Oolite Bulletins

I've seen a few threads that mention features in passing, like new collision detection stuff... but is there any kind of summary anywhere? I've looked around here and the Wiki but couldn't find anything. Inquiring minds wish to know!

There is no summary or changelog yet because there is no release yet. Putting up a summary of changes now may or may not be representative of what will be there at the end, since trunk is modified on a nearly daily basis. The final changelogs will be generated as soon as the code in the trunk gets tagged for 1.73 release.

another_commander wrote:

There is no summary or changelog yet because there is no release yet. Putting up a summary of changes now may or may not be representative of what will be there at the end, since trunk is modified on a nearly daily basis. The final changelogs will be generated as soon as the code in the trunk gets tagged for 1.73 release.

Mmm yes, but wouldn't it be nice to know whats going on 'in general' in the minds of the developers. Is a developers blog or journal a good idea? Probably not because then you have to write on a weekly or monthly basis

I want to know for example what general ideas there are for the future of Oolite. I can probably guess that on short term this will be stability. But what are the wishes or plans of the core team for the future.

pagroove wrote:

Is a developers blog or journal a good idea? Probably not because then you have to write on a weekly or monthly basis

You hit the nail on the head right there

As for the future, Ahruman is the Man With the Plan, so it will be appropriate to let him answer this one. For me, it will be good to help getting the game to the MNSR stage, then take a break and actually spend some time playing the game, while new blood jumps in and takes Oolite to the next generation.

I thought Ahruman already has an oolite developers blog?

Appreciate the detail isn't ready, I just meant some broad sweeping generalisations, so you don't have to keep answering all these pesky questions!

Maybe it would help if I explain why I asked: I have seen a few discussions of forthcoming features, or of things that are in OXPs now that are moving into the core, or OXPs coming that depend on things in the trunk; and I think a quick summary of what we KNOW is in the next release, what is HIGHLY LIKELY, and what ain't gonna happen nohow would be very useful to all concerned in those discussions and people can focus effort in the right place. So just some simple things like "beautified ships - probably, if a consistent set becomes ready in time" and "background screens in docking - no - because it's harder than we thought" or "X - no - because MNSR is the most important right now."

OSE WiP appears to depend on a number of these things for instance... and the release notes talk about these dependencies being a done deal, but we only know that through... well... gossip, I suppose!

Someone is now going to tell me there's a Wiki page for this

Couldn't find a current blog anywhere...

And which version is the MNSR based on - the trunk stuff or is that a branch and MNSR will be 1.72.x with bugfixes?

And also if the community at large knows what devs are getting stuck on, we may just be able to help...

I s'pose some of the biggies are:

improved graphics (normal mapping) - see anything Griff has been doing!

A fix for those with ATi graphics

Lots of AI fixes/improvements

Possibly user defined backgrounds rather than plain black

A better install so the game doesn't need a pre-run batch file to make it happy

Wormhole scanner so that you can bounty hunt targets which pass through the wormhole - this will be the first time (I think) that Oolite will have some inherrent persistence that goes beyond the system you're currently in.

That's just what I've picked up by reading the threads - there could well be a lot more!

DaddyHoggy wrote:

I s'pose some of the biggies are:

improved graphics (normal mapping) - see anything Griff has been doing!

A fix for those with ATi graphics

Lots of AI fixes/improvements

Possibly user defined backgrounds rather than plain black

A better install so the game doesn't need a pre-run batch file to make it happy

Wormhole scanner so that you can bounty hunt targets which pass through the wormhole - this will be the first time (I think) that Oolite will have some inherrent persistence that goes beyond the system you're currently in.

That's just what I've picked up by reading the threads - there could well be a lot more!

That's a quite good list of things coming up. But unfortunately, it does not look like backgrounds will make it for this release.

zevans, your point is taken. To the list DaddyHoggy gave, I would add the following from memory:

- Fix for the long, long standing bug where resizing the game window would result in planets being lost or textures generally getting messed up.
- More user controllable sun properties (corona, color, etc.), making suns just a tad prettier.
- Time Acceleration Factor, from x1/16 (toooo sllloooowww) to x16 (veryveryfast). Makes for good screenshots and can serve also as time saver during long distance flights.
- Joystick fixes and improvements for Windows builds (no more flying left with precision toggle, hat support).
- Ability to instantly target nearest incoming missile with Shift+T. This will allow player turrets to be able to shoot down missiles, provided that player can give them the target quickly enough.
- At least two crash to desktop cases from 1.72.2 fixed, improving stability. Lots of other bugfixes.

Probably others that I cannot remember now, but could add after consulting the SVN logs.

Regarding the MNSR, it will be based on the trunk tree. 1.72.x is decidedly behind us.

Finally, I think that any help in getting the subentities related gameovers fixed, would be more than appreciated at this stage. Any takers?

Is the ATI fix good to go, because I get the impression I'm not the only one who would presently be cracking on with some serious Ooliting were it not for the 'space full of squares' bother.

An update with that alone would, if it is solid, be a massive bonus.

Superb, thank you!

@ Governmentyard

Just install the new ATI 9.6 display drivers.

Procedural textures in planets and the ability to see custom textures (from oxps like famous planets and system redux) in the planets info screen and also the whitelisting of commands (a very useful feature for the stability of oolite)


Moreover (since nobody is writting anymore in the progress thread!!)a very useful tool for someone to see the changes in the trunk:
http://svn.berlios.de/viewvc/oolite-linux/

Is the ATI fix good to go, because I get the impression I'm not the only one who would presently be cracking on with some serious Ooliting were it not for the 'space full of squares' bother.

And here I went out and bought a new graph card just to play Oolite!!

Reverse thrust with a joystick (most obvious when refuelling at satellites and fuel stations) has been fixed.

Diziet Sma wrote:

Reverse thrust with a joystick (most obvious when refuelling at satellites and fuel stations) has been fixed.

Gronk? What OXP is refuelling in?