third party program nav control

[Vice]

For Verb (and anyone else interested in this), here are the details for using the external text file option for retrieving various values:

To activate the system, create a text file in the game's install folder (where the EXE is located) named savedatasettings.txt Inside the file needs to be an integer value to specify the update rate for the game to use (this way, you can try out various update speeds to see which one might be a good baseline to work with). A good setting to start testing with is 5000, or 5 second updates, which will generally keep the update rate pretty low and shouldn't impact game performance much. The game will create a file named 'savedata.txt' in the same folder as the EXE and will use the following layout for data:

Pilot Name (string)
Fuel (integer)
Cash (string, includes commas)
Cargo Bay 1 (string, cargo type and number, or will display 'Empty' if nothing)
Cargo Bay 2
Cargo Bay 3
Cargo Bay 4
Cargo Bay 5
Player Position X (integer)
Player Position Y (integer)
Player Position Z (integer)
Energy Level (integer)
Front Shield level (integer)
Right Shield level (integer)
Left Shield level (integer)
Rear Shield level (integer)
Shield Level (integer)
Engine Damage (integer)
Weapon Damage (integer)
Nav Damage (integer)
Target Description (string)
Target Threat Level (string)
Target Range (integer)
Target Front Shield level (integer)
Target Right Shield level (integer)
Target Left Shield level (integer)
Target Rear Shield level (integer)
Target Engine Damage (integer)
Target Weapon Damage (integer)
Target Nav Damage (integer)
Target Cargo Bay 1 (string, cargo type and number, or will display nothing if out of sensor range)
Target Cargo Bay 2
Target Cargo Bay 3
Target Cargo Bay 4
Target Cargo Bay 5
Inbound Missile Alert (0 for off, 1 for on)
Particle Cannon (string)
Beam Cannon (string)
Secondary Weapon Slot 1 (string, will display 'Empty' if no weapon is loaded)
Secondary Weapon Slot 2
Secondary Weapon Slot 3
Secondary Weapon Slot 4
Secondary Weapon Slot 5
Secondary Weapon Slot 6
Secondary Weapon Slot 7
Secondary Weapon Slot 8
Equipment Slot 1
Equipment Slot 2
Equipment Slot 3
Equipment Slot 4
Equipment Slot 5
Equipment Slot 6
Equipment Slot 7
Equipment Slot 8

[Edited on 9-7-2010 by Vice]

[verbosity]

hey thats pretty cool!

a couple of quick questions ( more to be added soon )
Is it possible to implement a savedir.txt file to save it to another location?
If I was going to do something with this I'd probably have an update rate of around ( or more than ) one minute would this cause any issues?

[Vice]

Is it possible to implement a savedir.txt file to save it to another location?

Not yet, although I guess I could include the savedir/save data folder routine to it. I figure anyone wanting to use it would prefer to keep their third party app in the same folder as a the EXE and keep all data management in that same folder. But I could probably split it up, one for the text file detection, the other for saving the data. I'll include the savedir value for the next update.

If I was going to do something with this I'd probably have an update rate of around ( or more than ) one minute would this cause any issues?

Should work fine.

[verbosity]

Originally posted by Vice
Not yet, although I guess I could include the savedir/save data folder routine to it. I figure anyone wanting to use it would prefer to keep their third party app in the same folder as a the EXE and keep all data management in that same folder. But I could probably split it up, one for the text file detection, the other for saving the data. I'll include the savedir value for the next update.

Thanks, everything I code is in php and needs a webserver, and the files in the web directory for them to be accessed, I'm going to try and build something that would do the job in C++ but I know nothing about the language.

[verbosity]

would it be possible to include equipment information?
I'd also ask about the ship and its build details, for those that only play SP

[Vice]

would it be possible to include equipment information?
I'd also ask about the ship and its build details, for those that only play SP

I should be able to add the equipment data for the next build at least.

[Vice]

Probably not at this stage, too many code changes would be involved.

[verbosity]

sorry, another request with this file, is it possible for the first line of the file to be the pilots name ( I've no way of linking them otherwise )

[Vice]

Consider it done, I'll try to have the update ready later today.

