I would agree, except that they often show the same shot on the viewscreen from multiple angles of the bridge, and the viewscreen's image is always the same. If the angle of the shot on the bridge changed, and the viewscreen was 3 dimensional, then the apparent angle of viewing of the image would also have changed. Could be budgets. Either way, it wasn't important enough to showcase, ever
I believe it was. In TNG when Picard is next to the viewscreen, you sort of see a more side perspective of the person on the viewscreen.
I seem to remember one seen when he was talking with Tomalok this occurred.
When the Ent D crashed, the viewscreen shattered, and you could clearly not see outside from there. Same with the above posting of the damaged Voyager viewscreen.
And what about Nemesis when the viewscreen was blown away? :rolleyes:
Either A) The viewscreen is a 2D image, and we have to swap both the skyfile around your ship (if you look out a window), AND the viewscreen, OR we cut a hole in the front of each bridge that just sees out into space, and we still have to swap the skyfile. There is no option where skyfiles don't get swapped.'
You only would have to change a skyfile is you were on the bridge and the scene called for you to enter or exit warp.
Secondly, up until now we've been talking about just swapping this stuff to where ever your ship was last located. Now we're adding in other ships? This was already a very unlikely scenario to happen, and it's quickly becoming a 'not gonna happen.'
Ye of so little faith. :P
I bet I could pull this off with the Foundry right now, if we had access to ship models on ground and interior maps.
And the viewscreen change, I already pulled it off in my Klacht Dkel Brakt foundry mission. While it's not published, I think you Devs have access to players files. So if you have the time, go to that mission and pull up the Base interior and you will see what I mean.
Maybe there are canonical sources for 3 dimensional holographic viewscreens, but I never saw it in any of the shows/movies I watched. (and I HAVE watched pretty much everything but Ent and TAS). <snip>
I would agree, except that they often show the same shot on the viewscreen from multiple angles of the bridge, and the viewscreen's image is always the same. If the angle of the shot on the bridge changed, and the viewscreen was 3 dimensional, then the apparent angle of viewing of the image would also have changed. Could be budgets. Either way, it wasn't important enough to showcase, ever.
Again, wrong. It was shown, at least once, and I believe more.
In Menage a Troi it's very clear that the viewscreen looks different from different angles. On Netflix at 39:19 you see the viewscreen at an angle, and the image corresponds. Then at 40:05 you see a straight-on view and the characters are viewed straight-on.
Here's a Youtube video of parts of the same episode:
I concede.
TNG Tech manual says it does display in 3d as well.
I still dispute it being a window into space though.
My bottom line is that it may not feel right being a 2d image. But I also don't believe it would feel right being a window into space. And those are the options. I can't make a 2d display that changes upon the angle of viewing. What we want is Portals, and we don't have that.
I concede.
TNG Tech manual says it does display in 3d as well.
I still dispute it being a window into space though.
My bottom line is that it may not feel right being a 2d image. But I also don't believe it would feel right being a window into space. And those are the options. I can't make a 2d display that changes upon the angle of viewing. What we want is Portals, and we don't have that.
If it was really 3D, why did the holoemitter thing have to be made separately (the device used in the Ellington DS9 episodes)
Even if it did display 3D, the perspective would change so little, because the cameras on the ship are still relatively close together (assuming stereoscopic usage). Even if it's a computer generated (false colour) type 3D and not an exterior image, it would still stay fairly constant in it's view around the bridge, again because the 'eye' position stays the same, AND it would be impractical as people at different stations would miss parts of the image..
Does that all make sense?
Edit: I think most of my arguments work against a Window into Space too. (possibly better)
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Machinima Person
Did some things back in the day
If it was really 3D, why did the holoemitter thing have to be made separately (the device used in the Ellington DS9 episodes)
Even if it did display 3D, the perspective would change so little, because the cameras on the ship are still relatively close together (assuming stereoscopic usage). Even if it's a computer generated (false colour) type 3D and not an exterior image, it would still stay fairly constant in it's view around the bridge, again because the 'eye' position stays the same, AND it would be impractical as people at different stations would miss parts of the image..
Does that all make sense?
Edit: I think most of my arguments work against a Window into Space too. (possibly better)
I concur. I think it's impractical and unnecessary for them to be 3d, holographic images, but who knows. I've never had a screen like that so I can't really tell you the benefits and drawbacks.
