Odyssey - Optimisation/Performance and UI (Galaxy & System Map) Feedback

[Voubi]

So, here we go...
As prompted in the OP, this is feedback on the Galaxy and System Map UI only.

Overall thoughts :
I'm not sure how I feel about the new design's looks, but the useability and clarity isn't great. It's confusing, has a lot of separated menus that were once in a single and well organised page, and it feels messy...

Specific Issues :

1. The left and right sides of the screen aren't really used for specific contexts.
2. Menus are a bit too scattered and separated, with no clear way to have a lot of information displayed at once.
3. Icons are great, but far from instinctive.
4. The new Search Bar is nice, with the autocomplete and all, but feels a bit limited.
5. Bookmarks are marginally better organized with categories, but still quite limited and messy.
6. Holding a button is fine on a controller, but tedious at best on a HOTAS and despicable on a mouse.
7. Having everything in collapsed side panels doesn't feel very nice to me...

Suggested Fixes for the Issues : (order is the same)

1. Clearly and concisely labelling menu columns like the tabs on the Side Panels are would be nice, so we know at a glance what side stands for what. Ordering the menus with clear theme groupings too...
2. Having a general info menu that sums up a lot of the info detailed in the others would be good.
3. This could be helped with a simple and concise label on each icon.
4. Having a way to put filters on it would help a lot. One thing that would add a lot of usability would be a full on map-wide search (cf. inara.cz 's search function). If I input the name of a station, it would be nice to end up on this station's system. Another nice thing would be to highlight corresponding systems on the map on search (so if i input something, it highlights me all systems with that string on the map). The ability to change the ordering of the autocomplete (by distance, star class, population, Alphabetical order) would help too.
5. Custom Bookmarks folders, colors and tags would already go a long way...
6. Having a way to toggle that or having it tied to the input device would be nice. While we're at it, toggling button prompts in the UI would be nice (like "press J to disengage" for example... Immurshuuun and all that)
7. I really liked that we had a small context menu on hover that had basic functions and infos. While i understand that it was likely removed for usability concerns for consoles, it still was a very good and quick way to use the map. Bringing it back in a simplified way would be very nice...

As a personnal side-suggestion, I'm also quite iffy about the way a lot of the UI's fonts seem to have been enlarged recently, as if made to be viewed on smaller and smaller screens. While I understand the usability concern for consoles and small screen peoples (not judging, it's not the size that counts), having the fonts scale a bit more with screen size/resolution would be nice to have (or even a font size slider in the game's settings, andpossibly help reduce the faint feeling of preschool toy-ness I've been getting with EDO's UI. This would also help with translations having clipping text (Weapon groups tabs in the right panel in French is too large to fit and clips, for example)...

 

[chaoskills08]

I would love to see the new Galaxy Map remain an option, if the goal is to go back to the old one. I REALLY like the new one and I find it much more pleasing to use. I also really enjoy every single UI change that has taken place. Mission board, outfitting, all that jazz, I love it. I am enjoying all of the changes that have been made, and I have been able to ignore the crashes and such. I would love to see Odyssey exactly the way it is now, just a bit better optimized! Great job all!

 

[Orvidius]

I'm going to stick to functionality rather than style here. This probably isn't complete, but off the top of my head at the moment:

Overall thoughts – I like the look of the new map UIs, but I find the functionality more awkward to use. Things that I could previously do in a couple of clicks, or just cursor-hover to see, I now have to dig for. I think it's prettier at the expense of usability, even though nearly all of the previous functionality is still represented.

Specific Issues:

• The galaxy map search bar doesn't go to the target of the search when you hit "enter" and there is only one selection in the drop-down, such as when you have pasted/typed an exact complete name.
• The bookmarks that have stations/planets as targets don't let you plot a course to that target object anymore. Instead it moves the cursor to the system and does nothing else. A hold-click or something might be a way to add this functionality back in.
• Icons that aren't currently relevant (such as the system map button when you have never visited the system) are absent instead of greyed out. This changes the location of other adjacent UI elements and also causes confusion when you're learning to use it, since you don't see an option at all for the function you're trying to find.
• No obvious way to delete bookmarks. I didn't think it was even possible to delete them until someone showed me the bookmark manager. Why is there a plus-icon to add them in the main UIs, but no minus-icon? Why doesn't that icon change to a minus, like in the old UI? This could easily be context-sensitive.
• The filter tabs don't remember which one I've selected. It remembers to highlight it, but if I want to change something, I have to navigate to it again from scratch. For instance, if you're using the star-type filter, the previous galaxy map would still have this filter selected in a drop-down. Returning to the filter tab would allow you to immediately change the checkboxes for individual star types. In the new galaxy map, you also have to navigate through nested tabs, to the bottom of the list, to get to that filter again, in order to change a selection.
• The information panels (top right icons) don't remember the state I've left them in. I have to open them each time. Once opened, I'd like it to stay that way for the session, unless I close that panel or select something else. I don't want everything to reset to zero just because I exited the map, and then used the map again later.
• Sometimes I just want to see who discovered stars/planets, and what their type is (and explored or not state). Cursor-hovering used to be good enough for that. Now I have to open a panel and then click on each thing.

