Nav ball, text accessibility. General UI views

[Andy 156]

I have been playing on a 24 inch 1920x1080  screen.  I am really not a fan of the pixellated nav ball. It makes it incredibly hard to read.  I fly with a real AI and even way back in the day I can tell you they weren't pixellated.  I am guessing the low resolution makes it even harder to use. The same goes for the inconsistency with text.  Sometimes it is nice and crisp and other times a really weird font that is not pleasant to read/decipher. For example the manoeuvre node text box 'Required deltaV' is squished and very zx spectrumy or the SAS/RCS info around the Navball.  Then to contrast the altitude on the Navball is nice to read.

Personally I don't like the location of the nav ball either. A lot of time is spent flying off this so my head is no longer pointing at the neutral position in the center of my screen. Instead I am off axis and down.  Could there be an option to position it in the center so my neck isn't tweaked so much ?

The parts manager is quite obtrusive.  If I want to just view one part I still have this huge window up.  It is useful in its own right but a lot of the time the whole stack isn't required.

 

 

Edited February 25, 2023 by Andy 156
corrected screen size

[Tekaoh]

Agreed. I find the pixely fonts and ui design hard to read. I also don't really like the new fuel meters in the staging area. I find it harder to see at a glance where my fuel level is at when I'm anticipating a staging point. Not enough contrast. And the nav ball is literally the most important thing on my screen when I'm flying. I'd rather it be in the center where I can glance at it more naturally. When I'm launching my eyes hardly look at my actual rocket at all and instead glance between nav ball and fuel meters. Right now they are literally as far away from each other as possible, which kind of stinks. Just my opinion

[LameLefty]

2 hours ago, Andy 156 said:

For example the manoeuvre node text box 'Required deltaV' is squished and very zx spectrumy

I agree with most/all of your entire post, but this is worth calling out in particular. I play on 32” 1440p screen 3’ from my face and even then, the font is too squished up. 

And to add to this point, the dV gauge doesn’t seem accurate at all. Very often I’ll set up a maneuver node, start the burn and watch the guage decrease but once the line is zero’d out, my final trajectory is but a bare approximation of what it should have been going by the planner in Map view. In addition to the general inaccuracy of the maneuver progress bar, the white color is a terrible choice for anything but deep space. Woe be unto the Kerbonaut who makes his burn for the Mun or deep space with the camera pointed at terrain, as that white font will completely wash out. 

[runner78]

I play with a 24" 1920, and I also find that some of the UI text is very small. After 1 or two hours I notice that my eyes are getting tired.

[mattihase]

43 minutes ago, LameLefty said:

I agree with most/all of your entire post, but this is worth calling out in particular. I play on 32” 1440p screen 3’ from my face and even then, the font is too squished up. 

And to add to this point, the dV gauge doesn’t seem accurate at all. Very often I’ll set up a maneuver node, start the burn and watch the guage decrease but once the line is zero’d out, my final trajectory is but a bare approximation of what it should have been going by the planner in Map view. In addition to the general inaccuracy of the maneuver progress bar, the white color is a terrible choice for anything but deep space. Woe be unto the Kerbonaut who makes his burn for the Mun or deep space with the camera pointed at terrain, as that white font will completely wash out. 

There's already some loading screens where the white text washes out on.

[thewhitemetroid]

I would also agree with this. The Dot Matrix UI effect is not a good look, I feel like they were looking for a retro feel but it doesn't really look retro. Maybe offer options for different styles of UI. But what I think absolutely needs to be addressed is the overall look of the UI is not consistent. There is a mix of smooth continuous linework in vivid colors in the same widget with the Dot Matrix effect. Looks bad.