The Video Game That Maps the Galaxy

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/07/the-video-game-that-maps-the-galaxy.html

by maglevfield • 12 years ago

93 46 12 years ago

pronoiac• 12 years ago

To summarize: Elite was an amazing game that had a gigantic universe, procedurally generated from a carefully chosen and vetted random seed. There's a story on how it was made, discussed here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7892462

For the upcoming Elite: Dangerous, the maker is drawing as much as possible from current astronomy.

Mithaldu• 12 years ago

Sadly he draws exactly nothing from Astrophysics, and instead of exploring the possibilities of truly interplanetary combat aided by highly advanced computer systems; the game is populated by vehicles behaving like WW2 era planes and blimps, floating in the ether between space objects.

jimmcslim• 12 years ago

It wouldn't be the first time that accuracy has been sacrificed for playability... A space sim that fully relied on Newtonian physics would probably be quite tedious and difficult? (In fact, I think one of the previous Frontier titles was guilty of this)

That said, I do believe Elite: Dangerous does allow you to adopt an advanced mode that might be closer to what you are expecting.

teamonkey2• 12 years ago

There's a lot more to astrophysics than Newtonian mechanics. Stellar formation, element abundance, extraterrestrial geophysics, etc.

Have you played Frontier (Elite 2) at all? That seems to be what you're after. Much as I loved that game, the combat was awful. It came down to judging when to switch your autopilot on and off, because there was no way you could manually track your enemy as you passed by at 5000kph.

anigbrowl2• 12 years ago

Turns out that this is how people want to fly spaceships. Slingshot maneuvers and dumping reaction mass make for a great simulation, but not an enjoyable one for most people.

flohofwoe2• 12 years ago

I really hope they keep the Newtonian mechanics as in Elite2, and implement a 'fly-by-wire' mode on space-crafts which makes them behave somewhat like atmospheric vehicles, it's just a matter of thrusters at the right places fired at the right time, but if you turn everything off, the spacecraft should properly be affected by gravitation of nearby planets and stars.

pacaro• 12 years ago

Sadly David Braben and Ian Bell have differing accounts of who did what on the original game, to the point of legal disputes in the past...

Having met David Braben socially, I'm inclined to believe Ian Bell

Borogravia4• 12 years ago

Gee, that sure sounds like a scientific way to make such a determination.

mcmire• 12 years ago

This sounds sick... I did a bunch of research a while back about stars back when I wanted to make a friendly version of the SIMBAD database[1], but it would have been so cool to make a 3D version of our galaxy and fly around it. Probably not as glamorous as it sounds, and certainly a pretty backdrop does not a game make, but still sounds neat anyway.

[1] http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-basic?Ident=sirius&sub...

NikhilVerma• 12 years ago

If you are interested in space sim's you should check out Space Engine [1]. It's build on real data combined with procedural generation.

Here is a quote from their website:

"SpaceEngine - a free space simulation program that lets you explore the universe in three dimensions, from planet Earth to the most distant galaxies. Areas of the known universe are represented using actual astronomical data, while regions uncharted by astronomy are generated procedurally. Millions of galaxies, trillions of stars, countless planets - all available for exploration. You can land any planet, moon or asteroid and watch alien landscapes and celestial phenomena. You can even pilot starships and atmospheric shuttles."

[1] http://en.spaceengine.org/

mkesper• 12 years ago

Too bad this is not Free Software but instead regarded as trade secrets. :(

eps• 12 years ago

Why is it too bad?

flohofwoe2• 12 years ago

One of my fondest memories of Elite2 on the Amiga was to fly to our solar system, manually land on one of the Saturn moons and just sit there and watch Saturn rise over the horizon.

No other space game comes even close to the Elite series for this mix of reality and fiction, and I spent most of the 90's and 2000's to find a worthy Elite successor, but there simply was none.

maglevfield8• 12 years ago

Some examples from Frontier: Elite 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv0Tj-UGOtY&t=440

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv0Tj-UGOtY&t=346

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc9o_ldmlVs&t=72

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srlJVE50mCI&list=SP9E1E1F7AA...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK-NMyDaPAg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynXwvSqsCek

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZe26yZhCoE

Here from Frontier: First Encounters (Elite 3)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0_WewBEGew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0_WewBEGew&t=265

Here some Elite: Dangerous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygTgA_Y-m2Q?t=2m19s

Keyframe2• 12 years ago

People say EVE is close to it. I have spent two months in EVE awhile ago... even though it's close it's really not on par with Elite, Frontier: Elite 2, hell even Frontier: First Encounters (Elite 3, even though buggy). I wish I could point my finger at what is different about it, but I can't.

edit: now that I think about it, I think visual style of the game has a lot to do with it as well.

maglevfield8• 12 years ago

EVE is 3rd person roll & dice, point & click RTS style controls, with empire building and almost fully player driven world. It's totally different from Elite.

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Elite:_Dangerous_FAQ#W...

ldite2• 12 years ago

For people interested in playing Elite 2 & 3, some impressively dedicated fans have disassembled the original executables, and re-engineered them to use DirectX, high resolution models, fix gameplay bugs, etc:

http://www.eliteforever.co.uk/games.html

http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/Hires/hiresffe.html

maglevfield8• 12 years ago

I recommend the originals as those enhanced versions are either buggy or unfinished.

http://www.eliteforever.co.uk/downloads.html

Also get this JJFFE patch if you're gonna try Frontier: First Encounters, also has a Mac version.

http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/files/category/154-jjffe/

The BBS talking face videos from the CD-ROM version can be found here

http://ffeartpage.com/util/ffevid.zip

okasaki2• 12 years ago

There's an open source game inspired by Elite 2 that's coming along nicely: http://pioneerspacesim.net

harryf• 12 years ago

Supported Operating Systems
Windows 7.x
Windows 8.x

Is that really the way to launch a successful game these days? No consoles. No tablets. No smartphones.

coder233• 12 years ago

Yes. The game was Kickstarted and their goals were clear. The successful campaign shows that most gamers that like such games are on PC. I dare to say >95% of the market.

The game type also makes little sense on tablets and smartphones and the hardware requirement are too high to support them.

Porting to console is time consuming if you are not developing with Unity or equivalent.

Quote from their kickstarter: We have announced a stretch goal for a Mac version of the game. If we reach the stretch goal of £1.4 million through the Kickstarter we will release a Mac version approximately 3 months after the Windows PC release. It was reached.

maglevfield8• 12 years ago

They have their own engine that's used for many console games already and a console port of this game isn't ruled out.

pavel_lishin2• 12 years ago

Isn't developing for consoles also fairly expensive due to various licensing fees?

I guess nowadays releasing physical game media is no longer a requirement, which also makes releasing updates easier.

Aardwolf• 12 years ago

I'm more disappointed about the no Linux myself. Though probably Wine will be able to run it, it manages a lot these days.

maglevfield8• 12 years ago

Linux support might come: http://www.tuxradar.com/content/interview-david-braben-0

zephjc• 12 years ago

Tablets and smartphones? This isn't Candy Crush or Angry Birds here

The Video Game That Maps the Galaxy

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