Suggested Fixes for the Issues – Make the icons grey out instead of disappearing when they're not needed. Have all of the UI tabs and buttons remember states, between separate invocations of the map modes. This includes going straight to the current filter tab instead of the top of the list, keeping info panels open that were left open previously, etc. Allow direct course-plotting from the bookmarks. Honor the enter-key for text searches when the list has only one possible target. Use the same button in a context-sensitive way to both add and delete bookmarks, like before.

I would also love to see a hover-popup over systems and bodies again. Even if it doesn't have the buttons anymore (and the focus issues that can come with that), I'd still like to see the object's type and discovery tags without opening an info panel.

This probably isn't on the table, but I would prefer custom tabs to organize bookmarks, rather than divided up by system/planet/station/etc. For instance, I'd want a category with stations and planets together, that I use when mining. I'd make another folder for exploration. And other for engineering (collection materials, and engineer bases together). And so on, with user-selectable contexts.

 

[tunakexe]

Please bring back the friend list in galmap!

 

[Hetork Tesser]

Your new menues are all overcomplicated and i can't use features we had before:
Galaxy-Map: You now have to move over the whole screen to see the system map (could be so easy: right-click System-Map or plot route) As i am no explorer i can't say too much about all the "features".
System-Map: Its horrible so select a Target planet. Click on it WAIT until the graphic centers and then click again on it to plot course. (again it could be so easy: right click & target planet)
Shipyard: takes ages until the ships are rendered and i have no info what i have in this ship on modules or what stats the ship have. Dump that whole new shipyard and give back the old one - worked perfectly for me.
Outfitting: A Nightmare to use. Delete this as fast as possible. You need 1000 Clicks and go through several menues to refit a ship from frighter to fighter or backwards.
You can't make this better - just delete it! And use the old one. I regulary switch back to Horizons if i had to work on my ships outfitting - and it is so much better to use there.

 

[VR Nupol]

Please fix the culling. even in Horizons the FPS tanks in VR if i am in a Full HAZRES & Stations and looking at many ships. only if i turn down Model draw distance it gets a bit better. Please just please inprove performance for VR for Odyssey. This game is a masterpiece in VR but not with these performance bugs.

 

[Evening Sam]

System Map
Overall thoughts – Overall, I like the amount of information in the new system map
One addition that would be helpful is a way for us to know the size of landing pads at Odyssey settlements.

Specific Issues – From my experience, Odyssey settlements have varying landing pad sizes, but there doesn't seem to be a way of knowing how large they are without approaching them.

Suggested Fixes for the Issues – In the list of features for Odyssey settlements, show the size of the landing pad(s) for selected Oddysey settlements.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Performance (for me) is only slightly below what I expected, so I won't go in to that as other CMDRs have more pressing issues.

UI though, the Galaxy map is quite awkward to use using an Xbox Gamepad. Things like targeting a specific star now involve too many clicks. (Unless I'm just doing it wrong)- but this makes using premium jumps to skip along a plotted route far more difficult.
It's also easy to somehow get stuck in the menu and not find a way back to selecting stars. (Yet to replicate this to bug report, seems kinda random)
While I can simply pick up the mouse and correct this, I imagine the console players will struggle.
On Foot UI is also too minimal. There seems to be no "team HUD"
I'd like to see a clearer team position icon (I kept losing my team mates in battle. Lol - a more contrasting target box would work) , and also be able to see their health, shields, (and maybe even energy reserves) in the HUD, this would ideally include when CMDRs are in ships and show shields and hull.

That's all for now.
Thank you for your hard work and dedication!

