SSE vs SS08 & changing stuff...

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[CapnCrane]

I'm so used to SS08 that I find many stuff in SSE to be either inconvenient or missing or not working how it should. Yet I see unlike SS08 the SSE is more mod-friendly, especially when I saw here on forum a Fairmount Sherpa as a Toisa ship with different livery, different controls (azipods) & what's interesting - many decorative stuff added, like fenders, deck stuff, aerials, liferafts in containers in places where the real Fairmount Sherpa has them. So I guess some stuff can indeed be changed/tweaked.

I did few Free Roam test runs on ships from SS08, like the Agile Solution, Jumbo Javelin & Fairmount Sherpa - here's what I noticed & wondering if it's solid or there're solutions to it...

1) How to make screenshots in SSE?  In SS08 there was a special icon/button on UI, here I see only some photo camera mode for taking pics in Walk-through.  The only solution I found was pressing the Printscreen, copypasting in Paint & saving there.  Is that how you guys do it too?

2) Walkthrough... In SS08 I could climb up onto the hatch-covers gantry crane of Agile Solution & walk on it, also could climb up on the platform on foremast near the front cabin. In SSE I find I no longer can do either of that, though pressing the Wheelhouse camera twice switches the view from inside that front cabin, which is nice! However the biggest disappointment was not being able to leave the bridge deck of the Jumbo Javelin.  In SS08 there was a button on the door clicking on which takes to the main deck where you could walk all over it.  Not possible anymore in SSE for that ship?

3) Camera.  In SS08 there were 2 aerial-view cameras: key 1 - camera rotates around the wheelhouse, key 4 - camera rotates around midship, which was very usefull for taking nice screenshots & just for a better view of surroundings.  In SSE there's no more of that key 4 camera.  Is it possible to somehow via mod to have that camera back or change the aerial-view around wheelhouse to that around midships?

4) Splashes.  In SS08 during manoevering at speeds near 0 there were visible splashes from full-throttle bow thruster or main prop. I mean that's how it is in reality too. Yet in SSE I see nothing of that, only thin white wakes from that after a while. All visual game settings are at their max though.

5) Anchor chain.  In SS08 anchors on ships were static 3D parts, in SSE they at least disappear when clicking at Anchor icon, however the important visual indicator of being at anchor - the anchor chain - is not visible, compared to SS08.  I first clicked the Anchor icon & on the balls at the bow I thought nothing happened as there's no chain visible, untill it took effect on a vessel a some time after.  Is it how it is?  No anchor chain?

6) Lights.  Although it's nice switching lights on a ship depending on it's state, I dislike when some important stuff is done wrong - I mean, where's the front top light of the Jumbo Javelin where it should be?  In SS08 it was there!  Same goes for Fairmount Sherpa's front light - real ship has it there where it's not in SSE.  Is it possible to put a light where it should be via mod?  LucAtC placed various deck details where they must be in that Toisa mod, so I'm inclined to think correcting lights should be possible too.

7) Lifeboats in Multiplayer.  I understand they were excluded on ships so 1 ship won't get divided into 2-3 or more ships, or maybe there was some technical difficulty of releasing it.  But why not to have lifeboats as just visually decorative details on ships in Multiplayer?  No mod possible?

8) Damage.  Another thing I really dislike how it's done in SSE...  In SS08 it was at least shown as percent.  In a game Ultimate Admiral Dreadnoughts each ship has 2 bars - structural integrity & floatability - wish that's how it was done in SSE. But it was shown in the most inconvenient way - yes it's also as a bar but under a small ship icon, so it's impossible to tell if that bar is now shorter on few pixels or not as it doesn't indicate whether the ship received a bit of damage or not unless the bar is short, red & the ship starts sinking.  Any possibility for a mod to at least show a percent near that bar?
Is it something wrong on my side or there's really no damage visible in SSE?  It was visible just fine in SS08 though!

