BGS - The BackgroundSet

[CheeseRedux]

Hi Cheesy, long time no see. Good to see you back

Thanks. The whole Real Life™ business has kept me away. Still is, really.

[Svengali]

BGS-A1.9 is online.

Changes:
- New BGS-XMapping (requires Snoopers2.5) on LongRangeChart
- New launching/docking FX
- Jump shader tweaks
- New script_info keys (bgs_tunnel_shape and bgs_tunnel_texture) for stations

New launching/docking FX:
It' a simple texture distortion, a lot faster, less resource hungry and the shape of the tunnel can be adjusted. Stations can define own tunnel textures and shapes (script_info keys). By default BGS will do it only for main stations, but if secondary stations are defining at least one of the keys BGS will do it's job.

New BGS-XMapping:
The second new feature is that BGS-XMapping has been implemented. BGS-XMapping is a mechanism to display the named areas and lanes from Clym Angus excellent maps in the game. To use this feature the player needs the ANA (ADVANCED NAVIGATIONAL ARRAY) and starts with one area and one lane in all galaxies. Via Snoopers updates are received (so you need Snoopers as well for this feature).

Special thanks to Smivs for running some tests .-)

[Cody]

Very cool launch/dock effects indeed - and the jump shader tweaks are cool too. Muchas gracias, Svengali.

Question: can I get that effect working for rock hermits (Griff's)? If so, in plain language - how?

[Svengali]

Very cool launch/dock effects indeed - and the jump shader tweaks are cool too. Muchas gracias, Svengali.

Question: can I get that effect working for rock hermits (Griff's)? If so, in plain language - how?

Yes, the jump shader is a lot faster now too. It got rid of 50% of instructions and 3 registers (ok, it was a mess before) and may perform better on slower machines now.

Simply add one of the script_info keys to the hermits shipdata.plist.

For a circle -> script_info = {bgs_tunnel_shape = "1.0";};
Values: 0.5 Square, 1.0 Circle, >1.0 Squircle. Meaningful values are in range 0.38...6.0.
Values above 1.1 are stretching the x-axis to get a wider tunnel.

Or define the texture -> script_info = {bgs_tunnel_texture = "bgs_docking_tunnel01.png";};
If the shape is not defined BGS will look up the dock bounding box to get the shape.

You can use both keys together as well.

[JazHaz]

I ran Oolite for 5 minutes last night to test out the new docking sequence. Looks great.

The only problem was that I didn't see any difference to the long range chart. Would I need to fly to another station to get a snoopers update to see any difference?

[Svengali]

The only problem was that I didn't see any difference to the long range chart. Would I need to fly to another station to get a snoopers update to see any difference?

If you have the ANA just move your cursor around on the chart.

E.g. in the first galaxy you are getting the 'Old Worlds' (around Lave) and 'Lane 1' (Lave -> Lerelace) in the beginning. Snoopers updates are popping in from time to time (they are using a low priority so it may take some time), expanding the regions and lanes which are displayed and over time you have the full set. The script (BGS-XMapping) checks the status and if all is done shuts down to free resources after inserting the maps in BGS.

The mechanism in BGS checks if your current cursor position is inside a specified polygon or on a lane - a collision check if you like. If so it switches the overlay image. Overlays can't be combined so regions have a higher priority than lanes. Via switches on the right side you can enable/disable displaying regions or lanes.

The 'Specials' purpose is to display things like 'All Navy HQs' in the current galaxy - BGS-XMapping inserts the Navy HQ maps only if Galactic Navy is installed.

Both mechanisms can be used by other OXPs as well (see [wiki]BGS_Doc[/wiki]) and it should also work with Smivs Better Screens.oxp.

[JazHaz]

The mechanism in BGS checks if your current cursor position is inside a specified polygon or on a lane - a collision check if you like. If so it switches the overlay image. Overlays can't be combined so regions have a higher priority than lanes. Via switches on the right side you can enable/disable displaying regions or lanes.

The 'Specials' purpose is to display things like 'All Navy HQs' in the current galaxy - BGS-XMapping inserts the Navy HQ maps only if Galactic Navy is installed.

Does the GalNavy Specials option work straight away or do I have to wait for the Snoopers updates? How do I select it, do I click on the side panel?

[Cody]

Simply add one of the script_info keys to the hermits shipdata.plist.

Sweet... that works nicely, and looks cool with Zieman Habitats too! Playing around with the squircle settings is good fun.

[DGill]

Brilliant - docking effects are great!

[Svengali]

Does the GalNavy Specials option work straight away or do I have to wait for the Snoopers updates? How do I select it, do I click on the side panel?

Yes, the sidepanel is your friend .-)

Specials are stored in a pool, so it can be more than 3 maps. Via 'Cycle Specials' the next 3 are selected and via consoleMessage displayed so you know what kind of stuff is available. 'Show Special 1'...'Show Special 3' are activating the current available maps.

[Duggan]

A fantastic update, Just one question, and please forgive my opacity. where exactly am I to insert the following line of code please

-> script_info = {bgs_tunnel_texture = "bgs_docking_tunnel01.png";};

In BGS itself somewhere presumably ?

[JazHaz]

A fantastic update, Just one question, and please forgive my opacity. where exactly am I to insert the following line of code please

-> script_info = {bgs_tunnel_texture = "bgs_docking_tunnel01.png";};

In BGS itself somewhere presumably ?

No, in another OXP, a dockable.

[Svengali]

JazHaz is right - if you have another OXP with a station add it to the shipdata.plist for this station.

If a script_info key already exists in the stations declaration, do not add another line - just add

Code: Select all

bgs_tunnel_texture = "bgs_docking_tunnel01.png";

to the existing line (inside the curly brackets). In XML the declaration looks like

Code: Select all

<key>script_info</key>
<dict>
	<key>bgs_tunnel_texture</key>
	<string>bgs_docking_tunnel01.png</string>
</dict>

Still it would be better to ask the author/maintainer of the OXP if this can be included for the next version. BGS offers this option for secondary stations to other authors - it won't force it .-) I'm fully aware that this means that the effect is only displayed on main stations in the beginning, but it also means less clashes between OXPs. In the end it means if a OXP uses features of other OXPs it is likely that this has been tested.

A quick overview about script_info keys used in OXPs can be found [wiki]OXP_scriptInfo[/wiki].

[ZygoUgo]

Docking tunnel is great Yet again distracted, shall I still post ideas for docking menial machinery etc? Will there eventually be an image behind the landing tunnel that you need imagery for?

[Svengali]

Docking tunnel is great :) Yet again distracted, shall I still post ideas for docking menial machinery etc? Will there eventually be an image behind the landing tunnel that you need imagery for?

Ah, sorry ZygoUgo. I forgot to send a pm. It's nothing for the docking/launching effect anymore, as the 'bay' stuff went south (simply to slow). But other OXPs need good textures or background images for missionscreens, so whenever you have something, please show it .-)