Difference between revisions of "User:CaptSolo"

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== Background ==
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== I Play Oolite 1.90 ==
Third generation American citizen born February 1, 1946 in a small town in North Dakota.  Father's parents were German speaking citizens of Russia.  Their ancestors immigrated to the region around the Black Sea during the reign of Czarina Katherine the Great.  Time and circumstance played a part in my paternal grandparents immigration to America.  They arrived 1913 aboard the Rotterdam III at Quebec, Canada and made their way thence to North Dakota via the Canadian Pacific Railway.  I knew these people very well and often pestered my grandfather with questions about his youth and experiences.  He lived to the ripe old age of 93 and his mind was sharp till the day he died.  I know less of my Mother's parents.  Her mother died when she was just six years of age.  She was of Polish heritage and grandfather was German.  This makes me a European transplant to America as are all Caucasian people who live in the USA, some of whom still know their heritage and honor it.
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{| width=30% style="background:#6699CC;"
 +
|- style="background:#D0E0F0;"
 +
| Commander || Simona
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#E8F0F8;"
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| Gender || Female
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#D0E0F0;"
 +
| Origin || Aronar, Santaari
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#E8F0F8;"
 +
| Species || Human
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#D0E0F0;"
 +
| Ship || Cobra Mark III: Nocturnal Maru
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#E8F0F8;"
 +
| Location || Lara'tan
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#D0E0F0;"
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| Rank || Dangerous
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#E8F0F8;"
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| Missions Completed || Constrictor Thief
 +
|}
  
== Growing Up ==
+
== Screen Shots ==
My parents were farmers and from the age of eight me and my brother worked beside them. It was hard work but a good life on the whole.  North Dakota in summer is very hot and the constant work in the sun and wind burned our bodies brown. But it all seems so long ago now as I grew and received education and aspirations took me away from home. In my younger days I would still return there from time to time.  There is nobody there now; just a few run down old buildings leaning and falling down, battered by storms and the ravages of time.  My parents are gone too but as long as I live they continue in my memories.
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Approaching the Seedy Space Bar at Ceanbibi, Lara'tan.<br>
 +
[http://hamhoctours.com/personal/oopic.htm ''<ins>07 May, 2023</ins>'']
  
== Work ==
+
== CaptSolo's Oolite AddOns ==
I trained and worked in the health care industry as a respiratory therapist. After graduation, I worked for awhile near San Bernardino, California. Then one morning I awoke from a dream in which I heard the wind rustling through prairie grasses and smelled the fragrant smells of grass and wild flowers. This experience is probably akin to an old sailor who misses the salty air of the sea. So I returned to my origins and have remained here to this day.
+
This is the complete list. I don't clutter up my Ooniverse with a lot of junk.<br>
 +
{| width=100% style="background:#A0A090;"
 +
|- style="background:#E0E0D0;"
 +
| Astro Miner 1.0 || Griff's models and textures borrowed from Random Hits' mining hopper. This OXP not available for download.
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#FFFFFF;"
 +
| [[BGS | Background Set 2.0]]  || Audio and video enhance the immersion factor of the game. I did, however, remove all vocal messages in lieu of sound effects.
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#E0E0D0;"
 +
| [[Camera Drones | Camera Drones 1.4]] || Complements your ship's hull-mounted cameras and sensors.
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#FFFFFF;"
 +
| [[Communications Pack A | Comms Pack A]] || Adds a range of communications messages to NPCs using the new communications routines.
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#E0E0D0;"
 +
| [[Cougar ST OXP| Cougar ST]] || A rare but fearsome hunter that only operates in the more dangerous systems.
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#FFFFFF;"
 +
| [[Deepspace Ships | Deepspace Ships 1.22]] || Oolite original models. Textures by Deepspace and CaptSolo. Griff's shaders heavily modified by CaptSolo. See image gallery below.
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#E0E0D0;"
 +
| [[Fuel Tank | Fuel Tank 2.2]] || Single-use, 3ly internal fuel tank fitted in place of a bomb or missile.
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|-
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|- style="background:#FFFFFF;"
 +
| [[GalCop Galactic Registry | Galactic Registry 5.2]] || This OXP aims to provide pilots with data relating to their current galaxy.
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#E0E0D0;"
 +
| [[Library OXP | Library 1.71]] || A collection of useful snippets and helpers. Its main purpose is to simplify or unify some common tasks used by OXPers.
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#FFFFFF;"
 +
| [[Navigation MFD | Navigation MFD 1.9]] || This piece of kit will display additional information on the ASC target. Available from the Expansion Manager.
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#E0E0D0;"
 +
| [[Random Hits OXP | Random Hits Light 1.4.19]] || Random Hits Light, heavily modified personal version such that only core ships are represented.
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#FFFFFF;"
 +
| [[Randomshipnames OXP | Random Ship Names 1.6 ]] || Gives all ships of normal roles a randomly generated name.
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#E0E0D0;"
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| Solo's Config || Personal OXP that adds modifications to the built-in config files.
 +
|-
 +
|- style="background:#FFFFFF;"
 +
| [[Target Autolock OXP | Target Autolock Plus 1.14]] || A little OXP that offers a software upgrade to the standard scanner targeting enhancement.
 +
|-
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|- style="background:#E0E0D0;"
 +
| [[Tracker OXP | Tracker 1.05]] || Invaluable add-on to the ASC allowing tracking of up to five distinct targets within the current system.
 +
|}
  
