New Celestial Bodies for the next version is possible ?

Petite_Fraise · Post by **Petite_Fraise** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 6:33 pm

It would be possible to add in the next version more celestial bodies in the solar system?

around JUPITER :
*Ganymede, rocky planetoid without atmosphere
*Io, volcanic orange red planetoid without atmosphere
*Europe, ice planetoid without atmosphere
*Callisto, rocky planetoid without atmosphere

around SATURN:
*Titan atmosphere with orange planetoid

[Edited on 1-13-2011 by Petite_Fraise]

[Edited on 1-13-2011 by Petite_Fraise]

Zule · Post by **Zule** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 11:20 pm

I can't speak for vice, but from a programmers point of view even with my limited knowledge of such things I would say the more you add. the higher the poly count and the slower the frame rate, so it might be a compromise between filling space and keeping the game slick.

MMaggio · Post by **MMaggio** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 11:50 pm

You are close. Vice can do anything, but since the game is a DOWNLOAD and not a hardisc, he makes every attempt to keep the loading time within practical limits.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 11:57 pm

I want more missiles

Zule · Post by **Zule** » Fri Jan 14, 2011 12:30 am

I think the idea of a game like this is not just the combat but the exploration so cutting out systems would cut down on that quite a lot. It's not really an arcade game but an experience in and of its self. So having more pretty things to look at is a laudable goal it's just that there are limitations of course.

TGS · Post by **TGS** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 3:17 am

As we touched on in another thread I think it would be more practical to add more things to do on the planets and bodies we have rather than adding more bodies just to look at.

Zule · Post by **Zule** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 6:35 am

That is true for sure, again though I think that is limited to a couple of factors like download size memory and sheer ability of the programming language used. Frankly what Vice get's DBP to do is amazing!

TGS · Post by **TGS** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 8:06 am

Well simply adding the bodies using assets that are already in the game wouldn't really increase the size that much but in terms of adding high density "systems" it's sort of difficult with the scaling and size of the bodies themselves. SOL is a pretty dense system and if he decided he wanted to add all the satellites (aka moons) for all the planets it would be rather tedious. For example Jupiter has quite a few moons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of_Jupiter). If the planets and moons were to scale... or even half to scale more could be added without it looking silly but because they're not it simply wouldn't look at all realistic having even 5-10 of the more well known satellites.

Honestly I would love to see how the Evochron universe would look if things were properly to scale. I'm tempted to go download the original Arvoch just to find out because apparently that used a more accurate planet scaling.

Zule · Post by **Zule** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 10:20 am

Adding the bodies even if they existed already in the game as files would increase the resources needed by sheer poly count, general rule of thumb is higher the poly count the slower the fps.

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 6:08 pm

The limit is one planet and one moon per sector. Every time you jump into a sector dominated by a planet (as indicated by a change in system name), the new set of polys are loaded. You can see this with a slower computer (like mine) because the warp effect takes longer when crossing the border from one system to another. Ergo, polys aren't the real problem ... not all are loaded at one time.

The difficulty, as stated above, is with scaling. The Sol system would need to be expanded if natural satellites were to be added ... assuming you don't want one of the moons of Jupiter butting up next to the rings of Saturn.

TGS · Post by **TGS** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 9:47 pm

Zule you realize that the game does not actually render and load every single celestial body for you regardless of your position in the game universe right? That would be extremely inefficient and generally if that were actually the case this game simply would not function because of the seamless universe. It would essentially mean that every single polygon is rendered seen or unseen on your screen and while I may not be 100% up to date on hardware capabilities but I'm pretty sure most computers simply could not handle that sort of load.

Yes IF you were in the region within visible distance of say jupiter and it's satellites you might end up with an excessively high poly count which could reduce your FPS but considering how rarely that may occur it wouldn't be that much of an issue. Granted it depends entirely on how many things you're talking about rendering. As I said before in terms of satellites you simply couldn't have that many in processed distance because it would stall the game to a point of unplayable. But on a whole it has little to do with the actual poly count until you're rendering like 4-5 large celestial object's but Vice has done a very good job at designing Evochron so that it uses resources when it needs to.

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 9:59 pm

Vice could tell you how many sectors are loaded at one time. If it's comparable to how many stations can be crowded into an area of space, it would probably be the current sector and the six adjoining sectors. But that's just my guesstimate.

Zule · Post by **Zule** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 10:36 am

TGS: Yeah I realise that Vice uses a pretty clever LOD system, I'm not daft

I'm just saying that if one were in a 'busy' system then it would be pretty nasty on the fps to have all those bodies around. hmmm... loads of bodies now it sounds like either a bad porno or a horror game lol.

Post by **Marvin** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 6:09 pm

Most of the drag on the system is due to having a large group of pilots doing contracts together in MP.

Zule · Post by **Zule** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 8:01 pm

I really have to do some contracts, currently getting my poor a.. handed to me a lot while fighting.