Correction

Noesis · Post by **Noesis** » Mon May 12, 2014 8:35 am

So I downloaded the source for travel buddy a while ago as I had to change the path for the savedata.txt file (since I don't have EM installed in the default location) and noticed the gasing up.txt file.

Wondering if this is still something that is desired ?

If so, the "String.IndexOf" method is likely what is needed for getting the position to split the string.

Post by **DaveK** » Mon May 12, 2014 5:38 pm

Is it possible to turn off or at least mute the sounds in Travel buddy?

Post by **Marvin** » Mon May 12, 2014 7:26 pm

From post: 170060, Topic: tid=11400, author=DaveK wrote:Is it possible to turn off or at least mute the sounds in Travel buddy?

Yes ... and evidently Noesis knows how to do it. But, if the "gassing up" change is implemented, you might want to keep the sound ... the idea being it will let you go do something else while your ship is using the refueling station ... and let you know when it's full (+/- a liter or two).

Post by **DaveK** » Mon May 12, 2014 9:15 pm

Sounds interesting - and useful. Now I've got electronic ears the beeps are a bit obtrusive.

Post by **Marvin** » Mon May 12, 2014 11:51 pm

What I do is check the ETE and set my watch. Then come back and disable the Buddy before I reach my destination. But ... if you're wearing a headset, then aren't you watching your ship's progress? And able to disengage the Buddy before it starts beeping?

Noesis · Post by **Noesis** » Tue May 13, 2014 6:51 am

I use a headset too so as a result I've got to admit, if the "gasing up" modification were made it wouldn't be very helpful for me as if I'm away from the computer, I usually remove my headset (it is wireless and I could keep wearing it but I generally just don't).

For me it would be more helpful to have a time estimate displayed telling approx how long till the fuel is filled. Having said this, I know (well think I know my C# is pretty rusty) how to split the string and & put the parts into separate variables but I'm not sure exactly where to put it. I was kind of answering the question posed in that text file and wondering if Marvin still wanted to do it (my guess is he's undecided at this stage). Don't get me wrong I'm willing to give it a go should it be desired but it is Marvins program, and idea so not unless he wants me to and doesn't want to do it himself.

Finally Dave with regard to the sound during navigation I have actually modified that bit slightly in the version I use, by adding an if statement checking to see if the Autopilot is on (essentially making it only play the sound when autopilot is on). I can send the one I use to you if you u2u me your email address, as I don't really want to publicly release some split version especially if Marvin wants to make these refuelling changes. Another point to note is that the version I use will look in it's own folder for the savedata.txt file (i.e. it must be located in the same folder as the savedata.txt file).

Hope this makes sense, I'm in a bit of a rush.

Post by **DaveK** » Tue May 13, 2014 9:57 am

Electronic ears - Hearing Aids - they pump high frequencies in @ around 100 decibels so I can hear them!

Post by **DaveK** » Tue May 13, 2014 10:04 am

From post: 170082, Topic: tid=11400, author=Noesis wrote: Finally Dave with regard to the sound during navigation I have actually modified that bit slightly in the version I use, by adding an if statement checking to see if the Autopilot is on (essentially making it only play the sound when autopilot is on). I can send the one I use to you if you u2u me your email address, as I don't really want to publicly release some split version especially if Marvin wants to make these refuelling changes. Another point to note is that the version I use will look in it's own folder for the savedata.txt file (i.e. it must be located in the same folder as the savedata.txt file).

Thanks very much!

U2U sent

Post by **Marvin** » Tue May 13, 2014 2:58 pm

If you want to add the refueling option, go ahead. I'd suggest making it the type of subroutine where, when engaged, the ETE readout is replaced by the Fuel On Board readout ... so as to keep the size of the dispaly small enough to fit in the corner of your cockpit. As for turning off the sound when not in autopilot mode ... I don't know how that would help: when I disengage autopilot, I also disengage the Buddy. It's the reason for the "Disengage" button.

Post by **DaveK** » Tue May 13, 2014 10:04 pm

It's less about turning the sound off and more turning the volume down - when I have my sound system at a reasonable level for in game sounds, the beeps are so loud that even Her Ladyship can hear them downstairs! It's an issue of my ears rather than the programme! In DS exploring - (1) jump 'til empty - (2) deploy - (3) refuel - goto (1), I can manage by turning the overall sound down since there's not much background stuff going on, but with in core exploration that's an immersion breaking strategy.

