Space Engineers

Space Engineers

Whip's Artificial Horizon Redux
Leconite 27 Apr, 2024 @ 3:57am
Feature Idea: In space "reference horizon" within "docking range".
Feature idea.

In space "reference horizon" within "docking range".

Summary
A Horizon PB on a mother ship ( or station ) providing in space "reference horizon", similar to the in gravity altitude display, for other ships running Horizon that are in a specific range. Making it easier to align for docking. I've had situations where the feed from the docking cam looked OK, but the ship's pitch, roll, or yaw were way off, resulting with damages to ships and stations during docking. With a "reference horizon" on the display, I could have aligned up before docking up.


Possible Implementation

Master Mode.
A true/false setting in the custom data of the Horizon PB indicating Master Mode.
A ship running Horizons with master mode enabled would stop providing master reference information when in a station's ( station grid's ) Horizon PB's master mode docking range.

Docking Range.
A numeric setting in the custom data of the Horizon PB indicating range in meters from a grids Reference cockpit or broadcasting antenna at which slave mode should be engaged.
Slave mode engagement would require a broadcasting antenna on the master grid, so even if the docking range is set high, the "range of effect" is limited by the antenna's broadcast range.
A powered and switched on antenna would be required on the slave grid to receive reference information from the master Horizon PB.

Slave mode.
Ships running Horizon within range of effect of master Horizon PB's would display altitude information in space until they left the range of effect, at which point they would display the normal space based xyz reference.
The "ground" would of course be the reference cockpit on the master grid, and the "horizon" would be based on the bottom of that. Ground collision, of course wouldn't apply in space, as one could very well be docking below the horizon. What could matter in a docking situation is that my ships's pitch, roll, and yaw were appropriate in relation to "horizon".