HUD : Head Up Display

[DunaColonist]

HUD : Head Up Display

Quote

A virtual navball : now you can define and check the direction while still keeping watch on your vessel!

Compatibility

• KPS2 v0.1.4.0 (ie patch 4)
• SpaceWarp 1.4.0+

Virtual Navball

• virtual navball with 2 circles
  • horizontal circle with north and south indicators 
  • vertical circle with sky/ground colors and prograde oriented
• dynamic direction indicators
  • up indicator
  • prograde, normal, radial indicators with standard KSP2 colors
  • target and manœuvre indicators
  • Displayed directions depend on the selected speed mode : surface vs orbit vs target.

Craft Attitude control

• define horizontal angle
• define vertical angle

Configuration

• enable/disable in KSP2 main menu via standard mod configuration
  • In KSP2 main menu => mods => Open Configuration Manager => HUD
• enable/disable in flight via standard app bar
  • In flight => APP.BAR => far right button => HUD

Next features ?

• This mod is feature complete for 1.0.0 but code and UIneed polishing.
• Version 2.0.0 will include a virtual navaball around the player and not the craft.
  • Revival of https://spacedock.info/mod/1574/NavHud Renewed#info !

Known limitation

• Other mods drawing shapes in flight may have issues. Do you know of any ?

Installation

• Easy automatic way : use CKAN
• Harder manual way
  • Follow https://spacedock.info/mod/3277/Space Warp + BepInEx
  • Unzip and extract hud mod in BepInEx in the game folder
    • [KSP_ROOT]/BepInEx/plugins/hud

Licence: MIT

Current Mod Version: 0.7.0

SpaceDock : https://spacedock.info/mod/3334/HUD : Head Up Display

Edited September 16 by DunaColonist
Upgrade version 0.6.0 to 0.7.0

[schlosrat]

Nice! This could be very handy, especially for those who have GPU limited performance where reasonable FPS rates during launch require pointing to the sky. Likewise I suspect for those performing instrument landings where, for similar reasons they need their camera pointed skyward even as they touchdown.

[DunaColonist]

Update : 0.1.0 => 0.2.0

Biggest improvement: the HUD is no more hidden by weird transparent stuff (with the exception of the engine plume)

More details available in changelog : https://spacedock.info/mod/3334/HUD : Head Up Display#changelog

[DunaColonist]

Update : 0.2.0 => 0.3.0

Improvement: Displayed directions will now directly depend on the selected speed mode : surface vs orbit vs target.

Changelog : https://spacedock.info/mod/3334/HUD : Head Up Display#changelog

-----

On the left of the navball

• when speed mode is "surface" => prograde is surface prograde
• when speed mode is "orbit" => prograde is orbit prograde
• when speed mode is "target" => prograde is target prograde

And normal and radial are only displayed when the speed mode is orbit.

In all cases, target and maneuver directions are displayed if they are defined.
 

Edited March 25 by DunaColonist

[schlosrat]

Love the graphics! Very smooth and informative!

I’m having an issue with this mod when’re if I have it loaded I don’t get to see any orbit lines. Is there a way to toggle it on and off? Do orbit lines become visible again if it’s off? The only solution I found was to remove the mod if I wanted to see my orbit lines in map mode.

[DunaColonist]

Thanks for the feedback!

Regarding the toogle there is two ways

• Main game menu => mods => Open Configuration Manager => HUD
• In flight => APP.BAR => far right button => HUD

But it doesn't seem to fix the issue which I can reproduce with the 0.3.0 version.

Removing the mod does also solve the issue on my side.

I will look into it.

 

[DunaColonist]

I have published a workaround with the version 0.3.1 : disabling the mod now allows to display the orbit path (eg orbits).

That's indeed far from perfect but it allows to play while keeping the mod installed. And the user need right now to enable it in flight but disable while looking at the map.

I will work on a real solution as soon as possible.

