Oolite Bulletins

Just posted on the EBBS, a talented artist out there having a go at remaking Elite. Take a look here.
Some really excellent ideas and work.

crikey, there's some good artwork there! i think the big strutty things obscure a bit much of the playing area, but the art/models of the ships is amazing.

Wow, if only Oolite could have nebula like that!

that's a point like : aren't the main backdrops in Oolite just pics? we could repaint them up or even maybe incorporate some licence-free astronomy pics or something.

Do you think he know's about Oolite, he'd be a great addition to our 'team'

The backdrops in Oolite are currently generated when you enter a system. Originally they were rather dull - what you see now is a big improvement. Of course they're still not as colourful as some other games... They aren't pictures (image files) that can just be replaced.

The backdrops you see in Deepspace are almost certainly stored images. IIRC Giles did experiment with doing exactly that. There's several problems though with this approach. The two big ones are putting additional requirements on client computers (need more graphics card memory) and also increasing the download file size.

There are other games out there with similarly detailed graphics, including some with similarly detailed nebulas that you can even fly through. It's not impossible to upgrade Oolite's engine to do such things...

Finally to reiterate Ramon's question, has anybody told this guy about Oolite? He's clearly at the early stages of development...

Not sure if he knows about Oolite, I'll email him.

It'd be great if he could work on Oolite, maybe even implimenting planet landings!

that certainly looks pretty cool. very nice images.

I've just found this forum and this thread. Thanks for the kind words. Trust me my game will not be as good as Oolite. Oolite is so flexible its amazing. Awesome stuff. If I could convert my models to Oolite I'd let you have them as and when I did them, but I think you use completely different ways of making them. I use Maya 7.01 to model and texture them and then use Deep Exporation to convert them to .X format and then finally it goes into an editor that exports them in a .B3D format (Blitz Basic 3D). I'll think about it there may be a way.

Your right about the nebula background btw. Its a huge graphic mapped to a sphere. Looks nice though. I hate to think what the final size of the game will be. There is so many graphics in it already.

These forums are very interesting too, love reading all the stuff thats going on in Oolite.

Anyway keep up the good work on Oolite its a brilliant game.

if you use Maya you'll be able to export the files as .obj and then convert them to dat files using the 'obj to dat' Python script.........I can't quite remember how but there's plenty of info on the forums somewhere about it, that's how I found out.

Hey I didn't know that. Good point. Either that or I just supply you with the Texture maps and you can skin the existing ships. Either way its do-able.
I need to keep my game visually different to Oolite I guess. Or if this all works maybe can my game and work on a Deepspace OXP instead

One to think about actually, seeing how you guys have done all the hard work already

*goes off to ponder the possibilities*

Learnee: What's with deep space?
Flight instructor: It's Tharg zone.
L: Huh?
FI: As in, full of bugs. That's why we all should support the GalCoop Navy to rid the universe of this scourge. So, don't forget that it's your civic duty to respond to any assistance requests.
L: Do you get a bonus for spouting that kind of idiotic propaganda? I mean, telling a rookie armed with a peashooter to go and take on the 'goids?
FI: <grumble, grumble>...no.
L: Don't you feel silly?
FL: It's part of the curriculum, all right? On the job description. Frak!

Welcome, mate!
Coders, OXP writers and standup comedians are always welcome. Not mimes, though!

Ooo. I am intrigued by the possibilities inherent here...

Hi there, and welcome to the bOoard.

Funny you only found out about Oolite recently, we have been avidly oggling your grafix for a couple of months now.

I like the look of your craft as well as what you did with the planetinfo screen.

Oolite is inherently more 'classical' by design, so it's always cool to see independent interpretations.
Not only of the craft but also the game interface itself.