Consider adding a ring/point to where a body currently is on the orbit

[andreasfranke1]

For example, the NASA Eyes on the Solar System project uses rings:

But one could also do something like this:

The goal here is just to see where the planet is exactly when it is too small to be seen, and is additionally a help when disabling text.

From ivoyager/ivoyager_core#14

[charliewhitfield]

To support my game development, I want to have a selection of symbols (open and closed circles, squares, triangles, x's, etc.) that can be assigned to classes of objects. In the game these will be asteroid mines, transports, spaceports etc.; in I, Voyager Core they are planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, spacecrafts, etc. These could be selected in a small popup similar to (and next to) our existing color-picker popups for orbit lines. For IVBody tracking, you would have option to show any combination of symbol, name, and orbit. To reproduce your screenshots above, you pick a circle symbol, then all 3 checkboxes to show symbol, name, and orbit.

The nice thing about simple symbols like these is that we can reproduce them for our SBG visuals (the asteroid points) using large "points" shaped by fragment logic. That would almost unify our display of large and small bodies ("almost" because shader points can't write their names).

[andreasfranke1]

Symbols sound nice as well! I guess we could make use of these, too.

[charliewhitfield]

Preview:

There are twelve symbols in a Core texture atlas (overridable if project supplies its own). Defaults are open circles except spacecraft. The small red circles are Mars-crosser asteroids; these share the same symbol selection and are independently sizable. Small bodies have a point as default, but can be assigned a symbol to highlight a group or to make positions visible at the same time as orbit lines.

[Edit:] Here's the new GUI. The three checkboxes are name, symbol, and orbit, which can be individually shown or hidden. The name centers on the object if it is shown without the symbol. (Note that asteroids can't show their names, and Sun has no orbit.) Symbol can be set for a group via a small popup just like color.

[charliewhitfield]

This is in master now. Give it a try!

See initial commit here. This commit made the symbol atlas replaceable.

[andreasfranke1]

Very cool! Probably takes a little until we adapt it into our project, but then I'll give it a try!