[Realspace MODS] "STARS" - "XRSGE" - "REM" - various

[Arsaneus]

Do this other experiment: remove entirely the file Cluster_31.xml (or rename to whatever). Reload Heretic's End. You should have vanilla cluster with mod's new regions, so let's see where the thing is

Renamed the xml and I get no issues at all. Looks like this now:

https://imgur.com/a/3hkm7dn

[Realspace]

Yes, so it uses new textures added by STARS and new regions added by XRSGE, but keeps vanilla scenery (and skybox's mesh). While this is not a solution, you can do it for any sector that has this issue (but could end having misplaced planets). Segaris VII is Sector_110, you find it in the subfolder extensions/terran_dlc/etc. If there are others, let me know, I will tell the corresponding sector. Hope it is only a couple.

Or if you know how to do it, take the corresponding vanilla Background-lod.xmf from the corresponding cluster and overwrite it to mod's cluster's folder. This will keep the new scenery as it is but will revert only the skybox's mesh to vanilla.

It remains the mystery why this thing happens only to some

[Arsaneus]

I've done some more testing. The triangle background thingies get fixed once I comment the following block out in the xml:

<connection name="Connection01" tags="part "> with the material <material id="1" ref="p1.p1_env_bg_vertexcolor"/>

I still get the off (overblown) fog in the wreckage area but the background at least looks fine now. Does this help with troubleshooting?

[Realspace]

I've done some more testing. The triangle background thingies get fixed once I comment the following block out in the xml:

<connection name="Connection01" tags="part "> with the material <material id="1" ref="p1.p1_env_bg_vertexcolor"/>

I still get the off (overblown) fog in the wreckage area but the background at least looks fine now. Does this help with troubleshooting?

Yes it does!! That bg connection is what keeps the whole skybox together so if you remove it the white bubbles appear. It has to be there but yours seems to miss the Background that is linked in the mesh. New Heretic's uses bg from cluster 14, but the whole Morning Star system does, all of its cluster use the same without issue.

Problem is I can't replicate the issue bc it does not show in my game. what you can try is this:
1) copy the part_c30_bg-lod0 and part_c30_bg-collision from cluster_30 into cluster_31. Then open cluster_31.xml and change the connection 01 as follows:

Code: Select all

			
			<connection name="Connection01" tags="part  ">
				<offset/>
				<parts>
					<part name="part_c30_bg">
						<lods>
							<lod index="0">
								<materials>
									<material id="1" ref="p1.p1_env_bg_vertexcolor"/>
								</materials>
							</lod>
						</lods>
						<size>
							<max x="5.441747E+14" y="5.450214E+14" z="5.441747E+14"/>
							<center x="0" y="0" z="-62.5"/>
						</size>
					</part>
				</parts>
			</connection>
			

I really don't know why it should not work with bg14 (it does in my game) but you can repeat this by using any background from the following clusters: 07, 30,31, 46. One should work, and they are similar.
Conection 01 is needed, it makes the lights work in the scene so if you remove it the fogs will be white bubbles.

Let me know if and which one work, I will change it in the next release

[Newinger]

Hey,

I posted the following also on Nexus Mods:

Finally had time to test the newest versions incl. latest patches.

Well done again on the look and atmosphere of the sectors. Very beautiful and pleasant to be in.

The inactive gate/accelerator/highway issue still persists, but is managable, one just needs to hire an AI pilot right away.

Due to the high distances, your engine mod is mandatory. It makes no sense to play XRSGE without it. However, with the engine mod the AI pilots have some difficulties when approaching highway entries or lockboxes. The AI does not know how to reduce speed and change flight vector to stop at the desirable position. Instead they orbit several times around the highway entry or lockbox, with each turn in a smaller radius. After 4 or 5 turns, they finally managed it. This is immersion breaking. But this is of course a shortcoming of the game itself; it is obviously not made for Newtonain-inspired flight physics.

I am not sure about the sun's positions. In the Sonra system, for example, the actual sun position does not match the map position of the huge sun sector. For example when you are entering "Sonra VIII Hatikvah's Choice Alpha" from the northwest and fly to the southeast, the sun should be to the right of your ship, according to the map (where the huge "Sonra system" sector, which IS the sun, is to the right). But in the actual sector, the sun is left of the ship. The same in Ringo Moon, where the sun should also be to the right, but is in fact behind the ship (when entering from the north).

