Astronaut Cam: Orientation/Rolling

[Dogsonofawolf]

Wanted to mention a big desire of mine I haven't seen mentioned. When not piloting a ship ("astronaut" mode? not sure what to call it), the camera is locked to the orientation of the world. Unlike the ship controls (there is a "roll" option, left and right turn affects local yaw), the camera controls like a first person shooter (no roll, yaw is aligned with world rather than local direction). Navigating your ship without gravity can get difficult this way. The problem is compounded because the camera doesn't "wrap" in the pitch direction; you can only look 90 degrees up or down. Finally, leaving a ship is disorientating, as the game (being unable to reconcile your ships orientation with yours) will dump you looking in a seemingly random direction.
I know just enough about coding these things to realize it's probably not as easy as it sounds. Piloting already works similarly, but is presumably a different system entirely (turning and movement are inertial, for starters). I'm sure this is already on your to-do list, I just wanted to make it known that at least one person cares about it. I prefer not having gravity in my ships, but often gravity is the only way to effectively navigatre currently (the distance you travel when accidentallyfalling off doesn't help). And to be fair, the camera works great when you are in gravity.
Thanks for a great game!

 

[HunterAP]

Just wanted to chime in on this... I'd also like to see this changed. It's difficult to navigate outside of your ship with the avatar not being able to freely maneuver. I assume that you're using Euler rotation for the player, and quaternion rotation for the ships. I'd suggest using quaternion rotation for the player when not in a gravity field. If a player enters a gravity field, just convert to Euler with the player oriented to the gravity field.

 

[Kbuilder]

I understood it all until i got to euler and quaternion.

I know enough about programing to understand and I think your idea has potential.

 

[xencosti]

It gets hard to manuver my astronaut in tight spaces aboard some of my ships. Just a rotate ability would be nice. What if you made a block that would let you rotate, left or right click a special block for \"roll left\" or \"roll right.\"

 

[chimp_spanner]

+1! I have to remember to re-align my ship before exiting it otherwise, quite often, I\'m unable to get back in unless I mine/remove blocks (particularly if the ship is aligned along the Z axis).

 

[Toadstooliv]

try, while near to your ships floor pressing space. It rotates the camera however it does not rotate the player. I always make all hallways and doorways atleast 2x2 unless i have a gravity block nearby.