New space sim on the block? Perhaps ...

[Flixxbeatz]

My bet is that they've stalled because their unrealistic goals have been thwarted by a big dose of reality ...

That's what you'll get if you won't consider applying Space Compression.

Also, a dose of karma. Probably.

While other space simulator apps are limited to a few minutes of landing the shuttle or let you fly cartoon-ish spacecrafts in a fictitious tiny universe with unrealistic physics...

Definitely an insult directed to Kerbal Space Program.

[asmi]

Well, if god's physic engine works as intended, so will their project.

Seriously, I think they're overestimating what they can do with an iPad by far.

If you'll read the description, you'll see that building vessels is only on PC

[Khrissetti]

I don't see what this one is doing any differently to orbiter, apart from cocking snooks to the fanbases of both of the most popular space-sims out there...

[stupid_chris]

If you'll read the description, you'll see that building vessels is only on PC

Building a ship is probably the less CPU intensive part of the game. No one crashes in the VAB in KSP.

[Tw1]

No one crashes in the VAB in KSP.

Well, before I upgraded my first laptop to 8GB RAM....

[stupid_chris]

Well, before I upgraded my first laptop to 8GB RAM....

(Shhhh, you do not speak of such things)

[ManaaniWanderer]

Building a ship is probably the less CPU intensive part of the game. No one crashes in the VAB in KSP.

Well, before I upgraded my first laptop to 8GB RAM....

Ok, so almost no one crashes in the VAB.

[dharak1]

That's what you'll get if you won't consider applying Space Compression.

That is incorrect the game is scaled down by 10.6. Making Kerbin 600km and Jool is 10 times the size of kerbin making it 6000km. Just didn't want people to get confused.

[Flixxbeatz]

That is incorrect the game is scaled down by 10.6. Making Kerbin 600km and Jool is 10 times the size of kerbin making it 6000km. Just didn't want people to get confused.

But that doesn't change the fact that the game has been scaled down to prevent it from being too boring due to the massive distances and sizes of the planets involved and to prevent our computer from doing huge calculations, which was the main point of my post.

Touche.

[Mr Shifty]

It is really hard to believe this is for real. The company Brixton Dynamics has released exactly one app ever: an off-line GPS map app called Overland. The others on their website are "coming soon" or "prototype". The developer posts to the forums on the Space Simulator website, and then locks down the topics. There are a couple times that users have been able to post replies asking for more info, which have been ignored, then locked. The forum index page says there are hundreds of posts, but the actual forum pages show about 15. The twitter account for the project has been only been active since April. And the project scope, screenshots, videos, etc all seem too good to be true. One of the facebook posts says they're going to crowdsource funding to complete the project. I'd be wary.

[llamatoes]

I call shenanigans. The cream of the iOS space sim where this one gravity assist thing, space agency (where you build rockets out of real stages, so I could have a black arrow first stage, a proton second stage etc) and has some of the worst knowledge of orbital manuvers ever.) then up have the x-plane lunar lander, despite ironically being able to do an Apollo-esque mission to Duna, I could not for the life of me complete that. I blame ios controls.

Again, frankly, my iPad 1 would most probably take one look at that and burst into flames, considering drop7 and tetris make it hot.

And the wiring. I'd rather not thank you. Yes, it would be cool to build a rocket from the ground up. But I would rather it was KSP but larger and with more realistic parts than KSP.

In conclusion: when it comes out and if it looks good by it. But don't buy it on the app store, as the AppStore is stupidly unstable, iOS gaming is completely useless and KSP is the best we have.

[stupid_chris]

That is incorrect the game is scaled down by 10.6. Making Kerbin 600km and Jool is 10 times the size of kerbin making it 6000km. Just didn't want people to get confused.

You are confusing diameter and radius my friend. Kerbin is 600km in radius, but 1200km in diameter as claimed above, and Jool is 6000km in radius, but 12000km in diameter, which is pretty much the same diameter as Earth

[Flymetothemun]

I think everybody's taking the remark below too personally:

let you fly cartoon-ish spacecrafts in a fictitious tiny universe with unrealistic physics

Ever played Asteroids?

[NovaSilisko]

or let you fly cartoon-ish spacecrafts in a fictitious tiny universe with unrealistic physics,

I can't...

That's just low. If it weren't for the "tiny" part I wouldn't think as much of it but considering every other day someone starts complaining about the size of planets in KSP, there is no way that is not a direct attack.

[stupid_chris]

Well you can tell yourself you are at least part of a commercially successful game that isn't even near from the date of a full release, when they seem closer to a massive iPad meltdown.

[NovaSilisko]

The ISS model shown in this screenshot is nearly identical to the one in orbiter, just mirrored.

[RedDwarfIV]

I can't...

That's just low. If it weren't for the "tiny" part I wouldn't think as much of it but considering every other day someone starts complaining about the size of planets in KSP, there is no way that is not a direct attack.

Exactly. And unrealistic how? Because planets have spheres of influences [since the n-body problem is a difficult thing] and there's no reentry heat feature yet? The fact that planets are unrealistically massive for their size due to neccesary space compression? I can't think on one physics problem in KSP that isn't justified in some way. And the rockets are only cartoonish if you deliberately design them cartoonishly. Most of the more serious KSP players don't build the sort of contraptions that we see in KSP's webcomic, It's Hardly Rocket Science*. I get the feeling that whoever the devs of that game are, they haven't played/looked at KSP since 0.15.

