IOS/Android Space Sim In Development

[Mr Shifty]

Hi dionbouton,

Just wanted to say thanks for stopping by the forums here! I don't have an iDevice, but I'm hoping your sim takes off enough that it makes sense to port to Android. As I said above, I was pretty skeptical of your project until I played F-Sim and now I'm very interested to see what you come up with. Best wishes to you and your team and good luck!

[dionbouton]

hey ! , Thanks for your encouargement! .

Well ,this being developed on Unity ,publishing for Android is just one button click away ! . Good thing of Unity3D is that you can publish for everything . Bad thing is horrendously slooooow.., pretty much unacceptably slow for a complex project. So we had to code -by hand- the physics engine , the 3D OpenGL render, pretty much everything .

Good news is that we got it running on Android too.

We would like to concentrate on iOS ,being generally speaking the more profitable OS - , but of course we plan to release Space-Simulator for every conceivable platform ! It would be silly not to

Anything running ICS 4.0 and OGL2.0 would do , really.

-also , a plugin for OculusRift is on the way -

This month we plan to get ready the video and the Kickstarter presentatation pitch . We are recording quite a cool set of videos (all directly from a mobile device ) that -we hope- Its going to change people's impression on what's possible and what's not on mobile devices.

[llamatoes]

I'm not sure still...

Then again... I don't know the first thing about iOS development, frankly an iPad, if presented with KSP would probably explode. If it had to do that on 10x scale, then It would burn up.

I don't know if having big computers and using cloud gaming to get it to work is something iOS lets you do is a thing, but I probably will buy this if/when it comes out on PC.

EDIT: where about in London are you guys based?

EDIT EDIT: After watching the gaming video, I am seriously not going to get it on iOS, trying to do the precise RCS blips with a touchscreen is Nigh-on impossible, not to bash you guys, but there was an x-plane shuttle simulator, which was nigh on impossible due to the controls being useless. Although, it looks seriously interesting. Keep up the good work.

Edited September 13, 2013 by llamatoes

[dionbouton]

hey ,, thanks for your feedback .

we are in Brixton , South London.

Well , regarding controls .. we have been fiddling with it for a while . Basicly , there are 3 ways to control the spacecraft(s).

1->Via programs on the AGC / Shuttle computer l (basically , as they did , It requires quite a bit of studying the apollo computer , but ... alas )

2->We also have a on-Screen overlay that allows you the 6 mayor orbital atttitude changes ( prograde, retrog ,normal+ , normal- , hover , level ) Att-Hold ,etc.. so -unless you require a very exotic attitude maneouver , It can be simply done by pressing the button . That button can be via OSD , or tapping the actual button on the actual panel

3->Of course , we present the player with a very large, convenient and sensible virtual joystick . So -believe me- controlling -say- the landing of the shuttle , or the transposition ,docking and rotation of the Apollo CM is quite easy .Indeed ,easier that with keys/mouse. I ll try to upload some screenshots/video of the OSD controls.. Its actually quite easy.

cheeeeeeeeeeers

Francisco Javier Carrion

www.brixtondynamics.co.uk

[Sesni]

Wait, you have time warp? I thought it was at realistic speeds!

[NASAFanboy]

I think it's referring to Space Agency when it talks about the cartoonish things...

• KSP is not for mobile

• Our physics are realistic

[dionbouton]

(you can have 1 to 1 scale worlds ,with real velocities , etc.. but still have time compression,etc ) as in Orbiter .

Of course that "tiny universe , and cartoony 2D graphics I was referring to some app out there that it looks ... well , cartoony -

Also , I would say that KSP physics are consistent , but not realistic (as in Simulation realistic ). The main issue is that KSP is using the default bundled physics library in Unity3D . While being ok for most applications, -the library - really struggles to keep up with the huge distances and sizes involved in a solar system. In particular ,the use of "floats" as opposed to "doubles" is what mainly restricts the resolution of KSP solar system. Also , the same applies for the renderer.

Note that I said "resolution" and not size . Size is a relative term (after all , Kerbals could be a mile high tall each ) , planets , a million miles ,etc.. . The problems is that the difference between the tinyest dimensional size ( 0.00001 in a float) , and the maximum consistent ( approx 1000000.0 ) in a float , reduces the <resolution> of the world. In other words , the maximum distances won't be much more than 1000000000 times the smaller distance , or the smaller rendered detail.

Hence , the planets ,. are small. Very small. As they are fictional is impossible to tell how small ,but in terms of "rocket lenghs" , It would seem they are 1 to 100 scale ( I read 1 to 10 somewhere ) . ~Probabbly even more.

Same as distances. Earth's moon is at around ~50.000 earth radius of distance. That would be simply impossible with Unity3D's free physics engine. Hence the planets in KSP seems to be much much closer , at 1000's radius distance

That making the whole system much more compact . The gravity wells ,would be so much intersecting that to allow Unity3D physics solver to breath , only a single gravity well seems to be computed at a time ( therefore no lagrange points, or gravity assitss etc )

Then , the more confusing issue. At those tiny (relative ) distances, the gravity would be either very very very small ( bascially It shouldnt be gravity at all for objects that small ) , but that would make orbits very large -and totally unplayable- . So the only way to keep with this "space compression" is to increase gravity constant to an arbitrary value , that keeps the whole stuff's orbits within playable orbital periods , that bringing a new set of issues with atmosphere , planet's rotation vs translation ,vs absolute velocity,etc

So , ok, KSP has consistant ( as in using a law that doesnt change ) physics . But they are not correct in the way -say- Orbiter has it correct . Either everything is 100 times smaller , gravity is 100 times larger , and planets are situated 100 times closer , of time scale is 100 times .

In any case the realism/scale issues are pretty much irrelevant- as the final result is definitely most playable and enjoyable . From a gameplay point of view , real physics/scales/magnitudes make for a totally unplayable space simulation ( other than using computers, predefined paths,etc ,as in Orbiter )

BtW , we are recruiting a few betatesters , so if anyone is interested to testflight a few apollo / shuttle / Mars missions ..and has an iPad or a Android 4.0 tablet ... send us a mail .. to testing @ brixtondynamics.co.uk

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeers