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Outerra, 3d planetary engine for seamless planet rendering from space to surface

outerra.com

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Re: Outerra, 3d planetary engine for seamless planet rendering from space to surface

#21

Post by Coincoin »

thirdsun wrote: post #15
StapleHorse wrote: post #11

Wouldn't be nice some kind of game like KSP with this engine in a MMPORG fashion? I know, keep dreaming :)

Arma 3 comes to mind. Or Euro/American Truck Simulator. That would indeed be amazing. Kind of a silly question, but having the world as a sandbox at your disposal has to be a game developer's dream and while it's technically very ambitious I have to wonder why nobody seems to be making any use of the fact that Outerra is trying to provide exactly that.

Simulating the world doesn't necessarily make a good game. People usually want simple rules in a simple environment and the ability to explore and stretch those rule as much as possible.

A random gigantic game that simulates absolutely everything doesn't let you do that.

Take KSP as an example, sure it would be pretty to use that engine, but that's it, it would just be prettier. It would'nt bring anything new. The game is already fun, not because it's realistic, but because it has much simpler orbit mechanics than reality. A model a regular human being can actually wrap his head around.

The most boring and disappointing part of KSP are the contracts. Why? Because they are random. They have no direction and no sensible progression. They don't encourage you to push the limits. They are just an endless generated generic grind.

Re: Outerra, 3d planetary engine for seamless planet rendering from space to surface

#22

Post by SigmundA »

StapleHorse wrote: post #11

Wouldn't be nice some kind of game like KSP with this engine in a MMPORG fashion? I know, keep dreaming :)

Elite: Dangerous is would be close, although orbital mechanics are non-existent, the galaxy is modeled in the correct scale and now you can land on some planets.

The older Elite games (Frontier) actually had more correct orbital mechanics and space flight, and the creator didn't think it was very fun (dogfighting at km/s speeds etc.) so went back to a more arcade like model. I tend to agree, ED is pretty fun, although it has been described as "a mile wide and an inch deep".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX_E6jCGusM

Re: Outerra, 3d planetary engine for seamless planet rendering from space to surface

#23

Post by aluhut »

david-given wrote: post #20

See also Proland, which is open source: http://proland.imag.fr/ It's a tech demo/research project, which means the code is basically continuously broken, but I did bodge it into workingness on Linux. It's impressive but doesn't quite live up to the videos --- I think they're using features that weren't working in my copy. But it is one that you can actually get your hands on and play with. Proland is by the same pers…

That Rama animation was better then the book.

Re: Outerra, 3d planetary engine for seamless planet rendering from space to surface

#26

Post by cpfohl »

Wow. That's an impressive demo.

My only comment would be that in the demos with trees give away the fact that it's computer rendered. not really sure what it is about them? (They don't sway? They're too similar? The algorithm is 'showning'?) Any one know what it is I'm noticing?

Re: Outerra, 3d planetary engine for seamless planet rendering from space to surface

#28

Post by skykooler »

StapleHorse wrote: post #11

Wouldn't be nice some kind of game like KSP with this engine in a MMPORG fashion? I know, keep dreaming :)

Not quite that, but there's a KSP mod that brings the Proland atmosphere and water shaders to KSP.

Re: Outerra, 3d planetary engine for seamless planet rendering from space to surface

#29

Post by gravypod »

gravypod wrote: post #27

If you like things like this check out SoA: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo_x9FnnXTc The devs are really smart and pulling together some amazing optimization stuff that you wouldn't really expect.

This is a better link: https://www.seedofandromeda.com/videos#

Re: Outerra, 3d planetary engine for seamless planet rendering from space to surface

#30

Post by dantillberg »

I would love to see more flight sims produced. When I was a kid, some of the best games out there were flight sims.

But ever since graphics technology caught up enough to represent complex close-up 3D world, land-based games with avatars and close-up action-packed combat have taken over.

Flight sims tended to focus a whole lot more on planning -- you'd often have a mission planner, where you'd plot out your route (and sometimes the mission/route of other aircraft as well), then you get in the plane, taxi, fly for a while, watch out for SAMs, maybe get intercepted by enemy aircraft, find & attack your target(s), then fly home and land. I guess it sounds sort of boring, but part of me wonders what kids these days (OK, I'm old, I know) are missing out on.

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