Procedural 2d Space Ships

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#1

Hi all,

First post and first demo.

Looking to create a Full Thrust type game but with a lot more detail.

I love procedural content and this is what I have come up with so far to create unique looking spaceships - no two are alike!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36532713/ShipFactory.jar

Should work fine with the standard call ‘java -jar ShipFactory.jar’ - needs 1.6 or higher.

I am thinking that hull points, weapons systems, engines etc will be determined from the amount of colored pixels and set randomly. Players can then just keep generating these procedural ships until they find one they like, that fits within the current games point limitation and off they go.

Props go to Dave Bollinger - http://www.binarymoon.co.uk/2007/02/dave-bollingers-pixel-robots/ for putting me onto the idea.

UPDATE - New Ship Factory to sample - accessible via the dropbox link above.

#2

Very nice! The spacecraft architecture I’m seeing reminds me heavily of some of the Star Wars Mon Calamari cruisers.

Keep it up, can’t wait to see a game using this technology!

#3

Screenshots, please !
I bet some people are eager to see it, but not so eager to run the jar .

Don’t forget: people are lazy as f*** .

#4

You must be kidding, I’m currently on a project using prosedural graphics and you post this?! great! :smiley:

#5

Here we go some screen shots as requested…

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36532713/screenshot1.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36532713/screenshot2.jpg

#6

Thanks - it is interesting how changing the way the pixels are drawn i.e a vertical line vs a horizontal one vs a box etc changes the overall architecture

#7

Screenshot showing a generated fleet from fighter on the left to carrier on the right.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36532713/screenshot3.jpg

#8

Ships look really good and also look good together as if they were constructed by the same species. Do you have plans to implement other algorithms to simulate ships by other species so they don’t all look the same? For instance some ships with a less organic/more angular appearance?

#9

I am experimenting all the time with the current algorithm and small changes do make large differences so distinguishing ships as if made by different species should definitely be possible. I seem to spend more time tweaking and generating ship after ship than actually getting on with the game development!

At the moment I am creating editors for each ship class which will provide options to change all the settings used in the algorithm, so it should allow endless possibilities.

#10

Argh! I don’t have a middle-mouse button :clue:

#11

Do you not have a scroll wheel?!?!?!?

#12

I do, but it’s not easy to “click” with it, because of me buying an extraordinary special mouse that annoys me a lot. :smiley:

#13

It’s so funny that ppl buy something that annoy them. You can use a software to emulate that click, just google it.

#14

Will put some right click popups menus in the editors for those without scroll wheels.

#15

I’m well aware of that, but that’s not really a viable solution :stuck_out_tongue: 3DS Max is horribly hard to use with this

#16

Few screen shots of the editor screens I am currently working on…

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36532713/destroyerEditor.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36532713/cruiserEditor.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36532713/battleshipEditor.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36532713/carrierEditor.jpg

I have designed them so that you can keep generating new designs but have made it possible to go back to previous ones. Where it says Ship X of X that will just keep increasing when new designs are made.

I have also been playing around with the algorithms used to generate the designs - mainly trying to make them more modular so that I can provide lots of config options in these screens. It’s slow going - getting distracted far too easily!

#17

Examples of more angular ships

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36532713/carrierMoreAngular.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36532713/carrierMoreAngular1.jpg

#18

Getting better I think…

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36532713/fleet.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36532713/fleet1.jpg

More fill example

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36532713/fleet2.jpg

lol Whale ship!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36532713/fleet3.jpg

and spiky ships

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36532713/fleet4.jpg

#19

I also generate my ships procedurally but in a different way. These WIP videos might inspire or confuse ;):

Textures
Basic Outline
Flying ships in action

#20

Nice work!