Replacing Units with icons

[Decimator]

It would be a nice addition for modders to specify a distance level from the camera where a unit becomes an icon. The level and icon should be specific for each unit. This would allow modders to use extremely small units, like WDs infantry, and still have the player not need to zoom in to control them, though they might want to to see what's happening.

[Warlord Zsinj]

I could have sworn a topic has already been posted on this. Quite recently too, IIRC...

[Decimator]

Wasn't a topic anyway, I searched. Might've been buried in a thread I missed though. So, since it's in its own thread now, thoughts?

[Guessmyname]

LOD models. I you can specify the distance until a unit = an icon, you may as well include LOD models (with the furthest LOd being the dot).

[AF]

I've bene going on about this repeatedly for the last year.

[Pxtl]

A fully animated sprite would work well - then ppl could export the Doom monsters and use them in game.

For an example of what happens when you put Doom-style sprites in a modern 3d landscape engine, see Indie Game Jam 0:

http://www.indiegamejam.com/igj0/index.html

[Guessmyname]

*loads shotgun*

[jcnossen]

Why LOD anyway, I haven't seen any battle were drawing units was the bottleneck to having a good framerate. It all depends on simulation time.
And if it ever gets to this, there are lots of algorithms to generate low detail versions, even continuous ones (VIPM). So I don't really see the need for unit icons either.

[Decimator]

Well, my original idea wasn't really about performance. It was more about being able to tell whether that itty bitty little guy is holding a sniper rifle or a grenade launcher. The Battletech, World Domination, and Epic 40k mods all stand to benefit, as currently very small objects such as infantry become indistiguishable from one another at maximum zoom.

[Warlord Zsinj]

Yeah, I'd have to agree with Decimator here; it would be quite useful in mods such as SWTA. It would also be a useful thing to have on the minimap, so that you can immediately identify what is what. Especially once we have the ability to place orders on the minimap.

Given that we can at the moment make the minimap take up the whole screen, once orders are placed, it would be perfectly feasible to conduct a large portion of battle management from the minimap; particularly on very large maps. Having representative icons would be a necessity for this.

[SwiftSpear]

Yeah, I'd have to agree with Decimator here; it would be quite useful in mods such as SWTA. It would also be a useful thing to have on the minimap, so that you can immediately identify what is what. Especially once we have the ability to place orders on the minimap.

Given that we can at the moment make the minimap take up the whole screen, once orders are placed, it would be perfectly feasible to conduct a large portion of battle management from the minimap; particularly on very large maps. Having representative icons would be a necessity for this.

I said exactly that a while ago in a thread about another topic and someone ate my head. Once again, it's the kind of thing not every mod needs, but would be useful if implimented for some mods.

[AF]

In homeworld press space and imagine that all the little icons are actualyl miniature pictures of the ships. Now which doy uo rpefer to teeny weeny ships or the symbols that replace them? Symbols make ti much much easier to see at huge distances, and in HW in sensor mdoe the map isnt nearly as detailed, it could just as well be a small model generated from the main heightmap with symbols otnop, much easier. At the moment when I point ym camera to the horizon on a large map it lags somewhata dn ym framerate goes down. Using symbols and allowing thgisns uch as sensor mdoe would allow us to view the entire map at ocne at any zoom elvel we want be it an 8x8 map ro a 64x64 map. It would also be easier to render several views in thsi mdoe than with allt he ap texture and detail and full detail units.

And you forget that the algorithms to generate lwoer level models take up resources themselves.

[FoeOfTheBee]

It would also be nice to be able to zoom out more. Preferably with icons, but even without it would be useful. Is the zoom limit arbitrary?

[Hoehrer]

Ok, this might sound complicated and hard to implement, but would be pretty cool in-game i think ...

Imagine that when you zoom out the display of the units not only change to symbols (no LODs), but also merge with equal symbols of the same unit-type that are in a certain range. So you do not have 5 symbols for [UNIT_X], but rather one symbol with a number next to it like [5 UNIT_X]. If there are several different unit-types located in a small space, stack the smbols next to each other instead of display them overlapping.

Thinking this further: This could also help displaying ALL units you own on the whole map.

Just my 2c,
Werner

PS: It's a braindump, so don't blame it for being stupid, blame me

[Maelstrom]

while that sounds nice on paper, it would be hell to implement.

[AF]

not really
If an artillery unti has another artilelry unti within 20% of it's LOS then the two can eb pushed togetehr itno a single icon.

Friend of friends groupAlgorithm basically.

[renrutal]

If a picture-in-picture view feature is implemented, perhaps this won't be too hard.

As always easier said than done.