Feature request: Hide cursor

[JackHiggins]

Something I noticed the other day... You're flying along over the earth in 1280 x 960 resolution, full screen mode, and everything looks great... except for the crosshair cursor in the middle of the screen.

Moving it over to the side works ok, but you can still see it- my idea is that (in either full screen or windowed) that the mouse cursor would automatically hide itself after 20 seconds of inactivity, if over the Celestia program. When you move it again, it reappears.

Couldn't be too hard to do, could it?!

[Buzz]

I'd love that too! I used to move my arrow cursor to the far right of the screen, and you would not see it anymore because it had a black edge. The cross has a white edge, and I have not succeeded in changing it in the windows settings...

[Rassilon]

I would like this feature as well...

[JackHiggins]

So... What do any of the developers think about this? Is it something we could see in the 1.3.2 pre's?

[Bob Hegwood]

Sorry to butt in here, but I LIKE having my cursor on the screen. In fact, I HATE
the cross-hair cursor, and I dislike the idea of hiding the cursor too. If I may
explain?

When I wish to select something that interests me in a particular region of space, and
I don't know what I'm looking at, the cursor is the only way I know of to get to
the object of my attention. Am I missing something here? Is there another way
to select something on the screen when you don't know what it is? I guess
hiding it temporarily is okay, but please let me have a real windows cursor back.
I simply cannot even SEE the cross-hair cursor on my display.

Thanks, Bob

[Don. Edwards]

Bob,
I don't think you are getting the idea here. Let me give an example.
Let’s say your computer has a DVD-ROM drive and drop a DVD movie in to watch it. When the movie goes full screen the DVD Player software automatically hides the cursor after about 10 seconds of inactivity. The cursor isn't dead it is just hidden. As soon as you move the mouse the cursor reappears on the screen and you can then do what you want.
What many of us would like to see is a cursor that goes hidden after say 20 seconds of inactivity and once the mouse is moved again it would then reappear were you left it. This will not hinder your ability to use the mouse or select any object. It is also something that in all likelihood could be set to and on or off mode in the menu.
Its advantages are far more positive than any negatives.
So I vote for disappearing cursors.

Don. Edwards

[Bob Hegwood]

No, I understand, Don...

I just wanted to gripe so's that maybe someone would give me a REAL cursor back with the re-appearance.

Take care, Bob

[Darkmiss]

Bob you can indeed use any cursor you like with Celestia 131Pre11

Just go to the Mouse options of your control panel.
then go to the Pointers section and change the Precision Select Cursor, to whatever cursor you want to appear in Celestia.
Press Apply.

here are some nice ones

http://www.skinbase.org/rate.php?skins=12457

[Bob Hegwood]

Paul,

Thanks for the advice, but I've already tried that... The problem is that I *do* wish
to use the cross-hair cursor for *other* applications, so I'm constantly having to
change it if I switch between applications. No big deal, and *thanks* for the tip.
By the way, I'm using CursorXP which gives me some really neat, and visible to my
poor eyes, cursors. They're much like your examples.

Take care, Bob

[Darkmiss]

okay Bob not to worry.
at least the info is there for others that might not know.

Personally I really like the Precision Select cursor that Celestia is useing now.
its very user friendly, and makes Celstia look far more professional.

[Bob Hegwood]

Personally I really like the Precision Select cursor that Celestia is useing now.
its very user friendly, and makes Celstia look far more professional.

I might, but I can't even SEE it. My precision-select cursor is too fine I guess. I *have*
been able to see it when I change to another cursor which is colored with white, rather
than black.
Just my poor eysight I guess... At any rate, thanks again for the information.

Take care, Bob

[Darkmiss]

Ah.... it sounds like you have a problem wich was reported on a while back
where some useres would see the cursor as black, rather than white as it should be.

I can remeber what the problem was or how to correct it
as I never had the problem.

But do a search of the bugs form, and you should find some info

[maxim]

So I'm just dropping in here and do another similar feature request.

Flying around in my spacecraft I desperately would like to have an artificial horizont. Well, not a horizont in fact, but a way to set the crosshair exactly and fixed to the middle of the screen.

While flying, I always tent to watch to the crosshair as center the center, even when it's somewhere off, and so I regulary miss my targets by millons of miles.


Well, if someone's just about working on the cursor - remember this.

greets, maxim.

[Bob Hegwood]

Ah.... it sounds like you have a problem wich was reported on a while back
where some useres would see the cursor as black, rather than white as it should be.

Now WHY on earth would it be white? Every cross-hair cursor I've ever seen is black...

Not to worry though, I've FOUND the solution to my problem. I've simply installed a
new cross-hair cursor which features a WHITE center bordered with a BLACK
outline.

Nothing you can't fix with a little effort.

Thanks for the help, Paul.

Take care, Bob

[TERRIER]

Personally I really like the Precision Select cursor that Celestia is useing now.
its very user friendly, and makes Celstia look far more professional.

Ah ha! Paul, you are a fellow cross-hair fan I see!

Bob
When able to view the Celestia crosshair correctly, it actually changes colour from white to black and vice versa. It tries to oppose the darkness of the background colour it is lying over. The only problem is in the 'middle ground', where my curser turns to a mid-grey and can be difficult to see!

regards
TERRIER

[L2Cache]

Bob
You can change the cursor to an arrow by editing the celestia.cfg file. Just change:
Cursor "crosshair"
to
Cursor "arrow"
It works great for me.

[Bob Hegwood]

You can change the cursor to an arrow by editing the celestia.cfg file.

Hey, thanks L2...

Ain't nothing you can't learn on this forum is there?

Appreciate the help.

Thanks, Bob

[PlutonianEmpire]

How about an option that makes the cross-hair BIGGER, so that people with poor eyesights can see it better?

[FROM491]

I've discovered how to hide the cursor while in Celestia on my PC. First turn on Mousekeys by going to settings/control panel/accessibility options, choose the mouse tab. click on the "use mousekeys tab" click on the settings button of that tab. Decide whether you want the feature to work with the number lock on or off. If the choice is on, then go turn your number lock on. So far, all this has been to get your mouse keys working. If they are working now, then if you press 7,8,9,4,6,1,2,or 3 on the NUMBER PAD your cursor will move a little(depending on the cursor speed settings). Repeated tappings of one of these numbers will show whether they're on. When you've got the mouse keys going, go to celestia and while in it press the Ins key of the NUMBER PAD (mine is on the number 0 key). THEN PRESS ONE OF THE NUMBER KEYS.
TO GET YOUR CURSOR BACK PRESS DEL ON THE NUMBER PAD