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[Geraldine]

I knew you were thinking about Freelancer even before I finished reading your post Subzeroplainzero. That feature was indeed handy in that game, but for Pioneer, maybe even a different coloured blob on the target system when you access the galactic map would do? In that, once you accept a mission the game will highlight the system for you. Then you can plot your own route.Another thing I always wanted was a log function where, say the co-ordinates of last 10 systems you visited, could be stored and used to speed up navigation. That way if your lost (happened to me all the time in Frontier ) you can back track.

[ollobrain]

some sort of log- mission log would be a good idea if there was anyone to do it. Put it in the to do list

[robn]

Subzeroplainzero wrote:
Does that mean you're thinking of implementing a "target system" button next to accepted missions? That's a fantastic idea but what happens if your rubbish jump drive requires you to travel through a few systems to get there? Perhaps instead it could plot a course for you, linking your current system to the required destination with coloured lines, a bit like freelancer?
Actually all I was thinking is that it would switch you to the sector view and show you the system. If you were out of range it would be up to you to figure out how to get there. Of course if we ever get a better sector view with a path-finding mechanism then we'd be able to use it.

[robn]

Geraldine wrote:
Another thing I always wanted was a log function where, say the co-ordinates of last 10 systems you visited, could be stored and used to speed up navigation. That way if your lost (happened to me all the time in Frontier ) you can back track.
That's a great idea. Please open a feature request.

[robn]

Geraldine wrote:
a different coloured blob on the target system when you access the galactic map would do? In that, once you accept a mission the game will highlight the system for you. Then you can plot your own route.
That's really cool. Do you know how it might work if you have multiple missions open?

[SeanN]

robn wrote:


Geraldine wrote:
a different coloured blob on the target system when you access the galactic map would do? In that, once you accept a mission the game will highlight the system for you. Then you can plot your own route.
That's really cool. Do you know how it might work if you have multiple missions open?
Perhaps each mission accepted on the list could have its own color blob that corresponds to the system on the galactic map (as long as the colors weren't the ones used for the present system and hyperspace navigation blobs).

[Geraldine]

SeanN wrote:


robn wrote:
That's really cool. Do you know how it might work if you have multiple missions open?
Perhaps each mission accepted on the list could have its own color blob that corresponds to the system on the galactic map (as long as the colors weren't the ones used for the present system and hyperspace navigation blobs).
To answer robn first, keep it simple, use different coloured blobs. At present Pioneer is using blue to show you where you are and green for a selected system, so basically any other colours that take your fancy.And for SeanN, yes that is along the lines I am thinking, but it could be refined by either by having different colours to represent different kinds of mission and further refine that by increasing the brightness of the colour depending on how soon the mission time ends. Or you could use coloured shapes around a star. Anything really to designate to the game player that these are important. Eg, a bright yellow triangle might mean a soon to be completed bombing mission or a dull purple square might mean a delivery mission that has plenty of time left. The game player would be able to tell at a glance looking at the galactic map what they need to attend to first. :)And I will enter a feature request for the flight log, but need to think about how it might work first. I dont just want to write "gimmie a flight log!" I will try and think about how it could work. :)Incidentally, if people are thinking about features they would like to see in Pioneer, do check out the super massive "Ideas For Elite IV" thread at the Frontier forum. Never have I seen a game's features analysed and argued about by a gameplaying community in such detail and over such a long period of time. Someone might as well use that honey pot of ideas Be warned though, it's big as in the Douglas Adams sense of the word, here is a link http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=86&page=21

[ollobrain]

no the elite 4 ideas if they can be slowly added to pioneer by the contributing programmers is a good idea, elite 4 doesnt exist so all youre taking are ideas from this and other space based games and putting em into an open source mix

[Geraldine]

I mentioned that thread because it is a cornucopia of ideas for the ultimate space sim. Many of them are perhaps beyond the resources of the Pioneer project, but there are many more that might be possible to implement. It's not like say, FRONTIER DEVELOPMENTS are making use of them! Besides a good idea is still a good idea no matter it's source

[ollobrain]

as u say resources and time this is all personal developer free time contributions and its all appreciated. Having a look at the ideas about 1/3 my guess are simple things that can probably be done the others would require sourceing more willing contributors

[fluffyfreak]

Hi,I recently forked the project so I could start to fixup the MSVC project files (they're committed on my fork by the way) when I noticed that the terrain was "jumping" when I moved the camera around.I was on the surface of a large planet (I will post later with the name & location, I don't have it on this PC) in the external camera view. If you rotate the camera around the ship in this view all of the terrain jumps up and down whilst the ship stays still. This looks like a floating point precision problem reaching different results for rendering the terrain dependent on the camera view position.Is this a known issue?AndyPS: also the game is fantastic, I really hope that by working on my fork I can add something useful and meaningful to an already great project :Dmy fork:https://github.com/fluffyfreak/pioneer

[Brianetta]

The terrain generator is iterative. The ground outside jumps up and down until the generator's last iteration is done, and the ground is rendered at its highest resolution. I think this can also mean that the spot where your ship is landed might sometimes not actually be on the ground any more, especially in canyons, although I haven't tested that in great detail yet.

