seamless planetary descent with automaic mesh generation
Moderator: Mod Contributor
-
- Elite Mercenary
- Posts: 1329
- Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 11:51 pm
- Location: Manchester, UK
- Contact:
Don't get hostile. Safemode has done more for VS than most of us around here. He deserves your respect, nothing less. You can make this point (the desire for the feature) without resorting to offensive comments.
Free Gamer - free software games compendium and commentary!
FreeGameDev forum - open source game development community
FreeGameDev forum - open source game development community
-
- Elite
- Posts: 8014
- Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:03 am
- Location: Montreal
- Contact:
@2asueekim:
I think what safemode meant was pretty clear: For seamless atmospheric flight you need a continuous LOD system that increases detail as you get closer to the surface.
The surface detail has to be able to go down to sub-meter size, if you want to see terrain as you touch down, to the sides of the air-strip. But that implies that the terrain has to be procedurally generated; because even as compressed height data, a whole planet in meter detail would take several thousand hard drives to store.
Procedural generation is hard, but harder yet is matching the edges of patches that are switching LOD levels asynchronously; and harder still is to combine procedural LOD-ing of meshes AND autogenerated normalmaps.
Well, perhaps I'm misunderstanding Tarzan's work; I can't read the french comments in the code, and without code tags all the lines are flush to the left; so I haven't been able to make out what he's doing. But I see very flat planes in the close-up pictures; so I'm judging (or misjudging) from that.
Anyways, there are some open source solutions out there, but they all have limitations; and a more modern solution should actually make use of the GPU for much of the terrain generation. I saw a paper and demo of one system that does that, a while ago; but it was very complex.
It's true that a lot of people have been clamoring for seamless flight; but does that count? What counts, IMO, is the efforts to make it happen; and there have been a few such efforts, and so far they have failed.
On the other hand, a system that allows you to get closer to a planet and see more detail might be better than nothing; but what we'd want eventually is something procedural that allows you to go right down to the surface.
And... Ditto about safemode; he's done huge amounts of high quality work on the engine; and it's almost laughable to see a newbie who hasn't done a thing telling him off. If atmospheric flight is so important to you, just make it happen, or help Tarzan make it happen. Hell, if Tarzan makes this work, PU will adopt it instantly, even if Vegastrike doesn't.
I think what safemode meant was pretty clear: For seamless atmospheric flight you need a continuous LOD system that increases detail as you get closer to the surface.
Nothing less than progressive, procedural generation of detail is really worthwile; I have to fully agree. What's the point of flying close to a planet only to see larger and larger triangles, down to when you're close to the surface and then all you see is a single triangle extending from horizon to horizon, and texture pixels measuring kilometers?safemode wrote:The thing is, there is no detail generation.
The surface detail has to be able to go down to sub-meter size, if you want to see terrain as you touch down, to the sides of the air-strip. But that implies that the terrain has to be procedurally generated; because even as compressed height data, a whole planet in meter detail would take several thousand hard drives to store.
Procedural generation is hard, but harder yet is matching the edges of patches that are switching LOD levels asynchronously; and harder still is to combine procedural LOD-ing of meshes AND autogenerated normalmaps.
Well, perhaps I'm misunderstanding Tarzan's work; I can't read the french comments in the code, and without code tags all the lines are flush to the left; so I haven't been able to make out what he's doing. But I see very flat planes in the close-up pictures; so I'm judging (or misjudging) from that.
Anyways, there are some open source solutions out there, but they all have limitations; and a more modern solution should actually make use of the GPU for much of the terrain generation. I saw a paper and demo of one system that does that, a while ago; but it was very complex.
It's true that a lot of people have been clamoring for seamless flight; but does that count? What counts, IMO, is the efforts to make it happen; and there have been a few such efforts, and so far they have failed.
On the other hand, a system that allows you to get closer to a planet and see more detail might be better than nothing; but what we'd want eventually is something procedural that allows you to go right down to the surface.