The most interesting topic is of course long-term effects on game's economy. I have the Event Driven News mod installed which reguarly gives updates on the economy, and just 4 hours in the game, lots of sectors and stations have problems distributing their products. I suspect this is not just a question of the number of trading ships (your patch increased them), but maybe (but this is just my guess) if the AI trading ships use the fast engines. Can you check that? Because if the AI builds trading ship with the slowest engine, they would take of course forever to distribute anything.

[Arsaneus]

c30 seems to work. No artifacts and the the fog works just fine.

So I guess I could replace c14 with c30 in all the systems and hope that's the only one causing issues. Though I hope you figure out what the difference between the two is that could cause this?

Didn't work with <center x="0" y="0" z="-62.5"/> btw as in your code snippet. Changed it to <center x="0" y="0" z="0"/>

[Realspace]

Hey,
I posted the following also on Nexus Mods:
Finally had time to test the newest versions incl. latest patches.
Well done again on the look and atmosphere of the sectors. Very beautiful and pleasant to be in.

Thank you

Due to the high distances, your engine mod is mandatory. It makes no sense to play XRSGE without it. However, with the engine mod the AI pilots have some difficulties when approaching highway entries or lockboxes. The AI does not know how to reduce speed and change flight vector to stop at the desirable position. Instead they orbit several times around the highway entry or lockbox, with each turn in a smaller radius. After 4 or 5 turns, they finally managed it. This is immersion breaking. But this is of course a shortcoming of the game itself; it is obviously not made for Newtonain-inspired flight physics.

I observed something similar but only in-sector. Out of sector they dock, collect, etc normally

I am not sure about the sun's positions. In the Sonra system, for example, the actual sun position does not match the map position of the huge sun sector. For example when you are entering "Sonra VIII Hatikvah's Choice Alpha" from the northwest and fly to the southeast, the sun should be to the right of your ship, according to the map (where the huge "Sonra system" sector, which IS the sun, is to the right). But in the actual sector, the sun is left of the ship. The same in Ringo Moon, where the sun should also be to the right, but is in fact behind the ship (when entering from the north).

Well this is not really a thing. The map is only a map, does not show the real position of planets (that orbit anyway) or each sector should be more distant. Let's say that a graphic map with planets around a sun would make the thing better, but in any game they are fixed. Anyway it is impossible to change the holomap more than what I did, unfortunely, otherwise I'd get rid of those hexagons

The most interesting topic is of course long-term effects on game's economy. I have the Event Driven News mod installed which reguarly gives updates on the economy, and just 4 hours in the game, lots of sectors and stations have problems distributing their products. I suspect this is not just a question of the number of trading ships (your patch increased them), but maybe (but this is just my guess) if the AI trading ships use the fast engines. Can you check that? Because if the AI builds trading ship with the slowest engine, they would take of course forever to distribute anything.

This is what requires max attention. In latest version of REM 1.8 I enforced M engines quite a bit, so most of trade ships should also be faster almost the double. Did you test with that version? Also I don't know whether they use travel mode, I suspect not. But base speeds are quite high now (5000 min)

[Realspace]

c30 seems to work. No artifacts and the the fog works just fine.

So I guess I could replace c14 with c30 in all the systems and hope that's the only one causing issues. Though I hope you figure out what the difference between the two is that could cause this?

Didn't work with <center x="0" y="0" z="-62.5"/> btw as in your code snippet. Changed it to <center x="0" y="0" z="0"/>

Unfortunally not. position is not important, the important thing is the max size, which is already set at E14 which is....a lot!
But this also works only if you previously enlarge the mesh, otherwise only works as limitation
There is something inside the mesh that is not updated when I enlarged and sometimes it requires connected backgrounds sometimes not.
Unfortunally it is quite a mess when you put hands on vanilla and modify. Much easier to add custom new stuff, but I did choose to keep vanilla general look, while improving any small detail.
I've tried different bgr so I also choosed cl30 for all, even if I don't see any difference in my game. So in next release I've corrected.
For Segaris VII it is cluster_116, you can do the same taking from any 110, 111, 113,114 or 115. But I am changing it here, blindly

Please report if you see the missing bgr stars in any other sectors. Mystery remains why this shows only for some...I am uploading version 2.5.3 with the corrections

[Newinger]

Thanks for replying

The map is only a map, does not show the real position of planets (that orbit anyway) or each sector should be more distant.

