Pioneer alpha2 released!

[tomm]

At long last Pioneer alpha 2 is out. Grab the win32 exe from the downloads page (this windows binary is compiled with optimisations disabled due to an issue I couldn't resolve...):http://pioneerspacesim.net/downloadSource is in the SVN repository.I think this is an important milestone because the lua mission system's architecture is basically 'done', and we can begin putting in the real content of the game, which is missions. I'm also optimistic that coding will speed up a bit since my contract ends next week and I join the joyous millions unemployed!Notable changes this release are:[*:16h7pc8p]Lua missions system. The documentation on the wiki (
[url]http://pioneerspacesim.net/wiki[/url] isn't 100% up-to-date and this needs to be worked on.[*:16h7pc8p]Much improved docking animation support.[*:16h7pc8p]Some UI improvements and mouse wheel support.[*:16h7pc8p]Wavefront obj model loader, more 3d primitives and texturing.[*:16h7pc8p]Police.[*:16h7pc8p]Ship definitions are now in Lua rather than hard-coded.[*:16h7pc8p]Orbital autopilot.[*:16h7pc8p]Some new sound effects (with lots more to come).[*:16h7pc8p]And lots of other things... The plan for alpha3 is to put lots of ships and other objects into the game, more sound effects and ambient sounds, and flesh out the mission/module system more by adding more missions. Also the settings currently held in config.ini should be moved into the game user interface.

[Geraldine]

Welcome back tomm! <img src="'[url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gif[/url] class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /> To say you were missed would be an understatement! <img src="'[url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_lol.gif[/url] class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> That's great news about Alpha 2, <img src="'[url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_cool.gif[/url] class='bbc_emoticon' alt='8-)' /> downloading it as soon as I finish writing this. A discussion has started on the forum about missions for Pioneer, take a look. Your views would be helpful. Here is a link [url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/topic/742-pioneer-new-gpl-frontier-elite-2-style-game/[/url]

[tomm]

Geraldine wrote:
Welcome back tomm! To say you were missed would be an understatement!
You are stellar dudes. The lonely slog through icy plateaus of C++ is made possible by such kind words

[Geraldine]

I have been trying to spread the word on the Frontier Forum, so I hope you will have some helpers soon to help get through all that ice. As for the kind words, you thoroughly deserve them

[Pinback]

Excellent ,will be trying it out later.Just had quick look,bit confusing starting in a big grey box .enjoyed watching the police blow up.

[Potsmoke66]

pinback, color up that grey box! no really get into it i know you have some powers, use themmay the far.. whatevever!anyway buildings are a good subject to start with, before you release your 100'000 tons star destroyer

[Marcel]

I'd like to move my saved games from the first alpha to the current one, but I can't figure out where they are stored. Can anyone help? Thanks and btw, this is awesome!

[Geraldine]

Hi Marcel, welcome to the SSC! Glad you are enjoying Elit....er I mean, Pioneer Anyways, the save games are located here "Game saved to 'C:\Documents and Settings\"UserName"\Local Settings\Application Data\Pioneer\savefiles//"UserSave"Just put your own username and name of your save file. Just thinking there, both versions of the game should use this location, do they not? Maybe I am wrong?

[tomm]

Marcel wrote:
I'd like to move my saved games from the first alpha to the current one, but I can't figure out where they are stored. Can anyone help? Thanks and btw, this is awesome!
Savefiles from alpha1 won't work with alpha2.I will try to keep saved game compatibility after pioneer goes beta, which shouldn't be too far in the future

[Potsmoke66]

Al-ki (means, by and by, but you know that maybe allready)source: the washington state coloring book :Dby and by or little by little......[attachment=126:pilot head gold squadron.jpg]guess what happens when you engage the landing gear?

[Marcel]

Thanks Geraldine! I've been admiring your Amiga. I used to have one.Tomm, you said that the time Pioneer will go beta "shouldn't be too far in the future". Does that mean that it will be out before Jan 1 3200?Actually, I'm ecstatic that it's happening at all!

[Potsmoke66]

new release,new Pioneer build (07/25/2010)more & much better sound fx, no more "asteroids - piu, piu" i put that here for those who missed it in "completed models"small "single laser bugfix", until fixed in a new release.it changes simply all ships using only one gunmount to two gunmounts, this prevents them from not getting launched, respectively aborting the game.hint;if you have installed a "MS DirectX SDK" (software development kit version), replace it with the full redistributable version, this helps to evade some scrambling of Pioneers game screens and makes the volume slider appear in the right position.