And... Ditto about safemode; he's done huge amounts of high quality work on the engine; and it's almost laughable to see a newbie who hasn't done a thing telling him off. If atmospheric flight is so important to you, just make it happen, or help Tarzan make it happen. Hell, if Tarzan makes this work, PU will adopt it instantly, even if Vegastrike doesn't.
Latest version of Cinemut Opaque
Latest version of LaGrande noodleworks (scroll down).
An evolving La Grande How-To...
The non-working, but latest, CineMut test_bike
PU (Privateer: Parallel Universe's Home). WC or Privateer Drayman for you?
WCpedia --The Wing Commander Encyclopedia-- From Angel Deveraux through Belisarius to Zachary Banfeld...
WC Nexus forum, the Moonbase Tycho of WC fans.
Latest version of LaGrande noodleworks (scroll down).
An evolving La Grande How-To...
The non-working, but latest, CineMut test_bike
PU (Privateer: Parallel Universe's Home). WC or Privateer Drayman for you?
WCpedia --The Wing Commander Encyclopedia-- From Angel Deveraux through Belisarius to Zachary Banfeld...
WC Nexus forum, the Moonbase Tycho of WC fans.
-
- Developer
- Posts: 2150
- Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2007 1:17 am
- Location: Pennsylvania
- Contact:
tarzan: after you're done cleaning up your algos and such for generating terrains and what not. When you're ready to actually start working on porting it into VS. The way i'd go about it is sequentially.
First, we need a method to setup the LOD changes as you approach a planet. This is different from normal ships and such because the planets would have _Way_ more LOD's than any other unit in the game. Right now i can pretty much crash into the surface of a planet. What we are missing from VS is the terrain generation, and the atmosphere.
So. maybe follow this.
step 1. LOD'ing planets correctly. We dont have to get detailed enough to see trees and shrubs at this point, but non-pixilated mess when very near the surface would be nice. Of course, this would be tested on non-atmo planets
step 2. Auto generation of detail meshes. Again, tested on non-atmo planets.
step 3. Collision detection and such on detailed generated meshes. Correct functionality to return to low detail mode and back again etc.
step 4. Get atmospheres to work right. (probably the hardest step yet to be done)
step 5. Get shaders to operate correctly in planet atmo.
step 6. Clean up physics of in atmo flight a bit. (add drag and such).
step 7. start placing bases at geographical locations. Have RADAR convert to a planet based radar setup with a horizon and such.
everything additional is gravy. All of this is assuming you can rectify the issue of scale and in the end, have it all perform at a speed that makes it viable.
If you can get step 1 and 2 done and working in VS. I dont think you'll have any problem getting help to complete the remaining steps, assuming that they aren't already exposed as being impossible to do without total rewrites catering to just this one feature.
First, we need a method to setup the LOD changes as you approach a planet. This is different from normal ships and such because the planets would have _Way_ more LOD's than any other unit in the game. Right now i can pretty much crash into the surface of a planet. What we are missing from VS is the terrain generation, and the atmosphere.
So. maybe follow this.
step 1. LOD'ing planets correctly. We dont have to get detailed enough to see trees and shrubs at this point, but non-pixilated mess when very near the surface would be nice. Of course, this would be tested on non-atmo planets
step 2. Auto generation of detail meshes. Again, tested on non-atmo planets.
step 3. Collision detection and such on detailed generated meshes. Correct functionality to return to low detail mode and back again etc.
step 4. Get atmospheres to work right. (probably the hardest step yet to be done)
step 5. Get shaders to operate correctly in planet atmo.
step 6. Clean up physics of in atmo flight a bit. (add drag and such).
step 7. start placing bases at geographical locations. Have RADAR convert to a planet based radar setup with a horizon and such.
everything additional is gravy. All of this is assuming you can rectify the issue of scale and in the end, have it all perform at a speed that makes it viable.
If you can get step 1 and 2 done and working in VS. I dont think you'll have any problem getting help to complete the remaining steps, assuming that they aren't already exposed as being impossible to do without total rewrites catering to just this one feature.
Ed Sweetman endorses this message.
