Handy Feature Request: Pointing
 

Further along development, it think it would be helpful for network play to be able to point:

• Pointing would be helpful on the conning tower. It would be natural to be able to point to a certain ship for torpedoing.
• At some point, when there are planes in the air, it might help when there isn't time to say 153.7 degrees starboard.
• It might help communicate to particular gauges and valves, for an emergency standby player, who has not had their training, could be order to do a particular task.

To make the implementation more simple:

• To point, the user would hold a key down, when they release the key, the model unpoints. Using a key that is not toggled will reduce excessive pointing.
• From the viewers perspective, you would point to the view center (crosshair location). You can raise the arm up or down for elevation, and that's it. You would turn the player as normal for the windage. So, if you were looking at a valve, you could press the point-key, and your character would point at the key.
• Network-wise, the point packets would only give none, or an elevation from 1(down) to 179 (up).
• Only a single byte would be needed to send the point command. Zero would disengage the pointing action.
• Animation-wise, the point would be limited to down to up.
• The point would be inhibited if the arm could not be extended, such as pointing through the bulkhead.
• A slight elbow bend would allow the pointing to be more compact.
• Perhaps the pointing could be limited to a certain number of angles, such as 8 or 16, so that only a few bits are used.
• Perhaps the other bits could be used for future use, such as waving to other U-Boats

[Gaming trivia: Quake II had a "gesture command," in which the player models would each have either a crotch-self-grab or stick up their middle finger.



Ref: https://www.quakewiki.net/console/co...sole-commands/ ]