Paint Missiles

[Huntress]

I have both a fun and tactical suggestion- why not paint missiles?

I've had some difficultly battling other ships, as some of them just blend in with space. By the time you see where they are, it's too late and they start evading you. It would be great if they would become a bright neon colour...

Also, some days I just find space too dark. I'd love to go around turning things different colours. Also, I would just love to shoot some at boyracers. Calling me names, are you? Well, at least my ship isn't pink! (No offense to people who like pink)

Don't know if this'd be possible, but it sure would be fun!

[Diziet Sma]

Can't help with the paint missiles, but if you want to be able to see ships a little easier, try turning up the gamma (in the F2 settings) a notch or two. It will make the ships stand out a touch more against the blackness.

[ralph_hh]

I was not sucessful in adjusting the gamma value. But you can set the ambience ligth level to higher values which helped me much more (I installed zyglos cinematic skies, reduced the number of stars by adjusting the multiplier, then set the ambience_level to 0.7 )

Its in the planetinfo.plist

[Ngalo]

Nice idea, Huntress. Not sure how well it can be done in current Oolite versions, but I might give it a go.
Also, how about a 'paint bomb'? Paints everything within a couple of km, might even show up cloaked opponents (handwavium: cloaking device field projectors don't work through gooey painl layer) and its cheaper/more ECM-proof 'cos it doesn't need a guidance system.

[Dawn Trader]

how about a 'paint bomb'? Paints everything within a couple of km, might even show up cloaked opponents (handwavium: cloaking device field projectors don't work through gooey painl layer)

interesting idea but would not the paint become flash frozen at -273 Kelvin? Then you have a wierd shaped projectile that is going off into space.??? in order to paint everything in a sphere of several KM... that is one big paint bucket attached to that missile

WOW was I ever wrong from NASA cosmicopia site:
Is it correct that objects in deep space (not heated by an external source, such as the Sun) have a temperature near absolute zero - but the void itself has NO temperature?

Objects in the void will eventually come to the equilibrium temperature of the cosmic microwave background, which is 2.7 Kelvin (2.7 degrees above absolute zero). The cosmic background is a sea of photons (light) that are the remnants of the Big Bang, which has cooled down to 2.7 Kelvin over 15-20 billion years. The comment that the void itself has no temperature comes from the fact that temperature is usually defined with the random motions of matter, and if there is no matter, there is no temperature. But I (and many others) equate the cosmic background with the 'void' having an effective temperature of 2.7 Kelvin, even if there is no matter.

Dr. Eric Christian

[Switeck]

interesting idea but would not the paint become flash frozen at -273 Kelvin?

I'm not aware of space being that cold...or anywhere for that matter.

[Wildeblood]

interesting idea but would not the paint become flash frozen at -273 Kelvin?

I'm not aware of space being that cold...or anywhere for that matter.

Space can be as hot or cold as you want it to be. Apparently, it's all full of dark matter, dark energy, epicycles, and phlogiston. That stuff can be whatever temperature suits you.

[Smivs]

interesting idea but would not the paint become flash frozen at -273 Kelvin?

I'm not aware of space being that cold...or anywhere for that matter.

Space can be as hot or cold as you want it to be. Apparently, it's all full of dark matter, dark energy, epicycles, and phlogiston. That stuff can be whatever temperature suits you.

Just make sure you pack extra thermal underwear, just in case.

[QCS]

Just make sure you pack extra thermal underwear, just in case.

Not necessary if you have your towel, it can keep you warm. That said, is it even technically possible by script to paint objects (from core or other OXPs) with a different colour?
I'd like to see a Waspline station in *real* black/yellow stripes

[Smivs]

is it even technically possible by script to paint objects (from core or other OXPs) with a different colour?

Yes and no, but mostly no, I'm afraid. You can't re-colour existing objects, but it is possible to change the colour of something which is designed to have its colour changed - see my Aliens OXZ which features two ships that change colour.

[cim]

You can do it to almost anything with the getMaterials() and setMaterials() functions (or getShaders() and setShaders())

Of course, unless you spend time matching the repaint to the original texture, it won't necessarily look right. If you just want to repaint the whole thing bright pink, though, that's usually possible unless it's got a custom shader.

[Switeck]

interesting idea but would not the paint become flash frozen at -273 Kelvin?

I'm not aware of space being that cold...or anywhere for that matter.

Space can be as hot or cold as you want it to be. Apparently, it's all full of dark matter, dark energy, epicycles, and phlogiston. That stuff can be whatever temperature suits you.

You missed the joke.

-273 C is theoretically possible, but -273 K is not.

[Wildeblood]

You missed the joke.

That's because I have no sense of humour whatsoever.

[SteveKing]

Space can be as hot or cold as you want it to be. Apparently, it's all full of dark matter, dark energy, epicycles, and phlogiston. That stuff can be whatever temperature suits you.

You missed the joke.

That's because I have no sense of humour whatsoever.

Especially at the end of a hard day at the office, fighting the traffic home and before the first pint!

[Ngalo]

You can do it to almost anything with the getMaterials() and setMaterials() functions (or getShaders() and setShaders())
[...]
Of course, unless you spend time matching the repaint to the original texture, it won't necessarily look right. If you just want to repaint the whole thing bright pink, though, that's usually possible unless it's got a custom shader.

That's more or less what I'm attempting. I don't think I've quite got the right sort of object being passed to setMaterials() yet, but I expect I'll get there eventually.
Interestingly, I've found that in shipdata.plist I can use the diffuse_color material property to 'tint' an existing diffuse texture in a new colour, but replicating that effect by script might be more complicated than simply replacing the whole lot.