Elite Dangerous : Digital Art with the largest gameworld in history

[Erimus Kamzel]

I've seen a few posts lately that seem to bemoaning the size of ED as being pointless.

We know the game will have around 100 billion different star systems (approx. 400 billion stars).

Recent reports estimate there could be 8.8 billion Earth size planets in the Milky Way. If we consider Sol to be a typical system, a system with 8 planets and around 170 major moons, then there could be literally trillions of worlds to explore throughout the gameworld.

Now lets consider just one Earth-sized planet within the game. It will be 1:1 scale. So it will effectively have 500 million square kilometers off surface area to explore once the planetary landing expansion is out. That's just one world in a game of trillions of worlds.

1/2 billion square kilometers times multiple trillions = a mind-boggling amount of explorable surface area! And that's just worlds. There's the immensity of space to throw into the mix too. Billions of asteroid fields. Billions of other space anomalies and weird and wonderful environments to discover. Then with EVA there's hundreds of thousands of immense orbital structures, like spacestations, space cities, outposts etc etc.

Everything reachable, everything with meaning behind it, with purpose, in motion, and with full celestial mechanics.

The fact we the players will never explore more than the merest fraction of it does-not-matter. Its the fact that we're part of something so immense in scale, something that probably no game that will come after ED will ever match in scale, and something no game that has gone before could ever match is what's so appealing.

For the first time ever we, the players, will be tiny insignificant specks in an infinite, seamless, and boundless virtual environment.

I find that humbling and awe-inspiring. Those saying its pointless have sadly missed the point.

I honestly think Elite Dangerous will be considered as a work of art some time in the future when people realize just what Frontier Developments pulled off here.

 

[Praevarus]

I don't think it's pointless but it's a little disappointing that I won't live long enough to explore it all. