How do sectors work, technically?

[Jimmy James]

I've noticed that when I'm navigating to a specific destination my nav computer sends me in a rather zig-zag course.

Do sectors work in a more traditional sense, in that they are chunks of space connected by gates, like in Privateer or EVE, or is it just a gridded map? If it's the latter, why am I sent making right angle turns when travelling?

If it's not a planned feature and the engine permits, a straight line from A to B would be great.

 

[HabNAb]

What happens when you set a waypoint in another sector is the game looks for which sector bordering the one you\'re in is closet to your destination, and tells you to go there. Then once you change sectors it repeats the process until you get where you want to go and turns itself off. Sectors are not connected by gates or anything. They really are an open grid of space. So, if you can visualize where you are in relation to where you want to go (which is pretty difficult, as you lose your reference orientation constantly while flying around) it\'s possible to point yourself directly at the destination and get straight there with no impediments. I assume a straight line navigation to other distant sectors is a needed feature for this game to be more complete, and the system that exists now is only because sector boundaries are on the navigation screen by default and can be targeted easily.