[EL] VācVI - Personal Ship Assistant [v0.96-beta.1]

Custom mods, stories, and artwork based on the Evochron / Arvoch universe.
Locked
Scavenger4711
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2010 7:40 pm
Location: Germany

[EL] VācVI - Personal Ship Assistant [v0.96-beta.1]

Post by Scavenger4711 »

NOTE: New test version: v0.96-beta.1 - Now with more functionalities!

[align=center] -- Vāc VI -- [/align]

[align=left]Space is large, dangerous and lonely. Ship systems are increasingly complex, making management more and more difficult - especially in stressfull situations. There are a lot of switches, buttons and levers that can - under the right circumstances - decide between life or death.

So whether you are overwhelmed by the mechanisms of your ship or simply long for some company along your journey, Vāc VI is at your service!

Capable of managing your ship systems and reacting to sensor data autonomously or on your command, this ship assistant can greatly help you overcome any obstacle and make your life in space that much easier.
[/align]

[align=center] I am Vāc - your personal ship assistant and companion on your journey through the Evochron universe![/align]


[align=center]>> Download here <<[/align]

Changelog

Code: Select all

Version 0.96-beta.1:
------------------------------------------------------------
- "Ship System Control" plugin:
    - added more functionalities
        - VI now automatically warns about incoming hostiles and increasing damage to the ship (at 75%, 50% and 25% hull integrity)
        - Manual thruster speed control (0%, 10%, 20%, ... , 100%) now possible in Evochron Legacy
        - Manual shield/Weapon energy bias control now possible in Evochron Mercenary and Legacy
        - Manual target selection now possible in Evochron Mercenary and Legacy
        - Targeting objects now possible in Evochron Legacy
    - fixed altitude for safe jumping out of planetary atmospheres in Evochron Legacy
- fixed typos and updated plugin information for all plugins
- added new plugin: "VI Health"
    - distorts the VI's speech and scrambles displayed with increasing damage to the ship
    - the logo image for this plugin is not yet finished and will be added soon
- added current version number to the configurator's "About" tab


Version 0.95-beta.1:
------------------------------------------------------------
- First release for testing and feedback purposes
What exactly is Vāc?

Vāc is an external program that acts as a voice command software and game overlay that I have been working on for a little more than a month now. It can receive voice commands, issue key-presses and provide audible feedback via text-to-speech. If you know Voice Attack, this concept is nothing new to you.
The difference here however lies within the usage of in-game data, as well as the aforementioned overlay.

To see what you can do with that, let's have a look at the...

Features
  1. Issue voice commands for greater ease of use
  2. Overlay for in-game use:
    • Displays the VI's status and spoken dialog
    • Gives hints about the ways in which the player can responds to a certain peace of dialog
    • Matches overlay color to in-game HUD color automatically
  3. Uses Evochron in-game data:
    • Automatic actions based on in-game events
    • Allows for extraction of in-game data, as soon as it is updated
    • Allows for more complex dialogs that react to events and stati within the game
  4. Special dialog syntax allowing for easy and fast creation of varied dialog lines
  5. Automatic extraction of game controls - no manual keyboard configuration necessary
  6. Third party plugin support
Do you have some concrete examples what functions the VI can provide for now? - Sure I do!
You can, for example:
  • request information about your current location or target
  • tell the VI to automatically fire a missile on neutral or hostile targets, as soon as you have a lock-on
  • tell the VI to jump, manually or automatically, as soon as your ship's energy has filled
  • ask the VI about it's favorite food
  • request a ship damage report
  • open/close various consoles (nav, trade, inventory, ...)
  • set the IDS speed multiplier
  • ... and more!
How do I start? - Downloads and User Manual
You can download the program itself from the GitHub release page.

Before using the program I highly recommend reading the user manual on OneDrive for more details about the program and how to use it!

Contribute to the project!
Want to enhance the VI's capabilities with new plugins? Want to improve or simply laugh at my source code? - I've got you covered!

Check out the manuals on OneDrive for more detailed information about the program, plugin development and source code! You can also visit the project on GitHub, if you want to contribute to the project!

Known bugs and issues
The following aspects do not quite work yet and will be improved in the future:
  • For now, the program can only access keyboard controls - controls assigned to the mouse or joystick are not used by the program yet!
  • Some controls, that require the press of the Alt-key (e.g. jumping at maximum range) may not work on high framerates
  • Native commands for this program are not yet completed and may contain bugs
  • Native voice commands are available in English only for now, however support for different languages is planned for the future
  • Currently available voice commands now are pretty few and quite restricted - they might be expanded on in the future
Any more questions?
Feel free to ask them in the thread below, or send me an e-mail at [email protected]

Special thanks to Nihilus66 for creating the graphics for this program! ;)
Last edited by Scavenger4711 on Tue Oct 04, 2016 10:43 am, edited 6 times in total.
Scavenger4711
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2010 7:40 pm
Location: Germany

Re: VācVI - Personal Ship Assistant

Post by Scavenger4711 »

@Vice
During the development of the program I have encountered two oddities regarding the savedata.txt-file:
For one, in Evochron Legacy, the MDTS status value (line 96) does not seem to get updated at all. On my machines it was always set to 0 (off), no matter whether I enabled it, or had a lock on.
And the second thing I found in Evochron Mercenary: According to the modding kit, there should be 99 values that are being output by the game. However I found a mysterious 100th value! :D
What is that? :))
matchbox2022
Commander
Commander
Posts: 609
Joined: Fri Nov 13, 2015 3:21 pm

Re: VācVI - Personal Ship Assistant

Post by matchbox2022 »

holy moly heavy mod. This was a program you wrote just for this game?
User avatar
DaveK
Global Moderator
Global Moderator
Posts: 4164
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2010 9:04 pm
Location: Leeds UK

Re: VācVI - Personal Ship Assistant

Post by DaveK »

Looks like it could be a replacement for ANNA (created for EM by Galaxian) (see http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtop ... hilit=ANNA) which would be very cool!

