Release Oolite

[spud42]

I'm currently in mission 1, currently rather a long way away from Reesdice having travelled all the way along lane 3 and 4 on the hunt for that naughty thief. Where oh where can he be?

Check your f7 screen regularly for clues..

So here I am, halfway through a lucrative passenger contract run, when I happen upon a massive space battle occurring right there in the Aegis of the main station at Solageon. Being a responsible passenger pilot, I didn't get involved with the fight, but I did feel the need to stick around long enough to do my civic duty and help clear up the debris. After all... all those cargo containers were clogging up the spacelane...


- Neelix

When I come across a furball going on outside a station, I ignore the combat and cargo, and scoop all the escape capsules.  They're even more profitable than cargo, most of the time.  You'll need to have the Escape Pod Locator installed, though.

Thanks dizzy that will be a useful addition to my OXP collection.... do you need free cargo space to collect escape pods? i would assume you would......

 

[Neelix]

Yes, so if you are carrying a full load and want to pick up an escape pod you have to jettison some of your cargo. Shift-R will cycle through a list of what's in the cargo bay, and you can jettison 1 TC of whatever item you selected by pressing d.

One issue I have with the Escape Pod Locator though, is that it seems that if the escape pod is destroyed the beacon is not. This has resulted in several wild goose chases for Escape Pods that don't exist.

- Neelix

 

[Diziet Sma]

One issue I have with the Escape Pod Locator though, is that it seems that if the escape pod is destroyed the beacon is not. This has resulted in several wild goose chases for Escape Pods that don't exist.


- Neelix

Curiously enough, this long-standing bug was mentioned again today on the Oolite BB.  A possible fix was suggested about 6 months ago, but the OXP maintainer has yet to implement it, as he hasn't returned to the board.  So I've just now created a patch to test the fix.  You can download it here.  Instructions are included with the patch.  Let me know if it works for you.

 

[spud42]

Yes, so if you are carrying a full load and want to pick up an escape pod you have to jettison some of your cargo. Shift-R will cycle through a list of what's in the cargo bay, and you can jettison 1 TC of whatever item you selected by pressing d.


One issue I have with the Escape Pod Locator though, is that it seems that if the escape pod is destroyed the beacon is not. This has resulted in several wild goose chases for Escape Pods that don't exist.


- Neelix

cheers Neelix, now about that "d"   .... having played many FPS games that use  wasd for movement it has on several occasions been my misfortune to jettison cargo when i meant to move/roll right......

and on the other hand i once shot a coriolis station when i mistook the "a" for roll left......

for my own sanity and longevity i have moved lasers to  "q" and the jettison cargo button to "]" on a pc keyboard of course i am not priveliged enough to have a Pandora , and after drooling for 6 years or so i can wait for its daughter the Pyra.

actually that sounds creepy reading it back but you know what i meant... lol

 

[spud42]

One issue I have with the Escape Pod Locator though, is that it seems that if the escape pod is destroyed the beacon is not. This has resulted in several wild goose chases for Escape Pods that don't exist.


- Neelix

Curiously enough, this long-standing bug was mentioned again today on the Oolite BB.  A possible fix was suggested about 6 months ago, but the OXP maintainer has yet to implement it, as he hasn't returned to the board.  So I've just now created a patch to test the fix.  You can download it here.  Instructions are included with the patch.  Let me know if it works for you.

thanks again Dizzy...

am in the process of adding the talkative compas and planetry compas will try your patch as i have added the escape pod oxp but not run the game yet.....

 

[Neelix]

One issue I have with the Escape Pod Locator though, is that it seems that if the escape pod is destroyed the beacon is not. This has resulted in several wild goose chases for Escape Pods that don't exist.

- Neelix

 Curiously enough, this long-standing bug was mentioned again today on the Oolite BB.  A possible fix was suggested about 6 months ago, but the OXP maintainer has yet to implement it, as he hasn't returned to the board.  So I've just now created a patch to test the fix.  You can download it here.  Instructions are included with the patch.  Let me know if it works for you.

Installed the patch but no go. Still getting ghost escape pod readings on the ASC. :-(

- Neelix

 

[Diziet Sma]

Installed the patch but no go. Still getting ghost escape pod readings on the ASC. :-(

- Neelix

Bugger.    Thanks.. I'll report it and see if anyone has any other ideas.  This is proving to be one of the most hard-to-kill bugs in the history of the game.

