Alite is here

[ffutures]

I got this to load on Bluestacks for Window, but it doesn't know I don't have a touch-sensitive screen or touchpad, and when I mouse click on things nothing seems to happen. Anyone know how to sort this?

Looks VERY pretty!

[maik]

Makes me almost wish I had an Android device!

[cim]

Great work!

Hmmm... I never knew oxps were developed in JS. That opens a lot of possibilities ... Let's see how many bug reports come in, and I'll concentrate on those, but OXP support is on my list of things to do.

There are a few different languages used in OXPs - JS for scripting, plists for static and/or initial definitions, GLSL for shaders. [wiki]Oolite_JavaScript_object_model[/wiki] documents the scripting API and [wiki]OXP_howto[/wiki] documents - mostly - the packaging formats and plist structures.

[Stardust]

@ffutures: Thanks for bringing Alite to fanlore; I'll see what I can do to add something. You can use any material from the alite.mobi site, of course. Regarding the Cobra, you are, unfortunately, right . I always thought of making other ships available at --- certain places --- but I never got around modeling the different flight behaviors (let alone cockpits/huds). But this too, is "on my list".

Regarding Bluestacks: I couldn't really get it to work. If I install Alite on Bluestacks, it shows the intro and then Bluestacks (! not Alite) crashes. Maybe a problem with my Windows installation. Since the intro can be skipped by tapping, a mouseclick into the intro worked for me: It skipped the intro, but that's as far as I got

@cim: Since you are mentioning shaders: This was my first 3d project ever, so I kept it "simple", deliberately. Simple, in the sense that I coded everything on my own, but didn't use shaders (not "simple" in the sense that I used an engine). The advantage of an engine would have been better optics, I suppose, the problem, however, was that I really needed to understand the concepts. So, no shader use in Alite; it uses Open GL ES 1.1 only.

[Day]

@cim: Since you are mentioning shaders: This was my first 3d project ever, so I kept it "simple", deliberately. Simple, in the sense that I coded everything on my own, but didn't use shaders (not "simple" in the sense that I used an engine). The advantage of an engine would have been better optics, I suppose, the problem, however, was that I really needed to understand the concepts. So, no shader use in Alite; it uses Open GL ES 1.1 only.

And this is IMPRESSIVE.

[Norby]

JS for scripting, plists for static and/or initial definitions, GLSL for shaders.

Plist support is important, at least in the  OpenStep format, the less readable XML variant is used in some old OXPs only. Shaders are not important, some ships designed with shaders will be darker and without effects like engine glow.

[another_commander]

Shaders are not important, some ships designed with shaders will be darker and without effects like engine glow.

...and without normal maps, specular highlights, animated textures, fresnel effects, custom decals etc etc...

If you are even remotely interested in the game looking good, shader support is very important in my opinion, regardless of the platform you are developing on.

[Norby]

the game looking good

You are right if the goal is a realistic environment, but Alite use a cartoon-ish colorful lookout like many phone game which is not missing shaders so seriously than a desktop game imho.

[Selezen]

Very well done for bringing a decent version of Elite to the Android device

One thing though...dude, that thing is HUGE!

I can't believe it's only had one download. Come on people, go buy yourselves android phones or tablets and play this puppy!!

Need more advertising online to publicise it...

[Stardust]

Thanks, Selezen!

I think the download numbers are only updated daily; according to my stats, Alite currently has "around 10" installations -- and the stats run until August, 4th; _before_ I released Alite. So, this only accounts for alpha testers, I assume...
Still: Go download it, go have fun , everyone. -- It _really_ is free!! No ingame ads, no in-app purchases, no nothing. Just some fun.

As for the size... Yeah... That is an issue, I agree.
Part of the size comes from the intro video. Without going too much into technical details here, it is not sufficient on Android to provide _one_ version of the intro video; I needed to store 4 different versions (different resolutions, different encodings). So, if anyone wants to, I could upload a smaller version of Alite, without the intro, and make it available from alite.mobi

From the top of my head, I'd say, it's still about 260 MB, then...

[cim]

JS for scripting, plists for static and/or initial definitions, GLSL for shaders.

Plist support is important, at least in the  OpenStep format, the less readable XML variant is used in some old OXPs only.

Though unless you're programming in Obj-C which natively supports both formats, it's much easier to find a parser for the XML one both because that's the one which Apple currently recommends and because every language has an XML parser or three lying about.

Shaders are not important, some ships designed with shaders will be darker and without effects like engine glow.

Mostly, yes. With shaders there's no requirement that the ship even has anything recognisable as a diffuse map, though - there are a few OXPs which won't work at all without them.

[Geraldine]

Well the word is truly out now about Alite. Its on the SSC, the Frontier Forum and (shortly) the RSI forum too as well as here of course. I hope you get loads and loads of downloads Stardust. Alite totally deserves it, great work and best of all it has connections to Oolite too in the use of some of its assets. I kinda agree with Cody's view it is like Oolite for Android.

[Cody]

Its on the SSC, the Frontier Forum and (shortly) the RSI forum too as well as here of course.

Now on the Limit Theory forum too.

[ffutures]

Thanks - I've added a couple of your pictures.

[Stardust]

Hey! -- Thanks for spreading the word -- and more importantly: Thanks for liking the game. That's what it was made for... I'm glad you're enjoying it!!

I have recorded some videos for the non-Android users and will post them on the alite.mobi website, if I can manage to cut them (without losing audio/video sync). Videos on Android are still hard to do right
So, please do check http://alite.mobi/media again in a couple of -- hours -- maybe .

Edit: Ummm... No. I have found a tool to cut the mp4 files but I lose audio/video sync again, then. . So, I'll have to find a better solution. I _will_ upload videos as soon as I managed to do them properly.... This will happen tonight, at the earliest. Sorry, guys!