[schlosrat]

Perhaps automatically disable whatever is interfering with orbits when in the map? It would seem you don't need orbits lines all that much in flight view where your HUD does the most good, and vice versa. That's probably harder than it sounds...

[Buzz313th]

Very "JunoEsque"

[DunaColonist]

4 hours ago, schlosrat said:

Perhaps automatically disable whatever is interfering with orbits when in the map? It would seem you don't need orbits lines all that much in flight view where your HUD does the most good, and vice versa. That's probably harder than it sounds...

That's the main idea but the hard part is indeed how to do it.

I initially assumed that I was only modifying the flight view but that's clearly not the case. I will need to find out how to differentiate between the two views somehow.

[munix]

2 hours ago, DunaColonist said:

 I will need to find out how to differentiate between the two views somehow.

Sounds to me like you could use the game's messaging system - you can subscribe to GameStateChangedMessage, or a combination of GameStateEnteredMessage and GameStateLeftMessage, like this for example:

Spoiler

Game.Messages.Subscribe<GameStateChangedMessage>(msg =>
{
    var message = (GameStateChangedMessage)msg;

    if (message.CurrentState == GameState.FlightView)
    {
        // Activate HUD
    }
    else if(message.PreviousState == GameState.FlightView)
    {
        // Deactivate HUD
    }
});

Edited March 27 by munix

[DunaColonist]

7 hours ago, Buzz313th said:

Very "JunoEsque"

Short answer

Juno did a good design job.

 

Long answer

The main idea

In order to increase focus during a dynamic activity, a common pattern is to to display the critical information where the gaze/action is. And that's the basic concept for a Head Up Display (HUD). HMD is similar in that aspect. It is far from being specific to Juno.

 

Does KSP2 has already a real HUD ?

It could be argued that what is available in vanilla KSP2 is not really a HUD but a set of instruments. Indeed, if you want to look at the them, you need to forget your vessel for a brief lapse of time. One example could be checking the navball and then crashing into an object that was not visible with the navball but only in direct view while looking at the vessel.

So the main goal of this mod is this : don't move your eyes around, keep watching your vessel / target. The critical information will be provided to you.

 

What Juno did well

They have a minimalist design with no superfluous information

• virtual navball with 2 circles
  • 1 horizontal white circle
  • 1 vertical white circle
• direction indicators
  • green prograde indicator
  • white current heading indicator
  • blue target indicator
  • horizontal and vertical graduation scales visible on hover

Only the critical information is displayed. If something is displayed, that's because it's useful else it is not shown.

So I have tried different variations with more lines, more colors but it often ends up being too complex to read and confusing.

 

What are the main differences ?

The main difference right now is the definition of the vessel heading : for Juno, the virtual navball allows to define the craft attitude. The mod does not allow it currently. But that's probably a feature that I will add soon (ie one day).

The second difference is the design.

The graduation scales is currently always displayed. But they add maybe too much noise. And as a consequence, they should probably be removed or displayed only on hover (see Juno minimalist design).

Having different colors for the 2 circles of the navball may be confusing and not bring enough information. I am not quite sure for this point.

And so on about design.

 

 

Edited March 27 by DunaColonist

[DunaColonist]

Update : 0.3.1 => 0.3.2

Improvement: Fix bug of orbit path not being displayed. Transform the workaround into a fix.

Thanks to @munix 

No need to enable / disabled the mod manually.

Edited April 5 by DunaColonist

[DunaColonist]

Update : 0.4.0

The mod is compatible with patch 2.

Prototype : display veritical and horizontal angles within the configuration popup.

Upgrade space warp : need >= 1.1.1

[DfA-DoM]

Please, register it in CKAN!

[DunaColonist]

On 4/14/2023 at 11:37 AM, DfA-DoM said:

Please, register it in CKAN!

@DfA-DoM I will look into it! 

I haven't used CKAN for KSP2 yet. But it is yet another page / file to update...

