Oolite Bulletins

As I recently re-installed Oolite after a couple years away, I've been updating stuff like crazy. I just updated this OXP to work with 1.81+ and the latest version of YAH. It now has fewer dependencies (if you don't use shaders, then you only need YAH; if you do use shaders, you also need Griff's Anaconda and Boa).

This OXP now corrects a mistake present in the current version of YAH, which tries to use the Griff Sidewinders like this OXP had been using, but YAH calls the wrong model. These store-security textures were designed for the standard Sidewinder -- not the Sidewinder Escort model. However, I do make sure that these security ships maintain the stats of the Escort model (i.e. a beam laser instead of a pulse laser, better recharge rate and better pitch rate).

It still needs to have its AI overhauled into javascript to fix the vulnerability issue caused by escorts sometimes docking before the cargo ship does. But that's beyond my ability at the moment.

Just to double check before I do anything. You mean that the "yah_griff_sidewinder.dat" model in YAH is wrong for the textures used and it should be replaced with "oolite_sidewinder_escort.dat" model? If that's correct, I'll make the change.

It's the other way around. The current dat actually is the escort model, but these textures were designed for the standard Sidewinder model.

Note also however that the normal maps and effects maps in the YAH OXP are for the escort model. It's only the diffuse textures that are for the standard model. So you'll have to change the normal maps and effects maps as well. (And you should change the diffuse maps to mine as mine have a specular map in them whereas the textures in YAH do not.)

Ha. Good thing I asked . I'll make the change.

Changes, plural. I just added some additional information to be very clear. See above.

Keeper wrote:

Changes, plural. I just added some additional information to be very clear. See above.

I think only the main oxp needs updating since all sidewinders should just be like_shipped from it. And I probably need to modify the model a bit so that the texture references match. If my memory serves correctly here, that is.

Currently, YAH is set up to call its own effects and normal maps textures, so that it is not required that the user have Griff's Normalmapped Sidewinder installed. So, if you don't want to introduce that dependency, you will need to change the textures in the YAH OXP. Again, I've already done this for this YAH_Haulers OXP so you can use those textures, and indeed the entire "shaders" entry from my shipdata_overrides.

(Maybe though you'd like to put different coloured exhaust for the different store brands...! I'm tempted to give that a whirl...)

Ok. I did a little digging. Included ZGroovy's sidewinders originate from ZGroovy's YAH sidewinder variety pack. Those reference to griff_sidewinder.dat which again is from Griff's old all-in-one shipset package. Sidewinders in the current version of Oolite have the same number of NFACES, but higher number of NVERTS than Griff's old models. Since my modelling attempts have come down in flames, I can only guess that that NVERTS makes the models somehow different.

Interestingly the old griff_sidewinder.dat has the same number of NFACES as the current oolite_sidewinder_escort.dat and likewise griff_sidewinder_alt.dat has the same number of NFACES as the current oolite_sidewinder.dat. Were the models swapped when they became the default?

So was the original YAH Sidewinder referencing a wrong model? Should it have used griff_sidewinder_alt.dat instead? If so, then this should be easy, I just replace the old model with griff_sidewinder_alt.dat and we're done.

You'll still have a mismatch between the diffuse texture and the normal & effects textures within YAH.

But yes, as I recall, what is now the standard Griff sidewinder was originally the "alt" version.

Still, might be easier just to copy'n'paste from my overrides file and plug in my textures. (Besides, that also will introduce the new constore brand I put in so that YAH doesn't have two stores of the same brand like it does now!)

I must be driving you nuts...

I compared the old diffuse maps from Griff to the YAH defenders and yes, YAH textures are based on the old alt version, but the model used has been the normal version. So the model has been wrong since then.

I'm not following you on how the shaders would not work. I'm just going to take the old alt version of the model, change the texture references inside the dat file. Shouldn't that do the trick?

No, because currently in YAH, the "yah_griff_sidewinder_normal" and "yah_griff_sidewinder_effects" textures are for the Escort model and not the standard model, i.e. they're not for the same model as the diffuse textures. So, just take my "yahfix_griff_sidewinder_normal" and "yahfix_griff_sidewinder_effects" textures and rename them, replacing the existing ones in YAH. (While you're at it, again, take all the "NPC_*sec" textures from this OXP rename them to replace the "yah_z_groovy_sidewinder_*" ones in each YAH set, since the ones in YAH are missing specular maps.)

Now we're talking . I did not see the mismatch between the diffuse, effect and normal textures. Then again they are quite transparent, so who can blame me. I'll fix them. And I'll put in your specular maps in too.

One more question and then I'm quite ready. I see that in materials you have different shininess and emission modulate color than ZGroovy used. I assume you find them better with the new specular map, right?

I think I got those from Griff's settings himself, so I used them to be consistent. I think they're the same values I used in the Staer9 set revamp.

Another updated version posted now.

V1.12 restores the individual colour schemes for the different store brands, which the current version of Your Ad Here had removed (making all stores orange). Also it overrides a line from YAH that contained a typo which was preventing one ad from displaying ("The Happy Trumble Restaurant" ad from the Pi-42 store was displaying on the Sainsboory's store by mistake, instead of the "Coriolis Preservation Society" ad).

What do you think about the escorts all having military lasers now? Too strong?