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

[IgorDolvich]

Thank you!
Well I am working on the plot and afte trying adding all sectors to pathfinfing and travel engines to Silverback...I decided to go to a solution similar to what you suggest. I wanted to keep savage spur a bit more protected (I think my mod lets a bit evidence that I like pirates, taki, etc :-/) but will revert to quite vanillla so will remove the 2-way superhighway and implement a shorter connection.

My final idea is to bring back the ex asteroid belt, that is now Elysium of light, to be central connection. It is the external ore belt of Antigone system but I want to make it a terran-controlled sector. Which could make sense also lore-wise. Then reactivate the connection from getsu to savage spur II

No problem! So far, I'm very impressed with everything you've managed to do with this mod. I don't even know how you're managing to do all of this stuff alone, as it seems like a huge undertaking to essentially redesign the entire gameplay aspect of the base game, as well as the graphics side of the mod. It's really like exploring a whole new game from the beginning. The new backdrops in XRGSE are very well done and it really feels like I could fly directly into a planet if I truly wanted to lol. I don't even know if this was in vanilla or not, but I notice that many planets have an actual orbiting moon / asteroid belt, sitting back and watching for awhile you can see the moon make a pass around a planet is pretty wild. I imagine with enough effort you could literally fly to the moon and orbit the planet alongside the moon. I'm pretty sure with whatever you come up with will work out great. I can definitely see this mod growing in popularity, on par with other huge mods like VRO/SWI once all the small things have been worked out.

So far, other than small pacing issues with some plot missions (this takes a lot of playtesting to ultimately get "right", typically entire teams dedicated to it. Hopefully more people join in on the testing to help you out), it seems like most things are working as intended, mechanically speaking.

Also, please don't take any of my notes as being harsh. I would love to see this project succeed and it definitely seems like you have the experience and willpower to accomplish it; hopefully more people notice this achievement and assist however they can.

[Realspace]

Thanks for the kind words, I am happy that my vision of the game has arrived. Yes I did all alone and spent a lot of time to do it but it was good bc I also learnt a lot about the game's design. So now everything is "easier" to adress and fine-tune.

The orbiting moons is something I added, yes. In vanilla you have them only in Jupiter, I think. With enough time one could add them anywhere, animations are there to be reused.

As for terran plot I did as told, so now Elysium is shared, one sector terran one Antigone. I changed some gates, changed Getsu layout (outpost is close to the moon), connected it to savage spur but let the 2-ways superhighway there, hoping it won't help too much terrans against yakis. Yaki faction has more bases than vanilla thou, so will see.

For now don't start the terran plot, I am uploading the update

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

XRSGE 2.4.2 is out
https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/507
I had to rework the Terran plot and rearrange sectors. The result is probably even more interesting and has better sense. Elysium of Light, the orebelt of Antigone, is shared between Antigone and Terrans, Terrans having the more external sector. Connection to Getsu Fune is shorter (direct) and the travel time of the Silverback is fast. I've also remade the direct connection to Savage Spur. Sofar so good, no bug..
Unfortunally a new start is required if you play Terran Cadet.

I've doube-checked again all plots and I don't see any reason for a bug to occur except that the superhighway leading to the target has still not been discovered. So please when reporting a bug pay attention to this difference: does the mission totally disappear or is it active, but a yellow glass magnifier appears (not the target)in the map? If it is the latter, it means you still have to discover the connection to the mission's target.

[Newinger]

Thanks for all the work.

Are the highways now reliable, or still workaround needed?

[Realspace]

STARS 3.3 is available
https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/507
Large nebulae have been all redone + some small improvements
This version is made for XRSGE

I've also update RESHADE ULTIMATE VERSION
Best looking with STARS 3.3
This version is the latest, there is only one preset.
Very light, few fps loss and the best looking in fog
I added ambient light for planets that now reflect the light

[ziplock815]

Nice work with new nebulae, like it a lot. Thanks.
Just a small request - could you please revret the Milky Way to previous version of stars. The new one doesn't look very realistic with that large nebulae. Previous version of Milky Way was way better in my opinion

[Realspace]

Nice work with new nebulae, like it a lot. Thanks.
Just a small request - could you please revret the Milky Way to previous version of stars. The new one doesn't look very realistic with that large nebulae. Previous version of Milky Way was way better in my opinion

You can do it yourself, very easy: open the old version of STARS you like and take the file assets/textures/environments/MILKYWAY.DIFF
Copy and paste it into the same position in the new STARS

Edit: remember to use the new RESHADE ini I've uploaded, it's meant to be used with STARS 3.3 and makes nebulae much more dimm

[ziplock815]

Thanks a lot
Basically I like nebulae and stars more bright, and the Milky Way more dimm, but I don't know how to use reshade settings.

