known issue HUD-displayed elements are too thick on high-aspect screen

[Lemur_Olo]

Hi,

I have noted that items displayed on HUD are too thick when the screen aspect is high in the DCS settings. I have an ultra-wide display with aspect 32:9 = 3,55 and some of the letters on the HUD are not readable (see example below). Also, all the lines are too fat. After short experiments with the aspect ratio, I can see that HUD-displayed items are directly dependent on the screen aspect. Below you can see two screenshots with two different aspects.

ED do you think you can make a correction?  

1. Screen aspect ratio ~= 7,3, HUD items are very thick

null

 

2. Screen aspect ratio ~= 0,5 HUD item are very thin

 

 

 

Regards,

Lemur

 

Edited March 18, 2023 by Lemur_Olo

[rob10]

May not fully solve your problem, but have you tried turning down HUD brightness?  If it's turned up too high for conditions it can "glow" a bit like what you're seeing in the 1st pic.

[Lemur_Olo]

Thanks rob10. Glow reduction doesn't solve problem, unfortunately. I am working on a good, temporary solution. Will post it soon. 

Beside this, real correction by ED is very welcome. Wide screens became more and more popular. So probably more pilots suffer this issue. 

[MadKreator]

Been dealing with this for a long time.32:9 screen also.  Have to edit the  strokes luas and change thickness and fuzziness to get them to normal size.. also affects some mfd’s like the harrier. It’s pretty much un useable without editing the luas .. I made ovgme mods for them.

 

Edited March 19, 2023 by MadKreator

[BIGNEWY]

Hi, 

this is a known issue and the team are looking into it. 

thank you

[Lemur_Olo]

OK, thanks Bignew.

In the meantime, I have created a temporary solution for pilots who want to mod their planes. You can find attached my version of the MDG_strokesDefs.lua file. In the file I am calculating the stoke_fuzinezz parameter of the HUD elements based on the CENTER viewport aspect ratio:

[cat]

local v = find_viewport("GU_MAIN_VIEWPORT", "CENTER")
local a = v.width / v.height;

-- HUD parameters
-- Fuzziness depends on main viewport aspect ratio
stroke_thickness  = 0.8
stroke_fuzziness  = 1 / ( 0.8 * a + 1 ) 

[cat]

Additionally, in the file, you can see the new value of DMC_outline_fuzziness, which makes elements on the AMPCD visible a little better when the map view mode is On.

You can install this modification by replacing MDG_strokesDefs.lua in the DCS installation directory. The file is located here:

\Mods\aircraft\FA-18C\Cockpit\Scripts\Multipurpose_Display_Group\Common\indicator\MDG_strokesDefs.lua 

MDG_strokesDefs.lua

Additionally, I am attaching the Open Mod Manager package, for easy installation.

FA-18C_HUD_fuziness_correction_by_Lemur_v1.0.zip

[wilbur81]

This has been a Hornet bug since day one, back in good ole' 2018.  I'm sure it will get fixed eventually.

[GregP]

I've just recently stumbled across this fix and I really like how it calculates it based on your actual aspect ratio, unlike the other mods I've seen over the years that just suggest specific values for thickness and fuzziness.
 

I run a windowed resolution of 8000 x 2100 and settled on values of 0.5 and 0.9, respectively. The HUD now looks better than anything else I've tried, however I noticed that the HMD now seems to be just a single pixel thick, which is very difficult to read in sunny conditions. When I uninstall the mod and go back to the default HUD, the HMD font and symbol are still extremely thin, but appear to be at least two pixels wide and thus significantly easier to read. I've tried messing with the other values in the file but none seems to have any effect. @Lemur_Olo or anyone else have any success improving the look of the HMD? 

[GregP]

Ended up answering my own question based on CapnCoke's excellent AMPCD mod thread where he goes into detail about all the tweaks needed to control all the displays' fonts and symbology. Highly recommend people check out that thread for more tips like the one Lemur_Olo posted above.

Edited January 7 by GregP