Evochron Legacy SE HUD transparency for main displays

[PerKhan]

Hello everyone,

I would like to set transparency to 0 to my main displays (in 3d cockpit OFF mode), that is I would like my status, radar and target displays to be non-transparent with black background - but was unable to find a solution within customization kit.

Apparently there is a "shadow file" for left, right and radar display as there are lines in /hud/gauges.txt that sets shadow X,Y and Z position on the HUD. Files for displays are ccpitblue1.png and so on.. but i cant find shadow file for it and dont know names of .png files that control shadow/transparency for this HUD displays.

So far i tried:

1. customizing ccpitblue(x).png files in photoshop with different colors - no effect (darker colors = more transparent, black color = 100% transparency, white is fully visible but this is not helping for obvious reasons)

2. creating .png files with -shadow suffix (e.g. ccpitblue2shadow.png , ccpitblue2-shadow.png) with shadow color - no effect (game doesnt load shadow files)

3. creating a custom HUD display with CustomDisplays.txt in /hud folder with idea to make black background without indicators behind main HUD displays. But backgrounds turns off when you set 3d cockpit mode to OFF. In first line of CustomDisplays.txt there is an option to attach this custom display (in my case simple black background box) to helmet visor (turn with player's head) instead of cockpit model, but with GlobalDisplayMode__=2 , i get same results like my custom blank display is attached to cockpit even when i look around in game, and black boxes disappear when i switch to cockpit OFF.

Has anyone tried something similar?

any help would be greatly appreciated...

[Vice]

Hello PerKhan,

The cockpit displays themselves always need to be additive transparent as they are projected holograms with 3D structures. So if they were solid, they'd risk clipping their characters, readouts, indicators (ie radar), and/or objects with their other layers at various distances, settings, and/or angles.

The shadow values in the 'gauges.txt' file are for the background structures placed behind the displays when the 3D cockpit is turned off or the view is in chase mode. So if you want a floating HUD and displays, rather than the full 3D cockpit, you can use those shadow surfaces for a more solid appearance and turn off the 3D cockpit in the settings menu. By default, the shadow surfaces use an internal image index of 225 which provides partial transparency. If you want to make them more solid so nothing passes through them, create a text file in either the save data folder (\Documents\EvochronLegacySE) or the '\media' folder inside the game's install folder named:

displaybackground.txt

And in that file, enter the number 210 100. That will make the background shadow surfaces behind the display holograms fully solid.

If you want to retain the 3D cockpit structures, then the only option for a solid background for the displays is to import a custom 'ccpit#displays.x' (where the '#' character is the index for the cockpit you are using and you can just make copies of the same mesh for all cockpits if you want the effect to be universal for all indexes from 1-9). Sample meshes are included with the cockpit viewing program in indexes 1 and 2 (same file, just used for both). So you can modify that one or use it as a template to design your own with perhaps larger solid background surfaces.

[PerKhan]

Thank you Vice for quick reply.

Problem solved with displaybackground.txt file with number 100.

With number 210 there's no change in background transparency so i tried number 100 and it worked.
Background behind HUD displays are now fully solid with black color.

Have a nice day

Petar

[Vice]

Excellent, glad that worked. Thanks for the follow up and confirmation. I'd forgotten about the range. It is indeed a percentage value now and not a direct index, so 0-100 range applies.