This looks really good! 
I think the lighting with the bright colors really makes everything stand out.
Wow, those pics look nice, color choice really emphasize the “sci-fi” feel I think.
This looks really good! I think the lighting with the bright colors really makes everything stand out.
Now I also added some plants to the surface to make it appear more vivid:
http://www.xcylin.com/promotion/screenshot017.png
Next up: some fruits for the trees that the player can loot.
Would be cool to see some kind of plane or simlair?
Xcylin possesses a xen technology that is mostly underground based - so no planes But there will be lifeforms running (or even flying) around and you will get to build some kind of jetpack
Now I also added some plants to the surface to make it appear more vivid:
http://www.xcylin.com/promotion/screenshot017.png
Next up: some fruits for the trees that the player can loot.
Would be cool to see some kind of plane or simlair?
Xcylin possesses a xen technology that is mostly underground based - so no planes But there will be lifeforms running (or even flying) around and you will get to build some kind of jetpack
Now that I have more time for Xcylin, here is an update on what I’m currently working on:
I noticed a slight jitter when the sectors are getting build that really annoyes me. So I’m doing a lot of benchmarking to find the source. So far I found out that the state manager update most likely causes the jitter by taking more then 11ms in some situations. In normal conditions (no new sectors are being built) one loop just takes 0.9ms. I already accounted for 4ms of that 11ms but the other 7ms are still a mystery.
I think this all has something to do with the biome generation: when a sector is built for the first time the according biom/shaper method is called that allows to create trees/plants etc. This also updates in some situations other sectors (e.g. when the leafs of a tree expand to a different sector) so a lot of sectors have to be recreated and that might lead to the jitter.
Maybe I have to split the mesh of a sector into smaller parts but I already tried that once with 16x16x16 block parts that only resulted in a huge framerate drop. So possibly I have to go with 16x128x16 block parts. I think I will have to experiment for a while to get this right. Too bad I really want to add more features and not debug for some days 
Nevertheless I have decided to use this thread as a kind of blog for the development of Xcylin as long as I have no time to create a website. So check this page from time to time if you want to stay up to date. I will also announce the alpha test here.
Also: here is a recent screenshot of an underground jitter testing site on Xcylin.
Now that I have more time for Xcylin, here is an update on what I’m currently working on:
I noticed a slight jitter when the sectors are getting build that really annoyes me. So I’m doing a lot of benchmarking to find the source. So far I found out that the state manager update most likely causes the jitter by taking more then 11ms in some situations. In normal conditions (no new sectors are being built) one loop just takes 0.9ms. I already accounted for 4ms of that 11ms but the other 7ms are still a mystery.
I think this all has something to do with the biome generation: when a sector is built for the first time the according biom/shaper method is called that allows to create trees/plants etc. This also updates in some situations other sectors (e.g. when the leafs of a tree expand to a different sector) so a lot of sectors have to be recreated and that might lead to the jitter.
Maybe I have to split the mesh of a sector into smaller parts but I already tried that once with 16x16x16 block parts that only resulted in a huge framerate drop. So possibly I have to go with 16x128x16 block parts. I think I will have to experiment for a while to get this right. Too bad I really want to add more features and not debug for some days
Nevertheless I have decided to use this thread as a kind of blog for the development of Xcylin as long as I have no time to create a website. So check this page from time to time if you want to stay up to date. I will also announce the alpha test here.
Also: here is a recent screenshot of an underground jitter testing site on Xcylin.
Time for a small update: I’m currently working on the story/items in the game and also on adding water to Xcylin.
Also the water (and light within the water) looks quite good I still need to implement the correct physics simulation - I hope JBullet won’t make it too complicated for me in this case. Also I need to play around a bit more with the flow of water so that it feels natural.
Here is a video showing the new water blocks in action:
Mr6HWfkWQvc
It definitely looks like a cool effect but you might want to scale it down a bit. Most water isn’t going to be that ripply. That looks like water under rain. But again, looks good.
Time for a small update: I’m currently working on the story/items in the game and also on adding water to Xcylin.
Also the water (and light within the water) looks quite good I still need to implement the correct physics simulation - I hope JBullet won’t make it too complicated for me in this case. Also I need to play around a bit more with the flow of water so that it feels natural.
Here is a video showing the new water blocks in action:
Mr6HWfkWQvc
It definitely looks like a cool effect but you might want to scale it down a bit. Most water isn’t going to be that ripply. That looks like water under rain. But again, looks good.
I agree with you - the water still needs fine tuning. But all the things like ripple strength, movement, color, light absorbtion can be set in the corresponsing javascript file that looks like this:
function onInit(block) {
block.setTexture("Textures/water.png");
block.setLightAbsorbtionLevel(0.3);
block.setLiquid(true);
block.setLiquidFallOff(1.0);
block.setLiquidRippleFactor(3.0);
block.setLiquidColor(new Color(0, 0.2, 0.8));
block.setLiquidFlowSpeed(new Vector3f(0, 1, 0));
}
I agree with you - the water still needs fine tuning. But all the things like ripple strength, movement, color, light absorbtion can be set in the corresponsing javascript file that looks like this:
function onInit(block) {
block.setTexture("Textures/water.png");
block.setLightAbsorbtionLevel(0.3);
block.setLiquid(true);
block.setLiquidFallOff(1.0);
block.setLiquidRippleFactor(3.0);
block.setLiquidColor(new Color(0, 0.2, 0.8));
block.setLiquidFlowSpeed(new Vector3f(0, 1, 0));
}
I’ve updated the ripple effect - now it looks like this:
I’ve updated the ripple effect - now it looks like this:
That looks pretty sweet.