Okay, no problem ^^

This is what requires max attention. In latest version of REM 1.8 I enforced M engines quite a bit, so most of trade ships should also be faster almost the double. Did you test with that version? Also I don't know whether they use travel mode, I suspect not. But base speeds are quite high now (5000 min)

Yes, using REM 1.8.

Good to know that you will observe this further

By the way, Heretic's End looks fine to me, don't have the triangles reported by another user.

Oh, and I like that in the newest version the whole map is uncovered.

One small observation: The "parent" / root system of Morning Star shows as "ReadText" in the Encyclopedia, same for "Company Regard" root system.

Another observation: from Heretic's End to Aladna Hill, there is a jump gate. But when coming out of it, one is coming out of an accelerator, leading back to Heretic's End.

[Arsaneus]

Unfortunally not. position is not important, the important thing is the max size, which is already set at E14 which is....a lot!
But this also works only if you previously enlarge the mesh, otherwise only works as limitation
There is something inside the mesh that is not updated when I enlarged and sometimes it requires connected backgrounds sometimes not.
Unfortunally it is quite a mess when you put hands on vanilla and modify. Much easier to add custom new stuff, but I did choose to keep vanilla general look, while improving any small detail.
I've tried different bgr so I also choosed cl30 for all, even if I don't see any difference in my game. So in next release I've corrected.
For Segaris VII it is cluster_116, you can do the same taking from any 110, 111, 113,114 or 115. But I am changing it here, blindly

Please report if you see the missing bgr stars in any other sectors. Mystery remains why this shows only for some...I am uploading version 2.5.3 with the corrections

Thanks for your continued support and dedication on this mod. I've installed 2.5.3 and the Morning Star systems work just fine.
I've tested a few other sectors (roughly 1 of each cluster) and it seems to be quite a widespread problem for my game for some reason.

These were ok:
Farnham's Legend V: Watchful Gaze
Savage Spur IV : Matrix #79A
Getsu Fune V : Legend's Home
Antigones Republic II : Second Contact Alpha
Segaris V : Moroz
Frontier Edge II : Atiya's Misfortune I
True Sight IV : Holy Vision Alpha
Family Tkr V : Matrix #451
Guiding Star II : Eleventh Hour
Memory of Profit V : Shadow of Giants
Silent Witness III : Oum's Memorial Alpha

These had the same issue:
Leap of Faith
Tharka's Ravine V
Mars
Sonra IV : Argon Prime Alpha
Free Families III : Rhy's Defiance Beta
Wretched Skies VI
Morning Star VI : Montalaar
Black Hole Sun V : Akeela's Beacon Beta
Zyarth's Dominion II Beta
Pious Mists II : Duke's Vision
Trinity Sanctum IV : Cardinal's Domain Alpha
Company Regard V : Scale Plate Green Alpha -Planet Nature's Profit-
Hewa's Twin V : New Income Beta
Ministry of Finance V : Ianamus Zura Alpha
Grand Exchange VI : Goldminer's Dream Alpha
Grand Exchange IX : CEO's Retreat
Windfall III : The Hoard Beta

Would perhaps reducing the size just a little bit make any difference? As fixing each individually would be quite a lot of work, it would be nice if there was a way to make it work as it does for you and other users.
I'd be glad to test anything you'd come up with - even testing every single system - if it helps

[Realspace]

Holy cow, this thing drives crazy! For instance, Mars has the same identical copypasted bgr of any terran sector, why the hell one works one not!?

The only thing that remains is possibly the texture size of background stars being too large for some gf cards. Still, it should happen with all sectors. What happens if you remove stars mod? Does the skybox look ok? The usual old pixelated vanilla but no triangles?...

[Realspace]

This is what requires max attention. In latest version of REM 1.8 I enforced M engines quite a bit, so most of trade ships should also be faster almost the double. Did you test with that version? Also I don't know whether they use travel mode, I suspect not. But base speeds are quite high now (5000 min)

One small observation: The "parent" / root system of Morning Star shows as "ReadText" in the Encyclopedia, same for "Company Regard" root system.

Another observation: from Heretic's End to Aladna Hill, there is a jump gate. But when coming out of it, one is coming out of an accelerator, leading back to Heretic's End.

Textual missings yes, thank fo reporting. I must take some time to finalize that damn text, I always give priority to bugs..while the latter looks like an error in the connections, I will look immediatly tomorrow...thanks!

