Window Management in Cliffs Of Dover

Making Windows in COD work to your advantage. Window Management including Creating, Deleting and Manipulating Windows and also a complete suggestion for you to start with.

Introduction

I remember the first time I started playing Cliffs of Dover that one of the most annoying things was sorting out my windows ingame, tweaking them every time I realised I needed some more info at critical times during flying. Here are some settings to act as a start for new fliers.

For those accostomed to flight simming the ingame windows is just part and parcel of learning a new flight sim or game so please note this tutorial is probably not for you. It is for those players who may have never flown a flight sim or have little knowledge of online gaming such as Cliffs of Dover. It is designed to ease new blood into this Sim that we think so much of.

Also note that this is meant to be a base for people to start from and not the definitive version of window management. Once you have the basic nowhow to use these windows you can change as much or as little as you need.

...lew...

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A Brief Tutorial About Ingame Window Management

Ingame windows are an integral part of any Flight Sim. They must provide vital information about your vehicle in the form of management and damage, and ingame chat for online play. They should be there for you when you need them and not a hinderence by blocking ingame visuals that put you at a disadvantage to the enemy. Big windows with lots of information will clutter your screen and in a flight sim such as Cliffs Of Dover where it is imperative that you be constantly scanning your environment for enemy contacts it is critical that you have no more windows than you actually need onscreen at any one time.

Important windows for 'Vehicle Damage' should be kept seperate as is a window strictly for the chat. This means that important damage information is on your screen in a specific area where it is less likely to be ignored. It also means it is not governed by the chat ie. if an important damage information is on screen at the same time that there is many chat inputs by players then it will not be on your screen long and could be more easily missed and scrolled away from your screen. Also important information should be brightly coloured so as to demand your attention and not to blend in with ANY of the environment inside or outside of your cockpit. Lesser important information can afford to be softer on the eye and tucked away in corners of your monitor so choose your colours with this in mind.

All windows should be in their own areas on screen and not overlapping at all.

Please click on all images in this tutorial in order to expand them and view them fully

A Short Tutorial video by Phillstyle of 92 squadron on the 'Grey Box issue' and Creating, Deleting, Moving and Resizing Info Windows.

1) Manipulating windows in Cliffs Of Dover

IMPORTANT - To make a window 'active' in order to influence it ingame we must hold 'Alt' and left click that window. We can now influence its characteristics. At any point during any of the procedures below you accidently click to a vacant part of your screen you will loose the ability to change anything in that particular window until you will have to 'Alt' and left click on it again . Bear this in mind if at any time you are clicking on items or windows that are not responding.

2) Creating a new window

To create a new window first right click on the screen in a vacant area. This will bring up a small window. Then left click 'New Info Window' and you will notice your new window will appear in the top left of your screen. The new window should be slightly transparent and grey. This new window can now be manipulated by right clicking on it and left clicking on the 'Cusomize:Info Window' tab. This will bring up a new window with information about what changes you want to make to your new window which will be explained later in this tutorial under '5) Customizing a Window'.

3) Deleting a window

To delete a window we must first make it active by holding 'Alt' and left clicking the window we want to delete. Now Right click on this new window and left click 'Close Window Info Window'. NOTE - Sometimes more than one window is created in the same area and you will have to use this procedure in order to delete all of them.

4) Moving and resizing an existing window

Before we can manipulate a window we must first make it active by 'Alt' and left clicking the window we want to manipulate.

a) Moving a window

Once a new window has been created you should be able to hover your mouse over the top of it until it turns to the 'hand' pointer. You can then left click, hold and drag this window where you want it to be.

b) Changing the dimensions of a window

A window can be extended or condensed by moving your cursor over the edges of a window until it turns into the 're-size' cursor. You can then left click, hold and move to manipulate the window to the required size.

5) Customizing a Window

Once a window has been created you can right click on it and hit 'Customize: Info Window' to bring up the 'Custom Info Window'.

