JoshParnell wrote:...you really do need to see the animation part.

That's some stone cold tease right there. What chance an animated GIF?

Help, the new favicon is messing with my habits!

mcsven wrote:

JoshParnell wrote:...you really do need to see the animation part.

That's some stone cold tease right there. What chance an animated GIF?

^ THIS

Good, now you just have to teach that to Josh

Employee 2-4601 wrote:

RedDwarfMining wrote:Indicators for target distance/velocity/faction is great!...... but I'd like to have a indicator for SCALE...Just how big is this object?!

I like that idea. An exponential scale would be needed to deal with anything from a piece of cargo to the most massive star. At minimum the display could be a simple line on the HUD, but your idea of iconography could be a fun addition:

* Sensors report that the distant object is a space station
* HUD scale icon displays a picture of a moon

"That's no moon!"

Pressing F10 could bring up a scale HUD and the selected object is then displayed next to a similar object?

I play Elite Dangerous and the stars look the same...Just texture mapped spheres......no sense of scale. ( How large is the star compared to our own Sun? Or the Earth/Jupiter.)

The trouble in this case is that things in the LT universe are not set to the same scale as in our universe. Planets are significantly smaller, distances shorter, etc. Real life is boring; space travel would be almost entirely space travel.

Crew count and population seems reasonable, though.

Talvieno wrote:

Um, how do I do this and what software if any do I need?

If you're using Windows: http://www.screentogif.com/
Simple and intuitive. Hard to go wrong with it.

If you're using Linux, Peek looks like a good idea, but I currently can't test it.

Oh neat, thanks!

Windows user here... thought you admins could see that info

We can (for users that input their system specs), but the info wasn't just for you, it was for everyone in the thread that was interested.

Talvieno wrote:If you're using Windows: http://www.screentogif.com/
Simple and intuitive. Hard to go wrong with it.

If you're using Linux, Peek looks like a good idea, but I currently can't test it.

That's pretty neat! Thank you very much! <3

RedDwarfMining wrote: Pressing F10 could bring up a scale HUD and the selected object is then displayed next to a similar object?

I play Elite Dangerous and the stars look the same...Just texture mapped spheres......no sense of scale. ( How large is the star compared to our own Sun? Or the Earth/Jupiter.)

Can you honestly comprehend how large the US is, or the Moon? I sure cannot. I can't fathom scales a few of magnitudes above or below human. A data sheet after the scan could tell you all about it in solar masses and radii in numbers and you're none the less wiser.

There is a distinct lack of scale in space, and I don't really think it's possible to put it in intuitive perspective. And, well, definitely not if it's not to actual scale anyway.

Mistycica wrote:

RedDwarfMining wrote: Pressing F10 could bring up a scale HUD and the selected object is then displayed next to a similar object?

I play Elite Dangerous and the stars look the same...Just texture mapped spheres......no sense of scale. ( How large is the star compared to our own Sun? Or the Earth/Jupiter.)

Can you honestly comprehend how large the US is, or the Moon? I sure cannot. I can't fathom scales a few of magnitudes above or below human. A data sheet after the scan could tell you all about it in solar masses and radii in numbers and you're none the less wiser.

There is a distinct lack of scale in space, and I don't really think it's possible to put it in intuitive perspective. And, well, definitely not if it's not to actual scale anyway.

Well that's why I'd like a Graphical representation of scale...Numbers simply don't do the job. Don't care about 'seeing' the actual Radii numbers....Don't want to sit there and try to figure out how that number compares to another.

And the scale of LT doesn't matter....A asteroid in LT might be .00345 Josh units wide or 5987 Josh units, I'll just multiple/divide it with some number. .07889 Josh units = 1 meter. or something..... I'm not going to bother Josh with this anymore.

If the graphics and descriptions are done well you should be able to see immediately how big or small a ship or other object is. Since mass is how LT will be determining cargo space it may also be a good idea to use mass when describing the size of objects. This way the player becomes familiar with numeric mass values and can quickly get an understanding of roughly how big something is. (I know there are exceptions to this rule in real life but I'm not expecting there to be black holes in LT)

This can be extended to other game objects such as asteroids, planets and the system's star.