[GAME] EmptyEpsilon

daid

Just pushed a change that might fix your virtual machine issue.

kwadroke

Warp is working fine so far on the VM. I still need to test on the machine at home that did it more consistently. Hopefully I can get to that tonight.
The change did not fix the Virtual Machine issue. I think it's more of a VirtualBox & OpenGL issue than a EE/SP issue.

Flea

I downloaded both new builds, but have yet to extract and add my add ons to it.

I will try to force some errors and crashes during game play this weekend I hope, whether with my crew or just me and my son.

Did add more music.

I added a ship, but can't get the ship to orient correctly, I guess I need a bit more training!!

kwadroke

@Flea, you'll need to rotate your models 90 degrees for them to show up correctly.

daid

If the change I did did not fix the virtual machine problems, then the virtual machine most likely does not support "glBlendFuncSeparateEXT", as I'm using some blending tricks to mask out parts of the radar that are in "fog of war"

Flea

Thanks Kwadroke I will see what I can do,

I was hoping some of my work making planes for flight sim 98 would come in handy...however it hasn't!! 

daid

Just got an server crash report from someone.

Server crashes seem to be related to the music. (something with OpenAL and a null pointer). And I think they are not happening for me because my system has a different version of OpenAL installed...

Antanas

Hello, it is a nice game, we played it yesterday over internet. We used Evolve VPN. But one guy had problems using Evolve and we think that these problems could be solved by port forwarding and connecting to server directly (without any VPN).
But we don't know which ports to port forward. Could you please tell us which ports we need to port forward and give us some information about hosting a server over internet?

daid

Port 32666, TCP needs to be forwarded. Then you need to enter your external IP directly (as server discovery won't work)

VolgClawtooth

Number one issue reported at convention... could not tell if weapons had target lock. Nmber two was only 5/6 ship had working joystick input on helm...of course it is my sticks using a 10/18 source build

Fouindor

After months of delaying I've ran (custom test missions) a small 6-player session (most players are Artemis veterans) on the newest (I think ?) version and here is our feedback :

Gen. feedback :
+ Overall, the player's experience is overwhelmingly positive. The cross- OS compatibility, in particular, has been praised to the highest point. Another point praised is the good-looking 3D main view.

Now, station-related :

• Captain liked the flow of the game. No special remarks.
  
  
• The Pilot found the controls adequate and on-par with Artemis.
  
  
• Weapons had almost the same remark as Volg : target lock is hard to figure out. Otherwise, his experience was satisfying.
  
  
• Engineer liked the imprecision mechanic of the settings. However, he felt that the sliders were too small.
  
  
• Science gave me the highest praise of the new mechanics : in 6-player standard Artemis, Science was the most dreaded station as it had very little to do. Now everyone wanted to try the new Science officer
  
  
• Comms also praised the new mechanics, and the capacity to build a "dialog tree" really expands the Comms officer's involvement. However, a few remarks :
  1) A small message log would be a very useful addition.
  2) Interactivity with enemies/allies is as of now limited.
  3) Very minor, but the "RED ALERT" button seems to be missing
  

Some suggestions now :

• Carriers and carryables - Implement this mechanic would expand greatly the possibilities : Player FTL Carriers embarking a flotilla of non-FTL fighters, Stations could defend themselves by releasing fighters, and so on...
  Maybe it could be represented by a set of characteristics :
  - CanCarry (if 1 : the ship is able to host other ships)
  - CanBeCarried (if 1 : the ship can be hosted)
  - Size (if carrier, the size of the hangar, if carried, its size, else no use)
  - ParentShip (the carrier that spawned the ship)
  
  
• Ramming mechanics ? (maybe a use for size )
  
  
• A Comms log. If this is implemented, maybe split messages in two types :
  - Broadcast that is only appended in the log
  - Direct comm (what is already in place)
  

And my progress so far :

• I've been working on a mission generator. Here is how I envision the different parameters :
  - Mission type (the "main objective" : defend starbases, ...)
  - Events ("side objectives" : a transport chased by pirates, a cruiser having a reactor meltdown, ...)
  - Terrain.
  
  My priority right now is to the generation of the first type of main mission (sector defense) for one type of enemy and the terrain generation. For the past weeks my progress has been at best limited and spotty, I'm waiting for the holidays to work full steam on it and make some progress. As soon I manage to have a working version, I will upload it.
  
  
• Maybe a little money from us this month to buy new models !
  

Keep up the good work anyways

Flea

Looking over some of the suggestions over the year on the website and wiki, lot of great ideas for science/sensors I hope to see get implemented.

