Marked Locations on Minimap

pSyk0mAnpSyk0mAn Nerdish by NatureGermany Join Date: 2003-08-07 Member: 19166Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Community Developer
edited August 2018 in Modding
This has been discussed and suggested before.
.trixX. wrote: »
YES PLEASE.
This is rookie friendliness, not HP bars ;]

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The idea is to mark the location on your minimap you are in at that moment.
(Someone feel free to link the original thread and original image/gif, which showed the idea perfectly)

It's not easy to do according to our modders and there are probably different methods to approach this.
Here is my idea:
-Make a separate locationname.tga for each location of the map (same resolution as overview.tga and they have to have the exact same position in the .tga file)
-Put them all into ../ns2/maps/overviews/mapname (so there is no mixups and chaos between different maps' locations)
-When a player is in a certain location and activates minimap, use that locationname.tga, put it on top of the minimap image and use some color modifier to highlight it (If that isnt possible, one could also dye each locationname.tga with a highlighting color, but this is more work and less flexible on the highlighting part)

I prepared this for Summit, if anyone wants to have a take on it, check out the attached file.
It includes a .tga for each location in Summit and the .psd I used to create them.
Please put the ns2_summit folder including the .tgas into ns2/maps/overviews/ ..so we can have an overview folder for each map

If this works out and ppl like it, there is probably the possibility to modify the overview.exe to create these additional .tgas during map-building.
"Just" have the overview.exe render the overview limited on only the area of each location entities and spit it out as locationname.tga in the mapname folder.

Comments

  • HandschuhHandschuh Join Date: 2005-03-08 Member: 44338Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Community Developer
    I think the last few posts in this thread is what you want?
    https://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/143224/mini-map-improvements#latest

    I would sincerely love that!
  • SteelcapSteelcap Join Date: 2010-11-19 Member: 75049Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Community Developer
    When I last looked into it, yeah, it seemed like the best answer was to have separate files for each location that could get their own shaders applied to them. I don't relish the idea of doing it by hand so ideally there would be a way for the overview generator to also create those separate location files too.
  • pSyk0mAnpSyk0mAn Nerdish by Nature Germany Join Date: 2003-08-07 Member: 19166Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Community Developer
    edited May 2018
    Thanks for the link Handschuh!

    Yes, Steelcap, it's a hassle to do it by hand, but I did for Summit just so someone could try this method, if it's not much work.

    Not sure what to do with vents tho. Some vents arent within location entities and I didn't cover all vents with my overview tga puzzle.
  • NordicNordic Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    THIS WILL BE GREAT
  • skav2skav2 Join Date: 2007-05-28 Member: 61037Members, Reinforced - Gold
    Would this work with the whole team updating everyones map or is it on an individual basis where you only see the room that you are in?

    I wouldnt mind if it went either way to be honest.
  • pSyk0mAnpSyk0mAn Nerdish by Nature Germany Join Date: 2003-08-07 Member: 19166Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Community Developer
    I suppose you could do all kind of stuff with it, if you want.
    -Like marking areas with/without power slightly differently, so the minimap appearance gives a slight indication on team territories.
    -Blinking locations for a short time, when the commander pings them

    ..and a lot more..feel free to add your suggestions to build up excitement and motivation ;)
  • HandschuhHandschuh Join Date: 2005-03-08 Member: 44338Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Community Developer
    I was thinking about that issue.

    Since implementing it like this as pSyk suggested might be quite the hassle it would probably much easier to make a "Marker" around a Marine as a cyst has a green mark currently around it.

    If we'd use that in a transparent blue around a Marine. But at a bigger range, with a drop of the further the range ... and maybe that it stacks if several marines are closeby...

    Haven't actually looked into how the minimap works with cysts, but that might be easier approach.

  • KatzenfleischKatzenfleisch Join Date: 2014-03-21 Member: 194881Members, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Community Developer
  • AeglosAeglos Join Date: 2010-04-06 Member: 71189Members
    Nice. Is it possible to implement this for commanders? Would be a nice QoL improvement over mousing over for the name to change.

    Also, is this a server side mod / client side mod / incoming on vanilla?
  • KatzenfleischKatzenfleisch Join Date: 2014-03-21 Member: 194881Members, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Community Developer
    edited January 2020
    Atm this is a server side mod working only for ns2_summit and ns2_veil, highlighting the location you are currently in (for commanders it's the one you jumped in the hive/chair). This is however just a proof of concept this the solution I used here relies on a separated, manually done texture applied on top of the minimap. In other words, someone has to do the following for every-single-location of every-single-map:
    * Pick the minimap overview
    * Go in game and find out where each location starts/ends
    * Go into a texture editor software and create a copy of the full overview with only a given location
    * Export, downsize (otherwise you would end up with 4Mo per highlight), and convert into .dds to save more space
    * Import all the locations into a mod, and test in game that they work correctly.

    As you could see this is a lot of manual work that just can't be done in the long run. Atm there are other ways to do it being discussed, especially one who is going to extract each locations automatically and draw them on the map without hand work. I can't really give you an ETA atm since those are falling a bit outside of my scope.

    If you own a server and wants to give it a try the changes are in this mod:
    * https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1944832835

    This mod also host changes for mines to be visible on the minimap (as a blue dot), and, also, gives unlimited clogs for gorge players during pregame.
  • AeglosAeglos Join Date: 2010-04-06 Member: 71189Members
    Ah, that's unfortunate. Automation is the way to go where possible. Tedious manual work is not only inefficient but also incredibly dull. Appreciate the effort put into it.

    Nice that mines are visible. I assume its marines only? Do aliens see them if they are parasited? Could clogs on minimap be coming at long last?

    I took a look at that steam link. The name of the mod is a throwaway detail while the key features aren't disclosed. That's interesting. :D
  • KatzenfleischKatzenfleisch Join Date: 2014-03-21 Member: 194881Members, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Community Developer
    Mines on the minimap work the same as any marine building: visible only if sighted or parasited. About the mod description, well yeah it started as a player request ("why can't we have this or that", and ended up being a placeholder mod for other changes. I am editing the description right now.
  • AeglosAeglos Join Date: 2010-04-06 Member: 71189Members
    Cool, thanks. Kind of sad that we have so much pregame time though. Can feel the long wait time for seeding / commanders from that request.

    Naming aside, its nice that you amalgamate everything into a mod. We wouldn't want servers to have more mods than available to display on the loading screen. Who knows what you are playing with at that point. Its not like we memorise mod IDs.
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