Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

Work in Progress / Solar Exudus (WIP)

Author
Message
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 7th Feb 2009 06:54 Edited at: 24th Mar 2009 05:18
Link
Solar Exodus

current version 0.1.3

Solar Exodus is a game (not yet) focusing on what i believe would be cool in space/future times. The main focus of the game will be on exploration, although there will be more exiting features like fighting and building your own colony, i also plan to make it multiplayer... Enjoy!

All specifications are yet unknown.

Please forward all comments to jetflaps@msn.com and/or the place that you downloaded it from..

Changes:
* New radar with selectable planetoids
* Keyboard planetoid select
* New sun texture
* Lensflare effect

if you would like to report a bug please refer to the email address above and make sure to include your computer specifications

And here are the latest screenshots:



Demo here
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Siddy
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Dec 2008
Location:
Posted: 7th Feb 2009 07:07
Link
Looks good, why is the FPS so low?
Back to top
Profile PM
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 7th Feb 2009 07:19 Edited at: 7th Feb 2009 07:58
Link
its not i have the sync rate at 60 witch is a good steady rate..

and also probably because there are large planets there ( the sun is 60000 in size LOL)

the demo will be up in about 10 minutes just putting the finishing touches on the readme...

EDIT1: The upload is taking longer than thaught especially when my computer overheats from this outrageous weather and the net keeps dropping out.

WOW i just looked outside and its 45 degrees centigrade and theres thick black smoke from surrounding fires, and im in suburban melbourne not rural victoria, absoluteley incredible!!..
Back to top
Profile PM Email
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 7th Feb 2009 08:13
Link
The download link is http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?n2zklzmgzzx

people are very unlucky today, hottest day on record and people out in rural victoria are trapped in thier houses as fires circle around them.. so many people are dying because they cant go anywhere....
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Alfa x
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 1st Jul 2006
Location: Colombia
Posted: 7th Feb 2009 19:05
Link
Quote: "WOW i just looked outside and its 45 degrees centigrade and theres thick black smoke from surrounding fires, and im in suburban melbourne not rural victoria, absoluteley incredible!!.."


Quote: "people are very unlucky today, hottest day on record and people out in rural victoria are trapped in thier houses as fires circle around them.. so many people are dying because they cant go anywhere..."


I think people have to start thinking more about the planet. Everyone should put their grain of sand about this.

This is happening all around the world, we are having problems in Colombia too. I think that some of us will have a position on the goverment or maybe CEO's of a company, where we can help about those things. Plese consider this, as things get worse veryday.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
AndrewT
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 11th Feb 2007
Location: MI, USA
Posted: 8th Feb 2009 03:46
Link
Quote: "This is happening all around the world"


I wish! We've had average temperature of about -4 F for the last month or two. My hair literally froze while I was waiting for the school bus a couple days ago, because I hadn't dried it completely after my shower.

Anyway the games looking pretty good. I'll try the demo later tonight, I'm interested to see where this goes.

Back to top
Profile PM
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 8th Feb 2009 03:52
Link
i also am very interested to see where this goes, im currently working on a small radar system so that you can click on a planet and it will show a needle that will point to it...

its gunna be hard!
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Kira Vakaan
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 1st Dec 2008
Location: MI, United States
Posted: 8th Feb 2009 08:46
Link
Quote: "I wish! We've had average temperature of about -4 F for the last month or two. My hair literally froze while I was waiting for the school bus a couple days ago, because I hadn't dried it completely after my shower."


AndrewT: Story of my life. Just by the way, whereabouts in MI?

lucifer 1101: Looking good. Just a thought, you could use the VSync flag in the set display mode command to automatically cap the frame rate at around 60. It actually just caps it at the refresh rate of the monitor which is useful because any faster usually causes frame tearing.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 8th Feb 2009 08:53
Link
everytime i try to use that "set display mode 1024,768,32,1" it always comes up with an error..
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Kira Vakaan
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 1st Dec 2008
Location: MI, United States
Posted: 8th Feb 2009 09:14
Link
Really? What kind of error?

I suppose it might have something to do with using the trial version, maybe? I know the trial uses only version 6.2...
Back to top
Profile PM Email
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 8th Feb 2009 10:00
Link
it just says something about not having that extra parameter and wont compile unless i delete it...
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Serial Velocity
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Aug 2008
Location:
Posted: 8th Feb 2009 13:25
Link
Quote: "everytime i try to use that "set display mode 1024,768,32,1" it always comes up with an error.. "


I think this is because of the fact you have the trial version of DBPro which is outdated like what Kira Vakaan said.

