Oolite Bulletins

Staer9 wrote:

The iguana has no weapons defined because it uses two side mounted lasers that each have weapons defined in their own entities,

Unfortunately, those entities aren't themselves defined anywhere in the shipdata.plist, for the Iguana. (If you also have Neolite Companion installed, they are defined in there, so it'll appear to work)

Other OXPs using the same technique (e.g. Griff's) or even the Cat Mk II in this OXP work just fine in either 1.76 or nightly builds.

cim wrote:

Staer9 wrote:

The iguana has no weapons defined because it uses two side mounted lasers that each have weapons defined in their own entities,

Unfortunately, those entities aren't themselves defined anywhere in the shipdata.plist, for the Iguana. (If you also have Neolite Companion installed, they are defined in there, so it'll appear to work)

Other OXPs using the same technique (e.g. Griff's) or even the Cat Mk II in this OXP work just fine in either 1.76 or nightly builds.

oh... Well, that makes sense then
how did I miss that before...

Here's a fix for the Iguana.

* Open shipdata.plist and find "staer9_iguana"
* Define it's subentities like this:

spara wrote:

Here's a fix for the Iguana.

* Open shipdata.plist and find "staer9_iguana"
* Define it's subentities like this:

Code: Select all

"subentities" = (
	"staer9_cat_left_gun	7.0 0.0 0.0	1 0 0 0",
	"staer9_cat_right_gun	-7.0 0.0 0.0 	1 0 0 0"
);

Not sure if I should have, but I added these subentities to the staer9_iguana_player version too.

JazHaz wrote:

spara wrote:

Here's a fix for the Iguana.

* Open shipdata.plist and find "staer9_iguana"
* Define it's subentities like this:

Code: Select all

"subentities" = (
	"staer9_cat_left_gun	7.0 0.0 0.0	1 0 0 0",
	"staer9_cat_right_gun	-7.0 0.0 0.0 	1 0 0 0"
);

Not sure if I should have, but I added these subentities to the staer9_iguana_player version too.

Does not do any harm I think, but is not necessary as there are already guns in the model.

Player version only uses one front laser, so those guns are there only for the show. NPC version on the other hand does not have any front laser, but shoots from those subentities. So for the NPC version, those are a must, otherwise it won't shoot at all.

My fix simply puts those gun entities (copied and tweaked from the cat model) over the guns in the main model, effectively hiding them.

Staer9's last post, from February 2013, said that he thought this shipset needed some love. Well, I hope he doesn't mind that I've been giving it some love on my own. Several months ago, I had redone all the specular maps and specular values (and diffuse textures where appropriate) to make them react to light better, more in line with how Griff's ships look. (I have had years of experience modifying stuff like this for the rFactor racing simulation.)

Now I'm starting to introduce random colouring as well (and turning lights on and doing some engine glow work). Here's a couple examples done so far.




Larger images: http://www.keeper1st.com/pics/oolite/asp2large.jpg and http://www.keeper1st.com/pics/oolite/bushmlarge.jpg.

The Bushmaster has a model problem with one of its engines -- only the inner faces are displayed. Editing models in Oolite is beyond my ken. (If it were an rFactor model, it'd be a simple fix for me.) And most of the ships need their in-flight views fixed. But for now I'm just working on their outward appearance where I can, so they're more cool to look at when encountering them in the game.

Lookin' good, Keeper!

Did a couple more this weekend. I liked the industrial look of the Ghavial so the only random colouring I added at first was the cockpit area, but then I decided to paint an industrial-looking "G" on the sides. This pic has just one colour, though it's actually random. I made the ship react to light in such a way that it really looks like metal, too (while keeping the rusted areas less reactive to light), and added engine glows of course.


Large size: http://www.keeper1st.com/pics/oolite/ghaviallarge.jpg

I am loving these resprays and getting distinctly anticipatory of a Stear9's Shipset redux OXP

These are looking great, I'll like to have these.

Have you PM'd Staer9 about this? If you can get him back maybe these changes can be incorporated in the official ship set?

JazHaz wrote:

These are looking great, I'll like to have these.
Have you PM'd Staer9 about this? If you can get him back maybe these changes can be incorporated in the official ship set?

Not yet. They do need "love" in other areas I'm not experienced with, like the fore/aft/port/starboard views, and the aforementioned problem with the polygon facings on one of the Bushmaster's engines. If he's not able to work on them, maybe someone else can. I'll see if he's around...

Staer9 responded. He's happy to incorporate these updates into the set, including any view fixes people come up with... (Or I could host it myself, he said -- I do have unlimited space and bandwidth, so that would be no problem.) He also provided a fix for the Bushmaster's engines, so that's one issue solved.

Here's the Iguana. I wanted to maintain the faded look, which was a bit tricky, but I managed it. Sometimes it can get a bit more contrasty, as in the dark blue version seen in the profile shot. I made new lights, and decided that the little yellow rectangles along the bottom are running lights too (albeit dimmer ones than the spot lights). The vents in the side guns and in the nose glow red with weapon heat.

See the larger version of this pic for a better view: http://www.keeper1st.com/pics/oolite/iguanalarge.jpg



(Never mind the text about three missiles and best ship etc.; that's describing the Cobra Mk.III. I simply edit the script for Start Choices OXP to display the ship I'm working on at a particular time, in place of the Cobra.)

These photos are being taken with default lighting values, by the way. Normally I play Oolite with less ambient light for a more realistic, starker appearance. I'm sure the bottom of the Iguana will look even cooler with its new bottom lights when there's less ambient light!

these all look gorgeous! that's some fantastic texture and shader work Keeper!

Keeper wrote:

Did a couple more this weekend. I liked the industrial look of the Ghavial so the only random colouring I added at first was the cockpit area, but then I decided to paint an industrial-looking "G" on the sides. This pic has just one colour, though it's actually random. I made the ship react to light in such a way that it really looks like metal, too (while keeping the rusted areas less reactive to light), and added engine glows of course.


Large size: http://www.keeper1st.com/pics/oolite/ghaviallarge.jpg

keeper I think the work on these ships you are doing is fantastic. I especially like the industrial metallic look of the Ghavial above.

Yeah, that one came out pretty good. You need a fairly dim texture but huge amounts of contrast on the specular map, and a good specular value (called "shininess" in Oolite). I think the default Staer9 ships had a value of like 12 (I don't remember 'cause I re-did the specular stuff way back in February), which makes for a very wide, dull light source; reducing to a value of 5 makes for a more concentrated light which works well for outer space.

Now, if only I were any good at creating textures from scratch... the Cat needs work. Anyone care to have a go? I've also re-introduced a Monitor II, only making it blue and shinier than the regular Monitor. Obviously when I get round to doing random colouring, it means the ships will look mostly alike unless I have the colour tint map applied on top of an extant colour. I think I'll put different hull lights on the two different versions, so that'll be something.

I went back and did more work on the Chameleon last night, adding more lights to the hull, changing the front-facing recessed trapezoid panel to be a window, and adjusting the exhaust size so it doesn't poke through the sides of the engine nozzle. I haven't shown any pics of that ship yet, but the random colouring I created for it is pretty neat. Parts of it remain green while others are different randomly, fading nicely into the green. It keeps a nice "chameleon skin" look while having a few different shades here and there (hey, it is a chameleon, right?).