The top option in 'item' will always be 'Window'

To change the window options left click 'Window' in the 'item' pane. The customizeable options for the window should now be in the laft pane. you can change these options by clicking on them in the left pane under 'value'.

Window Options

i) Title - Title of your window

ii) Title - With option to hide it or make it visible. Most windows do not need the title to be visible .

iii) Border - Option to make hidden or Visible

iv) Active Alpha BG - This option is for the Background (BG) opacity of your window whilst you are customizing it. As any customization of a window should be done under none combat situations this can be set to a relatively opaque level (anywhere from 50 to 255). If it has some opacity then you will be able to see where its borders will be ingame.

v) Inactive Alpha BG - This option is for the Background (BG) opacity whilst it is normally ingame. It is a good idea to have all of your windows set to '0' on this option. This will give you a clear window apart from the wording.

The central area 'Items' is the inventory of the items that you want to be displayed in this particular window. you can move items from the 'items list' and back again by left clicking on them and hitting the arrow keys in the window. Once you have the required items to be shown in this list you can click on them in the 'items' pane and the options for that criteria will be in the left pane under 'Property' and 'Value'. You can now customize each property by changing its 'Size', 'Colour' and 'Layout'. Not all items have these options.

Click 'SAVE' at the bottom of the window to save and close it.

6) Chat Window

Ingame chat is not just chat between players but also chat to the online server and from the online server giving information to players. Ingame chat will be continually scrolling and can be quite fast, for this reason it is best to keep this window for chat ONLY so that if it does move quickly you do not miss important ingame data such as vehicle damage etc.

Chat is best kept to around 6 - 8 lines for most players. Any more and it can start to encroach on your screen. Bear in mind when deciding how many lines of chat you want, how long chat is usually on screen for and how many lines you want to read at any one time. Keep it to the minimum if you can.

7) Net Stats

The Net stat window is only for online playing. It gives you a list of the players ingame at that moment, their scores, deaths, which side (Army), Aircraft they are flying and ping. To bring up 'Net Stats' one can right click the screen and see the option for 'Net Stats' or another idea is to dedicate a key in Options on the Main Menu screen as follows :

Main Menu > Options > Controls > Keys > Chat > Toggle Net Stats

The Net Stat window is a window that you will only want to read when you are not in immediate danger ingame, for this reason you can afford to make the window as big as you want (best full screen top to bottom) and put it where ever you want.See image below.

8) A Basic Window Management Option

Now that we have the ability to customize windows ingame below is a basic setup that you can use or as a basis to start from. You can keep it asis or change it to whatever criteria for your own personal requirements.


I hope this tutorial has been of some help.

...lew...

[Lewis]

Peter...Go here for help...
http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/
There's a LOT more help you'll get there...Very friendly place for new players...That is the home of CLOD now...More help..Patch information...New patch later this year with new theatre and aircraft...Its looking good!

[peter]

i have installed the game and it doesnt launch

[Stahlknecht]

Nice tutorial, i appreciate !

[MD44]

Good tutorial Lewis!

[Lewis]

Nice one Donik...always good to get thanks so as you know you did ok...~S~

[Donik]

Lewis, you just saved my ass, haha. Been fighting with these windows for a week or so. Very nicely written!

[Ser_Bald-twin]

Thx for the info

[billytoll]

My launch problems all were
video
card related. Spend 100.00 bucks problems solved.Acehigh 4.

[C for Charlie DFC]

Hi Rascal, All very good stuff and thanks for shareing. I used to have the chat box in my game and now it isn't there at all. Nothing. Do you know how to get it back at all. Many thanks anyway

[Lewis]

Hi Con...If I understand you correctly you want to change the colours of the type....Well if you look at the screenshot above in '8) A Basic Window Management Option' you will see that in each box the 'Window' is highlighted...What you need to do is highlight one of the items underneath..This will bring up options on the left pane for that particular item..There you should have an option for colour...As far as I know you can not change the chat colours..These remain white and red and blue for allied or enemy chat....I agree the blue is hard to see...It was a problem in IL-2 original as well