I still think a 2D screen feels more correct to everything we've ever seen in any show/movie.
I concur. I think it's impractical and unnecessary for them to be 3d, holographic images, but who knows. I've never had a screen like that so I can't really tell you the benefits and drawbacks.
I still think a 2D screen feels more correct to everything we've ever seen in any show/movie.
I seem to recall ( before they had an observation lounge or astrometrics lab ) there were episodes in which they could use the viewscreen to get a tactical ( 3d ) view but that this was later "moved " to observation lounge . I certainly don't recall seeing that in the TNG movies or later seasons. Could be that's what the tech manual is referring to . .
Reading the differences of viewpoint regarding how the bridge view-screen does or doesn't function is interesting. Because that tech really was an evolution from flat screen to 3D to holographic projections.
The holographic projections started out small. With the tabletop display of the Tychon Empire in TNG season 1. A display type that impressed some viewers. But wouldn't appear again until DS9 with the single episode displaying a holographic Admiral near the Captains' chair of the Defiant. Now my recall may not be entirely representative, but that holographic Admiral inspired friends and online acquaintances to wince. As it was too Star Wars What Is Thy Bidding My Master. We never saw it again. Was it due to fan outcry for Star Trek to not borrow too much from Star Wars? I don't know. I hated it myself and wasn't sad to see it go. However, since the tech did appear at all it is canon from which to speculate with regard to 2409.
During Generations, when the saucer of the E-D crashed on Veridian III, we saw consoles slide forward (apparently not bolted to the floor? :rolleyes: ) and through the view-screen. Into an almost empty space behind it. This was really the only moment that any 3D tech was directly implied.
With First Contact, we did see what appeared to me as a flat projection in front of a blank wall space for display of the Borg attack on Earth. I saw a gap between the blank wall and the projection above the floor. To me, it looked more like projected IMAX than anything else.
With Voyager's Year in Hell, that was most certainly a hole where a flat view-screen had been previously. With the shuttlebay door tech shielding the gap. Else Janeway would have been sucked into vacuum. Hard to say if there was the Generations-styled 3D chamber having been scrapped off the hull, too. If it existed it was gone.
Edited to add:
While I'm not a fan of the view-screen as window approach (see AbramsTrek), I can see how applying the concept to the game maps might accomplish the goals being suggested.
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Essentially, just have the viewscreen and ship viewports like those windows in Earth Space Dock, loading the appropriate planets/nebulae/space stations for each major location.
No need to deal with holographics or HUDs - just as long it's not a flat wall painting.
Laws of thermodynamics as applied to life: 0 - You must play the game. 1 - You can't win. 2 - You can't break even. 3 - You can't quit.
It was obviously never seen in the series, but I always thought the holographic viewscreen would result in an image that could look something like this.
...talking to players is like being a mall Santa. Everyone immediately wants to tell you all of the things they want, and you are absolutely powerless to deliver 99% of them.
I concede.
TNG Tech manual says it does display in 3d as well.
hmmm...
i noticed something odd while currently re-watching TNG
when Picard talks to someone on the screen and the camera angle changes to a 90? side camera the viewscreen also shows the guy on the (blue-)screen from a side profile.
I'd like to see the addition of an astrometrics room with details on every planet - all the info that we see in the little window that pops up when get near a planet? Those, collected in a database. Cryptic could even monetize it (cough) by selling us the room, with our choice of visual (Generations style or Voyager... or 2409, etc).. :P
Also, with the addition of information the on various wildlife on New Romulus (which I had a similar, but larger, galaxy-wide idea to years ago which also spruced up Exploration clusters (all photobucket links are dead)), I'd like a database of that information on my ship.
So basically a wonderful room that I can go to aboard my ship, and just nerd out reading about the lore of the game's worlds and species, of all types flora and fauna.
I'd like to see the addition of an astrometrics room with details on every planet - all the info that we see in the little window that pops up when get near a planet? Those, collected in a database. Cryptic could even monetize it (cough) by selling us the room, with our choice of visual (Generations style or Voyager... or 2409, etc).. :P
Also, with the addition of information the on various wildlife on New Romulus (which I had a similar, but larger, galaxy-wide idea to years ago which also spruced up Exploration clusters (all photobucket links are dead)), I'd like a database of that information on my ship.
