[RELEASE] - Z GrOovy SML System stations (thx Griff!)

[Keeper]

At least having the added colour variants in Stations For Extra Planets would be nice...

[phkb]

Just updated this to version 1.6. Removed Griff's station bundle as a dependency, so it's now a standalone OXP. Updated the textures, normal and specular maps to be similar to the new versions created by a_c for the 1.91 release. And switched to using the default Oolite shaders. Should be available via the download manager.

[cbr]

It gives me a few log entries...

19:24:19.229 [shipData.load.error]: ***** ERROR: the shipdata.plist entry "griff_tetrahedron_mainhull_diamonds" has unresolved subentity griff_coriolis_dock.
19:24:19.299 [shipData.load.error]: ***** ERROR: the shipdata.plist entry "griff_octahedron_mainhull_diamonds" has unresolved subentity griff_coriolis_dock.

19:25:50.472 [files.notFound]: ----- WARNING: Could not find texture file "Octafront_emission.png".
19:25:50.489 [files.notFound]: ----- WARNING: Could not find texture file "Octafront_normal.png".
19:25:50.499 [files.notFound]: ----- WARNING: Could not find texture file "Octafront_specular.png".
19:25:50.546 [files.notFound]: ----- WARNING: Could not find texture file "Octafront_emission.png".
19:25:50.557 [files.notFound]: ----- WARNING: Could not find texture file "Octafront_normal.png".
19:25:50.565 [files.notFound]: ----- WARNING: Could not find texture file "Octafront_specular.png".

Linux Octafront vs. OctaFront ?

[phkb]

Yep, a swing and a miss on my part. New version on the way.

[phkb]

OK, version 1.7 has been uploaded to the wiki and the Expansion Manager.

[phkb]

Apologies for pushing out another release so soon, but I'd turned off the condition script for testing, and forgot to turn it back on before pushing out the previous fix. 1.8 now available.

[Cholmondely]

Apologies

2 Queries:

1) How do I get the stats for the Tetrahedron Depot for the wiki's "Infobox StationStats" ? I found the Octahedron Outpost after great difficulty (unexpected name in Norby's Gallery) but not the Tetra.



2) The sizes seem to be massive for poor anarchic systems, and inhibit jumping out for a much greater distance than the regular Oolite stations do.

Does this make in-game sense? Why do such poor systems need such massive stations? Can they afford them? Can GalCop afford them for the relevant anarchies?

[Switeck]

I put "repurposed" and further hollowed-out old Rock Hermit stations near the main planet as replacement main stations in low TL, low gov. type systems.
They have no ship market, since at very low TL none are likely for sale anyway.
Their commodities market is also smaller than a normal main station...or at least that's what I intended with their capacity max.

[Cholmondely]

I put "repurposed" and further hollowed-out old Rock Hermit stations near the main planet as replacement main stations in low TL, low gov. type systems.
They have no ship market, since at very low TL none are likely for sale anyway.
Their commodities market is also smaller than a normal main station...or at least that's what I intended with their capacity max.

That makes rather more sense to me.

The current Griffified RH's - or the older versions?

What other changes have you made in your games?

[Switeck]

I've been considering the smaller stations in rarer roles for low-end systems but haven't done it yet.

[phkb]

1) How do I get the stats for the Tetrahedron Depot for the wiki's "Infobox StationStats" ? I found the Octahedron Outpost after great difficulty (unexpected name in Norby's Gallery) but not the Tetra.

The model's .dat file usually has the numbers. Here's the Octahedron's data

Code: Select all

// output from Obj2DatTex.py Wavefront text file conversion script
// (c) 2005 By Giles Williams
// 
// original file: "OctaHull.obj"
// 
// model size: 1617.046 x 2262.305 x 1617.046
// 

And here's the Tetrahedron's data:

Code: Select all

// output from Obj2DatTex.py Wavefront text file conversion script
// (c) 2005 By Giles Williams
// 
// original file: "TetraFront.obj"
// 
// model size: 2028.274 x 1756.258 x 464.970
// 

2) The sizes seem to be massive for poor anarchic systems, and inhibit jumping out for a much greater distance than the regular Oolite stations do.

I'm not sure, although I have noticed the issue in game. Part of the issue comes down to the shape of the stations. The dimensions are for a cube, and while we can only measure the maximum of each dimension to define that cube, both the Tetra and Octa stations aren't close to being cuboid - there's a lot of empty space in those dimensions.

