Oolite Bulletins

cim wrote:

Here's a short video with some of the new stuff, as a pack of hunters launch from Leesti station.

It's looking great. All that video needs is a suitable classical music soundtrack and we'd be up there with a certain Capital Ship Battle video....!

Thargoid wrote:

They do indeed, although they seem to take a lot more processor power to support.

They take a little more GPU - I lose a few FPS if something explodes right in front of the camera - but that should be very brief (indeed, most of the time nothing is exploding at all). It could be the JS-based AI, if you've merged that in, though that doesn't normally add to the simulation time.

Try setting universe.profile = yes; in logcontrol.plist to see which top-level activity is taking the time - that setting has been around a while so you could check out code from a couple of weeks back to see where the difference is too. (Warning: will generate ridiculously large log files)

Wait ... do you mean trunk as in SVN trunk?

DaddyHoggy wrote:

I haven't played in ages - what's with all the (sometimes very) long ship names?

They're from the  Random Ship Names OXP.

Looking really good! Although I think the increased chatter might make HUDs that reduce message texts and/or display them to one side more popular.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

what's with all the (sometimes very) long ship names?

The really, really long name – We Haven't Met Yet But You're a Great Fan of Mine - is from a list of Culture ship names appropriated for the OXP. But it predates The Hydrogen Sonata, so it doesn't have e.g. Just the Washing Instruction Chip in Life's Rich Tapestry or Refreshingly Unconcerned With the Vulgar Exigencies of Veracity. Yet.

Disembodied wrote:

... so it doesn't have e.g. Just the Washing Instruction Chip in Life's Rich Tapestry or Refreshingly Unconcerned With the Vulgar Exigencies of Veracity. Yet.

<chortles> Those extra-long names are the main reason I disabled the ship-class identifier - put Sidewinder Scout Ship in front of one of those, and it gets crazy.
Gotta love all those names though - they just seem so fitting (if that's the right word).

Disembodied wrote:

Looking really good! Although I think the increased chatter might make HUDs that reduce message texts and/or display them to the side more popular.

Adjusting the display on the default HUD so that the comms of a busy fight don't make it impossible to see where you're going is on my list. That said, most of the comms chatter is currently for testing only and won't be in 1.79 in that form.

Looking very good!

One question: I notice that you have eliminated the ship types from the comms chatter (it's "Die, Clarke's Mace!", not "Die, Sidewinder Scout Ship: Clarke's Mace!"). That's very clever, and very realistic. How are you doing it? And what would be displayed without Randomshipnames installed?

Commander McLane wrote:

One question: I notice that you have eliminated the ship types from the comms chatter (it's "Die, Clarke's Mace!", not "Die, Sidewinder Scout Ship: Clarke's Mace!"). That's very clever, and very realistic. How are you doing it? And what would be displayed without Randomshipnames installed?

1.79 has two extra ship properties - "ship 'unique' name" and "ship class name" - both of which are available for comms messages. Display name can then be derived from those two if it's not explicitly set. Obviously my copy of Randomshipnames is very slightly modified to fill in the right field.

Without the OXP they'd say "Die, Sidewinder Scout Ship!", unless talking to the player.

Disembodied wrote:

Looking really good! Although I think the increased chatter might make HUDs that reduce message texts and/or display them to one side more popular.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

what's with all the (sometimes very) long ship names?

The really, really long name – We Haven't Met Yet But You're a Great Fan of Mine - is from a list of Culture ship names appropriated for the OXP. But it predates The Hydrogen Sonata, so it doesn't have e.g. Just the Washing Instruction Chip in Life's Rich Tapestry or Refreshingly Unconcerned With the Vulgar Exigencies of Veracity. Yet.

Well, that's good, I thought I recognised them from Iain M Banks' books - but I thought I was going mad! Nicely done - when I get back into the actual game - Randomshipnames is going to be on my OXP list.

Disembodied wrote:

Looking really good! Although I think the increased chatter might make HUDs that reduce message texts and/or display them to one side more popular.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

what's with all the (sometimes very) long ship names?

The really, really long name – We Haven't Met Yet But You're a Great Fan of Mine - is from a list of Culture ship names appropriated for the OXP. But it predates The Hydrogen Sonata, so it doesn't have e.g. Just the Washing Instruction Chip in Life's Rich Tapestry or Refreshingly Unconcerned With the Vulgar Exigencies of Veracity. Yet.

