Ultimate space simulation software

 
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Re: General suggestions for SpaceEngine

14 Apr 2022 16:15

Make sense?
No, please rephrase.
Alright, I'll try...

Currently, the docking corridors get their position coordinates from the ship being docked to. But the ship you are flying will almost certainly have the camera positioned away from the docking port. This can be compensated for by moving the docking corridor coordinates, but will only be good for that one camera position.

In the screenshots I attached above — since the shuttle actually has no cockpit windows — I placed a camera on top of the vertical tail. (Good a place as any if you have to fly by camera.) But if I switch to a different camera, the docking corridor will be in the wrong place. The same will hold true for two different design ships, with camera positions possibly radically different from each other with respect to the ship's docking port.

It should be a simple matter for S.E. to calculate the offset needed for the docking corridor with respect to the camera being used.

As it is now, you can set up the docking corridor for one camera on one type of ship, but trying to dock another ship into the dock means the second ship needs to have the docking camera (which is usually going to be the main cockpit/bridge camera) and docking port in the same relative positions.

Now does it make sense?
The ship is the thing docking, not the camera; I think I get the general idea, just not why.
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Re: General suggestions for SpaceEngine

14 Apr 2022 17:17

The ship is the thing docking, not the camera; I think I get the general idea, just not why.
Of course it is, but do you not pilot the ship from one of the camera views? As I said, most likely the cockpit view camera. And do you not need to fly down the docking corridor for a successful docking? (Well... maybe not, but if you don't, then what is the point of the docking corridor in first place?)

Ship A has the docking port at the front, the cockpit camera is above, behind, and maybe a little to the left of the docking port. You can set up the docking corridor for that offset, and from the pilot's perspective, you fly down the middle of the corridor tunnel.

Now, Ship B also has the docking port at the front, but has no cockpit, like the shuttle, and the main camera is on the tail, much further behind and higher than the camera on Ship A, as well as on the center line. Now, from this perspective the docking corridor will not be correctly aligned. If you try to fly down the middle, you will be too low and to the right. And if we had collision detection, we'd also crash.

How do you use the docking corridors?
 
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Re: General suggestions for SpaceEngine

14 Apr 2022 17:42

The ship is the thing docking, not the camera; I think I get the general idea, just not why.
Of course it is, but do you not pilot the ship from one of the camera views? As I said, most likely the cockpit view camera. And do you not need to fly down the docking corridor for a successful docking? (Well... maybe not, but if you don't, then what is the point of the docking corridor in first place?)

Ship A has the docking port at the front, the cockpit camera is above, behind, and maybe a little to the left of the docking port. You can set up the docking corridor for that offset, and from the pilot's perspective, you fly down the middle of the corridor tunnel.

Now, Ship B also has the docking port at the front, but has no cockpit, like the shuttle, and the main camera is on the tail, much further behind and higher than the camera on Ship A, as well as on the center line. Now, from this perspective the docking corridor will not be correctly aligned. If you try to fly down the middle, you will be too low and to the right. And if we had collision detection, we'd also crash.

How do you use the docking corridors?
This shouldn't be an issue if you check the readouts near the top right - the docking corridor is supposed to envelope the whole ship.

Besides that, not being able to fly a ship from an offcenter docking port is a skill issue :)
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Re: General suggestions for SpaceEngine

14 Apr 2022 18:02

This shouldn't be an issue if you check the readouts near the top right - the docking corridor is supposed to envelope the whole ship.

Besides that, not being able to fly a ship from an offcenter docking port is a skill issue :)
The numbers are, of course, important. But also somewhat... let's just say frustrating. They show the distance to the dock, but that's an absolute value. How much to the left? Too "high"? Too "low"? But with a proper corridor, you keep the velocity bug in the middle, and fly down the corridor.

Supposed to envelop the whole ship? Why on Earth would you want to do that? How is that useful? (And who says it's supposed to be that way?)  I size the corridor to be approximately the size of my monitor screen — the last segment should just about reach the edges of my screen at docking.

It's not skill in this case, but more blind luck. ;)
 
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Re: General suggestions for SpaceEngine

15 Apr 2022 09:53

This shouldn't be an issue if you check the readouts near the top right - the docking corridor is supposed to envelope the whole ship.
Besides that, not being able to fly a ship from an offcenter docking port is a skill issue :)
The numbers are, of course, important. But also somewhat... let's just say frustrating. They show the distance to the dock, but that's an absolute value. How much to the left? Too "high"? Too "low"? But with a proper corridor, you keep the velocity bug in the middle, and fly down the corridor.

Supposed to envelop the whole ship? Why on Earth would you want to do that? How is that useful? (And who says it's supposed to be that way?)  I size the corridor to be approximately the size of my monitor screen — the last segment should just about reach the edges of my screen at docking.

