Feature Request: Searchlight camera roll option for going on the bottom of ships

Jeremy Nicholls shared this feedback ago

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Hello Keen Staff

First off, I'd like to share my appreciation for the most recent update. Its gotten me back into the game after a long hiatus.

I recently installed the nifty searchlight block (the turreted camera / spotlight combo) onto the bottom of my ship. The block is designed to go on the top of ships, so when it is placed underneath everything is upside-down.

Here is my feature request: Add an option in the terminal to switch the searchlight camera roll between 0° (current, default behaviour) and 180°. The 180° option would make it ideal for underneath ships. My guess is the azimuth / elevation controls would also need to be flipped as well.

Cheers!

I like this feedback

Replies (2)

andersenman ●

Should be available for ANY turret.

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Patrick Heney ●

Good idea. Available for any turret, and not just limited to 0 and 180, but also 90 and 270 for turrets and searchlights on the sides of vessels. Ideally, a slider could be provide to permit anything from 0-360.

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Jeremy Nicholls ●

I don't think 90 and 270 will work as you'd expect. Imagine you're in a sideways mounted turret where the view is rotated to match gravity when looking forwards. If you look up or down by more than 90 degrees suddenly your view is upside down again. So to make the view aligned with gravity the camera roll has to change _while_ viewing the feed, which will be disorientating. Changing the roll while viewing the feed will also make aiming directly up or down difficult, which is where side-mounted searchlights / turrets are suppose to excel.

Did you have an idea for how 90 and 270 could work differently?

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Patrick Heney ●

It would swap the pitch and yaw inputs on the turret. So when you look out the camera, your view is horizontal or "normal" with the ground. If you look up or down, the spotlight would actually be rotating on it's azimuth axis. If you pan left/right, the spotlight would actually be using it's elevation axis.

I hadn't thought too deeply about it though. As I write that I realize you'd get gimbal lock pretty easily. If the player panned 90 degrees, the would then be unable to look up or down since the spotlight would be pointing straight "up" on its local orientation. Eh.

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Jeremy Nicholls ●

I was talking about if you looked down e.g. 120 degrees, which would be doable b/c as you say that's the azimuth axis. But yes panning 90 would also be awkward.

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