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

[Realspace]

In xrsge 6 Evolution I was more accurate on the 'realism' side. Gas giant's low orbits could be reached only through superhighways (whose gate would still be sucked by gravity btw). No stations in the low orbit so on.

Let's face it, everything in this game makes no sense, even the other planets should attract stations, everything is static but that also makes no sense. Gates are static and should orbit at a distance, so in Evolution I had put them all far from any planet (still superhighways would crash down). Stations are static, they'd have to orbit very fast and turn around a planet several times.

Planets are static! The sun is always there (btw x4 brings the heritage of x2/3 where sun flares light through the planet, so you can't even put them behind). Even big asteroids don't cover the suns. The backgrounds should also "move", relatively. There are some animated moons in some sectors, at least. And...should we talk about asteroid fields at low orbit??

The whole game has to be taken with a big big suspension of disbelief
The more realism you add, the less playable and spectacular it becoms. If you tried the first versions of my other mod REM, with high speeds and inertia, you know what I mean: x4 can not be a simulator

Planets in X have always been cosmetic, not part of the game. Realism could be fun if used for gameplay. Imagine a mission where you have to fly down low orbit of gas giant and have massive gravity waves, tempests etc. That kind of game would revolve around the player. Economy simulation somehow conflicts with that kind of gaming.

Anyway if that gasgiant disturbs your immersion so much, moving it far is not difficult. Will send you the file to replace as soon as I am working on the mod again.
P.s. scaling planets, unfortunelly, is not a simple edit. You have to redo the entire mesh. Materials can be edited but not remapped. It took me lot of time to redo the planets, especially those in capital sectors (argon prime, ianamus, etc) that were scaled down to the size of earth otherwise the scenery of normal highways going to/from would be less impressive. What is easy to do is moving them. You'll see in the file I'll send.

[ziplock815]

Realspace I double checked everything, still split plot doesn't want to activate. What could be wrong? Is there a possibility that you've uploaded the old version?
I'm completely confused
Maybe some mod interfering?

[Realspace]

Yes, I've just tested heretics end gate, there is a different cutscene from the slave one (an argon ship entering the split space, I did not even see it in xrsge 6 ), then Dal calls you back to talk. Ziplock there can not be any reason why my mod now interfers with missions, all the work I've done in Seven was firstly aimed at restructuring the patch methods in order to leave vanilla things in place, so the worst one could have was that xrsge sectors (only xrsge-added sectors) did not behave as vanilla for plots. But...I am uploading version 7.13. It contains minor corrections so I was waiting, mostly gate changes. let's see if it works for you, otherwise must be some other mod that deals with missions, can't think which one though.

nikoli grimm to change the gas giant position open XRSGE\assets\environments\cluster CLUSTER_RS48.xml
Look for <connection name="Connection16" tags="part "> and delete it and the following <connection name="Connection17" tags="part animation textureanimation "> up to the end of connection, i.e. </connection>
Then paste the following instead

Code: Select all

				
			<!--gas giant-->	
			<connection name="Connection16" tags="part  ">
				<offset>
					<position x="6.43E+07" y="-3.0E+07" z="3.53E+07"/>
					<quaternion qx="-0" qy="-0" qz="-1.91927E-04" qw="-0.9999999"/>
				</offset>
				<parts>
					<part name="gasgiant_419_atmo">
						<lods>
							<lod index="0">
								<materials>
									<material id="1" ref="planetsv2.cluster_419_gasgiant_atmo"/>
								</materials>
							</lod>
						</lods>
						<size>
							<max x="5.261893E+07" y="5.261893E+07" z="5.261893E+07"/>
							<center x="0" y="0" z="3.90625"/>
						</size>
					</part>
				</parts>
			</connection>
			<connection name="Connection17" tags="part animation textureanimation  ">
				<offset>
					<position x="6.43E+07" y="-3.0E+07" z="3.53E+07"/>
					<quaternion qx="0.5050421" qy="2.387802E-02" qz="-0.8621926" qw="-3.140397E-02"/>
				</offset>
				<animations>
					<animation name="loop" start="0" end="90000"/>
				</animations>
				<parts>
					<part name="gasgiant_419">
						<lods>
							<lod index="0">
								<materials>
									<material id="1" ref="planetsv2.cluster_419_gasgiant"/>
								</materials>
							</lod>
						</lods>
						<size>
							<max x="5.25E+07" y="5.250001E+07" z="5.250001E+07"/>
							<center x="7.8125" y="-3.90625" z="3.90625"/>
						</size>
						<size_raw>
							<max x="5.25E+07" y="5.25E+07" z="5.25E+07"/>
							<center x="0" y="0" z="3.90625"/>
						</size_raw>
						<uv_animations>
							<uv_animation mapchannel="1">
								<uv_property name="u_offset" controller="linear_float">
									<key frame="0" value="0"/>
									<key frame="90000" value="1"/>
								</uv_property>
							</uv_animation>
						</uv_animations>
					</part>
				</parts>
			</connection>

