Frequently Asked Questions

What is Pioneer?

Pioneer is a freeform single player space adventure in the spirit of Frontier: Elite II.

Is this a game or a simulation?

Frontier was a game, but with a newtonian flight model and a slightly more scientific flavour to the universe than usually in space games. Pioneer will follow this same path.

Can I play online?

There will be no multiplayer. This does not rule out the possibility of minor network features, but multiplayer as it is commonly known is not compatible with the core mechanics of Pioneer.

Can I colonize planets, build space stations or conquer the universe?

No, these are out of the game scope. While the game universe might not stay static for the duration of a game, the player can not generally influence major events.

Can I walk around space stations and planets?

No, you cannot exit your ship. The ship is always your avatar.

Is the universe pre-defined or randomly generated?

There are millions of stars in the galaxy. A few hundred on them are based on real-world astronomic catalogues. some of the planets (obvious ones being in the Sol system) are pre-defined, but most things are procedurally generated. This means that a planet does not exist until you actually visit it, but it will be generated the same way for every player.

Can I hire crew for my ship?

Yes. As of alpha 31, you can hire crew.

Are savegames compatible between releases?

While the game is still in alpha, this cannot be guaranteed. The situation will stabilize in a few years.

Are savegames compatible between Mods?

Again as with savegames between alpha versions, compatability between mods can not be guaranteed. It all depends on what mods you have installed.

Where is star system X from Frontier? Can I buy ship Y?

Pioneer is not an exact clone of Frontier. You will have to figure out new trade routes!

How do I take screenshots?

Ctrl+Printscreen saves .png files in the same directory where the game .ini and savegames are.

Where is the configuration file, saved games, screenshots?

Windows: My Documents\Pioneer
OS X: /Users/your_username/Library/Application Support/Pioneer
Linux: /home/your_username/.pioneer

Technical FAQ

I'm getting "ARB_vertex_buffer_object not supported" error on startup

Your graphics card should support at least OpenGL 1.5 to run Pioneer in Legacy (non-shaders) mode. If your hardware is not hopelessly old, it could be just that the drivers supplied with your operating system are out of date.

I'm getting graphical issues, such as wrong textures on the intro screen

Try turning off "Use shaders" in the options screen. Try updating your drivers.

I'm getting graphical issues, such as snow-like sky and transparent terrain

This is probably caused by the eclipse shader which isn't supported by some open source graphic drivers. You could install the propritary drivers, if available, or disable the eclipse effect by adding DisableEclipse=1 to your pioneer configuration file (config.ini).

The game freezes at the intro screen

If you cannot start the game at all, edit the configuration file and change value DisableShaders to 1.

The game crashes after the loading screen. I'm using ATI free drivers on GNU/Linux.

If you are getting a GL_INVALID_ENUM in console, could be because some ships uses textures in a format that, because of patents, is not included in the main mesa package. Search for libtxc-dxtn or libtxc_dxtn in your distribution and install it.

My joystick is "drifting"

The game has a deadzone setting, but it is only accessible through the configuration file. Open config.ini and raise the JoystickDeadzone value.

I'm getting poor performance

The heaviest part of the game is planetary terrain generation. Turn down the "Detail distance" and "Fractal detail" settings, they have the most impact for performance.

I've enabled anti-aliasing in the config file, but it does not work

Make sure the AA settings are not overridden by your graphics card settings, on NVidia AA should be set to "application controlled" mode.

Full screen mode is incorrectly scaled

If you are on Windows, try:

Sounds like windows 7 desktop-scaling issues.
Try adding some compatability modes to the Pioneer.exe.
Right click it and Choose properties -> Compatability -> Tick
Disable desktop scaling, and Disable desktop composition.

FAQ

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