Screen Tests

Post by **Vice** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 6:48 pm

Turns out this was a bug with the game. It has been fixed for the next update.

Oh, I was able to fix the water softener, but it took a lot longer than I had anticipated. Problem was with an internal water line, so I fixed that. But when I turned on the water, the bypass valve decided to spring a leak, which required repair also, lol.

[Edited on 7-30-2009 by Vice]

MMaggio · Post by **MMaggio** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 7:15 pm

Wish I was there...

Post by **Marvin** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:58 pm

Originally posted by Vice

Turns out this was a bug with the game.

Hmmm ... just when I had an idea for using the "bug" as a hint, riddle, puzzle, whatever. Better it's fixed though ... else, it might get fixed after I make use of it. How confusing would that be?

P.S. Congrats on completing that plumbing job.

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 5:47 pm

Vice,

Do you have anything hard-coded somewhere in the vacinity of SX8864, SY-10801, SZ-27676?

I put a planet (Terminus), a star, and a cave asteroid in that area ... then linked it to a two-way jumpgate originating in the Blue Drift Nebula (see the "universedata" file I sent you yesterday). After going through the gate, all is as expected, except for a blue nebula off in the distance. Throttling up, I get the warning I'm entering a nebula. Then everything turns cloudy-blue ... and the nebula follows me wherever I go.

It would be a nice effect except, according to Asimov, Terminus isn't surrounded by a nebula.

I thought maybe I was dragging the Blue Drift nebula with me as I went through the gate, so I moved the gate's entry position one sector west (left) ... thereby moving it outside Blue Drift. But no luck. I still find a nebula waiting for me after going through the gate.

Btw, as a side note, the bitmap files in the "environment" folder do not work as advertised if you don't delete the "thumbs" file from the folder.

Post by **Vice** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:33 pm

That may just be a calculation limit out that far. On the game's scale, that's intergalactic, far outside the range of the MW galaxy (and very far below the galactic ecliptic on SY). As a test, I'd suggest raising the SY value to one less character, maybe something like -9801, then test again to see if it works correctly. That would confirm that a particular calc limit may have been reached (which are pretty inflexible in the development language I use).

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 11:09 pm

Okay, I'll give it a try. Watch this space for further developments.

Situation Update:

Moved entry gate 10 sectors from Blue Rift Nebula ... no change.
Changed SY to -9801 ... no change.
Changed SZ to -9676 ... rogue nebula does not appear.
Added digit to SZ (i.e. -19676) ... rogue nebula reappears.

Evidently, there is a limit to the size of the galaxy ... after which, unintended strange things begin to happen.

[Edited on 8-1-2009 by Marvin]

Post by **Marvin** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:46 pm

Btw, Vice ... thanks for fixing the problem noted above.

Now for another odd question: Is there a trick to placing asteroid caves in the "universedata" file? I have three ... two of them have carriers hidden inside. Originally, all three had carriers but, when I entered the second asteroid cave, I blew up just as my ship approached the back side of the hangar. So I removed the carrier and tried entering the cave again ... but still blew up.

What's odd is that one of the carrier-inside-asteroid setups actually works. The other two don't (I blow up) ... even when I disable the carrier part.

Here's a cave that causes me to blow up (carrier disabled):

-Asteroid Cave
CaveSecX=8863
CaveSecY=-10800
CaveSecZ=-27675
CavePosX=0
CavePosY=7000
CavePosZ=0
CaveRoof=12
CaveText=1
-EndCave

And here's the one that works:

' *** 1st Base Ops of Mule

-Asteroid Cave
CaveSecX=-1454
CaveSecY=290
CaveSecZ=-2097
CavePosX=0
CavePosY=0
CavePosZ=0
CaveRoof=12
CaveText=1
-EndCave

-Carrier
CarrierName=Eagle Base
CarrierSecX=-1454
CarrierSecY=290
CarrierSecZ=-2097
CarrierPosX=650
CarrierPosY=-20
CarrierPosZ=670
HideObject=1
-EndCarrier

So, am I missing something? Have I somehow booby-trapped my asteroid caves? Are they maybe linked to reputation or certain areas of space?

Post by **Vice** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 4:57 pm

There is a roof offset value that has been annoying me for a long time with the caves. Has to do with blending the terrain matrix into the environment and the 'get ground height' calculations used in conjunction with the position and elevation offsets. In short, it means that it's best to keep caves on a Y position of 0.

Post by **Marvin** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 5:41 pm

Originally posted by Vice

In short, it means that it's best to keep caves on a Y position of 0.

Well, I checked the other "booby-trapped" cave and, indeed, the Y-axis is set to a much higher number. I'll change both and see how it works ... I suspect it'll be just fine, since the one that does work has a Y-value of zero.

And, if it works, I'm good.

Post by **Marvin** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 7:44 pm

Vice mentioned the CaveRoof variable earlier ... said it was a bit finicky, IIRC. No problem, though. I made the Y-axis change and the booby-trap has been disarmed. I can now fly inside my caves ... even the ones with hidden carriers inside.

Thanks, Vice.

