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Developing a Level for Galactic Starfighter


CourtneyWoods

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Awesome. What I wouldn't give to see this same kind of behind-the-scenes detail for the rest of the game. How strange and fascinating it would be to see areas like fleet or tatooine through the eyes of the developers after seeing only the finished product for the past two years.

 

Kudos, guys.

Edited by DimmuJanKaarl
typos
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Lol, the stuff he mentioned about one of the first pics, those lines never being visible to client...

I've seen something like that in game, but with even less art...

How I got it? I basically crashed my videocard :p

How I did that? No idea, but it might be a bad idea to let your browser spawn and animate about 100.000+ icons EVERY SECOND (animating for about 20 sec, so that's 2.000.000+ icons being animated) while gaming on your other monitor xD

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Asteroid field!

 

It would be awesome if most of the asteroids (the small ones) were moving in randomly so the map is constantly evolving and they would prove challenging for some pilots too focused on a target :eek: (remember episode V asteroid chase?)

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wow moving asteroids would be a great idea - or even a space slug hazard - difficult to balance the teams though - nice insight into the development and I did play the space shipyard map once - very atmospheric great article!

 

Very well said by Zantergog :)

 

Asteroid field!

 

"It would be awesome if most of the asteroids (the small ones) were moving in randomly so the map is constantly evolving and they would prove challenging for some pilots too focused on a target (remember episode V asteroid chase?)" <--- Also very well said by Rickadin :)

 

Great that u Bioware make GS happen and it should've been out year ago and now maybe some new planet stuff like or under way. Kashyyk,Endor etc. :) Kashyyk in golden Kotor 1 <3 Been nice to be a subscriber from launch and kept it on even when went on for a break cause no need to cancel it as wanna support Sw Mmo "beautiful Swtor" :)

 

- Terry -

Edited by Dragen
Make it more clear.
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I really liked the over all feel of Lost Shipyards, the map has plenty of spots to make tricky maneuvers. I can't count how many times I've heard ships blowing up behind me because it wasn't expecting that concrete wall after a sharp turn. As for Kuat Mesas, the construction site around B is fun but C and A lacks cover. It's nice but I prefer Lost Shipyards. Looks are 5/5.

 

I'm really hoping to see a map like the battle above coruscant in episode III or a map with skyscrapers maybe on corellia.

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I'm really hoping to see a map like the battle above coruscant in episode III or a map with skyscrapers maybe on corellia.

 

This.

 

Deep space battles like the one on the PTS are all well and good, but they aren't nearly as cool or fun to play as atmospheric 'levels' like the kuat mesas one. I'd love to see many different atmospheric maps. A great opportunity to introduce Kashyyyk as well. The trees are hundreds of meters tall. Plenty of freedom from a dev perspective, including the ability to fog the map floor like you did on kuat. I'd love to see a volcanic world like Oricon with a volcano that spirts lava now and again, incinerating any ships in the blast. Nar Shaddaa would be amazing, coruscant too. Corellia... etc.

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Nice article, thank you.

 

Now, what about a space field which is almost 100 % like the very first PvE space mission munis its ships there ? ;)

Or, to be more specific, I'd like to see a map where actual battle between giant starships takes place. ;)

No need to put AI-driven starfighters into that, but that'd add even more excitement ! ( And problems for the engine. :p )

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I don't know enough about video game engines to know if that map is unusual in any way. Can you elaborate?

 

The measuring tools are right on top of the max graphics world. In the second picture, the sphere volumes used to detect player proximity to the nodes is... irregular at best. Disturbingly reminiscent of the Pandemic engine from Star Wars Battlefront. All graphics, tools are hard to find and harder to use... it does match their description of the engine they've given in the past, specifically regarding a certain event (at this point I don't remember which it was, anymore). Their comment was something along the lines of "It's not just a simple switch to flip, it's vastly more complicated than that." And I remember thinking to myself, "But it should be a simple switch to flip."

 

Of course, it's entirely possible they turned on the full graphics just to give us a look at the engine parts that are actually within the world, as opposed to not having a wire-frame mode, lightning-only mode, unlit mode, etc.

 

You'd think there'd be turret spawn nodes, player spawn nodes, voice volumes (ie: "There's a ship NEAR THE B NODE"), etc. Path nodes probably wouldn't be there, because, well, there's no AI ships. :p

 

A bit busy this afternoon -- because, well, it's thanksgiving -- but I'll try to see if I can whip up a quick example of what I would consider a more 'ordinary' engine as seen behind the scenes.

Edited by idnewton
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I don't know enough about video game engines to know if that map is unusual in any way. Can you elaborate?

 

Long day, decided to pull an example off the net rather than make my own, this time. I don't take credit for it, while it does look exceedingly amazin'-sauce. "Gray Matter" by Remus (http://www.remusbrailoiu.com)

 

 

In the engine I use, you have a lot of different view modes. Brush wireframe, poly wireframe, shader complexity, texture density, lighting-only, unlit, lit, and final (not really a view, just lit without the engine components).

 

It's rather complicated to go into detail about every single part, but some examples would include the apples (for whatever reason, they're apples) are AI pathing nodes, things like the bulb with the S are lights, the key-atop-the-audio-box icon at the far wall near the clock is an ambient sound source, etc. There are player spawns which look like joysticks (if you look really closely there's one in the hallway below at the far wall). Green wireframes are trigger volumes, to execute a command if you're A: inside the volume, or B: outside the volume (ie: you're within range to capture a turret, you open a door by being near it, etc.). Entirely possible to have more advanced commands related even to such a simple detector. ie: "once player enters it, do X", as opposed to simply "if player is inside, toggle X to 'on'. If outside, toggle off". Same for leaving it, same for being partially inside of it (but not entirely), etc. Probably by now you get the point.

 

Obviously each engine is going to have it's own way of showing player spawns, AI pathing, the nodes, the sound sources, the lights, and so on... There'll be even more diversity between the engines seeing as SWTOR uses an (old, I take it) MMO engine, whereas the one I showed here is an FPS one. That said, I still find it weird how the measuring tools are actually in the high-graphics display in the picture they showed. Of course that's possible in the engine I showed as well (as seen in the contrast between the 'Lit' and 'Final' pics), but what I mean is, if you're going to be showing engine elements, I'd think there'd be... more of them... A bunch of light sources, maybe some sounds, obviously no AI paths (because it's a pic of a PvP-only area) but you'd think there'd be turret spawn nodes.

 

Of course, we should also consider the possibility that they simply chose to show only the relevant engine elements. :rak_03:

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Looking forward to see what other maps will be released down the road! :D

 

Same here and hoping that there will be some maps with moving asteroids for example and some Star Destroyers and other huge ships that u need to avoid. Also hoping that u could not fly through mission objectives like turrets and that u could not shoot a turret through a wall like u now can in those on the rail space missions :/ Been shooting turrets through space station's other side ever since launch :/

 

Thanks devs for this update :)

 

Been a subscriber from launch and happy to support :)

 

- Terry -

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