I just figured out why the scanner annoys me so much

[IndigoWyrd]

It's "straight" insofar as it's parallel to the deck but your noggin is above is so you're looking down onto it - thus it's "sloped" from your perspective.

FWIW, a slightly more irritating example of this "issue" is the way stations and ships look in the HUD.
If you align yourself so that, say, a station looks "square-on" in the holo, it'll actually be skewed away from you.
Conversely, something that IS squarely in front of you will look skewed in the holo'.
It's all 'cos of the vanishing-point perspective that the holo's use to draw images, coupled with the fact that they're either side of your noggin.

Now that IS one that bugs me - lining up the mailslot.

If the hologram shows it aligned dead center, then damn it, that's where we should be dropping in. Oddly, it IS possible to actually do this, but there's some secret rubic's cube approach you must make for it to happen.

 

[Stealthie]

Now that IS one that bugs me - lining up the mailslot.

If the hologram shows it aligned dead center, then damn it, that's where we should be dropping in. Oddly, it IS possible to actually do this, but there's some secret rubic's cube approach you must make for it to happen.

Yep.

It can be a bit irritating if you want a quick entry to the station so you're trying to get everything lined-up in SC and you've got nothing more than an "estimation" to go on.
You won't be miles off but you'd think futuristic spaceships would employ a better system than judging that stuff by eye.

Couple of pic's demonstrating the issue.

Looks right in the holo, but is wrong:-

Spoiler

Looks wrong in the holo, but is right:-

Spoiler

Also, I nearly got my shiny new Python exploded after taking these pic's due to forgetting to ask for docking clearance before landing because I'm stupid.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Yep.

It can be a bit irritating if you want a quick entry to the station so you're trying to get everything lined-up in SC and you've got nothing more than an "estimation" to go on.
You won't be miles off but you'd think futuristic spaceships would employ a better system than judging that stuff by eye.

Couple of pic's demonstrating the issue.

Looks right in the holo, but is wrong:-


Looks wrong in the holo, but is right:-


Also, I nearly got my shiny new Python exploded after taking these pic's due to forgetting to ask for docking clearance before landing because I'm stupid.

Ah, pulled a Cosby Maneuver.... been there, done that. Try it with a Beluga some time for a real rush.

 

[amadeus1171]

I made a rough sketch to illustrate the difference.



Not fussed either way really. Maybe it's a VR thing?

In practical terms it seems like a scanner with perspective properly applied might be misleading with regard to estimating distances between contacts.

No, that's not right either. The lines are slanted. The radar isn't slanted.

I supposed the orig radar makes sense in 2D, and maybe that's why they did it that way. But in VR it's wrong.

 

[amadeus1171]

Yes, at right angles. I'm just not sure to which lines you are referring. Pictures help.

Orthogonal means perpendicular to the plane of incidence. Think of a square and a line going straight up, with the square being flat and level, relatively. That is orthogonal. It's not necessarily right angles.

 

[amadeus1171]

What about something like this?

My perspective might be a little off.

 

[Stealthie]

My perspective might be a little off.

Well, you've lost me.

Seems like all you're doing, there, is adding a couple of extra lines which serve no purpose and you've still retained the same "forced perspective" issue that the current system has. [where is it]

 

[Stigbob]

My perspective might be a little off.

That would get quite cluttered in a furball with floating mats I think.

 

[krylite]

I made a rough sketch to illustrate the difference.

Not fussed either way really. Maybe it's a VR thing?

In practical terms it seems like a scanner with perspective properly applied might be misleading with regard to estimating distances between contacts.

It should be level!

Right now the scanner is tilted, but the lines that drop down to show the target go straight down instead of orthogonal to the scanner. This causes a bit of mental discordance when viewing the scanner.

If the scanner were level the the cmdr's point of view then the lines going straight down would make sense.

But because the scanner is tilted about 15 to 20 degrees with the lines not being orthogonal, it causes confusion in perception. If the scanner is to be tilted, then the lines leading to the target should be orthogonal and not pointing straight down.

What do you guys think?

Or, and a translucent sphere enclosing the scanner wouldn't hurt either.

I see, it's about the ship bridge scanner and not the FSS. Well , I don't know about VR, but of course the blip lines are at right angles to the bridge level and pov of the pilot. I'd think in the Elite lore, the scanner was always meant to be placed from a different than straight level alignment so that it always appears oval from the pov perspective of the pilot. The vertical line length of the blips is meant to convey relative vertical position of the ship to the blip objects information and does not need to conform to the physical plane reference of the scanner surface itself. (which ED's scanners are nicely depicted on a physical platform reminiscent of a classic sci-fi style.) Works well enough for ED and other space games have even copied to some extent Elite's style of scanner info, with a similar oval-ed tilted perspective.

Spoiler

X4 scanner (from some yt streamed video)

No Man's Sky scanner (from some yt streamed video)

Tilted "astrogator", but close enough type of local scanner.

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8kErND3-ps&feature=youtu.be&t=1m55s

 

[Robert Maynard]

My perspective might be a little off.

Indeed - as the vertical line of the red triangle would not be vertical due to perspective if the line was meant to be orthogonal to the inclined plane..

 

[Stealthie]

Indeed - as the vertical line of the red triangle would not be vertical due to perspective if the line was meant to be orthogonal to the inclined plane..

That was the point I was attempting to demonstrate with my sketch.... which the OP claims isn't what he's on about. [where is it]

*EDIT*

FWIW, as well as cluttering up the HUD horrifically, as Stigbob said, that triangle-thing serves no purpose I can see.
The top of the vertical line provides the object's position in the Y & Z planes while the length of the vertical line provides it's position in the X plane.
No other lines are required.
Which is, erm, what we already have.

 

[Stigbob]

That was the point I was attempting to demonstrate with my sketch.... which the OP claims isn't what he's on about. [where is it]

*EDIT*

FWIW, as well as cluttering up the HUD horrifically, as Stigbob said, that triangle-thing serves no purpose I can see.
The top of the vertical line provides the object's position in the Y & Z planes while the length of the vertical line provides it's position in the X plane.
No other lines are required.
Which is, erm, what we already have.

The triangle approach does work, and it works very well. Reminds me of the y-axis move order interface from original homeworld which was very easy to read and really intuitive. The only issue I can see with it is lots and lots of triangles at once causing clutter.

 

[EUS]

The scanner, or radar bothers me so much because there's no sense of what each ring distance means. Especially between the most inside ring, and the center (your ship).
Not to mention you can set it to be logarithmic, and adjust the zoom too.

 

[deleteduser]

I'd like the sensor to be of a higher quality sharper image with a better representation for unresolvable d targets.

What you need sir, is a window.

 

[Andovar]

It would prevent a lot of scanner rage from new players.

While I've seen much rage around here on various topics, this has never been one of them.

Anyway, count me as another one of the lost souls that's fine with the current scanner.