Guide to Ambience OXPs
This page is just started. Factual inaccuracies abound! The oxp's should eventually be listed in tables to enable comparison of features.
Oolite's collection of Ambience OXPs is a rather rum selection. Some aim at scientific realism in varying degrees. Others aim at spectacular eye-candy. Written by human beings rather than disembodied organic brainlets, some are stand-alones whilst some form part of suites. Some just twiddle with the one thing (eg distance to the sun) whilst others do many different things (distance to the sun, colour of the sun, grade of quirium scooped from the solar corona etc).
Hence Cholly's Guide to Ambience OXPS.
Solar Systems
Tweaking of the distance between the planet and the sun started early. Here are 7 OXPs which do this.
•Keeper1st’s KeeperSky (Ron O’Dell) inspired by Frontier/FFE (before 2016)
•Wildeblood’s Sensible Sun
before 2011
•Kaks farsun
Simple (March 2008)
Just the one .oxp
•Knotty’s Realistic Stars
(Richard Knott; July 2012)
Affects look of galaxy, star colour, corona size and distances. Constant size for sun coronas.
Just the one .oxp. (RealisticStars & Realistic Stars SSC seem identical)
•Wildeblood’s Distant Suns
Simple (July 2014).
Keeps the same basic distance between the planet and sun but varies it according to sun colour/star type.
Just the one .oxp
•Rustem’s Distant Stars
Later (Oct 2017)
Combines with cim’s Sunspots.oxp
As for Wildeblood, but adds variable corona flares, local economy correlated with star type and with observed reality etc.
Partly done in collaboration with Wildeblood, Stranger & cim.
•Stranger’s Sun Gear
Most recent (July 2020 - but started in 2013)
Requires Stranger’s Habitable Planets OXP which moves planets further out to a more realistic distance. You may need Stranger’s Hard Way OXP to allow refuel skimming from Solar Winds as sun-skimming may now be suicidal. And his SW_HUD_CAI .oxp whose revised altimeter is essential for landing without crashing on Habitable Planet surfaces.
Varies distances yet again according to star type. Star types correlated with observed reality. Also varies star radius and luminosity. Includes solar flares and solar winds.
An Advanced (Solar) System Data MFD displays 2 pages with data on sun & planets (Lock Advanced Space Compass onto sun or planet and then cycle through your MFD modes).
Tweaking of the Vanilla game's one moonless planet for each sun model. Here are 7 OXPs which do this.
- System Redux (Oolite) fully mapped out every system (with planets, moons and stellar environment).
- System Demux (Oolite provided a selection of textures for planets and moons.
- DeepHorizon - Systems
- Povray Planets with Povray Sets (?) and Famous Planets (descriptions) fully maps out every system in the 8 galaxies.
- Additional Planets (SR) adds random textures to extra planets/moons only
- BPlanets for system 1.90 - quite unsure what this actually does, other than look nice!
- Habitable Planets & Moons in the [Strangers World] suite - maps out every System's main planet, rest is randomised.
