I'm using Oolite version 1.73.4 (x86-64 test release) under Linux at 2009-11-29 21:40:14 +0100.
I noticed two things in connection with a Rock Hermit:
When I try to dock with a RH using the Docking Computer, sometimes the ship stops and "roll" just jumps from -1/3 to +1/3 on the HUD, making all the passengers and crew members seasick . I left it to see whether it recovers, but for about two minutes it just wobbles around in space. I stopped the docking sequence, moved around a bit and restarted it, and all was well. I cannot tell whether this happens elsewhere, because I dock into the stations with shift+d; RHs are the only places where I use shift+c.
The other problem I noticed was that I jumped right through a RH on my last run. I was heading right towards it, but, unlike a station, the ship did not fall out of "jump mode" like it does when approaching a station. Withing a few frames I expected impact & annihilation, but suddenly, I was right "behind" the RH (could see it in rear view). Looks like jump speed and collision detection seems to have a nice little hole somewhere.
Both problems can be caused by to many oxp's installed for your hardware resulting in to low framerate counts. . What was your FPS value?
In very busy systems, the FPS count can drop to a value that the distance a ship moves or turns between two frames can become large.
With docking this results in constant overshooting its target direction. (With my old and slow computer it often helped to switch between full screen and window mode to get docking ships out of this problem)
With collision it can happen the ship was either before or behind the RH during frame update so the collision detection never triggered.
Not falling out of jump mode is deliberate as a RH it just a rock according to your jump computer.
With collision it can happen the ship was either before or behind the RH during frame update so the collision detection never triggered.
Not falling out of jump mode is deliberate as a RH it just a rock according to your jump computer.
As someone who did collide into an RH at one point, I have to say that's a neat trick.
Both problems can be caused by to many oxp's installed for your hardware resulting in to low framerate counts. . What was your FPS value?
Not sure what it was at that particular moment, but my box has about 20FPS - nearly anything disabled and low resolution. I'm already investigating which GFX-card to buy (I have only onboard GFX, which defiitely sucks). I want to see shader effects!
Eric Walch wrote:
In very busy systems, the FPS count can drop to a value that the distance a ship moves or turns between two frames can become large.
When the ship danced, it was pointing into the wild space, where it usually gets the best rates.
Eric Walch wrote:
With docking this results in constant overshooting its target direction. (With my old and slow computer it often helped to switch between full screen and window mode to get docking ships out of this problem)
Neat trick!
Eric Walch wrote:
With collision it can happen the ship was either before or behind the RH during frame update so the collision detection never triggered.
Not falling out of jump mode is deliberate as a RH it just a rock according to your jump computer.
This is what I suspected. Thanks for confirming it.
Not sure what it was at that particular moment, but my box has about 20FPS - nearly anything disabled and low resolution. I'm already investigating which GFX-card to buy (I have only onboard GFX, which defiitely sucks). I want to see shader effects!
If you want to use OpenGL like playing OOlite, I strongly recommend a nVidia card as ATI had and has massive driver problems when it comes to proper OpenGL rendering.
Aside from that, I personally would always recommend a faster card over a slower one in general because faster cards have the tendency to be much more silent. Slower cards typically have a higher workload with few things to display and thus create more heat in these circumstances and they are often accompanied with weaker heat reduction systems and thus also create more noise due to that fact.
There are some very cheap passively cooled cards around powerful enough to drive Oolite. I had a Palit 9400GT which gave me over 80FPS with everything enabled and lots of OXPs.
Exchanged it for a 9800GTX I think it was because I wasn't getting a steady framerate. Turns out the 9800, while massively more powerful, gave me exactly 0 extra FPS in Oolite (bottleneck obviously elsewhere in my particular system), and was noisy as anything. So I returned the 9800 and am running an old spare card from work until I work out which card I actually want now, but almost certainly a passively-cooled job.
Anyway, the point is, a very cheap card these days has more than enough grunt to drive Oolite as it is presently. No need to spend lots of money. Of course, if you're also playing other games, then more power is always better..
. I left it to see whether it recovers, but for about two minutes it just wobbles around in space. I stopped the docking sequence, moved around a bit and restarted it, and all was well. I cannot tell whether this happens elsewhere, because I dock into the stations with shift+d; RHs are the only places where I use shift+c.