That being said, my background is in fire fighting and refrigeration.  So any fire, emergency medical, rescues or information like that I'm here to help!

Thanks again for such a wonderful addition to bridge sims!

lurobi

@daid

I tried out EE last night and again tonight.  Looks like a lot of fun, but I'm having the following issues: (all devices running 2015.11.16)

One (windows 10) computer was VERY slow in game, especially for user input.  I tried to have it run the server+main-screen but oddly the main-screen option wasn't even listed.  Not sure if you have any ideas here

Two computers worked great (one was an x86 Win10 tablet).

I installed the android version on a tablet and a phone, but couldn't effectively use them. As clients they didn't auto-find the server and didn't pop-up a keyboard when clicking on the IP field.  I finally installed Hacker's-Keyboard app, which provides a way to force the keyboard to appear, but because the IP input field is so low, the keyboard hides it and when it loses focus I cannot reselect it! The most simple fix would be to put the input for the server IP a good deal higher on the screen so that the android keyboard can be used without covering it.  Even better would be to trigger whatever the appropriate "open keyboard" event is.  Any other work-arounds?

Looking forward to finding a work-around for the Android problem so that I have enough devices to play!

daid

On the slow computer, you are lacking proper 3D drivers. When the main screen option is not shown then EE detected that OpenGL shaders are not supported.

The problem with the android version is known. I compiled that on a different date, causing version incompatibility.

Flea

If either Daid or Kwadroke (or anyone else) has a moment to give me a few hints,

I managed to get a few different ships in the game.  No problem.

Now, I am trying to adapt it with Lego spaceships for a convention next year.

I was thinking of replacing the majority of the enemies with same names models so I don't have to add a lot of additional stuff.  And of course the good guy ships and make a gm scripted mission.  

My problem currently is I took a lego ship and saved it 3ds.  Imported to blender, adjusted as needed and exported as obj.  My problem is, I currently do not have any texture file for the ship , (nor illumination) But my previous ships all have mesh and texture (no illumination) and they work.

I get the server main screen to load and then the game freezes and stops responding.

I thought I could get a texture in blender and used that (even though it ended up being blank).

Still it crashes.

I don't have any social media on my laptop with it, so once I email the files to this computer I can put up what I have for the ship. I have the model and shiptemplate all filled out (correctly as far as I know, since the previous ships worked).

No need to spend any lengths of time for me right now as I am still learning a few things, but any advice when you can will be appreciated, and I will work on showing what I have.  Thanks

kwadroke

Is the game choppy when you bring up the main screen, or does it crash when you try to start it? I've noticed that some complex models can cause problems with load time and seem to make the server hang. This is before the main screen loads. My guess is you will have to simplify the model.

On some lower powered machines the Ender Battlecruiser gives me some issues.
I opened that model in Blender and here's what it is reporting to me about the model Verts 4606/Faces 4327 /Tris 7398. I'm guessing your model is quite a bit more complex.

If you can share the OBJ I can take a look at it in the morning.

Of course Daid can answer this better than I.

daid

EE currently requires textures and UV mapping for models, else it will crash/hang.

The obj loader is also quite slow as kwadroke noticed. The models the I bought I converted into .model files which load a whole lot quicker.

Models are loaded the first time you see them. Quickest way to view them is in the sciene database.

Flea

Sorry for the delay, but yes Kwadroke, this model has a looooot of vertices and faces.  I didn't realize until I thought about it and looked!

So I am attempting to find out how to reduce it.

Daid, I will try that.  I didn't know I could use model.  I will give it a shot.  

I don't know how to load a file..or where?  I suppose I could put it on my google drive, I will post a link for it soon,

Thanks

Flea

May I ask what you used to convert to .model format? I don't see blender with that ability.

Thanks

kwadroke

I'm curious about the .model format as well. Not seeing a lot of details online so far.

daid

There are no details online on it, it's EE specific. The conversion from .obj to .model is done by the packgen python script. Which converts .obj files into .model files, and packs up the result with all other files into a single .pack file.

This is done to match the requirements of the TurboSquid licence.

kwadroke

Ah OK, that explains things
I did see some references to .model files during my Google searches, but nothing saying what it was.

Flea

Oh yeah,

Same here, my google-fu didn't bring much back for it, hmm, 

Kwadroke, please try this link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9iKGQGoiLQtTUJONDJCeE44alU

Should be my object file for my ship.

I usually got from my CAD program, then POV to save to 3ds then covert to object in blender.

