MattG's Observatory plugins

Running into another odd issue with BioInsights (and CodexCompanion), in that it isn't updating my list of "Seen" codex entries. For example, my in-game Codex for Outer Orion Spur says that I have seen 27 entries. CodexCompanion (as well as BioInsights which I believe reads from the same file) says I have seen 12, and this is not updating when I actually obtain a new scan. I use the "Mark entries I've not seen in current region" and as a result it isn't working as intended. Any ideas?

Because some of the codex finds in the in game codex will be geological sites and they aren't listed in Bioinsights and codex companion?
 
Because some of the codex finds in the in game codex will be geological sites and they aren't listed in Bioinsights and codex companion?
Sorry I should have clarified, specifically biologicals, and as an example I have Bacterium Vesicula Lime Confirmed in the region, but BioInsights and CodexCompanion still mark it as if I haven't seen it.
 
Actually, I have realised what I think the issue is after all - a classic case of the edges between regions being unreliable and the codex lying to me. My position right now on the border of Sanguineous Rim and Outer Orion Spur is causing some finds to be marked to the in-game Codex as being in Outer Orion Spur, but the journal to record them as being in Sanguineous Rim. Seems the whole program is getting confused as a result - I had two planets in one system with the same bio selections, all marked. I catalogued one planet but the second one stayed with all of it's marks even though I had "technically" already scanned them - BioInsights expected me to be checking them off the Outer Orion Spur list but the game was actually checking them off the Sanguineous Rim list.
 
Actually, I have realised what I think the issue is after all - a classic case of the edges between regions being unreliable and the codex lying to me. My position right now on the border of Sanguineous Rim and Outer Orion Spur is causing some finds to be marked to the in-game Codex as being in Outer Orion Spur, but the journal to record them as being in Sanguineous Rim. Seems the whole program is getting confused as a result - I had two planets in one system with the same bio selections, all marked. I catalogued one planet but the second one stayed with all of it's marks even though I had "technically" already scanned them - BioInsights expected me to be checking them off the Outer Orion Spur list but the game was actually checking them off the Sanguineous Rim list.

Oh yeah that's quite likely, get close enough to the edge and the game thinks you are in one region but the codex in the next region, I have run across that a couple of times but never thought to cross reference it to the codex myself.
 
Hi Matt, got a funny one for you!

As you can see from this image;

qdmVDg7.png


I got Bacterium Alcyoneum Emerald and Tussock Cultro Lime, both marked as being highly unlikely. Funny thing is on the initial list they weren't listed at all, only Mauve and Red respectively were in the list, and when I flew down to get some new codex records they changed type when I scanned them. Now in these two cases colour is determined by star type, so in the following image you can see the planet AB 1 c is orbiting a Y dwarf, so I assume that was the cause, both the Emerald and Lime variants require G class stars, the Y class dwarf is a star in orbit around a G class. So it's only showing the variants for the dwarf star the planet orbits and not the G star;

AaoznTP.png
 
Hi Matt, got a funny one for you!

As you can see from this image;

qdmVDg7.png


I got Bacterium Alcyoneum Emerald and Tussock Cultro Lime, both marked as being highly unlikely. Funny thing is on the initial list they weren't listed at all, only Mauve and Red respectively were in the list, and when I flew down to get some new codex records they changed type when I scanned them. Now in these two cases colour is determined by star type, so in the following image you can see the planet AB 1 c is orbiting a Y dwarf, so I assume that was the cause, both the Emerald and Lime variants require G class stars, the Y class dwarf is a star in orbit around a G class. So it's only showing the variants for the dwarf star the planet orbits and not the G star;

AaoznTP.png
So this is mostly working as intended. When BI calculates what might be possible, it checks for all main stars and if the body's parent is also a star it'll check that too. It then checks which star it thinks is the "radiant star" and will usually suppress the other results - and that's what happened here, it was confident the Y dwarf was actually the source and so hid the G/M variants. In some cases, it will leave the other options visible but with their red markers but not here.

Unfortunately, the calc is not perfect. It's right 99% of the time but clearly wasn't in this case. I have a few ideas to improve this, but haven't had time to revisit while getting BI and other plugins ready for new Observatory.

What is puzzling here though is the actual variants should've been marked unexpected but weren't - so I'll try and work out what's happened there.


Really hoping to get the new version in everyone's hands soon this week.
 
