The ACE3 spectator system is designed to be as flexible as possible while remaining easy to configure. Most scenarios can be configured using only the settings framework, however public functions are provided for finer control of these configurable aspects.
### 1.1 Spectator System
### 1.2 Spectatable Units
Spectatable units are stored in an automatically maintained list (`ace_spectator_unitList`) on each client. However, directly accessing this list is not encouraged. Instead mission designers have two tools at their disposal to tweak the list:
- Unit filter
- Unit whitelist/blacklist
The unit filter determines which units will automatically be used to populate the spectatable unit list. It's controlled by setting `ace_spectator_filterUnits` and there are three possible options:
- No units
- Player units (default)
- All units
In cases where more specific control is required function `ace_spectator_fnc_updateUnits` can be used to whitelist units from the filter or blacklist them from the list (on the local client). The function header details its use:
Spectatable sides can simply be considered an extra layer of filtering for the spectatable unit list. Again, there are two methods of controlling the spectatable sides:
The side list is exactly what it sounds like, a list of sides spectatable by the local client. However, unlike spectatable units the side list remains static and can only be updated manually. This is because the side filter is applied on top of the side list as the unit list is automatically maintained - meaning the unit list will update if the player changes side or if the side relations change.
Note that the unit whitelist/blacklist also serves to override this side filtering mechanism.
The side filter determines which sides from the side list are valid each time the unit list is updated. It's controlled by setting `ace_spectator_filterSides` and there are four possible options:
The unit list on the left lists all of the units currently available to spectate.
Double click on any unit name in the list to switch to the unit.
Double click on the current unit to switch between internal and external view.
#### 2.2.2 Toolbar
The toolbar along the bottom of the screen displays various useful values. From left to right these are:
* Unit name
* Camera mode
* Camera zoom/Unit side
* 24-hour Clock
* Vision mode/Unit depth
* Camera/Unit speed
#### 2.2.3 Map
The map overlay will show the current position of the free camera and all spectatable units. The unit icons are tied into the unit icon toggle shortcut. When spectating a unit the map will also show the icons of units it knows about. In free camera you can double click on the map to teleport the camera to the position of the mouse.