[verbosity]

thanks man

[Vice]

Ok, here is the new layout:

Pilot Name (string)
Fuel (integer)
Cash (string, includes commas)
Cargo Bay 1 (string, cargo type and number, or will display 'Empty' if nothing)
Cargo Bay 2
Cargo Bay 3
Cargo Bay 4
Cargo Bay 5
Player Position X (integer)
Player Position Y (integer)
Player Position Z (integer)
Energy Level (integer)
Front Shield level (integer)
Right Shield level (integer)
Left Shield level (integer)
Rear Shield level (integer)
Shield Level (integer)
Engine Damage (integer)
Weapon Damage (integer)
Nav Damage (integer)
Target Description (string)
Target Threat Level (string)
Target Range (integer)
Target Front Shield level (integer)
Target Right Shield level (integer)
Target Left Shield level (integer)
Target Rear Shield level (integer)
Target Engine Damage (integer)
Target Weapon Damage (integer)
Target Nav Damage (integer)
Target Cargo Bay 1 (string, cargo type and number, or will display nothing if out of sensor range)
Target Cargo Bay 2
Target Cargo Bay 3
Target Cargo Bay 4
Target Cargo Bay 5
Inbound Missile Alert (0 for off, 1 for on)
Particle Cannon (string)
Beam Cannon (string)
Secondary Weapon Slot 1 (string, will display 'Empty' if no weapon is loaded)
Secondary Weapon Slot 2
Secondary Weapon Slot 3
Secondary Weapon Slot 4
Secondary Weapon Slot 5
Secondary Weapon Slot 6
Secondary Weapon Slot 7
Secondary Weapon Slot 8
Equipment Slot 1
Equipment Slot 2
Equipment Slot 3
Equipment Slot 4
Equipment Slot 5
Equipment Slot 6
Equipment Slot 7
Equipment Slot 8

And I'll try to have it uploaded in a few hours.

[verbosity]

thanks again

[Vice]

Ok, update with the player name entry is ready for download, same download link.

[Vice]

Yeah, maybe.

[Hopsalot]

Wow!

I keep thinking that I have found my favorite "new" feature in Mercenary and then I find something else even neater to displace my old favorite.

I have been playing with this feature in my custom cockpit and have quickly been able to duplicate and customize almost all of the left MFD. Would it be possible to add set velocity and actual velocity to the file? I think the only other thing that may be missing is the counter if you fire an Excaliber (I have not tried this.)

So far I have drawn a little ship and added bar graphs for shields, engines, sensors etc. over the top of my ship cartoon. (The cartoon needs work). The bar graphs are driven by the file. I also have Nav Info (Text) and some other extras on the display. I need a speedometer. (or 2)

This is close to a cockpit builders dream. It only took me part of an evening to figure out how to work with this. Now I have caught the modification bug again and may have to hangar my ship for a while so the ground crew can work on other improvements.

When you load your current pilot, there is a ship cartoon of the current ship configuration, is this available as a graphics file?
Can this file be extended to provide data on all displays? Is there a way to get the little targeted ship pictures as seperate graphics files?

I am sure I will have plenty of other questions as I explore the capabilities of this feature.


Thank you Vice, for another great mod!

[Muni]

Hi Vice...

is it maybe possible to save the sx, sy, sz in the savedata.txt file?

And what are the max(x), min(x), max(y), min(y), and max(z), min(z) coordinates of the Evochron Universe?

I could use these numbers to write a flight-logging tool to track down my path across the universe maybe with a time stamp.


This brings me to... maybe you could add the playtime in the logfile? I think this could be no problem because you already have a timer in the game.

Thanks for your hard work!

[Vice]

Would it be possible to add set velocity and actual velocity to the file?

Probably, but the problem would be update rate. The save file system can only loop so fast before performance can become an issue, so readouts like speed that are often updated very rapidly could often fall significantly behind with the save file system.

When you load your current pilot, there is a ship cartoon of the current ship configuration, is this available as a graphics file?

Not currently. If you wanted a static image to work with, you can hit print screen to save the image to memory, then crop and adjust it as needed for a static display image.

Can this file be extended to provide data on all displays? Is there a way to get the little targeted ship pictures as seperate graphics files?

It displays most of the data (see below), aside from some visual indicators/effects and rapidly changing readouts. If you wanted to export image data from a MFD, you'd probably need some kind of zoning system for external displays (kind of like what this player did here: http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtop ... 1#pid50504 )

is it maybe possible to save the sx, sy, sz in the savedata.txt file?