if it is not enough, you can increase the <position x="6.43E+07" to something like <position x="8.43E+07"

[nikoli grimm]

Thanks. I would have never been able to figure that out on my own.

I concur that we have to suspend disbelief with this game, especially with the asteroids being so close to supposedly populated planets. I just find it odd with a 'space' game that just about everything is doing the equivalent of hugging the coast like 17 century ships used to do.

EDIT:
I don't know if this has anything to do with you, but I did come across this in the 'Earth' Sol sector.


Also, when looking at the map, is the squared off areas of the supposed sector gases or minerals something you could fix? Some sectors look good, like they took their time making them, but others look like adding the overlay was a poorly thought out after-thought. This has been a gripe of mine with the vanilla game from the start.


EDIT 2: Damned images didn't work. The Sol sector image showed a solar array with misplaced solar panels and the other image was an overview map showing the gases and solids not looking natural, being squared off like either the overlay didn't cover the sector properly or Egosoft didn't take the time to make them correctly.

[Realspace]

I don't know if this has anything to do with you, but I did come across this in the 'Earth' Sol sector.

Nope, I don't change TERRAN solar stations nor touch earth sector btw
Img2 what you see is the hardcoded border of regions on the map that can not go beyond a 1200km radius. That is the interaction area for npc. I try to mitigate the thick end by fading out it earlier and increasing visibility of raw roids and gas on map (not the colors), those are visible beyond the limit and can be mined by the player only if beyond that limit (not gas anyway). In vanilla everything is smaller and packed together so you dont notice. Also there is unfortunely another limit in the engine, other than the 1200km radius for region mapping, it is the height you can position the regions, it is few tens of kms or they can not be interacted on the map.. So it is quite easy ending to set them close and on the same plane. Again, this comes from the fact that the game does not revolve around the player, otherwise I could put regions even at million kms because the player can go to mine them. But NPC can not.

Ok I uploaded XRSGE 7.1.3. earlier than planned.
I was still double-checking gate's positions.
Anyway it adds several changes of gates /to make more sense) and added tech stations in low orbit of Boron planet Yanva

https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1140

[ziplock815]

In newest version split plot doesn't activate either. Checked all jumpgate

Btw performance feels a bit better, less stuttering.

A small observation - sector Thuruk's Pride, where shadow of the planet falls to the rings (and obscures this part of the rings) you can see stars on it - if I understand correctly, the shadow should be completely black with no stars shining through it

[Realspace]

That is also in vanilla hatikvah faith. Many people found it strange but this time ego's approach is a right. Indeed the shadow projects on the rings from one side but star's light comes from the other side and is even stronger bc ring's reflection is shaded. Rings should be thin enough not to block the star light. It makes sense. What did not make sense was stars shining bright close to a sun. I tried to correct it by adding the halo around the sun (do you remember when I added it and we talked?) and when possible a layer of fog only around the sun.

You must try removing all other mods. Something definetly interfers. Btw I dont have stuttering except first seconds of a new game and game starts as fast as vanilla (no errors).

Performance is good, drops only close to megastations which is normal. Do you use jump mods? They cause massive stuttering bc create a lot of errors. All of them do it.

