A way to get coordinates/ship facing in game -- or grab the skybox texture

[Dewin]

I've been wanting to make a trip to Sag A* (and possibly the opposite direction from Sol as well) for awhile now, but there's a bit more to it then that: I want to make a timelapse of the trip as well.

My original plan for doing this basically involves moving away from the star, targeting Sag A*, pointing directly at it, and taking a screenshot -- after each jump (or few jumps). The idea being that I can composite all the screenshots together into an animation that basically shows the journey at high speed.

While I've come up with a decent way to center on Sag *A (bringing a couple weapons to have a more accurate crosshair to center on it), it occurred to that that only solves the direction component. Roll is another thing to consider -- I need to be at the same degree of roll every jump otherwise the screenshots aren't going to align correctly.

Does anybody know of any in-game tricks I might do to accomplish this (aside from guesstimating based on the previous screenshot)? Any sort of debugging display that shows detailed x/y/z/rotation information would likely suffice, but I'm up for other ideas.

Alternatively, if there's any way to grab the generated skybox texture(s) I may be able to stitch something together.

 

[Riverside]

As far as roll is concerned, just travel above or below the galactic plane & you can orient yourself consistently with the brighter streak below or above.

To avoid going insane having to target SagA* before every jump perhaps you could simply align yourself with your current target & take the screenshot then?

Interesting idea, and the skybox is one of my favourite aspects of the game but not one I would have the patience for

 

[DrakeAurum]

Pick a second star, one that is on a level with SagA* but 'way off to the left in the galaxy, and well past the core. Whenever you line up for your photo, after centering on SagA*, select that second star and then roll your ship so that it is directly to your left.

 

[DNA-Decay]

This is one of the things I've always felt missing from the HUD.

A ball compass that has 'north', 'south', coreward, rimward, spinward at Sol.

There's two in this pic of the Apollo Command Module instrument panel.