Gaming NASA Creating MMO Video Game

[-Pv-]

Quote from the developers...

""We are not so much focused on interstellar flight and all that entails... the gameplay is actually about being in a habitat on a planetary surface and doing things like mining Helium-3 for fuel, operating a hydroponics facility to grow plants and create oxygen and operating robots and vehicles"

One of the story arcs that will take place over the course of the game's first year is the very real threat of global warming."

...
Looks like Orbiter and those who are working hard to extend it like the ISSU folks have, will secure a position for a while to come. A stable and useful mult interface for Orbiter will do a lot to increase its visibility. If nothing else, Orbiter will be a refuge from political correctness indoctrination.
-Pv-

 

[tblaxland]

"We are not so much focused on interstellar flight and all that entails...

Neither is Orbiter, just interplanetary flight for us

 

[-Pv-]

I read into his contrast statement that "interstellar" was kind of a lose word for space travel. Space themed Habitat and 1st person interiors was the focus I got from this.
-Pv-

 

[BHawthorne]

I think this is a case of MMO devs getting really damned lazy with thier proof of concept setups they used at that MMO Seminar. In the screenshots at that one site you can clearly see 3 different distinct dev clients. In all cases they were thrown together. Vistrual Heroes is the most presentable looking one, considering they went mesh scavengering. My bet is Virtual Heroes looked at the time constraints to get a working proof of concept ready in time and they went mesh hunting and started pillaging any source they could find...Orbiter being a big source. If they're smart, they'll own up to it and merely state the models were FPO until they had thier own content. They're already cought with thier hands in the cookie jar.

My guess is that 0 of those screenshot represent anything client engine or media that will be in the actual MMO. They just showed those clients as proof of concept to get thier foot in the door with NASA funding.

Makes me wonder just who would have gotten included in that MMO budget if Orbiter also presented at that Seminar. Picking the 3 devs they did, I think is going to prove to make a very fractured MMO. Each looked to have very different visions.

 

[T.Neo]

If nothing else, Orbiter will be a refuge from political correctness indoctrination.

I'm afraid you're right. When I read this:

the very real threat of global warming.

I had that utterly disappointed feeling.
Now even NASA is peddling underpowered electric cars. :dry:

 

[BHawthorne]

I'm afraid you're right. When I read this:


I had that utterly disappointed feeling.
Now even NASA is peddling underpowered electric cars. :dry:

IMHO, they'll use every cliche in the book for content. Keep in mind that this is probably going to be targeted a K-12 kids to get them excited about math and science based education to funnel them towards those academic goals. Despite what some articles say, I simply don't believe this game will be engaging to a 4-year engineering major wanting to design a rocket, capsule, habitat, etc...

Honestly, given a 5 year loose dev timeline, the people in this community could develop a far more sucessful "near future" MMO. The trick is picking a 3d engine that custom physics could be used in, a good optimized client/server protocal for the "massively-multiplayer" aspect and the ability to transit from a surface into space and back again seamlessly in the 3d engine.

 

[Ghostrider]

Now even NASA is peddling underpowered electric cars. :dry:

Yes, but they can put ROCKET ENGINES on them.

 

[Hielor]

Yes, but they can put ROCKET ENGINES on them.

Rocket exhaust is good for global warming, don'cha know?

 

[T.Neo]

I'm starting to think that this will become another wishy-washy "educational" game, etc.
If it's offwold, why bother about climate change?* Why not invent some other "danger", such as increased solar activity, budget cuts, or so on?

And one thing that actually flying the interplanetary missions in Orbiter gives one an impression of, is the scale of space, and how big it is. How hard it actually is to get to Mars.

I wish we'd be able to get more of the youth interested in Orbiter, somehow.

*I don't necessarily have a problem with the theory (or reality) of climate change, I have a problem with the common attitudes people have about it.

 

[TSPenguin]

I believe this will be a complete level below orbiter when it comes to simness.
I also believe it is most likely that you are on ground, watch the launch after saying "go there". Level loads. You are in the ISS level, or the moon level, or the mars level. With luck they'll project the other objects correctly on the sky.

Will it be fun? Yeah, should be pretty neat driving around the moon or flying through a nice station in LEO. Maybe there will be real activities that are not of the caliber "3 Steam valves, 1 is the right one....".
Graphics will be limited as well. With good reason. Making something that should be educational but requires parents to buy a new PC is quite useless IMO.

I am looking forward to it and also public copies of the email correspondence with NASA regarding the show of those pirated meshes and textures.
Until we see some gameplay footage we won't know anything about how awesome it will actualy suck.

 

[John_L]

Now, that is an MMO game I'd actually play. :speakcool:

Second Life has many fiction and non fiction places that are NASA or sci fi related. NASA itself already has a presence in Second Life, and there's a guy out there who's modeled nearly every thing you can think of that's US, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, etc...

