Oolite Bulletins

I've just started playing Oolite again after a bit of a break. Great fun, and a real trip down memory lane to when I used to play Elite on a BBC.

I've found it fairly easy to get a decently long way with basic fighting and trading in Galaxy 1, I've upgraded my Cobra so that it's pretty hardcore (front military laser, fuel injectors, shield boosters, extra energy unit etc.) and also have a parallel game where I'm flying a python.

I'd like to add a bit more variety to the game using OXPs, but I'm using a really old mac (iBook G4, 800MHz, 640MB RAM). Can anyone advise me on which OXPs would add a bit more life to the game without slowing down the action too much? Equally, are there any OXPs that I should definitely avoid? I'm currently running Mac OS 10.3.9 using Oolite 1.65 so compatibility with that is a must.

Cheers

Probabley just the number. Mission OXPs may put a strain on your system, but only when the mission is running, so these should be safe enough. Putting in about 20 ship OXPs should not cause a noticable slow down. If you put in every single OXP (or Relistic Shipyards which has 500 odd ships in it) then you'll get a big performance hit on a low end system. I have a virtually steam powered 6 year old Dell. I get good performance (32 - 40 fps) with all the mission OXPs installed, all the station OXPs and a selection of about 20 ship OXPs.

Thanks LB,

How do you check the frame rate (on a mac specifically)?

I've had one or two problems with Oolite slowing right down, especially if I'm in the middle of a large dogfight with cargo containers everywhere. Thankfully, when it does falter game time stops too so whatever was in my crosshairs when it stopped is still there when it starts again.

Some missions would be good, and general in-system variety of ships and events is what I'm after.

flimflam_machine wrote:

How do you check the frame rate (on a mac specifically)?

Not sure on MAC but on PC it´s shift+f, while ingame

flimflam_machine wrote:

I'd like to add a bit more variety to the game using OXPs

Welcome to the Ooniverse flimflam_machine.
You could try "Cargo_Wreck_Teaser" It replaces all those boring barrels with a variety of new models. You also could try to upgrade to 1.68. It could be faster. At least 1.69/1.70 was noticable faster than 1.65. The 1.71 lies somewhere in between when you look at speed.

For variety I'd go for all the station OXPs. A lot of these (Commiees, Dictators, GRS, Random Hits etc also add interesting features).

Random hits looks very interesting. Is there a version that will run on Oolite 1.65?

No. It uses Java Scripting as I need to check whether it was the player or an NPC that captured or killed a target and also uses some new commands that were only introduced with 1.70 of Oolite and the model for the space bar is too complex to work on 1.65. 1.71.2 runs well though so you could just upgrade.

Hi, flimflam_machine!

In my opinion there are only two OXPs you should try to avoid, because they may put too much strain on your machine. That's "Your Ad Here" and "Realistic Shipyards". The first of them even slowed down my MacBook Pro considerably. And for the latter the author warns you not to run it with less than 2GB of memory.

I think the rest of the bunch should be fairly safe to use.

Thanks Commander McLane. I had spotted that Realistic shipyards should be avoided, and I wasn't too interested in Your Ad Here since it seems to add mostly visual interest, whereas what I'm after is expanded gameplay. I enjoyed Elite when it was wire-frame graphics, so sparse visuals isn't a problem.!

I think I'm being dim, can someone direct me to the exact location and name of v 1.71.2 for Mac? Will it work on Mac OX 10.3.9?

I've now got most of the ship OXPs and the OXPs for different government types (Commies etc.). This adds a bit of fun, but things have slowed down to 14-28 fps. Will v1.71.2 help with that, or will the extra textures slow things down even further? I'm a bit concerned about adding OXPs that have highly detailed objects e.g., Bank of the black Monks, in case that slows things down yet further.

Finally, I'm having problems getting Galactic Navy to work. Any thoughts/known issues? I do have the Behemoth OXP, although I can't claim to have seen any in the space lanes.

Hi flimflam_machine, and welcome to the forums!

There is a little contradiction in your posting with ...

I had spotted that Realistic shipyards should be avoided

... and ...

I've now got most of the ship OXPs

... perhaps contributing to ...

things have slowed down to 14-28 fps

... because the reason Realistic Shipyards should be avoided for low-end systems is precisely that it has most of the older ship oxps merged into one big oxp.

So, by installing most ship oxps, you get the same problem on your low-end machine as if you had installed Realistic Shipyards. I remember reading that other people with the same problem limited the ship oxps to 15-20 to avoid fps troubles. Just saying.

can someone direct me to the exact location and name of v 1.71.2 for Mac?

You should find that here:

http://developer.berlios.de/project/sho ... e_id=14607

Have fun!

L

If prettiness isn't a concern, lose most of the ship OXPs and look to gameplay OXPs.

Local Hero
Random Hits
Anarchies
Pirate Coves
Hotrods (the tiger gang makes things interesting)
Rock Hermit Locator
Some Thargoid OXPs for good measure
The pi42 constores (Your ad here) and the Hoopy casinos give you extra trade/refuel opportunities
Commies and Dictators likewise

[quote]So, by installing most ship oxps, you get the same problem on your low-end machine as if you had installed Realistic Shipyards. I remember reading that other people with the same problem limited the ship oxps to 15-20 to avoid fps troubles. Just saying.[/quote]

Thanks for the warning. I went for separate ship OXPs to keep the flexibility. For example, iguanas and wolfs (sic) give a bit of a challenge and deep space dredgers are interesting, but urutus seem to slow my system down a bit so I binned them.

Thanks for the download link, I had found that page but I couldn't work out exactly what file I want. Do I install oolite-1.71.2-test-mac-full.zip first and then the update later? I take it that it will be fine with 10.3.9

Once you install 1.71 Galactic Navy should start working - it requires at least 1.7 - have fun and good luck!

flimflam_machine wrote:

Thanks for the download link, I had found that page but I couldn't work out exactly what file I want. Do I install oolite-1.71.2-test-mac-full.zip first and then the update later? I take it that it will be fine with 10.3.9

You only need either the full version or the updater.

The full version is, well..., errm..., the full version of 1.71.2 (sorry, how else shall I say this?). Nothing else needed.

The updater is, well..., errm..., an updater, to bring earlier versions of Oolite to 1.71.2, without downloading all the stuff again that was not changed. So it's smaller. You download it and then simply drag your current Oolite.app on the updater-icon.