MattG's Observatory plugins

Just to be clear - I don't mean I've already scanned 1/3 when I log off. I mean I park near the next bio I'm going to start scanning, then log off (and switch off). The next day I log in, deploy SRV, drive to bio, get out, scan 1/3 (and get the 1st prompt from plugin), get back in SRV, start driving to next sample (never getting an indication I've driven far enough), find a sample, get out, scan 2/3 (still no notification from plugin).
Yep, still likely it's losing some statefulness. If you haven't already, try ticking "Try re-load current system information when stating monitor" in Core settings (not BioInsights settings), it might help in that particular scenario.

Regardless, I'll revisit after new Core is released anyway to improve it's ability to remember.
 
Ive discovered BioInsights doesn't currently differentiate between multiple commanders on the same PC. All discoveries and analyses across both of my commanders is all lumped together as if I only had one commander. It's impossible to quickly discern which one has credits to earn, in each previously visited system. I'd appreciate it if this could be looked into.
 
Ive discovered BioInsights doesn't currently differentiate between multiple commanders on the same PC. All discoveries and analyses across both of my commanders is all lumped together as if I only had one commander. It's impossible to quickly discern which one has credits to earn, in each previously visited system. I'd appreciate it if this could be looked into.
Yep, not designed for multiple commanders for tracking purposes. Only way for that to work currently would be to run seperate commanders under different local Windows accounts.

It's on the list but not sure when I'll get to it.
 
Is there a manual for the Bioinsights plugin - it isn't clear to me what all the icons mean - for instance the 'blue diamond' in the flags column (that is the only thing i see in that column. And then in the type column either a 'Yellow circle' or a 'Hammer' - again no clue what these might mean. And then in the 'Possible Variants' column there are 'blue diamonds' or 'thumbs up' icons - not clear whet they mean either.

Also is it possible to suppress the multiple notifications per planet - for instance we get a notification that a body is 'landable with an atmosphere' and a second that say it has 'an atmosphere with life'. It seems to me that if the second option is true (ie an atmosphere with life) then the first notification is also true - so we don't need both indications in that case.
 
Is there a manual for the Bioinsights plugin - it isn't clear to me what all the icons mean - for instance the 'blue diamond' in the flags column (that is the only thing i see in that column. And then in the type column either a 'Yellow circle' or a 'Hammer' - again no clue what these might mean. And then in the 'Possible Variants' column there are 'blue diamonds' or 'thumbs up' icons - not clear whet they mean either.
Matt - I found the legend in the Core 'tab' but it would be useful if those icons had tool tips, The icons are not intuituve enough to be either easy to recognise or remember.
 
Is there a manual for the Bioinsights plugin - it isn't clear to me what all the icons mean - for instance the 'blue diamond' in the flags column (that is the only thing i see in that column. And then in the type column either a 'Yellow circle' or a 'Hammer' - again no clue what these might mean. And then in the 'Possible Variants' column there are 'blue diamonds' or 'thumbs up' icons - not clear whet they mean either.

Also is it possible to suppress the multiple notifications per planet - for instance we get a notification that a body is 'landable with an atmosphere' and a second that say it has 'an atmosphere with life'. It seems to me that if the second option is true (ie an atmosphere with life) then the first notification is also true - so we don't need both indications in that case.

There is a legend for the symbols in the settings (Core -> Observatory BioInsights -> Show Legend). Tool tips, and other things to help understand the information will come with UI rewrite (I hope!) - currently things like mouseovers are not possible so limited on what I can do in that regard. Also limited on what symbols can be displayed (though there are 3 different sets in settings) - the icons are not ideal but not much I can do there either (and possibly not even after rewrite, will have to see)

As for notifications, I think only the second one comes from BioInsights. You can disable that notification in the settings also. I suspect the other notification is coming from Explorer, so you could similarly disable that one in Explorer settings.
 
The icons were intuitive enough to learn after a few days out in the black. I ram BioInsights on my right monitor, and I could tell at a glance what I had to do after each FSS. Worst case, one could take a screenshot of the legend, crop it, and print it.

I turned off all notifications right after installations, since I can see the actual window at all times. I never saw a notification during a month-long exploration trip, so they can certainly be disabled. I didn't bother with selective disabling, but it does look like it's possible.

It's going to be difficult exploring without this, but I'll get over it :)
 
The table headings on BoxelStats are not obvious enough on first glance. Some of that can be fixed with capitalization:
  • ELWS, AWS, etc. should have the final s lowercased to indicate it stands for a plural. So ELWs, AWs.
  • TFWWS, TFHMCS should have TF replaced with Tf, considering there is no extra word there. Combined with the first point, you get TfWWs, TfHMCs.
  • HE should be He, the elemental symbol for Helium.

Well, that's about all that can be done. Can't exactly add tooltips here.

(Can emojis help? Uh, maybe not. I can figure out how to say "ELW" 🌏 or even "terraform" 🌏🔧, but how do you say "ammonia" and "Helium" in emoji? 🎈 is too indirect for He and 💩 is even further removed from ammonia.)
 