So this is mostly working as intended. When BI calculates what might be possible, it checks for all main stars and if the body's parent is also a star it'll check that too. It then checks which star it thinks is the "radiant star" and will usually suppress the other results - and that's what happened here, it was confident the Y dwarf was actually the source and so hid the G/M variants. In some cases, it will leave the other options visible but with their red markers but not here.

Unfortunately, the calc is not perfect. It's right 99% of the time but clearly wasn't in this case. I have a few ideas to improve this, but haven't had time to revisit while getting BI and other plugins ready for new Observatory.

What is puzzling here though is the actual variants should've been marked unexpected but weren't - so I'll try and work out what's happened there.


Really hoping to get the new version in everyone's hands soon this week.

Of interest the Frutexa shows both variants as unlikely, I didn't actually check that one as it wasn't a new codex find for me, since I am still in the system I will go and have a look what pops up when I scan it!

Was in fact the Emerald variant.
 
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OK, it's time for a proper release of BioInsights - so here it is. You will need the very latest Observatory Core to use it.

After downloading and installing (double click the .eop or copy it to plugins folder), the first thing you should do is review the Settings. Go to the Core tab, highlight BioInsights and hit the Plugin Settings button. It's split into sections:

pV9x23G.png

This section determines if you get "blue diamonds" for new bios that you've either not seen in the entire galaxy or you've not seen in your current region. If you just want "one of everything" across the galaxy, you want the first option. If you're working on completing a particular region (or regions), go for second option.

d8i8hNN.png

You can determine which things give you notifications. I'd suggest having them all on initially, then disable if you don't find particular ones useful.

cZZ6KVQ.png

The first option will hide any species confirmed as not present. The extended output is similar to the old extended information - but instead of stretching the screen further it adds a new row with some extra details. The maximum number of systems after a Read All limits how much the output window shows you after a Read All. I don't recommend increasing it as it'll slow down output and increase RAM usage after a Read All (thankfully, you shouldn't need to Read All often). You can also set the Zoom level for the output here, as well as change the button sizes.

EaDScN0.png

You can configure what triggers the "valuable" notifications here, either the minimum value for a body or the minimum value for a single biological.

8uSeKDm.png

You can tell BioInsights to look for updates itself. I'd recommend using this, but not the beta option (unless you're brave). No more AutoUpdater required!


TNRziyU.png

Verbose logging adds more output in log, send debug data submits limited data about bios to improve BioInsights (actually it's not doing anything right now but will again in future). Save system data enables BioInsights to store data in case you revisit a system. If you don't care about history at all, you can disable this but I don't recommend it for now. Eventually this will go away as I have better plans for how data is store - but that's for a later plugin.

ZywWgLE.png

This enables you to wipe any unsold data for the current commander.



Next up, you should do a Read All to populate BioInsights background database. After that, I'd suggest restarting Observatory.

On the BioInsights tab, you'll notice some buttons:
23mCLNu.png



The first button takes you to the normal BioInsights output window, which looks like this:
PM0HMnU.png

If you've used BioInsights before, this should be somewhat familiar. The star/material icons have changed to better reflect in-game iconography. It also now includes a "Radiant Star" field, which is the star that BioInsights colours bios on the body. When you get a red down arrow, that's when the suggested bio requires a different radiant star and so is extremely unlikely. The yellow icons for variants are also gone, replaced with green as this was causing some confusion. You can mouse-over most of the icons and it'll explain what it means. It also shows you the "current body" - this is the last FSSed, or last selected, or last mapped body. The window will auto-scroll to show you the current body. You can also click the species names to take you to Codex Companion.


The second button takes you to the unsold data for the commander:
9oNERtX.png

By default, it will assume First Logged bonus - but if you know you weren't first to scan the bio (on the bio tab of the system map, it shows First Logged for bios you've scanned on a body that have already been sold), you can toggle the bonus off. Note that selling any bio data will reset the list, it doesn't track individual sales.


The third button takes you to the "About" page, which has a few thank yous but most importantly it has a legend (no longer buried in Settings)
9MBqwOb.png




The fourth button is Codex Companion. It'll list the Genuses / Species that BioInsights knows about and the Species pages will give you a breakdown of the requirements and other details:
FWAYt2Z.png

In the Variant table, you can mark variants here (these will appear as different icons in BioInsights). Note that marks are no longer region-based - a variant is either marked everywhere in the galaxy or it's not. You can also click in the "Seen?" row, and it'll show you the regions you've seen that variant in.


