Viewcones

To edit character viewcones in OpenCAGE navigate to View > Configuration Editors > Core Game > Viewcones.

From here you will be presented with a variety of options which apply to the selected viewcone type in the dropdown at the top of the window.

There is no Save button: changes are saved as you make them.

The game reads the viewcones when it starts, not when it loads a level, so a change reaches it the next time it starts. With Live Link connected, and the game started with the Debug Menu on, each change also has the running game read them again, and characters see with the new cones straight away, as the line at the bottom of the editor says. The Debug Menu's view cones overlay draws them.

Viewcones are used to define the areas that enemies can spot targets within. If a target enters an enemy's viewcone, various modifiers are used to calculate a visibility score.

Each viewcone type has a number of individual cone definitions within it (usually 'Focused', 'Close', 'Normal', and 'Peripheral') which are all queried to determine if a target is spotted or not. Typically larger cones will have lower visibility modifiers to give the illusion of further targets being harder to see.

To apply a viewcone type to a character, check out the sense editor.

Read on to see a list of available properties with information about each.

Note that a lot of these values are additionally increased/decreased by the current game difficulty config.

Cone Size

Vertical Angle float Minimum: 1 Maximum: 179

Defines the vertical angle of the cone in degrees.

Horizontal Angle float Minimum: 1 Maximum: 179

Defines the horizontal angle of the cone in degrees.

Length float Minimum: 0.2 Maximum: 200

Defines the length (distance) that the cone casts from the viewpoint of the character.

Smoke Length Modifier float Minimum: 0 Maximum: 1

This allows smoke to have an impact on visibility by taking the distance from the enemy to target and increasing it based on the proportion of that journey which travels through smoke, before querying it against 'Length'. A smaller number means a bigger increase to the distance, proportional to the distance through smoke.

Visibility Modifiers

Distance float Minimum: 0 Maximum: 1

Defines the minimum and maximum impact the distance to the target from the enemy has on the visibility score.

Smoke float Minimum: 0 Maximum: 1

Defines the minimum and maximum impact that smoke has on the visibility score.

Movement float Minimum: 0 Maximum: 1

Defines the minimum and maximum impact that the target's movement (standing, walking, running) has on the visibility score.

Stance float Minimum: 0 Maximum: 1

Defines the minimum and maximum impact that the target's stance (for the player; deep crouch, crouch, standing - for npcs; in cover, standing) has on the visibility score.

Exposure float Minimum: 0 Maximum: 1

Defines the minimum and maximum impact that the target's environmental exposure has on the visibility score. Exposure is calculated by firing 8 rays outwards from the target at 3 levels (knees, torso, head), or 2 if crouched (knees, torso). The rays that intersect nearby geometry (if any) define how exposed the character is.

Light Meter

To learn more about the light meter, check out the global constants editor.

Dark float Minimum: 0 Maximum: 1

Defines the minimum and maximum impact on the visibility score if the target's light meter classes them as being in a 'dark' spot.

Partially Lit float Minimum: 0 Maximum: 1

Defines the minimum and maximum impact on the visibility score if the target's light meter classes them as being in a 'partially lit' spot.

Fully Lit float Minimum: 0 Maximum: 1

Defines the minimum and maximum impact on the visibility score if the target's light meter classes them as being in a 'fully lit' spot.