Yet another Mod Idea. A new stopwatch

[Blacklight]

Having that nice drag around stopwatch is a nice thing to have, but I think it would be cool to have a stopwatch that you could pull out and click to start yourself without having to fire off a torpedo. This would come in very handy for nailing those annoying zig zagging ships as you could time their zig zags and set your torpedoes appropriately. There are also many more applications where a manually operated stop watch would come in handy.

Also, I know how to remove the current drag around stop watch completely, but is there a way to set it up so it only appears in certain views without eliminating it altogether ? I like to use it, but sometimes it gets in the way (Especially in the crew management screen)

[Erich Topp]

Sure you can edit menu_1024_768.ini to have stopwatch only in screens you need.
And to start stopwatch you don't need to run a torpedo, just click on basic stopwatch in UZO or periscope screen. It's not very comfortable, of course)) But that's it.

[Blacklight]

Where I'd really like that manual operated stopwatch to be is in the Topedo Attack Map screen and the Navigation Map screens.

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Originally Posted by Blacklight

Where I'd really like that manual operated stopwatch to be is in the Topedo Attack Map screen and the Navigation Map screens.

I'm not saying that it cannot be done... but I can tell you that about two years ago, there was a rather major effort to make it happen. Nothing anyone did worked. If I recall correctly, some of the bits necessary for success are hard-coded.

[Blacklight]

I'll have to google and see if there is a separate application for a stopwatch that can be downloaded and easily used with the game.

[onelifecrisis]

It can be done. I've made a draggable, clickable (yes, clickable) working chrono in the G3F page (the so-called "console" of the GUI) but to get it in there, one has to completely sacrifice either the UZO screen or the observation scope screen.

At the time I did this I hadn't yet had the idea of making a big obs scope and I was thinking it might be worth losing the obs scope in favour of the chrono, but there are graphical problems I couldn't get around. Basically the obs scope marking lines (which seem to be hardcoded) show all the time, in all screens. That's the only problem though, so if anyone knows a way to get rid of those lines (I have asked this before, but what the hell, I might as well ask again) do let me know.

[onelifecrisis]

Here is a very short video (3mb download) showing what I'm talking about.

http://files.filefront.com/Chronorar.../fileinfo.html

[onelifecrisis]

I'll pre-empt suggestions and assumptions that have been made before.

The marking lines are *not* part of the menu file. They are drawn onto the camera view by some other code, and are scaled according to the angular angle and initial zoom level of the camera.

Furthermore, the part of periscope.tga which looks just like a set of marking lines is bizrarrely *not* the image that the game uses to draw them. I've searched all over for that damned TGA (if indeed it is a TGA... which I assume it is) and can't find it. If I could find it, I could change it to be transparent and we'd be halfway there... but only half way, because in addition to the marking lines there's the crosshair, and I don't know if that uses a TGA. But, if it does, I bet it's to be found in the same place as the marking lines.

Anyone got any ideas where this elusive TGA might be?

[onelifecrisis]

No ideas?

No "wow you did it you're amazing"?

No interest at all?

[Blacklight]

How about a new stopwatch that's not "Connected" to the ones that we have now. Just a separate entity that can slide out or something on various screens so we can just click it and start the timer. Maybe make it only appear on the Attack Map area.
If this can't be done, maybe a nice little external app can be run in a window.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by onelifecrisis

No interest at all?

Rather interesting, mate.:hmm:

that is impressive, olc, but it seems to much work to solve this one.

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by onelifecrisis

I'll pre-empt suggestions and assumptions that have been made before.

The marking lines are *not* part of the menu file. They are drawn onto the camera view by some other code, and are scaled according to the angular angle and initial zoom level of the camera.

Furthermore, the part of periscope.tga which looks just like a set of marking lines is bizrarrely *not* the image that the game uses to draw them. I've searched all over for that damned TGA (if indeed it is a TGA... which I assume it is) and can't find it. If I could find it, I could change it to be transparent and we'd be halfway there... but only half way, because in addition to the marking lines there's the crosshair, and I don't know if that uses a TGA. But, if it does, I bet it's to be found in the same place as the marking lines.

Anyone got any ideas where this elusive TGA might be?

I don't know where. But I heard some .tga's like the moon and sun textures are hidden inside some .dat files. Checked there yet?

[onelifecrisis]

Originally Posted by Pisces

I don't know where. But I heard some .tga's like the moon and sun textures are hidden inside some .dat files. Checked there yet?

Yes, I have the tool for im/ex-porting textures to/from dat files and I've looked in lots of them (though not all). I can't find one that looks anything like those marking lines... but maybe I just need to go through every single file. However, since there's evidently a chronic lack of interest in this, and since I've found a "better" use for the obs scope anyway, I'm not keen on doing that...