So basically a wonderful room that I can go to aboard my ship, and just nerd out reading about the lore of the game's worlds and species, of all types flora and fauna.
I like this - I'll add to the proposal doc later this week.
Some ship classes would, however, not have this feature due to their size and purpose (e.g. the Defiant)
Laws of thermodynamics as applied to life: 0 - You must play the game. 1 - You can't win. 2 - You can't break even. 3 - You can't quit.
Essentially, just have the viewscreen and ship viewports like those windows in Earth Space Dock, loading the appropriate planets/nebulae/space stations for each major location.
No need to deal with holographics or HUDs - just as long it's not a flat wall painting.
I'm confused. You say to have the viewscreen act like the windows of ESD, but that there's no need for holographics? Are you saying the viewscreen is a window? Either way, the only "3D" option is to make it seem like a window. (see next quote response)
It was obviously never seen in the series, but I always thought the holographic viewscreen would result in an image that could look something like this.
I am ok with THIS type of holo-display. The actual display space is a 2D image. However, it recognizes your position and adjusts the image to match. This would look much less like a window than if, as it seems people are suggesting, there is a full holographic projection of 3d objects in 3d space behind the viewscreen.
The problem is, there is no way for me to represent this in game. I can do a 2d Texture (possibly animated) or I can make a window into 3d space. I don't think either of those accomplish what I feel is "correct" but I think that the 2d option is still "more" correct, and feels better overall.
i noticed something odd while currently re-watching TNG
when Picard talks to someone on the screen and the camera angle changes to a 90? side camera the viewscreen also shows the guy on the (blue-)screen from a side profile.
maybe proof of a 3D screen?
i try to get some screencaps if i see it again...
Personally, I think that they did this more so that it didn't feel awkward (like the person on screen is looking out at an odd angle, or not directly at Picard or whoever). But it can certainly be rationalized as a 3d Holographic display similar to what Jeffe posted above.
I'm confused. You say to have the viewscreen act like the windows of ESD, but that there's no need for holographics? Are you saying the viewscreen is a window? Either way, the only "3D" option is to make it seem like a window. (see next quote response)
That's correct.
It may not be how it is in-canon, but having a viewscreen as a window would be best implementation-wise - you can then simply change the skybox depending on the last map.
Laws of thermodynamics as applied to life: 0 - You must play the game. 1 - You can't win. 2 - You can't break even. 3 - You can't quit.
From an engineering standpoint, windows suck. Windows are a weakness to the integrity of the ship. Technology can fail so using force fields to protect the windows are not a permanent solution. The only solution is to have windows made of a substance as strong as the hull. Transparent aluminum helps or whatever is currently being used by the 25th Century, but it is still a weakness since their window material is not as strong as the hull material. Having sensors on the outside of the ship and send the image to a viewscreen makes more sense than having a window. It is possible to have windows that can be used as viewscreens when necessary, but having a window as a TV for your home is much different than having it in space.
While using a Window may not be completely accurate, I think it would be the best solution with the current tech.
It's always bothered me since the game first launched and I beamed to my bridge, that even from a distance, the viewscreen image doesn't look quite right, and walking up close to it, it looks like nothing more than a painted picture.
Possibly because the viewscreen isn't animated, but there isn't any sense of depth. I would expect the viewscreen to at least look like what I would see on a TV screen connected to a camera looking outside, but it isn't even that. Faking it by making it a window, even into a generic stars-and-space skybox would do wonders for making it look better, IMHO.
I am ok with THIS type of holo-display...The problem is, there is no way for me to represent this in game. I can do a 2d Texture (possibly animated) or I can make a window into 3d space. I don't think either of those accomplish what I feel is "correct" but I think that the 2d option is still "more" correct, and feels better overall
Yeah, I didn't really think it would be feasible, I was just trying to describe what I felt it would have looked like on the shows (but it wasn't feasible for them, either).
In terms of sheer practicality, I feel like the best choices for STO viewscreens are either (a) a 2D starfield texture (easy), or (b) displaying a 2D screenshot of the current system/last space map visited (less easy, but hopefully not out of the question).