[ziplock815]

Edit: I've disabled all mods except of STARS and X4RSGE, still split plot doesn't activate
I'm completely lost

Yeah, I got some doubts about my observation anyway.
I definitely remember our talk about fog as I'm a huge fan of it
Seriously, the only fog that I liked was in some zones of some sectors, or some mysterious locations (in order to bring more immersion). For example Blach Hole Sun's asteroid field (the fog is very immersive here, like it a lot) and Neptune from previous versions. Loved this dark and mysterious sector. About haze, yes, it really may be good for realism, but I prefer X3 style more, without haze (maybe only in some close to the sun locations) , even if it's minus to realism. Btw, if you remember Elite Dangerous as the most "realistic" space sim, you can see stars near suns too. It could be explained easily: the glass of ship cockpit has a special technology that protects the pilot from sun's radiation in whole spectrum, visible spectrum included.Especially it's logical when you're close to Wolf-Rayet stars or some blue supergiant. No eyes could look straight to such source of light that is million times more intensive than our Sun's. So there should really be some kind of technology that dims the main star's brightness, allowing to see other stars in the background. Of course that's just speculation, but hey, we are talking about the game where planets don't move around their suns
About split plot. Yes, I will disable all mods except of X4RSGE to see if it works. Have no idea what mod could cause it, because in last version 6 everything worked fine

[Realspace]

XRSGE Seven version 7.14 is available

https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1140

This is LATEST BETA version, it means that next updates will be only fixes or minor changes.
Additional mega-stations will be added when Folker or somebody else will provides me the construction plans, I'll add them to the god engine and they will be built during the current game.

There are several changes in layout and connections.
Special mention to the two gates opening during Boron plot's steps and the changed connections in Boron Lost sectors. Also once gates are opened, Xenon get closer to Boron space.

I added the sector of Neptune, as it was requested. It is connected through a very long superhighway from Uranus (as it was in old xrsge).
Added production stations to orbit of planets in Terran and Boron space, so the economy is now fully covered.

By default, vanilla highways are disabled (superhighways work normally). Patch is provided for restoring them.

Game is no more with lose files, it is all packed. Please delete old extensions/xrsge folder before updating.

[ziplock815]

Big thanks for the update
And especially for Neptune

[Folker]

XRSGE Seven version 7.14 is available

This is LATEST BETA version, it means that next updates will be only fixes or minor changes.
Additional mega-stations will be added when Folker or somebody else will provides me the construction plans, I'll add them to the god engine and they will be built during the current game.

I'm almost done, only two paranid stations left. I've done the M/AM converter, Shield component (coil include), armament (turret include). I will create the drone factories and the engines. I'll redo the hull component factory when I finish stations.
I give you all of paranid plan at the end of the week

[Realspace]

Seems that using the third dimension, aka vertical coordinates, makes the engine more stupid than it is. For instance the mission of building defence stations will set a plot on the plane even if the gate is several hundreds kms down or up. I think I have to move zones back on the plane...

I've updated XRSGE to version 7.1.5

https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations ... ?tab=posts

There are several fixes and better connections, inner-system and intra-systems. Better galaxy layout.
Unholy Retribution has a new planet, different scene in other sectors too. Better placement of some stations.
Removed problematic up/down positions of zones on the map.

Game updates automatically from 7.1.4 to 7.1.5 but make a LOAD/SAVE/RELOAD before continuing the game.
Remove your properties from The Shallows sector. That's it.

It was reported by a Linux user that the game can not load the maps. I have zero errors in the log and everything looks fine, even continuing an old save. If you use Linux and have issues let me know.

[Folker]

Hey realspace, just a thought:

As I told you, and as you know, the stations are too small. So we've increased the size of the stations, for production, and to make them bigger.

But, the stations are independent, so the ore smelter has no use, the energy station is the same, and so is the gas station.

Here's an example of a solution:

Energy station => Mineral station => Tier 1 industry (microship for example) => Tier 2 industry (Advance electronics) => Shipyard...

All you have to do is add more modules and more storage space, with a more aesthetic look to the station.

XR module are more bigger this is the reason that XR station are more big. In more XR have more wares for station. So this two problem are not. In more XR have module for increase yield

Tell me you want me to create other stations and modify the independent station to do as I say above. As you want. Because I prefer to make this solution.

But if you don't want the new idea and keep the basic one, the faction's economy is less dependent on the trader, and therefore stronger.