-
- Trader
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:31 am
thank's safemode. agree with your approach. before step1 i propose to test my vertex shader to test the detailed surface, i'll give you the result of my test. The next step is to implement the automatic generation of the lod without heightmap, i'm not familar with open gl so it takes me some time, i will need help on the code and where to insert my procedure (after adaptation of course).
stuck_starchaser: if you see large plane it's because when the spliting is done the planet surface seems to be plane (as on earth, except near the see). I will make a video with a mesh in wire and you will see the tessalation of the mesh in action.
stuck_starchaser: if you see large plane it's because when the spliting is done the planet surface seems to be plane (as on earth, except near the see). I will make a video with a mesh in wire and you will see the tessalation of the mesh in action.
-
- Elite
- Posts: 8014
- Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:03 am
- Location: Montreal
- Contact:
Can't wait.
As for terrain generation, it would be best to use a callback function, likeso as to keep the generative code independent of the LOD'ing mechanism.
I would think that a good altitude noise function would begin by converting latitude and longitude into a quaternion. The good thing about a quaternion is that it excpresses a spherical angle (direction) using four quantities that change smoothly and continuously; which would prevent the noise function from producing terrains with discontinuities, such as longitudinal compressions at the poles.
As for terrain generation, it would be best to use a callback function, like
Code: Select all
float altitude( float longitude, float latitude );
I would think that a good altitude noise function would begin by converting latitude and longitude into a quaternion. The good thing about a quaternion is that it excpresses a spherical angle (direction) using four quantities that change smoothly and continuously; which would prevent the noise function from producing terrains with discontinuities, such as longitudinal compressions at the poles.
Latest version of Cinemut Opaque
Latest version of LaGrande noodleworks (scroll down).
An evolving La Grande How-To...
The non-working, but latest, CineMut test_bike
PU (Privateer: Parallel Universe's Home). WC or Privateer Drayman for you?
WCpedia --The Wing Commander Encyclopedia-- From Angel Deveraux through Belisarius to Zachary Banfeld...
WC Nexus forum, the Moonbase Tycho of WC fans.
Latest version of LaGrande noodleworks (scroll down).
An evolving La Grande How-To...
The non-working, but latest, CineMut test_bike
PU (Privateer: Parallel Universe's Home). WC or Privateer Drayman for you?
WCpedia --The Wing Commander Encyclopedia-- From Angel Deveraux through Belisarius to Zachary Banfeld...
WC Nexus forum, the Moonbase Tycho of WC fans.
-
- Trader
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:31 am
The noise texture is not for teh altitude, it's a texture mixed with the diffuse texture to add some perturbation and add detail even at low altitude. The elevation for the planet is a raw texture in grey level load in a 2 dimension array. For each vertex (with a uv coord) i retreive the elevation from this array, and when the triangles are small, the elevation is computed with a random access (in fact each triangle has a seed number to initiate a random generator and to give allways the same result with the same seed number).
-
- Elite
- Posts: 8014
- Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:03 am
- Location: Montreal
- Contact:
That's good! --altitude already coming from a texture.
As for the random seed at greater magnifications, the problem I forsee is that you might have problems at the seams where the main 6 quadrants meet. Easy to solve later.
In any case, my first concern from the previous post still stands: the callback function. You don't want to mix or hard-code terrain generation into the planetary LOD code; you want these things to be separate.
As for the random seed at greater magnifications, the problem I forsee is that you might have problems at the seams where the main 6 quadrants meet. Easy to solve later.
In any case, my first concern from the previous post still stands: the callback function. You don't want to mix or hard-code terrain generation into the planetary LOD code; you want these things to be separate.
Latest version of Cinemut Opaque
Latest version of LaGrande noodleworks (scroll down).
An evolving La Grande How-To...
The non-working, but latest, CineMut test_bike
PU (Privateer: Parallel Universe's Home). WC or Privateer Drayman for you?
WCpedia --The Wing Commander Encyclopedia-- From Angel Deveraux through Belisarius to Zachary Banfeld...
WC Nexus forum, the Moonbase Tycho of WC fans.
Latest version of LaGrande noodleworks (scroll down).
An evolving La Grande How-To...
