[Mod] Crosshair Overlay

[ashley]

The Recursion Real-Time Stat Tracker now has a built-in configurable crosshair overlay! It features automatic centering of images, the ability to use any custom user-specified image for the crosshair, an easy way to toggle its visibility on demand, and immediate updating so you can change the crosshair in seconds if desired.

Installation
On the main menu screen, press "Add Mod", find the "Crosshair Overlay" mod, and press "Install". If you accidentally hide the mod manager or need to access it while in-game (it hides automatically when a session starts), move your mouse to the left side of the client and click in the highlighted region with the arrow.

Configuration
To configure what image the crosshair overlay uses, click the "Crosshair" component and "Configure". Press the "[...]" button and navigate to the file path of the image you'd like to use.



A small set of preloaded images is included in the "Crosshairs" folder. For easy access, copy and paste your own images into this folder so you can quickly navigate to them later on. Right click the "Crosshair" component and click "Open Directory" to reach the mod folder, where the "Crosshairs" folder is contained. The preloaded crosshairs are shown below:



To restore the default white dot, right click the variable and select "Restore Defaults".

Additional premade crosshairs
A larger set of premade crosshairs from the legacy .rtst_pak files is available here: http://goo.gl/PvvsWX. Simply download the image you would like to use and save it to the "Crosshairs" folder.

An incredibly large collection of crosshairs can be found at this Google Drive, courtesy of Iris.

The crosshairs compiled by Iris come in a variety of colors:



You get a choice of numerous dot sizes, with and without borders:



There are many types of crosses, with and without dots and gaps, as well as three-prong "Kobra" crosses:



Creating a custom crosshair
Creating a custom crosshair overlay image is easy, and can be done very quickly using free online tools. One such tool is pixelartmaker.com. Draw your custom crosshair image, then save it (remember to set the size of each pixel as 1px) and copy the downloaded PNG into the "Crosshairs" folder. Make sure that the space around your crosshair is even, as the Recursion Crosshair Overlay will automatically center an image, not necessarily the crosshair inside of it (good, good, bad). Of course, any number of programs can be used as well, such as GIMP or Paint.NET.

Frequently Asked Questions
To contact me directly, please send a Reddit PM to /u/ashleyapb.

1. Are crosshair overlays allowed? Won't I be banned?

DBG staff have explicitly stated on numerous occasions that crosshair overlays are allowed to use, e.g. here as well as specifically voiced their support for the tracker.

2. Why would anyone need a crosshair overlay?

Many of the in-game reticles and iron sights in Planetside 2 are off-center by a few pixels, move around slightly with your player character's motions while moving your view or walking around, and offer little in the way of customization.

You get a variety of reticles with the 1x and 2x optics, but for higher zoom scopes, you're locked into at most two options, often only one. Crosshair overlays allow you to use any style you like with the assurance that it will always be centered and accurate.

3. I don't like any of the available options, what can I do?

While the premade images are designed to accommodate a wide variety of choices and cover many of the typical crosshairs seen in games, everyone has their personal preference and they may not be satisfied with what's available. The Recursion Crosshair Overlay allows for the use of any custom image, preferably saved as a transparent .png for best appearance.

4. Why are the crosshairs evenly sized? Shouldn't the crosses and dots be only 1 or 3 pixels wide to be as small as possible?

There is a common belief that crosshairs should be 1 pixel wide to be as small and unobtrusive as possible. This may be true for that scenario, but a 1 pixel dot is not as accurate a measure of the center of your screen as one that's 2 pixels wide would be (4 pixels total). Because all commonly used resolutions have an even number of pixels (for example, the ubiquitous 1920x1080), there is no "center" pixel.

The center is a group of 4 pixels in the middle of the screen, with "true" center being physically in between those pixels and not able to be displayed. The premade images follow this and are at minimum 2 pixels wide. Dots or crosses with 1 pixel widths will work fine, but will be offset by "half" a pixel from true center.

5. My crosshair looks like it's off-center sometimes, is it inaccurate?

Assuming your crosshair image is accurate (the preloaded ones are guaranteed to be accurate, as are any images with evenly sized padding around them - see "Creating a custom crosshair"), the overlay will be accurately placed. Many of the in-game reticles, scopes, and iron-sights are off-center and are not a reliable representation of the center of your screen.

To ensure that your crosshair overlay is centered, compare its position to that of the hipfire crosshair. An easy way of doing this is to hold a Medkit, which will show you a small white cross that can serve as an accurate reference point for the center. If it is for some reason misaligned, you can reset its position under Tools->Options-Display or manually input a position in the same place after turning off "Centered Image" under the component's configuration options.

6. Why aren't all the premade crosshair images included by default?

Default crosshairs are a mandatory download for anyone using the Recursion Crosshair Overlay, meaning that a needlessly large collection of crosshair images would place an excessive burden on anyone with slow internet download speeds, metered connections, limited free hard drive space, and other restrictions.

Keeping the external collections separate remains easily accessible to anyone interested while ensuring that people access these collections and download images on-demand without anything forced on them.