It's not skill in this case, but more blind luck. ;)
The numbers are a bit tedious, but it gets easier with practice.

Yes, supposed to envelope the whole ship. The docking corridor is supposed to show how your ship should center with the mothership - if your camera is centred to the left, then that's something to be accounted for with your own spacial perception and lots of practice.

Besides, if this was IRL you'd be flying blind, only using instrumentation.
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Re: General suggestions for SpaceEngine

15 Apr 2022 13:40

Besides, if this was IRL you'd be flying blind, only using instrumentation.
Exactly! The docking corridor is part of the navigation instrumentation! Why would such instrumentation make it difficult and require guesswork?  As you can see in my previous screenshot, from the pilot's perspective, that corridor does seem to envelop the ship, or at least the pilot, and that is what counts. If the corridor segments are so large that they are mostly off the screen, what good do they do?

And again, who decreed that the docking corridor is supposed to envelop the whole ship? Are you the inventor of the system?
 
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Re: General suggestions for SpaceEngine

15 Apr 2022 15:58

Besides, if this was IRL you'd be flying blind, only using instrumentation.
Exactly! The docking corridor is part of the navigation instrumentation! Why would such instrumentation make it difficult and require guesswork?  As you can see in my previous screenshot, from the pilot's perspective, that corridor does seem to envelop the ship, or at least the pilot, and that is what counts. If the corridor segments are so large that they are mostly off the screen, what good do they do?

And again, who decreed that the docking corridor is supposed to envelop the whole ship? Are you the inventor of the system?
I just don't see the sense in making the corridor only envelope the top right quarter of the ship - the docking corridor is supposed to be a corridor with which you can align the far edges of your ship with, not a direct indicator.
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Re: General suggestions for SpaceEngine

15 Apr 2022 17:20

It doesn't just envelop the top right of the ship, it envelops the camera you are using for docking, usually the cockpit camera.

Flying and/or docking using an external view affords some pretty pictures, no problem there, but how is flying from a third-person perspective in any way realistic as far as flight simulators go?

The whole point of my initial post was that the docking corridor should line up with the camera you are using, so it will only be the top right quarter of the ship if that is where your camera is.

And if you want to make it envelop the whole ship, by all means go ahead and make it that large.

If it's too difficult (or perhaps too cumbersome) to make it follow the current active camera, then at least make one of the camera views designated as the docking camera, and line up the docking corridor with that.
 
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Re: General suggestions for SpaceEngine

16 Apr 2022 11:41

The whole point of my initial post was that the docking corridor should line up with the camera you are using, so it will only be the top right quarter of the ship if that is where your camera is.
Well they don't make parking spaces align with the driver's seat, they make it cover the whole car. Why is that?
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Re: General suggestions for SpaceEngine

16 Apr 2022 14:38

Well they don't make parking spaces align with the driver's seat, they make it cover the whole car. Why is that?
I'll ask once again... are you the author/programmer of the current docking corridor implementation?
 
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Re: General suggestions for SpaceEngine

16 Apr 2022 15:52

Well they don't make parking spaces align with the driver's seat, they make it cover the whole car. Why is that?
I'll ask once again... are you the author/programmer of the current docking corridor implementation?
I'm not sure how that's relevant.
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Re: General suggestions for SpaceEngine

17 Apr 2022 01:25

Was just curious why you seem so dead set against any changes to the system without even trying it.
 
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Re: General suggestions for SpaceEngine

18 Apr 2022 10:02

Was just curious why you seem so dead set against any changes to the system without even trying it.
It's also implied that docking corridors are a physical part of the ship, like in Elite: Dangerous. The readouts in the top right do a good enough job anyway, it just needs to tell you if you're too far left or right. Better yet, it could show your offset from the port using three coordinates (again, like in Elite: Dangerous, below the hologram of the landing pad and your ship) instead of a single distance unit.
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Re: General suggestions for SpaceEngine

18 Apr 2022 13:48

Does not help your argument bringing up other games/programs. We are not concerned about them here. The docking corridor system envisaged by Vlad would have to be an electronic virtual corridor, as he sees ships of the future without actual windows (which does make sense). So something that the navigation computer adds to your display monitor, or if you actually do have a window, then to your HUD.

You don't like my idea, fine, you've said so, move on.
 
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Re: General suggestions for SpaceEngine

20 Apr 2022 02:41

A app for android and iPad
Not quite possible. It would require a total rewrite of the entire thing, AND, mobile devices have nowhere near the graphics power of a proper PC.

The next best thing would be a 3rd party app or utility that could let you access your computer remotely from your device and play SE that way. There, the only limitations would be network speeds and data capping, afaik.
As you said it is possible with a third party app, So is it ok to use third party apps?
Yes why not ,it is ok to use third party apps.I am also using on my android,You can use it without any doubt.

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