The one thing that has confused me as well as several friends is the 2 different radar screens. Occasionally I think the back one is the front view....

But what if there could be a single radar containing the X,Y, and Z axes as well as "tick" marks showing how far out an enemy was. To avoid confusion, the front (positive) Y axis could be red (and I guess the rest would just be a normal white). The radar could, perhaps, also be rotated by pressing ctrl+arrow keys.

Maybe you could even toggle a translucent, full-screen radar?

I would've thought someone would have mentioned this earlier but I didnt find anything on the search.

This has been mentioned several times, including a few with mockups. I am personally against it, because I've always found our dual-radar setup to be more accurate than any 3-dimensional radar could be (perhaps my depth perception of a two-dimensional projection of a three-dimensional representation of four-dimensional space is lacking). But I'm sure there's people on both sides of this one.

What with the upcoming customizable UI & HUD, hopefully those who want this could have it, and those of us who prefer the current radar can keep it.

I liked the 3-D radar display in the old Elite Games.. I dont know how well it would work for vendetta however because it was fairly inaccurate up close, all the little blobs kinda clumped together.. and looking down into it from a 3rd person isometric view means that ships ahead and below you are occluded by ships above and behind you...

Like beo said however.. if it could be added as an option in a customizable hud that would be pretty cool.

I think there's a lot of scope for improving the radar, but I'm guessing that will come with things like proper sensors and cloaking. I believe it's been discussed at length in other threads.

My only gripe with the radar as it is is this: the two radar screens are on opposite sides of the screen. I have a 19" monitor, it takes time for my eyes to move, not much but sometimes enough to notice. I think it would be better for usability to have the two screens closer together, when we can skin the UI this should be a piece of cake.

Ray has implemented an "optional radar" in the new HUD system. I forget which game it was modeled after, but it's basically a single-sphere 3D radar (as opposed to our normal dual-hemisphere "X-Wing" esque model).

So, that will come with the new UI. Still more optional radars are always a possibility, and depending on how much we open up the UI to external development, users might even be able to build that stuff themselves.

When will the UI redux be released? I mean, it seems like Ray's gotten pretty far with it, and he has been working on it since, like, a long time. It was first mentioned with the mission editor, and the first mention of it in the News was August- 2 months ago...

I hated the dual-radar at first, but I have grown to appriciate its accuracy. I am glad that you have decided to keep it Incarnate =).

PS. I wouldn't mind the dual-radar screens being more concave, so that depth is more easily decerned...but that's just me.

what might be neat would be the dual radar screens being depicted as two 3D hemispheres (kinda like what vIsitor was suggesting, just with a more accurate term). so that object movement around the boundaries of the radar would be a bit easier to track.

Hi,

Elite-like radar is good for short range, the X-Wing is better for long range.

Regards,

Darkwood

Just implement the Wing Commander radar and be done with it.

Like this: http://www.linux-user.de/ausgabe/2000/10/015-wine/wing-commander-prophecy-demo.png

The kind of radar where things behind you are on the edge of the radar and things in front of you are in the middle? Hmm. I've always felt that those radars were the hardest to use...

Least intuitive, maybe, but once you're used to it I think that type of radar would be more readable than a 3-D radar. But I'd personally still prefer the X-Wing dual radar we have now.

Rogue: yes, that kind of radar. Those radars are by far the easiest to use, because you just have to look at one thing to know where everybody is, rather than switching between right and left.

I dunno about a 3D radar though - no depth perception, and objects overlap each other too easily.

They're the easiest to use, until you need to know where behind you somebody is...

::sigh::

That's why we OUGHT to have off-screen lead indicators, like Freespace did. Those were useful.

And the moral of the thread is: the customizable modular HUD will be much appreciated.

Ray has been working on that HUD upgrade forever. It makes for a lot of De Ja Vu in our conversations.

So is he done yet? :p

Dunno, everytime I ask that I get "not for two weeks" I've been getting that response since Aug. GO figure.