Vega Strike Forums

Hello all,


I'm currently working on a project, that has nothing to do with VS, but for which we intend to make a stellar system editor. I've searched the VS forum to see if you already have one, didn't find anything, but I might have missed it...

For now we're lacking developpers, so we've been Game Designing the editor during an internship with students from a GD school, ISART Digital. And we're trying to find a developpers school that would take our specs as a yearly project to actually develop the application. Normally, this should be done during the 2011-2012 school year.

We've already built a specific XML format for holding a stellar system data and we've checked that it can easily be translated into Celestia format. We intend to manage all Keplerian orbits and maybe even double objects, which I don't think VS manages. We also intend to manage multiple objects generators like asteroids belts, Lagrange points clusters and planetary rings, but I don't see how these could be translated int VS. I'm

We're gathering a list of exporters that would be useful to be done, so that our work can also be used by other projects. We started of course with planning a Celestia exporter. Now that I've rediscovered VS, I wonder if a VS exporter could be of use. Of course, there would be some analysis to be done to find common features and map common objects.

Now I'll have to translate the current Game Design in English and give it to you to see if the features are OK for a VS export ! But from the things i've seen in the .system files I've explorer this afternoon, I think it should be quite feasible...

So what about this ? Would you be OK on that plan ? First of all, is there already a VS system editor ?

Yep, translating from your format to Vega Strike's .system XML should be possible - not only possible, rather simple too.

So keep us informed of your progress, we'll certainly be interested

Do you have any links to any publicly visible docs?

Hi klauss,


Thanks for your answer ! I just have the GDD for the Stellar System Editor, but for now it's all in French. I'll translate it as soon as possible !

However, for the French-reading people, it's available at : http://hoshikaze.net/hk-forum/viewtopic ... 64&start=0

Hello Mutos and welcome back.

It would be nice to have a system editor for VS, too. Currently we do not have one.

The VS system files format description can be found on our wiki.

Is your project going to be open sourced?

Yes, it's always good to share the effort, yes, yes.

Hello pyramid,


Thanks for the welcome ^-^

We use elliptical orbits near to those defined by Celestia at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Celestia/T ... ticalOrbit.

I'll post a version, which is still WIP, of the XML definition with an XSD and a DOC explanation.

A system editor for VS is currently on the table but no work has been doneon it yet. Im still working on the main data editor (as I get the time) though still stuck on the update feature. What will you be coding your editor in? All the tools I am creating will use mostly C++ running Qt4 for the gui. The base editor is currently VB.net sadly so is limited to windows.

Hello pheonixstorm,


Don't know yet, I'm the only vaguely coder-type in our group, we're mostly RPGers, writers and painters. So we'll have to specify it so that it can be proposed to a dev school. It will then be taken by a group of students to be developped in the course of the shool year. But as we're master of the specs, we can just specify "portable" as a requisite, or even be more specific and give a short-list of languages.

On dev itself, we envision it as basically 3 modules :

• First phase will be :
  • We'll basically develop a core factory-like engine,
  • In parallel, we'll also built a small editing application wih tree-like GUI, to allow quick-and -dirty engine testing,
  • At the same time, we'll choose a graphics package and fummy gear it for the next phase
• The second phase will be :
  • Building the full editor by integrating the graphics GUI istead of the tree-like editing tool,
  • And testing the tool to as much extend as possible.

Hi all,


Here are the .XSD and the .DOC I drafted for the Hoshikaze 2250 Stellar System Editor. Could interest you ^-^ but remember it's only a draft !

The XSD in itself is consistent and I've built a number of XML files. I've once built automatically the corresponding set of classes, in 3 languages : Python, C# and VB.Net, using automated tools. But I never actually used them in an app so I can't tell if they are useable or not... In Python I tested the values ended up in the right variables hierarchy after loading a simple sample file, but in no way did I explore every tag and combination thereof.

Only I didn't go farther, since by that time the short-stories book we're currently publishing entered proofreading, that took most of my time and I thus had no time left for coding. So it's only an untested draft, waiting to be reawakened and taken further...

Mutos wrote:But as we're master of the specs, we can just specify "portable" as a requisite, or even be more specific and give a short-list of languages.

Well, over here I've had (and a few others I've known) some success with python - not on the portability, which is a given, python's ultra-portable, but on the didactic part.

Students, once they get past that weird idea that whitespace matters (meaningful whitespace, which is an uncommon trait in computer languages), they seem to intuitively grasp most of python's constructs, and it ends up being a lot easier for them to concentrate on what matters (game design and coding).

Hi klauss,


Indeed I discovered Python a few months ago and it's quite a good language, very intuitive and which has the interest of combining a low learning curve and extensive features. It's apparently used in many game-related frameworks as it blends well engine and scripts coding and allows for quick prototyping, full object behavior and easy building of extensive testing suites.

So Ithink we might well go for Python in the specs, but we need to discuss that with the schools as some may frown on other languages than C/C++/C#. But we need to find only one, for that matters...

if you want cross platform go gtk++ (doesnt look right on windows, but wonderful on linux) or Qt4 which takes more of a native look for apps. Python might be nice games and apps on linux but python apps on windwos?? Its not the best choice for a portable solution on windows as you must have python INSTALLED on the target system.. how many people using windows already have python installed??

pheonixstorm wrote:Python might be nice games and apps on linux but python apps on windwos??

Why that?

py2exe works like a charm

better, but most of the people on this project who develop it are *not* windows users

Hi all,


I'm a Windows user, my only Linuxes are in VMs so they're not much of gaming platforms ^-^ I look forwards to having a second computer with a permanent Linux, but for now that hasn't been possible. Python in Windows works nice and indeed py2exe is a good solution for packaging an app. But for VS we don't even need it because scripts are handled by the engine itself.

Back to the topic of system editor, I'm currently translating the GDD for it, expect it by one or two weeks, I only have time for that while commuting ^-^