Author Topic: Infinity the Quest for Earth, a developing space game (Read 41452 times)

FGFG · « **on:** May 20, 2009, 12:56:06 PM »

I probably have already told about Infinity the quest for Earth, but anyway...

A guy (I don't remember his name because in the forum he is always I.A., InfinityAdmin) is programming a new MMO ambiented in our galaxy where you can explore, fight, trade, chat, or whatever you want.

A real galaxy is very big right? It has hundreds of billions of stars...

The thing that makes this game unique, though, is that the galaxy is composed by

400 BILLIONS STAR!!

Each of them teorically freely visitable! A large number of this stars will have planets orbiting around it and, without any loading gap, you can freely make a little tour exploring the surface of the planet (and I want to tell you that all the planets, stars, moons, asteroids, ecc... have real sizes, real distances, and real orbits, where you can actually look them moving along them and rotating along their axis)!! We talk obout thausends of billions of objects....

How is it possible?? Just using procedural programming. Here there is a link to one topic of the game, that explain quite easly this king of programming, but firstly take a look at the game (the link is just a few line further down).
I want to remember that this game is still in developement and it will not be completed untill 2010 AT LEAST.
http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=75&topic=7426.0

Here the link to the site:
http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=40

Here i would like to add some stunning videos (at least in my opinion):
P.s. Whatch them in high quality where avaible, expecially the first.

procedural galaxy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0-lsyo28SU

procedural asteroid rings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8IwSt_mflQ&feature=related

procedural nebulas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk_AKkgzBP0&feature=related

procedural planet (moon):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BZNJOj3Sv0&feature=related

What do you think about it??

Bla · « **Reply #1 on:** May 20, 2009, 01:36:55 PM »

What I think about it?

I SIMPLY DON'T UNDERSTAND IT!!!

400 BILLION stars. That's 4 times the real number in our galaxy, The Milkyway, and double the number in the largest known galaxies.

SO MANY COMPLEX SHAPED ASTEROIDS!!! In a single solar system. I don't dare to think what number there would be in the whole game.

SO COMPLEX MOONS AND PLANETS!!! And 400 BILLION solar systems. I can't think about it. Help! No no no! I don't DARE to think about how many BYTES that would take. Peta, yotta! It would take YOTTABYTES!!!

Tell me how it's possible, please! - Procedural generation.

FGFG · « **Reply #2 on:** May 20, 2009, 02:05:47 PM »

Quote from: Bla on May 20, 2009, 01:36:55 PM

400 BILLION stars. That's 4 times the real number in our galaxy, The Milkyway, and double the number in the largest known galaxies.

Well, i exagerated a bit

It should be around "just" 200 billions

Quote from: Bla on May 20, 2009, 01:36:55 PM

SO MANY COMPLEX SHAPED ASTEROIDS!!! In a single solar system. I don't dare to think what number there would be in the whole game.

SO COMPLEX MOONS AND PLANETS!!! And 400 BILLION solar systems. I can't think about it. Help! No no no! I don't DARE to think about how many BYTES that would take. Peta, yotta! It would take YOTTABYTES!!!

Ready to the real shock??

Just a few megabites on your own pc!!!!!!! Thanks to the procedural programming (You have to store hundreds of thausends of line of code, wich take just a few megabytes, and a see, that is a number, like "5"). Just read the topic from the first link i posted, and it should answer some of your questions, if not all (it can explain the engine very well; much better that me

)

Quote from: Bla on May 20, 2009, 01:36:55 PM

I SIMPLY DON'T UNDERSTAND IT!!!

As you keep reading the forum you will understand ^^ Just a question of time...

I strongly suggest you to read the developement journals (you can find it on the forum)

P.s. the "You" is referred to all the readers

HallowedError · « **Reply #3 on:** May 20, 2009, 06:16:45 PM »

Yay, I was wondering how I found this, I've been looking for it for a while now. I guess I found it through you. I gotta bookmark this so I don't lose it again!

Bernier77 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 21, 2009, 12:47:44 AM »

So basically the programming is going to make stuff stream in when you're travelling around, and when youre zoomed out (if you can zoom out) it's going to have lower quality renders?

Sounds cool though, kinda like spore's space stage, maybe better. I hated in spore when you'd be half way across the galaxy doing a mission and your homeworld would call and say "HEY GET BACK AND KILL 5 ANIMALS FOR US OR THE PLANET GOES!!!"

I just facepalmed every time that happened.

