TNG Warp Drive (RELEASE)

[starfleetengineer]

This is not quite ready for download yet, but I thought I'd give a preview to see if anyone's interested.

EDIT: Download is now available. (CLICK ON THE IMAGE)

[Captain Nephilim]

Could you describe your Warp Drive simulator?

What does it do? How does it work? Why don't you offer it for download now?

[Reiko]

Cool! Mr. Sulu warp 7!

[Hungry4info]

Very nice.
From what I can tell, it's a script that will propell you to a certain warp speed determined by pressing the numbers on the keyboard.

In Star Trek, each successive warp speed was exponentially higher than the one before it. Warp 1 was light speed (Which Cpt. Kirk used all the time, and yet somehow explored a good amount of space within a timeframe of only 5 years). Warp 10 was infinite speed, and thus theoretically impossible (although in the orignal series, they exceeded that, going to Warp 14 if I remember correctly, but then again, the produces of the show hadn't quite solidified their whole warp theories and what-not).

Will it have impulse power too o.O?

[starfleetengineer]

Could you describe your Warp Drive simulator?
What does it do? How does it work?

See Hungry's post.

Why don't you offer it for download now?

It crashes sometimes in 1.5.1, so I want to work out why before releasing it, rather than releasing a buggy version.

[starfleetengineer]

Very nice.
From what I can tell, it's a script that will propell you to a certain warp speed determined by pressing the numbers on the keyboard.

In Star Trek, each successive warp speed was exponentially higher than the one before it. Warp 1 was light speed (Which Cpt. Kirk used all the time, and yet somehow explored a good amount of space within a timeframe of only 5 years). Warp 10 was infinite speed, and thus theoretically impossible (although in the orignal series, they exceeded that, going to Warp 14 if I remember correctly, but then again, the produces of the show hadn't quite solidified their whole warp theories and what-not).

Here is the velocity formula I have used (by Martin Shields): http://www.calormen.com/Star_Trek/FAQs/ ... rmulae.htm

Will it have impulse power too o.O?

Yes. Disengage the WARP drive and use the A and Z keys.

[Hungry4info]

Thanks for that link. I have a copy of the TNG manual and did compare it, it sure does line up ^_^

[starfleetengineer]

Version 1.0 for Celestia versions 1.3.2 or later is now available.
(CLICK ON THE LINK IN MY SIGNATURE)

Please report any bugs/issues in this thread, or PM me.

EXISTING ISSUES:
Sometimes crashes in 1.5.0pre1, but I'm hoping that's just an issue with that particular pre-release. (Feel free to debug it if you're feeling lucky )

[bdm]

Very nice.
although in the orignal series, they exceeded that, going to Warp 14 if I remember correctly, but then again, the produces of the show hadn't quite solidified their whole warp theories and what-not

I think there was also a reference to warp 14 in TNG where a future female Enterprise captain made an appearance

[Admiral2a]

They changed the warp scale when they made TNG. For instance, in TOS; Warp 2 would only be about 8c whereas in TNG it is 10.1c.
The episode with the female captain is the finale of TNG and they are going Warp 13 because it is supposed to be the future.

_____________________________________________________________
I would like to say that this is what I have been waiting for for the few years that I have used Celestia. Thanks.

[Hungry4info]

The episode with the female captain is the finale of TNG and they are going Warp 13 because it is supposed to be the future.

I would think that attaining a speed greater than infinity would be a bit difficult, even for future (relative to the majority of the show) TNG captains.

[Hungry4info]

Glitch...

I set myself just outside the Sol system, loaded the script, and then engaged maximum warp. I then tried to type in "Alf Cen" (What's the point of testing your brand-new warp drive without a destination?) and noticed that the input from the "a" key was being fed into the warp drive simulator.

Do you plan to make a version of your warp drive for Celestia 1.5.0?

