Velocity Vector Indicator - Know the direction you're moving

Juraj Seman shared this feedback 5 years ago
Under Consideration

MWRL72m

A great addition to Space Engineers would be a velocity vector indicator. These symbols would help greatly with space travel and movement without inertial dampeners. Long journeys would be much easier; just line up the prograde vector with your destination and you're on your way. If minor adjustments are needed, you'll know exactly how to correct that. I'm a big fan of flying around without inertial dampeners on, but I tend to shy away from it because it's currently very difficult to see the direction you're moving.


The indicator can be on the HUD just like the crosshair; it's very minimal non-obstructing. It should not be located in a separate widget like the gravity, doing so would make it difficult to use.

(I copied this suggestion from the forum that is no longer used for ideas - https://forum.keenswh.com/threads/velocity-vector-indicator-know-the-direction-youre-moving.7358542/ )

This has been suggested way back in 2015, however its still not in the game.

Replies (14)

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This was added in an earlier HUD and UI update.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZqxaKUbsFw


It does not have a retrograde velocity vector displayed, but it's usable. It would be nice to have it updated since it's not very precise compared to something out of KSP.

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Obligatory “there’s a mod for that”: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1401481091

This seems like a basic thing for any ship to have some navigation tools.

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Yeah, we need a more proper navball. Also one that displays your view orientation so it would be possible to tell if I'm digging tunnels on planets down or too much down.

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The one we currently have doesn't move very much and is very hard to see the difference. When moving completely sideways it's only slightly over. Needs improvement/clarification, as if it's actually on the surface of a sphere.

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I was going to post same topic if there wasn't already.

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I would recommend developers to be wiser. It is enough to make tools for programming graphics on displays. Players will write the tools they need. It is even possible to locally deploy a virtual server and see it in the game through a programmable block. This will allow the programmable unit to have its own console.

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Proper holographic navball please, both for helmet and for cockpits. For planet-side activities it should also offer a proper artificial horizon so that it is immediately obvious where "down" is. In real life, we have can "sense" gravity by feeling in which direction our body parts are pulled downwards; in a 3D game, this sense is lost. Making the artificial horizon and the speed indicators more prominent, say, by adding them as "Augmented Reality" features into the field of view, as opposed to having them in a tiny segment somewhere in the GUI, would improve awareness.

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a button that shows your ships predicted movement, to make real orbits

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"Fixing" the current hud gravity direction+vector+speed indicator would go a long way for me, no new hud element would be needed.

Simply remove the speed part of it.


As it is right now if your in a ship flying at 100m's and look 45 degrees to the right of the direction your flying in then the crosshair will be pointing about 45 degrees to the left to show the direction your moving relative to the way your facing. Thats all fine but the issue is when your at anything under the speed cap. Then the indicator will progressively get closer to the center of the bubble, even if your still moving at 45 degrees relative to your heading.

So at slow speeds the crosshair will be almost dead center no matter the direction your flying. This makes it inaccurate and inconsistent at medium speeds and near useless at low speeds.

It should be at 45 if your heading is 45 degrees off of your vector regardless of speed.


Or so it was last i tested this, i completely ignore this hud element now due to the above.

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Just add normal navball like in KSP to every cocpit. Besides work on cocpit LCDs already begun.

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Anything is better than looking at which direction the stars zoom past your ship.

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I would even be happy with the retrograde icon appearing on the artificial horizon script for LCD screens. I use Whiplash's Artificial Horizon script, but it would be great to have this in non-experimental games, or even to need one fewer programable block.

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Just to point it out, even though most may think it's really obvious: The retrograde indicator would be fantastic for ships that have more forward than reverse thrust (eg: most of them) as they could then spin around and precisely aim away from the direction they're heading to fire their main thrusters to slow the craft quickly. Trying to do this without the indicator results in unpredictable directions of travel (usually sideways from where you're trying to go).

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Please, Keen, make this more obvious.


This:

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… is not.

Worse, it's a + for both prograde AND retrograde. At least make the symbols different.


And before you say anything, this:

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… is not a substitute. Not only are these displays so far outside the FOV in any but the most extreme FOV settings, requiring an awkward Alt+Mouselook to glance at them (and an even more awkward double-V to reset the view), the displays only show the prograde indicator, and also only in a very narrow cone of view, with no indication in which direction prograde would be displayed in cases where the vehicle isn't oriented with its notional Forward direction closely along the velocity vector. (Besides, flying with in-cockpit view, who but a select few choosing to do so as a challenge, as opposed to a significant existing and/or potential paying customer base (hint-hint), even does that, hm?)


Not much better in gravity, either.

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