Oolite Bulletins

TGHC wrote:

Anway for something really big have a lookat LB's gas giants in Assassins, can't remember where exactly but they'd be much biggerrrr! it just takes about 40 mins (real time) flying with the taurus, to get any where near them.

Yes, but those are planets, not ships. And as Eric just explained, planets are visible from everywhere.

And I think, Eric, you just delivered the fatal blow to the whole Dyson Sphere business. Because it's true, Oolite doesn't draw objects which are further away than a certain distance. I observed that as well in ghosts_from_the_past.oxp. There it is a Generation Ship which is added far away. Given its size, it should be visible as a small dot from almost 2 million meters away, but it isn't. It suddenly pops into existence as an object of considerable size, if you're closer than the 1280000 meters you mentioned.

While this can easily be explained away by your ship's computer only showing you objects within a 1280000 meters distance, it kills the whole Dyson Sphere idea. Given the average distance from witchpoint to sun, it would be invisible (because not drawn), in all systems which have the planet between sun and witchpoint. Which are (first guess) half of all systems.

is there a list of everything needed in a plist to make an object appear in oolite on the wiki? if so, i haven't found it yet. say, one for ship, one for moon/planet, station, etc. i'll keep poking at it....

planetinfo.plist is needed for planets / moons (both defining them and making them appear). planetinfo.plist is also where you tell Oolite to actually make the planet appear (in every system, only in a particular system or only systems that meet certain conditions). A serach on the wikki for planetinfo.plist will find it for you.

ships (and ships includes objects such as stations or any other object that will be drawn on the stanner) have to be defined in shipdata.plist. Defining the ship in shipdata.plist won't itself make the object appear unless you give it a generic role (like trader pirate etc). You won't want to use a generic role for your sphere as this would cause stations to try to launch them / be added as pirate squadrens depending on the role. So you're gonna use shipdata just to define the sphere. To make a custom object appear needs either a script.plist or it can be added by planetinfo.plist. Basicaly the shipdata.plist tells Oolite the properties of the Object. Planetinfo or Script then tells Oolite what to do with the object. Searching for shipdata.plist / planetinfo.plist on the wiki will find their pages.

Would it be possible to solve the "nothing farther away than 1.2 million metres isn`t drawn" issue by creating a Dyson sphere out of subentities, none of which bigger than, say, 1 million metres?

That way, collision detection should be a bit more forgiving (should it?), and at least the nearest parts of the Dyson sphere would be visible.

No idea if that would work, just brainstorming.



L

Lestradae wrote:

Would it be possible to solve the "nothing farther away than 1.2 million metres isn`t drawn" issue by creating a Dyson sphere out of subentities, none of which bigger than, say, 1 million metres?

That way, collision detection should be a bit more forgiving (should it?), and at least the nearest parts of the Dyson sphere would be visible.

No idea if that would work, just brainstorming.

No. It's the position of the main entity that counts. And that would still be in the middle of the sun. Subentities are only drawn as--well--subentities of their main entity. If the main entity isn't drawn, its subentities obviously aren't, either.

Of course you could try to move the position of the whole entity someplace else, like to the planet or the station. Problem is that it is very difficult to place excentric entities correctly. Remember: You still want your Dyson Sphere to surround the sun, not the planet. So you have to know the direction and distance to the sun from the point of origin of the sphere, in order to turn it correctly. Of course this is completely different in each and every system.

And still you would clash with every planetary system-idea. The Dyson Sphere will always be invisible from any added outer planet.

Aw

Well, it was just a shot in the blue. Then it`s probably entirely not doable ATM.

But, next weird idea (me )

What about making the stellar background of a system look like the inside of a Dyson Sphere? Then it could be seen from anywhere, there could even be an "exit" through which stars and nebulae can be seen - but you can never reach it and expose the scam if you fly away too far from the sun.

Is that one possible?

If I got a cent for every strange idea I have I wouldn`t have to work anymore

L

well, i found out what was wrong. the ootility of obj2dattex is not working. i was pretty sure i had python installed too, but that does nothing either.

when i drop the obj onto the app, it produces a blank dat file containing nothing whatsoever. so now how am i to convert it over? i'll try downing the latest full release and see if the ootilities version has changed....

speaking of which, i wonder if the wings file format has changed... but then again, that shouldn't affect an obj export, would it?

Lestradae wrote:

That way, collision detection should be a bit more forgiving (should it?), and at least the nearest parts of the Dyson sphere would be visible.

No idea if that would work, just brainstorming.

There are more problems were you can see you work outside the limits of oolite. Do download my test.oxp from a few messages back and see for yourself. Approaching such a big thing looks ahhhmm interesting...

oddly enough, i cannot see the sphere at all in mine. just the central core cylinder. i smack into it readily enough, though....

can objects exist inside the area defined by a planet?

I just entered a system with a thorus station. Heading for the N on my space compass, I suddenly saw the station appearing. It didn't start from small. I probably saw it before but never took notice at it, but this station is also so big that just starts with a noticeable size.

I checked it by turning and flying away: it disappeared suddenly. Maybe the code should be changed that it doesn't draw beyond a certain fixed distance, but beyond a "distance * mass".

i'm wondering if it could be made into some kind of planet so that it'll draw from any distance, but still allow flying around inside....

Unfortunately you go *kaboom* instantly if you happen to be inside a planet. Astonishingly planets tend to be not hollow, even in RealLife™!

unless you are holding out as a vernian. ;D

Commander McLane wrote:

Unfortunately you go *kaboom* instantly if you happen to be inside a planet. Astonishingly planets tend to be not hollow, even in RealLife™!

I tried that.. It is more the "altimeters" fault, than actual colliding with the planet.
This is also a nice way to make things vanish, without having to think about explosions being seen by the player...
Now to move the mainstation into the planet for fun.... , journy to the center of the planet...

Cheers Frame...