Hey Teal!  I don't know if this will be what you're looking for (I don't have jumbo planets to expirement with ), but there are 2 places of note that I would try if I were doing this:

1.) In Gameplay.constants, the 2nd through 7th entries all seem to deal with zooming in one way or another they are:

 zoomDistanceLevel0ScalarForPlanets 1.5  (probably multiplies the below values to customize zooming for planets)
 zoomDistanceLevel0ScalarForNonPlanets 5.0 (probably multiplies the below values to customize zooming for stars)
 zoomDistanceLevel0 1000    (this is probably min zoom)
 zoomDistanceLevel1 65000
 zoomDistanceLevel2 4000000   (this is probably max zoom)
 nearFarThreshold 180000   (i'd bet this controls when they become icons)

2.) in the planet and star .entity files, there is this entry:

minZoomDistanceMult (1.25 for planets)  (2.0 for stars)   (this probably multiplies the result of (zoomDistanceLevel0ScalarForXYZ * zoomDistanceLevel0) By whatever value you set to further customize the minimum zoom distance for that particular star/planet)

I haven't tested any of these ideas yet, but if I do before you do, I'll let you know how it goes    If you test this first will you let me know whether I was right or way off base?  Thanks in advance!

Great! I'll definitely try out the huge planets.  I actually just downloaded your current one from another thread of yours about 30 mins ago, but haven't loaded it up yet.   I'll need to make a non-entrenchment shortcut after all

I'm definitely a kid at heart!   I'll take your advice and wait until tonight to try it out, thanks for the heads up.  I've always wanted bigger planets and stuff (to make it feel more "space" sized ).

entrenchment man... everyone is doing it

Side note:  

                   Gas Giant Planets grav well has been re-sized, but im not sure its the right size, i havent had a chance to look yet. Also Star grav wells have been re-sized but not yet looked at, so im not entirely sure they are ok, im assuming they will be fine, but dont know 100 percent.

Also included the shields for the planets, did that last night before signing off and uploaded.

Also, maps. I re-sized about 6 maps but had an error uploading them, will re-do that tonight and test to make sure they are ok before zipping and uploading.

When that is all done, finally, haha, i will be trying to move this to Entrenchment. The stars and planets and the re-sized meshes shouldn't be a problem as they are listed in the entity.manifest and dont have to be added to the manifest list.

But the races, the custom ships, the re-sized meshes for the custom ships that have new mesh calls will need to be updated and added. All told probably a week or so worth of work. Possibly longer as my pc time is rather limited lately with school. Anyway, that is where things are and where they are headed.

After that i dont know, oh, haha, yes, there is the "Invisible Ships" experiment that is on another thread. I thought it would be interesting to see if i can get some ideas i have to work, we will see, haha. 

Take care and keep gaming and keep modding!!

-Teal

  This is an actual mod, yes. It incorporates both changes to the bodies of entities in the game, as well as a re-size of maps to accomodate the increased sizes of the planets and stars.

It is still in progress, so i am listing it as a beta, which means there are issues to resolve before it is completely playable.

Can i make it merge ready?  I am not very good with documentation, as to merge ready? I am unsure, we will see.

Can i include Sins Plus planets from Uzii's mod?  I would prefer to let Uzii keep his planets to his own credit and not copy his work. This is an experiment on my own, similar to what CyberD and DireSaint did, and also similar to what TohKlidan is doing with Celestial Bodies, but again, i did not want to use or copy their work. This is a stand alone project of my own.

Anyone will of course be welcome to use my mod in a cross-over in their own work, or to take it and merge it with another mod, as long as credit is given where due and as long as they are responsible for the merge. I have my hands full with several projects and do not feel i can live up to a promise of merging my mod with another within a reasonable time.

-Teal

April 23, 2009 10:59:24

I think i may have figured out what went wrong. Since the grav well for the star was set at "aesthetically" the same ratio as that for planets, i set it in the trillions. This was the movement and jump distances. So it was fine, until i hit the star well with a ship, which of course, probably means the game is calculating trillions of possibilites and therefor slows to a crawl.

If i reduce the movement and jump distances for the star well to millions, or even to hundreds of thousands, the calculations for the game to consider may of course decrease enormously. I have also considered having the movement and jump distances as the same, since there may be no phyisical reason, other than appearance to make them different.

This smaller radius of the star grav well may be enough to make a difference, perhaps even a huge difference in speed. Bringing the performance of the game back up close to normal.

From the standard game, the star well, is no where near the same "look" as a planet, instead of a large expanded well, it is more of a thin belt about the center of the star, although large by planetary measurements, it is still much less "visually" in appearance, and certainly within the boundaries of what the game can calculate in a reasonable time.

I am at school now, and so will re-adjust the star grav wells when i get home and test it, but i am hoping of course that this is it. That this will be a fix and the speed performance once hitting the star grav well with a ship will not reduce the fps or the game performance.

We will see.

Thanks to all who have looked at this and for their input and suggestions and ideas. Am still moving forward on this, am not yet ready to concede defeat and give up.    Certainly if i were a Dev, i would understand the parameters more and could hopefully adjust accordingly.    But as a file tweaking mesh moving modder,    My learning curve is a bit steeper and longer.   

Here is to hoping it works, i will keep everyone posted.

Take care,

-Teal

ok this question first.

i have resized the planets to my liking.

but now when i zoom out, the grav well shows for most planets and the star, even far away, slowing things down.

i have changed all these values:

but it doesnt change when it turns into an icon. i want it to do that a lot sooner, what am i doing wrong?

EvilIron, which file is this?  Your idea on keeping the wells close in is interesting, i find the wells being visible all the time a bit distracting too.

-Teal

Ahhhh... you are wonderful!!!!  Thank you for finding it, i will reset the values in the next Test version of HP mod. 

-Teal