Space Sim

#1 I'm working on something like this now. So far, I've focused on making a new vehicle class and removing the effect of gravity on objects in the game. Under your game folder, you'll find the files for vehicles, after that it's a bit of programming. Buckle down and take care of it here, if you do it all in script, you'll end up with worse performance.

#2 Type "space sim" in the Search box on the upper right of this page.

#3 Thanks for the comments. I don't have a problem doing the coding. TorqueScript is new to me, C++ fortunately is not. :)

Thanks for the help.

#4 TorqueScript is easy if you know a language like C++.

There are a couple different space sims that have been in development in TGE and TGEA. Kuiper is one, check it out. Jason has hit the nail on the head though. You will have to make some minor edits to a vehicle object, or create your own space vehicle type.

#5 Make a large physical zone without gravity will make it react like being in space.

#6 Totally possible. There are several stock things in the engine, flying/hovering/swimming, ALL kinds of stuff!

#7 One of the stumbling blocks we ran into in trying to make a space sim game with TGE was dealing with floating point precision. This isnt a TGE bug or anything, just the nature of float points. Because of the limit in floating point precision, if the camera gets really far from the origin, say 10,000 units you will start to notice things start shaking.

There are several ways to get around this, the easiest is to limit the size of each mission area, but that tends to limit the feeling of being in open space.

#8 To deal with 10,000 unit limits you could scale everything down and then break space into sectors. This would be ideal for scanners anyway. You would need to place items all around in sectors further than 10,000 so you could see them, then as you approach a boundary, displace everything by 10,000 minus your distance from the boundary. Keep track of the displacement and divide by 10,000 would yield the sector you are currently in, giving you a frame of reference for all objects in space, and your position relative to them all.

#9 This is a little strange, I realize it, but maybe it's worth considering to try and keep the player at the origin and move things to the player. In a multiplayer game, this would be be a nightmare.

#10 Hrmm. I wonder how that would be? no my map, NO MY MAP :)...

#11 LOL! Thanks for the good suggestions.

I actually do not have small demands. Here are the things I'd actually eventually like to see.
#1 - Space Flight
#2 - Atmospheric Flight (this is already there)
#3 - Map Making Tool supporting Tile style placement of 3D tiles (I have a team that can crank amazing tilesets out)
#4 - Paged maps that auto-load (like in Atlas yet I do not YET own TGEA).

So, yeah no small demands and no small amount of work. I realize this.

#12 To clarify on point #3 above as some may want more clarification. Something, that would support Tile Placement and Map building ala something like Neverwinter Nights. The maps are not as detailed but, I actually want to basically be able to load tile objects that can be rotated, have their own textures, etc and adjust the height map accordingly. More like a STAMP in this engine. Then you could fine tune the edges or tweak it with the normal terrain tools. You could use such stamps to rapidly make such maps.

I have other questions and am kind of skewing this thread from the direction I originally started it so, I will start another thread.

#13 @Deva - and there it is. The basis of a Space Sim content pack. I will make it, and they will enjoy it!!!

But serious, I'm doing a space game, so I'll try to address these elements early on, so any resources I create I'll post them for the community.

As far as scrolling space around in multiplayer - you wouldn't do it. Multiplayer games would be set in one sector.

#14 Yeah, I agree one sector - but, a way to make the transition to other sectors seamless kind of like done in Freelancer is a cool idea. :)