Gaming Spaceway project call for testing

[Artlav]

Spaceway is a game made in the spirit of Orbiter, both similar and distinct.
The player would find himself in a familiar environment of a realistic space flight simulator.
But unlike Orbiter, there is no aim for super-precise physics and accuracy of representing real space flight.
Instead, there is a game of infinity.

One continuous experience from rocks on the ground, up into orbits, out of the solar system, across intergalactic space, all in algorithmically generated universe.
A universe that fits on a floppy disk.


That's the pompous introduction, in reality it's also an infinitely-in-development project.

Figuring it's the kind of a game this community may enjoy, this thread appeared.
Besides letting you have fun, i would also be interested in feedback on bugs and ideas.

You can get the latest version here:
orbides.1gb.ru/sway/sway-110913-pre-win32_en.zip (1.5 Mb)
orbides.1gb.ru/sway/sway-110920-pre-win32_en.zip (1.5 Mb)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/s-way/files

Screenshots over there:
http://orbides.1gb.ru/planeter-gal.php?lng=eng

Information and descriptions out here:
http://s-way.sourceforge.net

Approximate system requirements:
Multi-core CPU, 2-3Ghz
High-end ATI graphics card, HD4*** - HD5*** range
(High-end Nvidia cards may work as well, i have nothing to test it on)
Several Gb of RAM.

The controls should be close enough to Orbiter to be familiar.
You may also notice FreeOrbitMFD and LagrangeMFD by cjp, and UAP by yours truly adding to the familiarity.
The graphics is OGLAClient, so F11 features menu is here for setting graphics options.

About feedback.
Obviously, i'm interested to know what kind of bugs would there be, and how to reproduce them.
Especially on Nvidia cards.

This being an infdev, ideas of all kinds are also welcome.
Is it even playable?

The extent of documentation is a question as well - is it even sufficient to grasp enough out of it to play the game and have fun?

 

[Jarvitä]

Is the Linux version abandoned? The last build on sourceforge is from over a year ago.

 

[Izack]

Feedback: Looks beautiful, but runs extremely slowly (2-5FPS) on this machine:
Dell Inspiron 1545, Intel Core 2 Duo @2.1GHz, Intel Series 4 Express chipset, 4GB RAM, Win7.

Joystick throttle (Z-axis) does nothing. Any way to change where the throttle is read from? Also, this external numpad cannot control the vessel, although numpad / can switch between rotation and translation.

With performance this low, there's no way I can reliably test anything else. :shrug:

 

[Linguofreak]

Works fairly well under Wine on my Linux laptop (GPU is NVidia GeForce G 105M) with F11-U, otherwise doesn't get more than 2 or 3 FPS, though it seems to render fine.

As always an x86_64 Linux build would be appreciated.

As far as NVidia bugs: My (limited) experience, backed up by hearsay, is that NVidia cards tend to handle OpenGL well, while ATI cards tend to have poor performance and rendering issues. So I'd say that you'd be more likely to run into code that works on NVidia and not ATI than the other way around. Still, I'll let you know if I spot anything.

The biggest issue I've found so far is the exit dialog: On exit, please change the confirmation dialog from "Are you unsure" to "Are you sure" (and, correspondingly, flip around the actions taken on clicking "Yes" and "No"). It's really confusing to click "Yes" on an exit confirmation dialog and have the program not exit.

Also, in the vessel editor, it would be nice to have at least the "back to main menu" button labeled in English.

 

[Turbinator]

Reminds me of a half-forgotten game I used to play a very long ago, at around the same time I discovered Orbiter. I think the game ran trough DOS, but it had a graphical interface. Anyone remember this?

 

[orb]

Reminds me of a half-forgotten game I used to play a very long ago, at around the same time I discovered Orbiter. I think the game ran trough DOS, but it had a graphical interface. Anyone remember this?

Maybe "Frontier: First Encounters"?

 

[n72.75]

Reminds me of a half-forgotten game I used to play a very long ago, at around the same time I discovered Orbiter. I think the game ran trough DOS, but it had a graphical interface. Anyone remember this?

Noctis?

 

[donatelo200]

Epic i get awesome fps 35 on earth planets and 60 in space.

 

[Turbinator]

It was Noctis, [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctis"]Noctis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] thank you n72.75
I am going to have to check out Frontier: First Encounters as well.

 

[Artlav]

Is the Linux version abandoned? The last build on sourceforge is from over a year ago.

More or less, until i find an acceptable way of doing GPU generation on it.

Feedback: Looks beautiful, but runs extremely slowly (2-5FPS) on this machine:
Dell Inspiron 1545, Intel Core 2 Duo @2.1GHz, Intel Series 4 Express chipset, 4GB RAM, Win7.

Have you tried tweaking the settings?
F11-U, multilight terrain, CPU generation?
Does it stay slow, or start running faster after some time?

Joystick throttle (Z-axis) does nothing. Any way to change where the throttle is read from? Also, this external numpad cannot control the vessel, although numpad / can switch between rotation and translation.

Numlock must be off.
The joystick interface i use is pretty simple, it'll take directinput or similar to do.
Maybe.

As far as NVidia bugs: My (limited) experience, backed up by hearsay

In my experience they are different. Different enough to require accounting for quirks on both sides.
I had Nvidia before, and OGLA ran fine on it, but failed on ATI cards. Turns out Nvidia ignores and fail-silents some problems in the shaders, while ATI rigorously enforces them, and fails visibly.
Now i have ATI, and there are weird bugs from people with Nvidia every now and then.
And Intel cards are simply colorblind for some reason - grass generated yellow.
No idea what that is from.
All GPUs are different, sometimes too much.