Even option (b) would need to have a "blank" starfield option to represent sector space and any uniquely generated maps like star cluster systems, as I'm sure it would be ridiculous to get screenshots of every single one of them.
...talking to players is like being a mall Santa. Everyone immediately wants to tell you all of the things they want, and you are absolutely powerless to deliver 99% of them.
Yeah, I didn't really think it would be feasible, I was just trying to describe what I felt it would have looked like on the shows (but it wasn't feasible for them, either).
In terms of sheer practicality, I feel like the best choices for STO viewscreens are either (a) a 2D starfield texture (easy), or (b) displaying a 2D screenshot of the current system/last space map visited (less easy, but hopefully not out of the question).
Even option (b) would need to have a "blank" starfield option to represent sector space and any uniquely generated maps like star cluster systems, as I'm sure it would be ridiculous to get screenshots of every single one of them.
Agreed. Another issue doing a window into space poses, is that you'd be able to see your ship's hull from up there. 2D, while not ideal, is still the best solution to this imo.
I concede.
TNG Tech manual says it does display in 3d as well.
I still dispute it being a window into space though.
My bottom line is that it may not feel right being a 2d image. But I also don't believe it would feel right being a window into space. And those are the options. I can't make a 2d display that changes upon the angle of viewing. What we want is Portals, and we don't have that.
It's not a window into space- or at least not in the sense of it 'displays what's on the other side of the bulkhead'- I imagine it's actually showing from a camera on the tip of the saucer section- or that sort of thing, given that we dont' see the saucer stretching out in profile on the viewscreen.
Actually, Voyager dedicated an episode (a rather bad episode, actually) to this sort of thing, explaining that what the viewscreen shows is actually a degree of difference from what the visual appearance actually is. It's sensor data rendered into visuals- given the utility of sensors, I imagine for your standard fed ship it's showing a point forward and above the hull as the 'camera' position that it renders everything (in realtime) from.
That'd let you do your 'window to space' without showing the hull, if you treated it like that, and it's fairly sensible when one considers the amount of computational power trek ships have.
In the last Ask Cryptic, I thought one of the questions asked was a really good idea for progress on starship interiors:
Q: (temp3rus) Have you thought about a Captain/Crew reputation system played much like a mini Starbase for ship interiors?
Dstahl: This is an interesting idea and would open up an interesting connection between the Duty Officer system and your Captain?s career. Nice suggestion, and something we?ll consider as one of our future Reputations.
Having something that ties directly in with the commendation ranks earned using the DOFF system would be perfect.
I'd love a lot more customization possible with the interiors. I know Cryptic has said that bases in CoX and lairs in CO got lukewarm receptions, but Star Trek is probably a little different. Large amounts of the shows occurred right on the ship.
Agreed. Another issue doing a window into space poses, is that you'd be able to see your ship's hull from up there. 2D, while not ideal, is still the best solution to this imo.
The temporal science vessel(s) has a window into space instead of a viewscreen, and you can see the hull and it's fine.
I suppose the most basic dynamic outside view would static starfield vs. "warp stars." The game could check the last map you were on before going to your ship's interior: if it was the ground or system space, you see static stars on the viewscreen and out the windows (windows in the lounge, ready room, etc.). If you've come from sector space, you get streaks.
And if you've come from a permanent social map like Earth or Qo'nos, you'd get a view of that particular planet.
And while tacofangs is contemplating improvements to ship interiors, the transition from a space map to the ship interior still beams us onto the bridge of our ship. And beams us off of it.
Agreed. Another issue doing a window into space poses, is that you'd be able to see your ship's hull from up there. 2D, while not ideal, is still the best solution to this imo.
Um...........you did this with the Bortas, the Odyssey, and the Wells. And people love it. :P
I concede.
TNG Tech manual says it does display in 3d as well.
I still dispute it being a window into space though.
The JJ Viewscreen is a window that can display images (which some say is the future), while the classic viewscreen is more like a computer monitor that act as a window (by displaying the other side of the hull).
IMy bottom line is that it may not feel right being a 2d image. But I also don't believe it would feel right being a window into space. And those are the options. I can't make a 2d display that changes upon the angle of viewing. What we want is Portals, and we don't have that.
