pioneerspacesim/pioneer — pull request #932 by WaveMotion (2012-01-30 22:26:42+00:00)
Title: New camera mode: 'Sidereal view'

This patch introduces a new third-person view mode in which the orientation of the camera is not locked to the ship's rotation. More precisely, the camera retains its orientation relative to the root frame instead of that relative to the ship as the ship rotates.

It is accessible through the f1 key after external view, and is controlled by the cursor keys (x- and y-axis rotation) and the comma and period keys (z-axis rotation). The controls differ from external view in that they will move the camera around the ship relative to the camera's own orientation instead of the ship's (i.e. "your" up/down/left/right).

The sidereal view eliminates having to rotate the external camera back forward when the autopilot does its mid-trip flip, and makes autopilot in general very pleasing to watch. It's also useful for manual landings, though absolutely terrible for combat.

Things left to be done before sidereal view is ready to show up in alpha:
- An icon for the bottom-left UI button (the external view icon is substituted for now)
- Translation strings for all languages
- Testing and general feedback.

Thanks!