Elite Observatory - Search your journal for potentially interesting objects, or notify you of new ones on the fly while exploring!

[Vithigar]

Oh, and for the sake of comparison, this is that same criteria in the new format used by the rewrite:

#Description Small atmospheric landable
#Detail $"Radius: {Radius/1000}km, Surface Temperature: {SurfaceTemperature}K, Atmosphere: {Atmosphere}, Surface Pressure: {SurfacePressure}Pa"
Radius > 300000 && Radius < 800000 && Landable && Atmosphere.Length > 0

 

[Eahlstan]

Are you sure you have the latest version (0.0.159.2201)? I'm aware of this error and have run into it myself, but it reports correctly to the error popup for me.
View attachment 243880
Either way though, will be fixed in the next release.

Yep.

Although it only crashes when I start it before I start the game and not if I start it after I started the game.

 

[DaftMav]

Oh, and for the sake of comparison, this is that same criteria in the new format used by the rewrite:

#Description Small atmospheric landable
#Detail $"Radius: {Radius/1000}km, Surface Temperature: {SurfaceTemperature}K, Atmosphere: {Atmosphere}, Surface Pressure: {SurfacePressure}Pa"
Radius > 300000 && Radius < 800000 && Landable && Atmosphere.Length > 0

This looks so much better! Way more understandable for me, I never liked XML stuff. And thanks for the atmospheric landable check, that works for the keeping the last few non-atmosphere matches out of the results.

 

[Vithigar]

New Observatory Core test release: Improvements, Round One

The first thing I want to get out of the way is an apology for the delay between the last release and now. I won't bog down this with the details of why, but my motivation to work on Elite Observatory has been poor. Nevertheless I still want to see it improve and I do have plans for more things to add in the future, so it's far from abandoned!
I'd like to extend a big thanks to @fredjk-gh (a.k.a. CMDR Coddiwompler) for assistance with this release.
Core

• UI Grids now auto-follow newly added rows
• Remove some file events from triggering monitor events to prevent some false positive journal reads
• Added option to enable/disable native notification popup
• Added option to read short selection of prior logs on monitor start to establish current system context

This release is based on new version of ObservatoryFramework and is a breaking change for compatibility with earlier plugins. Included component release logs:
Framework 0.0.206.2127

• Fix too small Ship ID datatype in several locations
• Added missing "recon" drone type
• Handle change in fleet carrier distance travelled value datatype in startup event
• Changes to how internal version number generated

Explorer 0.0.206.2153

• Updated label of custom criteria path for clarity
• Improve how UI grid is cleared when re-reading all logs
• Updated ExpressionEvaluator library
• Missing built-in criteria implemented
• More scan data now available for custom criteria
• Custom criteria performance improvements

Botanist 0.0.206.2128

• Performance improvements and better output grid handling

 

[Vithigar]

Alright, I wanted to talk a little bit about my plans for Observatory and lay out as much of a "roadmap" as I am able to.

The elephant in the room is, of course, the state of Elite Dangerous itself. Many other people have typed many more words on this subject than I, so I won't get into it too deeply, but I will just say that I'm in the "disappointed" camp, which has made motivating myself to work on Observatory difficult. I mused a little on stream recently that perhaps I just needed some kind of new goal or project in game to keep me interested, and I think I've found one, so here's hoping!

More directly about Observatory, here is the short list of things that I want to get done soon, in roughly the order I expect to tackle them:

• Write up a proper guide for using the new custom criteria
• Create a proper application installer which can fetch dependencies if required (this should substantially reduce the size of the initial download as I would no longer have to package the version of .NET I'm using inside the .exe) Done!
• Add an application icon Done!
• Create a voice notification plugin (possibly two different plugins, one using System.Speech same as the old Observatory, one using some flavour of cloud based speech service for better quality)
• Improve pop-up notifications, the current state of them is a rough two-minute implementation that was never intended to be permanent Done!
• Implement both copying of data from grid rows and bulk data exporting to a spreadsheet (this is going to be a little more complicated than anticipated due to the generic way the new Observatory handles the UI grid)
• Create a new plugin (probably prospector) to demonstrate a non-grid plugin UI
• Create an overlay notification plugin

There is more beyond this I want to do of course, but these are my immediate highest priorities in terms of restoring/adding functionality.

Finally I want to thank everyone who has sent in bug reports, and especially everyone who has sent me pictures of the cool things that Observatory has helped them find! Keep it all coming!

 

[varonica]

Just want to say you are doing a stellar job with Observatory, stellar. If you need any encouragement or specific testing let me know I will do what I can to assist.

 

[Getedoi]

the current state of them is a rough two-minute implementation that was never intended to be permanent

You know what they say: nothing is more permanent that a temporary solution.

But seriously, thank you for the work you do on Observatory, it's a fantastic project! (and congratulations for outdoing FDev on roadmap quality)

 

[LifesAJourney]

I've just started using the Observatory and I already love it! Great idea and implementation!

