I'm one of those who think labels are a necessary evil given the limitations of the sim, but I find the defaults too informative. I noticed in the GUI manual that these can be revised in "C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\Ka-50\Config\View\labels.lua" file. Turns out things can be tweaked pretty thoroughly.

In an effort to get a little more balance I've adjusted the label defaults to achieve the following:
- reduced air label information and visibility distances; only the pilot name up close
- reduced ground label information and visibility distances, incl. no ground labels within 500m
- disabled weapon labels
- and set all labels the same color (green) - no God's eye IFF!

Make a copy of the file first (just in case), use notepad++ (as advised in the the FAQ) and cut+replace with below. Changed items in the file are bold

Your mileage may vary - tweak it further as suits your taste.

Cheers

------------- replacement .lua file begins ------------------------

-- Label parameters
-- Copyright (C) 2004, Eagle Dynamics.

-- schmeeling adjustments 30 Dec 2008
-- reduced air distances
-- reduced ground label distances, no ground labels within 500m
-- disabled weapon labels
-- set all labels the same color (green)

AirOn = true
GroundOn = true
NavyOn = true
WeaponOn = false

-- Label max distance depends on graphics visibility range option value
-- For low �E40000.0 m
-- For medium �E50000.0 m
-- For high �E80000.0 m

---------------------------------
-- Label text format symbols
-- %N - name of object
-- %D - distance to object
-- %P - pilot name
-- %n - new line
-- %% - symbol '%'
-- %x, where x is not NDPn% - symbol 'x'
------------------------------------------
-- Example
-- labelFormat[5000] = "Name: %N%nDistance: %D%n Pilot: %P"
-- up to 5km label is:
-- Name: Su-33
-- Distance: 30km
-- Pilot: Pilot1

AirFormat = {}
AirFormat[1000] = "}%P"
AirFormat[2500] = "}%n%N"
AirFormat[10000] = "]%n%D"
AirFormat[20000] = "'"

GroundFormat = {}
GroundFormat[500] = ""
GroundFormat[2500] = "{%N"
GroundFormat[5000] = "~%n%D"
GroundFormat[10000] = "`"

NavyFormat = {}
NavyFormat[5000] = "{%N"
NavyFormat[10000] = "~%n%D"
NavyFormat[20000] = "`"

WeaponFormat = {}
WeaponFormat[5000] = "[%N%n%D"
WeaponFormat[10000] = "|%n%D"
WeaponFormat[20000] = "|"

-- Colors in {red, green, blue} format, volume from 0 up to 255

ColorAliesSide = {0, 255, 0}
ColorEnemiesSide = {0, 255, 0}


------------- replacement .lua file ends ------------------------

A couple of screenshots from the "battle" mission to illustrate:

More REALISTIC labels are "no labels at all".

I prefer no labels as well, but you can customize when they show up as well as how much data they will give you. That should be helpful to those with less than average eyes/video cards/monitors.

LA: That was kinda the point of the original post actually...

SM: Don't disagree. I shoulda probably titled it "Less-Unrealistic Labels".

Just trying to find a balanced use of labels to make up for the limitations of the monitor without giving the whole game away and forcing more realistic use of the shval.

Can anyone take a quick screenie of what the labels look like with this tweak?

screenies are beyond me right now, but in words: labels are exactly the same, but they just appear later (closer).

i.e. by default in BS a ground unit will appear as a "`" at 20km, identified with a distance within 10km, and fully described at 5km.

I've simply revised these distances to 10km, 5km and 2km respectively, and turned off labels altogether at 500m (should be easy to see by then). I made similar adjustment to air labels, and I've turned off weapons labels altogether (not needed at all imho). I've also set ALL labels to green, rather than red and blue by sides, so you have to figure out who's who on your own (i.e. a little fog of war).

My theory: In real life you could probably(???) pick out a "thing" at 10k, have a pretty good feel for distance by 5k, and get a pretty solid idea of what it is by 2k, but you'd never get IFF for free.

The BS defaults seem way too generous, however without labels I can't seem to find anything until it shoots me!

The real point of this post is you don't have to agree with me - just tweak away until it suits your needs. The text above is a straight replace of the original text of Labels.lua, so it's about a 2 min effort to cut+paste and see what you like. You can also edit the .lua file as long as you're not in the sim itself - i.e. you can alt-tab out from the mission page to make a tweak, save the .lua, and re-start the mission, see if you like it, exit, tweak, lather, rinse, repeat...

Cheers,

Just press Print Scrn in the game. The screenshots are saved in a catalog called, whaddayaknow, ScreenShots.

Thanks for this schmeeling. There's some scope for customising labels it seems.

dumb question: how does one actually attach a screenshot to a post?

you need an image host that you can upload your screenshots to. after uploading you will have a link for each screenshot and then you can add them to your post by clicking on the "Enter an image" icon in the toolbar above the window where you enter your text for a post. when you click on "Enter an image" a window will pop up where you enter the link from the screenshot you want to post. just copy and paste the link from the image host website into this window. i use imageshack.

read this for some info:

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2423932/STICKY_Image_video_hosting_sit.html#Post2423932

Thanks! See edited original post.

Thanks for the heads-up schmeeling - this a great improvement for those of us who still need some form of labeling but without the screen being cluttered with them. I now have my ground labels all set to "%X%" so I know something is there without knowing exactly what it is until I find it with the Shkval. I take my hat off to those who do battle without any labels at all!