Does anyone knows why the docking computer, sometimes, acts strangely? Like overly correcting the path or turning your ship while it's alredy in the dock port (damagaing it badly O_O). A coupe of time it even crashed my ship.
I noticed that this is rare at the main stations, but frequent with oxp's. Even when the station doesn't rotate. It happens a lot with the stations placed in some extra planets of the assassins guild oxp, with the extra station of ths oxp https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14692 , with the Collective ZGF of the Commies OXP.
It looks like the more you are far from the main course, the more the docking computer acts strangely.
It looks like the more you are far from the main course, the more the docking computer acts strangely.
There's your clue.. you're being bitten by the way Oolite internally represents position in systems. As Jens said in another discussion:
JensAyton wrote:
I suspect you’re running into the precision limits of single-precision floating point. The further you get from the centre of the universe (i.e. the witchspace beacon), the less accurate positioning becomes, until it reaches the point where it breaks down visibly. This is simply not an issue in normal use; I can’t speak for abnormal use.
The further you get from the witchpoint beacon, the less numbers to the right of the decimal point that Oolite has to work with.. and positioning accuracy starts to suffer.. your docking computer is doing the best it can, but it's being crippled by the limitations of the math routines. A fix would require a total overhaul of the position coordinates method used in Oolite.. (read: ain't gonna happen)
It might pay to dock manually at those far-away stations. Even then, you may have the odd drama if the station rotates.
Last edited by Diziet Sma on Sat Jun 22, 2013 8:46 am, edited 2 times in total.
Most games have some sort of paddling-pool-and-water-wings beginning to ease you in: Oolite takes the rather more Darwinian approach of heaving you straight into the ocean, often with a brick or two in your pockets for luck. ~ Disembodied
I suspect you’re running into the precision limits of single-precision floating point. The further you get from the centre of the universe (i.e. the witchspace beacon), the less accurate positioning becomes, until it reaches the point where it breaks down visibly. This is simply not an issue in normal use; I can’t speak for abnormal use.
The further you get from the witchpoint beacon, the less numbers to the right of the decimal point that Oolite has to work with.. and positioning accuracy starts to suffer.. your docking computer is doing the best it can, but it's being crippled by the limitations of the math routines. A fix would require a total overhaul of the position coordinates method used in Oolite.. (read: ain't gonna happen)
Why not using a double float, then? The method remains the same, and we could have more precision.
Anyway, I dock manually most of the time, but when I have to do long travels I'm used to read some book while waiting, and in this occasions, I dock with the docking computer while finishing to read the paragraph.
It might sound strange, but it feel quite immersive. It's like to be in your ship, doning things while the computer takes care of the boring procedures.
Why not using a double float, then? The method remains the same, and we could have more precision.
It's on my list of things to look at, because bugs like this do creep in a lot closer to the origin than I'd like, but it's not as simple as just changing a data type, because OpenGL only reliably supports single-precision floats. I'm hoping to get some improvements made for 1.79/1.80.
(looks around shiftily and whispers) pssssst, its a conspiracy, most pirate bases are further out-system and this is just "The Man's" way of wiping them out! (adjusts tinfoil hat and sneaks off)
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