Proposal for Reticle System & a Ship Attitude Relative to Ta

[bszlrd]

There isn't too much to elaborate now. I'm just playing around with HUD/NAV ideas. And yes, I was thinking about a full HUD/NAV design, from a usability, and based on that, an aesthetic point of view.
I'm just exploring what I would like to have in a HUD/NAV UI of a spaceship, and how it could look immersive and usable at the same time. And also, I'm curious, how much data a player would need/want, how much is really useful, and where is the level where the amount of data is becoming scary. But that could be scaled when the HUD become customizable. (Is that in the works/plans at all?)

But this is really just mock-up work, and I've already progressed a bit from that one I've posted.

Also apart from FOV, I think this kind of image based reticule wouldn't scale too nicely when you change game resolution. Line thickness would be very hard to control for example. You might have to do it for each possible resolution to ensure usability. A NavBall might behave a bit better in this regard, if it's only a textured sphere and some elements on top of it to aid orientation.
Customisablility could be provided if you have the icons, and a simple description file where you define which icon goes to which degree on an imaginary sphere, or to draw a line from where to where. This way line thickness would be more consistent between resolutions. Even icon size consistency could be kept if you are able to use simple SVG icons, but I don't have the faintest clue, how hard would be to implement an SVG support, and how would that affect game performance. SVG might provide easier way for dynamic transparency and icon/line color setting though.

For VTOL landing, even a Docking Camera like solution might work, but that kind of display is quite abstracted and needs time to get used to. But it could then be displayed on a smaller window on the HUD when it's needed, so could be kept on a smaller size, so it won't obstruct the view too much. (Like on your mock-up above). This way the icons in my example could be used, along with a faint horizon line display on the main view, but the NavBall might be sufficient too.
I'd say, if there will be anything like these in the game, the player should have control over them separately, so he/she can choose the ones needed.
Also, overlayed attitude indicator is less abstracted then a NAvBall, but I think this two, and a separate Landing/docking aid would complement each other very well.

[robn]

I'm going to put my foot down right now. I will not do any UI element that does not look right at arbitrary resolutions and FOV settings. Which is not to say that I won't do it, only that the game will have to draw it in some way. The new UI has that as one of its fundamental design principles, and I'm not willing to compromise on it.

@nozmajner, that HUD mockup is brilliant, and has actually motivated me to get back into the UI work that has been desperately needed for months. I'm already trying to understand the navball, it looks really interesting. So I encourage you to start a new thread if you want to work on this further :)

[bszlrd]

I'm quite interested in that stuff actually, so for sure. I've already progressed a bit with that mock-up anyway. Fortunately this can be worked on parallel the art style brainstorming/research. Let me dust those files.

[FluffyFreak]

Which HUD mockup? The ones from the SSC forums?

[bszlrd]

Yes, but I've made some progress with those. I will make a separate thread for them.

[robn]

I was talking about this thread, page 1: http://pioneerspacesim.net/forum/viewto ... p=139#p139

But yes, new thread. This isn't the SSC, giant off topic need not apply :P

(Tomorrow when I'm back at my computer I'll (re)move posts from this thread as appropriate to try and keep things tidy).

[baobobafet]

Also for more ideas on dynamic attitude and navigation systems, I encourage you to look on github for previous topics on Nav and HUDs systems.
The most effective and intuitive attitude feedback setups usually incorporate pitch ladders and compass headings with degree markings and angle of attack gauges as are employed in most aircraft - inclusive of the space shuttle.

Some time ago, I did a number of mock-ups of dynamic HUD displays, with the aim of absolutely minimizing any clutter. This offered less obstructed views while still delivering all essential attitude and directional info.
Those original mock--ups can be found here for those interested: https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/1209

[baobobafet]

Answering in regards to the issue of scaling reticles.png's to different resolutions.

My original thought on this was to use the same function for resizing reticles as what is presently used to rescale the 800x80 pixel control panel graphic. cpanel.png. to all of Pioneers screen resolutions.

In the case of initial reticle size, probably best to scale downwards from a high res as opposed to upwards (from a low res reticle image) and lose definition.

This is not to suggest reticles designed for specific resolutions wouldn't benefit from that extra bit of crispness and clarity on screen.

However, in this case, with this particular reticle, resizing has not been an issue since it is easily readable at the lowest of Pioneers resolutions. <- Which btw, is in no way an accident ;)

Any additional reticles in the mod folder or reticle directory would be re-sized appropriately to the desired game resolution prior to game start.


An additional thought regarding scaling reticle.png's to custom FOV's.

As well as scaling reticles to proper screen resolutions, a check to the config.ini FOV line, might allow for additional resizing adjustment, compensating for a possible custom FOV setting.

[robn]

My original thought on this was to use the same function for resizing reticles as what is presently used to rescale the 800x80 pixel control panel graphic. cpanel.png. to all of Pioneers screen resolutions.

That's going away. Except in a couple of very specific situations there will be no heavily-scaled textures in the UI.