UI roadmap (2nd pass) #5319

Web-eWorks · 2022-01-10T03:04:10Z

This issue collects future roadmap goals for the UI beyond the initial implementation or port to PiGui. All developers are welcome to add roadmap goals based on mockups or planned work, but please discuss them on IRC first!

See the 1st pass project
Mockup album.
Old mockups.

World View UI

Make ship information available as subwindow?
Add more information to planetary situation display (bottom right)
Comms window for chatting with other ships

FlightUI (reticle)

Hide option? - (a user asked for it, so it won't be on top of the ship in external view)
Follow-target / set speed mode selector
Planetary flight / pitch ladder mode?
Simplified version for in-cockpit 3d display?
Add button/options for autopilot orientation holds

Comms Window

Display message received timestamps
New unread messages count

Info Screen

Convert to tabbed windows in WorldView?
Format for use as 3d UI panels in ship cockpits?

Mission Display

Orderable, filterable list
A way to cancel missions

Station Screen

Mass and TWR data available on all screens

Bulletin Board System

Ordering and filtering
Active missions list?
Cabin data for passenger missions?
Display chat interface in BBS UI instead of popup

Commodity Market

Ordering and filtering
Cargo hold list?
Commodity mass-per-unit display

Ship Market

Compare new ship to current ship

Equipment Market

Equipment details view (power, heat, etc...)
Store purchased / ship equipment at station
Equipment loadout presets?
Move repair functionality to equipment screen?

Sector Map

Unify layout with mockups
Alternate star / label coloring (trade price, system economy, etc.)

System Map

Add "local situation" display of current body with planet heightmap, surface bookmarks, range to target, etc
Brachistocrone calculator? (deltaV calculator for point-to-point planetary transfer)
Improve orbit planner interface
- pick point on orbit for new burn
- drag handles for delta-V
- display total delta-V and burn time in map

Issues

Add Display FPS counter option #4142 - always-on FPS counter
Text constrast too strong, makes eyes hurt #4140 - expose default text color / contrast to UI accessibility settings?

nozmajner · 2022-11-19T10:32:48Z

HUD & UI mockups

@Web-eWorks and @Gliese852: I've moved the useful parts of the imgur mockup album along with some descriptions.

Load game window

The color of the box, and the accent on the left indicates the type of save:

Blue is compatible save, lighter for quicksave and autosave
Darker, with red accent indicates saves made with previous versions of Pioneer. These could go to the save recovery window, which then would pop a dialog:

Docking Aid Reticule

A reticule docking aid mode. Not sure how it should be activated, but I suspect it could be tied to the landing gear and later to the docking collar extension/collar targeting. For landing all data is displayed relative to the ship, and shows as if looking down. For external docking the display is relative to the active docking port. I suspect in that case it would be useful to tie controls relative to the active docking collar to avoid confusion due to collars can be placed in multiple positions and orientations. Likely they would also need docking cameras, and this UI could show only on those cameras for docking.
Features:

Rotation alignment display: (at the top-right of the explanation image) A blue cross inside the reticule showing the angle of the ship relative to the landing pad/docking collar.
- If it is at the edge of the reticule, it means 45° rotation on the given axis. At the center means the ship aligned to the target.
- When rotation is larger than 45°, then a small blue cross indicates at the edge of the reticule indicates its direction.
- When landing on a landing pad, it indicates pitch and roll alignment
- When docking to an external docking collar, then it indicates pitch and yaw alignment
- I think the alignments in degrees could be shown in yellow next to where the orientation indicators are already at, but they aren't really necessary:
Pad positioin and orientation: shows the relative position of the landing pad or docking collar. For landing pads, its rotation show yaw alignment, for docking collar it shows roll alignment.
- Size and concentric circles indicate distance to landing pad. Each circle represents 10m (or so) of distance, and ship is at the given distance when the circle is the same size as the reticule circle. When the indicator itself is the same size as the reticule, the ship reached the pad/collar. (calculated from the landing tag)
- When out of the 45° cone of the reticule, an icon indicates its direction. The icon still shows rotation.
- The indicator should not be smaller than the icon size when it is at a greater distance.
- A faint line is projected forward (where the icon also points) to help with orientation.
Speed indicator: visually represents closing speed with a bar.
- The gauge fills up and down depending on closing speed. (Up and down, so it is visually distinct from the brake distance gauge it replaces in this mode)
- Only a dot at the center when stationary
- Fully filled gauge means the upper safe speed
- It fills up with red from the top and bottom when speed is larger than safety margin
- Not sure about the safety margin, but my guess would be around 5m/s, and about 20m/s would likely severly damage the collar.
- There could also be some visual position and speed indicators, but I'm not sure if they worth the clutter (they could look cool though - could be an optional feature, or could be shown in the cockpit on a screen which shows a docking camera)
The Prograde marker could be a bit smaller, and could be connected with the crosshair with a faint line to aid the position alignment process. (I kinda think that the same could be done to the prograde marker in general as an option)
UI idea for rough alignment:

https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/assets/4182678/3918102a-b7ad-4370-81e2-6b4905b5646a