Last edited:
The table headings on BoxelStats are not obvious enough on first glance. Some of that can be fixed with capitalization:
  • ELWS, AWS, etc. should have the final s lowercased to indicate it stands for a plural. So ELWs, AWs.
  • TFWWS, TFHMCS should have TF replaced with Tf, considering there is no extra word there. Combined with the first point, you get TfWWs, TfHMCs.
  • HE should be He, the elemental symbol for Helium.

Well, that's about all that can be done. Can't exactly add tooltips here.

(Can emojis help? Uh, maybe not. I can figure out how to say "ELW" 🌏 or even "terraform" 🌏🔧, but how do you say "ammonia" and "Helium" in emoji? 🎈 is too indirect for He and 💩 is even further removed from ammonia.)

They're not ideal, but I actually have very little control over the titles. At the moment, they're based off the names of the attributes of the C# class. They automatically put spaces before the previous capital letter when they encounter a lower case letter after a capital - so ELWs would actually be EL Ws but ELWS stays the same - and is actually smaller in length which is the main factor is the column naming. For the same reason, I can't add emojis in column names because they're not valid attribute names.

I'm hoping to improve things when Core UI rewrite is done. I'd really like tooltips to add clarity. Eventually, there should be a more modular way for plugins to output data which would give me a lot more flexibility but that may be a way off yet.
 

Attachments

  • BioInsights_2023.08.03_18.25.29.81.png
    BioInsights_2023.08.03_18.25.29.81.png
    84.1 KB · Views: 92
Last edited:
New releases for BioInsights, Codex Companion and Evaluator

BioInsights
  • Added support for multiple commanders
  • Better detection for when Read All is necessary. (It is necessary for this release).
  • Better support for non-English.
  • Big handful of species requirement tweaks
  • Bunch of things I forget!

Codex Companion
  • Updated species requirements as per BioInsights
  • Multi-commander support


Evaluator
  • Added Current System Only option, which is default
  • Window will now update with current system when "Try re-load current system" option in Core is ticked.



I am still working on fixing distance notifications not always working in BioInsights, hopefully next version.
 
Thank You!!

Does Bioinsights use a database, or is it a fresh read every time it's launched? If it does have it's own database, will I need to delete it to separate my commanders?

Edit: Disregard if the "Read all" takes care of this :)

Yep, the Read All rebuilds everything from scratch so that's all you need to do
 
Just an observation but the auto updater for Observatory Core has this is in the log, what is it?

ObservatoryApparentBrightness.dll not found, skipping
 
Just an observation but the auto updater for Observatory Core has this is in the log, what is it?

ObservatoryApparentBrightness.dll not found, skipping

That's a plugin me and a few squadron members are using to test certain results in BioInsights. It's not a whole lot of use on it's own though :)
 
1694817638517.png

Any way to get rid of ' Dashed ' entry at top ?




















Anyway to get rid of the ' Dashed ' entry at the top , it stays there all the time?
 
View attachment 367390
Any way to get rid of ' Dashed ' entry at top ?




















Anyway to get rid of the ' Dashed ' entry at the top , it stays there all the time?
There is not. Without it, it looks to cluttered to me with the line above it. I'm hoping to improve UI aspects once the new Observatory Core UI update is released though.
 
It seems a "Read All" is required on every launch now. If that isn't done, it apparently reverts to the all-in-one behavior, and shows "CMDR unknown" at the top. I'm guessing a manual "Read All" will also be required when switching commanders.

I've set Observatory core to read all on launch. It's messy until the first jump or scan, when it switches to only showing the current system. This means I have to park my SRV next to a biological if I want to stop playing before completing all biological scans in a system. When I start playing the next day, I just perform a composition scan on that same biological, the BioInsights window switches to showing current system only, and I can continue on.

I want to clarify this post is not a complaint. It's only meant to be informative. I'm very happy to be able to track each commander's biological discoveries individually. The workaround for continuing a system later is not a problem. Elite Dangerous itself requires many more complex workarounds at times, and I don't mind them :)
 
There is not. Without it, it looks to cluttered to me with the line above it. I'm hoping to improve UI aspects once the new Observatory Core UI update is released though.
Ok no problem , This is a great piece of kit to have in the black , thanks for your work :D
 
It seems a "Read All" is required on every launch now. If that isn't done, it apparently reverts to the all-in-one behavior, and shows "CMDR unknown" at the top. I'm guessing a manual "Read All" will also be required when switching commanders.

I've set Observatory core to read all on launch. It's messy until the first jump or scan, when it switches to only showing the current system. This means I have to park my SRV next to a biological if I want to stop playing before completing all biological scans in a system. When I start playing the next day, I just perform a composition scan on that same biological, the BioInsights window switches to showing current system only, and I can continue on.

I want to clarify this post is not a complaint. It's only meant to be informative. I'm very happy to be able to track each commander's biological discoveries individually. The workaround for continuing a system later is not a problem. Elite Dangerous itself requires many more complex workarounds at times, and I don't mind them :)
Shouldn’t need to Read All on launch, I don’t need to and first report I’ve had on it. Are you running Core after Elite? Also, make sure you ticked “Try to reload current system”. Do you run installer version, or stand-alone? You can also try enabling debug logging in BioInsights settings, re-running Core (without Read All), then DM me log file.
 
Back
Top Bottom