You can change the external views, but you have to alter the code of the game itself. Don't worry, it's not that hard. The way you get into the game depends on which computer you are playing on. What follows here is an instruction for Mac. Windows or Linux should be different.
I had the same feeling that the viewpoints were to close, so I increased the distance a bit. Also I corrected the small bug with their numeration, where you have EXTERNAL VIEW 3 twice and no 8. And last I added two more views, a DOWN VIEW and an UP VIEW. If you don't like those then just erase the last to blocks of code from <dict> to </dict>.
So what you have to do is to have a look into your Oolite-Application. To do that on a Mac you right-click/ctrl-click on the program and choose "Open Package" from the context menu. It opens like a folder. In that folder you have to open -> Content -> Resources -> Config and find "shipdata.plist". Open it with a text editor.
In shipdata.plist are the definitions of all the original ships in Oolite, non-player and player version. For each player version there is a definition of the external views, so if you want to change them for all ships, you have to find and change them all.
Search for the following lines:
Then replace everything that follows up to the command
with the following code:
Code: Select all
<key>custom_views</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>view_description</key>
<string>External View 1</string>
<key>view_position</key>
<string>0.0 20.0 -141.42</string>
<key>view_orientation</key>
<string>1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0</string>
<key>weapon_facing</key>
<string>FORWARD</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>view_description</key>
<string>External View 2</string>
<key>view_position</key>
<string>100.0 20.0 -100.0</string>
<key>view_orientation</key>
<string>0.9239 0.0 0.3827 0.0</string>
<key>weapon_facing</key>
<string>FORWARD</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>view_description</key>
<string>External View 3</string>
<key>view_position</key>
<string>141.42 20.0 0.0</string>
<key>view_orientation</key>
<string>0.7071 0.0 0.7071 0.0</string>
<key>weapon_facing</key>
<string>FORWARD</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>view_description</key>
<string>External View 4</string>
<key>view_position</key>
<string>100.0 20.0 100.0</string>
<key>view_orientation</key>
<string>0.3827 0.0 0.9239 0.0</string>
<key>weapon_facing</key>
<string>FORWARD</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>view_description</key>
<string>External View 5</string>
<key>view_position</key>
<string>0.0 20.0 141.42</string>
<key>view_orientation</key>
<string>0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0</string>
<key>weapon_facing</key>
<string>FORWARD</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>view_description</key>
<string>External View 6</string>
<key>view_position</key>
<string>-100.0 20.0 100.0</string>
<key>view_orientation</key>
<string>0.3827 0.0 -0.9239 0.0</string>
<key>weapon_facing</key>
<string>FORWARD</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>view_description</key>
<string>External View 7</string>
<key>view_position</key>
<string>-141.42 20.0 0.0</string>
<key>view_orientation</key>
<string>0.7071 0.0 -0.7071 0.0</string>
<key>weapon_facing</key>
<string>FORWARD</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>view_description</key>
<string>External View 8</string>
<key>view_position</key>
<string>-100.0 20.0 -100.0</string>
<key>view_orientation</key>
<string>0.9239 0.0 -0.3827 0.0</string>
<key>weapon_facing</key>
<string>FORWARD</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>view_description</key>
<string>Down View</string>
<key>view_position</key>
<string>0.0 150.0 0.0</string>
<key>view_orientation</key>
<string>-0.7071 0.7071 0.0 0.0</string>
<key>weapon_facing</key>
<string>FORWARD</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>view_description</key>
<string>Up View</string>
<key>view_position</key>
<string>0.0 -150.0 0.0</string>
<key>view_orientation</key>
<string>0.0 0.0 0.7071 0.7071</string>
<key>weapon_facing</key>
<string>FORWARD</string>
</dict>
</array>
Remember, you have to do that for ALL appearances of the <key>custom_views</key>-command.
Save your work, and you're finished.
If you at some point choose to buy a ship, which is not from the original game, but from an OXP, you will have to do the same thing with the OXP-file. Open the package, open the shipdata.plist with a text editor, replace the block of code beginning with the <key>custom_views</key>-command. If there are no custom views included yet (especially ships in older OXP don't yet have external views), then you can insert the whole block anywhere in the code of the player ship. (Only the player ship needs it, for non-player ships it's useless.)