== Computers & Elite ==
+
== Deepspace's Core Replacement Shipset ==
One day in the mid 1980's, while working in the Pulmonary Function Lab, our department head brought into the lab an Apple II computer. That was the beginning of my adventure with computers. In the lab it was supposed to be all business - a device to record patient test results. But I found myself staying long past clinic hours just to tinker with it. It had a primitive DOS via BASIC commands. I was hooked and began shopping around for my own personal computer and found it: The Commodore 64. This machine was more advanced at the time than the Apple II. In short order I taught myself BASIC and even dabbled in Assembly. I subscribed to a couple magazines geared to the C=64. Those were good times indeed, especially when I joined a local C= users group and exchanged ideas with its members. It was about this time I discovered a game called "Elite", originally programmed by David Braben and Ian Bell, two brilliant British guys. I got chills every time the game finished loading, the title SID tune began playing while the Cobra Mk III rotating in space. "Load New Commander?" Absolutely brilliant game!  Space trading, combat, and adventure all rolled into one. For about a year I played no other game. So immersed at times it seemed I was alone in space in my ship and just about anything might happen.
+
Diffuse textures by Deepspace. Lighting and recoloring FX, specular, and normal maps by CaptSolo. Shaders by Griff modified by CaptSolo.
 +
{| align=center width=100%; style="background: black;"
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| [[Image:Ds_adder.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Adder'''</span>
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| [[Image:Ds_anaconda.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Anaconda'''</span>
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| [[Image:Ds_asp2.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Asp Mk2'''</span>
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|-
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| [[Image:Ds_boa.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Boa'''</span>
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| [[Image:Ds_boa2.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Boa2 Class Cruiser'''</span>
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| [[Image:Ds_cobra1.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Cobra Mk1'''</span>
 +
|-
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| [[Image:Ds_cobra3.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Cobra Mk3'''</span>
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| [[Image:Ds_fer-de-lance.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Fer-de-Lance'''</span>
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| [[Image:Ds_gecko.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Gecko'''</span>
 +
|-
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| [[Image:Ds_krait.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Krait'''</span>
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| [[Image:Ds_mamba2.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Mamba'''</span>
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| [[Image:Ds_moray2.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Moray Star Boat'''</span>
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|-
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| [[Image:Ds_shuttle.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Orbital Shuttle'''</span>
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| [[Image:Ds_python2.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Python'''</span>
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| [[Image:Ds_sidewinder.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Sidewinder Scout Ship'''</span>
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|-
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| [[Image:Ds_thargoid.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Thargoid Warship'''</span>
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| [[Image:Ds_thargon.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Thargoid Robot Fighter'''</span>
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| [[Image:Ds_transporter.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Transporter'''</span>
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|-
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| [[Image:Ds_viper.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Viper'''</span>
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| [[Image:Ds_viperi.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Viper Interceptor'''</span>
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| [[Image:Ds_worm2.png |300px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Worm'''</span>
 +
|
 +
|}
  