The non-working, but latest, CineMut test_bike
PU (Privateer: Parallel Universe's Home). WC or Privateer Drayman for you?
WCpedia --The Wing Commander Encyclopedia-- From Angel Deveraux through Belisarius to Zachary Banfeld...
WC Nexus forum, the Moonbase Tycho of WC fans.
-
- Trader
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:31 am
In fact, my mesh is an icosahedron (all triangles composing the mesh are the same). I've got a root mesh composed of 320 triangles serving me for the culling. The real mesh is a decomposition of the root mesh in 4 sons => giving a mesh with 1280 triangles. Each son triangle having their seed number computed with the seed number of their parent. As you approach the planet, the triangle is divided more and more in smaller triangles and so on.
Each triangle has a level, when the level reach a number defined (for my test i give 6), the altitude is randomly generated with the seed number otherly from the raw texture.
Each triangle has a level, when the level reach a number defined (for my test i give 6), the altitude is randomly generated with the seed number otherly from the raw texture.
-
- Elite
- Posts: 8014
- Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:03 am
- Location: Montreal
- Contact:
Well, the more I hear about what you're doing, the better it seems.
Keep it up.
Keep it up.
Latest version of Cinemut Opaque
Latest version of LaGrande noodleworks (scroll down).
An evolving La Grande How-To...
The non-working, but latest, CineMut test_bike
PU (Privateer: Parallel Universe's Home). WC or Privateer Drayman for you?
WCpedia --The Wing Commander Encyclopedia-- From Angel Deveraux through Belisarius to Zachary Banfeld...
WC Nexus forum, the Moonbase Tycho of WC fans.
Latest version of LaGrande noodleworks (scroll down).
An evolving La Grande How-To...
The non-working, but latest, CineMut test_bike
PU (Privateer: Parallel Universe's Home). WC or Privateer Drayman for you?
WCpedia --The Wing Commander Encyclopedia-- From Angel Deveraux through Belisarius to Zachary Banfeld...
WC Nexus forum, the Moonbase Tycho of WC fans.
-
- Elite
- Posts: 1363
- Joined: Sat Aug 04, 2007 3:42 pm
Is work on this feature still ongoing?
Because I wholeheartedly hope so- besides making the stunning improvement of transforming a few elaborate menus with backdrops composed of still renders into actual, realistic, massive planetary exploration, this feature is a gateway between being an open space game engine and being an everything open game engine, the universal open game.
Starflight, Frontier: Elite 2, Spore and Infintity: The Quest for Earth, games like these have gone down this road and as a result stand out clearly from the wrest that confine the player to the vacuum. But none of them is both modern and open as is Vega Strike.
This feature would be a major step towards the engine being able to produce entire, believable, beautiful planets. And that is a major step towards worlds' worth of awesome sites and incredible gameplay--
Exploration of worlds and its inhabitants thereupon, planetary combat in the skies and waters and across the land between everything from fearsome futuristic war machines down to the most unimaginably alien lifeforms, with the help of familiar fluid friction flying at hundreds of kilometers per hour weaving between rugged mountains and stratospheric high rises to reach your destination landing pad nestled amoungst these planetscapes, etc.
Because I wholeheartedly hope so- besides making the stunning improvement of transforming a few elaborate menus with backdrops composed of still renders into actual, realistic, massive planetary exploration, this feature is a gateway between being an open space game engine and being an everything open game engine, the universal open game.
Starflight, Frontier: Elite 2, Spore and Infintity: The Quest for Earth, games like these have gone down this road and as a result stand out clearly from the wrest that confine the player to the vacuum. But none of them is both modern and open as is Vega Strike.
This feature would be a major step towards the engine being able to produce entire, believable, beautiful planets. And that is a major step towards worlds' worth of awesome sites and incredible gameplay--
Exploration of worlds and its inhabitants thereupon, planetary combat in the skies and waters and across the land between everything from fearsome futuristic war machines down to the most unimaginably alien lifeforms, with the help of familiar fluid friction flying at hundreds of kilometers per hour weaving between rugged mountains and stratospheric high rises to reach your destination landing pad nestled amoungst these planetscapes, etc.