The fifth button is the popout option. You can now pop out the BioInsights window so you can leave Observatory on another tab. When popped out, you can right click in the title bar and toggle the window "always on top" so it doesn't get hidden, and additionally you can turn the buttons off so it takes les space:
0Nj1Kt4.png



The last button is a zoom button. It does the same as the one in Settings, but is easier to access. Because of how BioInsights is built, by default it might be quite small unless you're running a low resolution. At 4k, you probably want at least 300%.



Just to reiterate - BioInsights now updates itself, and all future plugin releases should do this so AutoUpdater is no longer functional. It specifically won't update you to this version of BioInsights because doing so without checking the Core version could cause problems!

Oh, BioInsights also now supports Brain Trees. Because of the conditions required for some Brain Trees, it can't finalize it's prediction until you finish scanning a system.


I still have a lot to do including (but not limited to):
  • Other Horizons bios
  • Add spansh support to enhance predictions is already-visited systems
  • Add Cannon support - LCU No Fool Like One has added an API for me to integrate into BioInsights, which will help confirm bios in already-visited systems.
  • Move data storage to a separate plugin. It occurred to me that many of my plugins were trying to store similar information, so it's better to centralize it for all plugins to share (and actually this also applies to spansh/cannon integration).
  • Themeing. It won't play nicely with Observatory themes at the moment. I hope to eventually either support themes directly, or add an alternative themeing option.

Next release will be an updated version of Evaluator. It uses a similar interface to BioInsights and I hope to have it in the hands of beta testers soon. Note that using the new version of BioInsights will stop the integration with Evaluator that existed previously. That will be restored in next Evaluator.
 
OK, it's time for a proper release of BioInsights - so here it is. You will need the very latest Observatory Core to use it.

After downloading and installing (double click the .eop or copy it to plugins folder), the first thing you should do is review the Settings. Go to the Core tab, highlight BioInsights and hit the Plugin Settings button. It's split into sections:

pV9x23G.png

This section determines if you get "blue diamonds" for new bios that you've either not seen in the entire galaxy or you've not seen in your current region. If you just want "one of everything" across the galaxy, you want the first option. If you're working on completing a particular region (or regions), go for second option.

d8i8hNN.png

You can determine which things give you notifications. I'd suggest having them all on initially, then disable if you don't find particular ones useful.

cZZ6KVQ.png

The first option will hide any species confirmed as not present. The extended output is similar to the old extended information - but instead of stretching the screen further it adds a new row with some extra details. The maximum number of systems after a Read All limits how much the output window shows you after a Read All. I don't recommend increasing it as it'll slow down output and increase RAM usage after a Read All (thankfully, you shouldn't need to Read All often). You can also set the Zoom level for the output here, as well as change the button sizes.

EaDScN0.png

You can configure what triggers the "valuable" notifications here, either the minimum value for a body or the minimum value for a single biological.

8uSeKDm.png

You can tell BioInsights to look for updates itself. I'd recommend using this, but not the beta option (unless you're brave). No more AutoUpdater required!


TNRziyU.png

Verbose logging adds more output in log, send debug data submits limited data about bios to improve BioInsights (actually it's not doing anything right now but will again in future). Save system data enables BioInsights to store data in case you revisit a system. If you don't care about history at all, you can disable this but I don't recommend it for now. Eventually this will go away as I have better plans for how data is store - but that's for a later plugin.

ZywWgLE.png

This enables you to wipe any unsold data for the current commander.



Next up, you should do a Read All to populate BioInsights background database. After that, I'd suggest restarting Observatory.

On the BioInsights tab, you'll notice some buttons:
23mCLNu.png



The first button takes you to the normal BioInsights output window, which looks like this:
PM0HMnU.png

If you've used BioInsights before, this should be somewhat familiar. The star/material icons have changed to better reflect in-game iconography. It also now includes a "Radiant Star" field, which is the star that BioInsights colours bios on the body. When you get a red down arrow, that's when the suggested bio requires a different radiant star and so is extremely unlikely. The yellow icons for variants are also gone, replaced with green as this was causing some confusion. You can mouse-over most of the icons and it'll explain what it means. It also shows you the "current body" - this is the last FSSed, or last selected, or last mapped body. The window will auto-scroll to show you the current body. You can also click the species names to take you to Codex Companion.


The second button takes you to the unsold data for the commander:
9oNERtX.png

By default, it will assume First Logged bonus - but if you know you weren't first to scan the bio (on the bio tab of the system map, it shows First Logged for bios you've scanned on a body that have already been sold), you can toggle the bonus off. Note that selling any bio data will reset the list, it doesn't track individual sales.


