Oolite Bulletins

Thanking you, O mighty & magnificent modifier of essential expansions!

ffutures wrote: ↑Sun Sep 21, 2014 11:01 pm

How do I change the scanner to non-linear?

Forgive my profound ignorance, but what, pray, is a non-linear scanner?

Reval wrote:

Forgive my profound ignorance, but what, pray, is a non-linear scanner?

It is a scanner that displays distance on a logarithmic scale, rather than a linear one. Check out the pics below.

The first one is the standard scanner at 3:1 zoom. I am sitting next to the buoy, but because of the zoom the station at 10km away is not seen on the scanner.





The second one is the logarithmic scanner, same zoom as before. Now I can see the station in the scanner despite the zooming in. See the difference in scaling in the distance lines? Effectively the non-linear scanner allows you to have the full 25km scanner range view at all times, no matter how zoomed in you are. It offers better situational awareness in many cases (e.g. trying to scoop cargo containers in an asteroid field)..

Thank you! Fascinating. But you wouldn't recommend it for everyday, non-specialist activities, correct?

Actually, I would.

Oh, so I should change mine too then? And is this option available on the standard scanner as well?

Reval wrote: ↑Sun Nov 08, 2020 10:02 am

Oh, so I should change mine too then? And is this option available on the standard scanner as well?

I'll leave the decision to you. Try the non-linear and see if you prefer it to the standard one or not. And, yes, look for the keys scanner_non_linear
abd scanner_ultra_zoom in hud.plist. Ultra zoom allows deeper zoom levels when you have the logarithmic scannner enabled.

The big difference is that the separation of things that are close to your ship is exaggerated, while things that are a long way off are all near the edge of the screen - it's good if you do a lot of close combat and scooping because you don't have to faff about with the magnification all the time. The disadvantage is that sometimes things like the course another ship is on are less clear.