-
- Elite Mercenary
- Posts: 1329
- Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 11:51 pm
- Location: Manchester, UK
- Contact:
Sadly nobody is working on it at the moment because it's just an incredibly difficult task.
Free Gamer - free software games compendium and commentary!
FreeGameDev forum - open source game development community
FreeGameDev forum - open source game development community
-
- Expert Mercenary
- Posts: 988
- Joined: Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:02 am
- Location: Somewhere in the vastness of space
- Contact:
Last time I looked at the code a couple of months ago there was no specific class for drawing planets. A basic sphere class is being used for planets and shields. This is the greatest obstacle I see currently to start creating planetary surfaces. Nothing has changed since then.
Personally I made a test with a spiky sphere but I just didn't have the time (and patience) to learn how to separate the code to obtain a planet class so that the shields would remain spherical but the planets would be hooked into their own class.
The code for planetary surfaces that has been shown by various volunteers is quite easy to implement (in its basics) as long as you know where to start integrating it. With the current setup it's simply not possible and a rewrite and preparation of the framework would require the help of a dev that has some idea of the app workflow. At the moment all devs are 100% RL so I don't see that happen anytime at all without the proper framework prepared.
Personally I made a test with a spiky sphere but I just didn't have the time (and patience) to learn how to separate the code to obtain a planet class so that the shields would remain spherical but the planets would be hooked into their own class.
The code for planetary surfaces that has been shown by various volunteers is quite easy to implement (in its basics) as long as you know where to start integrating it. With the current setup it's simply not possible and a rewrite and preparation of the framework would require the help of a dev that has some idea of the app workflow. At the moment all devs are 100% RL so I don't see that happen anytime at all without the proper framework prepared.
-
- Elite Venturer
- Posts: 725
- Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 6:01 pm
- Location: France, Paris
for my opinion it would be preferable for the moment to improve the visual effect over the existing structure of the game
i would like planetary flight but maybe if the game was in one system is possible but is already difficult with all our freetime to made 1 ship or station
and personnaly i prefer have a nice space environnement (debris huge asteroid belt/field, more station, some ancient relics..possibility to have a derelict ship after kill/destroy them, recuperation/extraction, and mining workable, collision, blob, gas field too, dust, pulsar and other strange thing ..etc)..but not plannetary flight
than a plannetary flight and nothing improvement in the space
And personnaly the idea of 2D picture when you are landed is very stylish
is mean like a quiet/calm moment after trought the dangerous space.
of course we need to do a lot of new background ....lol
but maybe for the release 7.0 we should have this target (have a begining of planetary flight)?
thank
i would like planetary flight but maybe if the game was in one system is possible but is already difficult with all our freetime to made 1 ship or station
and personnaly i prefer have a nice space environnement (debris huge asteroid belt/field, more station, some ancient relics..possibility to have a derelict ship after kill/destroy them, recuperation/extraction, and mining workable, collision, blob, gas field too, dust, pulsar and other strange thing ..etc)..but not plannetary flight
than a plannetary flight and nothing improvement in the space
And personnaly the idea of 2D picture when you are landed is very stylish
is mean like a quiet/calm moment after trought the dangerous space.
of course we need to do a lot of new background ....lol
but maybe for the release 7.0 we should have this target (have a begining of planetary flight)?
thank
-
- Elite
- Posts: 1363
- Joined: Sat Aug 04, 2007 3:42 pm
You don't understand though, this isn't content I'm asking for, it's code. Procedurally generated planet surfaces that locally subdivide/tessellate into higher LoDs dynamically as you approach them.Fendorin wrote:for my opinion it would be preferable for the moment to improve the visual effect over the existing structure of the game
i would like planetary flight but maybe if the game was in one system is possible but is already difficult with all our freetime to made 1 ship or station
The only content that is needed are some terrain textures for when you get really close, planetary life (flora, fauna, exotics, etc.), ports, bases and cities, surface and atmospheric vehicles, etc.
I would be more than willing to work on this planetary content myself, leaving you to continue work on the purely space dwelling structures and craft, if there was just this code to support realistic planets at low altitudes.