 

[ekianjo]

Call here for any avid Oolite gamer : I'd like to have someone write an article about it on PandoraLive, any volunteer? 

I could probably do it myself if I had the time, but I don't and I would rather trust someone who knows Oolite very well for that. 

 

[ptitSeb]

Call here for any avid Oolite gamer : I'd like to have someone write an article about it on PandoraLive, any volunteer?


I could probably do it myself if I had the time, but I don't and I would rather trust someone who knows Oolite very well for that.

I already suggested that and milinks said he is working on it

 

[milinks]

Call here for any avid Oolite gamer : I'd like to have someone write an article about it on PandoraLive, any volunteer?


I could probably do it myself if I had the time, but I don't and I would rather trust someone who knows Oolite very well for that.

I already suggested that and milinks said he is working on it

I've been trying for the last couple of weeks to complete a write-up of Oolite for Pandora, that would not only include setting up and running oolite for Pandora, but also the best OXPs to run on the Pandora, taking into account memory limitations, and the current absence of Shaders (which a large number of OXPs use for "eye-candy"). And also OXPs which are good expansions of the Vanilla game, such as the missions, extra equipment AddOns etc. It's brilliant that pandoraLive wants an article on oolite, as it's a unique game, with a massively helpful forum, the most friendly forum "this side of Ridequat!" I would wish to see a very detailed write up, an example of which is on page 7 by Diziet Sma regarding the world of OOlite, that would do the port, the game, the Ooniverise proud.

 

Unfortunately I Think I'm gonna have to hand over the baton, as I can't give a guarantee of when I would be able to complete it, or to the quality of content. I'm trying to beat a nasty form of cancer at the mo that just keeps giving me a big kick when I don't need it lol! Whereas I certainly have the time which is why I wanted to do it, it's getting hard to do things like type or remember things, (cue for a joke! ) Which is why it's taken me so long to sort it out ("needs to pay attention" definately on my report card lol!). Not wanting to throw pressure at people, but someone also with a current knowledge of oolite and it's forums (tick), who writes quality OXPs themselves (tick), and has given some excellent examples of detailed explanations of oolite ( another tick!) such as Diziet Sma..... ( oops! Name slip, sorry!) would maybe like to complete this.

 

But anyway, apologies about not being able to complete this simple task, but I wouldn't want to do a half ass job on something that I think is important, and having to hand it over, but if you knew how long it took me just to write this you'd be agreeing sorry PtitSeb

 

[Diziet Sma]

Man.. that's a tough row to hoe, milinks.. wishing you all the best with your ongoing battle.

Not wanting to throw pressure at people, but someone also with a current knowledge of oolite and it's forums (tick), who writes quality OXPs themselves (tick), and has given some excellent examples of detailed explanations of oolite ( another tick!) such as Diziet Sma..... ( oops! Name slip, sorry!) would maybe like to complete this.

I'm very honoured that you'd consider nominating me for the spot, but I have neither a Pandora, nor access to one.  That makes it kind of difficult to do justice to your project.  I'd be happy to take a look at what you've done so far, however.  Perhaps if the project is far enough along that it could be completed despite the aforementioned limitations, I could take a shot at it.  Just PM me if you want to pursue this avenue.

Or, hopefully someone else here at Pandora Forums would be willing to step up.

(Neelix - you and I are in the same city, at least.. would you be interested in collaborating on the article?)

 

[Diziet Sma]

for the BGS i find it stutters a couple of times through the animation of a witchspace jump on my PC. now i know it is not the fastest around but a Q6600 OC to 3GHz and a GTX 560Ti with 4Gb ram should be ok.

so i was wondering if its part of the scripting for the animation, or as Dietz said is it the populating of the area of stars at the destination?

Perhaps a bit of both.. but from what I gather the populating of the system is the biggest load on the computer during a jump.

and the pause after the hyperspace countdown is over five seconds now.

Some good news on this front.

On my 1.7GHz, 3GB laptop, I have a little over 200 OXPs installed, and witchspace jumps take anywhere from 15-30 seconds to complete, with lots of stuttering and freezes.  The same thing with the current development version of 1.79.

Until 2 days ago, that is.  A lot of optimising of the caching has been added, and pre-loading improved, so that now, witchspace jumps in 1.79 are almost perfectly smooth, and the animation barely pauses.  The game also loads up much faster when starting, even when a full cache flush is performed.

