91 replies to this topic

[evilC]

New version up.

Still chasing some reliability issues, tried to make it a bit more robust and added an optional setting to play a beep when it tries to detect zoom rate but fails.

[evilC]

OK, I maybe really should test for longer before I release
New version up:

1.10 28th Aug 2013
= Fixed newly introduced bug where it would retry zoom indefinitely if it failed to detect zoom rate

[evilC]

New version up:

2.0 29th Aug 2013
= Completely redesigned logic.
The pixel detection routine is the same, but that is about it.
New technique finds out what zoom you are in when you hit zoom...
...then hits zoom and waits until it sees the next expected zoom before sending any more zooms.
Should be much more reliable.

[evilC]

New version up

2.1 29th Aug 2013
+ Experimental head tracking support.
Allows you to control zoom by leaning closer to the screen.
Requires EITHER:
TrackIR (In Joystick Emulation Mode)
OR
FaceTrackNoIR (Free) plus a supported Webcam (Default settings, set "Game Protocol" to "vJoy")
Then choose the axis that represents lean (Z axis) in the Zoom GUI

Yes, you can now control zoom by MOVING YOUR HEAD CLOSER TO THE MONITOR!!

Grab yourself a webcam (Ideally a PS3 Eye) and FaceTrackNoIR to make use of this awesome feature!

When you set up heat tracking, you set a "zero" position to calibrate it. By default in FaceTrackNoIR this is set by hitting "Home".
Leaning in any further than where you were when you calibrated with "Home" will zoom in fully.
There is currently no 1.5x zoom in head tracking mode.

Edited by evilC, 29 August 2013 - 10:23 AM.

[evilC]

If you downloaded between the last post and this one, pls re-download. I goofed and left a bit of debugging code in.
If you see a bit of text floating around in-game while using head tracking mode, you have the bad version.

[evilC]

New version up

2.2 29th Aug 2013
+ Added "Monitor" readout to monitor value of stick input for head tracking.
Should allow users to find the correct stick ID / Axis, and also help debugging

[Flying Judgement]

waoo you really putting a lot of effort in this appreciated
i will wait a little bit more before i get it as it seems still wip keep up the good work

[evilC]

The head tracking is still WIP (It seems quite quirky in drops, but is OK in Testing Grounds)

I am finding the normal mode is stable enough for competitive use. I see the occasional quirk, but in general it is stable.
I certainly find it more reliable than with the normal zoom loop

[Flying Judgement]

well i will definitely try it.

[evilC]

New version up

2.3 30th Aug 2013
= Improved reliability - sometimes 3.0x would be mis-detected as 1.0x.
The script now knows what zoom to expect next after a keypress.
If it detects a zoom other than expected, it re-tries to verify before re-issuing another zoom.
eg, before if you were at 1.5x, and zoomed in, if it thought it detected 1.0x after you zoomed in, it would hit zoom again.
Now, it knows to expect 1.5x next, and if it fails to detect 1.5x three times in a row, gives up without hitting zoom again.
+ Much more info now displayed in debug mode.

[evilC]

So far I am very happy with the stability of 2.3, I think I finally nailed it.

The head zoom mode is still highly experimental (Read only seems to work properly in Testing Grounds), but the normal keyboard / mouse controlled mode has not made a mistake in over 20 matches.

If you were waiting for it to become stable, now is the time to try it out.

[Lycrius]

I have a suggestion, probably not that hard to implement either.
Now that advanced zoom is "fixed" and it being the 1st module I ever bought in hopes to get some old school zoom action (instead of the pixelated screen we initially got). How about adding advanced zoom as 3rd zoom level after the 3x. Since it's on completely different button it shouldn't interfere with the original concept unless you have advanced zoom module installed. Right?

[evilC]

I have no plans for this at the moment, as predictably PGI did a bodge job on the advanced zoom.

You have 3 normal zoom levels: 1,2,3

Advanced zoom is 4

So lets say you are engaging a target at long range whilst in zoom 3. You need to take a closer look at something, so you hit v and it pulls up the pip window.
What happens next is where PGI screwed up.
When you hit v (or z) again, it closes the PIP zoom and returns you to zoom 1.

Yeah, thanks a lot PGI - now I am at zoom 1 and I cannot see what I was looking at before I hit the advanced zoom - I have to go thru 2 more zoom levels to see what I was seeing before I used your "advanced" zoom.

This is why I will never use it and it is not really practical for use in combat IMHO.

I will also not bother to implement it with my macro, because to return you to the state you should be in would take 2 zooms after you close the window.

I suppose I maybe could teach it to recognise zoom 4 so at least it does not go screwy if you have the module, but I am not sure I can be bothered to be honest.

[Lictor]

I would love to experiment with this, but I'm having a hell of a time with the calibration, I play on a 1st Gen Sony Bravia LCD and 1920 x 1080 actually displays slightly larger than the screen can show, so there is a screen shrink that changes the resolution to 1842 x 1036. I also have trouble reading text on the screen from 10' away at that resolution so most of the time I run MWO at 1366 x 768. Even when checking the always on top function MWO is always in front of the calibration window.

It would be great to have a database that contained the set of numbers for each standard screen resolution that people play at from 1024 x 768 up to 1920 x 1080

Edited by Lictor, 07 September 2013 - 09:54 AM.

[evilC]

Well if your monitor does some kind of internal upscaling, that could be a problem.
The code will "see" the screen as whatever is being output to the monitor, so whatever the monitor does after that could cause it to be hard to find the right values.
I strongly recommend taking screenshots and working out the coordinates from those - a screenshot will show you what the script sees, and by opening it in an image editor it should be quite easy to find pixels.
If you post up full size screenshots of each of the zoom levels somewhere, I can probably help you find the right coordinates.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of combinations of resolutions (and they dont stop at 1080p, I use 1200p, some people have 1600p) so the only real solution is for people to post coordinates that work so that each res only needs to be worked out once.

[Lictor]

I don't think the monitor does the upscaling, it's fixed by running the adjust desktop size and position wizzard in the nvidia control panel.

in any case, here is the 1.0



the 1.5



and the 3.0



thank you for the help, its really appreciated.

[evilC]

The 3.0 image is 1.0 repeated.

And it looks like it is not gonna be easy. Those numbers are really garbled.

[Lictor]

doh, I will have to fix when I get home from work. . .

[Enderman]

Thanks for the script!

I am amazed by how many things the dev team does wrong, like failing to implement a basic function which should be standard in most games, and should have been in alpha, instead focusing on things like 3pv, which most people don't use, or tutorial, which does more harm than good, teaching new players to play with throttle decay...

Edited by Enderman, 15 September 2013 - 05:31 AM.

[1Sascha]

Looks really useful, big thanks for putting that thing together.

While it's great that community members come up with such workarounds/tweaks, I think they really shouldn't have to. How hard can it be for the actual developers to implement this functionality into the game themselves? I've rarely come across a more clunky way of managing your zoom-levels as the one we get in "vanilla"-MWONL.

Sorry bout that... rant mode off now..


S.