Oolite Bulletins

This is a byproduct of my attempts to learn programming Ogre3d. It is a 3D engine I made to render believeable space, and an attempt to inspire people who like science fiction. Currently it allows you to fly around in space, and it makes space look very nice. But it is not a game.

The demo contains a fictional solar system (I will provide more information later). I would appreciate if you can help with finding good names for the objects, especially the moons.

Feel free to ask if you want to know more, or if you have good ideas.

WEBSITE: FOLLOW LINK
VERSION 2.1: Demo.OrionArm.v21.20091107.zip (77Mb)
VERSION 2.0: Demo.OrionArm.v20.20090818.zip (82Mb)

Instructions:

Unpack the file you downloaded.

The solar system is pretty large which might be taxing your system too much. Therefore I have splitted it up into several parts, usually containing a planet and its moons. The folder \Demo.OrionArm contains several batch files, that you may use to go to a certain planet of the solar system.

For example launch: 20090818_CW_FICTIONAL_DWARF_PLANET_GROUP.bat to run the demo with the dwarf planet group specified.

Usage

The program needs some time until the scene is loaded. This can take between some seconds and a minute. Once the program is loaded you will always look at the sun. Press the left mouse button once to go to the next object. You can then press the mouse button to cycle from planet to planet and use WASD to move around

Available keys:

W,A,S,D = use keys to move/fly in space
Left Mouse Button = goto next planet
Right Mouse Button = goto previous planet
Mouse = look around
F = hide UI
R = Toggle Render Mode
Print = Take Screenshot
Esc = Quit

Troubleshooting

If you get an error message about missing application configuration, you must run the Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime: vcredist_x86-sp1.exe

A note on performance: This demo runs at a constant 60 fps on my test system (Core2 3Ghz, 4GB RAM, ATI 4850 w. 1GB VRAM). However this version is optimized for best quality and may run slower on less powerful systems, especially those with little Video RAM (128Mb). If you have problems with fps or jerky behavior, PLEASE contact me with details of your system and the problems encountered. This information will help me to create a version that is optimized for performance, and should not look much worse.

Tips

You may find that the camera moves too slow. You can change this and a number of other parameters in a text file. Open: bin/release/DwgTest.cfg

Some of the parameters that you may change:

MoveConstant=5
Value controls how fast the camera moves.
You can set MoveConstant to much higher values if you want.

MeshLod=1 // meshlod reduction
If you set this to MeshLod=0 the program loads more than twice as fast,
but the quality of shadows is reduced, and you get less fps.

ShadowTechnique=SHADOWTYPE_STENCIL_ADDITIVE
Shadow technique used
Set this to ShadowTechnique=SHADOWTYPE_TEXTURE_MODULATIVE if you want to
see a drastic increase in fps. It will however disable object to object shadows.

DOWNLOAD:

Demo.OrionArm.v20.20090818.zip (82Mb)

Holst_Mars.ogg (fitting music to run in the background)

Here some information about the solar system. I currently like think this to be a hypothetical interpretation of Tau Ceti, because it is similar to our sun.

I would appreciate very much if someone can help me find names for the objects, especially the moons!

Systems in order of distance from sun:

System 1

Name: ?
Characteristics: Single planet close to the sun, like Mercury. @work
Moons: -




System 2

Names: Pandora, Prometheus
Characteristics: A twin planet. Both planets jave a very hot athmosphere.
Moons: 1 small




System 3

Name: Ceus? Poseidon?
Characteristics: A large gas giant like Jupiter. Because of its position in the inner planetary zone, it may have disturbed the forming of a large terrestric planet. Currently it has 3 large moons, but I plan to add several more smaller moons later.
Moons: 3 large




System 4

Name: Helliconia
Characteristics: A rather dry and cold world on the border of the habitable zone. In many ways a twin of Mars. Unlike Mars it has a large moon.
Moons: 1 large





System 5

Name: Entropia
Characteristics: A gas giant of medium size. I plan to add several more smaller moons later.
Moons: 2 large, 1 small




System 6

Name: Medusa (?)
Characteristics: A cold, medium size gas giant. Currently two large ice moons.
Moons: 2 large, 1 small




System 7

Names: ?
Characteristics: A group of carbon/ice objects in large distance from sun, very similar to Pluto / Charon.
Moons: 1 small

All very nice, but shouldn't you have posted in outworld?

Not Oolite related. Moved to Outworld.

nice one looking forward to seeing the finished product!

I was looking forward to it until I realised 1) Windows 2) I don't think my system will be up to it:

Athlon XP2800+, 2GB RAM, 128MB FX5900 (soon hopefully a 128MB 6600GT)

By-the-way Welcome to the friendliest board this side of Riedquat - thans for sharing your amazing work with us.

What license are you (or are you expecting to) make it available for?

My guess is that people will be most helpful if its something open/free.

Also, well done, I have a mac, so cant run it, but looks cool from screenshots

There is a license text included in the download. The software is free. But I do not allow redistribution of any part or derivative without my consent.

The aim of this is to is to create believeable solar systems and to collect ideas from other people. One of my future plans is to make a dual/triple star system like Alpha Centauri.

I thought this could be interesting for some players of OOlite.

Sorry, I just realized there are not only Windows users here. How large do you estimate the percentage of Mac users?

I'll give you a name for system 4: Helliconia, as in the Brian Aldiss trilogy.
An excellent tale.

I've just checked if there were any polls on this topic and there isn't.

But as Oolite started life on a Mac and was ported to Linux and Windows at a later date I suspect the percentage of Mac users is (not) surprisingly high.

Me - I have a PC not a Mac but my OS of choice is Linux not Windows.

GlobalExplorer wrote:

Sorry, I just realized there are not only Windows users here. How large do you estimate the percentage of Mac users?

Based on download statistics for 1.72.2 from our official distribution site, the user base accross platforms, in broad, quick-look terms, is as follows:
Mac: 10.62%
Windows: 73.57%
Linux: 15.80%

Even in Oolite Windows rules out

That's 101.99% then.

Sorry, copy/paste error. Fixed.

El Viejo wrote:

I'll give you a name for system 4: Helliconia, as in the Brian Aldiss trilogy.
An excellent tale.

I like Helliconia. I will try to google some facts about it.

Just read one book by Aldiss, Non Stop, and even that only half. Didn't think it had a very good plot.