[Brianetta]

fluffyfreak wrote:
PS: also the game is fantastic, I really hope that by working on my fork I can add something useful and meaningful to an already great project :Dmy fork:https://github.com/fluffyfreak/pioneer
Definitely! We buy in completely to the GitHub fork ethic. If you have something in your forked repository that is complete, and you'd like it to be considered for inclusion (or just for testing) then feel free to make a pull request of it. This will automatically create an issue on the tracker, and we'll all be able to see, review, test and discuss your contribution right there.

[robn]

fluffyfreak wrote:
I recently forked the project so I could start to fixup the MSVC project files (they're committed on my fork by the way)
Thank you so much. I've been trying to get them updated myself but I might as well be on another planet when it comes to MSVC. I will merge shortly.
Quote:
PS: also the game is fantastic, I really hope that by working on my fork I can add something useful and meaningful to an already great project
I've started tracking your fork so I'll keep an eye on what you're doing. If you're intending to get serious about Pioneer dev please familiarise yourself with the Development Model. Welcome!

[robn]

Brianetta wrote:
The terrain generator is iterative. The ground outside jumps up and down until the generator's last iteration is done, and the ground is rendered at its highest resolution. I think this can also mean that the spot where your ship is landed might sometimes not actually be on the ground any more, especially in canyons, although I haven't tested that in great detail yet.
Yes, the terrain height can change under you, for better or worse. I too have not tested in detail and don't yet fully understand the issues (eg can the terrain under you change such that you're suddenly inside a mountain?)

[s2odan]

Ah this is a different issue I believe, I call it Jitter, but Im not sure of the 'proper' name for it If you land on said planet it should go away and as far as I know will only appear if you are moving relative to said planet. I know, I'm terrible at explaining stuff Here's a video showing it in action as well as another bug related to the Earth terrain which I really should fix (those potholes you can see over the landscape increase with height and it looks wrong up-close):
Quote:
(eg can the terrain under you change such that you're suddenly inside a mountain?)
Thats the nature of the fractals. If you were to make a save landed in a valley or by a cliff face or some sharp terrain piece, when you load up the game your ship would be inside the planet until it can finish loading enough iterations of the terrain for the shape to resemble what it was. The opposite for if you land on a spire, you will be high up in the air until the spire is calculated.There are some situations too where if you fly down to a feature from orbit with too-high detail settings then its possible you could land on a flattish area and end up inside the spire of a mountain once loading has finished, but that would require a slow cpu and the very-very high detail setting.There might be some ways of alleviating this, and in-fact I have already tried a few methods for building the terrains and one of those may have already helped alleviate this issue simply by keeping the larger mountain shapes at a very low octave number (less iterations required/possible) and using smaller noise to 'fill' it in. But it will never be completely gone.

[robn]

Is there a way we could arrange that priority be given to generating the terrain immediately under the player? I imagine the memory overhead of tracking the progress of terrain generation over an entire area could be prohibitive. It might work though as I assume that determining the final height for a single point is actually quite fast (relative to generating an entire large area).I really must learn how the terrain engine works to be able to contribute more usefully to these kind of discussions...

[fluffyfreak]

@s2odan,Yes that's exactly the issue I've seen I don't think it is the terrain regenerating the patch as you are sat on the ground. I'll take a look at it as I have some experience with terrain generation and rendering.@everyone,Thanks for the warm welcome!

[ollobrain]

welcome aboad sounds like a reasonable progress is going to be made

[s2odan]

fluffyfreak wrote:
I don't think it is the terrain regenerating the patch as you are sat on the ground. I'll take a look at it as I have some experience with terrain generation and rendering.
Oh thats a different issue, the one where the patches update/generate and you are inside the ground or high in the air... This issue in the vid (which you experienced) is not fractal based, but some engine/rendering issue.
Quote:
I'll take a look at it as I have some experience with terrain generation and rendering.
I too at first thought it was a floating point precission thing but now Im not so sure. (Although the 'jitter' is highly indicative of that) So maybe thats the best place to start if we both came to that conclusion.. But I have a sneaking suspicion in the back of my mind that I have been here before Good luck commander