PTE build 85104-pte is now live!

I had just finished workarounds to add custom commanders for the Legion Faction server mod

At least it should be easier now

Now there is one thing about this that for example also the idle alerts suffer from. It only updates for data the player can see in at least one holodeck. A performance optimization, but it makes idle alerts as they are useless and hurts this API as well. I have a "fix" that I use for the ubermap already, but it isn't pretty...

Code:

    var unoptimizeNetworkForPlanet = function(planetId) {
        var makeHackHoloDeck = function(deckId) {
            var deck = $('<holodeck class="network_unoptimization"></holodeck>');
            var size = 1;
            var yPosition = 1;
            var xPosition = 1;
            deck.attr('style', "top: "+yPosition+"px; left: "+xPosition+"px; width: "+size+"px; height: "+size+"px;z-index: -1;position:fixed;");
            deck.attr('id', deckId);
            $('body').append(deck);
            return new api.Holodeck($('#'+deckId), {}, undefined);
        };
     
        var setDeckCamera = function(deck, planet, x, y, z, zoom) {
            var focusBefore = model.holodeck; // assumes live_game
            deck.focus();
            api.camera.lookAt({planet_id: planet, location: {x: x, y: y, z: z}, zoom: zoom});
            if (focusBefore) {
                focusBefore.focus();
            }
        };
     
        var deckA = makeHackHoloDeck("network_unoptimization_planet_"+planetId+"_a");
        var deckB = makeHackHoloDeck("network_unoptimization_planet_"+planetId+"_b");
        setTimeout(function() {
            setDeckCamera(deckA, planetId, 0, 0, 1, "orbital"); 
        }, 5000);
        setTimeout(function() {
            setDeckCamera(deckB, planetId, 0, 0, -1, "orbital");
        }, 5000);
    };

Called for every planet there is. Well the version in the ubermap is not exactly this code, it's optimized and more complex, but it still comes down to one hidden pip (whose camera jumps around multiple times per second) per planet. So on top of breaking the optimization it adds overhead due to the pip. Though I need one pip per planet anyway to give commands in world coordinates...

Unable to test ATM, anyone verify if this is still a bug?

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/galactic-war-modding-crash.69262/

I BET YOU THOUGHT YOU WOULD GET AWAY WITH IT

BUT NO

I UNDERSTOOD THIS REFERENCE.

There are a couple of unofficial launchers for Linux that can get you the PTE. Available Linux patchers:

• Pyrus' Python PA Patcher
• UberWilliam's GO Patcher
• DeathByDenim's Qt5 Patcher

The first two are command-line based, while the last one has a GUI (and mild mod support).

Does this mean we can have a version of Ubermap running on Linux?

Yes

The planet smash looks pretty good and I think Planktum above is crazy for insisting they must overhaul it.

My only gripes:
1. Orbital units attached to a moving body look ridiculous.
2. (The asteroid visibly pops out of existence during the smash animation.)
3. This AMD brightness thing! A sizable portion of players have these cards and the mods that try to fix the issue are hacky workarounds most players won't even find.

This is indeed the biggest issue I can see with the current animation as well. Make the asteroid itself not stop that early, but let it move "into" the explosion effect and make it disappear there, outside of the sight of the player.
Also imho it would be really cool if the effect would massively slow down once there are only particle-rocks remaining, so basically the rocks stay there for a longer time, reminding of the planet.

That means it needs an overhaul.

That's reasonable.

This patch made PA more like the Kickstarter trailer for me, which is good. I think that making the astroids smaller will make it visually better. The size of the Halleys is then beginning to make more sense. Also the astroid is a bit big when I compared it with a planet, during a smash.

I personally would vote for the effect to update such that charted shattered remains of the planet remain after a small smash for the duration of the game, but are not accessible for further play. It would greatly add to the feel of 'ultimate destruction' to see the remnants of the one luscious planets littering a system at the end of the game!

Yeah once this patch hits Uber should make some video showing off the new explosion and use that for PR. Make it the big "ASTEROIDS" patch.

I have a feeling they might be ahead of you on this one

Well I hope.

Pretty darn awesome!

I must admit, I was hoping for a better planet smash effect. As this is the first release on PTE I am hopeful there could possibly be some slight changes. Such as no asteroid disappearing to soon, a longer linger of large planet remains, a different explosion effect than our deathstars create and a crater explosion effect that starts the chain reaction.

There is a cool set of burning line type effects around the location of impact that I could see spreading slower or at least across the entirety of the target planet before destruction. The effect also has the target planet sort of blow out the opposite side of impact that is nice.

Obviously the laser sound will change.

I will miss making craters :'(

But hey, its a huge improvement of what we had so I'm happy

Glad you are enjoying it.

Yikes. If you guys are going to those lengths to work around the culling anyway, I'll just go see if I can add a flag for turning it off. It's a really big bandwidth saver, which gives a much smoother experience on the client, which is why it's on there. Running multiple holodecks that jump around the planet would actually be worse than just disabling the culling.

I'll see what I can do.