Space Unlimited PC Game

Space Unlimited Due To Start Again!

2009-10-16T19:23:00.002+01:00

Well I`m very glad to say that after taking a year out to work on Xbox360 Indie games (see www.RetroCoders.co.uk ). Space Unlimited is due to start again this December!!!

This time we will be working on making it an Xbox360 Indie game instead of PC only. We have new team members and new ideas so it should be really interesting to see it to completion ( this time :-) )

You Wanted Explosions!!!

2008-10-15T22:49:00.002+01:00

New Specular and Normal Maps for Escourt Ship

2008-10-02T23:41:00.002+01:00

Above is the Escourt ship, sporting its new Specular Highlights and Normal Map Data.
With the all new Rift behind in the distance!

Download the latest DEMO files here...
http://www.sendspace.com/file/2it7f1
Head on over to the Forums at www.SpaceUnlimitedGame.com for help installing the Demo files.

The Rift Changes Form!

2008-09-29T23:50:00.001+01:00

The Rift needed to be more dominating and I think everyone will agree it is now that!

The Rift and Campaigns!

2008-09-23T00:02:00.001+01:00

Finally we get to start programming the Great Rift and the opening campaign battle!
100 Hive ships versus 50 Earth forces ships!

New Ship Class - Heavy Transport!

2008-08-18T22:47:00.002+01:00

Above you can see the new Heavy Transport class of human ships.
The scene is lit by the distant Yellow star and you can see the Specular highlights of the new FX code working well on the front edge of the cockpit.
The ship still needs a window putting in and separate maps for Specular, Lights, Normal maps too. But I`m sure you can get a good idea of the final ship from the picture above.

Added the FX Code!!!

2008-08-14T19:59:00.002+01:00

You can see the difference here after the FX code is added to the top scene!

Short Space Dust Video!

2008-08-12T20:57:00.001+01:00

Screen Shots Of Space Dust

2008-08-11T22:50:00.004+01:00

3 Layers of parallax space dust make for a nice soup to fly in!!!

Space Dust, You gotta love it!!!

2008-08-07T23:01:00.002+01:00

Its one of those situations in a game when you need to compromise between Looking Good and Looking Real!!!
I am sure these routines will change overtime, but for now here is the current Space Dust routine - in shades of Teal. This could be used to add Really Big Nebulae and Gas clouds for the player to fly around in.

Final Designs Of Navigation Screens

2008-07-22T23:50:00.002+01:00

This is the final design for the Solar Systems Navigation screens. From this layout the player will instantly know which areas are Allied or Foe controlled by the use of the coloured mists.

Navigation Makeover!

2008-07-14T23:17:00.002+01:00

Navigating more than a Billion Billion Solarsystems

2008-07-08T21:44:00.004+01:00

Well here are some early pictures of the Navigation screens.

The above shows the zoomed out nearby solarsystems view.

When the player Zooms in, more details appear...

Zooming in even more or clicking on a planet will take the player to an even more detailed view of that sector!

Update on progress!

2008-06-25T23:34:00.002+01:00

Well, not been updating the Blog or Forum much recently.

We are at a stage where we can now almost fly directly from one solar system to the next. As we enter the next system, all the new planet data is created. First off is to determine if the system has a local Star/Sun. If so then create upto 50 planets in the system, set the Sun type and colour too.

We also have the Final scale of the players universe finally established. This was impossible to calculate until we had finally decided on Scale Down factors and alike. So basically 1 computer unit = 1 tenth of a km. ie 10units = 1.0km. Therefore our game universe = +/- 1 x 10^35km

ie +/- 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 km

To get an idea of this HUGE size, consider the distance of Earth from our Sun, see below...