No, you can't make a 2D display change without somekind of animation. That's why I suggested some trickery by having a window and display modified objects (by size) and put them behind the window.
Right now, Foundry authors could off a Psudo 3D Viewscreen if they had access to ship models from ground and interior maps. Bet people might like it than having just a plain 2D picture on a wall.
I built one in my Klacht Dkel Brakt Foundry mission (which I'm still working on after a year) and pulled this off. If you can get access to it, look up the base, you be surprised.
I concur. I think it's impractical and unnecessary for them to be 3d, holographic images, but who knows. I've never had a screen like that so I can't really tell you the benefits and drawbacks.
I still think a 2D screen feels more correct to everything we've ever seen in any show/movie.
While for all intents and purposes a 2D screen fits the bill, but just imagine if there was a new Episodic Mission that has an functional viewscreen. What you think people would react more to, an unmoving 2D image or a moving one?
I seriously doubt a static, changing 2D image isn't going to fair well. Now if it moves, people might really be amazed, which means either some creativity (like my Psudo 3D Image) or you somehow pulling off showing video or cutscene on the viewscreen without an actual cutscene or a popup window.
Um...........you did this with the Bortas, the Odyssey, and the Wells. And people love it. :P
That's only practical when locking specific bridges to specific ships, so the game doesn't have to determine which combination of ship parts a player is using.
...talking to players is like being a mall Santa. Everyone immediately wants to tell you all of the things they want, and you are absolutely powerless to deliver 99% of them.
Agreed. Another issue doing a window into space poses, is that you'd be able to see your ship's hull from up there. 2D, while not ideal, is still the best solution to this imo.
I suppose that a few empty rooms could be made with windows where it shows parts of the outside hull. Might be limited to certain types of ships. Players would be limited to the size of the room and decorate their bridge accordingly. So the rooms would look like the Odyssey, Wells, and other bridges that show their hull and windows, but would start off completely grey with absolutely no details at the start.
Comments
I believe it was. In TNG when Picard is next to the viewscreen, you sort of see a more side perspective of the person on the viewscreen.
I seem to remember one seen when he was talking with Tomalok this occurred.
And what about Nemesis when the viewscreen was blown away? :rolleyes:
You only would have to change a skyfile is you were on the bridge and the scene called for you to enter or exit warp.
Ye of so little faith. :P
I bet I could pull this off with the Foundry right now, if we had access to ship models on ground and interior maps.
And the viewscreen change, I already pulled it off in my Klacht Dkel Brakt foundry mission. While it's not published, I think you Devs have access to players files. So if you have the time, go to that mission and pull up the Base interior and you will see what I mean.
Then you weren't paying attention.
Again, wrong. It was shown, at least once, and I believe more.
In Menage a Troi it's very clear that the viewscreen looks different from different angles. On Netflix at 39:19 you see the viewscreen at an angle, and the image corresponds. Then at 40:05 you see a straight-on view and the characters are viewed straight-on.
Here's a Youtube video of parts of the same episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76OhzbfFPAM
If you look at 2:10 and 2:33 you'll see the difference.
Clear and indisputable.
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My oldest post (that I can find)
Location: Houston, TX
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Stop the easily abused and unfair auto-silence "feature"!
TNG Tech manual says it does display in 3d as well.
I still dispute it being a window into space though.
My bottom line is that it may not feel right being a 2d image. But I also don't believe it would feel right being a window into space. And those are the options. I can't make a 2d display that changes upon the angle of viewing. What we want is Portals, and we don't have that.
If it was really 3D, why did the holoemitter thing have to be made separately (the device used in the Ellington DS9 episodes)
Even if it did display 3D, the perspective would change so little, because the cameras on the ship are still relatively close together (assuming stereoscopic usage). Even if it's a computer generated (false colour) type 3D and not an exterior image, it would still stay fairly constant in it's view around the bridge, again because the 'eye' position stays the same, AND it would be impractical as people at different stations would miss parts of the image..
Does that all make sense?
Edit: I think most of my arguments work against a Window into Space too. (possibly better)
Machinima Person
Did some things back in the day
Now a Games Developer and Researcher
portals? :L
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Proud Member of: Fubar Inc.