FGFG · « **Reply #5 on:** May 21, 2009, 04:04:34 AM »

Quote from: Bernier77 on May 21, 2009, 12:47:44 AM

So basically the programming is going to make stuff stream in when you're travelling around, and when youre zoomed out (if you can zoom out) it's going to have lower quality renders?

Well, the nearer you are, the higher the detail is. You don't need to see a little stone when you are orbiting 2000 km over the surface...

In the galaxy: you will see some dust, and, from distance, just O class stars (the biggest ones, and the less frequent) because you need them to travel far away (see the forums) and the nearer the distance is the smaller stars you can see

Bla · « **Reply #6 on:** May 21, 2009, 05:43:45 AM »

Yes, now I understand it after reading most of the text on the website and watching videos on YouTube, while discussing them...
It's fantastic. And interesting. I can't wait until I can get the game, but I might need a better computer.
Anyways, I have saved up for a new one for a long time now.

They have released a download for the combat-thing in the game. I tried to download it, but sadly can't connect to the server... There are about 6 servers, but only two of them were online when I tried, and I could only use the IP from one of them.

FGFG · « **Reply #7 on:** May 21, 2009, 05:51:54 AM »

i know about the demo, but i've never played it. If i remember you can host a match or partecipate to one (there isn't a "central" server

note: The game is developing with 0 badget and if you want to contribute making concepts, or ship models you can do it freely; just go to the contribution thread and read the Contribtions Design Document (CDD)

MonkeyDLuffy · « **Reply #8 on:** May 21, 2009, 05:20:44 PM »

procedural galaxy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0-lsyo28SU

procedural asteroid rings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8IwSt_mflQ&feature=related

procedural nebulas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk_AKkgzBP0&feature=related

procedural planet (moon):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BZNJOj3Sv0&feature=related

What do you think about it??
[/quote]

What I think about it, is that it is cool. Realistic Planets, 3D Nebulaes, and all of that kind of other stuff.

Bla · « **Reply #9 on:** May 23, 2009, 12:33:33 PM »

Yes, it sounds like a dream... Just by making formulae you can make houndreds of billions of stars, many of them having planets in their orbit, and on those planets you can see details like trees!
You can zoom in on the asteroids around the planets or in the asteroid belts. If you watched the video showing the asteroids in the Saturn-like rings, it was amazing!
And the thing that it's generated when you see it only makes it fantastic. No loading time and no yottabytes needed to be stored.

Btw I tried the combat prototype, it was also fantastic. And it was just a prototype of the combat in the game, I can't wait to see the real game!

FGFG · « **Reply #10 on:** May 23, 2009, 04:44:03 PM »

it's all true, but there's a downside: all the orbits of the planets will not be influenced by the mass of other stars, or objects. All the orbits (even the asteroids' ones in the belts) are generated stable and you will never see, for example, a collision between planets, or a planet sucked into a black hole

HallowedError · « **Reply #11 on:** May 24, 2009, 01:06:29 PM »

Though I have heard there might be a mission involving a meteor crash, but not confirmed. Considering everthing thing that's going on in the game, I completely understand why there aren't such things. It would take a long time to see the effects of messing with a planets orbits. Though I do hope that if I see a ship crash into a meteor only a few feet long, the meteor will move.

FGFG · « **Reply #12 on:** May 24, 2009, 02:07:32 PM »

it is impossible because Inifinity isn't a simulator: what appens if 50'000 players crash on one asteroid each? The server should calculate all the new trajectories of all these asteroids in real time and will probably crash...

More probably a small asteroid will be destroyed in such an impact and the bigger ones won't be moved from theit orbit. Moreover, the asteroids in a belt are always generated in the same position: if you destroy one of them, you go away enough and you come back, it will be again there. These are limits of the engine, but they allow you to have a whole galaxy of 200 billions stars to explore freely

Chaotic Cow · « **Reply #13 on:** May 24, 2009, 06:56:32 PM »

This is awesome!

I think it would be awesome if you you could have meteors crash into planets and stuff. =P

I will keep an eye on this game.

FGFG · « **Reply #14 on:** May 25, 2009, 11:41:00 AM »

Here there is a link that could be usefull:

http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=75&topic=8855.0

They are FAQs but NOT official

HallowedError · « **Reply #15 on:** May 26, 2009, 12:54:51 AM »

That faq page was very informative. It's hard to believe that that poster, Ishari, found the time to post over 8000 posts. That definitely connected some of the random dots in my head

Well, I see the server load. Even more so with thousands of players in game.