I think that Vice starts counting at 0 ... for example we have 100 pilot profile slots, numbered 0-99

:)
User avatar
Vice
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 11617
Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2003 1:38 am
Contact:

Re: VācVI - Personal Ship Assistant

Post by Vice »

During the development of the program I have encountered two oddities regarding the savedata.txt-file:
For one, in Evochron Legacy, the MDTS status value (line 96) does not seem to get updated at all. On my machines it was always set to 0 (off), no matter whether I enabled it, or had a lock on.
Not sure why it would not be updating. I checked the variable label and value, it should stay at 0 when disabled, 1 when active, and 2 when locked.
And the second thing I found in Evochron Mercenary: According to the modding kit, there should be 99 values that are being output by the game. However I found a mysterious 100th value! :D
What is that?
Not sure on that either, perhaps there is a mismatch between the two issues that is related. If you send me a sample of a stored savedata.txt file with the line in question marked somehow, I can take a look to try and determine more.
StarWraith 3D Games
www.starwraith.com | www.spacecombat.org
3D Space Flight and Combat Simulations
Scavenger4711
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2010 7:40 pm
Location: Germany

Re: VācVI - Personal Ship Assistant

Post by Scavenger4711 »

matchbox2022 wrote:holy moly heavy mod. This was a program you wrote just for this game?
Yeah, I had some time to spare and it's great practice ;) But studies are continuing next week, so I guess freetime is over :D
DaveK wrote:I think that Vice starts counting at 0 ... for example we have 100 pilot profile slots, numbered 0-99

:)
No no, I actually took all the relevant lines out of the modding kit's readme file and put them side-by-side with the savedata.txt file in notepad++. There is a last, undocumented 100th value ;)
I found out what it is, see below ;)
Vice wrote:Not sure on that either, perhaps there is a mismatch between the two issues that is related. If you send me a sample of a stored savedata.txt file with the line in question marked somehow, I can take a look to try and determine more.
This value is on line 100 in the file. I tried around a bit and it seems to be the ship's total velocity. It was just not documented in the modding kit, hence my confusion ^^
Vice wrote:Not sure why it would not be updating. I checked the variable label and value, it should stay at 0 when disabled, 1 when active, and 2 when locked.
Strange... I'm going to try around some more. I tried everything on the demo version so far, but I can't really imagine that having anything to do with the issue. I was going to buy the full version anyway - I'll test it there again and keep you updated, when I find out something new. ;)
User avatar
Vice
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 11617
Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2003 1:38 am
Contact:

Re: VācVI - Personal Ship Assistant

Post by Vice »

That could be the problem right there. Avoid using the demo and stick with the full game. The customizing kit and full game will be updated with the latest/current template structures, features, and options. Older demo builds may lag behind on that.
StarWraith 3D Games
www.starwraith.com | www.spacecombat.org
3D Space Flight and Combat Simulations
Scavenger4711
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2010 7:40 pm
Location: Germany

Re: VācVI - Personal Ship Assistant

Post by Scavenger4711 »

Okay, I retried everything with a completely fresh install of the full game (uninstalled old demo + removed the entire sw3dg folder under "C:\" beforehand). I have bought the version on steam, and the full version is unlocked - no problem.

Still the MDTS status stays at '0' no matter what :-\
I tried various savedatasettings intervals, reaching from 100 to 10000, checking both manually in notepad++ via "alt+tab"-ing and via a custom plugin in my program. To me this is very strange as it works flawlessly in Evochron Mercenary and I presume Legacy uses the same or at least a similar system.

Can perhaps anyone else confirm this issue?
User avatar
Vice
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 11617
Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2003 1:38 am
Contact:

Re: VācVI - Personal Ship Assistant

Post by Vice »

Are you certain you are polling the MDTS weapon lock value and not the missile lock value? Does the displayed value change when a missile lock is obtained?
StarWraith 3D Games
www.starwraith.com | www.spacecombat.org
3D Space Flight and Combat Simulations
Scavenger4711
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2010 7:40 pm
Location: Germany

Re: VācVI - Personal Ship Assistant

Post by Scavenger4711 »

Vice wrote:Are you certain you are polling the MDTS weapon lock value and not the missile lock value? Does the displayed value change when a missile lock is obtained?
Yep, I double checked those values. The missile lock-on state gets updated properly in both games. Checking the values with notepad manually confirms that. The missile lock gets set to '1' when locked on and '0' when no lock-on can be achieved.
User avatar
Vice
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 11617
Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2003 1:38 am
Contact:

Re: VācVI - Personal Ship Assistant

Post by Vice »

You are absolutely right. I dug into this and checked some things. A variable mismatch exists between that output structure and the internal value used for the weapon system state. Will be fixed for the next update.
StarWraith 3D Games
www.starwraith.com | www.spacecombat.org
3D Space Flight and Combat Simulations
Scavenger4711
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2010 7:40 pm
Location: Germany

Re: VācVI - Personal Ship Assistant

Post by Scavenger4711 »

Vice wrote:You are absolutely right. I dug into this and checked some things. A variable mismatch exists between that output structure and the internal value used for the weapon system state. Will be fixed for the next update.
Ah, alright. I'm glad that's sorted out. Thanks for your help, Vice! :)
Scavenger4711
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2010 7:40 pm
Location: Germany

Re: VācVI - Personal Ship Assistant [v0.96-beta.1]

Post by Scavenger4711 »

New beta release v0.96-beta.1 out now! Check the main topic post for more details :)
Locked