Edited April 18 by DunaColonist

[DunaColonist]

Update: 0.5.0

First version of craft attitude control ! 

Define horizontal and vertical angles and move your hands out of the keyboard. 

Great help for launch of rocket and their gravity turn.  

I will update image in order to show the gui... but later.

[DfA-DoM]

Another nice feature would be to get some parameters/sliders to alter the size and the transparency

[DunaColonist]

On 4/14/2023 at 11:37 AM, DfA-DoM said:

Please, register it in CKAN!

Done. (But to be fair, it is mostly due to the work of CKAN folks.)

https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/KSP2-CKAN-meta/tree/main/HeadUpDisplay

I haven't tried to install it with CKAN but if anyone has any issue using CKAN, please post them. And I will see what I can do about them.

Edited May 7 by DunaColonist

[DunaColonist]

On 4/18/2023 at 2:42 PM, DfA-DoM said:

Another nice feature would be to get some parameters/sliders to alter the size and the transparency

@DfA-DoM If you had those parameters/sliders what would you change and how ?

I agree that the current display has to be improved. But the way I see it, it is a bit more complex than only fine tuning size and transparency. Instead of asking each user to fix the design on their own, I would rather improve the experience out of the box.

That being said, all feedback are useful. Understanding what you would change and why, would help the next design.

[DunaColonist]

Ah and the current weird transparency is not a feature based on the colors but more like a bug / limitations of the drawing library provided by KSP2.

Currently, the last line/cone that is drawn is on top of the previous ones even if does not make sense from a 3D point of view...

So it's far from something the end user can configure. I will need to look into in order to understand the exact limitations and what would be the best tradeoff.

Edited May 8 by DunaColonist

[DfA-DoM]

On 5/8/2023 at 4:34 PM, DunaColonist said:

@DfA-DoM If you had those parameters/sliders what would you change and how ?

I agree that the current display has to be improved. But the way I see it, it is a bit more complex than only fine tuning size and transparency. Instead of asking each user to fix the design on their own, I would rather improve the experience out of the box.

That being said, all feedback are useful. Understanding what you would change and why, would help the next design.

In fact, I was used to the  NavHud mod on KSP1 and would be very delighted to get some equivalent into KSP2.

Controlling the size and transparency of the HUD is mainly a matter of trade-offs between visual aids and scenery. A keyboard-driven switch would also be a must.

[DunaColonist]

@DfA-DoM Thanks for the feedback !

 

On 5/10/2023 at 8:28 PM, DfA-DoM said:

In fact, I was used to the  NavHud mod on KSP1 and would be very delighted to get some equivalent into KSP2.

Great! This KSP1 mod is a target that I would like to reach with the version 2.  It is nice to have identified an user. I will welcome your feedback on the implementation once I start working on it.

 

On 5/10/2023 at 8:28 PM, DfA-DoM said:

Controlling the size and transparency of the HUD is mainly a matter of trade-offs between visual aids and scenery. A keyboard-driven switch would also be a must.

Ok. I will keep that in mind. I will likely add user configuration once the design is more stable.

 

On 5/10/2023 at 8:28 PM, DfA-DoM said:

A keyboard-driven switch would also be a must.

Great proposal. Nothing more to say. I should be able to add a hotkey to enable/disable display. And maybe more hotkeys for various actions later.

Regarding enabling / disabling the hud display :

• Is there a specific key that would make sense for you ? And that would not be in conflict with other uses ?
• Do you know any KSP2 mod having hotkeys ? Do they provide a user configuration for the key ?

[DunaColonist]

Update :  0.6.0

Fix weird transparency / ordering of spatial shapes. And cleanup visual design of HUD.

HUD may partially disappear if too small when the craft is too far away from camera.

Edited June 4 by DunaColonist

[DunaColonist]

Update :  0.7.0

Compatible KPS2 version 0.1.4.0 (ie patch 4).