Galaxy

Engines, Libraries and Tools Xith3D Forums
#1

I’m working on a game, that will have it’s main screen a galaxy map…
I encountered several problems when displaying the map:
As i want it to be 3d, each star has x,y,z coordinates…(stars have x,y coordinates in an two dimensional array and the z coordinate is an attribute of each star)
and it has to be pickable…
i tried it with spheres, but it looked ugly…so i was thinking about some thing of sprites/dots…but i want them smooth…does xithhave something like that?
another problem…camera movement…i was trying for very long time to code that, but no success…not to mention the picking and gui…

so i’d like some ideas on how to do it in xith…
the number f stars in the galaxy is circa 2000-5000 (depending on the efficiency of the display code…

basically…what i want is something very similar to the galaxy map in EVE online (http://myeve.eve-online.com/download/videos/Default.asp?a=download&vid=144 – somewhere around 2:30 is the galaxy map in this trailer…and that’s very similar to what i want to create) …but i have no idea how to do it…

and the best thing would be, when zoomed, planets around the stars would appear…also pickable…

so i was hoping, if anybody could throw me some suggestions…or examples how this could be done…

thanx

#2

hi

I’m currently working on such a game, too. First I went the sphere way, too. But just like you I found it looking ugly. So I searched google for solutions and was finally told (I think it was here in the forum) that a bitmaps are the way to got. So I used gimp to create some beautiful glowing star images and placed them on a textured quad. looks really great.

But this is as far as you went.

I let the galaxy rotate and invert the localToVWorld rotation to let the images always face the view. This doesn’t look like images but just like stars in space. I have a grayscale dots filled image on a skybox to simulate the stars far far away. Looks even greater. But resently I read about billboards. And I think they are exactly what be both need. As the javadoc says, these are textured quads always facing the view by themselves.

About the collection of stars… In my game stars are objectes of the class Star I implemented. The Star class has holds x, y, z coordinates of the star (next to other attributes). The Star objects are put into a java.util.Vector. After generating the Star objects I create rendered objects in TransformGroups with the apropriate x, y, z coordinates. I think, this is somewhat more transparent, isn’t it?

I hope I could help you with this.

I will release my game as open source. So if you want, you can join. I’ve not put it in any public CVS. But I will do it after the upcoming viva voices during the next two months. Are you interested?

Qudus

#3

Well, the game i’m working on…don’t knw when i’ll finish it…but it will be massive…maybe we could possibly combine our ideas and create one game instead of two, that are worse :slight_smile: no disrespect…but two heads are better than one :slight_smile:

dyou have some info page about the game you’re making?

#4

That’s what I tried to say.

Well, no. The Idea of making a 3D enabled Acendancy clone (Do you know Ascendancy? A really cool somewhat old DOS game with a great atmosphere) of myself runs in my brain for several years. But I’ve started to code just a few months ago. So far I have only written parts the 3D things and no game implementation. I have the galaxy view with a rotating galaxy (rotates just because it’s cool) and a rotating solar system view with really cool looking textured planets rotating around the sun fully lightened and the basic classes for the galaxy, contained solar systems and their planets.

But here is a list of thoughts about the game:

  • multiplayer enabled
  • round-based (but not fixed to that)
  • client-server architecture with a separate process holding all game information that could run continuosly
  • randomly generated races with a random behaviour in discrete parameter ranges (agressiveness, expansionisticness, intelligence, biological parameters, etc…)
    You will have to spread some count over some attributes/flags to create your own race (with min and max on some attributes). The AI races will have a random spread. This count depends on your race’s age. So evolution is implemented. When you have become e.g. 100 units older you can add another small count over these attributes and maybe be able to select additional attributes/flags
    This way the races will be recognizable, because they will always have e.g. weak shields but strong weapons or something like that, because it lays in their character.
  • first-one type races that are so old and strong that they cannot be beaten by one race alone (or maybe never been beaten)
  • new (young) races will raise randomly during the game while some others will be wiped out
  • diplomatics
  • some familiar research system (one tree for each race)
  • space battles with 3D models laser rays/impulses and plating/shields (depending on your race and research)
  • system/planet claiming/colonizing/conquering
  • planet distruction with very highly developed weapons
  • raise your empire by claiming more planets and enforing them and building a ship army
  • choose political system in your empire
  • make pacts/trade agreements/alliances/etc. with other races (AI and other players)
  • etc…

The game implementation shall be somewhat abstract. So that you can implement some different game implementations whithin the same reusable game system. So that if we have differing ideas in some points we can implement both and switch them by putting another game-part-lib (jar) in the right folder. The AI shall also be abstract so that it is replacable or even choosable for the races.

What do you think?

Qudus

#5

well…i’ve been designing this game in my head for over 8 years and started coding very recently…
i too had the same idea at first 4X strategy…like Stars! … but…the idea has changed a lot…
my idea is a MMOG/MMORPG strategy game, where each player plays as him/herself…
it is more like a realistic galaxy life simulation…

it’s still 4X strategy, because it includes all the things you wrote, but each race can be played by unlimited number of players and each player has his role…
you can be a trader, pirate, diplomat, mercenary, fleet commander, pilot, president, minister…the president/minister ranks would be voted by each race…

research and colonization would be slow paced, cause these things could not be that quick in a real galaxy…and it could be played by a lot f people simultaineously…
i haven’t stil decided about the realtime/turn based system, but i’m inclined to the pseudo turnbased system, that you can see in tradewars 2002, or similar games…
imagine 10 races in a galaxy…there are wars etc…and then after some time another race comesfrom a different galaxy (for example The Shadows - like the ones from babylon 5) and the races that are fihting, would have to ally themselves quickly, to stop the shadows from annihilating the whole galaxy…

when you played ascendancy, vga planets, stars, MOO…yu never cared about your army much…well…you did, but your ships were only numbers…this system offers the opportunity, to have presidents/leaders care more…like in reality it should be.i mean…they don’t have to…and the fleet commanders, soldiers, pilots could run off and become pirates…they can disobey…which is another twist in the game…

you know…i wan’t to get as close to maybe future reality as possible…

i couldn’t write all the ideas yet, cause i think i’d flood it here :slight_smile: but…yoou go te idea from this one…

you know…there are numerous 4X games, but none like this :slight_smile:

#6

Don’t you think you overextend yourself with such an idea (no offense)? First I played with such an idea, too, but it’s too huge and you will have to handle too many users. It’s too complicated. And where to get the necessary hardware? I thought to start small is the better way. And if you design the code well, you will always be able to scale the game.

What is 4X?

Ahh! A Babylon 5 fan. Rare people are we…

Well as I said. These features may come to the game on a later stage. First there should be a base to extend to such a massive game.

I think the best way to go is to part the game into libraries, that we both can use for our games. I’m currently searching for a free CVS host to use.

#7

Well…i didn’t say, that it’d have to be whole from the start…but the hardware wouldn’t be a problem, if it was ready for a major test release (at least i do think, that i’d manage to get that hardware…just the net connection would have to pe payd)

4X == eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate (games like: stars!, ascendancy, master of orion, fragile alliance, galactic civilizations, vga planets, Xpace, and also civilization, colonization, alpha centauri…you get the picture :wink: (for more info do a wiki search :wink:

As i’ve said, i’m working on this game in my mind and with my pen for over 8 years…and started coding just recently…i even already made a song to use as one of the soundtrack songs 4 years ago ;)) you can say i’m a maniac, but however long it takes, i won’t stop until it is done :)) and it makes me happy, that there is finally someone else, that is working on something similar, so i’m not alone in this (which frustrated me a lot, cause i know, that doing this alone is nearly suicidal)