Here's what I spent some time on while languishing on Waiheke Island. Paradise is so incomplete without broadband...
The following shots were taken from an Acer 4315 laptop (intel 965 graphics, 1024MiB RAM and iCeleron Mobile CPU + Ubuntu 8.10. Set the shaders to minimum and turned off Compiz-Fusion.) unless otherwise noted.
This is a deliberate test on a low-spec machine. Also see that it is an old-ish build of Oolite.
I have posted thumbs for the screenshots which, even scaled down, are still quite large.
Adder and Python from an Asp mk2
Very first view of the new ships - well, OK, second - first time I didn't get my finger on "print screen" fast enough due to shock and awe.
Busy Space
Shot of a busy station from the new FDL. I like to see bits of my ship when I look out the windows - though it's not always appropriate.
I notice that the screen rotates about the viewpoint and not the ship's (0,0,1)! So I try to keep the view positions close to the centerline.
This shot has been stored as proof against all those who complain that many high-poly ships make machine slow ... there wan no hiccough at all rendering the above, even after engaging. Just the hesitation on transitions... which was no worse for the number of ships.
There are 15 ships is scanner range and a lot of them are on screen. They average more than 500 polys each (very conservatively - some of those ships are sidewinders and the galcops are just shy 700. The average is dragged down by the coriolis...)
Flying Formation
In formation with a Python escort group. That's a sidewinder off to port and a mamba starboard. The cobbie foreground is the player ship.
BTW: this group just went round and around the station for a long time before docking.
Pod Scooping
Dicovery, worth the closer look - a cargo pod about to enter the cobra mk3 rear hatch.
The pod scoops-up neatly to enter the rear hatch or the belly doors - it's creapy when something works this well. Notice that the pod is
to scale with the cobra!!!
Well Done!
Yes - this is minimum shaders. The shot is the coriolis station and nav-beacon taken from just above the limit of altitude. Included just so I can congratulate Ahruman and contributors - this is awesome!
I discovered this effect after diving for a stray cargo pod - saw it blow up, thought: "why did it blow up? - doh!", and hit the brakes. Now I cannot see which way is up: instrument flying time. That red altitude bar had just a single pixel or so width... the sky above is blue with clouds and the stars, station, etc slowly emerge.
Clouds from underneith?! I mean - how often would a player venture so close to a planet?
Maybe it would be worth setting a station inside planet atmosphere just to get players down there? It could be a giant airship say? Very Gernsbach!
Mamba Encounter
I was concerned to see how the mambas looked in the game - I was expecting to have to revisit the model. However, they turned out better than I expected...
Note the mamba in the scanner displays the classic shape, while the one inset shows it's updated side. The craft changes shape as it turns - a semi-mesmerizing effect.
The model fits so well with the original that the exhaust-plume location matches. (This is from before I'd adjusted the plist.)
Even the colar-pattern is working OK - ("cow pattern" <sniff>) though I'll do a second livery for the escort methinks, the current one is a tad piratish...
Thargoid Sighting
... these Thargoids were scattered across the sky, I pasted them together for comparison - there is a shot there for each angle - but I had trouble getting close. Also failed to get a shot which included a laser hit.
This one is not on low spec. I can get this on the acer, but it's not worth it.
Thought1: give the thargoid a ball-turret in the middle of the madel (will that work?) so they can shoot in any direction regardless of orientotion - beam emerging from the closest point on the hull.
Thought2: must get test script running - or womp up a nigh-invulnerable ship (hmmm... call it "the Tick"...)
