Picture In Picture - A Guide by WPMarshall

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by wpmarshall, September 14, 2014.

  1. wpmarshall

    wpmarshall Planetary Moderator

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    Discovering Picture In Picture, Exploring its intricacies and Effective Use.

    - A Guide by WPMarshall

    (Images pending as Printscreen is bound strangely and capture software causes PA crash)

    Discovering Picture in Picture
    For those starting out in Planetary Annihilation the game can be a bit daunting, confusing and intimidating, however you should not be too disheartened as there are many secrets hidden away in the UI that will help you get to grips with the game. Making them work for you in the way that assists you most will be instrumental in becoming a better player.

    To start off, Planetary Annihilation is a game on round maps, quite often featuring more than one celestial object in a given system. New comers to PA will find even this aspect challenging; how do you keep track of what is going on over on the other side of the planet, or on the other side of the system for that matter? The answer is simple and rather ingenious. Picture In Picture [PIP].

    There are many varied uses of PIP and of course even more varied situations you may find yourself in whilst in any given game of PA, one of the first steps in using the PIP is finding which functions most suit your needs and which will work most seamlessly, effectively and efficiently with your play style and manipulation of the game. These shall be covered in the next section.

    The Main Properties and Functions of PIP
    First things first - you need to toggle the PIP, you can do this by clicking on the icon depicting 2 squares in the bottom right of the UI. Click this button again once the PIP is open to close it.

    Properties of the PIP
    Importantly, the PIP has 2 main qualities, not only can you use it as a view-finder, as it were, to keep a track of something elsewhere, but you can also use it as though it was the main window and thus control units and give orders through the PIP, opening many more possibilities which we shall discuss later.

    > Camera

    In order to navigate and manipulate the camera in the PIP window you merely need to have your mouse cursor hovering over the PIP window, you are then free to use middle mouse scroll navigation, the arrow keys, WADS or however you wish to navigate through your own custom key bindings and configurations. You may reconfigure these controls at any time in the camera subsection of the Keyboard settings tab.

    > Control
    Earlier I also mentioned that you can play the game proper through the PIP window. Again, you just need to use your mouse, simply select buildings or units, give commands, set build queues etc as though you were doing so in the main window.

    Functions of the PIP
    You may also notice that when hovering over the PIP window there are a few 4 buttons that appear at the inner top left of the PIP; these provide further functionality for the PIP which can be toggled whenever you wish. Their functions will now be detailed. (It should be noted that these buttons can be pressed at any point in the game from whatever viewpoint or camera angle).

    > Swap Images
    The left-most toggle is that which will swap the PIP screen with the main window screen and vice versa. An example of this is when you have your main base in the main window and a moon colony in the PIP, if you want to quickly swap between them you click the button and the moon colony is now in the main window while the main base is now in the PIP.

    > Copy to pip
    This toggle is rather straight forward. If at any point you find yourself looking at something important in the main window which you wish to keep track of you can simply open the PIP and click this button. It will replicate the exact camera positioning of the main window in the PIP leaving you free to navigate the main window and proceed with the game.

    > Go to recent notification
    While this toggle is active, the PIP screen will change to show the location most recent notification such as "Deep Space Radar Construction", "Metal Extractor Destroyed" and "Enemy Commander Located" to name a few examples. (I must recommend not using this toggle past about 3 or so minutes as later in the game notifications can come in thick and fast and the PIP screen cannot show more than 1 at any given time. Not only this, but later in the game the other functions will likely server you better as they will be more tailored for your own designated points of interest).

    > Mirror
    Finally, the mirror function does what it says on the tin, any planet, moon or asteroid that you are currently centred on will have their reverse side shown in the PIP. The best example would be the light and dark side of a moon. If your camera is positioned over the light side of the moon, the PIP will show the dark. What is really useful is that should you decide to scroll your camera, the PIP will do the same so that it always mirrors what is in the main window.
    Last edited: September 16, 2014
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  2. wpmarshall

    wpmarshall Planetary Moderator

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    Effective Use and Synergy of Features
    Now that we have gone over each of the main functions of the PIP we can now begin theory-crafting, as it were, regarding how one might use it, but more importantly how YOU might use it. Of course the manner and extent to which you do shall vary as you become more adept at the game and the UI in general. in each of the above sections I have provided an example of how the functions can be used and in general these can extrapolate to a large number of similar and diverse situations in PA but of course you also need to be aware of a degree of synergy between features in PA.