[Arsaneus]

Holy cow, this thing drives crazy! For instance, Mars has the same identical copypasted bgr of any terran sector, why the hell one works one not!?

The only thing that remains is possibly the texture size of background stars being too large for some gf cards. Still, it should happen with all sectors. What happens if you remove stars mod? Does the skybox look ok? The usual old pixelated vanilla...

Can I even run it without stars? Last time I tried, it said rsge is missing the requirement - stars.

[Realspace]

No you can't but we'd eventually know it is the cause. Stars uses a very large texture for bgr stars bc vanilla mesh takes just a portion of it. In content.xml of xrsge just delete the <dependency from stars mod. This will make xrsge load also without STARS. Then we see, if the problem solves it is highly probably that a texture is the cause. So I will do a smaller version if it. Or possibly being it dds 5 is an issue for some cards..

[Arsaneus]

Disabling stars doesn't seem to solve the problem. It still persists - with some additional nice pink backgrounds in some sectors due to missing textures

[Realspace]

Yes that is to be expected, pink textures. It was a try, not much hope bc the thing looks more like a missing mesh than a missing texture, otherwise you'd have pink background, not the triangles.
The only solution I see is you replace the mesh as you did for cluster_31. Sorry but I can't really figure out what else could be, having no manifestation in my game ever

-----------------------------------------------

For people who find REM too hardcore, this guy has made an engine mod that increases speeds similarly to REM but has not the inertia. I never tried it but it should fit well in XRSGE galaxy, give it a try:
https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/849

[Arsaneus]

Do you, by any chance, have an Excel file or so with all the systems and their corresponding cluster folder / bg file?

That would help to manually play around on my end.

[Newinger]

Textual missings yes, thank fo reporting. I must take some time to finalize that damn text, I always give priority to bugs..while the latter looks like an error in the connections, I will look immediatly tomorrow...thanks!

I have a general question by the way: Are the texts all already adjusted for the new galaxy layout? I sometimes find mentions of the ring highway, for example.

For consistency, it would be awesome if all texts could really fit to your new layout.

[Realspace]

Do you, by any chance, have an Excel file or so with all the systems and their corresponding cluster folder / bg file?
That would help to manually play around on my end.

You can find everything in mapdefaults.xml and galaxy.xml. I add notes everywhere, very easy to check. But I suggest you only copy connection001 of cluster 31 as you did for the other, and the corresponding mesh inside the folder. Don't worry, backgrounds are made by several other elements, bgr stars are not so important so even if they are the same you'll barely notice it

I have a general question by the way: Are the texts all already adjusted for the new galaxy layout? I sometimes find mentions of the ring highway, for example.
For consistency, it would be awesome if all texts could really fit to your new layout.

I am uploading version 2.5.4 with corrected texts. Names at least, about descriptions it takes time to read every one in-game and see if it fits. Changing picture of some sectors is another thing to do. I've redone many descriptions, especially changing the 'system' to 'sector' or region' or 'area in description, for consistency, and also added many new descriptions of the new sites. I am open to help if someone wants to do it. Very easy to change the texts once everything is in place as it is now

-----------------------------------------------

XRSGE 2.5.4

Ok guys, I've finally edited all the texts. It took the whole day but I think that names are all ok now. I used as much names as possible, instead of alpha and beta, to make each sector unique and easier to remember. Also added the prefix Sol: to terran sectors, so that every list of sectors groups names according to the system , terran's too.

As bonus, I've added a compatibility patch to play the mod "The Ancients" in XRSGE universe (https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/569), you'll find the patch under the optional files.

I've also corrected and improved station's placements and increased Khaak's presence in sun sectors.
Enjoy..
https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/507

[Newinger]

XRSGE 2.5.4

Ok guys, I've finally edited all the texts. It took the whole day but I think that names are all ok now. I used as much names as possible, instead of alpha and beta, to make each sector unique and easier to remember. Also added the prefix Sol: to terran sectors, so that every list of sectors groups names according to the system , terran's too.

As bonus, I've added a compatibility patch to play the mod "The Ancients" in XRSGE universe (https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/569), you'll find the patch under the optional files.

I've also corrected and improved station's placements and increased Khaak's presence in sun sectors.
Enjoy..
https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/507

Thank you, downloading now

By the way, I would suggest you update your mod description and changelog on the Nexus page a bit ... it is way outdated and for new users could be very confusing, maybe preventing them from even trying this awesome mod.