I concur. I think it's impractical and unnecessary for them to be 3d, holographic images, but who knows. I've never had a screen like that so I can't really tell you the benefits and drawbacks.
I still think a 2D screen feels more correct to everything we've ever seen in any show/movie.
http://www.thinkwithportals.com/
I seem to recall ( before they had an observation lounge or astrometrics lab ) there were episodes in which they could use the viewscreen to get a tactical ( 3d ) view but that this was later "moved " to observation lounge . I certainly don't recall seeing that in the TNG movies or later seasons. Could be that's what the tech manual is referring to . .
The holographic projections started out small. With the tabletop display of the Tychon Empire in TNG season 1. A display type that impressed some viewers. But wouldn't appear again until DS9 with the single episode displaying a holographic Admiral near the Captains' chair of the Defiant. Now my recall may not be entirely representative, but that holographic Admiral inspired friends and online acquaintances to wince. As it was too Star Wars What Is Thy Bidding My Master. We never saw it again. Was it due to fan outcry for Star Trek to not borrow too much from Star Wars? I don't know. I hated it myself and wasn't sad to see it go. However, since the tech did appear at all it is canon from which to speculate with regard to 2409.
During Generations, when the saucer of the E-D crashed on Veridian III, we saw consoles slide forward (apparently not bolted to the floor? :rolleyes: ) and through the view-screen. Into an almost empty space behind it. This was really the only moment that any 3D tech was directly implied.
With First Contact, we did see what appeared to me as a flat projection in front of a blank wall space for display of the Borg attack on Earth. I saw a gap between the blank wall and the projection above the floor. To me, it looked more like projected IMAX than anything else.
With Voyager's Year in Hell, that was most certainly a hole where a flat view-screen had been previously. With the shuttlebay door tech shielding the gap. Else Janeway would have been sucked into vacuum. Hard to say if there was the Generations-styled 3D chamber having been scrapped off the hull, too. If it existed it was gone.
Edited to add:
While I'm not a fan of the view-screen as window approach (see AbramsTrek), I can see how applying the concept to the game maps might accomplish the goals being suggested.
Essentially, just have the viewscreen and ship viewports like those windows in Earth Space Dock, loading the appropriate planets/nebulae/space stations for each major location.
No need to deal with holographics or HUDs - just as long it's not a flat wall painting.
hmmm...
i noticed something odd while currently re-watching TNG
when Picard talks to someone on the screen and the camera angle changes to a 90? side camera the viewscreen also shows the guy on the (blue-)screen from a side profile.
maybe proof of a 3D screen?
i try to get some screencaps if i see it again...
Also, with the addition of information the on various wildlife on New Romulus (which I had a similar, but larger, galaxy-wide idea to years ago which also spruced up Exploration clusters (all photobucket links are dead)), I'd like a database of that information on my ship.
So basically a wonderful room that I can go to aboard my ship, and just nerd out reading about the lore of the game's worlds and species, of all types flora and fauna.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I like this - I'll add to the proposal doc later this week.
Some ship classes would, however, not have this feature due to their size and purpose (e.g. the Defiant)
I'm confused. You say to have the viewscreen act like the windows of ESD, but that there's no need for holographics? Are you saying the viewscreen is a window? Either way, the only "3D" option is to make it seem like a window. (see next quote response)
I am ok with THIS type of holo-display. The actual display space is a 2D image. However, it recognizes your position and adjusts the image to match. This would look much less like a window than if, as it seems people are suggesting, there is a full holographic projection of 3d objects in 3d space behind the viewscreen.
The problem is, there is no way for me to represent this in game. I can do a 2d Texture (possibly animated) or I can make a window into 3d space. I don't think either of those accomplish what I feel is "correct" but I think that the 2d option is still "more" correct, and feels better overall.
Personally, I think that they did this more so that it didn't feel awkward (like the person on screen is looking out at an odd angle, or not directly at Picard or whoever). But it can certainly be rationalized as a 3d Holographic display similar to what Jeffe posted above.
It may not be how it is in-canon, but having a viewscreen as a window would be best implementation-wise - you can then simply change the skybox depending on the last map.
It's always bothered me since the game first launched and I beamed to my bridge, that even from a distance, the viewscreen image doesn't look quite right, and walking up close to it, it looks like nothing more than a painted picture.