I also downloaded the demo and i really liked how the planets and moons orbit the planets. But i noticed that the skysphere was static so i could visit the edge of it, in your main loop add this:

Position Object <Skysphere Object> , Camera Position X() , Camera Position Y() , Camera Position Z()

and replace <Skysphere Object> with the object number of your skysphere.

Back to top
Profile PM Email
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 8th Feb 2009 23:08
Link
lol did you really move out that far..

i will put it in the next release which will also come with a new radar system...

go here for a preview of version 1 of the radar system http://mixengine.boardzero.com/announcements-f16/radar-preview-01-t26.html?sid=44740e1d8c2d5a2fe3b519a691d5bf4a
Back to top
Profile PM Email
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 7th Mar 2009 04:22 Edited at: 7th Mar 2009 04:36
Link
i have spent much time trying to get the radar system working and i am almost there.. another week or two maybe depends on how much work i do.

now what should i do for the next release..

im taking suggestions, maybe things like -

*simple planet landing
*another galaxy with travel between them
*Asteroids...
*etc..etc..

what else can you come up with that should go in the next couple of versions...
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Serial Velocity
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Aug 2008
Location:
Posted: 7th Mar 2009 14:42 Edited at: 7th Mar 2009 14:43
Link
Maybe you should add:

* Some basic combat or simply something to shoot at
* A full solar system with maybe hyperspace like travel between planets
* Atmosphere effects?

I would recommend simply doing the engine first (the solar systems, galaxys, asteroids and whatever) before doing things like combat.

Back to top
Profile PM Email
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 8th Mar 2009 00:09
Link
so your saying focus more on the exploration part of space rather than putting in traditional game features for now..

thats what i was sortof looking towards anyway. after my next release i might add in another system and some asteroids...
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Garion
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Dec 2007
Location: Poland
Posted: 9th Mar 2009 01:39
Link
the sun looks like a doughnut
Back to top
Profile PM Email
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 9th Mar 2009 03:47
Link
im not focusing on graphics yet just mostly on putting the code in place, and the sun is just a sphere with no smoothing set. I might endup smoothing it later on and applying a shader that can simulate the suns surface..
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Morcilla
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 1st Dec 2002
Location: Spain
Posted: 15th Mar 2009 12:40
Link
I see that you have right intentions with this. What you have looks more or less what I had after the first couple of months. You have a long road ahead if you are to add everything you said, but hey, sometimes the fun is in the way, and not in the end.

It is fine to develop the code and have the graphic improvements later, that could be:

- Billboarding surrounding flares for the Sun and planets with atmosphere.
- Lens flare for the Sun.
- Improve background skysphere realism.

All of this can be found around the forum here and there, so I would research but don't re-invent.

Also, I'd use more polygons for the spheres, even at this starting phase. As you are showing it in here, people won't have a poor sensation because of that.
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 15th Mar 2009 12:56
Link
in the next version i have updated the sun a bit so it look moreround and have applied a halo shader to it, im looking into shaders with FX Composer and seem to be having difficulty but will get over it soon.

Billboarding would be using an animated texture on a plane right?

i have added a lens flare to the program it will be in the next release..

How could i actually improve the skysphere, i know it doesnt look that spectacular but i dont know where and how far i should take it??

also with the planets Mostly Suns/Stars will have different atmospheres and Coronas pretty much just different colors and luminosity for the stars, how would i go about making dynamic media for these that can be edited based on another value
e.g. the color of a texture and the brighness of the object??

thankyou for your comments most welcoming...
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Serial Velocity
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Aug 2008
Location:
Posted: 15th Mar 2009 13:07
Link
Quote: "How could i actually improve the skysphere, i know it doesnt look that spectacular but i dont know where and how far i should take it??"


Well from what i see the stars seem to be too far apart, maybe you can try increasing how much the star texture tiles across the skysphere using the Scale Object Texture command, i used:

Scale Object Texture <Skysphere Object> , 10 , 10

in my game and i think it brought fairly nice results. If the stars still look too spaced out, try changing the 10s to a higher amount.

