Align the ship heading and the screen center on external view

[MarStrMind]

But the screen center does not align with the ship's facing when in 3rd person view, to increasing degrees based on how far the camera is displaced from 0,0 on the X and Y axes. This is demonstrable by setting a high vertical or horizontal offset on your 3rd person camera and flying a a straight line with no target selected. The velocity indicator will show your ship's direction, and the center reticle will be somewhere between the velocity indicator and your ship's location on the screen

That’s exactly what I’m referring to—Egosoft intentionally misaligns the ship’s heading with the screen center when no target is selected. This odd design choice is the root of all these issues.

Egosoft is not misaligning anything. Your understanding of this mechanic is misaligned.

[flywlyx]

This is not a parallel lines appearing to converge situation. Instead the lines intersect & then diverge. Essentially, from the player's perspective in external view, the line through the ship is tilted upwards at a shallow angle, while the line from the player's viewpoint through screen centre is horizontal. This can be verified by shooting while in external view - shots pass through screen centre & carry on towards the heading indicator.

This happens because Egosoft deliberately designed it this way to disrupt the player's sense of direction. If you select a hostile target, the view auto-aligns

[GCU Grey Area]

This happens because Egosoft deliberately designed it this way to disrupt the player's sense of direction. If you select a hostile target, the view auto-aligns

Does nothing to disrupt my sense of direction, the geometry of the situation is clear & unambiguous. Have seen no sign of any such auto-alignment of the external view in my game (screenshot). Heading indicator still shows my vector, while marker at screen centre shows which way my shop's prow is pointing. They're still in different positions on the screen in external view (& I'm absolutely fine with that), would be most displeased if either started providing inaccurate information. The geometry doesn't change just because there's a hostile ship nearby.

[A5PECT]

This is not a parallel lines appearing to converge situation. Instead the lines intersect & then diverge. Essentially, from the player's perspective in external view, the line through the ship is tilted upwards at a shallow angle, while the line from the player's viewpoint through screen centre is horizontal. This can be verified by shooting while in external view - shots pass through screen centre & carry on towards the heading indicator.

This happens because Egosoft deliberately designed it this way to disrupt the player's sense of direction. If you select a hostile target, the view auto-aligns

Actually, the center reticle will align when both friendlies or hostiles are targeted.

[flywlyx]

Actually, the center reticle will align when both friendlies or hostiles targeted.

Does nothing to disrupt my sense of direction, the geometry of the situation is clear & unambiguous. Have seen no sign of any such auto-alignment of the external view in my game (screenshot). Heading indicator still shows my vector, while marker at screen centre shows which way my shop's prow is pointing. They're still in different positions on the screen in external view (& I'm absolutely fine with that), would be most displeased if either started providing inaccurate information. The geometry doesn't change just because there's a hostile ship nearby.

https://imgur.com/a/o7uii9H

@GCU is actually correct—the alignment likely only occurs in specific cases where the offsets happen to be zero by chance. There's no consistent or reliable way to keep this kind of alignment.