9) Controls.  Compared to SS08, here it's very inconveninet for on-screen via mouse change, simply better to use precision steering & keep controlling via keyboard.  Guess, there's no chance for controlls looking/working as them from SS08.  Indicators of rudder/throttle on the bars should have been better, like some white triangle under the bar than as thin vertical 1-pixel line inside the bar, especially when numbers are also inside the bar.

10) Flickering.  So many elements visually flick in the game - from maps on screens at the bridge to all buildings & trees in the environment... I don't remember such in SS08.

[CapnCrane]

2) Walkthrough...
However the biggest disappointment was not being able to leave the bridge deck of the Jumbo Javelin.  In SS08 there was a button on the door clicking on which takes to the main deck where you could walk all over it.  Not possible anymore in SSE for that ship?

Thankfully someone mentioned it (once):

Hold in 3 or use the walkthrough camera reset

Somehow the camera teleports from wheelhouse to amidships on hatch covers. Then holding key 3 or pressing it several times only resets the camera to that same position.  No idea how to get back in the wheelhouse, lol.

[LucAtC]

1) Yes, pictures can only be taken in camera mode, see page 17 of the manual.
2) You could have found the keyboard controls at page 14 of the manual, and there is indeed a way to go back to the bridge, of course.
3) See point 1.
4) Interesting comment.
5) The chains are immediately visible once the blue ball is selected, at least for Jumbo Javelin and Fairmount Sherpa. Perhaps is it due to your PC.
6) Indeed, the front masthead light of JJ and FS were frozen, I don't know why. Attached the correction, its content should be thrown into Vstep folder.
7) I am not able to answer, as I don't play in multiplayer since more than 12 years.
The damage bar is visible, at least on my screens.
9) Yes, but you are certainly aware that the development itself was halted end 2010, only corrective patches and community improvements were published in this forum.

[CapnCrane]

Installed what was in attachement:
1) Yes, Jumbo Javelin's front top light now is on! Thanks to that brave crew memeber who dared to climb up on the mast & change the lightbulb, lol.
2) Regarding Fairmount Sherpa, things are very odd here:
the front top light itself is floating in the air & there're much of stuff I belive from that Toisa mod, including azipods.  But the biggest issue is rigtht after I touch the controlls some of that added decorative stuff begins to spin around the vessel (it's RPMs depend on RPMs set by throttle) around it's length/horizontal axis & turn around vertical axis depending on azipods tilt angle.  I'm not sure if it's only on my side such thing, but I can't describe it better.  After installing the Toisa mod/ship - there was same spinning stuff issue + all added stuff went off the ship after the ship started moving.

As I understand, the .lgt file is for placing lights & .bdg file is for arranging 3D stuff.
Is there a some software you use to open those files & work in them?



Regarding earlier 5): That's VERY interesting! In my case I click on blue ball, it turns orange & anchor disappears, but no chain visible (see pic). Though other connections like tow/mooring lines are visible.  So I'm not sure how it's my pc's fault, all graphics are at max.

[CapnCrane]

Regarding earlier 5): That's VERY interesting! In my case I click on blue ball, it turns orange & anchor disappears, but no chain visible (see pic). Though other connections like tow/mooring lines are visible.  So I'm not sure how it's my pc's fault, all graphics are at max.

Oh, I see it's quite an issue with them - others also report it:
http://forum.shipsim.com/index.php?topic=31362.0
http://forum.shipsim.com/index.php?topic=29283.0
http://forum.shipsim.com/index.php?topic=23386.0 in 1.3 update it said achor chains & dropping anchors feature was added, but I have 1.5.5 version (Steam).

