XWA Upgrade

I have this issue where the game will prevent me from aiming the reticle at little planets. It looks like I can hover the reticle over big planets. I have this issue on both computers, one running a GTX 1070 and Windows 10 1809, the other a Radeon R5 430 and Windows 10 1803. I have XWA Upgrade 1.6 installed on both but I'm pretty sure the base game was doing the same thing.
So far I have only tried the X-Wing in Skirmish mode so not sure if it's the game mode or the ship or the XWA upgrade. I will do some more testing when I get a chance.

I have experienced this from aiming at any sun or star. I don't believe this is related to the XWAUP or the Super Backdrop releases though.

You're probably talking about the "gimbal lock" problem. It's a fundamental mathematical limitation of the way the game engine represents craft orientation; you cannot aim your ship directly "up" or "down". The engine pushes your heading away when you get close to straight vertical. All iterations of the X-Wing game series have suffered this limitation - it's caused by neither the game mode nor the XWAUCP.

keiranhalcyon7 wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 16, 2019 5:44 pm

You're probably talking about the "gimbal lock" problem. It's a fundamental mathematical limitation of the way the game engine represents craft orientation; you cannot aim your ship directly "up" or "down". The engine pushes your heading away when you get close to straight vertical. All iterations of the X-Wing game series have suffered this limitation - it's caused by neither the game mode nor the XWAUCP.

Confirm. It since 1992 we fight with this. I have found that using the force feedback with minimum setting tend to minimize the problem, by the way.

I attached an example picture. I cannot put my aiming reticle inside the red circle. The game will push my aiming reticle away from the planet. This is a random screenshot I found just to demonstrate my issue.

After some more testing I've concluded that this happens only in Skirmish mode, in the base XWA and XWA Upgrade. I've tested using an X-wing, A-wing, and B-wing.
Someone test this and try to put your aiming reticle on a small backdrop planet like in the 2 attached screenshots. The game will pull your aiming away from the center of the planet or nebula.
This isn't a big deal but it is interesting.

The pushback to prevent gimbal lock isn't just straight up or down. There are certain spots that will push your craft away.

The developers knew this and decided to "mask" it by placing a backdrop at the "anti-gimbal lock" location.

As a user, there is nothing you can do about this. This is an engine thing that has been prevalent since X-Wing.

good to know, thank you for the answer.