[IgorDolvich]

XRSGE 2.4.2 is out
https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/507
I had to rework the Terran plot and rearrange sectors. The result is probably even more interesting and has better sense. Elysium of Light, the orebelt of Antigone, is shared between Antigone and Terrans, Terrans having the more external sector. Connection to Getsu Fune is shorter (direct) and the travel time of the Silverback is fast. I've also remade the direct connection to Savage Spur. Sofar so good, no bug..
Unfortunally a new start is required if you play Terran Cadet.

I've doube-checked again all plots and I don't see any reason for a bug to occur except that the superhighway leading to the target has still not been discovered. So please when reporting a bug pay attention to this difference: does the mission totally disappear or is it active, but a yellow glass magnifier appears (not the target)in the map? If it is the latter, it means you still have to discover the connection to the mission's target.

Very nice, I'll give it a try this weekend and try to do more of the mission plots (as I would in a typical progression) to test it out fully. Does take awhile for me to build up enough cash to even leave the Sol region, even in vanilla lol.

Thanks for the kind words, I am happy that my vision of the game has arrived. Yes I did all alone and spent a lot of time to do it but it was good bc I also learnt a lot about the game's design. So now everything is "easier" to adress and fine-tune.

The orbiting moons is something I added, yes. In vanilla you have them only in Jupiter, I think. With enough time one could add them anywhere, animations are there to be reused.

As for terran plot I did as told, so now Elysium is shared, one sector terran one Antigone. I changed some gates, changed Getsu layout (outpost is close to the moon), connected it to savage spur but let the 2-ways superhighway there, hoping it won't help too much terrans against yakis. Yaki faction has more bases than vanilla thou, so will see.

Yaki is a great faction to improve upon, in vanilla with only 1 station, they tend to immediately die out (according to Dynamic War's military strength menu) after about an hour. Hopefully now they can at least try to stand a chance, normally I have to enable Yaki spawning with FOCW to make them present anywhere outside of Savage Spur. Hopefully now they at least can do something substantial lol. With a two way gate, I might have to test with SETA to see what ends up happening in the general region. I don't think the Terran Intervention Fleets will make too many moves in the area, due to a huge amount of defense ships.

At least with my FOCW settings ("low" for each faction, just a small boost) in the last version of XRGSE, the XEN regions in that area had a substantial armada of hundreds of ships defending the Savage Spur region, so I can't imagine anything will happen there for quite awhile. According to Dynamic War's military strength menu, XEN on average had around 2000 ( ) ships in total within a few hours of a new game start (tested regenerating the universe a few times to test some of your changes, with SETA enabled, to see if there were any "Balance" issues due to the rearranging of all of the sectors).

Good job on everything, can't wait to see where this mod pack progresses towards. Very impressive overall with the changes you've made.

[jack_coma]

I'm just here to say the work you've done is fantastic and STARS is just. so. damn. sexy. Thank you very much.

[Realspace]

Thank you. I must say it's been a very long journey but coming from long-time x-serie playing and modding, and knowing the usual things I've to change before playing this game as I like, I've waited up to now to play it...for well 2 years

So now I am finally enjoying it very much, am not bored and can eventually further mod it while playing. Now I can fine-tune everything while playing and not requiring a new start.

For instance I am moving all the many pirate bases I added inside specific regions such as minefields, wreckfields, ice-nebulae, etc. Moving zones in the exact positions of regions far away, adding new layers of immersion.

Finally you can explore the map even 30.000km and find things. The only thing that still creates issues is those damn superhighways that sometime don't activate. Bare in mind that npc's use them normaly, it is only the player so no big deal. You can either follow a ship or order your pilot to explore the entrance of superhighways. Another way is targeting very very close to the entrance. Since on XRSGE you can zoom the map much more, one can target at few meters from the entrance and command autopilot.

In short time I'll upload next XRSGE with many small changes, not requiring a new start.

