System Features Rings

This OXP adds some dust rings to a few planets in each galaxy.

Overview

This .oxp generates a wide variety of different ring systems which encircle the planets.

There are a number of other effects (as for example when one enters the atmosphere of a planet and looks at the rings)

If a system's main planet has rings, it will also be noted on the F7 screen.

The rings can prove very useful for (eg.) helping locate rock hermits which are close to them

Check out Isinor where the RH is between the rings (to which it is close) and the sun.

The original .oxp was crafted by cim in 2013 and then upgraded by Gsagostinho in 2017-18 (with the improvements to Oolite's shaders).

Images

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  Rings as in version 2.9

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  Transparency is now supported in Oolite 1.87

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  Close up of new rings

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  Previous version of rings

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  Rings now have different thickness

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  As well as different number of main gaps (in this case, 2)

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  As we get closer, their granular structure becomes visible

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  Close up detail

Download

Download using the extension manager in the game, or using the following link: System Features: Rings 2.10.3. (Requires Oolite 1.84 or later)

16/10/2018 - Version 2.10.3:

• Fixing a newly introduced bug in the visuals of the gaps in the rings.

13/10/2018 - Version 2.10.2:

• some more minor optimizations.

09/10/2018 - Version 2.10.1:

• more optimizations.
• rings get more transparent when entering an atmosphere.

09/10/2018 - Version 2.10:

• optimized some of the shader's code (thanks Svengali!).

07/10/2018 - Version 2.9:

• better handling of the alpha channel .

23/09/2017 - Version 2.8.1:

• bug in the description text now properly solved, it was still present due to a small oversight (thanks again, Cody).

23/09/2017 - Version 2.8:

• changed description text to "This planet has rings."
• fixed a bug in which the description text appears many times (thanks Cody and Norby).

19/09/2017 - Version 2.7:

• added "use strict"; to scripts which removes some warnings in the log.
• rings are now a little bit more common (1/8 of planets will have them).
• the description of a system will now tell whether it has rings or not (thanks phkb for the help implementing this!).
• close-up grain density now proportional to the colour intensity of the ring lane.
• fixed bug in which Ribior's main station would spawn inside rings (thanks to spara, cim and all others for the suggestions and spara for doing the all hard work for the fix).

27/08/2017 - Version 2.6:

• the sinusoidal functions which create the variations of colour intensity now fade in one by one according to the distance, which solves the Moire pattern problems.
• shading applied at close distances so that the grains look like rocks.

17/08/2017 - Version 2.5:

• fix for a small bug affecting certain cards (wrong type for second argument of pow).

03/08/2017 - Version 2.4:

• change to shader to fix a bug with certain ATI cards.

24/07/2017 - Version 2.3:

• code refactoring.
• rings fade into blue when entering the atmosphere (such as when using PlanetFall).

20/07/2017 - Version 2.2:

• smaller ring bands and grains only visible at closer distance.
• improved the issues with moire pattern, in particular at lower resolutions.

20/07/2017 - Version 2.1:

• the large gaps in the rings are now randomized making each system more unique.
• the colour gradient function is also randomized for more unique rings.
• renamed the effect script.

19/07/2017 - Version 2.0:

• rings now have different relative sizes to the planet.
• they also have different radial length.
• applied a slight yellow tint.
• applied ambient light.
• shadows are darker.
• changed the spawning algorithm which, among other things, make the rings more common.
• ring now uses a colour gradient instead of a texture (which is now only used to generate noise).

Version 1.2:

• use 1.80 features, repackage.

Version 1.1:

• improved ring texture and appearance contributed by ZygoUgo.

Version 1.0:

• initial non-beta release.

Requirements

A shader-supporting graphics card is required, the more recent the better. Older shader-supporting cards may be too slow to render the rings at an adequate framerate.

Tweaks

• Remove rings from main planet but place them around additional planets (DGill, 2014)

You might need to consult How to tweak OXZ's

Links

• smcameron's ring generators (2018 - Linux?)
• (RELEASE) System Features: Sunspots and Rings OXPs - (2012-13) for cim's original oxp - includes programming comments about adding collisions to this OXP...
• And see Frame's 2017 YouTube film where he mentions plans for asteroid rings (and other goodies).

Quick Facts

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Version	Released	License	Features	Category	Author(s)	Feedback
2.8.1	2017-09-23	CC-BY-SA 3.0	Ring system	Ambience OXPs	cim, gsagostinho	Bulletin Board thread