Has this button always been here?
- Thread starter VR SenseiMatty
- Start date
hmmm....dunno...press it?
Seems like it would normally be obscured by your commander's wrist while sitting in the seat, so can't say I ever noticed it because I typically don't free-cam around the cockpit.
Does your commander press it when you switch between combat/analysis mode? I'm not in a situation to test it right now.
Does your commander press it when you switch between combat/analysis mode? I'm not in a situation to test it right now.
Nope, my CMDR never leaves the throttle nor the control stick
It is for switching the coffee machine's mode from regular to espresso
I wonder if its for switching modes from combat to analysis mode and vice versa?
This might be an internal FD joke. As we all know, Elite was originally written for the BBC-B microcomputer, which had such limited memory that programmers and users could choose between eight display modes. Each mode was a compromise between colour range, screen resolution screen and memory use. Mode 0 had the highest resolution, a limited colour range and little memory, while Mode 7 was similar to the teletext screens on televisions of the day (Ceefax), but had the most memory for software. To make the best use of the colour/resolution/memory compromises, some software switched between modes.
Elite was already using practically every bit of every available byte when David Braben realised he could do something that hadn't occurred to Acorn, the manufacturers of the BBC-B: he could free even more memory by creating a hybrid mode that had one resolution for the upper part of the screen (Mode4) and another for the HUD at the bottom (Mode 3).
Or it could just be a coincidence.
Elite was already using practically every bit of every available byte when David Braben realised he could do something that hadn't occurred to Acorn, the manufacturers of the BBC-B: he could free even more memory by creating a hybrid mode that had one resolution for the upper part of the screen (Mode4) and another for the HUD at the bottom (Mode 3).
Or it could just be a coincidence.
I don't think it was a hybrid mode so much as changing display modes just when the scan line hit the right place on the screen (which made Elite a good test of just how accurately emulators were emulating the hardware in later years).
That might be the true reason for that button as the faulcon de lacy cockpit keyboard is a homage to the BBC Micro keyboard, and this would be consistent with that.
TBH, I don't remember the fine detail. Code was published and we did try it, but there have been too many other lines of code in the intervening years and memory allocation/purging isn't what it was.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
.... or it could be a new HUD mode button to switch between Combat Mode and Analysis Mode.I think it might be the FA toggle Button
FWIW, I have a picture of the seat from sometime in the middle of last year which shows that button - presumably from before the whole "analysis mode/combat mode" thing was introduced.
It'd be kind of cool if FDev had slipped it in as part of, say, the 3.1 update to offer a clue as to what was coming... if anybody noticed.
It'd be kind of cool if FDev had slipped it in as part of, say, the 3.1 update to offer a clue as to what was coming... if anybody noticed.
So if I press it instead of billion planets and stars I can only explore few millions but I have legs and atmospheric planets ...I guess we have a deal!
