Oolite Bulletins

Thanks guys, and thanks Tricky, really not sure what I'm doing with scripting, I'm sure it's an improvement. One side effect I had noticed was that groups added who were headed planet side would simply smash in to its surface, I was going to attempt an add-planetary-landing addition to those groups but wasn't sure how without breaking it all over again . I guess it would be best if the mothership got planetary landing capability and the escorts received individual random AI's at a certain altitude, to keep a version of realistic behaviour there.
I'll have a look and re-upload again soon as I also noticed that I'd uploaded with the alpha setting lower than intended, plus I want to add some more varieties whilst I'm at it, the more the merrier.
It'll have to wait a couple of days though!

wow, those new nebulae screenshots look fantastic ZygoUgo!

Thanks Griff Those I posted in a hurry so are actually slightly earlier from me messing with settings, but gave a general idea, so here's some I gathered from the current version on my drive, going to add some more imagery before I upload it later though.

Righto, 18 additional nebula images derived from real ones, making a total of 56 (!!!), brightness increased and making the best of them, although be warned these are very prevalent..
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ajpbqbcbkacta0w

Wow.. just beautiful.. fantastic work!

Just like ZygoUgo's stars have now been incorporated into the game core, I'd like to nominate these textures for inclusion in trunk.. (if he's willing, of course)

Thanks Diziet The core team are welcome to use them if they like, although I should imagine my settings are too resource heavy for lower end systems.
Anyways, heres a couple of minor updates, firstly for the Escort Contracts, I've replaced the 3+ Kills image with a much nicer one, the previous one was a bit horrendous on the eyes, kind of chucked it together just to get it finished, this is much improved me thinks..
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zbzk5wvpzw8i8aj

..and for Cinematic Sky, I've completely changed the interstellar settings, I forgot all about them. They are now far less resource hungry and making the most of the new nebulas, enjoy!
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2cs8bi50dxz35rv

ZygoUgo I have to thank you for this beautiful OXP. It really enhances the game to such a level that Oolite is now near commercial quality. I also like that the added star count makes it more difficult to track other ships with the naked eye. Simply wow!

Some nebulae you might like to include if you don't already have...

Crab Nebula


Trifid Nebula


Unknown (Drew, do you recognize these?)

I believe the last one is NGC2181. There is a nice colour version on Smivsonline.
I don't know No 3 though

I think #3 is the Triangulum Nebula.

Smivs wrote:

I believe the last one is NGC2181. There is a nice colour version on Smivsonline.
I don't know No 3 though

Nice gallery!

pagroove wrote:

Nice gallery!

Thanks. I've just noticed there are two Crab Nebulas
<goes off to find another nice nebula to put there>


Edit :- Hmmm, two cat's eye nebulas as well. Ho-hum.....

Edit 2 :- I think it's OK now!

Smivs wrote:

pagroove wrote:

Nice gallery!

Thanks. I've just noticed there are two Crab Nebulas
<goes off to find another nice nebula to put there>


Edit :- Hmmm, two cat's eye nebulas as well. Ho-hum.....

The Antenae Galaxies look a bit like a baby.

Those nebulae look very good and real (because they are ), but do they work just as well in Oolite's nebula generation algorithm?

After all, I don't want to see the same familiar nebula in one quarter or so of all systems. Thus I'd be reluctant to use too recognizable shapes. And second, Oolite creates nebulae by printing multiple copies of the existing shapes close to each other in different sizes and colours. Do these nebulae work just as well as a raw material for this routine as they do as singles pictures?

EDIT: also, having dots of nearer stars around the actual nebula will also cause unwanted results in the printing-multiple-copies-close-to-each-other procedure.

Commander McLane wrote:

After all, I don't want to see the same familiar nebula in one quarter or so of all systems.

That's exactly why I turned off the nebulae "in system" altogether - they looked all too familiar from one system to the next (not exact, but generally highly similar). I do still have them in interstellar space, however .