[LucAtC]

Hello CapnCrane,
1) JumboJavelin top light on, thanks for your thumbs up.
2) It is evident that your version of FairmountSherpa is flawed. Please send me the zipped folders
\Vstep\ShipSimExtremes\Projects\ShipSimExtremes\Data\Entities\Ships\FairmountSherpa
\Vstep\ShipSimExtremes\Projects\ShipSimExtremes\Data\Entities\Ships\ToisaAnexartiti
These are very small folders, I will probably be able to detect and correct the problems.
5) The fact that you push the graphics to the max is perhaps why the chains don't show up, due to the Intel onboard graphic card.

In general, a faulty DirectX 9.0c is why graphic glitches happen, no surprise about that. If only one or two ships are concerned, the issue is mostly some badly overwritten ship file.

Dot lgt and bdg indeed contain respectively the lights and bridge objects parameters, in an extensive definition. And both files can of course be edited.

Luc

[CapnCrane]

2) Not sure how, I simply installed the new folders/files from your attachement into their respective folders, overwriting the existed files when it asked.
Same for Toisa ship - got it from http://forum.shipsim.com/index.php?topic=31890.0
5) I think it might try installing updates from https://shipsim.com/downloads/updates - the resulting 1.5.5 version from there would overwrite the flawed or incorrect files in my Steam 1.5.5 version.

"And both files can of course be edited." - how to open & edit them? Doesn't work for me.
Also, Luc, please see http://forum.shipsim.com/index.php?topic=31861.msg406616#msg406616 & my notes about the dredger.

[LucAtC]

Hello CapnCrane,

2) I can only repeat that your version of Fairmount Sherpa and ToisaAnerxartiti is flawed, so that I cannot do anything about it but to check the files. My guess is that another file was broken, the missing foremast being a clear indication.

5) Yes, that is indeed possible, but I don't think so, as the Visual Studio redist concern all ships, and apparently your DirectX is now correctly installed. Eventually once more, a missed/confused copy of the ship folder.

Edition
The moderators and developer have a rather extended editor, no mystery about that, alas still slightly bugged, rather complex and protected by an NDA. We are all volunteers, know SS2008 and SSE rather well and can help when needed, but there is not much that Vstep will do to change anything to the existing games, be it only the possible introduction of bugs in a complex construction. Not much means zero.

The only possibilities to change/mod something have been given up to now extensively in this forum, especially like you know well in theCommunity Development board. It concerns camera viewpoints, and some other uncompiled files and such modifications are mostly unwanted because of the eventuality of interfering with the multiplayer game.
Your suggestions about the up to now ten changes to Phaedrus can partially solved by you, i.e. 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 points, which concern the cameras. As I already explained somewhere else, the camera part of the editor is bugged, and it is just the same to manually edit the Phaedrus.cam file, knowing that the origin position of the lights, is at some arbitrary position -but exactly- on the transverse axis, 15.10 meter lower and 21.00 meter more to the stern than the first >Helmsman< position.

Bow splashes (2) and lights (7, 8, 9) remain compiled/crypted, I'll see what I can do, not much about the bow splashes, I can but don't know how it works, they were prepared by the very patient Johan. Same goes for the lights and the console ont he bridge roof, but I already modified some lights, so it should be ok if Johan doesn't show up (hello, Johan, alles OK?).

Have fun with tweaking cameras,
Luc

[CapnCrane]

I wish I could have fun if I knew in what program to open those files & how to edit them.
I can't find it mentioned on forum.

[will6418]

It’s part of the Questviewer program but you wouldn’t be able to open and edit them because they are encrypted.

What I wonder exists is the official multiplayer server application that vstep used for their official servers. Hosting would be so much easier. Luc, do you know of the server application that they used?

Willis

[LucAtC]

Hello Willis,

Sorry, I have no info about this application, and even don't remember that we ever exchanged about it. Was there anything specific about it that the game engine cannot do?
Mr Robville certainly knows more about it !

Regards,
Luc

[will6418]

Hi Luc, it was a separate application, sort of like the Ss08 server. Maybe it is part of RakNet which is the multiplayer host of the game? I’ve reached out to Mr. Robville in the past but he hasn’t gotten back to me since.

Willis