[Q] about adding periscope controllers

[CapnScurvy]

As a follow up, I want to clarify that a 2D screen is different than a 3D modeled screen.

For instance, the periscope screen with the Position Keeper, Attack Data Tool, Torpedo Panel are a part of a 2D screen made up from entries in the menu_1024_768.ini file. It also has a "camera" image added to the screen to show the world outside, through the periscope view. This type of screen can be modded, but you have to work within the framework of what the game gives us. The images can be changed, but just adding a new function, all on its own, probably won't work. You have to take an already working function and transform it to whatever you create in order to get it to do something. That's how I have the Omnimeter in the Optical Targeting Correction mod workable. I'm actually using the "Message Box" stock game lighter/darker slider controls as the controls for the two Range and AoB scale sliders for the Omnimeter. I took a working game function and applied it to a new and different function to make the tool.

A 3D screen image is different in that you can create a completely new object, and with new entries can make it function by adding new "nodes" & parameters. An example are the Sonar or Radar screens. These screens are made up of 3D models that have a lot more flexibility in where they are put and what you can add. There is still one drawback though. The commands to make an object function are still controlled by a specific number of commands. If the command doesn't exist, you can't pull one out of thin air and make it work. For instance, adding a range digital readout for the American radar unit (like the German side) would be a great improvement. It would allow us to receive range to a target, using radar (which was exactly what occurred during the war). The problem with the games German radar digital readout is that it only reads in meters! The Dev's didn't but the function of using the Imperial unit measurement with the German digital radar display!? So, we could easily put the German digital readout onto the American radar unit, but it will only read in meters, no matter what unit of measurement that's chosen on the options page.

A lot of work for nothing.