 

[Channel76]

One simple thing.
In Galaxy Map -> Long press on bookmark -> Plot route

 

[DøømHåmstër]

My thoughts on the System and Galaxy maps:

• Nobody was asking for a new UI.
• Nobody was asking for functionality and information to be removed.
• Nobody was asking for more clicks to perform the same work (especially navigation and information...you know...the whole point of the maps).

Suggested Fixes:

• Restore the old UI with all of its information and functionality.
• Add to that UI the features that have been requested.

If, for some reason, you are unwilling to restore the old UI then, at the very least, do a full audit of the old UI's information and functionality and if that information and functionality are missing or harder to do in the new UI...then fix it. Honestly, this is UX 101...if you change the UI, make sure it provides at least the same information, functionality, and ease of use. Unfortunately, many UIs are implemented by designers who value visual impact over usability. Kids these days! * shakes fist *

 

[intelfx]

Overall thoughts:​

The new UI attempts to fix what was not broken, and in doing so, makes matters worse on multiple levels, and at the same time does not improve on what could be obviously improved.

Specific issues:​

1. "Escape" key is overloaded. It is impossible to predict whether pressing "Escape" will get you to the previous UI level or drop you out of the UI completely and put you into the game menu.
2. Station menu became generally less usable than it was. Almost any action now requires significantly more clicks than before.
3. Additionally, in the station menu, cursor placement and movement is very un-intuitive in several screens. Previously, most views had only one direction for the cursor to move (either vertically or horizontally). Now many views are irregular grids and it's impossible to predict where exactly will the cursor move when you click Left, Right, Up or Down.
4. Galaxy map is overloaded with icons and navigating galaxy map is more cumbersome than before (because of more buttons), whereas obvious areas of improvement were not touched at all.
   • There is no convenient way to go "one level deeper". There should be a quick way to open the system map when the cursor is pointed at a system, or open the planet map when the cursor is pointed at a planet.
   • When one selects a mission from the mission list, or station from "points of interest", the map does not go to the required level. For example, if one looks at the system map and selects a settlement from "points of interest", the planet map will not open. Combined with the above points, it makes the process of examining available planetary settlements very tedious.
   • Similarly to the above, when one selects a waypoint from "points of interest", the details panel should be immediately available, but it requires many clicks to get to it. For example, searching for a planetary port with a specific facility present is much harder than it should be.
5. UI is generally unpolished. Many places see bad layout, for example irregular margins around text labels and icons.
6. Cursor on the galaxy/system map is slightly broken.
   1. It does not align with the actual entity.
   2. Clicking on an entity immediately centers the map on the entity. If one wants to plot a route to a system, one needs to make two mouse movements and two clicks instead of one.

Suggested fixes:​

1. Implement clear behaviour model for the "Escape" key. Either have the Escape key always go straight to the game menu, or have it always go strictly one level above in the currently opened UI.
2. Revert back to the old station UI or redesign it again, paying close attention to its efficiency. Common actions (security contacts, outfitting, limpets) must take as few clicks as possible.
3. In the galaxy map, implement a shortcut action to enter the next level of the map (for example, double-clicking the system under cursor should open system map, and similarly for planets).
4. In the galaxy map, make it so that selecting a mission or a point of interest can take the player directly to the required level of the map (for example, selecting a mission that takes place in a settlement should take the player to the planetary map). This should be selectable vs. old behavior. For example, short click should stay on the current map level, whereas long click should open the required map level
5. Regardless of (4), in the galaxy map, redesign the details panel so that it would be immediately accessible when a player selects something in the "points of interest" menu.

 

[Raliel]

the system for reporting problems is, in itself, bugged and terrible (at one point it simply did not work at all).... can someone actually read all of this, sift through the outrage on either side and PLEASE just make sure we get back to a playable game?

 

[CMDR Ahlos]

Opinion, Galaxy map is ok:

Issues:
1. Too many diffrent tabs to open up for info, aswell need to hold to plot route. Sometimes you select another star behind with this "hold" on galaxy map. I feel this galaxy map UI has been worked too much around a controller then mouse and keyboard.

2. Have info tabs open once opened, planet info on one tab rather then 2 diffrent ones. When exiting a planet view, it sometimes kick me back to my current system star on galaxy map, and need to redo all again on the system i was viewing(/looking for ex a planetary settlement.

 

[Cortadogremlin]

Greetings Commanders,

First of all, we’d like to thank all of you for supporting us throughout Odyssey’s development and at launch. For those of you who have access to the expansion and are able to play without issues, we hope you’re enjoying yourselves!

That said, we are aware of some commonly reported issues and will take this opportunity to address them. In this post, we’d like to specifically discuss optimisation and UI.

