Mouse control indicator thingy

[Brianetta]

Mouse control is done by means of an invisible and somewhat conceptual mouse cursor, which moves across the starfield rather than across the screen. I'd like to be able to see it, so that I can fly using the mouse without looking like I've been drinking.

Some small indicator, a coloured cross or whatever, which can be toggled on or off with a config file setting. I'd toggle mine on.

[Azimech]

Or, instead of the relativistic way of aiming, why not absolute like in Frontier. Doesn't matter where your pointer is, you click RMB and then start to move the mouse. I would choose that if it's an option.

[Brianetta]

That's how it works already. How the ship responds to your mouse movement is the issue. Try it out. Hold the right mouse button. Steer gently, and all's fine. Steer rapidly, and if you know your mouse really, really well you might be OK. If you don't, though, you'll oversteer. Your corrections are probably over-steered the other way. This is because when you push the mouse right, you tell the ship you want to turn so many degrees right. The ship starts to turn that way. Every time you move the mouse, the vector is added to the one the ship has in mind. If the magnitude of your mouse-waggling is large, then when you stop moving the mouse, you'll find that your ship ends up pointed somewhere other than where you expect.

At the moment, it's much, much easier to fly your ship with a cheap, low resolution mouse, because the invisible mouse cursor doesn't lead the ship too much. A more sensitive mouse, and you might have spun the ship 180° before you realised. Attempting to correct only works until you stop moving the mouse. Being able to see my invisible cursor would assist me no end. I'd be able to fly.

[Azimech]

Well then I probably mixed the words up. I don't want to centre my mousepointer in the middle of the crosshairs and then click RMB, I want to click the button no matter where the pointer is without the ship instantly turning or pitching. It's counterintuitive. It's like plugging in a force feedback joystick with the grip hanging in a corner, and your ship violently responds before you had a chance to do a real input.

[Brianetta]

In which case, you have completely misunderstood this. That's not what I'm asking for.

When you click and hold your right mouse button, your mouse cursor disappears. That mouse cursor was for the screen. You no longer need it. Bear with me now. I'm going to explain to you what happens right now, in the game as it exists on your computer.

You're still holding that right mouse button. You move the mouse left. The ship turns left. You move the mouse up. The ship pitches up. You move the mouse a long way left. The ship turns a long way left. What you can't see is the imaginary mouse cursor. This one doesn't move around the screen, it moves around space outside. Your invisible mouse cursor is the place to which your ship is trying to turn.

Now, you let go of the right mouse button. That imaginary cursor vanishes, and you get your normal one back, the one that moves around the screen.

What do I want to change? I want the option to see that invisible mouse cursor. That is all. I don't want to change the way the ship flies in the slightest. I just want more information to be exposed to me. I'd like it to be a config option, so that people who don't want to see it, don't have to.

[richardpl]

So you do not want mouse cursor to disappear?

[Brianetta]

I want the mouse cursor to disappear. It's a totally different type of cursor. If you were familiar with the way that the mouse control system works, this would be so much easier to explain.

OK. I think I want to be able to see m_mouseDir, from Player.h / Player.cpp

[Brianetta]

JohnJ hinted to me on IRC once that there was (commented) code for this in the source. I have found it; it's in WorldView.cpp from line 1153. It steals the velocity indicator, whereas I'd like to see an additional indicator (read: imaginary mouse cursor).

I'm up for better ideas, but I'd have thought that a red version of the main cross-hair would do the trick. The red cross-hair should be rendered before (or behind, whichever makes more sense) the regular cross-hair.

[Brianetta]

OK, commenting out that code (b784c8dac7e562e96456f7bd1df6516e9c913e55) does what I want, in principle, although it re-uses the velocity indicator, which is not ideal. The idea's sound, though, and I'm clearly not the first person to whom it has occurred.

[robn]

777 merged, closing,