Holoprojector

This page is a Work in Progress as much of the lore/Development for the game is yet to be established.

The Holoprojector.jpg located on A Deck (Bridge).

The Holoprojector is an advanced holographic display system located on the Bridge. It serves as a primary visual interface for rendering complex spatial data, particularly information gathered by the ship's Sensors suite, in a three-dimensional holographic format. The Holoprojector's display is referred to as Holo-Display, which can be interacted with by the Captain.

Location & Hardware

The Holoprojector is situated on the Bridge and is capable of being updated from various consoles. While specific hardware details concerning its inner workings are TBD, emitters built into the bridge roof above the holo projection itself are responsible for image display. Its function is to generate dynamic, interactive holographic images within a delimited projection field. Development notes mention modelling the hardware itself (Roadmap 0.226) and fixing any rendering issues related to bridge glass panels (Dev Build 0.225.0.55).

Functionality & Display Modes

The Holoprojector visually represents data from various Sensors modes. Its display input can be altered from the Command Chairs too, providing intuitive situational awareness:

• Galaxy Map (GPS Mode): displays large-scale galactic sectors, the ship's current location (`Ship Loc`), selected manual sectors (rendered as a red cube - Build 0.225.0.49), and sensor/navigation targets within this mode. Rendering and marker appearance have been refined (Build 0.225.0.49).
• Long Range Orrery Map: when viewing system details (`View Detail` on Sensors UI), it displays a 3-dimensional (3-D) orrery model showing relative positions and orbits of stars and planets within the target system. Includes zoom controls (in both km and astronomical unit scales - Build 0.225.0.51), displays Sensor/Nav targets (Build 0.225.0.51), and indicates temperature zone lines (Lava, Habitable, Frost - Build 0.225.0.70). Object alignment and scaling relative to zoom have been implemented (Build 0.225.0.51). Planets feature basic 3-D terrain using Nanite tessellation (Build 0.225.0.70).
• Medium Range Display: shows objects within the current star system. Can be aligned relative to the ship or the target object (Build 0.225.0.50). Can toggle the display of temperature regions (Build 0.225.0.55).
• Short Range Display: originally used spawned planet actors, but later replaced with more lightweight textured spheres (Build 0.225.0.49 - WIP) for displaying nearby celestial bodies. Also includes an orrery model view (Build 0.225.0.54).
• Target Indicators: clearly marks the currently selected Sensor and Navigation targets using distinct markers and animated 3-D lines indicating direction and distance (Build 0.225.0.53). Rendering logic ensures markers don't persist incorrectly when targets are deselected or appear beyond the display boundary (Build 0.225.0.50, 0.225.0.53).
• Stellar Object Rendering: displays stars with relative brightness adjusted to emphasize hotter stars (Build 0.225.0.51) and clamps colours for L, T and Y type stars to avoid misleading visuals (Build 0.225.0.49). Black hole rendering size was fixed (Build 0.225.0.44).

Interaction

Station Interaction

The Holoprojector will always project onto the Holo-Display a 3-D image created by it, which will display both data and images. This primarily serves as a visual output controlled by the chosen console interface and will update for configuration settings, such as distance and star class filtering. The main controls are part of the Command Chairs' interface, where the captain will be able to turn them off and choose the station from which the Holo-Display will project data. Currently, only the Sensors Station can be selected, displaying nearby star systems, maps of the star system and 3-D projections of targeted objects.

Holo-Display Interaction

In dev builds for Tech Demo 3, the player character can interact with the display and target objects (Build 0.225.0.105) using left mouse button pointing and clicking. Planned features include the ability for players to interact physically with the hologram itself (Roadmap 0.226). The next cycle will include the ability to issue commands to the Bridge Stations using the display, such as sending the Navigation Target for the Helm (Dev Stream 2025-06-11). See the Tutorial on how to use the Holoprojector

Development Status

The Holoprojector's functionality is closely tied to the ongoing development and refinement of the Sensors system. Numerous Dev Builds have focussed on adding features, improving rendering accuracy, optimizing performance (e.g., fixing Frames Per Second drops when warping with Orrery Map active - Build 0.225.0.71), and fixing bugs related to its display modes and target indicators. Further enhancements and interaction methods are expected as per the Roadmap.