= 152,100,000 km Distance To Earth From Sun
= 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 km Distance Across Game Universe

Now consider that the player can move in increments as low as about 10cm per frame, it would take many life times for the player to go from one end to the next at this slow speed! :-)

Luckily for us there is a technology in the game world call M.E.H.O.D (Mass Event Horizon Oscillating Drive) drives which run off Tasnium Cystal Cells as their power source. The Tasnium Cystals can be degraded to pure energy converting almost 100% of their Mass to Energy. This much power allows the creation of small Warps in Time/Space to temperally connect two nearby points in space/time A+B together, which the players ship then travel through. Although each Join in Space/Time is only in the region of upto 1km and is a Micro join and invisible to the naked eye, through the use of the Oscillating drive thousands of these Warps are created per second allowing the players ship to effectively seem to travel Faster Than Light (FTL).

Start At A =A+B+C+D+E+F+G+H+I+J = Destination = 10km in a millionth of a second! Although the actual ship still only moved at Less than light speed therefore obeying the laws of relativity and alike.

I hope this all made sense to you all, I will post more technical details at a later date. This is just a teaser to give you an idea of the propulsion system employed by Space Unlimited Space Ships.

Large Tanker Scale Demo.

2008-05-30T20:45:00.000+01:00

Planet Testing Video

2008-05-26T12:19:00.001+01:00

Latest Pictures.

2008-05-26T12:15:00.002+01:00

Internal cockpit views have been added by request. You can use camera controls to look out of the windows to the left, right and above.

Added a basic star routine and increased the ship routines complexity to allow for more flexible options later on.

Version2 - The Re-write Underway!

2008-05-08T23:35:00.004+01:00

Well after the quite major decisions of the last week, Space Unlimited re-write and re-design are fully underway and going well.

Join our forums now at SpaceUnlimited Forums to have your say in the new re-design questions categories!

New Number System
The re-write has allowed me to reinvent my Big Number System. Where as before I was using a Grid like system to hold the really big numbers needed. Where each grid section is between +/- a set amount and each represented an area of space ie Local, Sector,Solar,Galaxy.
The New Big Number System just uses Really big numbers instead, still based on storing them in a grid form, but now each grid section ranges from 0-value and only as a +ve value, in addition to the grid values of 0 to +ve I now have a Sign values which states if the number is + or -

example: +1,000001,000000,000500,000000,00021.5f
or -1,000000,006000,002000,000000,00001.0f

Although this has ment that I must write my own routines to add,sub,multiply,divide these Big numbers I think it will work well in-game.

New Physics Code
The new Physics routines now mean that instead of stating how fast you want a ship to go, you know state the Engine Thrust in Newtons(N) this is then related to that ships Mass to produce an Acceleration vector, which in-turn alters that ships Velocity Vector. The velocity vectors are then damped out to produce some nice inertia routines. This has also been applied to the Rotation Vectors, in addition to the Thrust vectors. I will be working on a simple collision routine that will actually make ships bounce off each other during collisions with approx. true forces & velocities.

Time For A Complete Re-write!

2008-05-05T09:44:00.002+01:00

Well with the Prototype looking and sounding good it`s time for a re-think.
I have decided on two main actions in this next stage of development.

1: A complete re-write of the game code, from the ground up. Starting with a blank screen and programming all the new features and code from scratch. The main reasons for this is to make the engine far more flexible and easy to use/change. We have better Large number systems and more detailed Physics routines too. With the code looking nicer it will be far more flexible and easy to add new ideas too!

2: Welcome to Luke Stephenson, who is now co-designer on the project. He will be helping with the design process from start to finish as I re-write the game code. Please head over to our Forums at SpaceUnlimitedGame.com where you will see a new forum topic called Design Questions. In here is a whole series of questions about the design process for everyone to take part in.

I will be posting updates and pictures as we re-write the game. This should help all you budding game makers to see a development process. (maybe not the best method, but a method at least!)

Planet Texture Generation Routines

2008-04-23T23:53:00.003+01:00

I`ve not posted much recently, but that doesn`t mean that Ive not been thinking and planning new ideas for SpaceUnlimited!

I have great plans for planet texture generation routines, which I am very eager to test out.

