In my Symbolic set, it's the only thing that will distinguish between Pawns or Gold Generals on each side.
Well, that just shows how unsuitable the set is. You would not have that problem if one of the two players used black pieces.
Also, in the western set I criticized, the Silver and Gold General images would be too unfamiliar to players for them to easily tell which is on which side right away if only orientation was used to distinguish them. When I first looked at them, it seemed like they were oriented differently than the other pieces, and it took me a while to figure out that they probably represented epaulettes on a shoulder.
The point is of course that orientation is not used to distinguish them at all. They will never be displayed upside-down, but one is white and the other black. The stars are just to distinguish the 'rank' of the generals; the more stars the higher. And this number happens to coincide with the number of non-forward moves, which offers the oppotunity to place them in a pattern that is slightly mnemonic for the direction of these moves in the white POV.
Well, that just shows how unsuitable the set is. You would not have that problem if one of the two players used black pieces.
The point is of course that orientation is not used to distinguish them at all. They will never be displayed upside-down, but one is white and the other black. The stars are just to distinguish the 'rank' of the generals; the more stars the higher. And this number happens to coincide with the number of non-forward moves, which offers the oppotunity to place them in a pattern that is slightly mnemonic for the direction of these moves in the white POV.