Snoopers

pagroove · Post by **pagroove** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 5:34 pm

Tivva wrote:
@DH or anyone?
4 days & >60 jumps (inc a Gal jump back to G1) since d/l Snoopers & not a single news report.
I've flushed the cache (hold shift) & double checked the oxp file is in the right folder!!!

Any ideas how I can prove its working?

Running 1.73.2 on a macbook pro & leopard OS.
All other oxp's(too many to mention) run fine.

missing out
Tivs

I've had the same. Gonna also change the line. almost 25 jumps and nothing. I am in Galaxy 2.

pagroove · Post by **pagroove** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:46 pm

YES!!

Just got my first message, fantastic. The music is also very news like Well done.

Svengali · Post by **Svengali** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:54 pm

pagroove wrote:
YES!!
Just got my first message, fantastic. The music is also very news like Well done.

Gracias.

Snoopers is more for longer game sessions, so maybe I should change the script to store the date. And maybe it's even possible to tweak it a bit for higher resolutions. If it works it wouldn't be perfect, but better than the current thingie.

Post by **Micha** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:06 pm

Svengali wrote:
Snoopers is more for longer game sessions, so maybe I should change the script to store the date.

Do I understand correctly that to get a news article, one must play non-stop to trigger the 25-day 25% chance (or whatever it is)? In that case it's little wonder I haven't had a newsflash yet - I tend to restart Oolite quite often of an evening.. by the same token I haven't wanted to artificially induce a newsflash by tweaking the code (yet).

pagroove · Post by **pagroove** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 11:33 pm

You asked for more news channels? didn't you What about adding XBN:
Xexedi Business News to the channels. Reporting mainly Economic and Financial news live from XEXEDI.

I even made an image for you. Done with Google Sketchup, then the background rendered in Kerkeytea and then Photoshop fun

Even when you don't use it then it's also fun;

drew · Post by **drew** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:12 am

Heh heh! Loving the ticker, galactic motors down 2.5 !

Cheers,

Drew.

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:14 am

drew wrote:
Heh heh! Loving the ticker, galactic motors down 2.5 !

Yes, lovely! (But perhaps should be in red colour? Green only for up?)

Svengali · Post by **Svengali** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:15 pm

Micha wrote:
Svengali wrote:
Snoopers is more for longer game sessions, so maybe I should change the script to store the date.
Do I understand correctly that to get a news article, one must play non-stop to trigger the 25-day 25% chance (or whatever it is)? In that case it's little wonder I haven't had a newsflash yet - I tend to restart Oolite quite often of an evening.. by the same token I haven't wanted to artificially induce a newsflash by tweaking the code (yet).

No. It's a bit more complicated .-)

The initial declaration is a random number in range 1..25 (this.sliderB) for the date check. The second factor is the chance of 20% (this.sliderA).
If both are true AND you are entering the Aegis a flag is set and you'll get a message. When you are stepping to F7 and the newsflash is displayed another random algorithm is used to set the next date. This algorithm tends to the maximum setting (default 25), but can also be a lot lower. And when other oxps have inserted own newsflashes Aegisflag and datecheck is bypassed. Only chance is checked with a lower probability.

It simply avoids a flood of newsflashes and I think it would be very nasty to get hundreds of flashes within a game session. It should be a surprise - everytime. The handling for the inserted newsflashes is there to clear the buffer over time. If you want to take a look http://www.box.net/shared/os6ssokqqd. That's why I've said 'more for longer game sessions'.

Post by **Micha** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:23 pm

Yes, I also feel newsflashes should be relatively rare (hence not having mucked about with the parameters yet). But I think it would be a reasonable improvement to save the 'next day' in the players' savegame. Otherwise people like me will never see one

Svengali · Post by **Svengali** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:47 pm

Micha wrote:
Yes, I also feel newsflashes should be relatively rare (hence not having mucked about with the parameters yet). But I think it would be a reasonable improvement to save the 'next day' in the players' savegame. Otherwise people like me will never see one

Oh, I always thought 'people like you' (means while testing mostly) don't want to see such a screen. It would interrupt the current test. That's why I've explicitely excluded zero days .-)

Tivva · Post by **Tivva** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 7:50 pm

Svengali wrote:
Is it your standard resolution? Or have you rescaled the window?

The positioning of the rotating logo looks a bit strange. I've tested it with different screen resolutions and have seen that the positions are mixed up when the window gets rescaled. And there is not much we can do to avoid problems with non-standard resolutions.