[nikoli grimm]

Not sure if it was happening with previous versions, but with 7.1.5 I seem to be having an issue with the autopilot not being able to access Omicron B IV: Ariel correctly from any areas outside of the Omicron cluster itself. Just the autopilot, npc and regular travel is fine. In the Omicron cluster of sectors, I have no issues, but from either the Morning Star or the Getsu Fune systems instead of a simple 2 or 3 sector hop it tries to give me a tour of the galaxy. Either trying to send me to areas I haven't visited yet or a convoluted round-a-bout spanning about a dozen sectors, depending on which gate I click closest to in Ariel.

From the Getsu Fune side it will give me a direct route to all Omicron sectors except Arial, and from the Morning Star side it tries to send me off into unknown areas instead of just a two sector jump.

UNRELATED
Just information for your future updates and minor changes list: Two sectors I've come across, Loomanckstrats Legacy and Omicron B II, are illuminated so strongly with a red shader/glow that I was looking for a red hyper-giant sun in the sectors rather than the yellow 'G' type stars you've placed there. Loomanckstrats is especially strong, making my flat-black ship, which literally disappears in normal sectors, glow like a neon tube.

[Aelmors]

Seems that using the third dimension, aka vertical coordinates, makes the engine more stupid than it is. For instance the mission of building defence stations will set a plot on the plane even if the gate is several hundreds kms down or up. I think I have to move zones back on the plane...

I've updated XRSGE to version 7.1.5

https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations ... ?tab=posts

There are several fixes and better connections, inner-system and intra-systems. Better galaxy layout.
Unholy Retribution has a new planet, different scene in other sectors too. Better placement of some stations.
Removed problematic up/down positions of zones on the map.

Game updates automatically from 7.1.4 to 7.1.5 but make a LOAD/SAVE/RELOAD before continuing the game.
Remove your properties from The Shallows sector. That's it.

It was reported by a Linux user that the game can not load the maps. I have zero errors in the log and everything looks fine, even continuing an old save. If you use Linux and have issues let me know.

Hi Realspace,

thanks for your mod, really enjoy it.
A little thing I noticed with 7.1.5:
If you start a new game as "Young Gun" you now have 15Mil Cr, the Galaxy has a lot more Systems discovered and you already have deployed satellites around stations.

Rolled back to 7.1.4
there you have 10.000 Cr. only sectors around you a already shown on map and no satellites are deployed.

Is that intended?

7.1.4 https://ibb.co/QHzPYqB

7.1.5 https://ibb.co/JnmSTvC

[Realspace]

My fault, I had modded that start for me, I've restarted the game so many times to test the mod...but forgot to remove before exporting
Please don't roll back to 7.14, there are many fixes in 7.15. If you know how to do, unpack the mod where it is, delete the EXT_01.cat/dat and simply delete xrsge/libraries/gamestarts.xml file. Then restart young gun scenario.

I've increased the cargo space of all modules in latest version and above this I also add a lot of storage modules in my custom stations. They also give a more pleasant look (big cities). But we touched the limit, my fps drop at 30 when close to the mega stations. I think the best looking solution would be to at least import some XR modules, like the storage modules that look better and are bigger. I think I am able to do it, the shaders were provided and the models are in XR but I have zero time to do it. If you can take permission from SirNukes that would help a lot. Anyway, we can simply take what we have now, the claytronics factory you did is very good, if we have more single-product megafactories I will simply replace the vanilla factories added by my mod and they will be automatically spawn in core sectors (I've set the map to condition what the god engine does so high tech factories are 1. hand-placed close to planets or 2. auto-spawn in core sectors only)

I am checking but, about the lightning in the two sectors, I see no errors. Usually when everything looks washed/white and fogs are bubble, the cause is the cluster's mesh missing the vertex "box"...it can happen, consider that I remade ALL and I mean all the meshes of the backgrounds. But it is not this case, they are fine.
About the pathfinding, I started a new game, revealed the map and this is the guidance to Ariel, works normally.

These are the images:
PATHFINDING

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OMICRON B II

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LOOKMANCST....whatever... INSIDE THE DEBRIS

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LOOKMANCST....whatever... out of the debris

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Can you take a picture of the two sectors having bad lighting? Otherwise I can not understand what's going on in your game. Also test without other mods than XRSGE and STARS.

