Screen Tests

Post by **Marvin** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 3:44 pm

Let's start with just the star:

' ****** Star of Gaia
-Star
StarSecX=1025
StarSecY=-3446
StarSecZ=-3475
StarPosX=0
StarPosY=0
StarPosZ=0
StarText=2
-EndStar

The rest of the Gaia section is pretty long. And the entire "universedata" file is much longer. So, if you can't find anything wrong with the above entry, it would probably be best if I email the whole thing (including the "environment" folder if you plan to actually run the mod) to you.

Btw, the navigation map shows something rather odd. It shows my present position to be:

SX 1025, SY -3446, SZ -3475

But it says I'm in the Xaxis system ... except the actual coordinates for the planet in the Xaxis system are:

SX 24524, SY 19852, SZ 33816

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 3:45 pm

Yes, Also did you define the Startext= attribute in this file? It has to be a number defined in the evochronlegendscustumizationkit of the icons-starsandnebula.jpg 1 through 5 or 101 through 105 any other value will not work!;)

verbosity · Post by **verbosity** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 3:59 pm

it looks good to me, is there anything else in that sector?

Possibly try changing the StarText=0 to StarText=1

But it says I'm in the Xaxis system ... except the actual coordinates for the planet in the Xaxis system are:

SX 24524, SY 19852, SZ 33816

IIRC it's defined by the nearest known planet, if Gaia is hidden then it'll show up as a different system.

There is a chance that there's issue caused by the size of the universe you've created ( this shouldn't be the case though ). I'll be happy to have a look and pass it through my parser ( which can help check for errors )

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 4:02 pm

Also it looks from the Original Universedata.txt file that StarSecY can not be greater then 2 or smaller then -2
there is not one star that falls radically out of the Galactic Ecliptic maybe this vallue is hard coded and fixed within these parameters!;)

verbosity · Post by **verbosity** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 4:17 pm

Originally posted by Maarschalk
Also it looks from the Original Universedata.txt file that StarSecY can not be greater then 2 or smaller then -2
there is not one star that falls radically out of the Galactic Ecliptic maybe this vallue is hard coded and fixed within these parameters!;)

I believe that was a choice Vice made and not a requirement of the universe itself ( I've managed to make a star work on +50 SY )

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 4:26 pm

Originally posted by verbosity
Originally posted by Maarschalk
Also it looks from the Original Universedata.txt file that StarSecY can not be greater then 2 or smaller then -2
there is not one star that falls radically out of the Galactic Ecliptic maybe this vallue is hard coded and fixed within these parameters!;)
I believe that was a choice Vice made and not a requirement of the universe itself ( I've managed to make a star work on +50 SY )

I do not know, but maybe this particular parameter for stars only has a max and min value you can not go beyond! What the max and min would be I do not know! You can experiment with it and see if it changes anything! -3400 seems to be a lot thou!;)

[Edited on 7-23-2009 by Maarschalk]

Post by **Marvin** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 4:32 pm

Verb,

I've emailed you the file, along with the "environment" folder. Unfortunately, you'd still need to figure a way to get to the Gaia system on your own (none of the jump gates go to Gaia ... they're all departure gates into other systems).

verbosity · Post by **verbosity** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:29 am

Originally posted by Marvin
Verb,

I've emailed you the file, along with the "environment" folder. Unfortunately, you'd still need to figure a way to get to the Gaia system on your own (none of the jump gates go to Gaia ... they're all departure gates into other systems).

thanks, got it, I'll have a look through it later today

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 2:51 pm

Standing by ....

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 8:27 pm

For fun I decided to create some gates to improve my bussiness route. And I got the same problem you had with a star but with me it was a gate I had created it showed up on my Nav Map with description and everything but not on my radar or vissually and physically! Very weird indeed! I tried all kinds of stuff but just that one gate refused to show up physically in space! It was a return gate that I created refused to show up.
When I first created it it was physically there but then when I created several other gates it physically dissapeared but still showed up on Nav Map only and what ever I tried I could not get it back physically!

I deleted it and just used the other gates I created for the purposes I needed!:(:(:(

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 9:31 pm

Thanks for the input ... even though it does not bode well for my galaxy. But at least it gives me a "heads up" as to what I can expect. (You realize of course, that, if this doesn't work, I'll be spending more time in MP ... and that's not always a good thing.)

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 11:31 pm

Originally posted by verbosity
...is there another star nearby?

Okay, I just checked the Alpha Centauri system and realized it's a binary (actually, it's really at least a trinary, but that's not the point). For the "universedata" file, what's the minimum distance between stars?

Also, are there any other minimum distance requirements (for other objects)?

Post by **Vice** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 2:41 am

For stars, it's generally best to keep them at least 5 sectors away, preferably 7-10. Planets, 4-5, moons, 3-4. For most other objects, just in their own sectors. If two need to be close, just keep them fairly far away from the borders of the sectors.

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 2:52 pm

Thanks Vice. I'll go through the file and move things around a little bit. So far, the jumpgates all show up, both on the map and visually ... the only problem is, even if I define their orientation as something other than 0 (zero), it doesn't change their actual north-south orientation.

For binary star systems, though, I'll move the stars further apart. Almost all the planets are inside the +/- 5000 (scripted ... 50000 actual) range of a sector ... leastwise, along the X-Z axes.

Post by **Vice** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 4:31 pm

Gate rotations were removed after there were some problems when the docking light system was added. Might be something that's added later on.

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:16 pm

Looks like, if I'm going to finish this, I'll need to tear the whole script apart and test it in sections. I put the Sol system at 0,0,0 and it works just fine.

