UTCompass 0.5 released

[Olethros]

New UTCompass release: v0.7

In case anyone's remotely interested, a new version of UTCompass has just been uploaded to the usual locations.

Edit: See last post in the thread for details about v0.7.

Not much new in it, really, apart from the UT2003-esque way team messages are displayed above the Quick Action icon in high-contrast fonts. This should hopefully alleviate some of the problems people have with reading the ridiculously faint message box on well-lit maps.

Notice that the messages displayed above the QA icon will not necessarily be the same as those in the normal message box. Only ONE message per teammate is displayed (the most recent one) and they won't be in chronological order. Messages sent by you are not displayed here and location info is omitted. Rule of thumb is: If the messenger appears on the compass, the message text (of his latest transmission) will appear above the QA icon.

Naturally, this is a user-selectable option, so if you don't like it (or if it is too much of an FPS hog for your system) you can simply turn it off with the console command "utc_drawMsg" or add "bDrawMessages=false" to UTCompass.INI.

 

[Sterno]

Nice work man, I love having that compass... I can't play as well when servers aren't running it. Makes team work much easier and improves gameplay IMO. Thanks for all the hard work.

 

[Freon]

Hehe nice idea :tup:

 

[Fat Marrow]

Good work as ever :tup:

 

[geogob]

oh! oh! does that mean that we will actually be able to read the damn text wihtout opening the console now?

 

[FieldMedic]

Great, just great !

 

[Crowze]

Good stuff. I don't suppose you could add DTAS support in the near future?

 

[meeba]

nifty!

slightly ot - tried the monster mut in yer sig too, any way to get the bots to fight back?

 

[zeep]

nice job olethros

{edit} havent tried it yet but have you added a way to switch between NW / NNW and northwest / north by northwest ? So the oldfashioned way or since the previous update is what i mean.
(I recall you mentioning that you thinking about adding it)

 

[ant75]

Nice job . I like it that you let the configuration quite flexible.
But i have to agree with zeep on the cardinal heading titles.
Are you still working on rd by the way ? I wonder if the suggestion i made a while ago could come true .

 

[shan]

SO I put this on the server and everyone gets version mismatches, regardless of whether they installed this or DLed it form my server...I had to delete all my cache before I could connect.

Do I have something set up wrong, server side? UTCompass is loading in Mutimut and is in its own ServerPackages line. Should it be in both places?

Shan

 

[{GD}Odie3]

I am adding this to GD so us US players will be in good shape going between SG & GD

 

[Olethros]

SO I put this on the server and everyone gets version mismatches, regardless of whether they installed this or DLed it form my server...I had to delete all my cache before I could connect.

Do I have something set up wrong, server side? UTCompass is loading in Mutimut and is in its own ServerPackages line. Should it be in both places?

Occational version mismatches are seemingly unavoidable with the Unreal engine. An old file lurking in your cache may well cause trouble that way.

As long as the mutators line includes "UTCompass.UTCompassMut" and you have a ServerPackages=UTCompass" line in Infiltration.ini the server-side stuff should be OK.

As for that whole "old" vs "new" cardinal direction stuff; this is mainly an RD issue. The next version of RD may or may not have the option to reduce the number of cardinal directions. Removing them from the UTCompass texture or including yet another optional texture without them probably won't happen. You'll just have to learn to ignore them.

 

[zeep]

The next version of RD may or may not have the option to reduce the number of cardinal directions. Removing them from the UTCompass texture or including yet another optional texture without them probably won't happen. You'll just have to learn to ignore them.

No don't get me wrong. The textures are fine! Indeed leave the textures as they are
For RD, i would only like the option to switch between saying "My position east by northeast." and "My position northeast". Just so that the teamsay strings don't get too long.

(oh and sorry to have brought this up in the UTCompass thread.)

 

[shan]

Does this also work when you have it set to always display teammates? I ask because I put this on my server and no one sees the messages (OpenGL or D3D). I also added the bDrawMessages=true line to the INI and it still fails. here is my INI file on the server:

[UTCompass.UTCompassMut]
iCompassScale=1
iPosY=88
iBrightness=200
bCompass=True
bNightMode=False
bDrawTeam=True
bServerTeamMates=True
bServerConstantTeam=True
bServerConstantSpecialist=False
compassStyle=0
bDrawMessages=true

Any ideas?

Shan

 

[{GD}Odie3]

I think I am having the same issue.

 

[Olethros]

D'oh!!!

Found the bug. It's a clause in the timer() function that determines wether updateMessagePRIs() is called or not. Basically, updateMessagePRIs() reads the console content to check for teamSay messages and their timestamps determines wether the senders are marked on the compass. But if teammates are always displayed, this searching and parsing isn't necessary and therefore skipped altogether to save those precious CPU cycles. (Even though the search function is astoundingly well optimized, if I may say so myself...)

Unfortunately, updateMessagePRIs() also handles the message text displayed above the QA icon. I simply forgot that this method isn't called if bConstantTeam is set to 'true,' so there you have it. But in my defence I really didn't expect any server to have bServerConstantTeam=True anyway...

I can't get a fix out until tomorrow night (Central European Time, mind you) since I won't be getting back to my apartment before then.

For the really incurable UScript geeks, here's the bug (line 5):

simulated function timer(){
	if(!bCheckedGame) detectGameType();

	if(level.netMode!=NM_dedicatedServer){
		if(!bConstantTeam) updateMessagePRIs(); // BAD coder! Should be (!bConstantTeam || bDrawMessages)
		if(controller==none) getController();
		if(controller!=none){
			// Get controller variables.
			bAllowTeamMates=controller.bAllowTeamMates;
			bConstantTeam=controller.bConstantTeam;
			bConstantSpecialist=controller.bConstantSpecialist;
		}
		getSpecialistID();
		if(fMsgStay>12) fMsgStay=12;
		else if(fMsgStay<2) fMsgStay=2;
	}
	else setTimer(0.0, false);
}

 

[shan]

Glad you figured it out. When you get the fix, I will put the new on my server. It would be nice to have the chat visible. Shame there is not some way to replace all of the functionality of the whole chatbox with your new text.

BTW, the constant team display is awesome. It helps to give you back some of that situational awareness that you lose when playing with people who are not into teamwork.

Shan

 

[SexPistol]

this compass is fücking beautiful!

i'm not sure if you're aware of this, but there are a few of us that have to run INF in low resolution/low detail. low detail also affected the original overhead compass, rendering it pretty much useless. this one stays nice and crisp and the "N" actually looks like an an instead of a few large pixel blocks!

thanks for the great addition

 

[Olethros]

The slightly bug-fixed v0.6 has been uploaded to the usual locations. A bit late, but I just had to finally watch Return of the king first. (It was kinda cool. Although Medieval: Total War aficionados probably won't be able to watch the battle tactics without rolling their eyes in exasperation. I know I wasn't.)