Oolite Bulletins

Great model!

The only suggestion I'd make is to move it a little forward in order to center it better on the z-axis. The center point should be in the section with the arms.

mandoman wrote:

Commander McLane wrote:

Great model!

The only suggestion I'd make is to move it a little forward in order to center it better on the z-axis. The center point should be in the section with the arms.

I might be wrong here, but I OOlite I presume that the ships pivot point is at the origin.

Based on how the model looks, the front section looks to hold quite a lot of mass and as such, when pivoting it would pivot around the centre of gravity. Obviously this depends on where the manoeuvring thrusters are.

My physics memory may be failing me here though.

!m!

Diziet Sma wrote:

GGShinobi wrote:

Diziet Sma, wait till you see it in action! And you know, what it may lack in efficiency (maybe it's a good target, okay ), it more than makes up with style!

At least, I'll always die in a blaze of glory!!!

Heheh.. I'm thinking, unless that baby has a Bergenholm installed, the first time it pulls over a G during a change of vector, it'll snap its' pretty little neck..

Hmm, the comet has a similar device called "automatic propulsion compensator"
It works pretty well as you might have seen in the video I already posted above

maaarcooose wrote:

Commander McLane wrote:

Great model!

The only suggestion I'd make is to move it a little forward in order to center it better on the z-axis. The center point should be in the section with the arms.

I might be wrong here, but I OOlite I presume that the ships pivot point is at the origin.

Based on how the model looks, the front section looks to hold quite a lot of mass and as such, when pivoting it would pivot around the centre of gravity. Obviously this depends on where the manoeuvring thrusters are.

My physics memory may be failing me here though.

!m!

I don't understand... would that change the looks? I like the looks!!!

maaarcooose wrote:

Commander McLane wrote:

Great model!

The only suggestion I'd make is to move it a little forward in order to center it better on the z-axis. The center point should be in the section with the arms.

I might be wrong here, but I OOlite I presume that the ships pivot point is at the origin.

The model origin influences two things in Oolite:

First, as you say, it serves as pivot point. Therefore an eccentric origin can indeed create the impression of an uneven distribution of mass in the model.

Second, it controls the size of the box that is drawn around a ship when you target it. The box size is always determined by the distance of the origin to the surface point that is farthest away. This means that for very eccentric ships the target box is drawn way too big. Personally, I hate that. That's why I make it a point to have all models in my Ooniverse properly centered.

Here's an example of what I mean, with an Aurora Liner non-centered (with the origin somewhere at the rear of the ship) and properly centered:

GGShinobi wrote:

I don't understand... would that change the looks? I like the looks!!!

Don't panic!

It wouldn't change how it looks, just how it pivots as it turns.

!m!

Commander McLane wrote:

The model origin influences two things in Oolite:

And a third: the combat AIs attempt to aim at the model origin. So that off-centre Aurora, when aimed at from the side or top, would likely have well over half the shots passing harmlessly behind it.

cim wrote:

And a third: the combat AIs attempt to aim at the model origin. So that off-centre Aurora, when aimed at from the side or top, would likely have well over half the shots passing harmlessly behind it.

Ahh,... currently busy in bringing the origine of my commander ship far below me to mislead opponents. ....... Still altering. .......

Ready.


OUCH. I CRASHED INTO THE DOCK

Commander McLane wrote:

Great model!

The only suggestion I'd make is to move it a little forward in order to center it better on the z-axis. The center point should be in the section with the arms.

Yeah, the thing to keep in mind with these screen shots is that the whole ship is going to get chopped into pieces. The front Globe section will be the "Comet", while the sensor wings on the side, and everything behind, are subentities. When it is cobbled back together in the game, it should be centered the way you stated. That's the goal, any way.

You'll need to make the winged centre section the 'main ship' then. That shouldn't be a problem as far as I can see.

Smivs wrote:

You'll need to make the winged centre section the 'main ship' then. That shouldn't be a problem as far as I can see.

Why can't I make the front globe section the "main ship", placing it forward of the center, and fitting the subentities in behind in their relative positions? As long as the measurements in shipdata.plist reflect the position of all entites, shouldn't it work? I thought it would, but if not, it's best to find out now.

The one thing to bear in mind when deciding which bit is main and which is subentities is that engine flares currently must be positioned relative to the main entity and can't be moved by script or turned on and off. So any engine exhausts should be on either the main entity or a subentity which will not be moved, removed, or repositioned relative to the main entity.

cim wrote:

The one thing to bear in mind when deciding which bit is main and which is subentities is that engine flares currently must be positioned relative to the main entity and can't be moved by script or turned on and off. So any engine exhausts should be on either the main entity or a subentity which will not be moved, removed, or repositioned relative to the main entity.

I thought so. I'm afraid that all those side, bottom, and top thrusters are going to be useless. If they are useless in Oolite, then there is no reason to make the last three sections of the ship subentities. That narrows it down to the front large side wings, and the extent that they can be maneuvered, the middle section with the main aft thrusters at the ends, and the rear wing, and wing pole with the extent they can be moved.

Cim, how much movement is possible on an Oolite ship? I'm afraid that GGShinobi may be a bit optimistic about what can be done with the ship. For instance, those large, front wings are suppose to be able to rotate unfurled, as shown in the pic, around a central axis that protrudes from the Globe section. They are also suppose to be able to fold together, and the fold back against the ship, or left out to move in two different directions (like the spinning, except not constant) while still extended fromt the ship. The Center Thruster section is suppose to be able to rotate, but not at a constant rate. They should be able to rotate depending on the which direction the ship is to go (I think). I wish GGShinobi would get together with you to iron out just exactly what CAN be done, before I start breaking it down into main, and subentities.

mandoman wrote:

Cim, how much movement is possible on an Oolite ship? I'm afraid that GGShinobi may be a bit optimistic about what can be done with the ship. For instance, those large, front wings are suppose to be able to rotate unfurled, as shown in the pic, around a central axis that protrudes from the Globe section. They are also suppose to be able to fold together, and the fold back against the ship, or left out to move in two different directions (like the spinning, except not constant) while still extended fromt the ship. The Center Thruster section is suppose to be able to rotate, but not at a constant rate. They should be able to rotate depending on the which direction the ship is to go (I think). I wish GGShinobi would get together with you to iron out just exactly what CAN be done, before I start breaking it down into main, and subentities.

That's ambitious, but none of it is impossible, so long as any bit that needs to move independently of any other bit is in a separate subentity. All model-based subentities can be repositioned and rotated independently of each other and the main model, but for anything more complex than a constant rotation rate, you have to do all the animation yourself frame-by-frame in Javascript.

That's what I was wondering. I'm not capable of that, so GGShinobe is going to have to figure the Java Script out for moving the parts. It's no problem for me to make as many subentities for the oxp as he wants. Thanks cim.

Could be interesting to see how much time it takes to spawn this entity.