*(this is not a dig at IHRS. I'm just saying that the rockets in IHRS are drawn the way they are to ellicit humour in the reader. It's fine.)

[Kerbface]

This company seems both highly unproffessional and highly suspect.

[Sid]

Something about that game makes me very, very suspicious, but I'll keep my thoughts to myself.

By he way - if anyone ever wants to 'fly' Apollo using the AGC software you can do that right now for free with a copy of Orbiter and the latest beta version of NASSP.

As for KSP being 'unrealistic' I couldn't care less. I have been interested in astronomy, spaceflight and rocketry for nearly 40 years and have a library of books on the subject which runs into a couple of hundred volumes. I'm a hardcore geek really. But KSP gets the basics correct, and it's FUN. I like having fun.

[Nikolai]

But that doesn't change the fact that the game has been scaled down to prevent it from being too boring due to the massive distances and sizes of the planets involved and to prevent our computer from doing huge calculations, which was the main point of my post.

Two words: Desert. Bus.

Sometimes, reality is appropriate to sacrifice for gameplay.

Edited July 19, 2013 by Nikolai
Forgot to close QUOTE tag

[dionbouton]

hey ! . greetings .

We would like to make a few points regarding the development of Space simulator.

1 we are not mocking in any way the players of any other simulation . We just point out that we have achieved full simulation realism , in a 1 to 1 scale. Other "sims" coulnt achieve that -even using monstruous ammounts of CPU- . Without going to technical details , we understand that our main selling point is a full scale solar system. (*not that much of the planet's radius , but the actual scale of the whole system . ) . It is our understanding that the inability to get a full scale system led to ficticious worlds ( otherwise the scale issue would have been grosly obvious ), hence the toy-universe feeling of some other games.

2 . The reference of "just landing the shuttle , etc " was in no way refering to Orbiter - a simulation that we -at brixton dynamics - respect the most . It was refering to some ipad app that marketed as a spacesim , is just a gliding flight simulator that just allows you to land the shuttle . I do insist on our greatest respect and admiration for Orbiter 2010.

3. Yep .It does run on iPads 2,3,4 ( and pc , mac ,etc) . By using a particular physics library ( using double precision vectors ) , and by some clever optimization we have achieved n-body simulation at a fantastic frame rates. The ships are indeed affected from every element in the solar system. Doing this , while rendering planets at full-res ( mainly Earth ,Mars, Moon) , with some exotic shaders for added realism. This goes flat-out at 30f.p.s in a iPad2 , 40fps on a ipad4. And in a PC is so fast that we can simply not tell how many fps.

4 It is programmed in Unity3D 4.0 using Simvex Vehicle dynamics library double float (developed by a joint group of programmers - from ex-Sony ex-Rockstar ported to Unity3D -I was one of the developers of that library -) .

http://www.simvex.com/usermanual/html/d7/d15/_vehicles.html

We don't want to compete with Orbiter. We are focusing on realism , but on handheld devices. Also we are implementing the vehicle design mode (not sure if orbiter 's got one ) , and try to make it a "closed" package , that allows the player to play -say- apollo missions etc without needing to download 3 plugins here and 2 addons there. All the future addons ( we got under way the "soviet missions" and "mars" ) are self-contained , no need to fiddle with files , installs , etc..

We are obviously no competting with KSC , as we are focused most towards the realisitic side of the simulations, and portable devices. Also , on the portable version (ipad , android, etc ) we won't have the spacecraft design tool .

Other main difference is the fact that -being focused towards the ipad- all controls are touch-controls , and the photorealistic--ish cockpits have all controls touchable and operable .The lack of mouse in ipad/androids have led us to find new UI solutions .

The web is dodgy ? . Well , agreed . We really have no time left for those details. And the forum has been spammed to destruction from Russia -really cant figure why- . Pity that you are looking at those outdated screenshots ,as they don't reflect the current state of the project .

0k . Thanks dudes for your eskepticism about the tecnnical feasability of our project, as that reasures that we are doing something special . We are planning the Kickstarter funding campaign ( to adquire the final 3D models, menu development, etc.. and tidying things up ) in a couple months , and hopefully this will be ready to be downloaded iOS /PC/Mac around end of this year.

and excuse my poor English .

[Sid]

Got any Mascons on the moon ?

[dionbouton]

Got any Mascons on the moon ?

There are . We created them for the "Luna" missions (Soviet expansion pck) . In all fairness not really needed. .Orbits around the moon are intrinsically unstable -even without mascons- ( gravity too weak , and too close to the earth ) . However -to be honest- those mascons are pretty much random ( not based on any real data ) . Just simply made 4 gravityDRigidbodies of 1/4th of the total mass of the moon , placed slightly off-center . Feels ok .

These are sshots from the newer retina display( iPad3 & iPad4 )

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeers

[Ming]

hey ! . greetings ... We would like to make a few points regarding the development of Space simulator ...

Are you an official spokesperson for "Space Simulator"? I'm asking this because your forum profile is pretty much void of any useful information. If you're acting in an official capacity then how can you be contacted?

Pity that you are looking at those outdated screenshots ,as they don't reflect the current state of the project .

Where can we see more recent screenshots?

Edited July 20, 2013 by Ming

[asmi]

hey ! . greetings .

Is there any demo/alpha/whatever version for PC to check out? As I've said before, I sincerely wish you a success. If your game ever see the daylight, I'll be on the first row to check it out!