Oolite Bulletins

Posted: **Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:37 am**

This OXP would not operate on 1.73.3

some alterations remedied the situation

XML parser error:
Encountered unknown ampersand-escape sequence at line 7

in log refers to this (at the beginning of descriptions.plist)
descriptions.plist is in the config folder of Pallas.oxp

<string>This ship is *&%$@ expensive!</string>

which I changed to:

<string>This ship is *%*%*%* expensive!</string>

There were two more alterations I made, as follows:

IN shipyard.plist FOLDER (this is in config folder of Pallas.oxp)

1) near the top it reads, somewhere below <key>optional_equipment</key>

(space)(space)(space)(space)(space)(space)<string>EQ_CARGO_BAY</string>

I CHANGED IT TO:

(tab)(tab)(tab)<string>EQ_CARGO_BAY</string>

I've written (space) and (tab) because the post probably won't show actual tabs and spaces. I think what I did here is clear enough, anyway.

2) at the very end of shipyard.plist is:

(tab)<dict>
</dict>
</plist>

I CHANGED IT TO:

(tab)</dict>
</dict>
</plist>

So that totals 3 alterations in the config folder
one altering a "Pallas-plea" in descriptions.plist
one altering spaces to tabs in shipyard.plist
one altering <dict> to </dict> in shipyard.plist
_________________________________________________________

Then this OXP flying saucer zooms correctly.

Posted: **Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:50 pm**

Thanks! Charlie was a very enthusiastic ship builder, but a lot of his projects pushed the envelope a bit too far... Amazing that 1.65 even managed to run any of his oxps, really!

As the last Benulobiweed representative on the boards (retired due to time constraints), heartfelt thanks for cleaning up this old lady and keeping her shipshape!

Posted: **Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:23 am**

Zbond-Zbond wrote:
This OXP would not operate on 1.73.3

Probably never correctly with any Oolite version on any mac as both plists you corrected are never read in by any mac at all .

Instead of:

Code: Select all

<string>This ship is *&%$@ expensive!</string>

you can also write:

Code: Select all

<string>This ship is *&%$@ expensive!</string>

Note that & is a special character in XML, when you want to use is as character replace it by & that way the text is identical as mend by Charlie.

And when you are on it, remove the roles miner and scavenger from the list. The ship has no scoops so will never properly function in those roles. And for miner it would need an other laser anyhow.

And the "explosive_shrapnel" it is trying to spawn is missing in the oxp. That means it is dependent op Falcon&Kestrel.oxp that contains this explosive. This dependence should be mentioned in the readme or copy it in from that oxp.

Posted: **Wed Sep 16, 2009 8:50 am**

Kaks wrote:
Thanks! Charlie was a very enthusiastic ship builder, but a lot of his projects pushed the envelope a bit too far...

Hmmm. While they certainly also are pushing the envelope, this is not actually the issue here. They contain simple XML syntax errors, AKA bugs.

Posted: **Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:47 am**

True, but I was trying to sound like a loyal ex-Benulobiweed employee!

For whatever reason, the QA department at the firm was clearly underfunded...

As I said above, I've no idea how Charlie's ships ever worked - if at all - never mind if they worked according to his original ideas... wrong xml, 'unconventional' (non-working) AI scripts, non-existant shipdata keys added just to see if oolite would use them anyway, just name it, it was probably there, and in spades!

Which reminds me: I did manage to get his orbs.oxp to limp along in 1.70 & we were going to try & build a back story & mission(s) to it. I'll see if I can give it a bit of spit & polish then release the wip as it is, after I tie up a couple of loose ends!

Cheers,

Kaks

Posted: **Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:51 am**

Kaks wrote:
'unconventional' (non-working) AI scripts,

For the Pallas there is a working AI script included, but that one is just never used.

Posted: **Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:56 am**

Case in point, clearly QA sleeping on the job, as always!

Posted: **Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:58 am**

Kaks wrote:
As I said above, I've no idea how Charlie's ships ever worked - if at all - never mind if they worked according to his original ideas... wrong xml, 'unconventional' (non-working) AI scripts, non-existant shipdata keys added just to see if oolite would use them anyway, just name it, it was probably there, and in spades!