I will try to explain...
Basically you have say 10 continent maps (grey scale) X 2sets + 10 Craters/Valley Maps (0-255 grey scale) + 10 surface detail maps (again grey scale)

Final texture for a planet = 2 Random Continent Maps merged with 2 Other Continent Maps + 2 Crater/Valley Maps + 2 surface Details Maps.

using 2 of 10 maps merged = 10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1 = 55 different basic shapes per map set.
ie Final planet texture possibilities = 55 * 55 * 55 * 55 = 9,150,625

ie Over 9 Million possible planets!!!!!!!! Then use a similar routine for the Colour Maps (by using colour gradient charts instead) ie 20 colour maps = 55 * 55 = 3025 colour charts...

9,150,625 * 3025 = 27,680,640,625 or 27.6 Billion different planets. Generated from 40 greyscale Maps and 20 Colour gradients!

Plus I might add some sort of Fractal generation at some point too.

But basically 27.6 BILLION planets should be just about enough! hehe :-)

I hope I explained it well enough?

Anway to give you an idea here is a Work in progress picture to demostrate the princicple...

If you would like to comment then please head over to out Forums at www.SpaceUnlimitedGame.com and have your say in the development process!

New GamePlay Video 7

2008-04-08T00:42:00.002+01:00

The latest gameplay video to watch!

Big Ships!

2008-03-01T22:29:00.004Z

After months in the pipeline we finally start work on the Very Big Ship routines!

Our test model is the Large Space Oil Tanker design.

You can see the scale of this ship by comparing it to the two standard size enemy fighter ships on the left of the picture.

A second ingame screen shot of the Tanker ship being attacked...

Visit the Space Unlimited Forums

2008-02-17T21:51:00.002Z

The Space Unlimited website may have failed this time. But to make up for it we have now got our own Forums instead.

Please join us and share your thoughts at...

www.SpaceUnlimitedGame.com

Space Unlimited Gets a DOT COM site!

2008-02-14T00:16:00.004Z

WEBSITE cancelled for now, was not looking good enough!

Video 6 - The Space Wars

2008-01-19T21:32:00.000Z

A pre-release video as we work hard on the space battle scenes!

Expect the weapons to look bigger and better, and more ship types too!

Concept Art & Models

2008-01-13T23:54:00.000Z

The 3D model starts to take shape from the 2D concept works.

New Video 5 - Ships get Interia

2008-01-09T23:45:00.000Z

New Team Member Joins

2007-12-23T22:53:00.000Z

Welcome to the team Roop Bhogal www.RoopBhogal.com who will be working on concept art.

Current Team:

Stephen Vickers (Me), Design & Programming

Liz Vickers, Assistant Design & Languages

Mike South, Assistant Design & 3D Models

Gilles Ketting, Concept Art (Part Time)

Seth Krueger, Concept Art

Roop Bhogal, Concept Art

PJ @ Full Motion Audio, InGame Music

Luke Stephenson, Additional Game Music

Ships Get Thrusters

2007-12-23T22:45:00.000Z

Particle System gets its first use.

Currently Blue for goodie ships and Red for the baddies.

Particle system starts to work well as we add thrusters to the ships.

Upto 3000 particles vissible on screen at any time.

Players Ship almost complete

2007-12-12T22:34:00.001Z

After working closely with my 3d design person (Mike South) we have finally almost finished the players main starting ship.
The model uses various Texture maps, Light maps, Normal maps and Specular maps to create what becomes a great looking space ship.

I have had news from PJ (one of our music guys) that the first ingame score should be finished over the next week.

The music from PJ combined with the model by Mike should add a great deal to the games progress and overall feel.

2007-11-23T23:47:00.000Z

More Green plasma, it matches the Green laser too! :-)

2007-11-23T22:37:00.000Z

Particle system begins taking some sort of shape.

You just can`t beat some nice Green Vapour in a space game :-)

Concept Art

2007-11-23T21:31:00.000Z

Concept art work comes in to us.

Gilles Kettings amazing concept work here shows the players main starting ship.

I am currently working on the main particle system, which when complete, should allow us to add thrusters to the ships in game so far. Expect to see pictures here.

Various bits have also been improved over the last week or two, including fixing the main ship. Which use to judder around slightly, is now perfectly smooth. (no more camera shake, unless we want it!).
We are in talks with more artists for 3D Model work and Music ideas and hope to have news soon.