    The main 2 other features I would recommend trying out and getting used to are the Camera Anchor controls and also the unit tracking toggle.

    The latter is simple - simply click T while you have a unit selected and the camera will automatically follow that unit. PIP can help follow an early game scout in this regard. Combine this with the PIP's Notification toggle and you shall be instantly aware of having scouted your enemy immediately at which point you are free to decided how you wish to proceed with using the PIP from that point. Don't forget your scout doesn't need to go on a suicide reconnaissance mission, instead you can quickly move it away from the enemy commander using the PIP, keeping your scout alive and useful.

    Using Camera Anchors can take a little getting used to but you'll thank me once you've mastered it. For me it is instrumental in both playing, spectating and casting the game. Camera anchors have fantastic uses when combined with the PIP features especially the Swap toggle. To set camera anchors hold shift and press a number. For example Shift-1 will save your camera's current position to anchor 1. At any time you wish to return to that camera location at the stroke of a key simply hold alt and press the corresponding number. In this case alt-1 will take you back to that original anchor. You can have 10 anchors at a given time and can overwrite them on the fly as the game develops. An example of how to use this might be if you are playing a 5v5 with shared armies option on. You might wish to set a camera anchor above each of your team's bases/commander spawn locations to keep track of them quickly by cycling through them. You can even do this using the PIP while keeping the main window above your own base. Another use of camera anchors might be if you have a large number of planets, perhaps having an anchor per planet will help your navigation later into the game as action intensifies.

    Now that I've discussed how the PIP can be used with other camera features let's explore a few situational examples of how PIP can be useful. Do not be afraid to use PIP however you wish or that best suits you, the following are merely ones which I find myself often using it for.

    > Multiple Base tracking
    Should you find yourself with bases in a number of places on a large planet or even across planets, keeping track of the bases alone is a task enough especially when not part of team, that is without the added time and effort of having to navigate there every time you wish change your focus. Combined with camera anchors, the PIP can make your life SO much easier. Don't forget that you can control the game in the PIP window as though it were the main window or you can swap them if you like having a larger more expanded view of a location.

    > Team Play
    As hinted at earlier, keeping a track of your allies and their struggles can be instrumental in keeping a team together and neglect of this can lead to a team falling apart. You might need to know when your ally has an army rolling through his base and that therefore you should perhaps be sending him reinforcements through a teleporter. In a shared armies scenario, you may be a faster player than your team-mates or have spotted a gap in their base/defence/army composition - hop into the PIP and fix that problem. Though I would advise letting them know first and checking to make sure you are using an idle fabricator rather than one on a set build queue. Use of voice communication is EXTREMELY helpful in team games.

    > More zoomed out Early Game + Intel
    You may wish to have a more zoomed in approach to your game early on but like to keep an eye on the bigger picture, especially the case in 1v1 games. Make sure to build your radar and you can leave your PIP more zoomed out which will alert you of any radar blips that appear. You can combine this with the notification button as there is usually a notification for "Enemy Sighted" taking you to the last seen location of a radar blip.

    > Base and Armies
    You may to be able to micro-manage a bit more and keep control of your base and build queues will leading an attack on your opponent. You can have the attack in your PIP with your base in the main window, or the other way around, which ever suits you. You could even have multiple armies from a number of directions. Keep track of them all at once using the PIP.