== Oolite ==
+
== Alternate Main Stations & Solo's Rock Hermit ==
After the C= days I purchased several computers.  Even though my C64 still functions I rarely use it anymore.  I discovered emulators for it and relived the old days with them.  Then one day I Googled, "Elite Galaxies". In the list there was a reference to a game called "Oolite".  Hello! I installed the game, launched it, and could not believe my eyes. There before me was that trusty old Cobra Mk III all beautifully textured and polygon filled. But Oolite plays differently than Elite. The main thing is the player is no longer the center of the game. The player is placed into a scene where other things... other events are occurring.  For example, one might come upon a space battle that you can avoid or participate in.  It is a deeper experience all beautifully done for modern computers and it has one other advantage: It can be expanded by addition of user crafted OXP's.  It didn't take me long to try my hand at authoring an OXP. Some people were making new ships or modifying existing ones.  That piqued my interest but I had no experience working with a 3D modeling program.  Oh well, no harm in trying, and after a month fumbling with a program called, "Wings3D", the pieces started falling into place or rather into my head.  And so, among all my other activities and interests, I am still playing (near to being deadly) and have produced two ship OXP's:
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Models and shaders by Griff, Textures by PAGroove modified extensively by CaptSolo including new specular and normalmaps. Torus model by Murgh, shaders by Griff, and new textures by CaptSolo. Rock Hermit model and textures by Killer Wolf for Anarchies OXP, a dockable asteroid for salvage gangs. Shader effects by Griff.
The [[Copperhead]] and the [[Accipiter]]
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{| align=center width=100%; style="background: black;"
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| [[Image:Alt_coriolis.png |250px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Coriolis Station'''</span>
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| [[Image:Alt_dodo.png |250px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Dodecahedron Station'''</span>
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| [[Image:Alt_ico.png |250px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Icosahedron Station'''</span>
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| [[Image:Torus_station1.png |250px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Torus Station'''</span>
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|-
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|
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| [[Image:Hermitage1.gif |250px|]]<br>align="center" <span style="color:#FFFFFF">'''Rock Hermit'''</span>
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|
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|}
  
== Favorite Things ==
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== CaptSolo's Star Charts ==
Food:  TexMex<br>
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I love maps and map making, but don't mistake these for serious charts:<br>
Bevies:  Tea in the morning, Beer with dinner, Kentucky Bourbon with friends<br>
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[[Solo's Chart One]]<br>
Books:  The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein<br>
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[[Solo's Chart Two]]<br>
Authors:  JRR Tolkein & Alf White (pen name: James Herriot)<br>
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[[Solo's Chart Three]]<br>
Non-fiction:  Science and History<br>
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[[Solo's Chart Four]]<br>
Movies:  Star Wars (III - IV), Star Trek (all but Nemesis), The Matrix<br>
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[[Solo's Chart Five]]<br>
TV Comedy: Keeping up Appearances & Red Dwarf (both British)<br>
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[[Solo's Chart Six]]<br>
TV Drama:  NCIS<br>
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[[Solo's Chart Seven]]<br>
Travel Destination:  The British Isles<br>
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[[Solo's Chart Eight]]
Sports:  Golf, Soccer, and Baseball<br>
 
Pro Golfers:  Padraig Harrington & Martin Kaymer<br>
 
WC Teams:  Netherlands & Germany<br>
 
BB Team:  Minnesota<br>
 
BB Player:  Henry Aaron (slugger of yore)<br>
 
Times:  A quiet moment in my garden
 
  
== Will Humanity Survive? ==
+
== SoloTek Industries ==
Yes, if:<br>
+
[[Cobra Mark III-XT]]<br>
1)  People us their power of reasoning rather than emotions<br>
+
[[Copperhead Mk. II OXP]]<br>
2)  People respect cultural, racial, and religious differences<br>
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[[Cougar ST OXP]]<br>
3)  No mega-catastrophe occurs.
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[[I Missile]]<br>
 +
 
 +
== Collaborative OXP's ==
 +
 
 +
[[Deepspace Ships]] - Core addition shipset, upgraded graphically, and made compatible with Oolite 1.80<br>
 +
[[Simon B's Ships OXP]] - A collection from Simon Bridge's Neolite OXP's, upgraded graphically and made compatible with Oolite 1.80.<br>
 +
[[Torus station | Torus Stations]] - All new textures and shaders, and made compatible with Oolite 1.80.

Revision as of 15:11, 7 May 2023

I Play Oolite 1.90

Commander Simona
Gender Female
Origin Aronar, Santaari
Species Human
Ship Cobra Mark III: Nocturnal Maru
Location Lara'tan
Rank Dangerous
Missions Completed Constrictor Thief

Screen Shots

Approaching the Seedy Space Bar at Ceanbibi, Lara'tan.
07 May, 2023

CaptSolo's Oolite AddOns

This is the complete list. I don't clutter up my Ooniverse with a lot of junk.

