config files that will allow the blocking of this auto pop up.

Sailor Steve · 04-13-07, 10:53 AM

Looks good!

And...

WELCOME ABOARD!

04-13-07, 07:38 AM	#1
McBob Seaman Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 31 Downloads: 98 Uploads: 0	[WIP] New Dial Layout for Chrono While playing SH4 I have always found that having the minute and second hands in the same small dial of the chrono for the torpedo run is a little cluttered. Especialy with what appear to be slight errors in the size of the hands. Recently I installed Redwine's historical chronometer mod. http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=111261 This corrects the size of the hands and also, in my opinion looks far better than the stock chrono. However I also noticed the addition of an extra small dial at the top of the chrono. This new dial adds to the historical appearance, but is unfunctional. However I have managed to mod the code to move the minute hand to this dial. Impact @ 3mins 15 seconds It appears to work fine @ 1024, but is a little small at higher resolutions. The hands need a bit of tweaking and some of the marks on the new dial are slightly out (each is meant to be 1 minute apart). The minute hand goes from 0 - 8. I feel that this is enough, but I could adjust it if necessary. If anyone is interested, work permiting, I could release the current 'beta' version now. Hopefully I will be able to finish it properly over the weekend - I intend to have it available in various sizes. Unfortunately I don't currently have internet at home so this will not be released to Monday at the earliest. Many thanks to Redwine for his execelent work and also DarkShip and Castrorp345 who began the process.

04-13-07, 07:53 AM	#2
CaptainCox Sea Lord Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: A Swede in Frankfurt am Main Posts: 1,897 Downloads: 4 Uploads: 0	I really like that mod but! I would like to see the "starter button" look more like this. and also notice the hight. __________________ DOWNLOAD MY MODS HERE

04-13-07, 09:12 AM	#3
Redwine Sea Lord Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: San Martin de los Andes, Neuquen, , Argentina. Posts: 1,962 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	Just Great ! McBob ! The matter is... the unreal is to have 4 needles in that small dial... When i made the mod i was thinking in to move two of them away, the logical place was the upper half small dial. There was a problem, was not enough to move the neeedles, it was needed to move the "zero" of them too. And now you will have a limited quantity of minutes in account.... because it is a half dial. Finally i decide to not do it, why for... i was scare to manage the coordinates, to crop textures and coordinates are not so easy to edit as in SH II in example. Plus, there was the problem to edit the 1024 ini, as you can see, in my mod it is not needed, so it makes the mod more easy to install, more compatible and manual editing free. Plus there was the problem of the diferent resolutions... i not sure if there was people using diferent resolutions with a resolution fix or some thing. Finally i decide to let the 4 needles together, as in stock, but i give them different apparence, diferent look, as you can see in my mod, to make them more easy to recognize.... But if you can do it, please.... do it !!!! Will be great to have the 4 needles separated 2 by 2 into two small dials instead 4 into only one !!! Great job !!! __________________ . "SH III and SH IV Mods" "Manual TDC Tutorial" "SH2 Downloads Selection"

04-13-07, 09:58 AM	#5
The General The Old Man Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Mountain Ash, Wales, U.K. Posts: 1,548 Downloads: 179 Uploads: 3	That's a nice looking chronometer. Is it possible to have it only appear when you click on the button on the T.D.C? It kinda gets in the way on the map when the accelerated time kicks in. __________________ *THE GENERAL*

04-13-07, 10:53 AM	#7
Sailor Steve Eternal Patrol Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: High in the mountains of Utah Posts: 50,369 Downloads: 745 Uploads: 249	Looks good! And... WELCOME ABOARD! __________________ “Never do anything you can't take back.” —Rocky Russo

04-13-07, 09:55 AM	#4
McBob Seaman Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 31 Downloads: 98 Uploads: 0	Thanks for the comments. Captain Cox - I will try and make these changes at some point, but my image editing skills are a little lacking. Plus I think it is quite tricky to change the code to compensate for the new postion of the start & close buttons. Redwine - Changing the start angle and increments for the new dial is actually quite simple. It is a straight forward change in Dials.Cfg. However repositioning the hands was a lot more complicated. This was a lot more down to trial and error - as I am not sure what all the data within the menu1024_768.ini entries does. Thanks again for your work - as I have just mentioned my artistic skills are not the best. I have uploaded this Beta version to http://files.filefront.com//;7229470;;/ I have included in the readme the changes that I have made to menu1024_768.ini and dials.cfg. I must stress that this is largely untested, esplecially at large resolutions. I would greatly welcome any feedback. Also if anyone knows what each value in: Pos=154,-177,4,4 Zone= 566 591 3 3 0 1 0x29020001 0.5 -0.525 0x29020006 -0.5 0.5 0 0 represents then that would be great. So far, in the example above, I understand 3 3 & 0x29020001 0.5 -0.525 0x29020006 of the Zone line

04-13-07, 10:19 AM	#6
McBob Seaman Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 31 Downloads: 98 Uploads: 0	I do not like the fact that it automatically pops up either. I have looked, as I believe have others, but can not find away to stop this happening. This is why I have made this one slightly smaller. I think the size is good when playing at a low resolution. However at high resolutions it looks a bit small. I am not sure if there is something wrong with my code or whether the only way around will be to make a second larger version. I don't think it is an issue for the Devs to look at yet, but may be at a later date it would be nice if the could put something in the config files that will allow the blocking of this auto pop up.