That is included in the file, the list above is a little outdated. Here is the current list:

Pilot Name (string)
Fuel (integer)
Cash (string, includes commas)
Cargo Bay 1 (string, cargo type and number, or will display 'Empty' if nothing)
Cargo Bay 2
Cargo Bay 3
Cargo Bay 4
Cargo Bay 5
Player Position X (integer)
Player Position Y (integer)
Player Position Z (integer)
Player Position SX (integer)
Player Position SY (integer)
Player Position SZ (integer)
Energy Level (integer)
Front Shield level (integer)
Right Shield level (integer)
Left Shield level (integer)
Rear Shield level (integer)
Shield Level (integer)
Engine Damage (integer)
Weapon Damage (integer)
Nav Damage (integer)
Target Description (string)
Target Threat Level (string)
Target Range (integer)
Target Front Shield level (integer)
Target Right Shield level (integer)
Target Left Shield level (integer)
Target Rear Shield level (integer)
Target Engine Damage (integer)
Target Weapon Damage (integer)
Target Nav Damage (integer)
Target Cargo Bay 1 (string, cargo type and number, or will display nothing if out of sensor range)
Target Cargo Bay 2
Target Cargo Bay 3
Target Cargo Bay 4
Target Cargo Bay 5
Inbound Missile Alert (0 for off, 1 for on)
Particle Cannon (string)
Beam Cannon (string)
Secondary Weapon Slot 1 (string, will display 'Empty' if no weapon is loaded)
Secondary Weapon Slot 2
Secondary Weapon Slot 3
Secondary Weapon Slot 4
Secondary Weapon Slot 5
Secondary Weapon Slot 6
Secondary Weapon Slot 7
Secondary Weapon Slot 8
Equipment Slot 1
Equipment Slot 2
Equipment Slot 3
Equipment Slot 4
Equipment Slot 5
Equipment Slot 6
Equipment Slot 7
Equipment Slot 8

And what are the max(x), min(x), max(y), min(y), and max(z), min(z) coordinates of the Evochron Universe?

The Evochron Quadrant itself is about +/- 5000 sectors SX, SZ, +/- 2 sectors SY on the galactic ecliptic.

maybe you could add the playtime in the logfile?

Maybe, except that it would start from 0 from the time it is added

[chilong]

Is Saving in-game data to a text file used only by those people who are programmers/designers? I don't mean to take up your time asking about things that are beyond me but can you tell me in a sentence or 3 what this is used for?

[Vice]

This kind of option is used for 3rd party programs and devices to display and/or record in-game information.

[chilong]

Thanks, Vice

[Edited on 10-16-2010 by chilong]

[Muni]

Hi @all,

i played a little bit around with the values of this file....

This is the first solution:




For now this only works with one sector.
With the timer interval you can control the reload time of the
values stored in savedata.txt.

The little dot represent a point where the ship was. You can click on the dot and on the right side the values show up.

Vice can you store the speed value of the ship in the txt file?

Bye Muni

[Marvin]

Well, from what I can tell, your system has possibilities. Problem is, that thumbnail is hard to view and going to Imageshack is almost like visiting a porno site.

[Vice]

Vice can you store the speed value of the ship in the txt file?

As explained earlier, I'd likely prefer to leave this out. The save file system can only loop so fast before performance can become an issue, so readouts like speed that are often updated very rapidly could often fall significantly behind with the save file system. However, since you are monitoring the position, you can calculate the velocity with this type of equation (may need some fine tuning):


dx=abs(oldx-x)
dy=abs(oldy-y)
dz=abs(oldz-z)
speed=sqrt((dx*dx)+(dy*dy)+(dz*dz))
speed=speed*10

[Aesir Rising]

Muni wrote this program. This is just a better link to his original screenshot. I did not write this program.



This thumb bypasses the intermediate step through the imageshack portal.

I did not write this program.

[Edited on 10-20-2010 by Aesir Rising]

[nebogloee]

Muni - any chance the source for your little prog here will end up on the interwebs? I want to hack out an interface as well, but do not like like to duplicate coding efforts . . . .
Neboglory

edit - just thinking - what if we could parse the objects from the evochron universe map and include that info as well - or maybe even add entries from the app and get updated to the universe site? Just ideas - I was going to hack one out in visual c++, but qtcreator and oss sound more apealing to linux nerd.


[Edited on 10-19-2010 by nebogloee]

[Edited on 10-20-2010 by nebogloee]