    > Multiple planets
    I highly recommend that at the start of a game involving multiple planets that, before you spawn in, take a little time to set a camera anchor for each planet's default by clicking through the drop-down in the top right of the UI. You can later toggle the camera anchors within the PIP as long as you have your mouse hovering over it to quickly swap between these planets and locations without having to spend time zooming out into the celestial view, finding the planet you wish to view, zooming in on it, and then finding your units on it. It will save you heaps of time in the long run and with the use of PIP will be instrumental (one could go so far as to say essential) in your control of your mid to late game empire across the solar system!

    > Exploring / Colonising / Invading a Planet
    Have you sent an orbital fabricator off to a distant planet to then build a teleporter on its surface? Do you have delicate Astraeus transporting a commander to a new home? You can have your PIP centred on the target planet but zoom out into the celestial just enough so that you can start to see the orbital trajectory lines. This way you will see when your orbital units get close to the planet so you can quickly swap the PIP with the main window to pay close attention to executing that strategy you devised on the distant planet.

    > ORBITAL!!!
    In particularly heavy orbital games I would recommend that you build a deep space radar early and keep your PIP centred in celestial where it will be easiest to see ANY orbital movement from any of the players. This will alert you to any rushing colonising strategies your opponent may be using to expand across the planets. Mid-Late game it can be incredibly helpful to see when an orbital invasion may be heading to your planet - trust me, you won't miss it (providing you have enough energy to support your intelligence structures and units).

    > Nukes Ahoy!
    This one I like to do when casting a game of PA, but I have used it when playing as well. If you are going nuclear you can choose to keep your PIP focused on your nuke silo so that you can see when it is ready to launch. I find that I select it using the PIP and target using the main window after zooming to an enemy base using my camera anchors.

    > Annihilation Incoming!
    Another one for casting and/or playing. Are you or your opponents building Halleys (Planetary Engines) or Catalysts (Annihilaser Control nodes)? I recommend keeping a track of their progress using the PIP so that you know just how big your window of opportunity is, or isn't, as the case may be. Do not forget that Halleys and Catalysts can be seen through the Fog Of War without intelligence. Exploit this and you may just survive immanent annihilation!

    The above are just a few examples of situations you may find yourself in where PIP can be instrumental to your game and survival. As you become more comfortable with using the PIP and the other camera controls you'll find that you use it in more diverse ways and this will often vary depending on the system you are playing in, the game type, be it FFA, Team games, 1v1 etc or even other factors that may surprise you in the heat of battle.

    I hope you have found this guide useful and I shall be making a follow up video of it on my youtube channel (see below) where you can view it being used first hand aside from screen-shots. Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me in the locations below.

    Exodus Esports
    Youtube
    Planetary Annihilation (Forum Profile)
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  3. Bsport

    Bsport Well-Known Member

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    Great guide, i cant help but feel some of the reviews really didnt get to know these features. PIP etc.
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  4. zihuatanejo

    zihuatanejo Well-Known Member

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    Bloody hell dude! That's very comprehensive, thank you. I've been meaning to learn to use the PiP, especially for multi planet games, this will help me a lot :)
    wpmarshall likes this.
  5. stuart98

    stuart98 Post Master General

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    Launching via steam allows you to take screens via F12.
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  6. wpmarshall

    wpmarshall Planetary Moderator

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    I'm trying to avoid linking to steam as I've no clue how far that rabbit hole goes :p (namely name changes etc) :p
  7. wpmarshall

    wpmarshall Planetary Moderator

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    I've decided that, with my last week of 'free time' before my last year of uni begins, I am going to turn this into a video and put it on my channel as well - since I cannot seem to screencap atm I can at least video capture using a different software.
    cwarner7264 likes this.
  8. wpmarshall

    wpmarshall Planetary Moderator

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    Just recorded the audio for the video version of this tutorial - I'll try and get the whole thing finished in the next 24-48 hours.
  9. schuesseled192

    schuesseled192 Active Member

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    You can use the Pip Quite effectively to snipe key enemy builds using SSX. Having orbital factories pumping out a stream of ssx, it would be a waste to send them all to the same place, and selecting them, zooming out, zooming in, then shift click move then fire is heavy micro. The PiP takes out the camera adjusting portion of this.

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