The biggest issue I've found so far is the exit dialog: On exit

It's a tripwire, so that the player leaving virtual universe would snap out of it back into reality.

Also, in the vessel editor, it would be nice to have at least the "back to main menu" button labeled in English.

Weird. Language settings didn't propagate somewhere. To be fixed.

Reminds me of a half-forgotten game I used to play a very long ago, at around the same time I discovered Orbiter. I think the game ran trough DOS, but it had a graphical interface. Anyone remember this?

Noctis.
Hard to forget.

 

[Linguofreak]

More or less, until i find an acceptable way of doing GPU generation on it.

What problems are you running into? Glitches? Slowness?

 

[Columbia42]

Wow! I've been using Spaceway for a while but haven't checked on the development recently and suddenly this is here, this game just keeps getting better and better!

 

[Ark]

Numpad controls don't seem to work, and yes my numpad is on.

 

[diogom]

Artlav, remember that error I got with OGLA? "Error in smobs_render (i=11)" I get it too after starting up Spaceway. After the loading screen, the image is blue for a while, some shapes start to appear, and that's it, I get a CTD, with that error message.

 

[Jarvitä]

Numpad controls don't seem to work, and yes my numpad is on.

Turn it off.

 

[T.Neo]

Does it have procedurally generated alien organisms based off of physics and biology?

Looks pretty interesting. You say it's centered around extensivity more than accuracy, but what sort of accuracy (physics/spaceflight wise) can be expected?

 

[Linguofreak]

Question: What is the formula for a Stargate address? The last character seems to select a planet within a system, and the last 4 or 5 digits seem to be "x[number][planet letter]".

Basically, is there any way to randomly formulate a valid address for the purpose of exploring a random system?

Also, in the scenario with the gateships, is there an address for the ship's gates?

 

[Izack]

Have you tried tweaking the settings?
F11-U, multilight terrain, CPU generation?
Does it stay slow, or start running faster after some time?

Duh, forgot about the OGLA menu. Yes, that pulls the load off.

Numlock must be off.

Thank you, that works.

Still no dice on the joystick throttle though - I don't understand what you meant. Blame it on unsavvyness. :shrug:

 

[DarkEnergy]

The latest build is amazing. I think Spaceway is really beginning to come together. The trees and rocks add that extra touch on the planets too, though they could be a bit denser (maybe another setting/slider). The new scenario set is also more interesting.

Will we be able to place those bases from inside the game soon? It would be very neat to colonize other planets with bases and have "HQs" and such :lol:. Maybe even add an oxygen level so that you must recharge at bases, much like UCGO and UMMU 2.0. Of course, these can be left for future development.

I will try to keep you posted on bugs and/or suggestions as I get them. I did have another random error-less crash earlier in the menus, but unfortunately I am not on that computer. I will get the error log tomorrow hopefully. Other than that it runs smooth at 60 fps constantly for me on an HD Radeon 5830.

 

[Artlav]

What problems are you running into? Glitches? Slowness?

More like lack of researching the subject properly.
My normal way is to have a separate thread and generate from it.
How to make common OpenGL context for two threads?
In Windows that took much platform-dependent code, and that would have to be rewritten.
With a lack of Linux computer with necessary power this becomes a background objective.

Numpad controls don't seem to work, and yes my numpad is on.

Numlock must be off. If you type on numpad and digits appear, then it's on.

Artlav, remember that error I got with OGLA? "Error in smobs_render (i=11)" I get it too after starting up Spaceway. After the loading screen, the image is blue for a while, some shapes start to appear, and that's it, I get a CTD, with that error message.

Not really.
System specs?
Does it happen in each and every scenario?
Does it happen in "glittering stars" scenario, which is interstellar?

but what sort of accuracy (physics/spaceflight wise) can be expected?

Orbiter 2003ish, but no reentries, no gravity gradient, no docking (only entering a vessel), simple air that only acts on the airplane vessel.

Question: What is the formula for a Stargate address? The last character seems to select a planet within a system, and the last 4 or 5 digits seem to be "x[number][planet letter]".

Controls -> Stargates on the site.
http://s-way.sourceforge.net/controls_gates.php?lng=#gate
In which way is that insufficient?

Basically, is there any way to randomly formulate a valid address for the purpose of exploring a random system?

Try shortening the address and adding a few random letters.
No guaranteed way, the address is b64 encoded string like 1406386, where each digit represent the number of an octet of an octree to split into. Then the part after x is the number of star in the octet thus reached.

The part before * is the galaxy.
Don't dial intergalactic numbers randomly, that would send you into a very random place if the address is wrong.

Still no dice on the joystick throttle though - I don't understand what you meant. Blame it on unsavvyness. :shrug:

No, that was just an overcomplicated way of saying that it does not work yet.

though they could be a bit denser (maybe another setting/slider).

sway.cfg, props_ parameters.
Setting them too high would slow down all, there is no efficient LOD so far, so density is hard to achieve.

Will we be able to place those bases from inside the game soon? It would be very neat to colonize other planets with bases and have "HQs" and such :lol:. Maybe even add an oxygen level so that you must recharge at bases, much like UCGO and UMMU 2.0. Of course, these can be left for future development.

Not a technical problem, only content.
There is no large add-on base for Spaceway, so everything have to be patiently made together by myself.
What kind of building would make sense?
Refuelling derric?
A small base with pads?

UCGO-style inflatable bases?

I did have another random error-less crash earlier in the menus, but unfortunately I am not on that computer.

If it's in the older version, then it may be one of the fixed bugs. Verifying would be a good idea.