[selden]

infinite speed = arrive at any destination at the same time that you left your origin.
Celestia can do that.

greater than infinite speed = arrive at the destination at a time before you left your origin.

Celestia can do that, too!

[Hungry4info]

infinite speed = arrive at any destination at the same time that you left your origin.
Celestia can do that.

greater than infinite speed = arrive at the destination at a time before you left your origin.

Celestia can do that, too!

HAHAHA yep. Lol very true.

Edit: Correction: Infinite speed is greater than light speed (just a tad) and thus it would be going back in time anyway, and I believe infinitely fast.

Infinity.. my second favourite number. Makes people think o.O

[starfleetengineer]

Glitch...
I set myself just outside the Sol system, loaded the script, and then engaged maximum warp. I then tried to type in "Alf Cen" (What's the point of testing your brand-new warp drive without a destination?) and noticed that the input from the "a" key was being fed into the warp drive simulator.

That's expected behaviour...when the script is running, any keys mapped by the script will be passed to it. This is apparently just how keyboard handling is done in celX. The solution is to set your destination before engaging warpdrive. This is, after all how they do it in the show:

"Mr Crusher, set a course for Alfa Centauri."
"Yes Captain."
"Make it so."


What do you mean by maximum warp?
Theoretically, there's actually no such thing as maximum warp, as speed will increase exponentially as warp approaches 10. In practice, if you just hold down the A key, then at some point you'll get a floating-point overflow.

Do you plan to make a version of your warp drive for Celestia 1.5.0?

This version works OK in the current stable version of Celestia (1.4.1), so I would expect it to also work in 1.5.0.
Unfortunately in the pre-release I've tried it in (1.5.0pre1), it only works for a while and then crashes. What I notice is that the sensitivity of the throttle sometimes increases by 2 steps instead of one, once it passes 5, and then it crashes for various reasons.
This is my first celX script, so I don't know if it's down to an error in my script, or perhaps a buggy pre-release. (Anyone with more celX experience than me is welcome to look into it. )
I personally don't see any point in spending time to make it work with a pre-release version...(as it's fine in 1.4.0)... hopefully the official 1.5.0 release will resolve this. If not, then I'll look into it then.

[Hungry4info]

Maximum warp being, of course, the total power of my warp engines, at approximately Warp 9.8. Any faster and my computer risks a cascade warp field failure . Not quite ready to eject another warp core (the ultimate bombs .)

Still, it's irrelevant as to which velocity I travel at. If warp drive script is engaged, I cannot imput "a" into anything else. But still, it's not a big thing.

[starfleetengineer]

Maximum warp being, of course, the total power of my warp engines, at approximately Warp 9.8. Any faster and my computer risks a cascade warp field failure . Not quite ready to eject another warp core (the ultimate bombs .)

Still, it's irrelevant as to which velocity I travel at. If warp drive script is engaged, I cannot imput "a" into anything else. But still, it's not a big thing.

The problem is, most ascii keys are already mapped for various purposes within Celestia, so it's vitually impossible to avoid conflicts. I tried to choose keys which would cause the least conflict with other functions.
If you know of any keys which aren't currently mapped for other purposes, then let me know.

P.S. You can always edit the script, (it's fairly obvious where), to change the 'A' to a different key, but bear in mind that in doing so, you'll override some other Celestia function, so choose carefully.

[Hungry4info]

I'll probably assign them to one of the F# keys.

[Reiko]

Piles of sweetness on this one.

[starfleetengineer]

I'll probably assign them to one of the F# keys

My original intention was to map Warp's 1 to 9 to F1-F9, STOP to F10, and throttle to F11/F12, however I couldn't work out how to map the function keys within celX. AFAIK, you can only map ascii keys within CelX. I think the fact that they (the function keys) aren't already used for some purpose within Celestia, speaks volumes. (Maybe one of the DEV's can enlighten us on this)
Good luck with this. Please do let us know if you succeed.

Piles of sweetness on this one.