Goonhub
11-06-2020, 12:14 AM
Having both temporary and permanent holograms sounds a bit cumbersome for someone to deal with while trying to have minimal hud space for the hologram usage. But I think it could work out. I don't think the AI should have a lot though. My worry with permanent holograms is that designing a good system for the AI to manage them is tough as well as it leads to the problem of an AI spamming an area with them and the crew having no recourse other than ordering them gone (cutting camera's should destroy them probably, but I didn't make that yet). Is it better to just let the AI delete all holograms with one button simply? Or better to show em a list of em all? . I don't like the idea of the AI being able to use them as waypoints, because that's not really their intent, and it doesn't make much sense that that would be the way for an AI to jump around fast.
My first idea on how to place the holograms was for them to be placed as Aft suggested with something SPACE + CLICK, then opening up a menu like the ritual chalk sigils for the AI. But the initial feedback I got for that was that it was less clear than just having the "HOLO" button that all AI's can easily see and instantly know how to use. Maybe the Holo button should be permanent holograms, and SPACE + CLICK should be temporary.
Superlagg. The idea of the holograms is that they are projected via the station cameras. I originally did want to do as you say, but I wasn't sure if it would look good enough or the costs of making it look good would be too high. For example, if they had some sorta animated hologram light thingy stretching from them to the nearest camera, you'd have to raycast for if it goes through a wall, and then check where the camera is on the sprite. And assuming you do both every time I'm not sure how good it would actually look even if you made things line up perfectly. The other option is to only allow it on tiles directly in front of a camera in a cone, and that would severely limit the areas where it could be created, which I thought might make it too useless to warrant making. I'm really not sure what the best way for it is. Maybe just something shooting from the nearest camera's tile on creation for a second? I tried making it fade it alright and be a good alpha value, maybe just changing those would make it look better.
My first idea on how to place the holograms was for them to be placed as Aft suggested with something SPACE + CLICK, then opening up a menu like the ritual chalk sigils for the AI. But the initial feedback I got for that was that it was less clear than just having the "HOLO" button that all AI's can easily see and instantly know how to use. Maybe the Holo button should be permanent holograms, and SPACE + CLICK should be temporary.
Superlagg. The idea of the holograms is that they are projected via the station cameras. I originally did want to do as you say, but I wasn't sure if it would look good enough or the costs of making it look good would be too high. For example, if they had some sorta animated hologram light thingy stretching from them to the nearest camera, you'd have to raycast for if it goes through a wall, and then check where the camera is on the sprite. And assuming you do both every time I'm not sure how good it would actually look even if you made things line up perfectly. The other option is to only allow it on tiles directly in front of a camera in a cone, and that would severely limit the areas where it could be created, which I thought might make it too useless to warrant making. I'm really not sure what the best way for it is. Maybe just something shooting from the nearest camera's tile on creation for a second? I tried making it fade it alright and be a good alpha value, maybe just changing those would make it look better.