Some Newbie Questions

RawrRawr · Post by **RawrRawr** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 6:37 pm

Hello, I've recently found Oolite and think it's awesome and a nice change of pace from the mainstream games. I've already installed some OXPs to enhance my experience.

But as I searched around on the boards, there were a few options that popped up that I haven't been able to find out how to do. For example, I haven't been able to get the external view oxp to work.

Also, could someone tell me how to access the buying/selling ship and contract menu when I dock?

Thanks.

FSOneblin · Post by **FSOneblin** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:05 pm

Hi, RawrRawr. I'll have someone more importuned to welcome you. if you have 0.70.0, external views comes pre installed, no oxp needed! Just press v to see your awesome ship. and you can see the contract menu by pressing f8 f8 (or 8 8, on some computers).

panic and die: FSOneblin

Ark · Post by **Ark** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:08 pm

Hello RawrRawr and welcome to the boards

You can enter the shipyard area by pressing twice the F3 key and the contracts by pressing twice the F8 key.

Now for the external views opx we need to tell us the version of oolite you are using.

External views are a native feature from ver 1.65 and above (It is activated by pressing the v key and you do not need an oxp in order to have external views). The external views oxp just corrects a bug and enhanced them as a feature but it was integrated in the newest version of oolite (1.70) so there is no need to install it.
If you are using a previous version keep it.

Captain Hesperus · Post by **Captain Hesperus** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 9:25 pm

Ark wrote:
Hello RawrRawr and welcome to the boards

You can enter the shipyard area by pressing twice the F3 key and the contracts by pressing twice the F8 key.

Now for the external views opx we need to tell us the version of oolite you are using.

External views are a native feature from ver 1.65 and above (It is activated by pressing the v key and you do not need an oxp in order to have external views). The external views oxp just corrects a bug and enhanced them as a feature but it was integrated in the newest version of oolite (1.70) so there is no need to install it.
If you are using a previous version keep it.

Hi, RawrRawr! Welcome to the Friendliest Board this Side of Reidquat©Cmdr. Maegil!
Note however, some OXP player ships unfortunately do not come with External Views written into their code. This is where the External Views OXP comes in. The OXP is not actually an OXP as such, but is a means to modify your player-ship OXPs. It has a number of external view strings which, when added to the player-ship entry on the OXP, allow the external views to be seen.
To use this OXP, you need to use a good text editor, such as VIM or NotePad++.
Use this text editor to open the shipdata.plist file in the Config folder of the OXP ship and search for the player version of the ship. It usually takes the format:

Code: Select all

<key>foo-player</key>

where foo is the name of the ship.
next scroll through the ship's entry till you find the following lines:

Code: Select all

      	<key>weapon_position_starboard</key> 
      	<string>12.0 9.7 18.0</string>

(taken from Selezen's Imperial Courier Mk II (impcourier2.oxp))
and then add the external view you want. It may take a bit of trial and error to select the views that show the ship best, since ships the size of an Adder would appear miniscule with the external view of an Anaconda, but that's all the fun of OXPing.
Hope that helps!

Captain Hesperus

RawrRawr · Post by **RawrRawr** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 9:35 pm

Thanks guys for the explanations. I thought the Oolite i had was buggy and was about to reinstall everything.

And i can't code anything if my life depended on it so Captain Hesperus made me go

Captain Hesperus · Post by **Captain Hesperus** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 11:44 pm

RawrRawr wrote:
Thanks guys for the explanations. I thought the Oolite i had was buggy and was about to reinstall everything.

And i can't code anything if my life depended on it so Captain Hesperus made me go

Take it from me, coding can be as simple as cut/paste. The shipdata.plist file may look lke gibberish at first, but after a while of staring at the lines of code, some of it makes sense*.
The external views bit is a case in point. If you download an OXP ship which has external views (such as the aforementioned IC MkII), you can simply cut and paste the external views from that into any shipdata.plist you like, as long as it is in the same place (and as long as there isn't pre-existing external views). Just make sure you add it to the player version, otherwise it'd be pointless....
Obviously.

*don't make it too obvious that I understand some aspects of OXPing, otherwise people will expect me to hash out an OXP of my own....

Captain Hesperus
.....never knowingly overestimated