I've also reworked REM checking ships one by one. After playing for a while I think I will nerf the trave drive. I had set it quite high for covering very large distances, like 200.000km but since the engine can't handle things more than 80.000km from the center (it starts losing precision so things that move have small jumps/stutter) I decided for a middle ground, as is XRSGE now. So there are even things at 50.000km but mostly the size is in the 8000km radius or 15000 for relicts and low-orbit regions. This to say that travel as it now is overkill. So I'll bring it back within max 12/15.000 m/s....one can always use seta for shorting the travel to very distant objects. Bc, btw, if you se a gas giant far and no superhighway goes there, well you can go and find resources. So are distant rings, if you see them they have roids;-)

Finally, a slower journey is not a big deal, further on the game you have a lot of ships to check/manage, so the few minutes of travel are used for that. Also, too high travel speed somehow destroys the perception of big distances the mod introduced. 12.000 max is a right compromise, you go fast but see the big space

....................

Question for the players: do you know if npc ships use anomalies or only the player? I thought about putting some close to pirate bases in remote regions, that connect to each others. It is an idea coming from Freelancer where pirates could not use gates but had wormholes hidden in the gas nebulae instead

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

I've uploaded the new version of XRSGE, aka 2.4.5
https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/507
There are maaany new things but should not require a new start.
Sceneries will be updated immediately (check the new Windfall) so some stations that are moved inside resources, etc.
So the many new regions with resources, don't know the gates I moved.
Other things will require time as God adds/move stations.
Among things, I've added some anomalies close to the pirate stations that are far away. Still don't know if npc's use them thou

There is also a PATCH for STARS, I've added a better Milkyway and please update the Reshade too, this one shines more
Enjoy..

[Mystershow]

Question for the players: do you know if npc ships use anomalies or only the player? I thought about putting some close to pirate bases in remote regions, that connect to each others. It is an idea coming from Freelancer where pirates could not use gates but had wormholes hidden in the gas nebulae instead

There is a quest int the Tides of Avarice DLC where on the npc use the anomaly as a way to escape and ask you to follow him through

But it is a quest so it's scripted, same for the main quest of ToA in the unknown sector

So far I haven't seen any npc use an anomaly but it could be a good idea to link some anomalies

[wanderer]

While using the mods I experience an nearly 80-90% FPS drop when switching from space view to map view.

First:
All GPU settings are set to minimum or if possible off, and fullscreen - so no fog, sampling or so - every thing is off! VSync adaptiv (as mention in your post)
3 more mods installed (ragnarok xl ship and syn mk2 [found on steam], and sapphire ships [nexus]).
Using newest stars and xrsge (will always be updated).

I created a custom start within nopileus fortune alpha with 6 stations and beta w. 4 stations (here one station is a S-XL shipyard). Normal stations no mega-complexes. No hub, story settings are on standart (means no story parts done). 1 XL ship in those 2 sectors, 3 L miners (gas) and 4 L miners (min) assigned to one station (to the shipyard).

Playing inside the space screen - 60fps (or more) ALWAYS!!! (even when near stations).
Switching to the map view, and fps goes down to ~3 (three) fps!
All settings inside the map are switched to off - means no lines, orders, ship infos, ...
(Also nothing explored except the starting sectors and here only the normal starting area! So no uncloacked areas in the skyboxes.)
I notices a 'threshold' when I zoom out the map. As soon as the station icons are not shown anymore, the fps goes up to 55-60. I still see my shipyard icon, but not he others anymore. When zooming in, the other stations (food and ec) are shown, and the fps goes down again.

Test using only 2 stations (1 in each sector, new game) - the prebuild argon administration stations. Each station owns 1 Syn L class, each sector 1 asgard. Drop to 12fps when map view.
Again, new game now with 4 admin stations (and 1L class for each). Fps drop to 8.
(...and those predefined admin stations are realy small...)

Saving the game(s). Restart X4 without the galaxy remake mods (the other 3 are still on). Moved stars, xrsge outside extension folder.

Loading saved game(s), yes its working (regardles of some ReadText error). I now see (as expected) the vanilla sector.
60fps in screen view, AND 60-56fps in map view! So, no drop at all. No zoom threshold as well.

So, question - why?

As mentioned in the test, there are no differences exept the galaxy remake mods (stars and xrsge).
Is there a way to overcome this?
I also tried (as in your nexus posts mention) other GPU settings. Still, map always breaks down to 3fps.
In both tests CPU always around 40%, Memory ~4/32 GB - so no bottleneck there...