So after 1.79 is released, (getting much closer now, according to the devs) and ported to the Pandora, startup and jumping on the Pandora should be much improved over the present situation.

 

[NearTao]

Man.. that's a tough row to hoe, milinks.. wishing you all the best with your ongoing battle.

Not wanting to throw pressure at people, but someone also with a current knowledge of oolite and it's forums (tick), who writes quality OXPs themselves (tick), and has given some excellent examples of detailed explanations of oolite ( another tick!) such as Diziet Sma..... ( oops! Name slip, sorry!) would maybe like to complete this.

I'm very honoured that you'd consider nominating me for the spot, but I have neither a Pandora, nor access to one.  That makes it kind of difficult to do justice to your project.  I'd be happy to take a look at what you've done so far, however.  Perhaps if the project is far enough along that it could be completed despite the aforementioned limitations, I could take a shot at it.  Just PM me if you want to pursue this avenue.

Or, hopefully someone else here at Pandora Forums would be willing to step up.

(Neelix - you and I are in the same city, at least.. would you be interested in collaborating on the article?)

What's your location?  I'm sure there are folks who would be able to either loan you a Pandora or otherwise get you access to one if you were interested.

 

[Diziet Sma]

What's your location?  I'm sure there are folks who would be able to either loan you a Pandora or otherwise get you access to one if you were interested.

Melbourne, Australia.

 

[milinks]

If it's okay with everyone, give me a week and I'm sure I'll be able to put what I've done together, and submit it for appraisal, and then people can add to / change things to what they think is best. At the moment it's separate pieces in their respective fields that I just need to put together, the thing that I was unsure of before my hands stopped doing as I told them was, what format should I put it in, as I didn't want to just slap it on this topic as one big post, so most of it is in PDF format, which I was going to link within, if that makes sense. I'm open to suggestions as to the format, as it'll just be a case of cutting/pasting and linking so to speak. So if a week is oak with you guys and pandoraLive, I'll make sure what I've got is ready  

 

[ekianjo]

I'm open to suggestions as to the format, as it'll just be a case of cutting/pasting and linking so to speak. So if a week is oak with you guys and pandoraLive, I'll make sure what I've got is ready  

You can copy paste your text in a PM to me, and I'll manage the rest

If someone could take some screenshots as well to illustrate the game that would be best.  

 

[milinks]

You can copy paste your text in a PM to me, and I'll manage the rest

If someone could take some screenshots as well to illustrate the game that would be best.  

I had to make sure a lot of "play testing" went into my research where I've been snappy happy collecting pics of so much eye candy etc, so I'll send them along with the rest in a separate zip file anyway  

There really is some amazing OXPs with amazing model sets brought very much to life by the Oolite community. The boards are definately worth visitng, maybe readers have idea for their own missions, but just need a nudge on how to create one, or they want to see their own ship on screen, the boards are definately worth a visit, they really are the friendliest helpful bunch you could wish to meet

 

[NearTao]

What's your location?  I'm sure there are folks who would be able to either loan you a Pandora or otherwise get you access to one if you were interested.

Melbourne, Australia.

Dang... a bit far for a "borrow it from me for a week" kind of offer

 

[Diziet Sma]

Dang... a bit far for a "borrow it from me for a week" kind of offer

As they say, it's the thought that counts.. B)

 

[milinks]

Been away for a bit (sampling hospital food) n now back to swatting pirates in the oOniverse lol! (i havent forgotten about the write-up, with ekianjo's help it'll be ready this weekend). One thing i did want to mention, after playing the 1.79 trunk version on my PC ...WoW! how cool! [ ] IT really is a HUGE step forward in all fields, so i thought i'd cheat a bit, and swap the 1.79 resources into PtitSebs PND to see how it would fare, and to be honest it really is very, very good, the normal shpsets are now the Griff Shipsets (which if no one knows are fantastic), its far far faster with the 1.79 resource files swapped, than if you added a Shipset oxp etc, which slows down the Pandora dramatically. Obviousy just by swapping the resource files wont make everything work, as the Pandora restrictions themselves wouldnt allow everything to run. I was just wondering, would it be possible for an oOlite update with the 1.79 resources files included, for others to see how they get on, as it really does enhance the game, i'm conscious of not wanting to break things by copying and pasting bits n pieces etc. Took a few pics of the 1.79 shipset running on Pandora