The third button takes you to the "About" page, which has a few thank yous but most importantly it has a legend (no longer buried in Settings)
9MBqwOb.png




The fourth button is Codex Companion. It'll list the Genuses / Species that BioInsights knows about and the Species pages will give you a breakdown of the requirements and other details:
FWAYt2Z.png

In the Variant table, you can mark variants here (these will appear as different icons in BioInsights). Note that marks are no longer region-based - a variant is either marked everywhere in the galaxy or it's not. You can also click in the "Seen?" row, and it'll show you the regions you've seen that variant in.


The fifth button is the popout option. You can now pop out the BioInsights window so you can leave Observatory on another tab. When popped out, you can right click in the title bar and toggle the window "always on top" so it doesn't get hidden, and additionally you can turn the buttons off so it takes les space:
0Nj1Kt4.png



The last button is a zoom button. It does the same as the one in Settings, but is easier to access. Because of how BioInsights is built, by default it might be quite small unless you're running a low resolution. At 4k, you probably want at least 300%.



Just to reiterate - BioInsights now updates itself, and all future plugin releases should do this so AutoUpdater is no longer functional. It specifically won't update you to this version of BioInsights because doing so without checking the Core version could cause problems!

Oh, BioInsights also now supports Brain Trees. Because of the conditions required for some Brain Trees, it can't finalize it's prediction until you finish scanning a system.


I still have a lot to do including (but not limited to):
  • Other Horizons bios
  • Add spansh support to enhance predictions is already-visited systems
  • Add Cannon support - LCU No Fool Like One has added an API for me to integrate into BioInsights, which will help confirm bios in already-visited systems.
  • Move data storage to a separate plugin. It occurred to me that many of my plugins were trying to store similar information, so it's better to centralize it for all plugins to share (and actually this also applies to spansh/cannon integration).
  • Themeing. It won't play nicely with Observatory themes at the moment. I hope to eventually either support themes directly, or add an alternative themeing option.

Next release will be an updated version of Evaluator. It uses a similar interface to BioInsights and I hope to have it in the hands of beta testers soon. Note that using the new version of BioInsights will stop the integration with Evaluator that existed previously. That will be restored in next Evaluator.
Now write all this up in .mdx format and update the docs site. :D
 
OK, it's time for a proper release of BioInsights - so here it is. You will need the very latest Observatory Core to use it.
<snip>
I still have a lot to do including (but not limited to):
  • Other Horizons bios
  • Add spansh support to enhance predictions is already-visited systems
  • Add Cannon support - LCU No Fool Like One has added an API for me to integrate into BioInsights, which will help confirm bios in already-visited systems.
  • Move data storage to a separate plugin. It occurred to me that many of my plugins were trying to store similar information, so it's better to centralize it for all plugins to share (and actually this also applies to spansh/cannon integration).
  • Themeing. It won't play nicely with Observatory themes at the moment. I hope to eventually either support themes directly, or add an alternative themeing option.
<snip>
One of my commanders is in the process of analyzing every bio in/near a nebula that's a few KLy from the bubble. There are just over 1K systems, and I've completed just under half so far.

Let me know if the data I've collected can help. I have quite a few bark mound locations already discovered.
 
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One of my commanders is in the process of analyzing every bio in/near a nebula that's a few KLy from the bubble. There are just over 1K systems, and I've completed just under half so far.

If you pass the information on to EDDN by means of EDMC or EDDiscovery or similar tools, the basic information should already be available, I believe. (Check with https://www.spansh.co.uk/bodies to check.)

If you do not pass the information on ... well, ...
 
d8i8hNN.png

You can determine which things give you notifications. I'd suggest having them all on initially, then disable if you don't find particular ones useful.

What does 'Marked Species' mean? (Later: a better legend would be 'Species marked in Codex Companion'. Even better would be to link 'Codex Companio' to those pages to help find it quickly.)

After some experimentation I find that I turn everything off as I get overwhelmed with notifications, especially in the 'new to my personal Codex' case, where I want to remove the species I am not interested in notifications for (i.e. I get notifications for all Bacteria everywhere), and I am more likely to miss an important notification in the chatter than I am to catch an important one.

There's some ambiguity over the word 'scan'. Does that also or only refer to sample?