Astro Miner 1.0 Griff's models and textures borrowed from Random Hits' mining hopper. This OXP not available for download.
Background Set 2.0 Audio and video enhance the immersion factor of the game. I did, however, remove all vocal messages in lieu of sound effects.
Camera Drones 1.4 Complements your ship's hull-mounted cameras and sensors.
Comms Pack A Adds a range of communications messages to NPCs using the new communications routines.
Cougar ST A rare but fearsome hunter that only operates in the more dangerous systems.
Deepspace Ships 1.22 Oolite original models. Textures by Deepspace and CaptSolo. Griff's shaders heavily modified by CaptSolo. See image gallery below.
Fuel Tank 2.2 Single-use, 3ly internal fuel tank fitted in place of a bomb or missile.
Galactic Registry 5.2 This OXP aims to provide pilots with data relating to their current galaxy.
Library 1.71 A collection of useful snippets and helpers. Its main purpose is to simplify or unify some common tasks used by OXPers.
Navigation MFD 1.9 This piece of kit will display additional information on the ASC target. Available from the Expansion Manager.
Random Hits Light 1.4.19 Random Hits Light, heavily modified personal version such that only core ships are represented.
Random Ship Names 1.6 Gives all ships of normal roles a randomly generated name.
Solo's Config Personal OXP that adds modifications to the built-in config files.
Target Autolock Plus 1.14 A little OXP that offers a software upgrade to the standard scanner targeting enhancement.
Tracker 1.05 Invaluable add-on to the ASC allowing tracking of up to five distinct targets within the current system.

Deepspace's Core Replacement Shipset

Diffuse textures by Deepspace. Lighting and recoloring FX, specular, and normal maps by CaptSolo. Shaders by Griff modified by CaptSolo.

Ds adder.png
align="center" Adder
Ds anaconda.png
align="center" Anaconda
Ds asp2.png
align="center" Asp Mk2
Ds boa.png
align="center" Boa
Ds boa2.png
align="center" Boa2 Class Cruiser
Ds cobra1.png
align="center" Cobra Mk1
Ds cobra3.png
align="center" Cobra Mk3
Ds fer-de-lance.png
align="center" Fer-de-Lance
Ds gecko.png
align="center" Gecko
Ds krait.png
align="center" Krait
Ds mamba2.png
align="center" Mamba
Ds moray2.png
align="center" Moray Star Boat
Ds shuttle.png
align="center" Orbital Shuttle
Ds python2.png
align="center" Python
Ds sidewinder.png
align="center" Sidewinder Scout Ship
Ds thargoid.png
align="center" Thargoid Warship
Ds thargon.png
align="center" Thargoid Robot Fighter
Ds transporter.png
align="center" Transporter
Ds viper.png
align="center" Viper
Ds viperi.png
align="center" Viper Interceptor
Ds worm2.png
align="center" Worm

Alternate Main Stations & Solo's Rock Hermit

Models and shaders by Griff, Textures by PAGroove modified extensively by CaptSolo including new specular and normalmaps. Torus model by Murgh, shaders by Griff, and new textures by CaptSolo. Rock Hermit model and textures by Killer Wolf for Anarchies OXP, a dockable asteroid for salvage gangs. Shader effects by Griff.

Alt coriolis.png
align="center" Coriolis Station
Alt dodo.png
align="center" Dodecahedron Station
Alt ico.png
align="center" Icosahedron Station
Torus station1.png
align="center" Torus Station
Hermitage1.gif
align="center" Rock Hermit

CaptSolo's Star Charts

I love maps and map making, but don't mistake these for serious charts:
Solo's Chart One
Solo's Chart Two
Solo's Chart Three
Solo's Chart Four
Solo's Chart Five
Solo's Chart Six
Solo's Chart Seven
Solo's Chart Eight

SoloTek Industries

Cobra Mark III-XT
Copperhead Mk. II OXP
Cougar ST OXP
I Missile

Collaborative OXP's

Deepspace Ships - Core addition shipset, upgraded graphically, and made compatible with Oolite 1.80
Simon B's Ships OXP - A collection from Simon Bridge's Neolite OXP's, upgraded graphically and made compatible with Oolite 1.80.
Torus Stations - All new textures and shaders, and made compatible with Oolite 1.80.