Tradelane Rings ... and the 10K draw limit.

Sat Sep 03, 2005 11:45 pm by Argh

Now, I like weird things in FL modding, but this is definately a winner.

Basically, it's like this: I got a little crazy today with various things (like that OpenSP thingy I wrote this morning before I took care of RL stuff), and early this evening, just on a whim, I rebuilt the Tradelane Rings.

All I did was import the CMP/MAT, and then export a brand-new CMP of the highest LOD, basically, with the idea being that I'd get rid of the infamous problem of Tradelane Rings not showing up past 10K because of something inside the CMP determining the render distance. As this was, for all intents and purposes, a brand-new CMP with brand-new internal names... this couldn't possibly have the same problems, right? Wrongo.

Sooo... when I get home from work, I'm a-gonna try to replace the trade_lane_ring's DLL entry for IDS_INFO, etc. with a brand-new one, and see if that does the trick. Nothing else has put a dent on this... and given that IDS stuff has proven to be tied to the EXE's behaviors before, I think this might be what FL is looking for when it determines how it renders these things. Whoever it was who did the hack in the CMP was probably getting around this by giving FL a bogus value it didn't know what to do with... unfortunately, my experience has been that this approach is... erm... not stable at all. Hopefully I can get this problem sorted out with this new approach, and give us no-LOD, no-hassle Tradelane Rings that render out to... maybe 25K or so, which is about as far away as you really need them to pop in, and would put 3-4 on the screen, with a maximum of 12 at 3-way crossings that are fairly close together. Just about right, imo, and not too performance draining. I'll let y'all know how this turns out.

Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:18 am by mknote

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the tradelane LOD problem has been overcome. As a matter of fact, I have a tradelane that can be seen out to who knows where. All I'd need to is change the LOD distance in SolarArch.ini to 25000 or so. Right?

MK

Sun Sep 04, 2005 8:20 am by Argh

Well, no.

The only solution I've previously seen to this issue concerned somebody who'd hex-hacked a value in the 3DB file, which apparantly disabled FL's normal culling routines. That didn't work very well- I tried it out in an earlier version of the Toolkit Mod, and it was a horrible mess- it caused CTDs all over the place. So... no, I don't think that was a real solution to the problem. I'm still seeking one, but I need to sleep now

Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:58 pm by Moonhead

That's weird... I'm using a hacked tlr_lod.3db in a mod that's largely based on your XML Toolkit. Doesn't cause CTDs in this part of the Galaxy.

However, a disadvantage of this hacked tlr_lod.3db method is, that the player can select tradelanes on the other end of the system; just click on the horizon and there's a good chances you selected a trade lane ring. Haven't overcome my laziness yet to see if entering a lower value into the 3db file will do any good.

given that IDS stuff has proven to be tied to the EXE's behaviors before

In what case was that?

PS Thanx for Alternative OpenSP! Haven't tried it out yet, but I suspect that custom factions will now actively participate in killing their enemies (which they don't when one uses Xerx's OpenSP. They just mind their own business and ignore others.)

Sun Sep 04, 2005 8:35 pm by alfa_astrix

I'm just coming back after bein gone for about 2 and a half month, and I wanted to know how you change the tradelane speed. I mean, last thing I knew Alchander was talking about it but haddent reliesed it to the public. Any information is nice.

Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:01 pm by Argh

The area where I've seen IDS being tied to EXE behavior is in Shiparch.ini entries. If two ships share the same IDS_info, etc., and are put into a ShipDealer, their CMPs are often switched out for one another. I've gotten around this problem by just using XML to generate the proper DLL entries. Not a big hassle, really.

As for the Alternative OpenSP:

Erm... maybe I should open up a new thread for that...

Thu Sep 08, 2005 1:23 pm by mknote

I've seen also where the IDS mingles with the EXE: System Names. Enter New York, "New York System, Liberty Space." Well, move the IDS to a different spot, and you may end up with "New York System, Kusari Space." Alcander figured this out.

MK

Thu Sep 08, 2005 6:23 pm by alfa_astrix

@mknote
I know how to change the name of the different spaces, like changing Liberty Space to Hispania Space. But I don't know how to move them. Do you, or does Alchander menchin' it anywhere?

Sat Sep 10, 2005 7:53 am by SWAT_OP-R8R

the tradelane viewdistance already has been changed on several mods half a year ago... using just a hexeditor O_o

Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:41 am by mknote

Alfa, Alcander knows how to edit where the names appear on the Nav Map, and he's even hinted that he knows how to add more. But you'd need to ask him.

MK

Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:38 pm by Argh

Lemme repeat: I tested the hex-edited Tradelane mods, and found that they caused frequent crashes, in situations where multiple Tradelanes could be seen from a Gate. IOW, you'd enter a System and CTD.

That's why I don't think that's an acceptable way of doing this. Having said that, I may have to look at how that was done again, and see if I can't just limit it to something reasonable, like 25K, where the number of CMPs on the screen wouldn't be so high. Combined with my LOD-less Tradelane model, this might be a working solution. Dunno yet.

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