I put Alpha (Centauri) at 163,2,-140 and moved the three stars far enough apart so no two stars can be seen even with the Nav map expanded to maximum ... but, alas, the main star still only shows up on the map (I accidently jumped directly to it ... no blinding light, no explosion, no anything).

Sol system has no jumpgates. Alpha has only one out-going gate ... but it's the destination for 24 one-way gates (the actual gates are distributed around the Spacer worlds). I'd hate to think I can't do that (make Alpha a version of Grand Central Station) ... but I'm beginning to suspect that might be the problem.

Post by **Vice** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:34 pm

If you'll post the code blocks for the three stars, I/we might be able to spot something. One common mistake I've run into before is reversing the posX/Y/Z values with the secX/Y/Z values. Another is leaving out or adding a '-' when one isn't needed. Also make sure to specify a texture value for the stars.

If you jumped to the star and nothing happened, you likely just jumped below it by 2 sectors. If it's at 163,2,-140 and you click on the middle of a sector with it rendered above, you may jump to 163,0,-140 and still be 2 sectors below it. Flip the map to check your SY elevation relative to the star.

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:15 pm

I've gone and put a "REMarks" thingy ( ' ) in front of every line in my script. I will now slowly strip away the REMs to enable one star system at a time.*

When I use the map to jump, I always:

Left-click on the icon in "Top" view.
Left-click again in "Side" view (I renamed it "Side" in the Text file).
Right-click one more time, in "Top" view.

I then check to make sure the waypoint is centered on the icon ... in both views. Which is what I did ... while autopilot was still engaged (I used it to get from Sol to Alpha ... took about ten minutes). And landed right in the middle of where Alpha Centauri showed (icon-wise) ... but nothing showed outside my cockpit.

* This is probably my last-ditch effort. If it doesn't work, I'm stuck.
.
.
.
Update: Okay, I enabled the Sol system and the star in Alpha Centauri. Everything shows in Sol and the star works as advertised (so far) in Alpha.

One odd thing ... in Sol, when I cursor over the Sun, I get both a gray coordinate readout (normal) and a purple readout, as follows --

XYZ: 0K,0K,0K
Sec: 0,0,0
Dest: 0,0,0
[ ]

Update No.2: Okay, I think I might've solved the "odd purple" problem. Turns out, the "universedata" file is really nit-picky about spaces. And not just the space between planets and stars. It also doesn't like it when you indent a line in the file, even if you only indent by one space. Ergo, I suspect the purple was the file crying out, saying "You've defined a gate ... but you didn't do it properly!"

Sure enough, on checking for the gate in Alpha, it only shows up if the typo is corrected.

[Edited on 7-26-2009 by Marvin]

Post by **Marvin** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 7:06 pm

Vice,

Is there anything hard-coded at the 0-0-0 coordinates? 'Cause I have a number of systems working properly now ... but, when I cursor over the star (Sol) at 0-0-0, I continue to get data other than what's expected. I get a tag (label) for Gaia and, if I adjust the cursor slightly, I get a tag for Earth.

The Sol system is too big to list the entire thing here, but the star looks like this:

' ****** Sol
-Star
StarSecX=0
StarSecY=0
StarSecZ=0
StarPosX=0
StarPosY=0
StarPosZ=0
StarText=2
-EndStar

And Earth looks like this:

' ****** The Earth (Terra)
-Planet
PlanetName=Earth
PlanetSecX=-2
PlanetSecY=-2
PlanetSecZ=-1
PlanetPosX=-4500
PlanetPosY=4000
PlanetPosZ=-4500
PlanetText=21
PlanetClds=1
PlanetHaze=2
PlanetStat=0
PlanetEcon=20
PlanetETyp=3
PlanetCity=3
PlanetDock=80
PlanetRing=0
PlanetWeat=0
PlanetTerr=2
PlanetPlnt=1
PlanetWatr=1
-EndPlanet

Other than the odd tagging, everything looks good ... so far.

Post by **Vice** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:46 am

Did you set up a code block for the Gaia object? I might need to examine more of the file to be sure, but one code block may not have been disabled properly or there could be and unspecified object type that's just getting tagged with the wrong ID (have you defined at least one object type for every type available?). If you move the star away from the middle of the sector, do any icons appear in the middle? If you like, I can take a look at the file to look for possible causes.

Post by **Marvin** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:02 pm

I do have at least one of every object defined in the file (else, I'd probably be getting an error code and CTD). So, I'll try moving the star into the next sector to see what happens. If I still get odd readings, I'll send you the current version. Do you want the "environment" folder, too? (Otherwise, you'll be looking at a blank galaxy.)

Btw, when I view all my planets from the side (as opposed to the top), every city sits about 40 degrees latitude. I never noticed if that's the case with all default cities ... but, if it isn't, how do I go about defining a different latitude?

Post by **Vice** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:16 pm

There currently aren't altitude adjustments for cities. Yes, the environment folder would be great.

Post by **Marvin** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:28 pm

Originally posted by Vice:

There currently aren't altitude adjustments for cities.

Okay. Thanks, Vice. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong.

Edit: The files have been zipped and sent to [address removed]
[Edited on 7-29-2009 by Marvin]

[Edited on 7-30-2009 by Vice]

Post by **Vice** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 1:51 am

Thanks. My water softener (an antique from the 80's I think, lol) just split a water line, so I'm going to be busy repairing that for a while. But I'll try to check it out either late tonight or tomorrow.

[Edited on 7-30-2009 by Vice]

Post by **Marvin** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 4:22 pm

I guess we both have water problems. I need to replace a frozen sprinkler head ... grass is turning brown everywhere except along one very narrow strip.

P.S. Sorry 'bout the email addy ... I figured, since I found it posted on one of your webpages ....