I'm sure the devs wouldn't drop everything to work on planets, work on the space portion would continue at about the same pace.and personnaly i prefer have a nice space environnement (debris huge asteroid belt/field, more station, some ancient relics..possibility to have a derelict ship after kill/destroy them, recuperation/extraction, and mining workable, collision, blob, gas field too, dust, pulsar and other strange thing ..etc)..but not plannetary flight than a plannetary flight and nothing improvement in the space
But this is a very important step for VS, space games and open source games in general and it has been requested by many people over and over throughout the years on the VS forum. It has been done decades ago in games like Elite 2 and Starflight and it has been done recently in games like Spore, Infinity and I think Supreme Commander.
No one ever said that if something is realtime 3D, it has to be a nonstop shoot out. It could be just as peaceful and calm in a secure location like that, only you could explore it as a realtime 3D environment, rather than a series of still renders.And personnaly the idea of 2D picture when you are landed is very stylish
is mean like a quiet/calm moment after trought the dangerous space.
of course we need to do a lot of new background ....lol
A feature this big should be started as soon as possible, because it could take a few versions for glitches to be worked out and then for features that build off of this feature like I mentioned earlier to be implemented.but maybe for the release 7.0 we should have this target (have a begining of planetary flight)?
-
- Elite
- Posts: 1363
- Joined: Sat Aug 04, 2007 3:42 pm
Wow, so the difficult part would be integrating this feature then, not creating it?pyramid wrote:Last time I looked at the code a couple of months ago there was no specific class for drawing planets. A basic sphere class is being used for planets and shields. This is the greatest obstacle I see currently to start creating planetary surfaces. Nothing has changed since then.
Personally I made a test with a spiky sphere but I just didn't have the time (and patience) to learn how to separate the code to obtain a planet class so that the shields would remain spherical but the planets would be hooked into their own class.
The code for planetary surfaces that has been shown by various volunteers is quite easy to implement (in its basics) as long as you know where to start integrating it. With the current setup it's simply not possible and a rewrite and preparation of the framework would require the help of a dev that has some idea of the app workflow. At the moment all devs are 100% RL so I don't see that happen anytime at all without the proper framework prepared.
Either way planets should certainly get their own class within the near future. After all, at this point everything else in the game has been cleaned up nicely with the exception of nebulae.
-
- Bounty Hunter
- Posts: 153
- Joined: Sun Jul 15, 2007 2:16 pm
Yeah, this would be an amazing feature but Pyramid is right; what we really need is to get the framework into place where someone who knows what they're doing can implement it. If the code was cleaned up, the move to Ogre was completed etc then it would probably be fairly easy to recruit someone to write something. It seems fairly obvious the current coders aren't really interested in this feature, so if it's going to be implemented a good idea would be to trawl the internet, mod sites etc looking for programmers to help clear up some of the code, complete the move to Ogre and then implement planetary flight.
-
- Expert Mercenary
- Posts: 988
- Joined: Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:02 am
- Location: Somewhere in the vastness of space
- Contact:
The decision to implement a new engine feature depends on two factors:
1) Preparedness of the framework (not given)
2) Developers / coders willing to implement and enhance the feature (not given)
It should not depend on any other improvements that are going on in the game that are of artistic nature.
At the moment we are doing some parallel improvements mainly on the artistic side (shaders and units) and the amount of work that can be completed is limited by the number of contributing artists.
Still, if we had an active coder onboard we could start preparing the framework and primitive features (like surace flight with visible elevation profile but wothout landing) without impacting too much the rest of the game. Then move on toward improvement of the feature.
This could be done independent of the artistic developments and independent of the moce to Ogre. There is no point waiting for Ogre where there is nobody actively working on that port. Blocking the development of new features due to unavailability of other features is counterproductive.
So the blocking point seems to be coders willing to take a dive into the current code structure and prepare the framework for integration of a procedural planets.
