Oolite Bulletins

Quick question: Wouldn't it be better to have the engine also look for subentities whose name ends with 'dock'? If all OXPers follow the unique-naming-conventions, there shouldn't be any entity names starting with 'dock' apart from the built-in ones.

E.g. my own docks follow a naming scheme of 'oxpname-stationname-dock'.

Or are you talking about the name-key? That would be valuable information, because I am in the process of bruising these out of all my OXPs, since subentities don't need names anymore (or roles).

*****

Oh, and port_dimensions isn't documented in the wiki. Didn't know about it.

And why is the default so small? Oolite's standard dock has a dimension of 192 x 64 x 250.

Ahruman wrote:

port_radius is deprecated. If there is a subentity whose name starts with “dock” (lowercase), its position and orientation are used and port_radius is ignored. port_dimensions is still used, though (default: 69x69x250).

Thanks. I must admit I was wondering about having both keys, as they seemed to be covering each others job.

At the moment I've got the name as testShips_intraDock, so you'd recommend I change that to dock_testShips (or something like that). Will give that a test and see if the dock position is used instead. Here I think it's going somewhat against how many scripters name/role their ships, so also checking for something at the end (dock or Dock perhaps) may be a consideration, I'd second McLane's comments there?

Also as McLane says, none of this is currently in the wiki for shipdata.plist keys. And also for reference if the main entity has a suitably large port_dimension (and port_radius in mine, but I guess it's double-setting) without any sub-entities at all it still works lovely as "proximity docking". It's how it's done in Save Anywhere and PlanetFall (Frame's method) and similar to how I've just set it up for a new "easy-dock" station (reasons will become clear in the far future when I release it).

Editted to add - quickly tested, and works exactly as desired now Amazing how these small things make such a difference

Commander McLane wrote:

Quick question: Wouldn't it be better to have the engine also look for subentities whose name ends with 'dock'? If all OXPers follow the unique-naming-conventions, there shouldn't be any entity names starting with 'dock' apart from the built-in ones.

E.g. my own docks follow a naming scheme of 'oxpname-stationname-dock'.

Or are you talking about the name-key? That would be valuable information, because I am in the process of bruising these out of all my OXPs, since subentities don't need names anymore (or roles).

It's the top level identity (the unique internally used one) that needs to start with "dock", the one thats used in the subentities key to call the sub-entity. The name-key is fairly irrelevant for a subentity, as it'll never appear on-screen anyway unless you're getting very complicated with frangible sub-sub entities or something equally weird.

Commander McLane wrote:

Quick question: Wouldn't it be better to have the engine also look for subentities whose name ends with 'dock'? If all OXPers follow the unique-naming-conventions, there shouldn't be any entity names starting with 'dock' apart from the built-in ones.

I agree, but changing the semantics for existing ships is potentially bad. I suggest using “dock-oxpname-etc” for docks. (The “name” in this context is the key in shipdata.plist.)

However, on further investigation, the game looks for a prefix of “dock” in one place, and a substring of “dock” in another place. Yay spaghetti code. The second place also uses the actual dimensions of the dock entity to override port_dimensions, which would seem to explain why docking actually works.

In short, don’t use port_radius or port_dimensions.

Commander McLane wrote:

Oh, and port_dimensions isn't documented in the wiki. Didn't know about it.

And why is the default so small? Oolite's standard dock has a dimension of 192 x 64 x 250.

I have no idea, but I’m definitely not going to go around changing defaults. :-)

McLane wrote:

because I am in the process of bruising these out of all my OXPs, since subentities don't need names anymore (or roles).

Not entirely true. I have been working on some ship scripts were I wanted to check for a subentity presence. The only two unique things of a subentity are its name and its role. I took the name for identification. Its order in the list can change when a sub it shot away.

Ahruman wrote:

In short, don’t use port_radius or port_dimensions.

But by using both keys you don't have to declare a subent for this. We are using this way in buoyRepair and there is no 'dock-whatever' subent at all and it works perfectly. Hope you don't want to change it, because we've spent so much time with it to get it working. .-)

The method used to produce the oldships.oxp set was pretty formulaic - only the cat and salamander do not use the formula.

"What formula?" I hear me ask ... why, this one of course.

If you want to use this set but worry that your fav ship will clash (or you have an oxp you want to modify to fit in... or you just want to be able to model: have a look.)

Didn't know where I should post this but...

Anyway, after a relatively long hiatus, I have returned and I come bearing some modeling experience. I have just finished a ship in what I hope to be will be line of Soviet/Communist themed ships.

Texture can still use some work, but this should give a general idea on what it'll look like.

Without further ado...




As of now, it's nameless, but it should end up fulfilling the role of a relatively cheap, slow, but rugged cargo hauler. Not exactly the sharpest ship on the block, but it works.

Sweet! As for a name, how about "Putilovet"?

They have a natty logo, too:

wow, i like a good cargo ship, and is a communist too, thats great. why does everyone alway think Russia whn they think Communism, wasn China, North Korea and Vietnam Communist?

0235 wrote:

wow, i like a good cargo ship, and is a communist too, thats great. why does everyone alway think Russia whn they think Communism, wasn China, North Korea and Vietnam Communist?

Still are.
People think Communism = Russia because of the Cold War that existed between Russia and her allies and NATO from the 1940s to the 1990s.

Captain Hesperus

I always think that pretty strange, as in my understanding, 'communism' got replaced by 'state capitalism' pretty early on in the life of the Soviet Union!

Chinese communism got closer for a while, but, when it comes to it, true communism isn't really what most people want...

...I think I'll shut up there...

First problem I have. with modeling in Wings

I want the grid set in 10 meter per grid. How do I do such things?
I don't get how the scaling works in Wings. it works with WU units says the manual so that you can set it to any unit you want. But then I still don't get how to set a grid scale to lets say 100 meter per grid.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

From what I've seen, the grid scale is fixed - 1 square = 1 unit. The grid options in the Preferences have no option to alter the scale.

Sorry.