[pagroove]

is there anywhere a keyboard list or a manual? Find it really hard to come back to the FFE like physics after playing Oolite.

[Pinback]

Should be the same control as FrontierNope I worng about that here the one from quick start guide in the pioneer folder.Game Controls~~~~~~~~~~~~~The buttons along the bottom of the control panel have numbers next to themwhich correspond to function keys.F1 - Toggle from Front, Rear and external viewF2 - Toggle star map and system viewF3 - Ship infoF4 - When docked show space station menuPitch, yaw and roll (rotation):~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Key cluster:Q W EA S DW - Pitch downS - Pitch upA - Yaw leftD - Yaw rightQ - Roll leftE - Roll rightLeft-shift - When held down, increases the speed of pitch, roll and yaw controls.Thrust:~~~~~~~Key cluster:U I OJ K LI - Thrust forwardK - Thrust backwardsJ - Thrust leftL - Thrust rightU - Thrust upP - Thrust downRotation:~~~~~~~~~Q - Spin leftE - Spin right - yaw left - yaw right - pitch up - pitch downYou can rotate your craft either with the cursor keys or by holding down theright mouse button and moving the mouse. Only mouse rotation is availablein the external view.External view:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Cursor keys - Rotate view, pitch and yaw- and = - Zoom in and outOther things:~~~~~~~~~~~~~Tab - Select object in crosshairsReturn - When in Speed Control mode, this increases the set speedRight-shift - When in Speed Control mode, this decreases the set speedSpecial things:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ctrl-q - quitctrl-i - show some ugly debug infoctrl-printscreen - screenshotctrl-F9 - quicksavectrl-F10 - view currently selected objectctrl-F11 - fullscreenctrl-F12 - add a shipctrl-shift-F12 - add a station

[Potsmoke66]

erm, for swiss german keyboard layout its ? and ^ to zoom in and out or in any other language the respective key on the right end of the number keys (main, not numpad), i found this a bit annoying and was hammering on = / - without succsess in the beginning, until i remembered it's the same issue like in FFE the ^ brings me allways troubles when i return to the script from the modelviewer after a zoom in, first type apears then on entering any key is allways that damned " ^ " some else key's would be helpful for me, i guess.or what was the name of the program you used for exchanging keyboard layout for FFED3D? i guess that will be useful for me

[Geraldine]

Auto hot key Potsmoke? Here is a link http://www.autohotkey.com/Also nice to see Pagroove giving Pioneer a go. Now if we could just build a community like Oolite's around Pioneer that would be great!

[Potsmoke66]

thanks a lot, will try to see if that helps me to evade the repeating " ^ "

[pagroove]

I seem to have problems with the autopliot on the system map. When I click on another planet in the system map and then go back to the autopilot settings it still stays with my current planet.I like the game. Made my first landing on an alien world. I hope that Pioneer also comes with a choice in future to have another flight model. A sort of hybrid between Oolite and hardcore Newtonian.

[Potsmoke66]

unfortunately, i guess, you can't set autopilot on system map, i tried often, but it never seemed to work anyway (even when it shows "hyperspace destination set to...." i guess that's more a bug then a feature), maybe that'll be fixed in the future, autopilot at all is something that is on the "to do" list (even when i feel fine without the possibility to land or dock with autopilot, but some i guess will miss such strongly. but with some experience you can land soft as a feather in pioneer. i prefere to use a dual stick for pioneer with a setup like for a copter, left stick pitch and yaw, right stick strafe left/right and climb/dive, top buttons l/r are for fwd/bwd thrust, second pair of top buttons is for roll l/r, with such a setup you have full control over your ship, but also under speed control you can "stop" your vessel perfectly in pioneer. use the outside view from back and side to line up your ship in all axes with the horizon when your'e close over a spaceport and then let the ship slowly get down in a top view).so best set target by view, if you can't see your desired destination, just choose next visible star or planet to that body and engage autopilot to "go to vacinity of...", safer will be a orbit choice, because i recognized the autopilot didn't breaks early enough when you select "to vacinity of...", but turns the ship very early around to break with full capacity on a orbit course.when you're close enough to see the next to target, or the target itself, click on that body, that's the best way imo.and don't forget the game is far not complete, it's a wip.but any help, i guess is welcome

[Potsmoke66]

i had to write something here, just to memorize a bit how long some of us are involved to it. thanks again tomm & J.J for the great idea and starting of pioneerthanks again geraldine, without you pioneer wouldn't have been so early on SSC.thanks to all of you friends, who keep it alive!hats offno, don't give praises to me, it was of course i only have fallen in love, that's all