Possibly because the viewscreen isn't animated, but there isn't any sense of depth. I would expect the viewscreen to at least look like what I would see on a TV screen connected to a camera looking outside, but it isn't even that. Faking it by making it a window, even into a generic stars-and-space skybox would do wonders for making it look better, IMHO.
Yeah, I didn't really think it would be feasible, I was just trying to describe what I felt it would have looked like on the shows (but it wasn't feasible for them, either).
In terms of sheer practicality, I feel like the best choices for STO viewscreens are either (a) a 2D starfield texture (easy), or (b) displaying a 2D screenshot of the current system/last space map visited (less easy, but hopefully not out of the question).
Even option (b) would need to have a "blank" starfield option to represent sector space and any uniquely generated maps like star cluster systems, as I'm sure it would be ridiculous to get screenshots of every single one of them.
Agreed. Another issue doing a window into space poses, is that you'd be able to see your ship's hull from up there. 2D, while not ideal, is still the best solution to this imo.
It's not a window into space- or at least not in the sense of it 'displays what's on the other side of the bulkhead'- I imagine it's actually showing from a camera on the tip of the saucer section- or that sort of thing, given that we dont' see the saucer stretching out in profile on the viewscreen.
Actually, Voyager dedicated an episode (a rather bad episode, actually) to this sort of thing, explaining that what the viewscreen shows is actually a degree of difference from what the visual appearance actually is. It's sensor data rendered into visuals- given the utility of sensors, I imagine for your standard fed ship it's showing a point forward and above the hull as the 'camera' position that it renders everything (in realtime) from.
That'd let you do your 'window to space' without showing the hull, if you treated it like that, and it's fairly sensible when one considers the amount of computational power trek ships have.
Q: (temp3rus) Have you thought about a Captain/Crew reputation system played much like a mini Starbase for ship interiors?
Dstahl: This is an interesting idea and would open up an interesting connection between the Duty Officer system and your Captain?s career. Nice suggestion, and something we?ll consider as one of our future Reputations.
http://sto.perfectworld.com/news/?p=769201
Having something that ties directly in with the commendation ranks earned using the DOFF system would be perfect.
I'd love a lot more customization possible with the interiors. I know Cryptic has said that bases in CoX and lairs in CO got lukewarm receptions, but Star Trek is probably a little different. Large amounts of the shows occurred right on the ship.
Surely there would have to be profit potential in that kind of system, right? Perhaps enough potential to justify the cost of development?
At the very least, I do hope Cryptic and PWE are watching the performance of SOE's Player Studio project closely.
The temporal science vessel(s) has a window into space instead of a viewscreen, and you can see the hull and it's fine.
And if you've come from a permanent social map like Earth or Qo'nos, you'd get a view of that particular planet.
And while tacofangs is contemplating improvements to ship interiors, the transition from a space map to the ship interior still beams us onto the bridge of our ship. And beams us off of it.
Um...........you did this with the Bortas, the Odyssey, and the Wells. And people love it. :P
The JJ Viewscreen is a window that can display images (which some say is the future), while the classic viewscreen is more like a computer monitor that act as a window (by displaying the other side of the hull).
No, you can't make a 2D display change without somekind of animation. That's why I suggested some trickery by having a window and display modified objects (by size) and put them behind the window.
Right now, Foundry authors could off a Psudo 3D Viewscreen if they had access to ship models from ground and interior maps. Bet people might like it than having just a plain 2D picture on a wall.
I built one in my Klacht Dkel Brakt Foundry mission (which I'm still working on after a year) and pulled this off. If you can get access to it, look up the base, you be surprised.
While for all intents and purposes a 2D screen fits the bill, but just imagine if there was a new Episodic Mission that has an functional viewscreen. What you think people would react more to, an unmoving 2D image or a moving one?
I seriously doubt a static, changing 2D image isn't going to fair well. Now if it moves, people might really be amazed, which means either some creativity (like my Psudo 3D Image) or you somehow pulling off showing video or cutscene on the viewscreen without an actual cutscene or a popup window.
That's only practical when locking specific bridges to specific ships, so the game doesn't have to determine which combination of ship parts a player is using.
I like this idea as well.
No matter how they implement it, starship interiors need to be much more customizable.
Animated GIFs? :P