Virtual Ocean Races II

DzzD · September 8, 2010, 4:26pm

Virtual Ocean Races II is a Web 3D sailing simulation game, real time, persistent and massive multiplayer, playable inside any browser.

Navigate now in all oceans with real weather conditions and real topographic data
Compete against thousands of others player online
Compete in official races against pro skippers with identical meteorologic conditions
Control your boat from anywhere : browser, mobile phone, etc…
Learn to sail with a real simulator

>>PLAY NOW<<

INGAME VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/v/hI14Onum7hM&hl=fr&fs=1&fmt=18

I have been project manager for one year now on this project and we finally manage to get a playable beta version, yeppe ! some features are still missing or deactivated and will be enabled day by day

More informations :
=> 3 play modes : arcade / medium / pro
=> 3 languages : english / spanish / french (english & spanish still in work )
=> a real physics sailing simulation
=> 3D view mode
=> a game using data from real world updated in realtime: meteo / wave / etc…
=> a huge play area, you can play every where in the world with our improved topographic data (45 meter precision everywhere in the globe), topographic map contain more than 300 billion samples that you can navigate smoothly and discover fantastic area on the world
=> play in official races against pro skipper (you will have same meteorologic condition at the same location)
=> 3D persistent world
=> compete with several thousand of other player in a unic virtual world
=> receive alert on your mobile phone
=> browser game without plugin (java requiered (no certificat))
=> control your boat with your mobile phone

DzzD · September 8, 2010, 4:56pm

some short video of the game (starting at 4:30)
http://www.ville-limoges.fr/player/player.php?video=images%2Fstories%2Fvideos%2Fmag_ester%2Fmag_ester_septembre2010.flv&titre=mag_ester_septembre2010

Nate · September 8, 2010, 7:25pm

I have a friend who has asked me about a game like this, but I couldn’t find anything. I’d love to point him to your game once the site is available in English. It looks very nice!

Which one are you in the video?

DzzD · September 8, 2010, 8:34pm

I will try to update this thread periodically

none, I am not on the video, was in hollydays

DzzD · September 9, 2010, 6:10pm

here are two comparaison between what you see in GoogleEarth and what yousee at the exact same location in Virtual Ocean Races (NB: cameras have little different focal)

thijs · September 10, 2010, 7:37am

Nice one Bruno, good to see all that hard work payed off!

DzzD · September 11, 2010, 9:58pm

thanks :), crossing fingers !

we have to cutoff a lot of functionalities to release in time and for some months, we will have to “patch” the game periodically to complete it to the original idea

DzzD · September 23, 2010, 4:30pm

the today news :
as always we are late
english version is nearly finished
we made a private Beta race last night and had pretty good results, even if some bugs are still not fixed ( see below picture :), some boat are flying, oups… )

official opening of the game (public beta) is now fixed 04/10/2010 ( october the forth )

EDIT: the total game world area is 510 065 700 km² ( wich is basically the world area… )

DzzD · September 23, 2010, 7:58pm

small video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01n9uNVwCdM ( sorry this one is not really exiting … )

DzzD · September 23, 2010, 10:25pm

I’ve decided to make my own video

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T962zRULvi4&fmt=18]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T962zRULvi4&fmt=18

[/url]

(and sry for the poor quality, I did not get familiar yet with youtube video upload, source video was not perfect but a lot better than this one :()

Demonpants · September 23, 2010, 10:36pm

So…

What do you do?

I watched the video, and it basically looked like a single 3D boat model that takes a long time to get anywhere (real time). What’s the game part?

DzzD · September 23, 2010, 10:53pm

believe me it is very addictive :), so this is a video made on a finished race so your right nothing to do in this one, but there is two main kind of races/games we already implemented (more to come) :
-> short race :
you race against other player on a short period (1/2 hours), there is a start line, a end line end a cupple of check point (basically rule are the same that in real sail race)
-> long race :
from 1 month to 5/6 months, there this is a litlle more difficult and lot more strategic, you have to take the right path using meteorologic data : winds / waves etc…,you can access all those data ingame (up to 6 days in futurs) and they are real one (for example a cupple of days ago we was able to see the “cyclone” in the midle of the atlantic ocean), you have to be care of those but also take care to find enought wind on your chossen path

some others are comming, also you will be able to race against real “skipper” in real/official sail races, we already done such test and that’s make the game a little more interresting they appear in the game as other players and there world positions are updated in the game, there is a physic engine, and the boat you saw in the video is a FigaroII (wich is an official boat, more are comming Imoca / mini 650 / etc…) with the same meteorologic condition you reach the same speed (but inded, if you set your sails setting right).

for example : one race we already do against a real pro skipper was starting in caraiban island end ending in france (arround two weeks long)

in a way you can compare it to “flight simulator” but for sailing, it may not be really interresting if you dont try to get in (sailing may be pretty hard) tht’s why we also made a “newbie” mode where it is a lot easier

this is not an Action game like for sure, but it is very interresting to play

Nate · September 24, 2010, 3:33am

My friend is totally into this. Any chance it will be in English soon?

DzzD · September 24, 2010, 6:39am

yes, it should be next week

DzzD · September 24, 2010, 8:06pm

the game is not officially opened, but you can already try it (if you understand french and are not worry about bugs we did not patch yet ^^), we have recevied english version it is finished but not online yet

NB: the only opened race is already finished, but you can still start to discover how the game work

another video showing “map mode” zoom in & out on Galapagos Islands : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVZq-3Q8zBI

DzzD · September 27, 2010, 6:32pm

Beta test race in 30 minutes, a beta test race will start in 30 minute (19h00 UTC) if any interrested (sry the english version is not yet here :(, for now there are 25 beta tester online for this race, everybody who want to join is welcome)

EDIT: 30 players now, we need more !

EDIT: 35, need more !!

DzzD · September 27, 2010, 9:09pm

here is the resume of last race (I finished second :)):

DzzD · September 29, 2010, 6:36pm

fresh and still a little broken english version is online !

how to try :
1- go to http://vor-2.com/
2 - register an account
3 - once logged in : in the menu choose “play now” => “list of race”
4 - select a race (bowmore regatta) then click “compet in”

this race is already finished but you can still try

a new beta race start tomorrow (19h UTC), the more we will be, the better it will be for that test

DzzD · September 29, 2010, 7:07pm

I realised that there is not enought wind at race location today only 2 knots (was fine when we did the race two days ago 15/20 knots)… sry it maybe a little hard and boring, anyway we will choose a nice location with enought wind for tomorrow

funily 5 players seems to have took the road to canada after having finished the race

if you’re boat is turning and you dont select arcade mode… just activate both sails and increase sheet value

Nate · September 30, 2010, 12:38am

Cool! I forwarded the game to my friend. Thanks!