[QuantumDelta]

Icons are worse than that though.

[mjn.mixael]

QD's post makes perfect sense to me.

[Col. Fishguts]

In larger missions the 3d radar tends to look like a ball with lots of needles pinned into it, which can obstruct the view somewhat.
I also prefer the clean efficiency of the original 2d radar without icons.

[Klaustrophobia]

when i first installed FSO, i was all excited about the 3D radar because it was neat and fun.  i got over that however, because it takes active thought to use.  with 2D, you just move your  nose toward the dot.

[Mongoose]

I like the 2D radar better in principle, but even putting that aside, the 3D radar just looks ass-ugly in its current implementation.

Wut.

What's wrong with the 3d radar. Give arguments.

From a visual standpoint, the 3D radar clashes horribly with the rest of the HUD interface.  You have all of the retail FS2 gauges, the nicely-rendered bitmaps that all work smoothly together...and then you have a mess of vector-drawn orange and purple and whatever lines spilling out of the radar area.  It's extremely jarring, and I don't want to stare at it while I'm playing a mission.

This isn't to disparage the existence of the feature in the first place; it's a cool bit of coding.  It just desperately needs a fresh coat of paint.

[jr2]

As for there being too many targets, doesn't setting radar range fix that?

[QuantumDelta]

Yes. Play with less optimal settings when there's another mode you can use which displays that information more efficiently.

[jr2]

My statement was independent of 2D/3D mode. Next?

[NGTM-1R]

My statement was independent of 2D/3D mode. Next?

So was his. What's your point?

[jr2]

Oh? I thought he was saying "why use radar range when I can just use 2D"

If not, well, what was he saying?

EDIT:

Lines everywhere (functional I know but they look like ass) especially with icons which are TERRIBAD.
Lots of unneeded information for noobs clouding the instrument when 2d radar works perfectly in all situations except for the one that the 3d radar buckles under anyway (many many targets).

If you are fluent in both 3d radar takes longer to read, basically.
Fix that, and I'll have no problem with it.
Problem is, you can't.

Yeah.
Let me re-state: in the case where both 2D and 3D radar fail, that is, when there are too many 'blips' on screen, why can't you just reduce your radar range?

[Polpolion]

To be honest 3D radar makes very little sense to me. The 2D radar functions exactly like you have a perfect spherical FOV crammed into a little disc, targets on the boresight in front of you are in the centre of the radar display, targets on the boresight but behind you are, logically, at the edge of the radar display. Sure the 3D radar tells you all the same information and maybe a little more, but you need to do a bit more mental work to use it. Why bother with it when the 2D radar is much simpler and already tells you exactly what you need to know?

[NGTM-1R]

The range increments are bad, for starters.

[jr2]

The range increments are bad, for starters.

That can be fixxored easily? Or no? I think the increments are bad too but it SHOULD help the overcrowding.

[redsniper]

I don't suppose... we could all... just use the radar type we prefer?

OPINIONS

PERSONAL PREFERENCES

[Kolgena]

ogod. Who was it originally who thought it was a good idea to put green/orange/purple circles on the radar?

I customized my radar icons pack so that icons are much smaller on 3D radar. Gives actual readability and minimal overlap, even with a crapload of ships in the field. Doesn't solve the problem that without the lines everywhere, you can't easily judge where the icon's Z coord is at a glance, but personally, I think it's a good tradeoff to immediately tell which dots are cap ships and bombers. Here's a screenshot of sort of what I'm talking about, but I've made some changes since this. (Also, needless to say, smaller icons do not play nice with low screen resolutions)



[attachment deleted by a ninja]

[jr2]

...hmm, Apparently it can be fixed at least sort of easily?

[Droid803]

I'm sorry, icons for strikecraft will always look horrible to my eyes...
The rings are fine.

[Kolgena]

Welp. Can't complain that they aren't cannon. With the exception of the Sathanas and Colossus, I pulled them from the FS1 briefing icons found in the vps.

I'd personally like it if the rings took on the same color as the radar, instead of stubbornly deciding to be orange green and purple.

[Polpolion]

They don't look like cannons to me. 

IMHO it would be more practical to give escort ships an icon rather than all ships.

[rscaper1070]

They don't look like cannons to me. 

IMHO it would be more practical to give escort ships an icon rather than all ships.

+1. This is a pretty good idea. Having icons for just escort and/or directive ships would make the radar ten times more useful.