Is there a Min and Max Visibility Range for Planets and Stars and Where Can I Find It?

For 1.16 version of Sins Vanilla

April 21, 2009 7:49 PM from

Sins Forums

hi,

i'm working on a planet and star re-size mod, (re-sizing standard planets, not CyberD's or DireSaint's or Uzii's) and have re-sized the planets about 20 times larger than normal, and am now getting what i can only discribe as image breakup when i zoom in or out. At max in the image is very stable and fine, and at max out it is usually an icon, again very stable and fine. But in the zooming in and out i reach distances where the image breaks up like the textures perhaps aren't fitting right. (Maybe because i re-sized them). But i am attempting to see if there is a minimum and maximum range for the visibility of the planet or star, the range at which it changes over from an image in the game to an icon representing what it is supposed to be.

Does anyone know if there is such a value and if it is in the entity file for the planet or star, i have looked, but some of the values have names that i dont understand the purpose of.

Or perhaps the gameplay.constants or galaxydef file?

Anyway, perhaps there is no adjustable setting for me to change, but i am hoping there is, perhaps it will fix my issue with the "breaking up" images of the stars and planets.

Thanks for listening,

Take care,

Keep Gaming and Keep Modding!!!

-Teal

modding

17,115 views 19 replies

Reply #1 April 21, 2009 9:12 PM from

Sins Forums Top

Hey Teal! I don't know if this will be what you're looking for (I don't have jumbo planets to expirement with ), but there are 2 places of note that I would try if I were doing this:

1.) In Gameplay.constants, the 2nd through 7th entries all seem to deal with zooming in one way or another they are:

zoomDistanceLevel0ScalarForPlanets 1.5  (probably multiplies the below values to customize zooming for planets)
zoomDistanceLevel0ScalarForNonPlanets 5.0 (probably multiplies the below values to customize zooming for stars)
zoomDistanceLevel0 1000    (this is probably min zoom)
zoomDistanceLevel1 65000
zoomDistanceLevel2 4000000   (this is probably max zoom)
nearFarThreshold 180000   (i'd bet this controls when they become icons)

2.) in the planet and star .entity files, there is this entry:

minZoomDistanceMult (1.25 for planets) (2.0 for stars) (this probably multiplies the result of (zoomDistanceLevel0ScalarForXYZ * zoomDistanceLevel0) By whatever value you set to further customize the minimum zoom distance for that particular star/planet)

I haven't tested any of these ideas yet, but if I do before you do, I'll let you know how it goes :) If you test this first will you let me know whether I was right or way off base? Thanks in advance!

Reply #2 April 21, 2009 9:57 PM from

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Calienon,

Those values that you listed are it i think, TohKlidan and Mooster made some suggestions along the same lines, but yes, it was perfect. I think the flicker and image breakup is gone now. So i am very happy!!

Anyway, if you want some Huge Planets to experiment with, i will be uploading the HP 0.2 Beta Test tonight to FileFront and you can download it and let me know what you think. I will include a map and you can see how it plays.

Thanks very much for the cool suggestion, you were right on the nail!!

-Teal

Reply #3 April 21, 2009 10:14 PM from

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Great! I'll definitely try out the huge planets. I actually just downloaded your current one from another thread of yours about 30 mins ago, but haven't loaded it up yet. I'll need to make a non-entrenchment shortcut after all

Reply #4 April 21, 2009 10:29 PM from

Sins Forums Top

Quoting calienon, reply 3

Careful with the current one, it has the flicker and the image breakup as well as the planets embedded in the stars on normal maps. You can make your own new maps or re-do and re-name current ones to space out the planets to avoid that, but the star breakup was really bothering me. That is fixed now and i will upload that version (version 0.2) tonight, so you will probably like that one better as it plays close to normal.

Anyway, just a thought, take care and thank you for the help and suggestions!!

This is Really Cool Dont You Think?

Haha, i sound like a kid dont i? Haha, well, thats ok, i dont mind, we are all kids at heart i think.

-Teal

Reply #5 April 22, 2009 12:09 AM from

Sins Forums Top

I'm definitely a kid at heart! :) I'll take your advice and wait until tonight to try it out, thanks for the heads up. I've always wanted bigger planets and stuff (to make it feel more "space" sized :)).

