Oolite Bulletins

phkb wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 1:31 pm

hiran wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 10:33 am

Could we simply play an animated gif? Or mp4? Could we render the player's ship on top of the video?

Short answers: No, no, and no.

I can display a series of pre-rendered images, saved as png files. That’s all I can do. If you can get the animation split into individual images, then I suppose, yes, I can display them. That would be, assuming let’s say 15 frames per second, around 75 images.

For a single landing sequence.

If you want to vary that sequence in some way, say, change the sky colours. That’s another 75 images.

Any time you want to tweak what you see, that’s more pre-rendered images to create.

My point here isn’t to tear down the suggestion, but to focus on my limitations. I can’t do that. I want to create something that feels satisfying, but operating within my graphical abilities. Clouds I can do. A little bit of zoom, some cycling “docking” markers I can do. Beyond that, it will need someone else to add some input. And the goal here is to make something that can be varied based on the planet/moon parameters: sky colour, cloud cover, day/night, etc. so landing feels different at different planets.

Redspear wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 11:52 am

phkb wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:44 pm

I’ve been thinking about how to make visuals work. The video where I approach at a shallower angle, the transition to the clouds image actually felt fairly natural, I think because the change in sky colour was also visible as you descend closer towards the ground.

Does it have to be the case that the landing sequence begins at a certain altitude?

While it makes sense that the flasher be at extreme low altitude (else the player could potentially fly under it), could not the player be docked there from a greater distance?

I appreciate that this is kind of what happens anyway but suppose that the last part of the approach was simulated by the cloud sequence etc.

Not only would the cloud placement seem more logical (even though we don't see any over the planet) but the absence of any visible landing site need not be so obvious.

What I'm imagining therefore would be markedly different to docking at a station in one respect.

Imagine the Aegis equates to the planetary vicinity (altitude begins to drop) and that the station equates to the surface (0 altitude). The old version of planet fall had you dock at the 'station' but why not dock instead at the buoy?

This 'buoy' would need be bouy-like in distance from the station only, it could otherwise be more like a shrunken Aegis i.e. a distance, not an entity.

On the spectrum version of elite they couldn't/didn't do ai Docking, so instead, the player activating the Docking Computers within the Aegis immediately say the Docking tunnel effect.

Currently, we're struggling to simulate a satisfactory landing approach, so why not have it take place (the Docking effect) from just a little further away and help hide the fact that oolite planets are too small to make it look reasonable?

cbr wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 7:49 pm

I really liked the angled aproach.

So what your looking for is nice way to go from reaching the approach point and entering the (land)station

Some thing with circles could work...

cbr wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 7:49 pm

So what your looking for is nice way to go from reaching the approach point and entering the (land)station

phkb wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 2:24 pm

Here I've matched up a red-hued version of the cloud image to the planet's air color.

• approx 30 seconds in - apparent darkening of some areas of the texture
• approx 50 seconds in - stars fading
• approx 1 minute in - stars virtually gone
• approx 1 min 30 sec in - sky significantly lighter

phkb wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 2:24 pm

Continuing with the cloud theme for the moment: YouTube - PlanetFall2 latest landing animation
Here I've matched up a red-hued version of the cloud image to the planet's air color.

cbr wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 9:38 pm

When the beacon is reached, close the shutters...

hiran wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 5:31 pm

Is it possible to create one outside screenshot of the ship and render that on top of the 75 frames? And definitely remove the rectangles?

phkb wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 10:17 pm

hiran wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 5:31 pm

Is it possible to create one outside screenshot of the ship and render that on top of the 75 frames? And definitely remove the rectangles?

Well, it's *possible*. But the rendering has to be done beforehand. I can't render it during play. So, unless we just assume everyone is flying a stock Cobra Mark III, rendering everyone's ship (and possible paint job) might end up being slightly more work that what I had in mind!

Redspear wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 10:13 pm

cbr wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 9:38 pm

When the beacon is reached, close the shutters...

...But not over the HUD. Looks like the pilot's helmet has shutters

hiran wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 10:28 pm

So the question would be whether an OXP can generate a screenshot at all. If yes, we could separate the problem:

phkb wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 10:33 pm

hiran wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 10:28 pm

So the question would be whether an OXP can generate a screenshot at all. If yes, we could separate the problem:

All the signs are pointing to "Nope" on that one as well. We can programmatically take a screenshot (and even this is not available in a normal Oolite installation - you need the debug release), but we can't do anything with said screenshot afterwards. The only resources we can use are ones that are in the "Images" or "Textures" folder of an OXP before you start the game.