Eye Candy vs. Imagination

Roberto · Post by **Roberto** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:35 am

True dat

I guess that puts me in the "embiggen stuff" camp...

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:51 am

Arexack_Heretic wrote:
heat-glow of alloys is a nice functional use of shaders... as an example of a shader linked to display outwardly an object property.

You are right it is eye-candy and most of the shader use is frivolous and excessive, but remember they are meant to show off the possibilities and above all, it's fun to make such garish stuff.

Thankfully OXPs are always optional.

Yes, indeed, I do like the glowingalloys.oxp. And it has the additional virtue of making the alloys more visible. Especially in darker systems it can be painful to hunt for debris. And I do like the variety offered by cargo_wrecks_teaser.oxp. And I do like the Anaconda as well. And much of the rest comes down to personal taste. It's just that - and this may well be due to the experimental character of most of the things we have seen so far - I often think "that's over the top". And I do prefer simplicity over this.

Post by **Disembodied** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 1:20 pm

I think Commander McLane's point about the essentials of gameplay happening in your head is an excellent one. I also think that Roberto's work on Taranis holds out a lot of promise. The best forms of complexity emerge naturally from underlying simple rules: Oolite's immersive charm comes from the way other ships act around you, behaving as parts of an interactive world.

However: the problem with "gameplay-in-the-head" is that it takes time to build up -- especially for new players who may never have played the original Elite. Background material helps; consistency of approach (without resorting to nitpicking fanpersonism) can help too. Once Oolite soaks in then I'm confident that it will stick with anybody, but not everybody will be prepared to give it the time (younger generation, tsk, attention span, tut, hell in a handbasket etc.

). Their loss, it's true, but ours too: the bigger the commoonity, the better for everybody. And Oolite deserves as big an audience as possible.

Maybe we should think about producing an Ooliteer's Guide, or something similar, which could give shiny, new, virgin players something for their imaginations to latch on to and to build on top of? I would be happy to give this a go, drawn from the wiki and other sources, with assistance/input/meddlesome interference from others. We'd have to work out what such a guide would contain, what its tone might be... although it could contain everything from GalCo-op Regulations to inside tips on trading and fighting from veteran pilots. Any thoughts on this from anyone else would be welcome.

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 1:41 pm

...something tells me you're not going to like my new 500 polygon cargo pod model Commander McLane

Cmdr. Maegil · Post by **Cmdr. Maegil** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:07 pm

Disembodied wrote:
I think Commander McLane's point about the essentials of gameplay happening in your head is an excellent one
<snip>
Maybe we should think about producing an Ooliteer's Guide, or something similar

It could be done, but as you said yourself,

However: the problem with "gameplay-in-the-head" is that <snip> not everybody will be prepared to give it the time (younger generation, tsk, attention span, tut, hell in a handbasket etc. ).

But if you're starting it, I'll lend a hand. I've got some time to waste, anyway...

Post by **Disembodied** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:44 pm

Cmdr. Maegil wrote:
But if you're starting it, I'll lend a hand. I've got some time to waste, anyway...

OK, thanks! I'll start a new thread.

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:06 am

Fun with shaders:

Testing the Nova mission… and seeing the nav buoy and one remaining viper glow red and then white hot before blowing up in the face of the sun’s wossname.

Cmdr. Maegil · Post by **Cmdr. Maegil** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 10:38 am

Sounds great!

BTW, all the previous posts in his page could be transferred to their proper thread, no?

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 1:58 pm

Griff wrote:
...something tells me you're not going to like my new 500 polygon cargo pod model Commander McLane

Test me! You might be surprised.

CaptKev · Post by **CaptKev** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:31 pm

Griff wrote:
...something tells me you're not going to like my new 500 polygon cargo pod model Commander McLane

Griff, don't let the 'simple is best' camp put you off, without your efforts Oolite would be a bit bland.

Post by **Kaks** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 10:28 pm

Plus your models are ace!

<tangent>

Talking about your creations, the moment I get a free weekend the ice cream & hot dog ships are going to be seen all too often by new jamesons...

<more tangent>

Disembodied, can you think of a really cringeworthy tune I could use for a hot dog stand...

</tangents>

Cargo pod model? Where? Where?

Post by **Disembodied** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 10:59 pm

Well, it's not cringeworthy (I like it, anyway), but apparently Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" would be appropriate... I'm sure they'll say yes if you ask them nicely!

Failing that, I'd suggest the Armour Hotdogs jingle from here. Although I have no idea about copyright issues!

Edit: maybe someone could edit it so there's just the banjo and "Hot dogs!" over and over and over and over... Mind you, that would be some pretty bad karma to collect right there.

Ramirez · Post by **Ramirez** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 11:04 pm

Kaks wrote:
Disembodied, can you think of a really cringeworthy tune I could use for a hot dog stand...

Don't joke - there's an ice cream van near my flat that's decided to start up for the year, despite the torrential rain and gale force winds we're getting here in London. If I hear one more Doppler-shifted rendition of Yankee Doodle Dandy ringing out across the street I may have to send a request to someone at the Assassin's Guild...

Post by **Kaks** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 11:43 pm

Ramirez, something tells me you might not appreciate the ...glory... I was thinking of unleashing on an ~~unsuspecting~~ probably very alarmed public.

Still, you've got to admire the spirit of the[edit]Mr Whippy[/edit] guy. As you said, it's not quite ice-cream weather yet...

Disembodied, Once In a Lifetime is way too nice for what I had in mind; maybe a badly recorded midi version might just sound bad enough...

Armour Hotdogs has just the right ...er... tone to it. Hmmm, didn't somebody kind of volunteer their musical skills to Oolite, not too long ago? Perhaps that would be the way to go: something original, but vaguely similar to Armour Hotdogs...

Anyway, I'll keep looking for that elusive hotdog masterpiece!

Captain Hesperus · Post by **Captain Hesperus** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:27 pm

Ramirez wrote:
If I hear one more Doppler-shifted rendition of Yankee Doodle Dandy ringing out across the street I may have to send a request to someone at the Assassin's Guild...

I'm available and although I'm about 200 miles due north, I know the streets of London very well....
<Where'd I leave that Barrett, it's a bit overkill. But it'll make a point....>

Captain Hesperus