Completed Add a crosshair for mouse control users

[ftp 1,696]

When mouse controls are enabled, put a adjustable small dot (almost like shaft's) on the screen to see where we're aiming,
Mouse controls are a bit harder to use, for new users they're enabled and they have trouble using it, so do experienced players such as myself.

 

 

Or we could re-use this instead 

 

 

[Maf 32,333]

Under review

Completed

 

This applies to keyboard users also. When you turn your turret using keyboard, the camera doesn't follow your turret precisely, so a dot would still be helpful.

[GunslingerMongoose 198]

Under review

 

This applies to keyboard users also. When you turn your turret using keyboard, the camera doesn't follow your turret precisely, so a dot would still be helpful.

Or maybe do what War Thunder and WoT do for the gunsight. Aim point indicator and camera aim indicator.

[BlackWasp777 4,498]

As maf stated, the camera does not follow your barrel direction precisely.. so your barrel does not point straight forward on your screen.

But because of this a single dot is not helpful at all, if the barrel does not point to the center of the screen.

 

You can also not have the dot wander to the left and right depending on your camera position due to parallax effects (if that's the right english word for the physics effect that I have in mind).

 

The two things that I can think of, that would truely help are

- a laser pointer like dot, that is painted directly on the object (!) your barrel is pointing to

- or a line-of-sight (like a laserbeam(not a dot) in foggy air)

 

edit: the lower left picture shows the principle of the problem..

 

 

 

[O.S.A.N 714]

Well, that's an interesting point, it will affect the gameplay in a significant manner, not to mention that we used to aim by relying on our timing somehow...  :ph34r:

 

So the key things here are the camera behaviour & the aiming mechanism:

• Aiming mechanism

We can add a crosshair in the middle of the screen that interacts with the objects in front of the player, like it will get smaller when you're away from that object (long distance) to aim with a bit more accuracy and will get bigger when you're close to an object (short distance).

 

Also, contrary to what @BlackWasp777 mentionned above, i believe that having a laser pointer or something like that with high visual effects would affect the performance of the game, like FPS will drop in the low specs PCs, so in order to prevent that i think that a crosshair fixed on the screen is more suitable for the task.

• Camera behaviour

Alongside the things i mentionned above, i think the camera should be more responsive & flexible during HOT moments for example when going with a speed boost using a wasp alongside the wall it is almost hard to aim properly while you're on the run since the camera won't be able to catch up the tank on the screen so the speed of the camera should be increased.

 

This applies to both users of the keyboard & the mouse.

[BlackWasp777 4,498]

I think we do not talk about the same thing.

Look at the following picture:


 
To have a parallax problem means, that your line-of-sight is not the same line like your line-of-bullet

 

 

 

line of sight:
originating from camera behind+above your tank -> pointing to -> center of screen = big yellow crossmark

 

line-of-bullet

the red line originating from your turret, pointing to whereever the turret is pointing at

 

 

The direction our camera is looking is to the center of the screen, while the direction our turret is pointing to is somewhere totally different.
 

 

So what will work / not work?

• Fails: Crosshair fixed in the center of the screen
  Would be where the big yellow cross has it's inctersection. Or, a bit better: somewhere at the green line to compensate camera up/down movements
  -> both useless, as they do not follow the turrets line-of-bullet
   
• Works: Dynamic crosshair according to line-of-bullet impact point
  checks where the line-of-bullet (red line) would(!) hit an obstacle (enemy, wall, friend) and has to be placed right on that location of impact (orange box1: enemy, orange box2: floor).
  -> very useful, jumps forward/backward if an enemy moves into / leaves your line of bullet
   
• Fails: Dynamic crosshait that only compensates camera up/down + left/right movements
  As you can see the two orange rectangles have different locations, while obviously the camera and turret point in the same direction. The important thing is where the line-of-bullt points to and where it hits an obstacle. The camera and line-of-bullet themselfes are not enough to draw a rectangle "somewhere".
   
• Works: Constant laser beam (only visible to each player himself)
  The red line marks a laser beam, that shows you the path where your bullet will go to; and it ends at the first obstacle hit by that beam.
  -> very useful, gives a more steady impression like jumping crosshairs

 

A laser scope and a dynamic crosshair (both) are already implemented with Striker. The performance effect is minor.

 

 

 

 

The pictures are screenshots from a xp/bp beginners video tutorial created by SNAKE; credits for his nice job. Link in the spoiler below.

 

 

 

 

[ThirdOnion 4,898]

The parallax effect can be accounted for with code - I like @GunslingerMongoose's suggestion. It might also be helpful to add a circle/square which indicates where your shot can land when taking into account auto-aim.

[BlackWasp777 4,498]

The parallax effect can be accounted for with code - I like @GunslingerMongoose's suggestion. It might also be helpful to add a circle/square which indicates where your shot can land when taking into account auto-aim.

WOT uses exactly the "Dynamic crosshair according to line-of-bullet impact point", which I've described above.

In WOT you can see, that the turret crosshair jumps onto that object that is in your line-of-bullet, and if a building blocks your line-of-bullet, the criosshair jumps to the impact point on the building.

 

 

-> And this is the same system, which the striker turret uses.

 

So all we would need is to switch on the striker crosshair without the need to push the space bar.

[O.S.A.N 714]

So all we would need is to switch on the striker crosshair without the need to push the space bar.

Finally, you summed up the whole things mentionned above in one sentence^. Well done.

[Maf 32,333]

Completed

 

HTML5 now highlights enemy in red when your turret is pointing at them. This works for both keyboard and mouse.