Disable Crosshair

[Operation Jason]

how do I disable the crosshair, so that you don't see it? I want it so the only way to know where you're shooting is by using the optics.
Thanks

[THobson]

The answer lies in Options Difficulty Weapon Crosshair

[macguba]

In other words its a setting done by the player, not the mission designer.   In the "mission design problem" it is effectively a given:  it's not up to you the mission designer whether the player uses a crosshair or not, in the same way that its not up to you whether or not he wears pink suede shoes while playing.

[THobson]

Pink suede shoes!!?

Yes sorry I should have been clearer - the mission builder cannot force the mission to be played without weapon cross hairs, and in fact you cannot even check that this is what the player has selected (unlike cadet mode for example).  So you can't create a message of the type:

"You whimp - what are you using cross hairs for?!"

Whereas you can for instance create a message that says:

"You whimp - what are you using Cadet Mode for?!"

(neither can you create a message refering to the player's attire.) ;D

[macguba]

I should have added that the crosshair thing, like many other things, is part of an equation balanced by the game developers.    Playing a computer game is nothing like real life, even if it does attempt to replicate real life.    While playing on the comp most of your senses become irrelevant:  there is no smell; you cannot detect changes in the wind, temperature or humidity; sounds are restricted to stereo from the front rather than being all round; you have no peripheral vision;  you cannot talk to your [AI] squad, you have to use the keyboard; etc., etc., etc., etc., etc..

By messing with crosshairs you are changing one part of that complex equation without making a corresponding change elsewhere to balance it.   It's ok for the player to do that - he can create his own compensations, should he wish to do so.   But it's not ok for the mission designer to do that, which is why he can't.

The shoes were a reference to an old Two Ronnies joke that came to mind for no reason in particular.   Something about an RAF tribute to the 45,000 men of Bomber Command who fought during WWII in Wellingtons, and the 296 who fought in pink suede boots.  Don't quote me.

[THobson]

Very insightful, I too have been thinking about some of the things you can and cannot do.  I used to feel that using the old third person view (or worse the command view) to see round corners was cheating.  I now don't think it is for exactly the reasons mac mentions, you can't hear the breathing of the opposition, you can't smell them or their cigarettes etc. so the player needs some way to compensate for that.

I got my colours mixed up (blue and pink) I thought we were talking about the king.

[macguba]

Third person view is primarily to compensate you for the absence of touch:  you can't tell if you're leaning against the wall behind you, or if your foot is sticking out.

Command view is to compensate you for the almost complete absence of communication from your squad.

Using either to look round corners is cheating.

The crosshair is also largely a compenstation for the absence of touch:  you cannot feel the weapon in your hand, which in RL  is how you know roughly where it is pointing.    To say "oooh but in real life you don't see a crosshair in front of you" is merely to demonstrate that you have failed to consider what it is for.

Operation Jason, what is the underlying reason for this?  What are you trying to achieve?   We may be able to suggest a workaround that accomplishes whatever it is that you actually want.

[nominesine]

sounds are restricted to stereo from the front rather than being all round

I think Mac is from north-western europe. They don't have surround systems there yet. Otherwise heÂ's pretty much correct  

I do believe that you can monitor what keys the player is using while playing. Thus it might be possible to check if a player who has not changed the control settings in OFP is "cheating" with third person view or not. I say "might be possible", because I've never tried it myself.

I've forgotten the name of the program, but it's an external program (i.e outside OFP) written by Kegetys, I think. Macguba, Thobson or General Barron is bound to be here and straighten this out in a couple of minutes.

[macguba]

all round

I didn't mean in a plane.       Or can these funky new systems replicate a sound from above or beneath you?  I hope to get one just as soon as the electricity arrives.

Yes I think somebody did create some kind of keystroke detection thing... don't know any more about it though.   Have a hunt around.

[Planck]

but it's an external program (i.e outside OFP) written by Kegetys

FWatch?


Planck

[Operation Jason]

I wanted to know this because I was gonna take some videos & screenshots from OFP and I didn't want the crosshair to be there... lol i was too big of an idiot to check the difficulty settings stuff. Thansk for your input anyway.

But, I remember once that I was playing online and the crosshair was disabled, and I'm pretty sure it was for everybody. I was playing with the guy who made the mission and I asked him how he disabled them and he said it was a script and that he would show me how to do it when the game was over.... we both forgot about it and now I don't remember what mission it was or who that guy was. Also, just the other day i cleaned out my multiplayer missions folder and deleted nearly everything besides the ones I play so i probably deleted that mission

anyway, whatever...


EDIT: there are also a lot of mp missions I've played that have 3rd person view disabled... maybe that works like disabling the crosshair?

[bored_onion]

try pressing Q - that often gets rid of it. otherwise just use veteran mode when you record it.

hope that helps

[Trapper]

Disabled crosshair or 3rd person view in multiplayer are just server difficulty settings. The 'scripting' this guy was probably talking about is done in the config file of the server, not in the mission file.

[Operation Jason]

hmm so if i was to put it on veteran mode when I hosted a game, would everyone else's difficulty settings be changed to what mine are, for that game?

[Trapper]

Probably

I only know it about dedicated servers. There, in some config file, you setup all the separate difficulty options. And you have the possibility to do this for cadet and veteran. So while playing you can always select from two custom difficulty sets between the missions, without restarting the dedicated server.