Btw for next version I will take the time to reduce the AMBIENT light in solar sectors. Actually ambient light should be ZERO anywhere, there is no atmosphere in space so no ambient lighting. Except inside fogs. One can speculate that close to the sun the corona is doing something similar to atmosphere.

Problem is, ambient light is used by the engine not only to lighten ships and stations bu also planet's atmosphere, so if you delete it entirelly the result is this (same planet, same view):

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But I can reduce it...about the color, that is a precise choice. Light from a star is not directly related to its sphere's color, the wave's lenght can change the perceived spectrum of the diffuse light in the distance (sort of...). But I usually play with sun coronas to achieve the right color, so the bubble is yellowish but the rays are of the same wavelenght of the ambient. Anyway, Obicron B sun was indeed not accurate, here is the result after reworking it a bit:



Also remeber that these pics are taken with Reshade active, that you find in STARS oprional files

[Aelmors]

My fault, I had modded that start for me, I've restarted the game so many times to test the mod...but forgot to remove before exporting
Please don't roll back to 7.14, there are many fixes in 7.15. If you know how to do, unpack the mod where it is, delete the EXT_01.cat/dat and simply delete xrsge/libraries/gamestarts.xml file. Then restart young gun scenario.

Thanks, worked for me.
For everyone who don't know how to do that.
Simple go to https://www.egosoft.com/download/x4/bonus_en.php, download "X Catalog Tool, version 1.11" extract it. Open up "XRCatToolGUI", "Root folder for input files: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\X4 Foundations\extensions\xrsge" import catalogs, select "EXT_01.cat" click "Extract all" and extract it to the same folder.
Now delete EXT_01.cat/dat in the Mainfolder of XRSGE and then delete xrsge/libraries/gamestarts.xml file.

[Realspace]

Good, that way you can also unpack to edit the parameters.xml file, for those who don't like the changes on the map's hud.
Anyway, i repacked the game but removed "rich Val Selton" first

XRSGE version 7.1.6

https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations ... ?tab=posts

- removed rich Selton
- various small fixes
- reworked lighting and shaders in all solar sectors
- reworked backgrounds in some solar sectors

[nikoli grimm]

These are images of what I'm seeing, using your latest updated version. The paintjob on the ship is the closest the game has to a flat black paintjob. I'm using your suggested Reshade.

Ship viewed from Earth's moon. --- Just as a lighting reference of what the ship looks like under a standard sun.

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Ship viewed from Omicron B II - The sunward side seems ok, though possibly a bit too red, but the lighting from the opposite side seems wrong as there isn't a light source from that direction.

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Image of the autopilot's guidance from inside Ariel clicking on the 1st gate in Getsu Fune, which seems correct seeing as I have been through all of the sector's gates before. Trying to get back to Terran space.

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Image of the autopilot's guidance from inside Ariel clicking on the 2nd gate in Getsu Fune. - No idea why it wants to send me in the opposite direction, I've been through the gate before. All gates beyond, leading to Terran space will also try to send me in the opposite direction. Once I'm actually in Getsu Fune the guidance will go the correct direction.

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I'm assuming you altered the sun and lighting in LOOKMANCST....whatever... in your latest update as it seems ok now.

[Realspace]

Yes I've changed the diffuse light in all solar sectors, as stated in the 7.1.6 release. Reduced ambient. The ambient light works in the game as a secondary source of light. Because it has an origin (so not true ambient), to make it lighten the shades, I've set the origin on the opposite to the main. As I told, this ambient light should not exist at all...but, to be precise, planets and moons do reflect light and should be added as secondary light source. To be more precise, I should edit each sector and set the ambient light's origin at the coordinates of the biggest celestial element present in the scene instead of just the opposite side of the main light (which works most of the time bc the planet is often at the opposite of the sun). What I will probably do, not difficult, only tedious. Btw I am happy that someone else notices these details I spent time to consider and work on

Btw I've still not tried to totally delete coordinates of ambient light and see what happens. I noticed that ego has done it in a couple of sectors. Must check what happens, whether the engine picks a source anyway or the light behaves as true diffuse.