Optimisation and Performance

We’re aware that performance in Odyssey is varied according to PC builds and other factors. While many players are enjoying the game at the intended standard, unfortunately some are not.

If you are experiencing performance issues, here’s how to report them and include some especially useful information. Please send us as much information as possible to edoperformance@elitedangerous.com using the template below. To report any other issues, please go via the Issue Tracker as normal.

Please provide as much information as you can from a DXDiag report (see link for help)

Where were you in-game, and what were you doing? (Solo/Open, in Wing/group or not etc.)

Are you running Odyssey in borderless/fullscreen/windowed?

Are you running Odyssey in VR?

Do you have any other apps running at the same time?

Are you running any third-party shader suites?

In addition to the above, please send us your graphics configs. To do this:
1. Navigate to this file location: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Graphics
2. Copy all folder contents to a ZIP file and attach it to your submission

We’d like to thank you in advance for submitting this information. Your reports will be invaluable in assisting our team and expediting performance fixes.

UI Feedback

We’re also keenly aware of feedback on several aspects of the updated User Interface in Odyssey. The comments on this topic have been followed closely since the beginning of the alpha phase and your feedback shared in our Alpha feedback forum has been gathered and collected. Your concerns over the ease-of-use and accessibility of these systems are being heard and passed to the development team.

While fundamental issues such as connection and performance remain a priority, we’d like to build a clear understanding of issues surrounding features such as UI to lay the groundwork for in-game improvements.

In this thread, we are looking specifically for feedback on the Galaxy and System Map UI. We have noted feedback on other UI elements, but would like to start with these in particular.

If you have feedback on the Galaxy and System Map in Odyssey, please leave it below in a reply using the following format:

Overall thoughts – please keep this brief (one or two sentences)

Specific Issues – clear and concise (bullet points are ideal)

Suggested Fixes for the Issues – clear and concise, directly linked to the issues

Please keep all replies to this post in the format above. Any discussion that is off topic or replying to other posts may be removed to keep the thread as useful as possible.

Thank You

Odyssey represents a huge change to Elite Dangerous at multiple levels. All of the teams across Frontier, are working hard to deliver an experience that meets a standard the community deserves.

On that note, thank you again for your support and patience. As soon as we have any more information regarding the points above, we’ll make sure to share it with you.

o7

Edit: please use the edoperformance@elitedangerous.com mailbox to report optmisation issues in Odyssey rather than the Issue Tracker.

Feedback on system map in Odyssey

-Please let us mouseover planets to get the info. If you want to check every planet now, in a big system, that's up to around 80 button-pushes...
Pretty please with sugar on top.

o7
Sincerely,
cmdr Cortadogremlin

 

[Angry Fish Smell]

Overall Thoughts: I appreciate the comparative minimalism of the UI, and also some of the subtle changes specifically w/r/t things like "being able to apply filtered routes to the realistic view". That said, I also feel like some of the interactions are not necessarily clear, and some of the interactions are far worse than they were previously.

Specific Issues:

Galaxy Map:

• You can no longer plot a route directly to a body or station from the bookmark flyout menu, which is more than a little glaring because you can from the "Manage Bookmarks" menu.
• There is no immediate visual indicator of which filter or filters are being applied to your route at a glance-- which was also the case in the previous galaxy map, but since the replotting of a route was done when a filter was selected, the obvious visual cue of "your route just switched up" indirectly indicated to the user that the filter was applied.
• The directive to "[HOLD] (button) PLOT ROUTE" when a location is selected remains visible even if the UI's focus is on a sidebar item where using whatever (button) is bound will interact with other UI items instead of actually plotting a route, resulting in a situation where it's not obvious that pressing the button the UI is directing you to press, won't do what the UI is claiming it will do.
• Selecting the system map option on a system seems to frequently have no visual indication that you've selected it, with a gap of ~5 seconds where you can still interact with the galaxy map before the system map actually pops up.

System Map:

• The most immediately glaring issue is that while the "Loading Simulation" spinner is running, the input to back out of the system map appears to be queued instead of acted on immediately. On large systems this can frequently result in extensive wait times before you're allowed to leave it, unless you use the game menu screen to jump out more quickly.
• The Carrier Jump controls on the old map had a in-context spinner on the "carrier jump here" option and presented any errors immediately without ejecting you from the system/galaxy map. Under the current system, hitting the carrier jump button immediately ejects you from the map, and only afterwards will tell you if the carrier jump is allowed or not. This means that "system full" or "you can't jump to this location" errors force you to go back in and try to relocate a location nearby from scratch, and timeout errors have absolutely no indication of an error except for a brief blink-and-you'll-miss-it popup that shows up 30-60 seconds later, whereas previously the spinning icon was sufficient indication that the attempt to set a jump was still processing.