I have one question, though. Is it possible to make a criteria based on specific material quantity? Like "landable + geo signals + polonium>0.7%".

 

[Vithigar]

I've just started using the Observatory and I already love it! Great idea and implementation!

I have one question, though. Is it possible to make a criteria based on specific material quantity? Like "landable + geo signals + polonium>0.7%".

Currently, no. Landable + polonium > 0.7% is possible, but geo signals aren't tracked.

Coincidentally enough though, Frontier just added an event to the journal that gives surface site info on FSS scans, so it should be possible in the near future with Observatory Core.

 

[LifesAJourney]

How to define criteria for Polonium>0.7%, then? I think I can use Volcanism flag for determining geo signals presence.

 

[Vithigar]

Huh, I apologise, I was incorrect. Surface materials are not available in either version.

Definitely something I want to have available, and I'm very surprised that you're the first person to bring it up. Will definitely have to get that added.

 

[LifesAJourney]

Cool! Thanks!

If there is anything I can do to help, let me know!

 

[rootsrat]

Alright, I wanted to talk a little bit about my plans for Observatory and lay out as much of a "roadmap" as I am able to.

The elephant in the room is, of course, the state of Elite Dangerous itself. Many other people have typed many more words on this subject than I, so I won't get into it too deeply, but I will just say that I'm in the "disappointed" camp, which has made motivating myself to work on Observatory difficult. I mused a little on stream recently that perhaps I just needed some kind of new goal or project in game to keep me interested, and I think I've found one, so here's hoping!

More directly about Observatory, here is the short list of things that I want to get done soon, in roughly the order I expect to tackle them:

• Write up a proper guide for using the new custom criteria
• Create a proper application installer which can fetch dependencies if required (this should substantially reduce the size of the initial download as I would no longer have to package the version of .NET I'm using inside the .exe)
• Add an application icon
• Create a voice notification plugin (possibly two different plugins, one using System.Speech same as the old Observatory, one using some flavour of cloud based speech service for better quality)
• Improve pop-up notifications, the current state of them is a rough two-minute implementation that was never intended to be permanent
• Implement both copying of data from grid rows and bulk data exporting to a spreadsheet (this is going to be a little more complicated than anticipated due to the generic way the new Observatory handles the UI grid)
• Create a new plugin (probably prospector) to demonstrate a non-grid plugin UI
• Create an overlay notification plugin

There is more beyond this I want to do of course, but these are my immediate highest priorities in terms of restoring/adding functionality.

Finally I want to thank everyone who has sent in bug reports, and especially everyone who has sent me pictures of the cool things that Observatory has helped them find! Keep it all coming!

Wow, these sound all amazing! Honestly, I can't imagine exploration without your app now. To me it's a must have.

I have just one humble request if possible please - add dark theme, the white is killing my old grey eyes <3

 

[Vithigar]

Wow, these sound all amazing! Honestly, I can't imagine exploration without your app now. To me it's a must have.

I have just one humble request if possible please - add dark theme, the white is killing my old grey eyes <3

Dark theme is actually the default (and currently only option) in the new version. Hopefully I'll have it in a state suitable for normal use soon.

 

[rootsrat]

Dark theme is actually the default (and currently only option) in the new version. Hopefully I'll have it in a state suitable for normal use soon.

Excellent news!

 

[Vithigar]

You know what they say: nothing is more permanent that a temporary solution.

I will neither confirm nor deny that you saying this prompted me to put some time into the notification popup just to prove the statement incorrect.

Do people like the acrylic blur effect, or would you prefer a solid background?

 

[LifesAJourney]

I guess both would do the job perfectly fine. Or just offer both with relevant option in settings.

Yet another question/request: is it possible to announce certain signal types on the planet? I'm thinking of guardian/thargoid POIs. It's so easy to miss them while scanning gazillionth system far out in the black...

P.S. Two days ago EO showed me a high-eccentrity body (0.9997) which orbit was literally touching the star in Orrery. Unfortunately, the body's year was over 150 earth years and the planet was around the aphelium, so I dropped the idea of waiting for fly-by.

 

[Vithigar]

Yet another question/request: is it possible to announce certain signal types on the planet? I'm thinking of guardian/thargoid POIs. It's so easy to miss them while scanning gazillionth system far out in the black...

This was actually impossible right up until the most recent Elite Dangerous update patch. They added a new journal event that reports surface signals just last month, and support for it in Observatory will be added soon.

 

[Eahlstan]

This was actually impossible right up until the most recent Elite Dangerous update patch. They added a new journal event that reports surface signals just last month, and support for it in Observatory will be added soon.

It's still not possible. They only added biological and geological signals to that new event - the things handled as "features" in game. All the other signals handled as "locations" still need the body to be probed to be written to the journal.

 

[Vithigar]

It's still not possible. They only added biological and geological signals to that new event - the things handled as "features" in game. All the other signals handled as "locations" still need the body to be probed to be written to the journal.

Well poop. At least we get geo/bio now. Still an improvement, just not as good as I'd hoped.