I quite like the idea of recruiting coders on the internet or even offering internships for graduate students from multimedia computing courses (something I have already proposed and discussed with project leads). This is no minor task however and help with organization would be appreciated. What needs to be done:
a) Identify sites and universities that could have interested members.
b) Write a description of required knowhow and task at hand
c) Publish, collect feedback, assign task
d) Accompany development
I could do b), c) for universities, and d) to an extent (would be handled through forum anyway).
Thing is that in order to not discourage new members we should advise them of the current website handicap where we actually cannot receive new members until all issues are solved.
1) Preparedness of the framework (not given)
2) Developers / coders willing to implement and enhance the feature (not given)
It should not depend on any other improvements that are going on in the game that are of artistic nature.
At the moment we are doing some parallel improvements mainly on the artistic side (shaders and units) and the amount of work that can be completed is limited by the number of contributing artists.
Still, if we had an active coder onboard we could start preparing the framework and primitive features (like surace flight with visible elevation profile but wothout landing) without impacting too much the rest of the game. Then move on toward improvement of the feature.
This could be done independent of the artistic developments and independent of the moce to Ogre. There is no point waiting for Ogre where there is nobody actively working on that port. Blocking the development of new features due to unavailability of other features is counterproductive.
So the blocking point seems to be coders willing to take a dive into the current code structure and prepare the framework for integration of a procedural planets.
I quite like the idea of recruiting coders on the internet or even offering internships for graduate students from multimedia computing courses (something I have already proposed and discussed with project leads). This is no minor task however and help with organization would be appreciated. What needs to be done:
a) Identify sites and universities that could have interested members.
b) Write a description of required knowhow and task at hand
c) Publish, collect feedback, assign task
d) Accompany development
I could do b), c) for universities, and d) to an extent (would be handled through forum anyway).
Thing is that in order to not discourage new members we should advise them of the current website handicap where we actually cannot receive new members until all issues are solved.
-
- Merchant
- Posts: 32
- Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2008 10:31 pm
- Location: Zürich, Switzerland
-
- Elite
- Posts: 1363
- Joined: Sat Aug 04, 2007 3:42 pm
I'm probably just stating the obvious, but there is the sourceforge.net volunteer help request/recruit page:pyramid wrote:This is no minor task however and help with organization would be appreciated. What needs to be done:
a) Identify sites and universities that could have interested members.
b) Write a description of required knowhow and task at hand
c) Publish, collect feedback, assign task
d) Accompany development
I could do b), c) for universities, and d) to an extent (would be handled through forum anyway).
http://sourceforge.net/people/
You also have of course Google Summer of Code (which just ended for this year obviously but that would leave extra time for planning next year):
http://code.google.com/soc/2008/
Then you have gamedev which is more game focused than open focused but its forums seem to have alot of hobbyist or otherwise small projects coders:
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/
Looks like Oregon State University has a project to host open projects, which might indicate they would support student participation in open projects like VS:
http://osuosl.org/
The west coast of the united states in general has 'silicon valley' making it a bit of a tech hub (though more tech hubs continue to grow elsewhere in the US) and universities their might be good targets.
Same thing for scandinavian countries, plus I suspect OSS is a bigger part of modern culture in western and northern european countries, so their universities could be considered good recruiting grounds.
Not being a coder myself I would have to look into this more to find more specific targets.
Also worth noting for the actual implementation of the feature are:
Charlieg pointed this guy/project out who has started doing this in OGRE.
http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=39254
There's another one in an early stage on sourceforge:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/fracplanet/
-
- Elite
- Posts: 8014
- Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:03 am
- Location: Montreal
- Contact:
That last one is not meant for real-time.
Good idea to try and organize this as a separate project.
So many people have tried, and AFAIK the only successful implementation there's ever been is not open source.
Talking about the Infinity Engine, of course.
Good idea to try and organize this as a separate project.
So many people have tried, and AFAIK the only successful implementation there's ever been is not open source.
Talking about the Infinity Engine, of course.
Latest version of Cinemut Opaque
Latest version of LaGrande noodleworks (scroll down).
An evolving La Grande How-To...
The non-working, but latest, CineMut test_bike
PU (Privateer: Parallel Universe's Home). WC or Privateer Drayman for you?
