HUD Compass Question

**mthrift** · March 13th, 2010, 08:41

Hey Folks,

I have a question that I think should have an easy answer . . .

I would like to increase the screen size of the HUD Compass. I'm pretty sure that how it displays is controlled by settings in the ViewUI.xml file, but after several unsuccessful adjustment attempts on my own, I've decided to consult the experts.

Here are what I believe to be the relevant lines:

<HUDCompass BGIMage="hud_guages.dds" BGPos="171 343" BGSize="168 168" BGscale=".70" NeedleImage="hud_guages.dds"> <Needle1 Pos="200 17" Size="134 134" Center="67 67" Offset="0"/> </HUDCompass>

I thought it would be as simple as changing the BGscale factor from the current .70 to something like 1.2. However, all that did was change the size of the exterior ring and not the compass face/gauge itself.

After looking through the installation instructions for the ACC Tactical Display replacement, I started thinking that I might need to modify the actual .dds file to do this.

Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks in advance! :mixedsmi:

Michael

**noelberrier** · March 14th, 2010, 08:54

IMHO

<TacticalDisplay BGIMage="tactical_display.dds" BGPos="0 0" BGSize="128 128" BGScale="1.2" BackColor="0x1f0000FF" Mode="0"/>

is also relevant.

Modifying the .DDS can be done with a tool from martin's wright website :

http://www.btinternet.com/~mnwright/ then CFS3, Utilities, and this is DXTtoBMP.

Hope it helps.

**mthrift** · March 14th, 2010, 12:19

Thanks for your reply! I'll give that a shot and report the results.

I'm interested in trying out the dds modification route. That'll be a new one for me.

Michael

**flyer01** · March 15th, 2010, 11:21

Paint .net is a way to look at the .dds------- link: http://paint.net/
You can all so look at the .dds and resize the .dds with Image/resize.

flyer01

**mthrift** · March 18th, 2010, 03:54

Thanks flyer01, this looks very interesting! Gonna try to load it up this weekend!

Michael

Galand · March 21st, 2010, 12:44

For the TAC display, changing BGScale to 1.2 works fine.
My old eyes have difficulty reading the compass in ETO, so I would also be interested to figure out how to make it bigger.
there exists a "metric: and a BG (Inches?). Change both?

**noelberrier** · March 21st, 2010, 16:04

There is a choice ingame, concerning the unit (imperial or metric) you want to use for HUD. I guess you should change the scale corresponding to the unit you use.

Galand · March 27th, 2010, 06:19

@ Mthrift and Noelberrier.
Done some experimenting.
It all seems to happen in the ViewUI.xml file. Remember: there are two copies of this file. One in the main game folder and one in the My Documents/User/Application Data folder. AFAIU the second one is like a working copy built from the first one upon installation. Only changing the second file in the Application folder seems to work fine, as long as you do not do a re-install, I guess.
The HUD guage sections are near the end of these files. Each guage section has two parts one for imperial and one for metric. In ETO each HUDCompass part has a BGscale=".70" and the TacticalDisplay section has a BGscale=".8" entry in both parts.
For the HUDCompass section in ETO there is a "BGscale=" entry, but not in stock CFS3.
With Notepad I changed the "BGscale=" entries on both metric and imperial for both Compass and TAC to read: BGscale="1.2"
It works fine and I can now read the compass.
Why there is no scale adjustment on stock CFS3 compass guage and why both a metric and an imperial compass, I do not know.

**noelberrier** · March 28th, 2010, 08:14

Maybe talented developpers such as those of MAW and ETO and co were not availbale to this tiny game design society M$ is ? :P

**mthrift** · March 29th, 2010, 11:40

Hey Galand -

Thanks for your message. Changing the scale figure for both versions (English and Metric) did the trick! That was just what I was trying to do, but changing the figure for just one of them wasn't working for me.

Success! Thank you again for sharing! :ernae:

Michael