Good Lord! I assume these people live in a really peaceful and harmonious society. I'd really hate to have to spout that mouthful in a combat situation - by the time I finished saying "32 squadron! Provide fighter support for Refreshingly Unconcerned With the Vulgar Exigencies of Veracity." I'm pretty sure it'd already be a flaming ball of carbon.

metatheurgist wrote:

Good Lord! I assume these people live in a really peaceful and harmonious society. I'd really hate to have to spout that mouthful in a combat situation - by the time I finished saying "32 squadron! Provide fighter support for Refreshingly Unconcerned With the Vulgar Exigencies of Veracity." I'm pretty sure it'd already be a flaming ball of carbon.

I believe that’s what happened to the Nar.

metatheurgist wrote:

Good Lord! I assume these people live in a really peaceful and harmonious society. I'd really hate to have to spout that mouthful in a combat situation - by the time I finished saying "32 squadron! Provide fighter support for Refreshingly Unconcerned With the Vulgar Exigencies of Veracity." I'm pretty sure it'd already be a flaming ball of carbon.

If there was ever a situation where Refreshingly Unconcerned With the Vulgar Exigencies of Veracity - an ex-Thug Class Rapid Offensive Unit, even one that has been thoroughly demilitarised - needed fighter cover, pretty much everything would be a flaming ball of carbon. And Just the Washing Instruction Chip ... is a General Systems Vehicle, which could probably do horrible things to the Death Star from several light years away. And both ships are run by Minds, who do most of their thinking in hyperspace. But the Culture is a really peaceful and harmonious society, nonetheless:

Consider Phlebas: Iain M. Banks wrote:

By their names you could know them, Horza thought as he showered. The Culture's General Contact Units, which until now had borne the brunt of the first four years of the war in space, had always chosen jokey, facetious names. Even the new warships they were starting to produce, as their factory craft completed gearing up their war production, favoured either jocular, sombre or downright unpleasant names, as though the Culture could not take entirely seriously the vast conflict in which it had embroiled itself.

Banks wrote an essay, "A Few Notes on the Culture", if you're interested in the details.

JensAyton wrote:

I believe that’s what happened to the Nar.

And Bungie, of course, are big fans of the Culture novels.

I'll try to get back on topic:

cim wrote:

1.79 has two extra ship properties - "ship 'unique' name" and "ship class name" - both of which are available for comms messages. Display name can then be derived from those two if it's not explicitly set. Obviously my copy of Randomshipnames is very slightly modified to fill in the right field.

Are there limits to the length of the "unique" names - actual or practical? Fond though I am of long names, now and then, is there a recommended upper character limit?

Disembodied wrote:

Are there limits to the length of the "unique" names - actual or practical? Fond though I am of long names, now and then, is there a recommended upper character limit?

Actual? No, not really.

Practically, on the HUDs in 1.77, "Galcop Viper Interceptor" is already getting a bit on the long side on its own. I'm currently tweaking the standard HUD layouts very slightly for 1.79 to fit some extra dials in, but probably 40 characters for a display name is the longest you should routinely use, and the longer ship class names will take up about half of that.

Disembodied wrote:

The really, really long name – We Haven't Met Yet But You're a Great Fan of Mine - is from a list of Culture ship names appropriated for the OXP. But it predates The Hydrogen Sonata, so it doesn't have e.g. Just the Washing Instruction Chip in Life's Rich Tapestry or Refreshingly Unconcerned With the Vulgar Exigencies of Veracity. Yet.

Since you mentioned The Hydrogen Sonata, I'm surprised you left out the ship commonly referred to as the Ue (Unit/eccentric) Mistake Not..

Or, to use its' full name.. the Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are Themselves The Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath

Diziet Sma wrote:

Since you mentioned The Hydrogen Sonata, I'm surprised you left out the ship commonly referred to as the Ue (Unit/eccentric) Mistake Not..

Or, to use its' full name.. the Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are Themselves The Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath

I'll look out for that one! I've not actually read The Hydrogen Sonata yet: I bought it a couple of weeks ago, having waited for the paperback, and I find myself reading other things first - because The Hydrogen Sonata is the last one. After this, there are no more, and I want to delay that moment as long as I can.