OXP tutorial - Revision history

Cholmondely: /* Reference */ added clarification

2022-01-11T10:13:03Z

‎Reference: added clarification

Cholmondely: /* Creating My First Ship (cobraball_1_0) */ minor tweaks - fixing typos, adding a little context...

2022-01-11T10:11:41Z

‎Creating My First Ship (cobraball_1_0): minor tweaks - fixing typos, adding a little context...

Cholmondely: /* Links */ Added originating BB thread

2022-01-11T09:36:46Z

‎Links: Added originating BB thread

Hiran: /* My First OXP */

2021-12-05T06:43:52Z

‎My First OXP

Hiran: /* Getting Ready */

2021-12-04T17:22:59Z

‎Getting Ready

Cholmondely: Added some tips from Montana, and more links

2021-06-13T12:57:30Z

Added some tips from Montana, and more links

Hiran: /* Getting Ready */

2021-06-12T21:46:38Z

‎Getting Ready

Hiran: /* Getting Ready */

2021-06-12T21:46:09Z

‎Getting Ready

Hiran: /* Preparing Oolite */

2021-06-12T21:25:44Z

‎Preparing Oolite

Hiran at 21:12, 12 June 2021

2021-06-12T21:12:06Z

@@ Line 298: / Line 298: @@
 *Never forget that manifest & CargoList are arrays.
-*Some oxp's have helpful annotation explaining what the author is up to: [[User:Phkb|Phkb]], [[User:Thargoid|Thargoid]], [[User:Norby|Norby]] are again all recommended by Montana05.
+*Some oxp's have helpful annotation explaining what the author is up to: those by [[User:Phkb|Phkb]], [[User:Thargoid|Thargoid]] & [[User:Norby|Norby]] are again all recommended by Montana05.
 *For those with an adversion to Javascript, try [[Legacy Scripting]]

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 My first [[OXP]] will be to create a ship. There are 2 approaches to this. The first involves [[OXP_howto_model|3D modelling]]. That is time consuming and too involved for my level of impatience. So we'll use the second method - borrowing someone else's model.
-Configuration files and scripts are either [[Property lists|property lists]] (.plist extension) or [[Scripting_Oolite_with_JavaScript|javascript]] (.js extension). Both are text format. Notepad++[http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/] is a good editting tool - even if I prefer vi[www.vim.org/download.php]. Though you can use whatever editor you are comfortable with (apart from Windows notepad).
+Configuration files and scripts are either [[Property lists|property lists]] (.plist extension) or [[Scripting_Oolite_with_JavaScript|javascript]] (.js extension). Both are text format. [http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/ Notepad++] is a good editing tool - even if I prefer [www.vim.org/download.php vim]. Though you can use whatever editor you are comfortable with (apart from Windows notepad).
-First we need a name for our expansion pack. If you plan on deploying it try to make it unique. Thargons.oxp is a stunningly bad name as it is likely to crash. Thus I will call this expansion pack cobraball_1_0.oxp. Throughout this tutorial I am using a major and minor version number - so you can download and identify all the examples.
+First we need a name for our expansion pack. If you plan on publishing it then try to make it unique. Thargons.oxp is a stunningly bad name as it is likely to crash. Thus I will call this expansion pack cobraball_1_0.oxp. Throughout this tutorial I am using a major and minor version number - so we can download and identify all the examples.
 Having come up with a catchy (well unique) name, we need a directory. Create a directory called cobraball_1_0.oxp in the AddOns directory. Create a Config sub directory. Within the Config directory create a text file called shipdata.plist.
-This will be our first [[Property list]]. There are 2 different [[Property_list#Formats|formats]], but this a tutorial not a reference manual so we will ignore one of them and use the XML format.
+This will be our first [[Property list]]. There are several different [[Property_list#Formats|formats]], but this a tutorial not a reference manual so we will just use the XML format.
-Below is a blank template for a [[Property_list|Property list]]. For our purposes we need to use the header and footer below and don't need to understand them.
+Below is a blank template for a [[Property_list|Property list]]. For our purposes we need to use the header and footer below, but don't need to understand them.
 <code><pre>
@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
 </pre></code>
-Enough preamble - on with our first [[OXP]]. We are going to build a ship. It will be like the [[Cobra_Mk.3_(Oolite)|Cobra Mk III]] (the playable version not the pirate / trader)- except we'll change it around a bit - otherwise what is the point? The key (internal name) for the ship will be cobraball_cobra_1_0 - this is never seen by the player. Note the use of the like_ship key. Take the code below and save it in shipdata.plist.
+Enough preamble - on with our first [[OXP]]. We are going to build a ship. It will be like the [[Cobra_Mk.3_(Oolite)|Cobra Mk III]] (the playable version not the pirate / trader)- except we'll change it around a bit - otherwise what is the point? The '''key''' (internal name) for the ship will be cobraball_cobra_1_0 - this is never seen by the player. Note the use of the like_ship key. Take the code below and save it in shipdata.plist.
 <code><pre>
@@ Line 64: / Line 64: @@
 As the header and footer can get boring very quickly and add clutter I won't include them from here on. Unless I do.
-As might be obvious shipdata.plist is the ships configuration file. The shipdata.plist information in all the installed OXPs is added to the standard definition in the central shipdata.plist to get the master list used in the gameplay. For the impatient the full list of available fields is available [[Shipdata.plist|here]].
+As might be obvious shipdata.plist is the ship's configuration file. The shipdata.plist information in all the installed OXPs is added to the standard definition in the central shipdata.plist to get the master list used in the gameplay. For the impatient the full list of available fields is available [[Shipdata.plist|here]].
 The ship now exists, but it would not be particularly easy to find at the moment. Thus we need more code wizardry. Create a new text file demoships.plist in the same Config directory as shipdata.plist. Add the following code to it:
@@ Line 78: / Line 78: @@
 </pre></code>
-Now fire up Oolite. And when it asks if you want to load the previous commander - press "N". Then use the left arrow to toggle through the ships - and delight in your new caption.
+Now fire up an old version of Oolite (v.1.77 or earlier). And when it asks if you want to load the previous commander - press "N". Then use the left arrow to toggle through the ships on display - and delight in your new caption.
 ===Creating My First Useful Ship (cobraball_1_1)===