Reply #6 April 22, 2009 1:06 AM from

Sins Forums Top

:) You will LOVE this one then!!! Haha, i wanted something that was way beyond reasonable, and i think i found it, im just glad i was able with the help to get it to work!!

Also, i had bad meshes, had to re-do them, now they are ok, no breakups or disappearing icons.

I'm happy,

Sorry to be late about it, but i wont get it uploaded tonight, maybe tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon at the latest.

Also will still have to do the planet shields, haha, oh my!!! but that is the last change.

Take care and have good night,

-Teal

Reply #7 April 22, 2009 1:16 PM from

Sins Forums Top

entrenchment man... everyone is doing it

Reply #8 April 22, 2009 2:37 PM from

Sins Forums Top

:) Yep, gotta catch up with that.

-Teal

Reply #9 April 22, 2009 2:54 PM from

Sins Forums Top

Side note:

Gas Giant Planets grav well has been re-sized, but im not sure its the right size, i havent had a chance to look yet. Also Star grav wells have been re-sized but not yet looked at, so im not entirely sure they are ok, im assuming they will be fine, but dont know 100 percent.

Also included the shields for the planets, did that last night before signing off and uploaded.

Also, maps. I re-sized about 6 maps but had an error uploading them, will re-do that tonight and test to make sure they are ok before zipping and uploading.

When that is all done, finally, haha, i will be trying to move this to Entrenchment. The stars and planets and the re-sized meshes shouldn't be a problem as they are listed in the entity.manifest and dont have to be added to the manifest list.

But the races, the custom ships, the re-sized meshes for the custom ships that have new mesh calls will need to be updated and added. All told probably a week or so worth of work. Possibly longer as my pc time is rather limited lately with school. Anyway, that is where things are and where they are headed.

After that i dont know, oh, haha, yes, there is the "Invisible Ships" experiment that is on another thread. I thought it would be interesting to see if i can get some ideas i have to work, we will see, haha.

Take care and keep gaming and keep modding!!

-Teal

Reply #10 April 22, 2009 11:33 PM from

Sins Forums Top

so is this an actual mod? or are you changing map files?

could you make this merge-ready?

could you include these sins plus planets?

entityName "PlanetCity.entity"
entityName "PlanetForest.entity"
entityName "PlanetGrass.entity"
entityName "PlanetIndustrial.entity"
entityName "PlanetMilitary.entity"
entityName "PlanetOcean.entity"
entityName "PlanetParadise.entity"
entityName "PlanetRock.entity"
entityName "PlanetToxic.entity"

Reply #11 April 23, 2009 10:28 AM from

Sins Forums Top

:) This is an actual mod, yes. It incorporates both changes to the bodies of entities in the game, as well as a re-size of maps to accomodate the increased sizes of the planets and stars.

It is still in progress, so i am listing it as a beta, which means there are issues to resolve before it is completely playable.

Can i make it merge ready? I am not very good with documentation, as to merge ready? I am unsure, we will see.

Can i include Sins Plus planets from Uzii's mod? I would prefer to let Uzii keep his planets to his own credit and not copy his work. This is an experiment on my own, similar to what CyberD and DireSaint did, and also similar to what TohKlidan is doing with Celestial Bodies, but again, i did not want to use or copy their work. This is a stand alone project of my own.

Anyone will of course be welcome to use my mod in a cross-over in their own work, or to take it and merge it with another mod, as long as credit is given where due and as long as they are responsible for the merge. I have my hands full with several projects and do not feel i can live up to a promise of merging my mod with another within a reasonable time.

-Teal

Reply #12 April 23, 2009 10:32 AM from

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Well, as of testing last night, there are still issues. I fixed the grav well re-sizing and it looked beautiful, however, the moment my scout touched the well, the frame-rate on the game ground down to what appeared to be about 1fps.

In addition, the crossover from star icon to star image (mesh) still takes several scroll-backs or scroll-forwards, there must be some settings, or a setting that controls the change over range from one to the other.

Although on the good side, the stars image (mesh) is stable now, with no breakup.

The re-sized maps have good placement, though the phase lanes as mentioned earlier are very long, it is something i could get used to, not a big deal really. But the standard maps have some issues, overlap of planet grav wells and planets embedded inside the star or star corona field most notable.