New GamePlay Video.

2007-11-21T18:36:00.000Z

A brief video to show the planets and asteroids.

Added 302,400 individual Asteroids!

2007-11-06T22:40:00.000Z

Woke up on Sunday morning, about 8am I think. While lying in bed I thought of a great way to generate thousands of individual asteroids, each with it`s own size and orientation etc etc

Each of the current 302,400 asteroids have their own unique position and orientation in space. If you where to mark one asteroid, fly away, and then come back to the same location later you would see that same asteroid. ie they do not randomly re-generate each time you aproach them, they are constant entities.

In this photo you can see just some of the 302,400 asteroids. Some of them are rotating about X,Y,Z axis (or any combination of) .

The problem was that an asteroid belt can contain hundreds of thousands of individual asteroids and I can not store that many coords and their respective orientations and size! (not to mention their chemical compositions! and ore contents)

The soluton...

As I lay in bed it became obvious how to solve this problem. The key is that asteroids form Asteroid BELTS and Not asteroid FIELDS! ah-ha, A belt being a simple sin & cos 2d circle formula!
1. Break asteroid Belt into segments, I decided on 0.1 degree per part. ie 0-360degree circle = 360 degrees at 0.1 degree increments = 3600 centre points!
2. check if this centre point is visible? If no then, just display the location by way of a text name in the distance to the player every 1 degree increase.
3. if the centre point is in visible range then, loop through 84 asteroids, placing each one at a generated offset from centre point. Also generate starting oriention and size, then rotate in real time based on Game time.

All this runs at an amazingly fast speed and so doesn`t even slow the game down.
Expect a blog statement at somepoint, when I fully intent to increase the asteroids count by ten fold at least.
ie expect it to go to 3,024,000 asteroids per Belt and expect upto 5 belts per system,
giving an amazing 15,120,000 (15 million) individual asteroids in on solarsystem.

Each of the 15 million asteroids will have its own fixed position,size and orientation. Also its own unique chemical composition (to be mined by player if they wish to!).

Finally added the Moon Routines!

2007-11-03T21:17:00.000Z

The Planets have been in for awhile and so has the moon data. Now I have finally added the first moon drawing routines in. Enjoy your flight :-)

Gameplay Videos on YouTube

2007-11-03T21:08:00.000Z

2007-11-01T22:23:00.000Z

2007-10-28T23:04:00.000Z

Well, here it is! My beta version at displaying the galaxy to the player relative to the current solarsystem that he is in.

There are lines to the directly neighbouring systems and they are highlighted white, instead of yellow.

The Coords will be replaced by system names & Coords at somepoint.

This whole view can be zoomed in and out and also rotated around the verticle dimensions.

.. The SolarSystem view can also be rotated now to improve the players viewing ability.

A nice side shot of the players ship, with the Earth in the distance.

SolarSystem Map View

2007-10-28T19:51:00.000Z

Ok, now we`ve got a simple Solarsystem map.

Map can be zoomed in and out, you can click on a planet and Autopilot kicks in and starts to fly you there.

On this screen I will make it so you can plot a course to planets or bring up information about panets and objects in the system, ie main trading, mineral contents of moons, asteroids and comets too etc etc...

I am currently struggling to get a visually pleasing schematic view of the Galaxy to allow the player to select a Solarsytem to fly too!

I think I need a 3D view that can be rotated around and near by Systems can then be clicked on to bring up more details and plot a course to!

I hope to post my solution to this soon, once I work out how to display the data to the player.

Ships get a revamp!

2007-10-25T23:33:00.000+01:00

Weapons are still, working, but basic! Scenery and ships are getting better each week tho!

Ships are now `bump mapped` with specular highlights too.

Added a model scale routine so I can (on the fly) scale any model up/down to fit my scene scale. Will prove handy for very large cruisers later on, as there coords can be limited to a max distance and I can just scale ship model down instead (giving the impression of distance!)

2007-10-22T21:43:00.000+01:00

Now things seem to be in a working order it`s time to get distracted by visual improvments.

