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Danial

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Okay, assuming that the small 3x3 image is not used anywhere then I'll need to revise my tables to show that. For the X-COM soldier:

 

           X-COM Soldier
Tiles     unitref[062]     Size
 0             0            0
 1             4            0
 2             8           5x5
 3            12           7x7
 4            16           9x9
 5            20          11x11
 6            24          11x11
 7            28          13x13
 8            32          15x15
 9            36          15x15

For a Sectoid:

 

             Sectoid
Tiles     unitref[062]     Size
 0             0            0
 1             3            0
 2             6           5x5
 3             9           5x5
 4            12           7x7
 5            15           9x9
 6            18           9x9
 7            21          11x11
 8            24          11x11
 9            27          13x13
10            30          15x15
11            33          15x15

 

Therefore, the normal soldier only needs to traverse 8 tiles to create the maximum blip, and the Sectoid only needs to go 10 tiles. This also means that a tank will only need to move 1 tile to reach max blip size. I know, I said that a unitref[062] value of 30 and 35 looked like different sizes, but the problem is that those blips oscillate. It makes it tough to tell what the exact size is.

 

And of course here is the base table with a hypothetical unit having a unitref[061] value of 5:

 

         Imaginary unit 
Tiles     unitref[062]     Size
  0             0            0
  1             5           5x5
  2            10           7x7
  3            15           9x9
  4            20          11x11
  5            25          13x13
  6            30          15x15
  7            35          15x15

Sorry about that everyone, but I was under the mistaken impression that the Motion Scanner converted the blip sizes stored in the game to the images shown on the scanner. :phew:

 

- Zombie

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My suspecion is that is oscillates up. I could be wrong though. The same argument could be used for the 5x5 blip (the smallest). It sure can't oscillate downward because the next smallest blip is either nothing, or the never-seen 3x3 square blip. The game might not be overlaying another blip on top of the true blip size, so if this is the case then the game doesn't need addition blip sizes available - it just increases (or decreases) the size shown on the scanner screen. :phew:

 

- Zombie

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How about taking screenshots of the largest blip just to find out for sure? Depending on how fast the game updates, this can prove to be quite tricky. :phew:

 

Perhaps the blips oscilates down with the 3x3 image and the next one up used as the smallest blip size.

 

- NKF

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How about taking screenshots of the largest blip just to find out for sure? Depending on how fast the game updates, this can prove to be quite tricky. :D

You're telling me. I tried grabbing a few screenies to compare by hitting F12 as fast as I could but all I got was a bunch of .tga pics which look the same. My computer runs way too fast. :phew:

 

Perhaps the blips [oscillates] down with the 3x3 image and the next one up used as the smallest blip size.

I don't quite follow you, NKF. The 3x3 square blip is non-existent and is never shown on the Motion Scanner either alone or in combination with the 5x5 blip. I mean, my computer is fast but I could tell if a square is present underneath the 5x5 image. :)

 

- Zombie

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It's there - the game just doesn't display it.

 

I went and modified the images and gave most of them a 4 pixel arm that goes clockwise for each blip. Sure enough, each blip uses only two images, with the smallest 'visible' blip (or the blip for >= 8TUs

 

Because the blips change sizes in multiples of 4, one could say that the blip for 4 TUs would be the 3x3 and 5x5 blip and for

 

It makes sense, since it would give away positions of all units regardless of how little they've moved.

 

So, the sectoid is one of the stealthier units... hmm. Not bad.

 

- NKF

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  • 2 years later...

Sorry to dredge up a 2-year-old thread, but I was just browsing the Motion Scanner page on the Wiki and remembered this. Now reading through it once again, I have a few questions:

 

1) Was it ever figured out what the 15x15 blip oscillates up to? Could it be that 13x13 is the largest blip (oscillating up to the 15x15), making a total of 5 levels of detection? In other words, is there any visible difference in values higher than 25? (I know I'm pain, but I can no longer check these things myself :oh:)

 

2) Is it only the Sectoid and Tanks that vary in UNITREF[61]? Were all other units checked?

 

3) What proven information from this thread can we put on the Wiki?

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1) Was it ever figured out what the 15x15 blip oscillates up to? Could it be that 13x13 is the largest blip (oscillating up to the 15x15), making a total of 5 levels of detection? In other words, is there any visible difference in values higher than 25? (I know I'm pain, but I can no longer check these things myself :P)

I'll have to check this again. I wonder if there is a variable somewhere which takes the value from unitref and carries that over to the motion scanner screen to determine blip size... if we ever found that, we could nail down if all the blips are used or not. My belief is that the 13x13 blip is the biggest and that just jumps up to the 15x15 blip.

 

2) Is it only the Sectoid and Tanks that vary in UNITREF[61]? Were all other units checked?

Aye, Sectoids are 3, the other units are 4, and the tanks are 30.

 

3) What proven information from this thread can we put on the Wiki?

The oscillating bit and mention something about unitref[061] and [062] (so far). :oh:

 

- Zombie

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2) Is it only the Sectoid and Tanks that vary in UNITREF[61]? Were all other units checked?

Actually, they were checked (and confirmed) indirectly when MikeTheRed and myself were deciphering the alien data in the executable. You can find a table with those numbers here. The Zombie also has a value of 4 even though it's stats aren't defined in the executable in the normal area. It's lucky the game passes that info to unitref.dat so that we wouldn't have to guess. :oh:

 

- Zombie

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