!! Pioneer Question Time !! - Ask them here

[Overlord]

Cool didn't think it would be possible. I use a 360 controller with usb microsoft thingy. I suppose a good ol' fashioned joystick would be better for space flight really.

[fluffyfreak]

Possibly, although I do think that modern joypads like the 360's do map onto the directional control of a spaceship surprisingly well! This doesn't mean that it'll be getting done anytime soon though I'm afraid.Problems are:1) it's a windows only solution, but most of the other devs are on Linux/Mac.2) it limits it to a single controller (the Xbox360 pad).3) I've already got a todo list longer than my arm! Feel free to pick your pad though and make some suggestions for how you'd like it to fly with it! That kind of thing, what a player _really_ wants, can be helpful when implementing.Andy

[fluffyfreak]

Hmm, just found the existing "InitJoystick" code so looks like someones at least taken a look at this stuff previously.Any reason it's not already supported?

[robn]

I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to. Pioneer has rudimentary joystick support already, tested with Xbox pads and flight sticks on Linux and Windows (at least). Alpha 19 will add some deadzone support (already in nightlies) and it makes the ship pleasantly flyable. More work is needed on input bindings, but that's true of everything, not just joysticks.

[fluffyfreak]

Yep that's why I posted about finding the joystick code because I went looking before I started hacking :)If it's already in there then the OP can get testing and using it to see what they think of it.

[Overlord]

Have had a go with my 360 pad with xpadder. I was able to change the deadzone and worked much better. Haven't decided on the best stick configuration for pitch/roll/yaw yet though... Does make flying about more enjoyable than using a keyboard. You can also assign the shift key to a button to make double functions(if you needed to).

[Overlord]

I've been wondering(I wondered the same thing thing with Frontier). Are all the systems in the game generated as you play or are they all already there? It seems impossible to manually create them, with all the planets etc that could be in each one there must be... millions? If they're generated then does that mean that if you fly the same direction in two different games then you'll get different star systems?

[Brianetta]

The systems are generated using pseudorandom numbers: numbers which appear to be random, but which are part of a predictable sequence. This means that in two different games, you'll see exactly the same systems in the same place, right down to the coastlines on some alien moon light years from Earth. These systems are generated (or regenerated, if you like) as you play.A few systems are hand-made (such as Sol), and scores more are positioned deliberately but the details are left to be generated pseudorandomly, but the vast majority (many millions) are there waiting to be explored.There's no guarantee that the galaxy will remain unchanged between alpha versions of Pioneer. Pseudorandom number sequences are chaotic, and any change to the seed numbers or the generation system will cause all of the generated systems to change completely. The universe will keep changing from time to time - expect it to settle down once we start calling it beta, instead of alpha.

[KingHaggis]

Quote:
Alpha 19 will add some deadzone support (already in nightlies) and it makes the ship pleasantly flyable.
Wow, that's just what I was waiting for. I really liked the joystick support in the earlier builds but, especially when speeding up time, the ship became uncontrollable. Thanks for adding this, I'll have to give it a try soon.

[robn]

In another thread, KingHaggis wrote:
By the way, my joystick still makes the ship wobble like crazy when I have timecompression enabled. Also, everytime I start the game, I need to press ESC and click the pitch, yaw and roll buttons to calibrate my joystick. The game doesn't seem to remember these settings. Whenever I take off from a planet after a fresh start of the game, the ship is hopelessly uncontrollable until I reset the axis. This is not a big problem as it only takes 5 seconds or so to calibrate, but the timeacceleration problem remains, even after the resetting of the axis. Right now, I can only pilot a ship in realtime or with autopilot enabled or with keyboard instead of joystick. 2x Compression is doable with joystick control but higher than that and I start spinning around. Any tips? Do I have to manually enable the deadzone support or something? I use the latest Robn build.
You can try adjusting the JoystickDeadzone value in your config.ini. It takes a number from 0.0-1.0. It defaults to 0.1, but I preferred 0.3 for my Xbox pad. We're really guessing with this though. The right defaults and the code itself is pretty much testing. Any and all feedback is very welcome

[Overlord]

I noticed last night after starting a game on Earth, that the sun was rising at about 11pm. Not a major issue, considering there is a whole galaxy to explore not many people will spend much time on Earth watching the sun rise. Just thought I mention it.

[robn]

Overlord wrote:
I noticed last night after starting a game on Earth, that the sun was rising at about 11pm. Not a major issue, considering there is a whole galaxy to explore not many people will spend much time on Earth watching the sun rise. Just thought I mention it.
We only have a single timezone. There will be somewhere on Earth where the sun rises at 7am like its supposed to

[fluffyfreak]

Hah! I suppose you could calculate a "local" time, but it's all going to go out of the window on planets that don't rotate on their axis within 24 hours

[Overlord]

Doh Should have thought of that. The ship clock has not a lot to do with local time... But of course now I HAVE to fly round Earth to find where the correct local time is. Or an anvil will fall out of the sky and land on me!

[Uruboros]

robn wrote:


Overlord wrote:
I noticed last night after starting a game on Earth, that the sun was rising at about 11pm. Not a major issue, considering there is a whole galaxy to explore not many people will spend much time on Earth watching the sun rise. Just thought I mention it.
We only have a single timezone. There will be somewhere on Earth where the sun rises at 7am like its supposed to
True! was thinking in my old frontier ..... What sense have 12 months? The time spent by the player from the start would be more correct, and a countdown for the mission.Could you find different units of measurement of time in the galaxy, but is perhaps uncomfortable to hear and use in the game itself.I think of something that has to do with the decay of radioactive isotopes, or the scanning of some pulsars. Moreover there is always to take account of when to restart the time.On 1 January 3200, refers to the 3200 DC? time could be a pioneer in the Convention applies to the entire Earth's galaxy.