Back to top
Profile PM Email
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 15th Mar 2009 13:15
Link
i could always make it dot more stars, it already does 3000 butcompared to the number of stars i can see in the sky that is probably little
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Morcilla
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 1st Dec 2002
Location: Spain
Posted: 15th Mar 2009 13:20 Edited at: 15th Mar 2009 13:22
Link
Billboarding is texturing a plane (it doesn't need to be an animated texture) and pointing it to the camera at all times.
I gave some tips about this at the TGC Newsletter #63

How far you take the skysphere, well, is up to you! You could be colouring those background stars, or add some background nebula-type colouring pattern, so it is not all black & white.
The stars could have different brightness, and not all of the same size and colour. If this is our Solar System, then it would be better if the background stars resemble the real stars in our galaxy, that is, position and appearance.
It also depends on how far are you allowing the player to travel, as Serial Velocity shown, some try to go to the deep space.

About the dynamic media, well you would need some shader that not only performs as you want (halo, etc.), but also allows the changing of the base colour. I would leave that for a second phase ( I have been myself working a lot of time and I haven't implemented this yet, although it is about time ).

I know my initial suggestions may sound basic, but I would start with those simple exercises, and then think about travelling to some other galaxy
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 15th Mar 2009 13:25
Link
ok i will work out these kinks and do some little updates... thanks heaps.

Bugger i dont know where to start with a nebula...
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Serial Velocity
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Aug 2008
Location:
Posted: 15th Mar 2009 13:29
Link
Well for a nebula you can simply make a second ghosted skysphere with the nebula texture slightly smaller than the main star skysphere.

Back to top
Profile PM Email
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 15th Mar 2009 13:34 Edited at: 15th Mar 2009 13:38
Link
o ok that simple, buthow togenerate the texture, or would i need to load it in seperately??

EDIT1: i just found this in darkshader
Quote: "
In some cases it is desirable to modify shader variables whilst the application is running. This allows effects to change based on events in the application or on user input. To do this we first need to know the type of the variable we want to change.
"


So now i can make some things dynamic, i thinki will be using darkshader more often now instead of FX Composer...
Back to top
Profile PM Email
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 24th Mar 2009 05:14
Link
the next version has been released

Solar Exodus V0.1.3

Changes:
* New radar with selectable planetoids
* Keyboard planetoid select
* New sun texture
* Lensflare effect

go here to download it

Screenshots:


Back to top
Profile PM Email
Mr Tank
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th Nov 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 29th Mar 2009 18:13
Link
Pretty cool. Looks pretty. Very slow loading and unloading. You could do with a better skybox/sphere. Currently aliasing is an issue, and it's just a bunch of dots.

Being able to click on the radar and get directions is sweet. The direction arrow should look different at the front and back though- at the moment you don't know if you're coming or going!

Back to top
Profile PM Website
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 30th Mar 2009 03:33
Link
for the next version i will be working on the skysphere and will probably load in an arrow model for the box...
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Mr Tank
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th Nov 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 30th Mar 2009 05:02
Link
You could use a DBP cone for the arrow. Also, you may find that once you have a different skybox, and maybe turn on mipmapping or use a lower res texture, your FPS may increase. At the moment it seems you have a very high res image and mipmapping is off, hence the flickeriness.

Don't know if these are of any use to you. They are a bit unrealistic mind. https://forumfiles.thegamecreators.com/download/1580916

Back to top
Profile PM Website
lucifer 1101
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Jan 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: 30th Mar 2009 07:05
Link
ive locked my fps at 60 so it refreshes with the screen...

and those low res textures you got there are just too low res and unusable for my situation..
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Plotinus
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Mar 2009
Location:
Posted: 30th Mar 2009 20:37
Link
This looks good and I agree that the rotation and revolution of the planets/moons looks really good. I think you've got a great basis to build on here.

I also agree that you should focus on honing the controls, the behaviour of the planets etc, the look of the objects and skysphere, adding more planets to create a complete system, and so on before adding things like combat. In other words, get the elements that you already have right, and then think about what to add next.

The things that leap out at me are:

You need to be able to turn left/right as well as just pitch and roll. It's quite tiresome having to roll and then pitch when you just want to turn to the side.

In Elite, your coordinates/speed were calculated relative to a particular celestial body. Usually this was the star in the system you were in. If you got near a planet, it changed to be that planet. If you got *very* near an asteroid, it changed to be that asteroid. And so on. This meant that you moved relative to the most significant body in your vicinity. You need to have a system like this, otherwise when the player gets near a planet, it keeps moving away from him. It would be impossible to land on it with that going on.
Back to top
Profile PM Website
Back to top

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2024-11-24 09:48:44
Your offset time is: 2024-11-24 09:48:44