[2.1] Adjust star parallax to be plausible

[KCKy]

TL;DR

In space platform view the star parallax should be reduced to be slower than the planet's.

What?

When scrolling around the space platform view the background stars move at an implausible speed
as if they were closer to the platform than the planet itself.

Attached are two videos, first shows the ingame version, second is an example 3D scene with similar composition.
Notice that as I am moving the view up in the game (the planet and stars are moving down) the stars which are above the planet are "moving closer" to the planet. Whereas in the 3D example as I move the view up the stars "move away".

My suggestion is to slow down the star parallax speed to be less than the planet's and hence be believable.
I'm NOT suggesting to disable star parallax completely.

current.webm

Current state of the game

(4.88 MiB) Downloaded 49 times

example.webm

Example 3D scene with correct behaviour

(2.77 MiB) Downloaded 50 times

Why?

Because the current behaviour is confusing and disorienting because it's geometrically impossible.
Even if the player is not familiar with perspective the current behaviour could feel off without being able to explain why.
I noticed this effect immediatelly after entering the view for the first time.

[Villfuk02]

+1

[Villfuk02]

It's also a very easy fix, all you have to do is change this value

Code: Select all

data.raw["tile-effect"]["space"].space.scroll_factor

to a lower value like 0.1

[Villfuk02]

Here's a better comparison.

fixed_speed_0.1.webm

(4.46 MiB) Downloaded 83 times

broken.webm

(4.53 MiB) Downloaded 53 times

[Maeximus]

I played around with scroll_factor and star_parallax and it does not seem to have an effect on the planet. All scroll_factor settings I tested from 0.001 to 2 have the same result regarding planet visibility on my larger ships when I move to the front of the ship, the planet always disappears at the same point.

[Villfuk02]

Because the setting I mentioned affects the stars in the background, not the planet.

[Zaspar]

+1!

[Villfuk02]

Here's a reddit post about this https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/s/PWvHJrgswe

[MEOWMI]

I wasn't going to join in on this, but you know what, I will. The second video demonstration a few posts up is great.

+1

Seeing the corrected version makes me feel strongly enough about it to think it's worthwhile. The only question I have is whether it will adversely affect the appearance of speed during flight (there are other particles which contribute to it but I'm still not sure if it would look "correct enough"). If that still looks fine, then I completely agree this fix would be worthwhile.

[evanrinehart]

"during flight" (between planets, since in space you're always in flight) you could plausibly add back in parallax because according to head canon the platform is required to do some amount of rotation to get its brachistochrone trajectory to make sense without having engines on both ends of the platform