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

About this copyright stuff:

1. I would e-mail both NASA & the game company itself.

2. I would sign the e-mail from more than 1 person. 1 person won't inspire fear, but many people, if not this whole forum, would.

3. Do the rightful owners of the material actually have a problem with it being used, so long as proper credit is given & royalities are paid? Indeed, I would be happy to offer any stuff from ISSU should they need it. I would not be fussed with royalties, but credit would be nice.

 

[Hielor]

About this copyright stuff:

1. I would e-mail both NASA & the game company itself.

No. You talk to a lawyer, and then have the lawyer contact whoever needs to be contacted.

2. I would sign the e-mail from more than 1 person. 1 person won't inspire fear, but many people, if not this whole forum, would.

No, the OF users are not the owners of the copyright, and having a rabble of random people sending off e-mails won't help the case.

3. Do the rightful owners of the material actually have a problem with it being used, so long as proper credit is given & royalities are paid? Indeed, I would be happy to offer any stuff from ISSU should they need it. I would not be fussed with royalties, but credit would be nice.

I think it's not so much whether they would have given permission to use it if asked, it's that it was used (and in publicly-released screenshots, too) without so much as asking permission.

 

[Ghostrider]

Rocket exhaust is good for global warming, don'cha know?

Especially if you're so globally behind the car.

 

[BHawthorne]

Making something that should be educational but requires parents to buy a new PC is quite useless IMO.

This has always been the case of MMOs. They seek the largest cross section of hardware for potential installed userbase. If they don't their logic is in error. Some of the more recent DX10 MMOs have fallen on their faces because of a wrong hardware focus. Just shoot for Shader 2.0 feature set and run with it.


-----Post Added-----

Rocket exhaust is good for global warming, don'cha know?

I still think global warming is a conspiracy of ice cream manufacturers. Besides I hate winter weather. :rofl:

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

*offtopic:

I still think global warming is a conspiracy of ice cream manufacturers. Besides I hate winter weather.

Of all the so-called "global warming" that's apparently going on lately, summer's here in England are getting colder & shorter each year. Pretty soon, England isn't going to have any seasons at all, they will all just merge together into perpetual dullness.

*Sorry guys, nothing like an Englishman whining about the weather to cheer evenyone up

Well, at least we've all got a steady job and a roof over our heads.
Oh, wait.....

 

[T.Neo]

Of all the so-called "global warming" that's apparently going on lately, summer's here in England are getting colder & shorter each year.

They are here too. Hmmm...

 

[Vash]

On the issue of model copyrights that everyone is so worked up about...

Has anyone taken into consideration that this game has NOT been released?

It's not uncommon for developers to use placeholder models and textures during development until their model team gets around to doing the actual models and textures that will be placed into the game for its release. If I had to take a guess, I'd say that this is exactly what they are doing right now. They had to show some results to someone, so they're using placeholder models until they get the real ones developed for release (which from what I read isn't until the end of the year for a beta).

Now if those same models are in use when the beta version is released, you would definitely have to bring some kind of action against them.

Until then though, I can't see a problem with them using the model purely for development purposes as they are not redistributing it to anyone.

 

[Hielor]

On the issue of model copyrights that everyone is so worked up about...

Has anyone taken into consideration that this game has NOT been released?

It's not uncommon for developers to use placeholder models and textures during development until their model team gets around to doing the actual models and textures that will be placed into the game for its release. If I had to take a guess, I'd say that this is exactly what they are doing right now. They had to show some results to someone, so they're using placeholder models until they get the real ones developed for release (which from what I read isn't until the end of the year for a beta).

Now if those same models are in use when the beta version is released, you would definitely have to bring some kind of action against them.

Until then though, I can't see a problem with them using the model purely for development purposes as they are not redistributing it to anyone.

They are benefiting from the use of the models (getting publicity and so on). By posting those as screen shots, they are essentially asserting that that's the progress they've made on the game so far.

Except that since those aren't their models, they haven't really done any work at all. They've just pulled the Orbiter models into a different rendering engine, a task which would take no more than a few days of work. Definitely not something they should be showing as publicity photos.

Moreover, if you're just using them as demo models, why go to the trouble of altering some of the textures on the ISS? My bet is that they were planning to use the model, change the textures, and hope no one notices.

 

[BHawthorne]

It's basically like they got a multi-million-$$$ contract off of someone else's work and just hoped they didn't get nabbed for it. It's not an uncommon practice for tech demos to pull that kind of thing, but it was really dumb on their PR department's part to actually release screen caps of any of that content. They should have played the typical NDA. It shows me just how disorganized and "amateur hour" they are about things so far. NASA is courting small time devs with no practical MMO experience. Throwing cash down the toilet for something meteocre. If this was a serious production, they should have been courting the usual top 10 dev houses, which obviously didn't occur. The only reason why Virtual Heroes is a shoe-in is because they've done previous government contracts for simulation.