Virtual Universe

[dezek]

Some of you have maybe read about my project in the "What are you working on" threads. I managed to actually complete the project yesterday and I though that I could share it here, at least some of you would enjoy trying it.
Virtual Universe is the name I gave the project when I first started it, I've been working on this project since August last year but I can't say I've been programming day and night since then, I had a couple of big breaks and also a lot of paperwork as this is a schoolproject. Now I only have a huge report to write...

Here's some screenshots:
[img]http://facepalm.se/img/final/planet2_small.png[/img]
[img]http://facepalm.se/img/final/planet_small.png[/img]

Keys:
W - Camera moves forward
A - Camera moves left
S - Camera moves backward
D - Camera moves right
Q - Camera rolls left
E - Camera rolls right
R - Camera stops
Shift - Boosts the camera movement
F2 - Toggles the GUI

There's also a bunch of info about the interface in the Readme.txt but I guess most of you are just going to toy around with everything until you understand what it does.

Here's the download:
[url=http://facepalm.se/MooxSpace_r16.rar]Mirror #1[/url] ( Original )
[url=www.benjojo.co.uk/fp/MooxSpace_r16.rar]Mirror #2[/url] This one is most likely faster ( Thanks to benjojo )
[url=http://open.deviant-core.net/ARCHIVES/mirror/MooxSpace_r16.rar]Mirror #3[/url] ( Thanks <ToD> Aaron )
md5 sum: 96a9a343f1fb979b690fdb421df3c4fa

Also, I'm thinking about releasing the source code to the planet rendering part, I've done a lot of commenting and I'm thinking it could be useful for some people. But now I'm planning on taking a short break from programming so I'm going to think more about it later.

[benjojo]

Downloading. Going to give you feedback when done. Will that help with the school project?

[leontodd]

Great

[dezek]

[QUOTE=benjojo;20956609]Downloading. Going to give you feedback when done. Will that help with the school project?[/QUOTE]

This is actually the final product of my project so it wont help with the school project but feedback is always good and there's a big chance I will use this as a base for my next project.

[benjojo]

[url]www.benjojo.co.uk/fp/MooxSpace_r16.rar[/url]

[yngndrw]

A little feedback: The "first time" message for me is messed up - It doesn't fit in the box. This was on 800x600 as I forgot to change it, but seeming as it's the default resolution I thought I'd mention it.

Looks very nice.

[dezek]

Oh, I had a bunch of faults like that and I thought I fixed them all. Thanks for mentioning it (again :v:)

[benjojo]

Im Going to review this in FPSB' Style:

Pros:
Just Lovely
Pretty
Small
Not Too Straining On GFX card
Works Well
Have Not Had an Crash Yet

Cons:
Menus are not toggle able
Some Menus are unreadable at low res (1024X768)

Improvements:

Add Toggle-able Menu's
Make Screen saver
Add Stop Button (An button that stops you where you are.)

[Bellminator]

Nice. The continents could look a bit more realistic but it seems your going for the cartoonish look anyways. Good job!

[bios_hazard]

You should upload this to a torrent tracker, see how many people play with it.

[Spacetech]

This looks pretty awesome. Nice job.

[turb_]

[img]http://imgkk.com/i/vdsa.png[/img]

[PyromanDan]

[QUOTE=turb_;20969532][img]http://imgkk.com/i/vdsa.png[/img][/QUOTE]

I have the same error :sigh:
Fyi I dont know about turb but Im on 32 bit XP

I downloaded and tried both mirrors and neither exe works.

EDIT I have two errors, and both are different from his.

[img]http://filesmelt.com/dl/error6.PNG[/img]

Dx9? well fuck. DirectX9 Nvidia 9800Gt in single SLi here.

[turb_]

Update drivers and or DirectX

[PyromanDan]

[QUOTE=turb_;20969715]Update drivers and or DirectX[/QUOTE]

Drivers are newest beta, 197.13
I guess Ill try to update directX.

EDIT

OH GOD THIS IS SO COOL OH WOW DUDE I LOVE YOU THIS IS SO AWESOME IF YOU DONT GET A GODDAMN A+++++ I WILL KILL YOUR TEACHER.

[MGinshe]

I've sorta been hanging round the Programming sub-forum for a while, not posting, but this definitely deserves it :P

Its a really nice idea =)

[Ortzinator]

Did you do the noise yourself or use a library? And how did you do the textures on different areas?