Perhaps add info about when the notification hits? I think there may be a difference between any scanning activity (i.e. FSS/DSS/auto?), sample (on sirface), and movement after first sample on surface.


8uSeKDm.png

You can tell BioInsights to look for updates itself. I'd recommend using this, but not the beta option (unless you're brave). No more AutoUpdater required!

How will a successful (or even failed) autoinstallation be communicated to the user? Log files? Do I get a notification of it? What about availability of new release when autoinstall is disabled? Does a 'last updated' field appear anywhere? When is the check for new install made? (I want to avoid having an autoupdate happen while I am playing.)


The first button takes you to the normal BioInsights output window, which looks like this:
PM0HMnU.png

If you've used BioInsights before, this should be somewhat familiar.

But what about the unfamiliar cases? For example, if I get a entry for a MR with 0 bios ... ? (Happened for Pueliae SK-F d11-4 1)
Is that an expected report, and if not, is it something that has already been reported as a bug, and I can forget about it? (see screen clip below) There was only geology there on DSS.

Is it possible to distinguish between predicted entries (i.e. no DSS/equivalent yet), and confirmed entries (i.e. after DSS/equivalent)? I'm not sure if that was possible with the previous release.

What significance do the coloured backgrounds for planetary type and nr of bio signals have? Do they carry additional information, or are they be regarded as adding no info above what is already present? The reason I ask is that Pueliae SK-F d11-4 5 a gives me a '1 bio' in red, both before and after DSS. (On DSS Bark Mounds were found -- a 'not supported yet' thing?)


Post-DSS:

1728718377258.png


(By the way, I miss a column legend for the body type data: I stared a long time at this view trying to figure out how 'MR' was a part of the Body Name, as the column legend says.)

The third button takes you to the "About" page, which has a few thank yous but most importantly it has a legend (no longer buried in Settings)
9MBqwOb.png

As I can't get the Core configuration of 'Light' to take -- it seems to be unsupported at present -- I can't see how this changes when/if that actually happens. As it is, the brown (?) icons are unsuitable, as they provide very reduced contrast in comparison to the others. A lightish yellow (see the RIB background) would be better in this particular case.

The fourth button is Codex Companion. It'll list the Genuses / Species that BioInsights knows about and the Species pages will give you a breakdown of the requirements and other details:
FWAYt2Z.png

An improvement would, I think, be to use the standard checkbox for marking instead of the slider. The slider provides no significant information about setting (using only colour is a no-no in GUI design, due to colour-blindness and such); position and orientation is left-right risks ambiguities for users in locales where such right-left orientation is prevalent. There are problems with checkmarks, too, but as far as I know they appear only when you have both the check mark and the x mark as well as the clear box. Only alternative I can think of is a mini-menu with 'Yes' or 'No' for each entry: the checkbox seems preferable.
 
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What does 'Marked Species' mean?

It's marked because it's a species you haven't yet encountered either in this area or has not been encountered by anyone in this area, depending on what setting you selected.

There's some ambiguity over the word 'scan'. Does that also or only refer to sample?

3 scans to get a sample, you scan the bio, after 3 scans it's a sample.

'new to my personal Codex'

Yes you will get overwhelmed if you are in an area you haven't sampled anything yet, the point of the notification is to allow you to fill your codex, once it's in there you won't notified, as as you do more scanning the fewer notification you will get. You don't even have to sample them, just fly down, pink them with the ships scanner and fly off, they won't come up again after that.

As I can't get the Core configuration of 'Light' to take -- it seems to be unsupported at present

That was the case with the first release, if you have updated to the latest release it should be working ok, at least it does for me.
 
It's marked because it's a species you haven't yet encountered either in this area or has not been encountered by anyone in this area, depending on what setting you selected.

This seems to confirm that my suggested improvement of the legend for this control is needed, in one form or another.


3 scans to get a sample, you scan the bio, after 3 scans it's a sample.

This also shows the need for correct terminology. From somewhere (I can't find it in the Codex in the expected place at the moment, so I might be wrong) I have had the idea that the terms are 'samples', and that the first two are 'partial samples' and third one make up a 'final sample'. Even if your usage is correct, it would still be desirable to qualify the use of the term 'scan' to avoid lack of clarity and possible confusion with other uses of the same (overloaded) term, current or future: perhaps 'bioscan' would be a better term.

