Ship Canopy
The ship canopy is the transparent, tinted enclosure over the ship's cockpit. It protects the pilot and cockpit from radiation and other hazards.
HUD
Much of the upper HUD is displayed or projected on the canopy. This includes the active weapon group, currently selected target and information, supercruise orbit lines and object markers, and weapon targeting reticles. Alerts (i.e. heat warnings, incoming missiles, etc.) are also shown on the canopy.
Size
The size and viewing arc of the canopy depends on the model of ship. A bigger canopy gives better all-round vision which is useful for combat and sightseeing, but also increases the likelihood of it taking damage. This is especially the case when fighting enemies armed with explosive weapons such as Missile Racks, as the area effect means that even glancing hits can very easily damage or outright breach a ship's canopy.
Module Reinforcement Packages can reduce incoming canopy damage, but some ships have more vulnerable canopies due to their size in relation to the rest of the ship, the ship's layout, or even just the kind of combat style enforced by the ship's flight characteristics. Ships notorious for having a canopy that is easily breached, even during light combat, include the Asp Explorer and Vulture—both ships have large, bubble canopies located near the center of mass, thus making easy targets.
Effects
Sound
Sound requires solids, liquids, or gases to travel through. Since space is a vacuum, there is no matter through which sound can travel. The speaker array inside the cockpit of a ship simulates all audio activity outside the ship in real-time, thus creating the illusion that the pilot can hear sounds in space. When the canopy is breached and the ship's atmosphere is vented, sound no longer has any air to travel through, rendering the speakers useless. At this point, the pilot can only hear their own breathing, as well as muffled COVAS alerts, until they repair their canopy.[1]
Cracking and breaching
The canopy can be damaged by trauma from impacts, hull stress (e.g. an emergency FSD drop), severe gravitational hazards, and weapons fire. Sufficient damage to the canopy will result in visible and audible cracking. This will worsen as more damage is taken, until the canopy is breached, whereupon it shatters dramatically. In the most extreme cases, such as a high-speed asteroid collision or CFIT, it is possible for an otherwise intact ship canopy to be instantly breached upon impact.
When the ship's canopy shatters, the ship's internal atmosphere will be vented into space, a Remlok Survival Mask instantly deploys from the pilot's suit to protect the wearer against oxygen depletion and the vacuum of space, and any HUD information that was previously projected onto the parts of the canopy that have shattered may no longer be viewable unless they are projected onto a canopy fragment. The HUD itself is still functioning, however—gimballed weapons will still track targets and missiles will still lock on normally.
While the breaching of the ship's canopy is not dangerous in itself, the loss of HUD projection and activation of the ship's Life Support module makes most space-borne activities much more difficult—escape vectors and target indicators may not be visible, making it challenging for the pilot to continue combat, especially with fixed weapons, and judge whether there is enough time to get to a chosen repair destination or even if the ship is close enough to the destination to safely drop out of supercruise. Complete depletion of the ship's emergency oxygen supply from the Life Support module will also result in the destruction of the ship.
Surviving a breached canopy
If the pilot is not able to reach a station before their Life Support module's emergency oxygen runs out, their ship will self-destruct and they will be forced to redeploy. The ship's Life Support module's rating determines the maximum duration of emergency oxygen available, ranging from 5 minutes (for an E-rated module) to 25 minutes (for an A-rated module). Oxygen supply can also be refilled via Synthesis, which requires 2 Iron and 1 Nickel per refill. Pilots with large stockpiles of both Materials can thus replenish their Life Support module repeatedly and potentially continue traveling with a broken canopy for extended periods. Synthesis requires a brief activation period before the refill takes effect, however, and it is not possible to "overfill" beyond the Life Support module's oxygen duration by repeating the refill process in quick succession. Generally, it is recommended for pilots with breached ship canopies to immediately divert to the nearest station with suitable landing pads and repair facilities.
Passing through the force field in a Starport's Access Corridor or entering the Landing Pad hangar on an Outpost, Fleet Carrier, or Surface Port will return the ship to a breathable oxygen atmosphere and halt the countdown, though it will restart if the canopy is not repaired and the ship returns to vacuum. Docking with a starport will also immediately refill the Life Support module's oxygen supply.
A damaged but unbreached canopy can be repaired outside of a station either by use of an Auto Field-Maintenance Unit or Repair Limpet Controller; once breached, the canopy can only be repaired at a facility with landing pads and repair services.
Ice buildup
Ice starts forming on the canopy if the ship's temperature falls below 10%, which can occur after shutting down modules or dropping a heatsink. Ice presents no danger, and is simply a cosmetic effect.
Scratch marks
At lower paint integrity levels, scratch marks will start to appear on the canopy, visible at angles where light is reflected off the ship's interior. The scratch marks will be removed upon restoring the ship's paint integrity through Advanced Maintenance services. Similar to ice buildup, scratch marks present no danger and are merely a cosmetic effect.
Steam condensation
On certain ships, such as the Kestrel Mk II and Lynx Highliner, steam will start clouding the edges of the canopy with condensation once the ship is above 100% heat. The condensation will disappear when the ship's heat drops below 100%. While steam condensation on its own is a cosmetic effect, seeing it is an indication that the ship is overheating and taking module (and, above 150% heat, hull) damage.
Notes
- In Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, it is not possible to disembark from a ship onto the surface of a planet if the ship's canopy is breached.
- Despite being located on the outside of the ship, the Canopy is considered an internal module for Module Reinforcement protection.
Trivia
- A mock-up screenshot of the steam condensation effect was previewed during the Elite Dangerous beta period in 2014.[2]
Gallery
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Krait Mk II (VR)
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A broken canopy on a Python. -
A broken canopy on a Vulture.
