Use of the Compass and Taking Bearings

[Rubix]

Hello, I'm new to Arma and really enjoying the realism, and have changed the settings so that waypoints, objectives etc don't show on the screen, only on the map. The issue is navigating to these can sometimes be tricky. I was wondering if there is a way to take bearings on the map using the compass, just as you would in real life. Line the compass up with your location on the map, point it at where you want to go and there's your bearing. I can't seem to figure out anyway of rotating the compass on the map, it simply points in the direction you are facing, which means you can't take bearings of lankmarks/locations you can't see. Also in the tutorial the guy draws lines on the map to triangulate a position. Again I can't figure out a way of doing this either. Any advice on how to do either of these things or whether they are even possible or what mods to make them possible would be much appreciated. Many thanks!

[=MS=Scout]

when you're in game , Bring up your compass. Shoot an azimuth, the direction you want togo. Now, open your map and look at your compass. If you double click on the compass , it'll make it alittle larger to see. It'll be pointing the Direction you're looking at...

Whlie in game rotate to North on the capmpass, now say rotate due south and now go back to your map..you'll see it has moved for you... These compass are used for Artillery call in. The scale on the edge of the compass is set up for 1/50,000 scale maps..

Here's you a manual on that compass....

https://www.benmeadows.com/store/assets/support_documents/102023MANUAL.pdf

[UBE Chief]

As for drawing lines, you hold down Left Ctrl while holding Left Mouse Button.

[Vitdom]

You can draw lines on the map by holding CTRL, then clicking and drawing.
It is not possible to rotate the compass while looking at the map. This is a feature and not something that has been missed. When in moving vehicles and a contact is spotted, but you have to go on, your groupmate can look at the contact and open the map and mark it with a static bearing.

[Rubix]

Thanks for the replies. The left mouse button and ctrl allowed me to draw which is great, however is there a way of drawing straight lines? Also is seems very strange that you can't rotate the compass whilst looking at the map. Sometimes you can't see the place where you want to go, but can see it on the map. This is where taking taking a bearing from the map would be extremely useful and this is very common practice in real life. Is there a mod than enables this?

[UBE Chief]

Remember the tutorial in the campaign? The AAF guys didn't have GPS or a map - they had to go off landmarks available to them, then you zeroed them in. Maybe you can do the same?

EDIT: And since all the maps are perfectly aligned (North, South, East, West), it should be slightly easier.

[local drunk driver]

@Rubix u can draw straight lines using LCtrl+shift

[Valen]

My cheap soldier solution:

I aim the compass to something, preferably crouched or prone to prevent swaying.
Open the map.
Start a straight line from my position with LCtrol Shift and hold it the entire time in the general direction and distance.
Zoom in far enough so the line is larger than the compass side.
As I hold the Lmousebutton down I also pan the map with right mouse button hold. To get the line closer to the edge of the compass.
If I notice an angle difference to it I let go of the right mouse button. Choose a new guestimated endpoint for the line and move there. (Still holding Shift, LCtrl and left mouse)
Repeat incremental move with right click hold to get the line to better align with the compass.

I did not know that double clicking the map compass worked to increase it's size. Although I did find it odd that it was smaller at times. Thanks for the tip =MS=Scout

But there is also the Simple MapTools mod. It has range circles, compass, height/slope curve profile along line and an interface to find a certain mapgrid reference. You would need to read the degree on the compass and match it with the compass scale. Haven't found a way to directly plot a line with it though. But leaving a dot is possible.

ACE 3 has a map tool object that you can have in your inventory and enable on the map to act as a transparent overlay with scales that you can rotate and pan to match to the compass direction.

[Mr_MeGusta]

Yup Ace 3 Map tool is super useful and you can use to edge of the tool to draw lines as well. In addition to compass direction you can also get distance.

[[WSC]K.Belle]

Hello if you want to like to know more of the game come check us out.https://discord.gg/7xBm3DV