[Geraldine]

robn wrote:


Overlord wrote:
I noticed last night after starting a game on Earth, that the sun was rising at about 11pm. Not a major issue, considering there is a whole galaxy to explore not many people will spend much time on Earth watching the sun rise. Just thought I mention it.
We only have a single timezone. There will be somewhere on Earth where the sun rises at 7am like its supposed to
May I suggest Greenwich meantime? Right now the sun sets at London at around 12.30 am. Or perhaps it could be set to the same time where ever Tomm comes from?

[Overlord]

Another couple of ideas that I thought of(they're coming thick and fast at the moment, already spending too much time on Pioneer!)When flying in an atmosphere, I'm not sure but it seems like there is no aerodynamic effect on the ship eg. when you bank to the side and pull up. Perhaps this would mean a huge undertaking in programming the physics or whatever. But it would be realistic, which seems fitting for the Newtonion structure of the game, rather than hurtling along like a stone. I guess you might hit more problems because of the variable densities of different altitudes/atmospheres. I might well have got this wrong cos its easy to forget that you're travelling at mach 10 or something! If thats the case then maybe it would be more realistic to limit how hard you can turn the ship. Currently you can be flyng along at any speed you like and casually turn around and face backwards without any real effect.Another thing that struck me is it would be very useful to be able to switch between the bulletin board and the system map without closing the bulletin board. When talking to someone and figuring out how far away/how long it takes to get there/ how much fuel etc, I can swap between the two a few times before deciding to take the mission, and each time it hangs up the phone. After ten or so times of doing this it can get on the tedious side.

[KingHaggis]

Quote:
In another thread, KingHaggis wrote:By the way, my joystick still makes the ship wobble like crazy when I have timecompression enabled. Also, everytime I start the game, I need to press ESC and click the pitch, yaw and roll buttons to calibrate my joystick. The game doesn't seem to remember these settings. Whenever I take off from a planet after a fresh start of the game, the ship is hopelessly uncontrollable until I reset the axis. This is not a big problem as it only takes 5 seconds or so to calibrate, but the timeacceleration problem remains, even after the resetting of the axis. Right now, I can only pilot a ship in realtime or with autopilot enabled or with keyboard instead of joystick. 2x Compression is doable with joystick control but higher than that and I start spinning around. Any tips? Do I have to manually enable the deadzone support or something? I use the latest Robn build.

Quote:
You can try adjusting the JoystickDeadzone value in your config.ini. It takes a number from 0.0-1.0. It defaults to 0.1, but I preferred 0.3 for my Xbox pad. We're really guessing with this though. The right defaults and the code itself is pretty much testing. Any and all feedback is very welcome
Thanks for the tip! I'm sorry to report I'm still having the same issues, though. The ship can't hold a steady course with time acceleration enabled. I even set the deadzone number to 1. But I have the feeling my joystick is getting a bit sloppier than normal. I use it a lot for ArmA 2, FSX and X-Plane so maybe it's just normal wear and tear but I don't really have the same issues with those games. Maybe Pioneer could use a built-in calibration tool. But it's not a real showstopper or anything. Keyboard + mouse works too.I'm really enjoying the HDR effects lately. Some things look awesome with HDR enabled, some look better with HDR disabled. I'm constanly switching to HDR on/off to get the best views of the galaxy. Today, I visited a planet with a purple atmosphere. Awesome!

[bchimself]

Uruboros wrote:


robn wrote:


Overlord wrote:
I noticed last night after starting a game on Earth, that the sun was rising at about 11pm. Not a major issue, considering there is a whole galaxy to explore not many people will spend much time on Earth watching the sun rise. Just thought I mention it.
We only have a single timezone. There will be somewhere on Earth where the sun rises at 7am like its supposed to
True! was thinking in my old frontier ..... What sense have 12 months? The time spent by the player from the start would be more correct, and a countdown for the mission.Could you find different units of measurement of time in the galaxy, but is perhaps uncomfortable to hear and use in the game itself.I think of something that has to do with the decay of radioactive isotopes, or the scanning of some pulsars. Moreover there is always to take account of when to restart the time.On 1 January 3200, refers to the 3200 DC? time could be a pioneer in the Convention applies to the entire Earth's galaxy.
1 Galactic year = the time it takes Sol to completely revolve around the galaxy.Year 1 would be 13.8 billion Solar Years ago at the Big Bang. How many Galactic Years has it been since then? I'd be interested to know.

[bchimself]

bchimself wrote:
1 Galactic year = the time it takes Sol to completely revolve around the galaxy.Year 1 would be 13.8 billion Solar Years ago at the Big Bang. How many Galactic Years has it been since then? I'd be interested to know.
Answered my own question. Has a handy time-line of events:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_yearCheck out the rotation of some of the other star systems...they aren't following basic orbits yet Sol is (unless that's due to our perspective and frame of reference). Very strange!Humanity has been around for less than 1 GY...Earth exists in the "green zone" of our star, not too far, not too close. Now, based on that gif of solar system orbits, it seems that Sol is in the "green zone" of the galaxy. We are just close enough and just far enough to have a nice circular orbit around the center. If you watch some of the other systems with their irregular orbits, they may be colliding with other star systems, being thrown into the supermassive black hole at the center, or otherwise damaged by coming in close vicinity with other systems. This makes me wonder if there is a "green belt" of life-filled star systems along or near our orbital route, and that in the future we might hone our searches for life to these systems, in the same way that we look for life in the green zone of the star systems themselves.(now we're way off topic, sry)