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Science of the Spheres - development

NovaSilisko

By NovaSilisko
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Whirligig Girl

Whirligig Girl

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Unfortunately, while Quality Stuff, your fanfiction alas takes place in an abandoned timeline. The MEA is no longer a government organization but an underground (metaphorically, it's still stuck in a warehouse in Utah) "guerrilla research" organization, as the military potential of the portal technology rules out it becoming known to any government. Protagonist's name is still up for debate, name and face may be customizable.

I don't think I mentioned it being government. And I kind of had to use Pistachio as it was the only name known at all.

Is the complex still not known as "MEA?"

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NovaSilisko

NovaSilisko

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I don't think I mentioned it being government. And I kind of had to use Pistachio as it was the only name known at all.

Is the complex still not known as "MEA?"

Yeah, that much is still true. Externally it's referred to as the Mulligan-Edwards Agriculture Chemical Experimentation Facility (with lots of big scary biohazard and chemical spill warning signs), the only facility of the shell company known as Mulligan-Edwards Agriculture. So yeah, I guess you're still mostly right.

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Whirligig Girl

Whirligig Girl

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Yeah, that much is still true. Externally it's referred to as the Mulligan-Edwards Agriculture Chemical Experimentation Facility (with lots of big scary biohazard and chemical spill warning signs), the only facility of the shell company known as Mulligan-Edwards Agriculture. So yeah, I guess you're still mostly right.

Hmmm. Mulligan-Edwards. Dr. Tony Mulligan Pistachio perhaps? Anyway I really do like the name Tony Pistachio. I think it should be the name of a character, be he playable or not.

EDIT:

It just occured to me that there might be regions of space in-between galaxies that could form real, full scale planets due to the fact that there would be no super-high gravity gradient. You said that matter obeys the same gravitational attraction it does in our universe, so that's no obstacle. Could there be real planets? Even stars?

Edited by GregroxMun
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NovaSilisko

NovaSilisko

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What is that supposed to mean?

I liked this game a lot, the controls were...interesting, but fun nonetheless. Whats happened to is since like, last summer? Any updates or is it dead or something?

Alright, full transparency mode on.

The present situation is that I don't really have a whole lot to do, or show. There are multiple systems that need to be put into place before I can really jump in and start hammering away at stuff, and the thing is, they're systems well outside my capability, and so are the exclusive domain of r4m0n. Now, unfortunately, he doesn't have very much free time lately owing to work, so it's rather slow going. I, on the other hand, have a ridiculous surplus of free time (but, as I said, can only do so much for sots before stuff like physics/coexisting world spaces/etc are set up) and so have been putting my creative efforts the past week or so into another, smaller project, which you should hear about soon.

The current system being worked in particular by him is the physics engine. There are two options - one, integrate Bullet with Unreal. This has the advantage that it's nice and robust as previous tests have found, but we'd have to still fix some problems that never were resolved in the unity version (broken concave colliders and buggy convex colliders). Option two is, given that PhysX recently went open source (at least for Unreal?), it's now 100% capable of being modified to support double precision. This is the current course of action, and has the advantage that we already know the stuff works, concave meshes in particular are very stable as tests with the floating point version in Unreal have proven. Basic double implementation in it has already been done by r4m0n thus far, also.

After this will come effectively a combination of Unity's layering system and Bullet's ability to have multiple physics worlds. We have the advantage here of only needing two individual worlds, though might make a system allowing arbitrary numbers, as that's just generally useful anyway.

Then things get fun. Then we can start connecting the HQ scene and the game scene up as it should be, and start making the editor, which still needs a few details worked out so far. In particular, the issue of immersion is important here. Full immersion would mean simulating the construction of ships piece by piece, in real time, which is not only boring but a nightmare to actually create. On the other end of the spectrum is something more like KSP, where you're just presented with total freedom, a big list of parts and engines and materials and all that, then you save your craft and go, and it's ready to fly. Or perhaps an optional construction time mechanic, where your workers descend upon the assembly rack with welding equipment and piece together your designed ship over the course of an hour or so, which would be made easier with a "skip time" mechanic.

Ideally some sort of middle ground can be found. If this game were set in the 1980s, there could be an early CAD software that you design your ships with before having them built. But this is the 1970s, and it's very iffy to say there's a full 3d design package running on that level of tech. So... yeah, there are still a few things to work out on that front.

Don't call it dead, though. I'm too damn stubborn to let that happen.

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Whirligig Girl

Whirligig Girl

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Ideally some sort of middle ground can be found. If this game were set in the 1980s, there could be an early CAD software that you design your ships with before having them built. But this is the 1970s, and it's very iffy to say there's a full 3d design package running on that level of tech. So... yeah, there are still a few things to work out on that front.

Don't call it dead, though. I'm too damn stubborn to let that happen.