Yes you will get overwhelmed if you are in an area you haven't sampled anything yet, the point of the notification is to allow you to fill your codex, once it's in there you won't notified, as as you do more scanning the fewer notification you will get. You don't even have to sample them, just fly down, pink them with the ships scanner and fly off, they won't come up again after that.

I disagree. The point of notification is to bring something to my attention. As far as I can make out most of the notification settings are associated with data in the main window (probably changes in that information), so these notifications do not add anything I don't already have available on my screen, only that it is flagged up specially outside the main view.

The crux is unclear notification policy: During play, I want to know when possibly new Codex entries appear (even predicted), except for Bacteria. It is not clear that I can specify this. I currently want to know when any Brain Tree or Electrica Radialem appears (not just predicted, but confirmed). This may be possible to do by 'Marked species' -- but I can't see clearly that it applies to 'confirmed only'. I will be testing this closer: it probably won't add many superfluous notifications, at least not at present.

So the question I want to raise here (but failed to express clearly) is: what notification policies do players need or want, and just how complex policies are appropriate for BioInsight itself: is there a point where some other tool may become more appropriate.

That was the case with the first release, if you have updated to the latest release it should be working ok, at least it does for me.

I have 'autoupdate on', Core says that I'm using 1.0.22.21708; and that's the current version on the download page. From the posting (towards the end) I get the impression that 'Light' theme is not supported, so I am not fully convinced that it is expected to work.
 
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I disagree. The point of notification is to bring something to my attention. As far as I can make out most of the notification settings are associated with data in the main window (probably changes in that information), so these notifications do not add anything I don't already have available on my screen, only that it is flagged up specially outside the main view.

It's very easy to miss the marked species, there's nothing else that tells you whether or not you have already got a particular species in your personal codex, so I find this immensely useful, you don't, that's up to the individual I suppose but I would be hugely annoyed if it went away!
 
There may be some kind of table contents refresh problem, if not in BioInsight, then at least affecting it.

1728805458834.png


There is a shear line starting in the Radiant Star / Variants columns that extends to the right side of the BioInsight table.
The line coincides with the windows of Elite Dangerous Loader which is under the Observatory Core window in the first screen clipping, above in the second:

1728805547486.png



It typically happens when I Alt-Tab between the main game window and the Core / BioInsight window.

It is irritating, but as scrolling the BioInsight table one click switching the views gets everything back in synch, it is possible to live with for now.
 
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What significance do the coloured backgrounds for planetary type and nr of bio signals have? Do they carry additional information, or are they be regarded as adding no info above what is already present? The reason I ask is that Pueliae SK-F d11-4 5 a gives me a '1 bio' in red, both before and after DSS. (On DSS Bark Mounds were found -- a 'not supported yet' thing?)

Here are two cases + an already reported 'not predicted' that I suspect remains open:

1728981636486.png

First: autoscanned bodies are flagged as such. I believe correctly so, because I have the impression that if an autoscanned body has exobio, it doesn't appear in the journals without additional wizardry. This is a useful double-check of something that is easily missed in the FSS view. Nice, this makes it easier to follow my personal exploration protocol for these bodies.

Second: Presence of non-predicted and possibly also non-predictable (such as legacy exobio). On FSS this body view only showed two entries, but said '3 bios' on red. Very nice: makes it much easier to see that additional scans are needed. On DSS, the missing entry was added. (System has been sent to EDDN, but appears only partially on EDSM. Ok on Spansh.)
 
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What does 'Marked Species' mean? (Later: a better legend would be 'Species marked in Codex Companion'. Even better would be to link 'Codex Companio' to those pages to help find it quickly.)
As you've found, it refers to marking the species in Codex Companion. As most people won't have initially Marked anything, it's not a problem that it defaults on nor that they don't necessarily know what it is.

After some experimentation I find that I turn everything off as I get overwhelmed with notifications, especially in the 'new to my personal Codex' case, where I want to remove the species I am not interested in notifications for (i.e. I get notifications for all Bacteria everywhere), and I am more likely to miss an important notification in the chatter than I am to catch an important one.

There's no way (currently) to always remove notifications for a particular Genus / Species - but perhaps it wouldn't be difficult to add. I will ponder it more.

There's some ambiguity over the word 'scan'. Does that also or only refer to sample?

Perhaps add info about when the notification hits? I think there may be a difference between any scanning activity (i.e. FSS/DSS/auto?), sample (on sirface), and movement after first sample on surface.