Specific Fixes:
Most of these are fairly self-evident bugs with easy fixes, but specifically for the "route filters" issue--
- Have an indication somewhere on the screen with an iconographic indication of "what route filters are being applied when you choose to plot a route".

 

[sandalle]

When adding a bookmark, don't delete the text that's already there when I click to edit. I just want to prepend my tag (e.g. "[TRADE]" or "[Explore]" or "[Eng][Focus]"), which worked fine in Horizons, but now I also have to re-type the system info that was already there but you chose to delete it because I wanted to add to it.

 

[Baxder]

It seems like all the issues I have are already well-covered here, but I had an idea while reading.

I think on the galmap a single click should select a system, double-click should "target" it, and a held click should open the sysmap if it's available. Maybe a right-click and hold to plot a route?

Ooh! I also just remembered that changing your systems filter doesn't automatically adjust your route like it used to. Now you have to re-route to a system you don't want to visit and then do it again to your actual destination after changing filters. I don't think I've seen that mentioned here.

Also, Neutron plotting no longer plots neutron boosts. But here's hoping that's a bug and not a feature up for discussion.

 

[[VR] TheBlackCat]

Overall thoughts
Simply, here's why the Horizons Galaxy Map design and presentation of information was more user friendly than Odyssey's:

• Previously, a section of the screen was marked off as dedicated for information and settings. The rest of the screen was the map itself. The information section on left was opaque black with contrasting & consistent light grey text color, and this section never moved/changed position/size. You could easily look at the map, scroll around, all the things and look at this panel of information and toggle options on it.

This was good design, presenting information clearly, expectedly, and legibly.

• The new screen is used fully to show the map, with 2 sidebars bordering the screen from which info panels pop out when clicked on and thus covering the map. Sidebars on each side mean the user has to direct their attention left or right depending on what's popping out. The user's attention is split across 3 sections of the screen. In other words, everything's too "busy".

The old system only had a pop-up info box when you specifically selected and highlighted a star, and placed the info box right there where you were currently looking as you selected the star.

 

[sinkarma]

Overall thoughts – galaxy map was strange but after some studying I got used to it

Specific Issues – unclear how to use new interface at first

Suggested Fixes for the Issues – introduce a youtube video explaining the new interface and where everything moved

 

[Jack Wilmslow]

Overall thoughts –

Generally, I love the new UI design layout. For station services, and the terminals at installations and concourses matching the UI design for Fleet carriers is a great move! However there is an issue with alignment and refinement, and a couple of missing features from what was available in Horizons.

Specific Issues –

• Engineering Bookmark on Galaxy/System Map being the same colour as User Bookmarks.
• Community Goals & Ship Bookmarks being the same colour.
• Atmosphere blue circle around planets are off-centre, some by large amounts. Others by a small amount. More pronounced on larger planets. Also the surfaces are not rendering and usually shows a yellow wireframe.
  
  
• The cursor in the Galaxy Map does not align with the star when selecting a star, some are worse than others, but pretty much all are never centre and warp when rotating the camera.
  
  
• It does not show what Friend is in a particular system at any time, just shows the bookmark, but no indication anywhere who it is.
• Do feel there is a fewer information available compared to Horizons, but prefer the new style.

Suggested Fixes for the Issues –

With regards to bookmarks, reverting back to the colour scheme that was in Horizons would be ideal. Its really hard to differentiate between the two and it's not very clear. Therefore, the colour scheme should go like this:

Engineers = Purple
Ships = White
Bookmarks = Orange
Community Goals = Yellow
Squadron = Dark Green
Friends = Light Green

Showing what Friend either via the System Information Icon Menu in the Galaxy & System Maps, or via a separate icon menu like how ships are displayed on the UI. having something the same to that would be great (List of friends icon menu near to your ship list, and a menu icon on the right). I do very much like the top left menu for your ships and like to keep it like that.

Refining the UI, the off-setting of elements, lack of text wrapping and menu cutting off and overlaps in varying degrees is off putting, but tbh not sure what to suggest to fix these.

I really hope this information will be helpful to you, but this is not exhaustive though. But please don't sacrifice your design goal for community placation.