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 9:54 pm

A rather odd glitch:

I've seen this three times so far ... all at extended ranges. The station pictured above is at the following coordinates:

SX 8863, SY -10300, SZ -27575

I had two stations do this, then closed the game and restarted my computer, just in case I had a borked load. But the glitch persisted.

I wonder if this is Eclipse's way of insisting we use his new force field mod.

BraveHart · Post by **BraveHart** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 12:35 am

Wow that is odd

....."Don't shoot the Bubble"

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 4:21 am

I'd chalk it up to the solar wind but none of these stations are located anywhere near a star.

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 5:15 am

Originally posted by Marvin
I'd chalk it up to the solar wind but none of these stations are located anywhere near a star.

I think it is the shape of the roof and floor which is pushing the bubble towards the section with the least resistance.

Try making the floor and ceiling slope the opposite way or check other stations that do look proper to see if the floor and ceiling is differently shaped. Just a thought might be shooting blanks here.

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 4:01 pm

Originally posted by Maarschalk

Try making the floor and ceiling slope the opposite way or check other stations that do look proper to see if the floor and ceiling is differently shaped.

I think you have me confused with a Mason. I didn't build the station ... it's stock. I just had it built ... so blame the builder. (You might be right about the problem being with the floor and ceiling, though ... when I exited the station, I "bumped" into the center pole, even though it wasn't visually in my way.)

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 8:13 pm

Originally posted by Marvin
Originally posted by Maarschalk

Try making the floor and ceiling slope the opposite way or check other stations that do look proper to see if the floor and ceiling is differently shaped.
I think you have me confused with a Mason. I didn't build the station ... it's stock. I just had it built ... so blame the builder. (You might be right about the problem being with the floor and ceiling, though ... when I exited the station, I "bumped" into the center pole, even though it wasn't visually in my way.)

ROFL, I constantly seem to mix up names in the Forum.

:P:P:P:P

BraveHart · Post by **BraveHart** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 8:22 pm

Hahahaha

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 10:41 pm

Originally posted by Eclipse

I've seen really odd atmoshield things, including being 12K away from station and dockable.
I have not seen these since updating my graphic drivers though.

At all stations or just a few? 'Cause I don't see how it could be a driver problem unless it showed up all the time.

Edit: I can't figure it out.

From a gate at 4694, -5681, -19998 I jump to a gate at 8664, -10601, -27276 and fly directly to a station at 8764, -10701, -27475. The force field looks just fine.

From there I fly directly to a station at 8913, -10650, -27524 and the force field is skewed off-center.

I then fly directly back to the first station and its force field is as it was: perfect.

So, somewhere between -27276 and -27474, a black hole (not programmed by me) must be pulling at all the rimward force fields. (Or, as proposed above, at the stations generating the force fields.)

[Edited on 10-4-2009 by Marvin]

Post by **Marvin** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:06 pm

Scientists say there's a black hole at the center of our galaxy. If so, I wonder if it's just a coincidence that some of my force fields are being pulled toward the center of the Milky Way.

In the following screen shot, it's hard to see how badly the force field is skewed because the station is aligned with the galactic center ... ergo, the field is being pulled directly away from me (see the screenie above for a more tangential angle). Sort of like what our solar system will be doing, relative to the galaxy, in December of 2012.

Vice, is there any trick to preventing skewed force fields?

Post by **Vice** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:40 pm

Tighter sector confines. First, try bringing the SY level closer to 0. If that doesn't work, bring in the SX and/or SZ values. There are a lot of value transfers to different types and I suspect one of them might not like high range transfers.

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 4:24 am

Odd, though, that a station located at ...

8764, -10701, -27475

... looks just fine. So, for the time being, I'm going to replace some of the stations with constructor stations and see if that works.

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 5:33 pm

Ahoy, Vice!

There are two numbers above each description. I assume the second number corresponds to the number of lines in the description ... is that correct?

The top number has me stumped. At first glance, I thought it might correspond to the planet's listing in the universedata file. But that's wrong ... Sapphire has a number of "-1" in the systemdata file but isn't the first planet listed in the universedata file. What does that number really represent?

Post by **Vice** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 5:39 pm

Second number is the number of lines.

Top number is the 'ReputationID' value for the system to display data for.

[Edited on 10-12-2009 by Vice]

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 9:40 pm

I think I've got it now ... assuming, in your last post, you switched the two numbers around. So, correct me if I've got this wrong:

The first number in each section of the systemdata file coincides with "ReputationID" in the universedata file. As in the following example for the Virgo system ...

systemdata:
-40
20
Virgo:

universedata:
******************************************* Virgo system

-Local Nebula Backdrop And Reputation
NebBackXLow=1
NebBackXHigh=1000
NebBackYLow=-100
NebBackYHigh=100
NebBackZLow=-2000
NebBackZHigh=-1001
NebBackText=5
ReputationID=40
Reputation=1
-EndNebBack

The "-40" of systemdata corresponds to the reputation ID of "40" in universedata. Is that correct? (If so, it means I might currently have a conflict between a modded universedate file and your default systemdata file.)

While I'm at it, one more question: what's the maximum length of a line of text in the systemdata file, describing the system?

Post by **Vice** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:40 pm

Yup, that's it

You'll generally want to stay under around 80 characters per line to stay within the console borders.