I dont quite understand why the gravity well itself would affect the game fps, but it seems to be the cause. Everything was fine, normal game speed and performance before hitting the well, and an almost grinding halt after hitting the well.

Perhaps reducing the well to a smaller radius?

Any ideas? And/or any ideas how to correct it? Other than reducing the size of the star back down of course.

-Teal

Reply #13 April 23, 2009 11:08 AM from

Sins Forums Top

I think i may have figured out what went wrong. Since the grav well for the star was set at "aesthetically" the same ratio as that for planets, i set it in the trillions. This was the movement and jump distances. So it was fine, until i hit the star well with a ship, which of course, probably means the game is calculating trillions of possibilites and therefor slows to a crawl.

If i reduce the movement and jump distances for the star well to millions, or even to hundreds of thousands, the calculations for the game to consider may of course decrease enormously. I have also considered having the movement and jump distances as the same, since there may be no phyisical reason, other than appearance to make them different.

This smaller radius of the star grav well may be enough to make a difference, perhaps even a huge difference in speed. Bringing the performance of the game back up close to normal.

From the standard game, the star well, is no where near the same "look" as a planet, instead of a large expanded well, it is more of a thin belt about the center of the star, although large by planetary measurements, it is still much less "visually" in appearance, and certainly within the boundaries of what the game can calculate in a reasonable time.

I am at school now, and so will re-adjust the star grav wells when i get home and test it, but i am hoping of course that this is it. That this will be a fix and the speed performance once hitting the star grav well with a ship will not reduce the fps or the game performance.

We will see.

Thanks to all who have looked at this and for their input and suggestions and ideas. Am still moving forward on this, am not yet ready to concede defeat and give up. Certainly if i were a Dev, i would understand the parameters more and could hopefully adjust accordingly. But as a file tweaking mesh moving modder, My learning curve is a bit steeper and longer.

Here is to hoping it works, i will keep everyone posted.

Take care,

-Teal

Reply #14 April 24, 2009 2:39 PM from

Sins Forums Top

teal, did you also enlarge the "planet elevators" or just the planets meshes themselves?

Reply #15 April 24, 2009 4:31 PM from

Sins Forums Top

ok this question first.

i have resized the planets to my liking.

but now when i zoom out, the grav well shows for most planets and the star, even far away, slowing things down.

i have changed all these values:

2.) in the planet and star .entity files, there is this entry:

but it doesnt change when it turns into an icon. i want it to do that a lot sooner, what am i doing wrong?

Reply #16 April 24, 2009 4:51 PM from

Sins Forums Top

OK I FOUND IT, and for anyone interested, this is where the icon becomes the mesh:

line 306 in N++

    VisibilityDistanceData
        capitalShipRadiusMultiplier 100
        entryVehicleRadiusMultiplier 50000
        frigateRadiusMultiplier 180
        planetRadiusMultiplier 10
        asteroidRadiusMultiplier 20
        resourceAsteroidRadiusMultiplier 200
        debrisRadiusMultiplier 600
        cannonShellRadiusMultiplier 600
        starRadiusMultiplier 20
        planetModuleRadiusMultiplier 60
        starBaseRadiusMultiplier 60
        spaceMineRadiusMultiplier 60
        fighterRadiusMultiplier 1000
        maxFighterMeshDistanceToCamera 4000
        mainViewIconChildrenPlanetRadiusMultiplier 100
        mainViewIconChildrenAsteroidRadiusMultiplier 200
        mainViewIconChildrenStarRadiusMultiplier 60
        veryDistantIconFadeNearThresholdDistance 80000
        veryDistantIconFadeFarThresholdDistance 5000000

Reply #17 April 24, 2009 11:54 PM from

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EvilIron, which file is this? Your idea on keeping the wells close in is interesting, i find the wells being visible all the time a bit distracting too.

-Teal

Reply #18 April 24, 2009 11:59 PM from

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that is in gameplay.contstants and messing around with these is what does it

Reply #19 April 25, 2009 12:04 AM from

Sins Forums Top

Ahhhh... you are wonderful!!!! Thank you for finding it, i will reset the values in the next Test version of HP mod.

-Teal

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