I'd love to have TB there in the HUD all the time - with an option like in EM-Tools of silencing it. The 'dream team' option would be a volume control with gradation between on and off. And the absolute dream team option would add a volume adjustable gassing up as well. As it says in a well respected book - 'don't ask, don't get' or words to that effect!

Bur whatever develops, many thanks to you and your boy for creating and sharing TB in the first place!

Post by **Marvin** » Wed May 14, 2014 2:44 am

I put the beep in ... 'cause my computer is usually next to a convertible bed ... where I lay my weary head while trekking across the Evoverse. The beep wakes me. I can extricate the option ... but it's a computer-generated sound which, as far as I know, can't be adjusted as a volume without turning down all the sounds in the computer.

Post by **DaveK** » Wed May 14, 2014 8:54 am

So it's an all or nothing sound!

I envy people like Noesis and you who can create and edit utilities like TB and MapLog. Making the beep lower pitched would make it less intrusive and be a good 'Hello World' exercise - first stage of learning to create utilities from scratch!

I learned 6502 Assembler and made some progress with LISP and C (BBC Micro and the Archimedes which were designed to make programming easy!) but hit a brick wall with the OOP languages (I tried C++) - just couldn't get my head around the logic

What programme did you use for TB? What language is it in? Is a freebie version available or is it an investment jobby? - I don't mind paying if I can handle the task - it's worth it for the challenge and the fun

I'm too old to get into the 3D modelling and texturing side of things, but utility writing might be feasible . . .

Post by **Marvin** » Wed May 14, 2014 2:59 pm

MS Visual Studios Express 2012 ... a free DL at Microsoft. The program was written in .NET 4.0 and 4.5 ... I suggest 4.0 so that you can use the program with WinXP.

Noesis · Post by **Noesis** » Wed May 14, 2014 3:11 pm

TB is written in C sharp (usually abbreviated to C# or CS, the latter being the file extension for the text file containing the code). I use MS Visual Studio Express for this language which is the free cut-down version of Visual Studio.

I'd definitely recommend getting you're hands dirty with TB over MapLog though, it's a much simpler program to understand from a code perspective.

As far as what you're thinking about changing the pitch well that is achievable since the command used for the beeps in TB, can only be altered in two ways, 1. the beeps pitch and 2. it's duration.

To be honest even if TB was playing a *.wav file for the sound (which isn't too hard) changing the volume of that sound (separately from the system volume) is quite hard, and frankly not worth the effort considering what TB is designed to do - it would be easier to use Audacity or something to simply change the inbuilt volume of the wav file.

Only mention that last point because I was thinking along those lines earlier of maybe have an option to use a wav file to play the sound.

Post by **Marvin** » Wed May 14, 2014 3:34 pm

Noesis is correct about the program being written in C# ... if you click on the *.sin icon after installing VS, it will automatically launch C# and load the program for editing.

Noesis · Post by **Noesis** » Sun Jun 01, 2014 3:27 pm

So I've gotten around to modifying Travelbuddy, but I've only done a few smallish tests (i.e. filling approx 900 units of fuel) so the estimates might not be all that accurate for larger quantaties (but shouldn't be too far off - I hope).

Can be downloaded here for the time being. (I'll send the source and a copy of the exe to Seejay in a couple of weeks assuming there are no posts of any problems/requests for minor alterations).

A few things to note, Travel buddy will look for the savedata.txt file in it's current path by default, however if you run it once and click exit, a settings file (travelbuddy.ini) will be created and the path can be changed to whatever path you wish.

There are other settings in the file but these can be set/adjusted by right-clicking the TB window where a menu will show up. The path setting is the only one that requires manual editing of the travelbuddy.ini file and as always the program will crash if this file doesn't exist in the defined directory.

The "other" settings are Sound (i.e. on or off), Opaque Text (i.e. Making the window more transparent will do what it always did making whole window including text more transparent (default) or if selected will keep the text opaque while making the rest of the window more transparent) and finally a setting which will save where the window was last located on the screen and what transparency it was at when last closed, and restore TB to that position & transparency level.

I also made a couple of other changes with regard to the display for jumping, and time till destination, will display as hours & minutes if it's more than 59 minutes. Fuel required is color coded red/yellow if estimated fuel exceeds fuel on board.

Post by **Marvin** » Sun Jun 01, 2014 4:36 pm

Cool. But Chrome won't let me DL the file from its current location.

Is anyone else having the same problem?

