Oolite Bulletins

Zieman wrote:

A question:
Who's maintaining this OXP?

The billboards and ConStores share this shader problem that effectively disables shaders with ATI cards.

I volunteer for testing possible cures for the problem.

Ark sort of handed it over me - I say sort of because the beta Set G arrived while I was having some fairly big RL issues (ongoing - but to a lesser extent) - problem is - The PC I was using - currently isn't working - or it is - but not with the HD where said beta is kept. The last partial update - hence the beta was to convert the sidewinders from standard to Neolite versions with nicely Simon B'd style textures.

If people keep adding I will get set G out asap and we're well on the way to having a set H too (although we may need more ad-rings, multi-frame ads 256x256 and multi-frame ads 256x128).

Keep up the good work people!

I just updated YAH to 4.1.2. Only two small changes compared with 4.1.0:

- The station is 90 degree rotated so it is visible from its side, seen from the space lane. This way the Griff stations look at their best when seen from the entry point. (v 4.1.1)
- The station now has a buoy of its own, making docking easier (v 4.1.2)

After reading some posts about pilots having difficulties docking with the rotation constores, I added a plain buoy to them so lining up with the dock becomes easier.

I just used Oolites plain buoys for this release. Is there any modeller around that wants to create a stylish better buoy for the constores? Or should we billboards similar as with the main station?

First I should mention that I don't have YAH installed, it bites too much on my framerate, therefore I am speaking as an outsider.

As such, however, I can imagine that it may look odd to have two buoys very close to each other (witchpoint and constore), especially if they use the same model. Personally I think having two buoys in each system (witchpoint and main station) is enough, as for me their primary purpose is to locate the witchpoint and the station from the distance through the compass. If the constore is very close to the witchpoint buoy, there is no need to locate it via the compass, I can simply navigate to the witchpoint buoy and will find it from there.

Personally I don't need a buoy for docking (and I don't even think that the lining up is what makes docking difficult; taking into account the offset of your viewpoint from your ship's nose and therefore not aiming for the centre of the docking bay is much more important IMO), so I would find the extra buoy superfluous. Somehow it would bug me, I imagine.

Just take it as a tiny fraction of a credit's worth from one commander out of thousands, though...

Commander McLane wrote:

As such, however, I can imagine that it may look odd to have two buoys very close to each other (witchpoint and constore), especially if they use the same model. Personally I think having two buoys in each system (witchpoint and main station) is enough, as for me their primary purpose is to locate the witchpoint and the station from the distance through the compass. If the constore is very close to the witchpoint buoy, there is no need to locate it via the compass, I can simply navigate to the witchpoint buoy and will find it from there.

Constores are added near the witchpoint, at 5% of the spacelane length away from the planet. In most systems this means that the constores are added over 25 000 meters away from the witchpoint buoy. And the buoy is even added a bit further away so they are never near each other.

That an experienced pilot does not need a buoy is correct but there are a lot of players with less imagination that still have problems with manual docking at rotating stations.
The main station is already difficult enough, but there they have the help of the N-buoy. And constores are commercial enterprises, that want make docking for customers as easy as possible.

The buoy has no beacon because the constores already have it them selves. Recocating the beacon from the store to the buoy would also make sense but currently both object resides in different files and I only updated the small main program.

Eric Walch wrote:

That an experienced pilot does not need a buoy is correct but there are a lot of players with less imagination that still have problems with manual docking at rotating stations.

Okay okay, my piloting skills aren't that bad, honest! I was just asking, thought maybe I'd missed a buoy or some other nifty way to dock at the constores, since they looked so new-and-improved. The one time I crashed trying to dock at one, I wasn't paying close enough attention, plus I was just learning about the, um, shortfall in performance on my system. You try docking when there's a 1-3 second lag between making a control input (hitting an arrow, yanking the stick, whatever) and the actual response. I learned to just start farther out, is all. I certainly didn't want to cause this degree of scuffle!

Eric Walch wrote:

And constores are commercial enterprises, that want make docking for customers as easy as possible.

That's what I would have thought. I imagine if they could have tractor beams that would drag you from the witchpoint into their docking bay, they'd use those instead.

I may try noodling around with a "parking buoy" model for the constores, see if I can make something that's not wretched. Maybe Grubby, the happy Lavean Tree Grub, pointing the way? A pi symbol? A star? Can different models be associated with certain "brands" of constore? Certainly don't want to overdo this, but it does sound like an interesting idea. When I pull into the parking lot of a local convenience store here in town, I see their own logo in about twelve places, plus posters for beer, cigarettes, candy bars, you name it, all before I even set foot in their door. I'm pretty sure it would be the same In Space In the Future.

But honestly, Commander McLane has a point, a marker buoy, even if it didn't show up on the ASC, could be annoying for more people than find it helpful. I bow to the greater experiences around me, in this case.

If the nav buoys weren't really nav buoys but small advertising hoardings - perhaps the store symbol on one (or more) side(s) (of a cube?) and the other sides advertising special offers inside the 'store, or additional "services" etc. then this would be more in keeping with the commercial orientation/mindset of the 'store.

Eric Walch wrote:

And constores are commercial enterprises, that want make docking for customers as easy as possible.

That's a good point. But for me it would mean that they wouldn't rotate in the first place, if the actual problem is the rotation itself.

Commander McLane wrote:

Eric Walch wrote:

And constores are commercial enterprises, that want make docking for customers as easy as possible.

That's a good point. But for me it would mean that they wouldn't rotate in the first place, if the actual problem is the rotation itself.

Ah, but then they'd be in breach of their advertising agreements with all their external sponsors, who are all guaranteed equal viewport time on approach to the 'store

DaddyHoggy wrote:

Commander McLane wrote:

Eric Walch wrote:

And constores are commercial enterprises, that want make docking for customers as easy as possible.

That's a good point. But for me it would mean that they wouldn't rotate in the first place, if the actual problem is the rotation itself.

Ah, but then they'd be in breach of their advertising agreements with all their external sponsors, who are all guaranteed equal viewport time on approach to the 'store

Darn advertising! It will kill us all!

The Game that convinced 2 teenage large furry humanoids to steal a Cobra Mk 3 and kill a pleasure droid!!!

Coming to a games vendor in your local commercial centre!

ADCK wrote:

The Game that convinced 2 teenage large furry humanoids to steal a Cobra Mk 3 and kill a pleasure droid!!!

Coming to a games vendor in your local commercial centre!

Be careful Mr BrabOon's lawyer's may track you down...



From here: https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t= ... c&start=45

ADCK wrote:

The Game that convinced 2 teenage large furry humanoids to steal a Cobra Mk 3 and kill a pleasure droid!!!

Coming to a games vendor in your local commercial centre!

Nice, but I think you forgot the DCLXXXVII in the end.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

ADCK wrote:

The Game that convinced 2 teenage large furry humanoids to steal a Cobra Mk 3 and kill a pleasure droid!!!

Coming to a games vendor in your local commercial centre!

Be careful Mr BrabOon's lawyer's may track you down...



From here: https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t= ... c&start=45

Bound to happen with 80+ pages lol.

Theres so many cheap knockoffs of GTA these days, Guess theres even knockoffs of the parodies too

Obviously yours is the open source community friendly version of a much loved classic...