There's also the possibility there's a stray vertex in there somewhere that's throwing off the dimension calculation. I'll have a bit of a dig to see if I can spot anything.

As for what to do about it: not sure. If we leave things as they are, can they really be defined as an "Outpost" or "Depot", if they're larger than a Coriolis? So, do we rename them, and reallocate them to some other group of systems? We're moving away quite substantially from the original author's intentions at this point, though.

[Cholmondely]

here's the Tetrahedron's data:

Code: Select all

// output from Obj2DatTex.py Wavefront text file conversion script
// (c) 2005 By Giles Williams
// 
// original file: "TetraFront.obj"
// 
// model size: 2028.274 x 1756.258 x 464.970
// 

Thanking you, Sir!

2) The sizes seem to be massive for poor anarchic systems, and inhibit jumping out for a much greater distance than the regular Oolite stations do.

I'm not sure, although I have noticed the issue in game. Part of the issue comes down to the shape of the stations. The dimensions are for a cube, and while we can only measure the maximum of each dimension to define that cube, both the Tetra and Octa stations aren't close to being cuboid - there's a lot of empty space in those dimensions.

There's also the possibility there's a stray vertex in there somewhere that's throwing off the dimension calculation. I'll have a bit of a dig to see if I can spot anything.

As for what to do about it: not sure. If we leave things as they are, can they really be defined as an "Outpost" or "Depot", if they're larger than a Coriolis? So, do we rename them, and reallocate them to some other group of systems? We're moving away quite substantially from the original author's intentions at this point, though.

I thought I saw a remark somewhere about the size of one (the tetrahedron?) being increased because the docking tunnel was so small it was lethal... can't find it now.

But I thought that the original author's intention was just to add more regular polygons, and by 2012 there were already a plethora of stations for wealthy systems (ico & dodo + globe/torus/superhub/constores etc.), which would have inclined a main station orbital replacement to be aimed at the other end of the scale.




As regards the poorer systems/anarchies which do not/cannot properly contribute to the cost of the station:

One presumes that GalCop would have paid for the Coriolis's back at the time of the Golden Age of the Ooniverse, before the Thargoids/Pirates took over. So they are still there. The richer systems later replaced them with the more expensive Icos and Dodos.

So Redspear's humorous rejig of Solos Alt Stations - his proto-Coriolis ("URGENT. Maintenance to level 3 rest-room. Repeat: URGENT. Maintenance to level 3 rest-room...") - is probably the most accurate representation of Oolite reality.




I wonder if it make make sense to offer a choice in the Library "Config for AddOns" - either to have them replace the main stations in the poorer systems ("playability option?"), or to just add them in to the richer systems where they really belong (but add yet more markets to those systems - which I suppose one would expect ("reality option")?

[phkb]

So, this is why the station is "big":

What you're seeing is a Tetrahedron depot with the bounding boxes turned on. The boxes themselves are as tight to the model as they can be, so no extraneous vertexes to be found. But, the box is largely empty, because the pyramid shape doesn't take up much space.

I'm really torn on this one. Looking at the bounding box, I would say the station is smaller than a Coriolis in actual volume. But when you only have height, width and depth to define the shape, the numbers can't tell the full story.

[phkb]

Here's the Octahedron station with bounding boxes on, just for reference. Same issue in play, though.

[Switeck]

As regards the poorer systems/anarchies which do not/cannot properly contribute to the cost of the station:

One presumes that GalCop would have paid for the Coriolis's back at the time of the Golden Age of the Ooniverse, before the Thargoids/Pirates took over. So they are still there. The richer systems later replaced them with the more expensive Icos and Dodos.

Assuming war or Thargoids destroyed the original Coriolis Stations poorer systems/anarchies had, I'd find it more reasonable for the replacement stations to be much smaller and cheaper which explains why I use Rock Hermit replacement stations.

What you're seeing is a Tetrahedron depot with the bounding boxes turned on. The boxes themselves are as tight to the model as they can be, so no extraneous vertexes to be found. But, the box is largely empty, because the pyramid shape doesn't take up much space.

For another 3rd party station...
The bounding boxes on a Superhub may tell why I'm always crashing with invisible parts of it.
I forget how to turn bounding boxes on/off...something to do while paused?