But good to know that this works for you now. Have fun .-)

Std Macbook resolution, afaik...
I've not fiddled with either the pic or screen settings- unless it's a photobucket thing ??

Tivva

Svengali · Post by **Svengali** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:45 pm

Tivva wrote:
Std Macbook resolution, afaik...
I've not fiddled with either the pic or screen settings- unless it's a photobucket thing ??

Hello Tivva. Can you tell me your current screen resolution (something like 1024x768) and if you're using windowed mode the size of your window?

The pic is 799x437 = ratio 1,828375..., so this is probably the reason for the misaligned logo. I'm currently thinking about some tweaks for the next version, but will have to test some things.

Tivva · Post by **Tivva** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 9:22 pm

Svengali wrote:
Tivva wrote:
Std Macbook resolution, afaik...
I've not fiddled with either the pic or screen settings- unless it's a photobucket thing ??
Hello Tivva. Can you tell me your current screen resolution (something like 1024x768) and if you're using windowed mode the size of your window?

The pic is 799x437 = ratio 1,828375..., so this is probably the reason for the misaligned logo. I'm currently thinking about some tweaks for the next version, but will have to test some things.

Just checked- 1440x900. Default macbook Pro setting

Svengali · Post by **Svengali** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 10:20 pm

Tivva wrote:
Just checked- 1440x900. Default macbook Pro setting

Thanks Tivva. This helps a lot to find a way for the positioning.-)

Svengali · Post by **Svengali** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 1:48 pm

News for oxpers:
Beginning with Snoopers 2.0 (Oolite v1.74 only) the insertion of news flashes will completely change. This affects oxps that are already using Snoopers .insertNews() function.

The new mechanism looks like:

Code: Select all

worldScripts.snoopers.insertNews({ID:this.name,Priority:1,Message:"Hello world!",Pic:"Pic.png",Music:"Music.ogg",Model:"Model",Pos:[1,2,3]});
or
worldScripts.snoopers.insertNews({ID:this.name,Priority:1,Agency:1,Message:"Hello world!"});

The passed object can hold a couple of properties.

Required:
- ID: String (i.e. this.name) - Name of the calling script. Snoopers stores a checksum (CRC) to scatter the messages on every start and inbetween.
- Message: String (e.g. "Hello world!!!") - Message can be a simple string or a keyname pointing to descriptions.plist or missiontext.plist (e.g. "[mykey]").

Optional:
- Agency: Integer (range 1-3, 1=GNN, 2=Rooters, 3=Snoopers) If used Snoopers disables custom pics, music and models
- Priority: Integer (range 1-3, 1=highest) - used to sort inserted news, if not defined = 3
- Pic: String (e.g."mypic.png") - Background image, used as overlay, use tranparent areas in Pic if model is be used!!! File-extension is required.
- Music: String (e.g."mymusic.ogg") - Music for Newsflash. File-extension is required.
- Model: String (e.g."mymodel") - Model for Newsflash, if used Pos must be passed to, else disabled
- Pos: Object (e.g.[2.3,4,6.1] - Array of 3 valid numbers, ignored if Model not declared

Snoopers checks all incoming requests and returns a value to the calling script (always, if callback function '.newsDisplayed()' is available) and logs errors (if necessary or logging enabled).

Returned integer values are:
- negative (-5...-1) Snoopers buffers are full, oxp already placed a newsflash or CRC is still stored, only logged if logging enabled
- zero (0) Success, only logged if logging enabled
- positive (1...24) Error occured, details always logged to Latest.log

Additional changes:
- aspect ratio fix
- RFC screenhandling
- fixed typo in descriptions.plist
- error logging with clear messages
- date until next news is now stored
- mechanism to store inserted messages
- missiontext.plist keys are now expanded
- custom music, pics and models can be passed now
- selfconfiguration (based on modes - wireframe,reducedDetail,shaderLevel,musicMode,width,height)
- and some other minor things, I've forgotten here...

Below you can find a prerelease, so, if you're planning to use Snoopers screens for your oxp, then you can do it now even better than before. The readme includes additional infos and some small examples and documentation will be available after release. But keep in mind that this is a WIP version, meant to give oxpers a better overview and a chance to prepare their own stuff. Do not use for normal gameplay.

Snoopers2.0 -> http://www.box.net/shared/012g2cqcsy (2.477KB)

The Snoopers team .-)