Post by **DaveK** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 6:53 am

Firefox allows it

Just done a quick try out - great! Thanks to both of you

[Edited on 2-6-2014 by DaveK]

Noesis · Post by **Noesis** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 7:14 am

Yeah, I use FF too, not sure why, try the attachment to this post, fortunately it's a small file.

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 4:33 pm

Got it ... I'll try it out today. Thanks.

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 6:46 pm

I like the refueling monitor ... really cool. Countdown timer. Audio warning when tank is full. Good job.[/list]
[*] But I do prefer time and distance to be calculated as "minimum - maximum" as opposed to "+/-" ... otherwise I sometimes find myself hunting for a calculator.

[*] I noticed that the "IDS Engaged" warning reverts to the blue-green color when in the refueling mode, even if inertial is not engaged ("Energy Bias" warning remains red when it's supposed to).

[*] For those of us who use JSGME and install the game and mods in the default folder, I suggest changing line 2 of the travelbuddy configuration (.ini) file to the full path:

Path=C:\\sw3dg\\EvochronMercenary\\savedata.txt

Then add the savedatasetting.txt file to the JSGME folder, along with the TravelBuddy.exe and the travelbuddy.ini files. Do not forget the savedatasetting file, else your Travel Buddy will never update itself.[/list]

[Edited on 6-3-2014 by Marvin]

Noesis · Post by **Noesis** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 2:39 pm

Thanks Marvin,

With point 2, I deliberately made the IDS engaged go to the neutral (blue green) colour as it has negligible effect on a refuelling operation, when done via a fuel depot (as you have to be stationary in order to refuel), and when doing if via fuel converter and using a star chances are you'll be using IDS mode to stop gravity causing you drift into the star - hence I figured if it was red it would be counter intuitive for this situation.

I'm a bit confused with point 1 though. Main reason I included the +/- for refuelling time estimate was for consistency with the navigation side of things, and the fact that it's an estimate so it's prone to error. I guess the reason I'm confused is that the time en-route always did have this ... unless there was modification made and the source on SeeJays site is from older code ?

I'll have to revisit the +/- thing anyway as I stuffed up the calculation for the +/- instance where one might be refuelling using both a fuel depot and fuel converter in a Nebula, i.e. while the estimate part is fine using a the two rates combined, I also combined the errors so that part will be bigger than it should (i.e. that should be the larger of the two error components not both combined).

Post by **Marvin** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 5:41 pm

I guess the change I made to the fuel and time estimates never made it beyond my own computer. I did check your +/- estimates and added/subtracted them to the base calculation and they were the same as in my latest version of the program. I can dig out the change in the program and list it here ... right after I finish reading all the other lit bulbs (before they go out ... which they manage to do, before I can read all the posts, quite often).

Post by **Marvin** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 6:08 pm

//Determine Estimated Time Enroute
double dblETE = dblRange / dblEngine;
double dblEslop = dblETE * .03986135;
//Determine fuel consumption
double dblFuel = dblETE * dblMilage;
double dblFslop = dblFuel * .04311414;
//Check if more than 1 minute is remaining in the trip
if (Math.Round(dblETE) > 0)
{
//Set the text of the text block
this.txtLine4.Text = "Time Enroute: " + Math.Round(dblETE - dblEslop).ToString() + " - " + Math.Round(dblETE + dblEslop).ToString() + " minutes";
}
else
{
//Set the text of the text block
this.txtLine4.Text = "Time Enroute: Less than 1 minute";
}
//Set the text of the text block
this.txtLine5.Text = "Fuel Consumption: " + Math.Round(dblFuel - dblFslop).ToString() + " - " + Math.Round(dblFuel + dblFslop).ToString() + " units";

Noesis · Post by **Noesis** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 2:44 pm

Ok I understand now, I'll make it so you can switch between the two representations dynamically by double clicking on the displayed line and it will remember which was last displayed. Personally I see a use for both representations at times.

FYI the fuel consumption line uses similar logic to determine the color of the line i.e red if fuel is less than the minimum, white if greater than the maximum otherwise yellow - for the precise reason you mentioned earlier, I couldn't be bothered manually adding it either

Finally out of curiosity, do you remember how you arrived at the figures you used for engine, milage & the two slop values ? looking at them I'm having trouble seeing a relationship between the different figures used for each drive and in fact the class 4 drive seems out of whack with the rest (i.e. most are a bit less than their max jump range * 4 but the class four drive is slightly greater than it. Just seems a bit strange to me).