Oolite Bulletins

Are there any expansion packs that add better eye candy for docking and leaving the station, as well as entering witchspace?

ngamradt wrote:

Are there any expansion packs that add better eye candy for docking and leaving the station, as well as entering witchspace?

BGS has a nifty witchspace sequence.

Thanks, BGS is a nice expansion pack, I just installed it. However, I am wondering if there is anything that replaces or disables the generic witchspace transition sequence and the docking/undocking sequence. Maybe it isn't possible to modify those?

The docking sequence, I don't think so. It changes shape according to the docking tunnel of the station, but everyone copy/pastes the docking tunnel from the ordinary stations when making new stations anyway. If you dock at a Rock Hermit you might notice the different shape. That's about it.

The hyperspace effect, you can change the colours by editing planetinfo.plist, I am fairly certain. But I thought the new animation BGS adds before it is pretty good. What is it you want, something fancier or something simpler? You could always blank the HUD during hyperspace, if you just want eerie black.

"but everyone copy/pastes the docking tunnel from the ordinary stations when making new stations anyway"

um, not everybody.

Killer Wolf wrote:

"but everyone copy/pastes the docking tunnel from the ordinary stations when making new stations anyway"

um, not everybody.

I thought of you even as I typed it, KW.

On a vaguely related note, I was disappointed with the external views on your new Cobra 6. You appear to have copy/pasted the same 10 views all the core player ships have. Given that you're the only one, that I'm aware of, who distinguishes cargo and fuel scoops, and actually includes something that looks like a scoop in your models, I was expecting at least a Scoop Cam view. I think you might have put the scoop point a bit too cosy to the ship, because when I added a viewpoint at the scoop position and used it, I was still occasionally colliding with the cargo-pods instead of scooping them. But anyway, here's a good one - add this into the custom views and have a look. I think it looks particularly good while docking (docking - back to the topic at hand):

i did, mainly because external views are of no use to me beyond screenshots or testing placements, so i just use a generic thing to keep others happy.
ta for the extra view though, i'll give it a try at home. i know scooping can drive me effing insane at times, i love Elite where you just had to get the canister in the bottom half of teh screen, i could zip about at full speed and snach stuff up faultlessly even in mid-combat, but there's times now when i'll fly up, get the burble and the "wasp indicator" flickering and the effing thing will NOT suck the canister in >:-/
mebbes if i spent more time flying and practicing instead of making stuff, i'd get the hang of it

Both the docking sequence and the hyperspace sequence can be altered somewhat:

You can change the shape of the docking sequence (from a triangle to a round shape, and with different height to width ratios) - but not its colours.

And you can change the colours of the hyperspace tunnel, but not its shape.


At the moment we're in feature freeze: we're trying to squash the last few bugs out of the system in preparation to release 1.76 (release date: when it's ready!).

Afterwards, there are a couple of ideas on how to enhance the scriptability of these two tunnels - indeed, they're not as visually striking now as they once were (at least not for the right reasons!)


However, it might be possible for some enterprising OXP maker to extend the bgs technique (if you have shaders enabled, your hyperspace sequence will look dramatically different) to do something with the docking tunnel too...

Unfortunately that technique only works if your computer supports shaders (most do, but a proportion of older computers have fairly old & un-shaders-friendly video cards)

Wildeblood wrote:

but everyone copy/pastes the docking tunnel from the ordinary stations when making new stations anyway.

Not strictly true. Accessories OXP stations all have a detailed dock as seen here, and the rock hermits also have a more detailed look than the default ones.

Smivs wrote:

Wildeblood wrote:

but everyone copy/pastes the docking tunnel from the ordinary stations when making new stations anyway.

Not strictly true. Accessories OXP stations all have a detailed dock as seen here, and the rock hermits also have a more detailed look than the default ones.

I'm not talking about textures here, but the shape. If your station dock has the same 'standard' aspect ratio, then the special effect will look exactly the same. The rock hermits have a hexagonal port, and that makes the effect look a bit different. I'm not dismissing your, or KW's or anyone else's work here, I'm only talking about the woosh effect that plays at the moment of docking. That's what I understood the OP to be asking about.

Wildeblood wrote:

I'm only talking about the woosh effect that plays at the moment of docking. That's what I understood the OP to be asking about.

I got the impression the question was a general one, but yes the texturing can be improved, but sadly the 'rings' etc can't as things stand.

Thanks all for the detailed response. I was talking about the "swoosh" sequence where you are actually docking/going through Witchspace. I thought perhaps it could be edited, but from what I have read, at this point-in-time, the editing options are limited.

There is such good eye candy with all the OXPs now, it just makes those two sequences seem really dated. Sounds like it is on the radar as a long-term feature (or can be done through shaders). I wish I had time to work on an OXP, but between kids, work, and life in general, I find almost zero time to even play the game, let alone learn how to write an OXP. That being said, I know JavaScript very well, so they syntax of the configs comes easy

If I had the time, I would love to write an OXP with a race along the lines of the Borg, still my favorite Sci-Fi villain concept