Docking issues

Originally posted by Second Chance

... but it didn't seem to take as long as was mentioned (although it was definitely uncool). My Tie Interceptor made three short passes, then docked in the SD. How many passes does it usually take?

It is different on the same system. From time to time it docked at the first time, sometimes it docked never and sometimes the TIE needed more than one pass to dock.
So I think it don't depends on the system itself. IF it's so then only the CPU speed would have an influence on that. But we don't know enough about the docking function itself (hardcoded) to say this for sure.

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Oh well, like I said, a random thought. Thanks for info Roi.

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Frame rates below 10-15 FPS can have an influence on docking but this see saw effect isn't caused by lower frame rates.

Anyhow, this is on my priority list this weekend.
We never had any trouble with docking on any previous Mods or the original version of the game.

It may be the tiny ships have practically no inertia and they accelerate too fast for the engine to deal with: perhaps it can't compensate quickly enough to accomodate minute changes in angular acceleration/deviation. Do the Dockports have any "size" at all or are they just a point in space?
Flux must use some kind of positional and distance reference between the 2 dockports as a means of deciding when/if the ships are to be attached/joined?

I'll try slowing the ships acceleration values down dramatically when it is very close (less than 500 meters) to the sim it wants to dock with.



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Do the Dockports have any "size" at all or are they just a point in space?

They're just points in space, represented by nulls. They have only position and orientation. I would be surprised if the problem were related to the setup files. The inertia thing sounds promising though, let me know if you need anything from me.

Flux must use some kind of positional and distance reference between the 2 dockports as a means of deciding when/if the ships are to be attached/joined?

I notice that ships always seem to position themselves at a set distance from the dockport, and then move in a straight line to attach. I don't know if it's relevant. The other thing about docking (and something that always bothered me), is the way in which the docking object sort of snaps onto the other object. That's just weird. Maybe it's a by-product of the docking code.

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I guess this "snap" function when docking shall mark acustical and visual the end of the docking process for the player. Otherwise your ship would come to halt with no hint weather docked or not.
The sound/snap may be some claws or clamps fixing your dockport safe for passing through.

This "set distance point from the dockport" may be the problem. I'll have to check that again, but I think we are missing this "point" on the SD.
Are there - or should there be - two separated points defined by default for docking? Is there any hint for that? Maybe the second "point" has to be fixed via the dockportinformation of the "daughter docking object"?
I'll try docking with a storm petrel...

There is no safe distance

There are 2 separate points. They are the dockports on each of the two sims. (one on the station and one on the ship docking to it).

The ship (or whichever object has the lower docking priority) gets aligned/positioned by the hardcoded docking function scripts. When the two dockports are properly aligned and close enough together the code 'snaps' them into place. (I think it's actually done with the child attach code)

I'll do the reduced velocity test tommmorow.


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