Warning, long post ahead:
So, having had my fair share of experience in the SSC i've come to one conclusion: The tools we have to work with are a little blunt. As such i'd want to suggest a few additional tools that could be nice to have in the designer interface. The basis of my suggestion is a tool called Precision Alignment (PA). This tool is a user-made addition for the game Garry's mod and is my gold-standard for construction tools in games. So, what is this tool for and what can it do?
At its most basic level PA has three types of operation: Points, lines and planes. (shown below in the same order)
These three basic types are the basis for all interactions in the tool, and can be used in a variety of different ways.
The the first of these modes of operation is simple point-to-point movement, exemplified below:
In this example you see me place two points, one on the right corner of the red prop, and one on the left corner of the blue prop. I then use PA to move point 2 to point 1, simple, right? Now this is where it gets interesting:
So what happens in this video? Essentially the same thing as in the first, i create two points a set distance apart, i then move the blue prop by the distance between them. This works as the PA tool does not move the props according to where they are on the prop, rather it moves them by their relative positions to each other. Because of this i could just as easily revert this movement of point 2 to point 1 by doing the exact reverse, point 1 to point 2. Doing this moves the prop the distance and direction between point 1 and point 2. It is also worth noting that points are parented to the prop you had selected at the time of creation, staying with them should they be moved.
What other fun stuff can you do with points, then?
The points themselves can be moved around with a pretty simple interface:
In this screenshot you can see that i have the two points from the previous example. These points can be positioned by setting their position in world coordinates, or by setting their position relative to your selected prop. This last part is vitally important, it lets you easily position the points relative to whatever you are working with, rather than having to work in world coordinates all the time! On this screenshot we can also see another very useful function with points, the ability to select their center. For a demonstration of this i will show myself moving the blue prop half of the distance currently between it and the red prop:
So how about lines and planes, what are those for? Well, one use for both of them is rotation, though in different ways. Lines, for example, can be used to set an axis of rotation for a prop, this is very useful when you want to rotate something from a specific location, such as a corner or an arbitrary point in space. To demonstrate this i will rotate both of the props 45 degrees around their shared center point:
In this example i begin by placing the line in the middle of the two points, i then set the rotation amount to 45 degrees and rotate the red prop around the axis. I then invert the rotation amount to -45 degrees and rotate the blue prop, simple!
Planes on the other hand are really useful in rotating in another way, namely: Mirroring! In the example below i will be setting up a plane in the middle of where i want props mirrored and then mirror them:
As mentioned above i use a plane to mirror the two props. When mirroring the plane itself will always be the center point of the mirroring. Another function on show here is holding shift when performing any action with the PA tool, which will leave a copy of the currently selected prop in the position it was before the action was performed. This is super useful for duplicating stuff quickly.
Now, this tool has way too many functions for me to show off in a post like this, so i will finish up by showing off the functions screen:
This screen contains a number of useful functions that one might want to use. Some highlights of these that i commonly find useful:
Line/Line intersection: Create a point at the intersection of two or more lines.
Line/Plane intersection: Create a point at the location where a line intersects with a plane.
Intersection of 3 planes: Create a point at the location where 3 planes intersect.
As you can see there are a number of functions here that i am not explaining. This is because, simply put, i've never found myself in a position where i had to use them. This doesn't mean they're not useful however and i suggest that anyone even remotely interested in this has a look for themselves.
By adding tools like these to the SSC i feel the process of designing and building a ship could be significantly sped up, with the player having to rely less on janky workaround such as using a small plate to position stuff properly.
Thank you for reading this poorly thought-out post, if you have any questions of further demonstrations that you want to see, don't be afraid to ask!
So, having had my fair share of experience in the SSC i've come to one conclusion: The tools we have to work with are a little blunt. As such i'd want to suggest a few additional tools that could be nice to have in the designer interface. The basis of my suggestion is a tool called Precision Alignment (PA). This tool is a user-made addition for the game Garry's mod and is my gold-standard for construction tools in games. So, what is this tool for and what can it do?
At its most basic level PA has three types of operation: Points, lines and planes. (shown below in the same order)
These three basic types are the basis for all interactions in the tool, and can be used in a variety of different ways.
The the first of these modes of operation is simple point-to-point movement, exemplified below:
In this example you see me place two points, one on the right corner of the red prop, and one on the left corner of the blue prop. I then use PA to move point 2 to point 1, simple, right? Now this is where it gets interesting:
So what happens in this video? Essentially the same thing as in the first, i create two points a set distance apart, i then move the blue prop by the distance between them. This works as the PA tool does not move the props according to where they are on the prop, rather it moves them by their relative positions to each other. Because of this i could just as easily revert this movement of point 2 to point 1 by doing the exact reverse, point 1 to point 2. Doing this moves the prop the distance and direction between point 1 and point 2. It is also worth noting that points are parented to the prop you had selected at the time of creation, staying with them should they be moved.
What other fun stuff can you do with points, then?
The points themselves can be moved around with a pretty simple interface:
In this screenshot you can see that i have the two points from the previous example. These points can be positioned by setting their position in world coordinates, or by setting their position relative to your selected prop. This last part is vitally important, it lets you easily position the points relative to whatever you are working with, rather than having to work in world coordinates all the time! On this screenshot we can also see another very useful function with points, the ability to select their center. For a demonstration of this i will show myself moving the blue prop half of the distance currently between it and the red prop:
So how about lines and planes, what are those for? Well, one use for both of them is rotation, though in different ways. Lines, for example, can be used to set an axis of rotation for a prop, this is very useful when you want to rotate something from a specific location, such as a corner or an arbitrary point in space. To demonstrate this i will rotate both of the props 45 degrees around their shared center point:
In this example i begin by placing the line in the middle of the two points, i then set the rotation amount to 45 degrees and rotate the red prop around the axis. I then invert the rotation amount to -45 degrees and rotate the blue prop, simple!
Planes on the other hand are really useful in rotating in another way, namely: Mirroring! In the example below i will be setting up a plane in the middle of where i want props mirrored and then mirror them:
As mentioned above i use a plane to mirror the two props. When mirroring the plane itself will always be the center point of the mirroring. Another function on show here is holding shift when performing any action with the PA tool, which will leave a copy of the currently selected prop in the position it was before the action was performed. This is super useful for duplicating stuff quickly.
Now, this tool has way too many functions for me to show off in a post like this, so i will finish up by showing off the functions screen:
This screen contains a number of useful functions that one might want to use. Some highlights of these that i commonly find useful:
Line/Line intersection: Create a point at the intersection of two or more lines.
Line/Plane intersection: Create a point at the location where a line intersects with a plane.
Intersection of 3 planes: Create a point at the location where 3 planes intersect.
As you can see there are a number of functions here that i am not explaining. This is because, simply put, i've never found myself in a position where i had to use them. This doesn't mean they're not useful however and i suggest that anyone even remotely interested in this has a look for themselves.
By adding tools like these to the SSC i feel the process of designing and building a ship could be significantly sped up, with the player having to rely less on janky workaround such as using a small plate to position stuff properly.
Thank you for reading this poorly thought-out post, if you have any questions of further demonstrations that you want to see, don't be afraid to ask!