How about an editor scene based on a blueprints background or something. You build it in 3D, but it kind of looks like a blueprint of some kind, then your engineers build it. I really like the idea of having to actually do things like carrying around tanks of Hydrazine, so you could do something like having to have pieces moved to the construction place, where you use the parts available to construct your craft.

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Endersmens

Endersmens

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Alright, full transparency mode on.

The present situation is that I don't really have a whole lot to do, or show. There are multiple systems that need to be put into place before I can really jump in and start hammering away at stuff, and the thing is, they're systems well outside my capability, and so are the exclusive domain of r4m0n. Now, unfortunately, he doesn't have very much free time lately owing to work, so it's rather slow going. I, on the other hand, have a ridiculous surplus of free time (but, as I said, can only do so much for sots before stuff like physics/coexisting world spaces/etc are set up) and so have been putting my creative efforts the past week or so into another, smaller project, which you should hear about soon.

The current system being worked in particular by him is the physics engine. There are two options - one, integrate Bullet with Unreal. This has the advantage that it's nice and robust as previous tests have found, but we'd have to still fix some problems that never were resolved in the unity version (broken concave colliders and buggy convex colliders). Option two is, given that PhysX recently went open source (at least for Unreal?), it's now 100% capable of being modified to support double precision. This is the current course of action, and has the advantage that we already know the stuff works, concave meshes in particular are very stable as tests with the floating point version in Unreal have proven. Basic double implementation in it has already been done by r4m0n thus far, also.

After this will come effectively a combination of Unity's layering system and Bullet's ability to have multiple physics worlds. We have the advantage here of only needing two individual worlds, though might make a system allowing arbitrary numbers, as that's just generally useful anyway.

Then things get fun. Then we can start connecting the HQ scene and the game scene up as it should be, and start making the editor, which still needs a few details worked out so far. In particular, the issue of immersion is important here. Full immersion would mean simulating the construction of ships piece by piece, in real time, which is not only boring but a nightmare to actually create. On the other end of the spectrum is something more like KSP, where you're just presented with total freedom, a big list of parts and engines and materials and all that, then you save your craft and go, and it's ready to fly. Or perhaps an optional construction time mechanic, where your workers descend upon the assembly rack with welding equipment and piece together your designed ship over the course of an hour or so, which would be made easier with a "skip time" mechanic.

Ideally some sort of middle ground can be found. If this game were set in the 1980s, there could be an early CAD software that you design your ships with before having them built. But this is the 1970s, and it's very iffy to say there's a full 3d design package running on that level of tech. So... yeah, there are still a few things to work out on that front.

Wow, thanks for the reply.

Don't call it dead, though. I'm too damn stubborn to let that happen.

And I'm sorry, I didn't really mean it was dead, I was asking if it was or not. I don't doubt you'll pull it through. It sounds like its going to be a very fun game when you get through with it. :)

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pincushionman

pincushionman

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…If this game were set in the 1980s, there could be an early CAD software that you design your ships with before having them built. But this is the 1970s, and it's very iffy to say there's a full 3d design package running on that level of tech…

According to Wikipedia, CAD software was in its infancy as early as the 1940's, and Pierre Bezier (yes, that guy) was working on 3D CAD software in the mid '60's. So a CAD-looking editor isn't out of the question here; take Wikipedia dates with a grain of salt, but it's probably accurate enough for what you're trying to create. Plus you're not here to accurately represent '70's science and tech, you're here to represent mad science! FOR SCIENCE, GENTLEMEN!

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gmpd2000

gmpd2000

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According to Wikipedia, CAD software was in its infancy as early as the 1940's, and Pierre Bezier (yes, that guy) was working on 3D CAD software in the mid '60's. So a CAD-looking editor isn't out of the question here; take Wikipedia dates with a grain of salt, but it's probably accurate enough for what you're trying to create. Plus you're not here to accurately represent '70's science and tech, you're here to represent mad science! FOR SCIENCE, GENTLEMEN!

Also, let's face it. Was there really a multiversal launch catapult in the '70's?

This is mad science!, and I love it!

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  • 3 weeks later...
NovaSilisko

NovaSilisko

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Any news on how it is going?

Mm. r4m0n has had lots of work lately, so I won't hide that it's been glacial. I've been taking a diversion from game dev in general to focus on music again, and have also taken up writing, which I wish I had done sooner.

Don't worry. We'll get back to it before long.

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gmpd2000

gmpd2000

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I looked at Nova's +Rep-O-meter, and it says "NovaSilisko is the reason many space programs are successful. That got me thinking because I was in this thread. Does the MEA Technically count as a space program?

If you count the other universe as "space", then yes.

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tkw

tkw

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I realize that you're excited for SotS like many others, but please try to not spam the thread. It makes it difficult for others to be heard. If you need to post something and already have a post, edit that post and add the new stuff at the bottom until someone else has had their turn.

Thank you.

i think u r deed

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