Usually, I'd expect people to composition scan a bio before sampling, and even the event for sampling is "ScanOrganic". I think after a period of using BioInsights it would become apparent what it was but I will see if I can clear up the description. Unfortunately, I can't be too verbose because of the way the settings page works, and can't offer additional information through mouseovers etc.


How will a successful (or even failed) autoinstallation be communicated to the user? Log files? Do I get a notification of it? What about availability of new release when autoinstall is disabled? Does a 'last updated' field appear anywhere? When is the check for new install made? (I want to avoid having an autoupdate happen while I am playing.)

It is not communicated but I've been thinking about ways to do so - not least in case an update somehow breaks something. If you untick autoinstall, then it's down to the user to check the website or this thread for updates. It will check for an update when Observatory is launched, and download it if one is available. It will not be installed until the next time you run Observatory after it is downloaded.

But what about the unfamiliar cases? For example, if I get a entry for a MR with 0 bios ... ? (Happened for Pueliae SK-F d11-4 1)
Is that an expected report, and if not, is it something that has already been reported as a bug, and I can forget about it? (see screen clip below) There was only geology there on DSS.

That looks like it was an autoscanned body that was subsequently either FSSed or mapped. Autoscanning provides no details on bios so the bodies are flagged. If there are bios or geos present, then FSSing the already discovered body will generate the event that contains bio/geo information - but only if the body has bios or geos. If it doesn't, no event is generated and BioInsights doesn't know what may be there. Mapping a body will provide the necessary information. In cases where an autoscanned body has no bios, it still leaves it in UI because it was presented there originally. A future update will have an option to hide autoscanned bodies.

Is it possible to distinguish between predicted entries (i.e. no DSS/equivalent yet), and confirmed entries (i.e. after DSS/equivalent)? I'm not sure if that was possible with the previous release.

When you DSS a body, it provides a list of the genus on the body. BioInsights will then place a red X by any genus that definitely isn't present. There is an option to automatically hide predictions that are confirmed not present too. It doesn't give Species though, so can't narrow down to 1 Bacteria if it predicted 2. To do that you need to comp scan or sample the species and it'll mark the other accordingly.

What significance do the coloured backgrounds for planetary type and nr of bio signals have? Do they carry additional information, or are they be regarded as adding no info above what is already present? The reason I ask is that Pueliae SK-F d11-4 5 a gives me a '1 bio' in red, both before and after DSS. (On DSS Bark Mounds were found -- a 'not supported yet' thing?)

This probably need to be in the Legend so I will try and get that added for next release. When it makes the bio indicator red, it's to draw your attention to it. Autoscanned bodies do this because you may be missing bios. It will also do it when the number of bios present exceeds the number of genus predicted. In your example, it had Bark Mounds which BioInsights doesn't yet support (hopefully soon though). Because it sees 1 bio present but didn't predict anything, it marks it red.


Post-DSS:

View attachment 404386

(By the way, I miss a column legend for the body type data: I stared a long time at this view trying to figure out how 'MR' was a part of the Body Name, as the column legend says.)
I'll likely just rename "Body Name" to "Body" to encompass both. Most of the UI also provides mouseovers if something isn't clear; MR should show "Metal-rich Body".

As I can't get the Core configuration of 'Light' to take -- it seems to be unsupported at present -- I can't see how this changes when/if that actually happens. As it is, the brown (?) icons are unsuitable, as they provide very reduced contrast in comparison to the others. A lightish yellow (see the RIB background) would be better in this particular case.

Those icons are orange and are supposed to represent the similar icons in-game. Across a black background it does meet minimum contrast guidance (double A, not triple A). A future update will allow for themeing which would make this moot, but it is far from trivial. I'd like to also offer customization of the iconography too, but that's even more difficult. Themeing is high on my priority list though.


An improvement would, I think, be to use the standard checkbox for marking instead of the slider. The slider provides no significant information about setting (using only colour is a no-no in GUI design, due to colour-blindness and such); position and orientation is left-right risks ambiguities for users in locales where such right-left orientation is prevalent. There are problems with checkmarks, too, but as far as I know they appear only when you have both the check mark and the x mark as well as the clear box. Only alternative I can think of is a mini-menu with 'Yes' or 'No' for each entry: the checkbox seems preferable.

I strongly dislike checkboxes. They're almost unthemeable. I think BioInsights settings look cluttered and unclear, partly because there's a lot there and exacerbated by the checkboxes but I have no real control over that appearance. I think the sliders are clear enough and that most people will understand them - pretty much every app on my phone has them along with many websites. If I get to a position where iconography is customizable then these too would be customizable.

