Oolite Bulletins

I've just crossed galaxy 2 from corner to corner without once seeing a Constore. I've seen lots of advertising billboards at beacon positions, but no actual store. At every system I dropped into I cycled through my Advanced Space Compass, but there's been nary a hint of a 'C'. Can anyone tell me where they're hiding?

In my AddOns folder I have YOUR_AD_HERE.oxp along with YOUR_AD_HERE_set_A.oxp thru' ...set_G.oxp. I expect I'm doing something wrong, but I just can't figure it out.

I know this question probably belongs in Expansion Pack, but in which thread? I've done a search on 'constore', but it isn't obvious, at least to me. Some OXP creators (Smivs springs to mind) put an 'Oolite Forum thread' link at the bottom of the wiki page. As a newbie, I find this enormously helpful, and would make a plea for others to do the same. I'd volunteer to add the information myself, but my knowledge of the forums and past threads is abysmal.

They are normally directly behind you, just out of scanner range when you exit witchspace, so get in the habit of making a quick flick to rear view on entry to the system to see if one is in the system. But they should be on your ASC aswell.

It's worth double checking that you have followed the somewhat arcane install instructions, including applying the updates.

You should have downloaded version 4.17 (main OXP and updates for the sets), + version 4.00 (disregarding the main OXP, but including the sets OXPs which you need). There is also set G which is a seperate download.

In my AddOns folder I've got the main OXP, sets A-G OXPs, and update OXPs for sets A-F all seperately. If I remember correctly under Windows you can either leave the update OXPs loose alongside the sets OXPs or copy their contents into the sets OXPs, and under Linux you have to copy over the contents.

Confused? I confused myself writing that. I really think it's worth someone repackaging YAH to make things more straightforward.

YAH discussion thread - https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2588

Thanks, Captain. I'm on a Mac, in fact. I will re-check the instructions, however, and make sure I'm not missing anything.

Capt. Murphy wrote:

Confused? I confused myself writing that. I really think it's worth someone repackaging YAH to make things more straightforward.

Problem is that the main files are on Dr.Nil's site and he has been here only once in the past few years. Problem is not the repacking, but the hosting of those files. Apparently nobody wants. Currently I host the updates, but have no bandwidth to host the big main files. The current situation is also not my favourite solution.

Eric Walch wrote:

Capt. Murphy wrote:

Confused? I confused myself writing that. I really think it's worth someone repackaging YAH to make things more straightforward.

Problem is that the main files are on Dr.Nil's site and he has been here only once in the past few years. Problem is not the repacking, but the hosting of those files. Apparently nobody wants. Currently I host the updates, but have no bandwidth to host the big main files. The current situation is also not my favourite solution.

Mmm - I've got an empty Microsoft SkyDrive account which I opened a couple of weeks ago. As far as I can tell it has no bandwith limits and it's got 7GB of storage. Would you like me to look at hosting YAH? There's also one little shader bug for one of the sets that needs fixing (can't remember which).

Capt. Murphy wrote:

Would you like me to look at hosting YAH? There's also one little shader bug for one of the sets that needs fixing (can't remember which).

Please do, as I never liked the way I started with the updates. At that time I thought Dr Nil would turn up soon and do a full release with my updated included. It didn't happen and is not likely to happen soon though. (I have still un-opened mail to Dr Nil in my outbox from 2009 !!. Even when he visited the board a few months back, he didn't open his mail)

For the Mac and windows, the separate updates are not that big a problem as on those system the files are loaded in alphabetical order and the updates overwrite the older files. On Linux though, the load order is random? (at least not alphabetical) so users have to manually alter the packages what might lead to bugs.

When there is a shader bug, its likely the last one as the others were modified simultaneous and I know there were still bugs in the G set. Although I thought the fixes were uploaded already.

When repacking, better make each set a separate download. First because you can install them individually and second because its easier to update a single Constore when a bug is discovered.

Set G was last updated by DaddyHoggy in July 2011. I've just re-downloaded the whole lot to test.

I think there are two obvious errors in the shipdata.plist in set G

Line 513 has script = "yah_constore_facing.js"; which doesn't exist. None of the other sets have any shipScripts, and there is no shipScript packaged with G. I think that can be safely deleted.

Line 533 is "vertex_shader" = "ahruman-generic.vertex"; which throws an error when combined with yah_griff_station_bottom_section.fragment. The other sets all have "vertex_shader" = "YAH-generic.vertex"; which is I think the correction needed.

I'll do those and retest for log errors, then get them uploaded and PM you a link before doing anything else.

Capt. Murphy wrote:

Set G was last updated by DaddyHoggy in July 2011. I've just re-downloaded the whole lot to test.

I think there are two obvious errors in the shipdata.plist in set G

Both seem to be fixed in my local version. I just noticed another one. Casing error for the AI file for the defender. It will throw an error on Linux. But, that it will use the default AI for defenders and that is the same, so a player won't notice.

My current shipdata for set G can you download here. It could be that it even contains more fixes I noticed over the time.

I've just PM'd links before seeing that last post. Will compare set G's....

Edit - and can see loads of things you fixed - mainly superfluous commas that probably go unnoticed by windows/linux users but cause problems on macs?

I've re-uploaded set G with your shipdata.plist and updated the link in the PM.

Capt. Murphy wrote:

Edit - and can see loads of things you fixed - mainly superfluous commas that probably go unnoticed by windows/linux users but cause problems on macs?

Those superfluous commas are only a problem on very old Macs. Probably only a few percent of the mac users and they probably should upgrade anyway to experience Oolite in its full glory.

The plist editors included with the macs since osx 10.5 do even add those superfluous commas when saving. I always experienced that as buggy behaviour as osx 10.4 refuses to open those. Therefor I still have a plist editor from osx 10.4 on my computer. Plist saved with that one work on all platforms. The inconvenience of that editor is tat it always sorts the keys alphabetical. The whole plist looks different afterwards. No problem for the computer, but an annoyance for a human programmer that sorted them for his own convenience.

So in summary a bug, but those old problem macs have probably also problems with the shader requirements of the constores.

And from Oolite 1.77 onwards those old Macs aren't even supported anymore..