Oolite Bulletins

Hi, is there any other way to turn on some music in Oolite, except for HyperRadio ?
I don't mind using this OXP and even purchase licenses every "month" , but what is annoying, is that it turns off after each red alert, hyperjumps, docking etc. And i need to prime it and turn it on again.

Are you running the 1.85 nightly builds? If so, we got you covered. Take a look at this thread and download the Orchestral Demo OXP (it requires Library.oxp as well). Not only do you get music during flight, but it is also situation aware (changes with alert level or when arriving at station etc) and you can also replace the OXP's ogg files with your own ones if you want.

running 1.84
thank you, will explore it

Just play this on your browser while playing and prepare yourself for the most epic sci-fi soundtrack ever

Hmmm... Both Hyperradio and the Orchestral Demo (that's just a demo though) don't make it easy to build your own playlist. Plus, Oolite only accepts Vorbis/ogg so one often has to convert the files to that format in the first place. I might be wrong, but it seems to me that the technical difficulty is that there's apparently no way to enumerate files in a particular folder (or category) from a script?

Astrobe wrote: ↑Sun Sep 24, 2017 12:21 pm

Hmmm... Both Hyperradio and the Orchestral Demo (that's just a demo though) don't make it easy to build your own playlist.

I don't know about Hyperradio, but I can tell you that you you are wrong about Orchestral Demo. I have already built playlists in it for fight and cruising modes. Check its script.js, there is a place there reserved specifically for building such playlists. Granted that it requires file editing to work, but it is most certainly doable.

another_commander wrote: ↑Sun Sep 24, 2017 1:22 pm

Astrobe wrote: ↑Sun Sep 24, 2017 12:21 pm

Granted that it requires file editing to work, but it is most certainly doable.

Even for me who is used to that stuff, editing the file, check the logs for typos or syntax errors, purge the cache, etc. is a bit of a chore. And before that, downloading or moving the tracks around, and also maybe convert them to ogg/vorbis format.

I was thinking about our fellow spacers who don't have that kind of skill. They are basically stuck with the pre-packed music those who have the know-how provide; but if there's one thing that varies a lot, it's music tastes.

So I'm looking for ways to make this customization more accessible. If there were a way for an OXP to scan the content of a specific folder (for instance, oolite-saves/Local), with some naming conventions (for instance <duration>-<volume>-<event>-<title>.ogg) the OXP could build a playlist and it would require relatively basic skills from users (converting to vorbis format and renaming files).

I did get excited when I saw the hyperadio, but I feel I don't mind it costing money, but to have to keep buying a licence is just wrong.

My solution was to run winamp in the background and just listen to an radio stream...

In someways it works almost a little too good and when the stations come into range, the chatter over the top really add something.

I think if someone codes a 'non-licence' Hyper radio, I might use it, otherwise there is something cool to getting Absolute 80's in the deepest regions of space. (Sort of think that's what Lister would be listening to while flipping off Rimmer.)

I believe the licensing fees are there just to help wealthy players to spend their credits.

Since you do Websites, it shouldn't be difficult for you to hack it. OXZ files are actually zipped archives, so you can open then with something like 7zip. All files are text, but make sure you open them with Wordpad or a decent editor that understands the unix text file format (*), because Notepad does not (but maybe they fixed that with Windows 10? Microsoft seems in love with Linux these days). Then, you can either modify the price tag of the license (Config/equipment.plist), or modify the script hyperradio.js. There's a function named "CheckHyperradioLicence" that could always return "true".

Or, perhaps more in line with what we are doing, you could make the "pirate license" more pirate-y (look for EQ_HYPER_RADIO_PIRATE, two spots to "fix").

(*) if it does not, you'll see everything on one line; that's because unix uses LF as end-of-line character instead of CR+LF.

Sure it would be easy enough to hack someone else's work, but morally its not something I like doing.

Potentially I might be more inclined to code my own radio exp, but as winamp is working really well and I don't have much free time, might just be lazy until something is done 'properly'.

The 80s music im listening to at the moment, sort of takes me back to the original Elite and sort of puts me in a place which for me is cool.

You have just hypered into some rough pirate controlled space and 'Five miles out' comes on. You know its going to be a rough ride to deliver that stash of computers, but you can do it.

Arrive to hear the stations comm's while chilling to Dire Straits, is just as good as it gets..

Now if only the space station had a pacman machine I can waste a few credits on, I would be stoked.. (While downing a pan galactic gargle blaster)

For me I think I quite like the idea of getting a few ships from fiction in the game might be a better priority...

But that aside, the other issue with hacking a exp is that if the author ever does an update, you have lost your changes.. Also your change might screw other things up...

WebsitesbyMark wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2017 5:51 pm

Now if only the space station had a pacman machine I can waste a few credits on, I would be stoked.

How about a game of 3D Asteroids?

Astrobe wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2017 11:07 pm

So I'm looking for ways to make this customization more accessible. If there were a way for an OXP to scan the content of a specific folder (for instance, oolite-saves/Local), with some naming conventions (for instance <duration>-<volume>-<event>-<title>.ogg) the OXP could build a playlist and it would require relatively basic skills from users (converting to vorbis format and renaming files).

Naming conventions? So you are back to manually specified volumes and (a lot) string handling...

Edit: VLC playlists do already contain durations... Hmmm....

Would Spotify an alternative for this HyperRadio. I think I saw some Oolite music there, but I didn't download them. You can have a look then.

Happyman wrote:

Would Spotify an alternative for this HyperRadio. I think I saw some Oolite music there, but I didn't download them. You can have a look then.

It all boils down to personal preferences. But I'd think an ingame solution is what we are after.-)

I created a play list of sci-fi music for iTunes. Works great. Benefits of a Mac.