I had to use checkboxes in the evaluator beta and the still look horrible to me.
veiYvkH.png

Hoping to get this released soon, just need to find the cause of a particular issue some beta users encountered.
 
Here are two cases + an already reported 'not predicted' that I suspect remains open:

View attachment 404596
First: autoscanned bodies are flagged as such. I believe correctly so, because I have the impression that if an autoscanned body has exobio, it doesn't appear in the journals without additional wizardry. This is a useful double-check of something that is easily missed in the FSS view. Nice, this makes it easier to follow my personal exploration protocol for these bodies.

Second: Presence of non-predicted and possibly also non-predictable (such as legacy exobio). On FSS this body view only showed two entries, but said '3 bios' on red. Very nice: makes it much easier to see that additional scans are needed. On DSS, the missing entry was added. (System has been sent to EDDN, but appears only partially on EDSM. Ok on Spansh.)

Previous post hopefully clears up the autoscanned / red markers. It looks like the Electricae was missed because it's not recognized as "close to a nebula". I need to go through my list of nebula and review the coordinates for them all which will hopefully fix this one too. It's a job I keep putting off, but need to do it as part of adding Bark Mounds anyway. I need to get a couple of plugins released first though.
 
As you've found, it refers to marking the species in Codex Companion. As most people won't have initially Marked anything, it's not a problem that it defaults on nor that they don't necessarily know what it is.



There's no way (currently) to always remove notifications for a particular Genus / Species - but perhaps it wouldn't be difficult to add. I will ponder it more.



Usually, I'd expect people to composition scan a bio before sampling, and even the event for sampling is "ScanOrganic". I think after a period of using BioInsights it would become apparent what it was but I will see if I can clear up the description. Unfortunately, I can't be too verbose because of the way the settings page works, and can't offer additional information through mouseovers etc.




It is not communicated but I've been thinking about ways to do so - not least in case an update somehow breaks something. If you untick autoinstall, then it's down to the user to check the website or this thread for updates. It will check for an update when Observatory is launched, and download it if one is available. It will not be installed until the next time you run Observatory after it is downloaded.



That looks like it was an autoscanned body that was subsequently either FSSed or mapped. Autoscanning provides no details on bios so the bodies are flagged. If there are bios or geos present, then FSSing the already discovered body will generate the event that contains bio/geo information - but only if the body has bios or geos. If it doesn't, no event is generated and BioInsights doesn't know what may be there. Mapping a body will provide the necessary information. In cases where an autoscanned body has no bios, it still leaves it in UI because it was presented there originally. A future update will have an option to hide autoscanned bodies.



When you DSS a body, it provides a list of the genus on the body. BioInsights will then place a red X by any genus that definitely isn't present. There is an option to automatically hide predictions that are confirmed not present too. It doesn't give Species though, so can't narrow down to 1 Bacteria if it predicted 2. To do that you need to comp scan or sample the species and it'll mark the other accordingly.



This probably need to be in the Legend so I will try and get that added for next release. When it makes the bio indicator red, it's to draw your attention to it. Autoscanned bodies do this because you may be missing bios. It will also do it when the number of bios present exceeds the number of genus predicted. In your example, it had Bark Mounds which BioInsights doesn't yet support (hopefully soon though). Because it sees 1 bio present but didn't predict anything, it marks it red.



I'll likely just rename "Body Name" to "Body" to encompass both. Most of the UI also provides mouseovers if something isn't clear; MR should show "Metal-rich Body".



Those icons are orange and are supposed to represent the similar icons in-game. Across a black background it does meet minimum contrast guidance (double A, not triple A). A future update will allow for themeing which would make this moot, but it is far from trivial. I'd like to also offer customization of the iconography too, but that's even more difficult. Themeing is high on my priority list though.




I strongly dislike checkboxes. They're almost unthemeable. I think BioInsights settings look cluttered and unclear, partly because there's a lot there and exacerbated by the checkboxes but I have no real control over that appearance. I think the sliders are clear enough and that most people will understand them - pretty much every app on my phone has them along with many websites. If I get to a position where iconography is customizable then these too would be customizable.

I had to use checkboxes in the evaluator beta and the still look horrible to me.
veiYvkH.png

Hoping to get this released soon, just need to find the cause of a particular issue some beta users encountered.
How do you get the colours? The current version has a monochrome display for me.

E.g.

1729680564349.jpg
 
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