First on my hit list is to quickly learn about Shaders (vertex and pixel shaders 2.0).

Right, after a few days I`ve got ot working. Next I learned how to introduce `Bump Mapping` with my Shader code.

First place to benefit from my new shader routines are the planets. I now have an Earth planet with Diffuse Light, Ambient Light, Specular Highlights, Bump Mapped texture, cloud texture and even a city lights texture that very nicely makes all the citys light up on the dark side of our rotating planet.

See the New and improved screen shots.

Notice a subtle blue tint at the top of the screen. This is done by my Post process Screen Shader Test code. (ready for realy cool HDR Lighting and Glow & Glare routines - I hope!)

But for now, next on my Shader list is to improve the space ships, by adding, Specular highlights and shiney surfaces!!!! You will see! O and of course Bump Mapping too!

Screen Shots

2007-10-07T22:19:00.000+01:00

Here we are, a space ship flying around in a `Real Size` solar system.

You can fly between planets and the sun, no jump gates or worm holes and absolutely NO Loading screens in-between!

More pictures to follow...

The Sun still needs some visual work.

The Solution

2007-10-07T22:02:00.000+01:00

The Solution:
The solution in a word... Grids! Ok, grids you say! Yep.
Now look at this example for number storage...
a INT(whole number)/FLOAT(floating point number) variable storing between -50,000.0 to +50,000.0 (ie 0.0-100,000.0) units. Where 1.0 unit = 100m , ie 10.0 units = 1km.
Now look at this...

Galaxy, Solar, Sector, Local
INT, INT, INT, FLOAT = 0 to 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 m

ie Sun to Earth would be 147,000,000km. Broke down to above grid would be...

Galaxy, Solar , Sector, Local
0 , 0 , 1470, 0.0 ie 1470 * 100,000.0 = 147,000,000km

100 Light Years would now be...

Galaxy, Solar, Sector, Local
0, 94608, 0, 0.0 ie 946,08 * 100,000 * 100,000 or 100 Light Years!

Problem solved, ok I might have to adjust the specifics and tweek values. But the idea is sound and can in theory store any number of ANY size just by adding more grid components.

With the Big number problem solved, I was able to start adding `Real Size` planets to my space scene. They are drawn by my custom Sphere generation routines in real time. They still need lots of nice Bumb Mapping, Multi-Textures etc etc...

First Steps!

2007-10-07T21:35:00.000+01:00

Already started this project a few weeks ago, so I will try my best to remember whats happened so far!!!

The Project:
Create a space game for the PC. One which actually has a Full universe to explore a fly through, UNLIMITED! ie NO Worm Hole or Jump Gates to travel between small limited space sectors!

Must Avoids:
If you want to play a space sim type game, then you need SPACE! Not a bunch of Non-connected small areas - with nice shiney lights and sparkling nebulae and a like!

Most space games that I have played do not give the idea of Space! Elite back on the Amiga, so many years ago, did! The reason I believe is that you could actually fly from one solar system straight to another solar system! No need for Jump Gates and alike!

Key Areas To Overcome:
The biggest and most demanding area of programming to overcome has got to be the whole scale of space, and objects in space!
Example, if 1 computer unit = 1 meter (m), then
distance from Sun to Earth would be 147,000,000,000 units/m!
Ok you say, whats the problem there?
Well, not even considering larger distance ie Sun to Pluto 4500,000,000,000 m a computer stores numbers in Variables called Floats or Integers (of various types). These variables can only hold numbers upto a certain size!
I am pretty dam sure that a computers Float variable can not acuratly hold numbers as big as 147-4500 x 10^9 as shown above!
Ok use an Interger variable, say INT32 ( a 32bit integer variable ) that should be fine! Cool, sorted - or Not!
Now consider the distance across our whole Galaxy, approx. 100 Light Years I think or 100 x 9460,800,000,000 units / m!
It is now getting clear that we can not possible expect to store these vast distances in a single computer variable, even if we did manage to fit them into say a INT64 (64 bit number) or bigger! - we would then have rediculous problems with the maths calculations just to run the game!