Question Should I Post this Addon?

[RisingFury]

Not sloppiness at all. The author never finished it because he (lazyd) died. I'm sure it kinda ruined his day as well.

Yea, I'm sure that ruined more than a day.

I don't see any issues with an update to the addon being posted a bit like the stage.dll addon fix for SC3.

I agree, updates and improvements are always welcome.


@Scruce: In general, I think skin repaints are quite useless and bad looking. Just about every XR2 repaint is based on the paint kit. Slap an image on, change the color, call it good. The other type of XR2 repaint is: Slap an image on the XR2 and call it good. The DGIV has some more variety and quite a few people created it from scratch.

@Pipcard:
Before you start whining and complaining about my criticism, this post isn't aimed entirely at you, but at all the skin makers. As your previously stated, you sure have the right to disagree and complain, but I have the right to point out that you're not the center of the development community

 

[HAL9001]

I think not enough for an Add-On, but I think ypou might inform the author of lola-mfd about it (who probably already read this post, bbut anyway), so it might be used in the next version...

 

[Scruce]

but I think ypou might inform the author of lola-mfd about it (who probably already read this post, bbut anyway), so it might be used in the next version...

Did you read the above posts? The author of LOLA MFD is dead.

 

[Mandella]

Thanks for all the input and discussion! Even if that discussion has veered into areas I didn't expect, but, hey, that's Science, right?

Since most all input was positive, I'm going to pack it up and post it some time this weekend, barring something unexpected. Again, thanks for the discussion -- one's first contribution to a developer community is kinda special, and I would hate to find that I had made a breech of etiquette with my first addon.

Now, to join into the discussion myself! :facepalm:

I'm okay with repaints. I'm an eyecandy type of guy myself (hey, I married an artist!), so I can totally get people being drawn to add to the visual interest of scenery or craft. And Coolhand and all included those paint kits for a reason! (Note that is has nothing to do with the controversy surrounding texture ports without asking the still active developers. That's bad etiquette, in my opinion.)

But even with an admitted interest in eyecandy, if that were all the problem I had with the debug line I probably would have just gotten used to it, same as all the other text on the screen. But Lola's always-on debug line blocks any other addon from using that space, which makes it difficult to operate those addons (why yes, I do run Greg Burch ships in my universe :lol: ). So I can claim a bit of practical value there, not just cleaning up the programming.

And speaking of that, although LazyD's untimely death did leave Lola in an unfinished state, the debug line was not one of them. That happened during Rawash's update to 2010, and I am quite grateful to him and the other devs who have contributed to keeping this very useful addon alive, and to their wishes that others would keep adding and adapting Lola for time to come (the true open source spirit).

And in the true open source spirit, if you see something broke, fix it yourself!

Even if it takes two years to figure out how....

 

[RisingFury]

I'm okay with repaints. I'm an eyecandy type of guy myself (hey, I married an artist!), so I can totally get people being drawn to add to the visual interest of scenery or craft. And Coolhand and all included those paint kits for a reason!

They all look the same!

Every panel, every tile, every nut and bolt is there on every skin. They're only different color. What's so good and artistic about that? It's like a hundred copies of the Mona Lisa, just one with a mustache, another with ear rings and the third with a tattoo.

But even with an admitted interest in eyecandy, if that were all the problem I had with the debug line I probably would have just gotten used to it, same as all the other text on the screen. But Lola's always-on debug line blocks any other addon from using that space, which makes it difficult to operate those addons (why yes, I do run Greg Burch ships in my universe :lol: ). So I can claim a bit of practical value there, not just cleaning up the programming.

Right! Debug string is for debugging. In general, Orbiter lacks a good logging system. You have the ability to write to log, but it's fairly limited. According to ETF, it's quite easy to display annotations, so any important information can be displayed on screen without the debug string.

 

[Mandella]

They all look the same!

Every panel, every tile, every nut and bolt is there on every skin. They're only different color. What's so good and artistic about that? It's like a hundred copies of the Mona Lisa, just one with a mustache, another with ear rings and the third with a tattoo.

I get what you're saying, but I can imagine what my wife is going to say when next she brings up repainting the bedroom and I respond, "Why? It's just going to be all the same, just a different color." :lol:

Right! Debug string is for debugging. In general, Orbiter lacks a good logging system. You have the ability to write to log, but it's fairly limited. According to ETF, it's quite easy to display annotations, so any important information can be displayed on screen without the debug string.

I don't like to criticize other people's addons, especially those I use frequently, but I am with you on disliking the use of the debug system for general information purposes, and I hope to avoid that on any original addons I (eventually) contribute.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is ETF?

*********************************

Well it's up now, waiting for approval. I do hope I avoided noob mistakes like uploading the Debug compile instead of the Release. Like I said before, learning to wrangle the Compiler is more complicated than learning the language in the first place, and I am not certain I got it right.

Well, it works on my machines, at least.

Thanks again for everyone's comments.

 

[Scruce]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is ETF?

ETF is escapetomsfate, a developer in Orbiter Battle Simulation Project (OBSP).

 

[RisingFury]

I don't like to criticize other people's addons, especially those I use frequently,

You're making a huge mistake. How can add-on devs learn what's wrong with our add-ons if nobody tells us, because they're worried about our feelings? What works for me when I'm making ad add-on may not work for other people. You need to tell us every bug, every annoyance, every feature request,...

Excuse my ignorance, but what is ETF?

escapetomsfate, one of the members of O-F and lead developer of Orbiter Battle Simulation Project. Sorry for not making it clear before. ETF did the notification system for OBSP, that displays a scrolling annotation text along the top of the screen that notifies users of certain actions.

Keep up the good work Mandella. In time you'll get familiar and comfortable with Orbiter's API.

 

[Mojave]

I have the freedom to disagree as well.

So why did Eli13 say "Some things are best left to yourself"?

What Eli means, is just that: If you are offended, keep it to yourself. No one stated that your repaint textures and skin were terrible. Scruce was just making a sarcastic comment.

Now, let us please show the thread starter some respect and help him out with his questions. (Get back on topic.)

 

[Pipcard]

I said on the last page that you could attach a .zip file to your post, and post it on the LolaMFD comments page. You only changed one line.

 

[Napalm42]

Does it really matter where he uploads it? Who cares?

EDIT: To follow RisingFury's logic, skin creators only change a few colors and symbols, but they upload it on OF, rather than attaching the ZIP to the comments section. Why can't he make a small change to an MFD and put it on OF too. :rant:

 

[Mandella]

That got approved quick! Can some of you nice folks download it and make sure it works on your machines? I would really appreciate it.

[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5579"]LolaMFD_01282012[/ame]

 

[Napalm42]

I'll give it in a shot in a few minutes.

 

[Pipcard]

Does it really matter where he uploads it? Who cares?

EDIT: To follow RisingFury's logic, skin creators only change a few colors and symbols, but they upload it on OF, rather than attaching the ZIP to the comments section. Why can't he make a small change to an MFD and put it on OF too. :rant:

Repaints are not like changing a single line.

 

[Scruce]

Well, I think that the OP's questions have been answered and the addon has been released. Time to abandon the thread.

 

[Mandella]

Well, I think that the OP's questions have been answered and the addon has been released. Time to abandon the thread.

I concur.

 

[Izack]

Staff Note:
Thread locked, as it has achieved its purpose, and some.