I downloaded the ICP, I routed myself back to my own server so I could mess with it without messing with other people

. It's fun to watch the the 6 battleships go at each other. Unfortunately the planet is only a background image

.
The ICP alone, if polished and upgraded, could be released as it's own game though. A sign of what the full game's potential is!

FGFG · « **Reply #16 on:** May 26, 2009, 04:52:30 AM »

well i don't think that selling it could be useful: the more players there are, the more useful it is for testing pourpose. It will be replaced by the beta relese and then, after all the variables are setted (weapons power, maximum speed, prices, ecc.), by the alpha that is the game itself. The ICP is just advertising

HallowedError · « **Reply #17 on:** May 26, 2009, 01:36:57 PM »

I was fairly sure that games go Alpha to Beta to Final Release.

I never said they should. Ecpessially after all the hard work for procedural universe. It was mainly released for network testing and saw it as a way to say to the fans "We really are making a playable game, and you should wait until it's here," thus people didn't lose hope that the game will ever come out. I don't think that the hard core fans will, some have been there since the website was up. It's the newcomers that will quickly grow bored of unplayable (but kool looking) development updates.

-Your almighty HallowedError

FGFG · « **Reply #18 on:** May 27, 2009, 04:38:51 AM »

Quote from: HallowedError on May 26, 2009, 01:36:57 PM

I was fairly sure that games go Alpha to Beta to Final Release.

Well i could be wrong. I've never been completely sure of the succession of the alpha, beta releses ecc

Dan Dixon · « **Reply #19 on:** May 27, 2009, 01:10:18 PM »

Alpha > Beta > Final is a typical succession. Although the names are only meaningful half the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle

HallowedError · « **Reply #20 on:** May 27, 2009, 07:04:38 PM »

Ah, a testament to all the strange information available on wikipedia.

Dan Dixon · « **Reply #21 on:** May 27, 2009, 07:33:45 PM »

Quote from: HallowedError on May 27, 2009, 07:04:38 PM

Ah, a testament to all the strange information available on wikipedia.

I love it.

HallowedError · « **Reply #22 on:** May 28, 2009, 04:16:58 AM »

Yes, I know. Wrong place to post this but it works with what's come up with the conversation. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287194,00.html
wikipedia predicts the future

To add to this topic. FGFG, are you active on Infinty's forums?

FGFG · « **Reply #23 on:** May 28, 2009, 04:36:49 AM »

i'm not very active because i find very difficult to follow all the discussions there. Usually read the contribution forum mostly...

HallowedError · « **Reply #24 on:** May 28, 2009, 05:24:55 AM »

Strange, that's the one I never read. Takes up time reading the topics about features and making a coherent response to them

FGFG · « **Reply #25 on:** May 28, 2009, 07:18:43 AM »

i read it to take a look on the new ships and their developes

HallowedError · « **Reply #26 on:** May 28, 2009, 01:46:23 PM »

I just looked at the contribution area. Now I see why it's so interesting! It's cool to watch ships 'grow up' if you will. I'm looking into becoming a modeler. Anything to help this game progress along I'll try.

FGFG · « **Reply #27 on:** May 28, 2009, 10:54:23 PM »

you have quite good at it. I'm not

. However, before stoarting to model, you have to read the Contribution Design Document (CDD) that explain you what you can or can't do. It is on the top of the same forum.

atomic7732 · « **Reply #28 on:** June 23, 2009, 10:36:17 AM »

Quote from: FGFG on May 20, 2009, 02:05:47 PM

Just a few megabites on your own pc!!!!!!! Thanks to the procedural programming (You have to store hundreds of thausends of line of code, wich take just a few megabytes, and a see, that is a number, like "5"). Just read the topic from the first link i posted, and it should answer some of your questions, if not all (it can explain the engine very well; much better that me )

FGFG? Isn't it just like US (somewhat)? Or Celestia. It has files, and just randomizes the orbits, save maybe the planets and a space station. It's not like you go around to every star. Or when you get to the systems it looks for it on the site, rather than on your computer.

FGFG · « **Reply #29 on:** June 24, 2009, 02:50:36 PM »

EDIT ~~P.s. (Pre scriptum) This is a rare post as i won't have the connection to internet till sunday evening so i will probably not reply till that day.~~

You are talking about storing on a server BILLIONS of systems, each of them with their orbits, planets, which have detailed surface down to infinitesimal scale (teorically; during the game you could have details in the order of centimeters). Just trying to store a fraction of a planet surface at this level of detail will require more than the total capacity of the whole actual informatic world! Infinity handle this by creating an algoritm that, given a seed, recreate the same things in the same places.

Sry for the bad English as i haven't much time to write it $:-\$ .