The complexity is huge because of the actual "pieces" , found a few commands  on goggle, but I can't figure out in blender (yet) how to make it simple.

Thanks for taking a look,

If that link doesn't work, I may try dropbox.

Tag

I tried out EE this afternoon with a group of friends, great game, we had a lot of fun playing it. Thanks for this game.

We had overall a very good feedback on it. We discussed what could be future features of the game and we thought that with some electronic warfare (ship and missile cloaking, ECM, Decoys) and an easier way to aim with missiles, it would be perfect.

We had too some issues with the scenario Edge Of Space.

When we docked to the EOS station to be refitted to a warship, the server console showed this error :
[ERROR] LUA: update: [string "scenario_03_edgeofspace.lua"]:490: attempt to call a nil value (method 'setbeam')

When we tried to use the GM screen to manually retrofit our ship, the modification of the number of maximum storage of missiles bugged. Increasing or decreasing the maximum storage of missiles seems to give a lower maximum storage and modify as well the number of missiles still stored.

EDIT : We played on EmptyEpsilon-2015.11.06-win32

I hope it will help you to fix this problem despite the fact it has been described by a non-native english speaker.

I look forward for future updates

gryphon

So I want to be a useful contributor to this project but am not a programmer; I am, however, a professional 2D & 3D artist with over 20 years' studio experience and a long, long list of design credits & public and private commissions. Thing is, I am used to working with physical objects like actual paint and resins and modeling clay, not computers. That said, I've worked enough with 2D & 3D design programs to see that the learning curve on GIMP or Inkscape and Blender shouldn't be too terribly steep for me.  From your threads, it looks like you all might welcome someone willing to take orders to refine your graphics or provide game-specific elements. 

Questions for you, oh Keepers of the Code: 

(Warning - some of these are going to sound painfully noobish, but hopefully the quality of my efforts will eventually reward your patience. Please bear with the old guy....)

1. Do you have any preference for GIMP or Inkscape 2D renders, or is there some other program I should use?

2. Am I correct in assuming that Blender 3D builds are acceptable?

3. What is the preferred way for me to pass my work to you for inspection and possible inclusion in the project?

4. As a matter of SOP, would you prefer to see concept art or thumbnails first before I attempt any workups?

5. What would you like me to work on first?

kwadroke

@Flea. That file isn't public. I did send a request for access via Google Drive.

Flea

Yeah for some reason I do not see the request..bah

Your email if you care to share I can add it that way, 

KyleSlick

I'm a long time Artemis player that has been looking for exactly what you're offering here so, for starters, I can't thank you enough for making your vision a reality.

Unfortunately, I've tried to play EE twice with only moderate success. Both times, I used Windows computers and did the same 4/3 setup: One for server/main viewer, one for tactical, and one for main viewer controls/engineering+/operations. We encountered frequent crashes on all computers (the only game-ending crashes were, of course, when the server crashed. Our saving grace for all other crashes was the speed at which the program boots!)

I'm not a programmer and have no idea how to generate crash logs but would be willing to learn if I could get pointed in the right direction. Even with the crashes, EE was far superior to Artemis. The first time we used jump drive, we all embarrassingly squealed with delight...

Our only real grudge with gameplay was the requirement to double tap on touchscreens. Tactical and Engineering felt odd because of it.

kwadroke

@KyleSlick, If you are using one of the latest builds, a crash log file should be created with the extension .RPT in the same directory as the EmptyEpsilon.exe file. You can copy & paste the contents into a site like PasteBin or use a Github Gist and give the link to daid.
Of course make sure you're running the latest build from EmptyEpsilon.org. The last one is from Dec 9th.

daid

(Warning - some of these are going to sound painfully noobish, but hopefully the quality of my efforts will eventually reward your patience. Please bear with the old guy....)

1. Do you have any preference for GIMP or Inkscape 2D renders, or is there some other program I should use?

2. Am I correct in assuming that Blender 3D builds are acceptable?

3. What is the preferred way for me to pass my work to you for inspection and possible inclusion in the project?

4. As a matter of SOP, would you prefer to see concept art or thumbnails first before I attempt any workups?

5. What would you like me to work on first?

1. Use what you are comfortable with.

2. Naturally. Note that I can only use fully textured models. I've seen awesome models. But without textures it's not really possible to include in the game.

3. Any way you want. Email for example, posts here.

4. I've never worked with artists before. So what works for you? :-)

5. What you think would be the best addition to the game. I'll take whatever I can.