[Blynx6]

[QUOTE=Ortzinator;20970104]Did you do the noise yourself or use a library? And how did you do the textures on different areas?[/QUOTE]
"libnoise.dll" You tell me.

[url]http://libnoise.sourceforge.net/[/url]
I assume that's it.

[dezek]

I was first using my own noise with a ridged multifractal but after a while I changed to libnoise. It's much nicer, especially when you combine different types of modules. It's maybe a bit slower but it's definitely worth it.

[QUOTE=turb_;20969532][img]http://imgkk.com/i/vdsa.png[/img][/QUOTE]
I did get that error myself one time but I just tried to start the program again and it worked.

[QUOTE=benjojo;20957703]Im Going to review this in FPSB' Style:

Pros:
Just Lovely
Pretty
Small
Not Too Straining On GFX card
Works Well
Have Not Had an Crash Yet

Cons:
Menus are not toggle able
Some Menus are unreadable at low res (1024X768)

Improvements:

Add Toggle-able Menu's
Make Screen saver
Add Stop Button (An button that stops you where you are.)[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the feedback. There actually is a stop button, just press R. With toggleable menus I guess you want to show/hide them, to do that you just press F2.

[mastersrp]

Wow. That was fucking amazing! Release that source code :D

[Ortzinator]

[QUOTE=dezek;20971701]I was first using my own noise with a ridged multifractal but after a while I changed to libnoise. It's much nicer, especially when you combine different types of modules. It's maybe a bit slower but it's definitely worth it.

I did get that error myself one time but I just tried to start the program again and it worked.

Thanks for the feedback. There actually is a stop button, just press R. With toggleable menus I guess you want to show/hide them, to do that you just press F2.[/QUOTE]

Yeah I use an XNA port of libnoise, it's nice. How do you do textures instead of just a solid color gradient?

[dezek]

I use the same technique as in [url=http://www.infinity-universe.com/]Infinity[/url] (If you ever heard of it).
I have a big texture where I store a bunch of small texture tiles. Then the shader selects the tile depending on the height and slope of the terrain.

Here's a journal entry by the creator of Infinity where he's describing how the texturing works: [url]http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/mod/journal/journal.asp?jn=263350&reply_id=3198944[/url]

[Ortzinator]

[QUOTE=dezek;20974519]I use the same technique as in [url=http://www.infinity-universe.com/]Infinity[/url] (If you ever heard of it).
I have a big texture where I store a bunch of small texture tiles. Then the shader selects the tile depending on the height and slope of the terrain.

Here's a journal entry by the creator of Infinity where he's describing how the texturing works: [url]http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/mod/journal/journal.asp?jn=263350&reply_id=3198944[/url][/QUOTE]

Cool, thanks.

[voodooattack]

Awesome work. =)

I'm a bit curious as to which scene manager did you use with Ogre though; or did you write a custom one from scratch?

[dezek]

I'm just using the default one, I have one scenenode for each planet and the planet itself is just
a MovableObject attached to the node. Then I let the object itself take care of the LOD and stuff like that.

[benjojo]

Am I the only one who thinks this will make an epic Screensaver?

[voodooattack]

Oh wow, It's a good thing it's running at this speed then; I sort of wonder about scalability though, so here's what I think:

For anything more complex (think: whole solar systems with asteroid belts and planets with stuff on them), I'd recommend writing your own specialised scene manager, one that implements some sort of volumetric paging system, giving it the ability to handle the "space > atmosphere" transitions in a specialised/optimised manner.

Also, have you considered using [url= http://www.cognigraph.com/ROAM_homepage/]this approach[/url] for geometry optimisation? I believe it to be a much better alternative to LOD levels.

[BmB]

Cool, looks kinda like Infinity.

[turb_]

[QUOTE=turb_;20969532][img]http://imgkk.com/i/vdsa.png[/img][/QUOTE]

[b]Fixed![/b]

I ran it in Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode

[yngndrw]

[QUOTE=voodooattack;20980534]Also, have you considered using [url= http://www.cognigraph.com/ROAM_homepage/]this approach[/url] for geometry optimisation? I believe it to be a much better alternative to LOD levels.[/QUOTE]
That reminds me of this:
[url]http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=142[/url]

I did an implementation of this, but found that the building of the "quad tree" (Not technically a quad tree, but it's a name that he uses and it kind of works.) is quite slow.