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:36, 11 January 2022
Line 301:		Line 301:

	*For those with an adversion to Javascript, try [[Legacy Scripting]]		*For those with an adversion to Javascript, try [[Legacy Scripting]]
		+	*[http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3902 Fons et origo] of this page (2007).
		+
	[[Category:Oolite Development]]		[[Category:Oolite Development]]

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 An [[OXP]] is an expansion pack to [[Oolite]]. You can customise the whole [[Oolite]] experience. In the same directory as the oolite.app directory is an AddOns directory. An OXP is a directory under AddOns called oxpname.oxp where oxpname is the name of your expansion pack. I have rashly committed to an ambitious OXP on the [http://aegidian.org/bb/index.php oolite BB] - this tutorial / blog is the story of how I got there.
 ===Creating My First Ship (cobraball_1_0)===
@@ Line 286: / Line 288: @@
 ----
 == Links ==
 *It is often helpful to dip one's toes (claws?) in the water by experimenting with tweaking oxp's first: see [[How to tweak OXZ's]]

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 * be sure to run the OXP Developer's version of Oolite: http://oolite.org/download/
 * Oolite can verify your OXP. Ensure you configure enforce-oxp-standards=3
-* Currently we do not know what our OXP will contain or how often you need to change it. But be aware Oolite caches data to not be frustrated not seeing your in action - or simply turn off caching with always-flush-cache=YES
+* Currently we do not know what our OXP will contain or how often you need to change it. But be aware Oolite caches data to not be frustrated not seeing your in action - or simply turn off caching with always-flush-cache=YES (which sounds comfortable but has not always worked out reliably. In this case it may be easier to delete the cache before starting Oolite. See http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21120
 * In case errors and warnings happen and you want to easily find where in your scripting they occurred, configure both dump-stack-for-errors=YES and dump-stack-for-warnings=YES

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:57, 13 June 2021
Line 285:		Line 285:
	'''This is a work in progress to be continued		'''This is a work in progress to be continued

		+	----
		+	== Links ==
		+	*It is often helpful to dip one's toes (claws?) in the water by experimenting with tweaking oxp's first: see [[How to tweak OXZ's]]
		+	*[[:Category:Oolite scripting]]
		+	*[[:Category:Oolite Development]]
		+
		+	=== Reference ===
		+	*[[User:Montana05\|Montana05]] recommends https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_array_sort.asp for better knowledge of the js on Oolite.
		+	*Never forget that manifest & CargoList are arrays.
		+
		+	*Some oxp's have helpful annotation explaining what the author is up to: [[User:Phkb\|Phkb]], [[User:Thargoid\|Thargoid]], [[User:Norby\|Norby]] are again all recommended by Montana05.
		+
		+	*For those with an adversion to Javascript, try [[Legacy Scripting]]
	[[Category:Oolite Development]]		[[Category:Oolite Development]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:25, 12 June 2021
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	==Preparing Oolite==
		+	==Getting Ready==
		+	Of course you can just jump into OXP development. Skip this section and move on.
		+	But be warned you may go into pitfalls that are easily avoided if you take a few precautions:
		+
		+	The precautions will actually activate suitable features from [[Hidden_Settings_in_Oolite]].
		+	* Oolite can verify your OXP. Ensure you configure enforce-oxp-standards=3
		+	* Currently we do not know what our OXP will contain or how often you need to change it. But be aware Oolite caches data to not be frustrated not seeing your in action - or simply turn off caching with always-flush-cache=YES
		+	* In case errors and warnings happen and you want to easily find where in your scripting they occurred, configure both dump-stack-for-errors=YES and dump-stack-for-warnings=YES

	==My First OXP==		==My First OXP==

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:12, 12 June 2021
Line 1:		Line 1:
		+	==Preparing Oolite==
		+
	==My First OXP==		==My First OXP==