Patch Notes: May 16, 2009
May 16th, 2009
Solar-Sim was updated today with the following changes:
- 4 new ship models are available in the character creation screen.
- Saturn has rings now!
- The starfield background now includes all stars up to magnitude 8.0. Brighter “yellow” stars were changed to a non-yellow color so they wouldn’t be confused with Sol.
- Removed “that object has no action” annoyance message when right-clicking on a Solar object. (A future patch will change right-clicking to display information about the object clicked.)
- Removed the “Stats | Inv | Group” window.
The planets look distorted in the above screenshots due to WordPress in Firefox resizing the screenshots incorrectly. So if you’re using Firefox, right-click on each image and pick “View Image” to view it in its correct size and aspect ratio. This doesn’t seem to be an issue in Internet Explorer.
I took a look at the new ship models and colors. when shifting ship types it seems that models 3,4,5/8,9,10/13,14,15 and so forth for the male and female are the same color/type. Not sure if this is a graphic issue on my end or not. Graphically they all look pink with black and light blue highlights. (i can take a screen shot and show you if its on my end only)
Also, my original toon has its “skin” turned to black i think you did some changes to the ship skins and that change didn’t revert back to the ships that were made before the patch. not sure, but when I create a new one i can’t get the ship to have the same skin as my older ship (current model for my old ship was 12 male)
I like the planetary movements you added and the MAP works great. thanks for explaining the MAP is only limited to 10 years of time so the tracks are not complete. Whats the planetary movement speed? is this real time, or also an increased time?
I noticed you used current “real” visual photo’s for all the planets, was there a reason why you used a topographical map for earth? No clouds you can see the undersea mountains/trenches? I think it would be neat to see this on all the planets (as far as we know) but to match them all visual would be best for starts.
I’m sure your planning to add the moon rotations to this as well, maybe add the space prob’s tracks, and comets as well with that 10 year limitation.
yes, I’m a picky guy. Looking cool so far, I like what you have done.
@John
Hi John,
Thanks for posting your comment. This is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping to get from this Demo! (If any school teachers or homeschooling parents are reading, please chime in with your comments as well!)
With regards to the ship skins, this sounds like an issue with your graphics card. While new models have been added, skins weren’t changed for the pre-existing ones. (In fact, the newest ships use the same texture files as the pre-existing ships). Please send me a screenshot when you get a chance.
If you’re concerned about any files being corrupted on your end, you can rename or delete your asset repository folder. If you have a default installation, this folder is:
[My Documents]\Multiverse World Browser\Worlds\solarsim
If you delete or rename the above directory, you will automatically re-download everything the next time you login to Solar-Sim.
Regarding the motion of solar objects, everything in Solar-Sim moves in real-time. There’s a “checkpoint” every 10 minutes to ensure everything has reached its proper place. Due to a limitation in the current version of Multiverse, fractional movement speeds aren’t possible. The minimum movement speed for any planet, moon, etc., is therefore rounded up to 1. (Try typing “/speed 100″ and then moving around… now imagine going 100 times slower than that!)
Even at that slow speed, at extreme distances from the Sun that is still faster than what some planets actually travel. This means planets like Jupiter reach their 10 minute “checkpoint” earlier than they should. If you have patience, /warp to Jupiter and sit there for 10 minutes. You’ll notice when the checkpoint happens and the planet and all of its moons resume moving.
The last thing I’ll comment on before heading to bed is about planet textures. I’m using cylindrical planetary maps obtained from NASA/JPL, as well as a few other sources. For any given solar object, there aren’t very many options to pick from at this time. When Solar-Sim exits Demo and marches toward Alpha and Beta, I will want to dump a few of the planet’s models and replace them with more sophisticated ones (especially for planets that have atmospheres). This may involve hiring someone who owns a license for Autodesk 3D Studio.
And yes, the end goal is to have all planets and moons rotate in real-time. We’ll see if that goal can be achieved or not!