Kerbal EVA - camera view (auto/free/orbital/chase) ??

[Invader Jim]

The different camera views seem to work inconsistently for me.  Is this normal?  What I want is a view that is always at the kerbal's back when on EVA and  I want to be able to immediately rotate to face the target ship I am heading to regardless of where I am in relation to it.  The problem arises when I exit a stranded pod and want to get to the rescue ship.  Sometimes the rescue ship is way above me and I can easily rotate to face it and other times I seem to be stuck facing the current direction and can't rotate around to face it regardless of which camera view I choose (V).  I want to be able to leave a ship, rotate so that pressing W makes we move toward the ship.  Sometimes I can't seem to rotate and might have to use shift or ctrl  for a while in order to align myself so W takes me directly toward the ship.

I hope this makes sense.  What i am doing wrong?

[Plusck]

When in orbit, your head is north (normal) and your feet are south (antinormal). You can't do anything about this, so it is impossible to rotate towards the target if the target is above your head or below your feet.

So if you are using shift and control to align with the ship, then no, you won't be able to thrust towards it with W. It isn't a question of camera orientation but the orientation of the Kerbal - and pressing W will always move the Kerbal in the direction it is facing, no matter how high or low the camera is.

However, the easiest way of getting to the rescue ship is to make sure it is targeted. Then face vaguely in the direction of the ship and use the jetpack thrusters to align the target prograde with the target on the navball. You'll see that if you press W, the prograde marker will always move towards the Kerbal's "horizon" (i.e. the line going through east and west, passing through the zenith and nadir) no matter which direction the camera is facing. On a suborbital trajectory, this changes and the Kerbal's horizon is the division between blue and brown on the navball.

Edited April 29, 2016 by Plusck

[Invader Jim]

2 minutes ago, Plusck said:

When in orbit, your head is north (normal) and your feet are south (antinormal). You can't do anything about this, so it is impossible to rotate towards the target if the target is above your head or below your feet.

So if you are using shift and control to align with the ship, then no, you won't be able to thrust towards it with W. It isn't a question of camera orientation but the orientation of the Kerbal - and pressing W will always move the Kerbal in the direction it is facing, no matter how high or low the camera is.

 

Most of the time when you exit you won't be oriented this way.  So as soon as you move you are automatically rotated so that head is north (normal) and your feet are south (antinormal)? 

[Plusck]

10 minutes ago, Invader Jim said:

 

Most of the time when you exit you won't be oriented this way.  So as soon as you move you are automatically rotated so that head is north (normal) and your feet are south (antinormal)? 

As soon as you switch on RCS, yes, you will automatically be rotated to have head and feet at north and south.

Incidentally, the option in settings to "auto-rotate to camera" can be switched off, but this has no effect on the north/south orientation. Your Kerbal will always turn to align north/south even with this setting off. It will just stop turning to have its back to you when you move the camera.

This is all quite logical, in the sense that all camera and map views in KSP are oriented north/south, no matter what you are looking at. And that north/south is apparently the galactic north/south, since being in an inclined orbit (e.g. Moho) doesn't change the game's notion of north and south (AFAIK) for camera and kerbal purposes.

Edited April 29, 2016 by Plusck

[FullMetalMachinist]

On 4/29/2016 at 11:09 AM, Plusck said:

so it is impossible to rotate towards the target if the target is above your head or below your feet.

Actually, you can left-click and drag while EVA RCS is on and your kerbal will rotate around.  However, if you have the "auto rotate to camera" turned on, the kerbal will rotate back to the north/south direction as soon as you thrust in any direction. 

But, if you turn off the "auto rotate" option, then you can rotate your kerbal around and use the RCS pack, and the kerbal will keep it's rotation.  

Also, with the "auto rotate" tuned on or off, you can press 'space bar' to rotate the kerbal back to the default north/south orientation.  

[Plusck]

2 hours ago, FullMetalMachinist said:

Actually, you can left-click and drag while EVA RCS is on and your kerbal will rotate around.  However, if you have the "auto rotate to camera" turned on, the kerbal will rotate back to the north/south direction as soon as you thrust in any direction. 

But, if you turn off the "auto rotate" option, then you can rotate your kerbal around and use the RCS pack, and the kerbal will keep it's rotation.  

Also, with the "auto rotate" tuned on or off, you can press 'space bar' to rotate the kerbal back to the default north/south orientation.  

I never even knew this was a possibility (why hello there, undocumented feature, I think I've met a few of your friends already...). Gonna have to try this.

This will save a ton of monoprop for orbital maneuvres - my Kerbals often have more available dv than the ships that are supposedly "rescuing" them, but catching up after an odd-angled flyby generally involves lots of wasteful burns at right-angles to one another.

[edit: ok, that's cool. However it feels like it would be useful for really delicate maneuvres, and less so for trying to catch up with rockets since it is quite slow to get lined up. Still good to know though]

Edited May 1, 2016 by Plusck

[Lucky Spacer]

So I am having some of the same EVA orientation issues. For the number of hours I have in to this game EVA still drives me nuts. Sometimes I plop out and the orientation is great WASD makes sense and I quickly go where I want to go. Other times I'm out and the Kerbal never reorients to where the camera is pointing. No matter how many times I hit the space bar.  I am always above 80km above kerbin so I don't think the ground orientation is an issue. Several times I have had my target directly over head, I use the mouse to rotate the camera so that I am looking from the feet to the head to the target and I then press the space bar and the Kerbal does not reorient. So I end up doing a head bonk and pray I hit the F key in time.

On 4/29/2016 at 9:09 AM, Plusck said:

When in orbit, your head is north (normal) and your feet are south (antinormal). You can't do anything about this, so it is impossible to rotate towards the target if the target is above your head or below your feet.

I think this is a critical point that is some how not making sense to me.  I thought the whole purpose of the space bar was to reorient your kerbal to be facing the target.

I will try some more rescues to see if I can get some good screen shots.  I really like the Idea of using the navball.

[FullMetalMachinist]

2 hours ago, Lucky Spacer said:

I thought the whole purpose of the space bar was to reorient your kerbal to be facing the target.

Sorry, that's not how it works. I'd love it if it was, but it's not. 

All pressing space bar does is reorient your kerbal to where the head is pointing Normal. I does also spin your kerbal around left/right to match where the camera is pointing, but that's it. 

If your target is "above" you, then you need to click-drag left mouse button to rotate how you want, and then don't hit space bar. That will get them facing the right way, then you can thrust how you want, but only if you have the "Auto rotate EVA Kerbal to camera" turned off.