[Realspace]

Try removing libraries/parameters.xml and see if performance in map increases. I added more zoom and details but in general sectors are much larger so holding more things. This could affect fps. My map can go down but not that much. The lowest I saw is 15fps. Try this solution and report, if it's only parameters it's easy to overcome

[user1679]

I've recovered the 3.11 patch
If you use STARS alone, download base STARS 3.01 + patch 3.11 and stop. If you use XRSGE too, please use latest STARS 3.2
There is no heavy/light version, they are all the same and large textures are limited in both.
XRSGE needs STARS 3.2. I changed many of the new nebulae, that are visible only in XRSGE

It's been a while since I've had time to check in but I wanted to say thanks for this.

[coupedecoop]

Hi Realspace,

First of all, the mod is amazing! The expanded universe adds so much to the game as well as the placement of planets/suns, etc.

I am having a bit of a graphical issue with the skybox. It seems when there is certain types of fog in view, it has a weird glitch with the skybox. I've manually removed and old version of stars and installed the new version and am testing with a new save.
I've tried to troubleshoot myself but can't seem to come up with anything that makes a difference. Would you have any idea what could cause the issue?

My PC main spec:

AMD 5800x
Radeon 6800XT
32GB Ram
Win11

I'm using STARS 3.3 with latest X4RSGE 2.4.5

Things I've tried:
Check video drivers are up to date.
Changed almost every setting in the X4 graphics menu. Low graphics, high graphics, fullscreen vs borderless, fog disabled, different AA methods, etc.
Turned off sound (heard this was an issue with some FPS problems so may as well try it)

Below are some screenshots of the issue in Sagaris IV. Went over to Segaris VIII too but that sector is fine!

https://i.imgur.com/Pt19LKl.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/tjd15Mt.jpeg

[wanderer]

Re.: FPS drop to 3fps in map view:

Try removing libraries/parameters.xml and see if performance in map increases. I added more zoom and details but in general sectors are much larger so holding more things. This could affect fps. My map can go down but not that much. The lowest I saw is 15fps. Try this solution and report, if it's only parameters it's easy to overcome

Done.

(...tests and settings are the same as in my post before... ...and always a new game...)
Testing with 2 admin stations: 15-17fps, 18-20fps when zooming into the sector. Seeing both sectors, ~15fps. So about 2-4fps more.
Testing with 4 admin stations: ~8fps, so no real change. When zooming out to see both sectors also ~8fps.
Now, with 10stations: 2-3fps, so no difference.

B.t.w. all ships are assigned to a station role (defend, trade, mine), as this was also hinted in other posts regarding fps problems inside the map view.
System: Win10 / i7-4790K / 32GB / SSD 970 EVO Plus / RTX2060Super/8GB

[Realspace]

It could depend by radar range largely increased. Do the same, remove libraries/defaults.xml

[wanderer]

It could depend by radar range largely increased. Do the same, remove libraries/defaults.xml

That (seems) to be it - BIG Thanks.

(station build up as in my first post)
with 10 stations: ~24-27fps
4 stations: ~35-38fps
2 stations: ~35-38fps

It seems it was the radar range(s). For more tests; witch entry (from the xml) should be tweaked to figure out the problem?

[Realspace]

You can try to use the defaults.xml but to delete only the <replace etc. that contains stations and leave the rest(ships). So ships continue to have large radars but stations not. Also I modified satellites to have much more range. They are in assets/ props/equipment. Delete the two argon satellites.

Be aware that these changes are in REM mod too, so if using both have to do for both.

These experiments are usefull, so I can know what affects fps more and save the rest. If it's only stations that's not a big deal, but ships need a larger radar given the distances. And good to know that parameters is not affecting, there are many nuances there for better zooming the map etc.

That could explain why I did not see the issue, I have no station except hq in my playthrough..I am still testing plots and stories (all working well sofar)

About visual glitches I'll see when am back to my pc but seems some corrupted mesh. Changin settings won't change that. Anybody else having that visual glitch?

[Folker]

I tested with Xenon Awakening and it is good, xenon creates new ships like the V and the I was modified. But I don't have time to say now if it's good with FOCW Corporation, I can just say that the different corporations were there, but I don't know now if the corporations create stations.

And thanks for your mod, it's really cool even without a highway I have to admit, I was just thinking of a more XR atmosphere was missing from X4