Yes, indeed. I downloaded some of them back then, also tried to rectify at least the worst messes in Orbs, but gave up on that very soon. Basically, as I'm on a Mac, his OXPs never worked for me. So, after giving them a quick look, they ended up in the Oolite waste bin. Which for some of them is a shame, I'm sure.

Posted: **Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:39 pm**

Eric Walch wrote:
And when you are on it, remove the roles miner and scavenger from the list. The ship has no scoops so will never properly function in those roles.

done

however I notice that my Pallas does have scoops as standard (?) but what with one thing and another I haven't actually scooped anything yet..

edit: ..ok, it works; I just test-scooped a ton of food.

p.s. the Pallas has been around as a npc ship, even when it's been unavailable for purchase, on OS-X

Posted: **Fri Sep 18, 2009 8:56 pm**

Zbond-Zbond wrote:
[p.s. the Pallas has been around as a npc ship, even when it's been unavailable for purchase, on OS-X

Correct. Only the shipYard file that holds data for the player ship was corrupt and not read in.

I just witnessed one other problem. The Pallas has an tremendous amount of flashers around it. Combined it forms the ring of light. I just entered a system, did some fights, and headed for the witchpoint. In the distance I already saw the buoy when I also noticed a blue flash of an ship arriving from witchspace. But almost simultaneously my steering became sluggish. I looked on my FPS rate and I noticed a FPS count of 12. (Normally 50 to 100). Closing in on the just entered ship it was a boa with 4 escorts. Two of them were Pallas. Because I suspected these Pallas ships the cause of the trouble I wiped out both. (I cheated here by just removing them with my console-tool). After removing the first my FPS rose to 20 and after removing the second my FPS count showed 50 again. (I played with a Oolite test version were the flasher memory bug is fixed already).

With earlier sightings of the Pallas didn't notice anything with my speed, but be warned on low end computers. Or don't install it if you have similar findings.

Posted: **Fri Sep 18, 2009 10:26 pm**

Eric Walch wrote:
I looked on my FPS rate and I noticed a FPS count of 12. (Normally 50 to 100).

The Pallas and a few other ships/stations are known for this (e.g. the Constitution has 251 Flashers!!!) and on my machine it was never different. In some cases it would be better to use shaders, but simulating a 3D-object needs some processing time too and is not available on machines without shader-support.

Posted: **Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:20 pm**

Svengali wrote:
Eric Walch wrote:
I looked on my FPS rate and I noticed a FPS count of 12. (Normally 50 to 100).
The Pallas and a few other ships/stations are known for this (e.g. the Constitution has 251 Flashers!!!) and on my machine it was never different. In some cases it would be better to use shaders, but simulating a 3D-object needs some processing time too and is not available on machines without shader-support.

I just encountered another Pallas. Again a FPS below 30. On attacking the ship the FPS dropped immediately to 18 and stayed that low until I killed it. Than it rose again to 50 FPS. I have never installed the Constitution but when that has even more flashers I won't even consider installing it. Only nice to look at it for a while but not as permanent install. Even a current state computer suffers from it in a dramatically way.

Posted: **Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:47 pm**

That is interesting, because the Pallas has never had any noticeable effect on my not-very-high-end iMac

Posted: **Mon Sep 21, 2009 4:18 pm**

Zbond-Zbond wrote:
That is interesting, because the Pallas has never had any noticeable effect on my not-very-high-end iMac

I just redid with Oolite 1.73.3 and i-Mac 2.66 GHz duo core with 2 GB memory.
Launching: FPS 100 during some time.
Adding 4x Pallas. FPS dropped to 20.
Killing 3x Pallas: FPS up to 50.
Killing last Pallas: FPS up to 100.

Pallas has even more flashers than constitution: 319.
Oolite 1.73 is known to use much memory with flashers, but I had the same result with the test version were this memory problem is solved.

And to be double sure it was no other effect, I deleted the flashers and restarted Oolite. Adding 4x Pallas now dropped FPS to 60 and after killing 2 of them FPS was back at 100. So it are really the flashers with me.

Posted: **Tue Sep 22, 2009 10:41 am**

oh well, this doesn't gel with the performance on encountering Pallas here

+

might =

with some (concentrated) internal investigation..

meanwhile, the cheek of passing craft, together with the external views while flying the vessel is a good experience for any commander.

kind thoughts, Benulobiweed Inc.

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