Wash out half the orbit to show orbital direction.

[Wadusher0]

So, after one too many backwards rendezvous over the Mun, followed by a quick trip* to Space Engine, I began to wonder why KSP has no way to tell at a glance which direction an object is orbiting.

What I mean is, well, take a look in Space Engine's orbit paths.

http://i.imgur.com/yG6Mpi4.jpg

It's a little cluttered, but if you look closely, it becomes very clear whether all these objects are traveling prograde or retrograde relative to the sun.

Now take a look in KSP.

http://i.imgur.com/2z3yp9H.png

From this image alone, ignoring the fact that I already know everything is moving clockwise, I have absolutely no idea what direction anything here is traveling, which has in the past led me orbiting the wrong direction relative to several space stations. If the half of the orbits behind the objects were partially washed out like in Space Engine, this would not be an issue. Yet the KSP devs and modders alike seem to have completely neglected to implement such a simple feature. Can someone - be it a modder or dev - please remedy this?

*I don't actually play space engine - I got these images from a google search, but that's not important.

[Red Iron Crown]

There was a similar discussion a few weeks ago. It's a good idea, I think.

[BudgetHedgehog]

I have absolutely no idea what direction anything here is traveling, which has in the past led me orbiting the wrong direction relative to several space stations.

How on earth can you even do that.. you were the one who put them there.

WRT your question, I don't see the harm in fading the orbital line a bit to show direction, but I do object to arrows and stuff which generate screen clutter.

[FenrirWolf]

By that he probably means hitting an interplanetary encounter going retrograde vs prograde. Pretty easy to do by accident. Though it's a lot easier to account for in the latest update by clicking focus view on the body you are transferring to.

[Superfluous J]

How on earth can you even do that.

Other than not being on Earth (or even Kerbin) where a lot of commonsense rules simply don't apply?

Until you're very used to it, getting things orbiting the wrong way is pretty easy, actually. And now that we've got to capture asteroids that could be coming into Kerbin's SOI from any which way it'd be even more beneficial.

[BudgetHedgehog]

By that he probably means hitting an interplanetary encounter going retrograde vs prograde. Pretty easy to do by accident. Though it's a lot easier to account for in the latest update by clicking focus view on the body you are transferring to.

Ohhhh... See, my patched conics mode is always 0, I can see why it'd be confusing in the default mode 3.

Other than not being on Earth (or even Kerbin) where a lot of commonsense rules simply don't apply?

Until you're very used to it, getting things orbiting the wrong way is pretty easy, actually. And now that we've got to capture asteroids that could be coming into Kerbin's SOI from any which way it'd be even more beneficial.

I guess I'm just very used to it then.. The only time I can get confused is rendezvousing with polar orbits because those DO change direction (relative to the surface). But I mean, as I said in the last thread, it doesn't take a lot to look at the entrance/exit points and see which one is which (again, patched conics mode 0.. I'm just so used to it now, I forget there's other kinds). At most, a couple of seconds, but yeah, I'm not adverse to direction indication per se, just adverse to something that generates screen clutter unnecessarily like arrows - fading orbital lines is a great idea that fits my personal criteria and I would have no complaint if it got added.

[Sirrobert]

Now this is one of those ideas that I never even thought of as a problem, but would still make my life way easier.

I aprove

[Wadusher0]

How on earth can you even do that.. you were the one who put them there.

WRT your question, I don't see the harm in fading the orbital line a bit to show direction, but I do object to arrows and stuff which generate screen clutter.

Sometimes I forget which direction I transferred the ships in. It's not that big a problem if MechJeb is flying the things, but it did get very annoying early on in the game.

I don't think we need the arrows either, those were just for demonstration purposes.

[FenrirWolf]

Ohhhh... See, my patched conics mode is always 0, I can see why it'd be confusing in the default mode 3.

That's how I used to do it too. Or rather, I would manually switch conics mode with PreciseNode or some other tool. But now the game automatically switches conics between 3 and 0 when you focus the map view on your ship and the target SoI, respectively. It's super handy.

[Dunbaratu]

I like the proposed interface because it is very unobtrusive and adds no screen clutter at all - it just slightly fades the color of the line that was already on screen before the proposed change.

[r4pt0r]

There was a similar discussion a few weeks ago. It's a good idea, I think.

as discussed in my thread, i dont care if its arrows, fading lines, or a color gradient. just something to eliminate confusion (particularly in the smurfin' joolian system!)

[DoToH]

Sure method to find orbit direction:

1: If the object is a planet or moon -> direction is counter-clockwise

2: If not, go to map, target object. Check object time to its AP and PE -> direction is from the point the object is to the AP if the time to AP is lower and vice-versa.

My first trip to Jool system ended orbiting clockwise. Lots of fuel wasted to get a capture at Laythe. Never happened again.

Here goes a explanatory pic:

Edited April 24, 2014 by DoToH
spelling

[Tery215]

Lol, the second picture looks like the invasion of the tie-fighters

Although I do support.