Cutaway view

[Pthigrivi]

So this is an idea I've been brewing on for a while. It started when I was thinking about how to do real IVA's in which Kerbals could move from module to module without exiting the vehicle. The trouble is how do you view that? The spaces are so confined it seems it would be really difficult to both view and program wayfinding. My idea is that a new cutaway view could be added for vessels in the VAB and in flight, in which everything but interior cabins and working components (essentially things that give options when right-clicked) would be ghosted. You could then for instance very easily see and right-click two tanks to transfer fuel, or select and extend solar panels without doing mouse gymnastics. The other key thing you could do is control kerbals inside the vessel. They could sit up from seats and climb through the interior of the vessel, through docking ports, and later do more involved things in the science lab or ISRU processor, etc. This would involve some tricky programming I expect, creating a new kind of clipping to view only the interior surfaces of module interiors, and especially making connections between modules 'real' and navigable. In the end though on top of making vessels feel much more inhabited and cool I think it could make vehicle operations, especially the clumsy right-clicky kind, much simpler and more intuitive for the user.

Edited February 7, 2015 by Pthigrivi

[Commander Jebidiah]

Yes I really like my computer dieing. But seriously good idea. Just may kill my laptop.

[Pthigrivi]

Why should it? It's already rendering all these parts, this just ghosts the structural ones. Also pretty easily physics could be disabled in this view as they are when time warping.

Edited February 7, 2015 by Pthigrivi

[Capt Snuggler]

You read my wind! How did you do that!

Well obviously I think this is a great idea.

Fuel tanks would need a "crew tunnel" on off option in the tweekable menu.

I think this could be handled mostly through clever use of "back face culling". Anyone ever play dungeon keeper 2? The tunnel roof was always there, but because you were looking down, it was facing away from you and was invisible. The back face was culled. Then when you go in to first person view the roof is rendered showing that you are in a tunnel.

It could be part of a more detailed ship management view.

The only thing where I can see it not working is rovers built from larger ship parts.

... Oh and part clipping.

[Pthigrivi]

Yeah that's sort of how I was viewing it. The tunnel thing is kind of a biggie. Not all of the parts seem to have them, but some do. Im sure this could be tweakable but then when a kerbal enters the tube I guess you grey them out so you can still show the tank? What about the radial attachment point? Can that serve as a tunnel entrance where there was none in the model? How does the animation for moving about the spaces work?

This is by no means easy and I wouldn't expect it anytime soon. Maybe if there were a life-support expansion in the future. Still, it would be really handy.