Oolite Bulletins

This is probably blasphemy to purists who have been at Oo/Elite for much longer than I (so forgive me ), but one thing I noticed recently coming back to the game after taking a break is the exterior view controls. Cycling through the views using the 'V' key is okay, but is seems a bit old school. Has anyone considered (if feasible) using the mouse to control the exterior view, such as to view the ship from any angle you please with a movement of the mouse? The 'V' key could still be used to get outside the ship, then the mouse would control the camera angle. I have noticed that some of the custom ships have different (and sometimes fewer) viewing angles than the vanilla ships, which might be a problem, but other than that, aren't all the ship models 3-D anyway? Well forgive me if this is too unrealistic or sacrilegious, just something I've thought about, and one thing I've learned is: if you have a thought, there's a great likelihood someone else has had it too.

I just before posting this searched and found this thread, and from what I can tell from quickly looking, this would probably be a pretty serious change, but I'm still posting to see what people think .

Edit: A compromise (whether short or long term) might be binding 'Shift'+'V' to step backwards through the views.

In 1.77 the external view position and angle can be set by Javascript.

Mouse control of the view might be a little tricky as the mouse may already be being used to fly the ship, but I expect post-1.77 someone will come up with an OXP to customise your external views.

I would also like to be able to zoom in and out on the external views too. Frontier had that ability. Several ships' custom views are set too close to the ship so that the ship fills a lot of the screen and you can't see much else (eg the Python Class Cruiser).

I tried fiddling with the settings but couldn't get my head around the coordinates. Using Javascript in 1.77 sounds like a good way to go via an OXP.

JazHaz wrote:

I tried fiddling with the settings but couldn't get my head around the coordinates. Using Javascript in 1.77 sounds like a good way to go via an OXP.

… which will still need coordinates. The only difference is that you can also alter the coordinates after the game has started. So, if you want to change the viewpoints to your liking, you'll still need to get your head around them.

Mind you, using the debug console should to set the coordinates allow people to just find their 'perfect' setting much more quickly!

Not to mention that in theory you could combine cim's js external view stuff with a framecallback, and get an external camera view that kind of bobs in your wake... or pans, or swoops all over the place... any budding directors amongst our midst?

This is good. It looks this idea isn't so unrealistic (albeit still serious) - can't wait for v1.77 .
Thanks for reading and the feedback fellas.

Kaks wrote:

Mind you, using the debug console should to set the coordinates allow people to just find their 'perfect' setting much more quickly!

Not to mention that in theory you could combine cim's js external view stuff with a framecallback, and get an external camera view that kind of bobs in your wake... or pans, or swoops all over the place... any budding directors amongst our midst?

I already have the foundation of an oxp for this for use in 1.77. When it's ready it will blow your socks off!