WCpedia --The Wing Commander Encyclopedia-- From Angel Deveraux through Belisarius to Zachary Banfeld...
WC Nexus forum, the Moonbase Tycho of WC fans.
Latest version of LaGrande noodleworks (scroll down).
An evolving La Grande How-To...
The non-working, but latest, CineMut test_bike
PU (Privateer: Parallel Universe's Home). WC or Privateer Drayman for you?
WCpedia --The Wing Commander Encyclopedia-- From Angel Deveraux through Belisarius to Zachary Banfeld...
WC Nexus forum, the Moonbase Tycho of WC fans.
-
- Expert Mercenary
- Posts: 988
- Joined: Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:02 am
- Location: Somewhere in the vastness of space
- Contact:
-
- Elite
- Posts: 1363
- Joined: Sat Aug 04, 2007 3:42 pm
Sometimes I wonder if we all petitioned/begged/pleaded with Flavien for the sake of human civilization to do so, if he would at least release an early build of his planetary code.chuck_starchaser wrote:That last one is not meant for real-time.
Good idea to try and organize this as a separate project.
So many people have tried, and AFAIK the only successful implementation there's ever been is not open source.
Talking about the Infinity Engine, of course.
If I haven't mentioned it before, I for one really appreciate the work you are doing to make VS' broken content pipeline something really friendly. You might be making this the first open source project to do so.pyramid wrote:My fingers are itching...
I'd like to give it a try myself...
If I had the framework ready...
But as there are still so many things...
To do on artistic side...
And in user tool land...
I let it be...
(The sun will shine...)
(That I swear...)
(THAT I SWEAR!!!)
Disclaimer: this is not a poem
But when this and your other VS projects seem to be in a good place, on behalf of the open source community, fellow Starflight, Elite and Vega Strike fans abroad, please let loose those fingers on this feature.
PS: Despite his lack of interest expressed earlier towards this effort specifically, I wonder if when he gets back, if safemode would be interested in helping separating out this planet class?
-
- Elite
- Posts: 8014
- Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:03 am
- Location: Montreal
- Contact:
Well, we could start brainstorming its interface, to save time.
Everything that ends good, in this business, begins with a clear specification and interface.
In fact, best software practice is to start with a testing specification.
If you know what you want, you should be able to specify how to test it.
If the testing code is done first, there are no ambiguities about what it is that the code needs to do. The answer is
simplest: it must pass this test.
Everything that ends good, in this business, begins with a clear specification and interface.
In fact, best software practice is to start with a testing specification.
If you know what you want, you should be able to specify how to test it.
If the testing code is done first, there are no ambiguities about what it is that the code needs to do. The answer is
simplest: it must pass this test.
Latest version of Cinemut Opaque
Latest version of LaGrande noodleworks (scroll down).
An evolving La Grande How-To...
The non-working, but latest, CineMut test_bike
PU (Privateer: Parallel Universe's Home). WC or Privateer Drayman for you?
WCpedia --The Wing Commander Encyclopedia-- From Angel Deveraux through Belisarius to Zachary Banfeld...
WC Nexus forum, the Moonbase Tycho of WC fans.
Latest version of LaGrande noodleworks (scroll down).
An evolving La Grande How-To...
The non-working, but latest, CineMut test_bike
PU (Privateer: Parallel Universe's Home). WC or Privateer Drayman for you?
WCpedia --The Wing Commander Encyclopedia-- From Angel Deveraux through Belisarius to Zachary Banfeld...
WC Nexus forum, the Moonbase Tycho of WC fans.
-
- Expert Mercenary
- Posts: 988
- Joined: Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:02 am
- Location: Somewhere in the vastness of space
- Contact:
Good idea. It should at least take the parameters that are provided in the .system file. Plus planet type and some descriptive attributes like, amount of oceans, rivers, atmosphere type, highest mountain range (geological age?, seismic activity?), and probably many more....
This reminds me, I have somewhere a specification draft for redesigning planet types. But that deserves its own post.
This reminds me, I have somewhere a specification draft for redesigning planet types. But that deserves its own post.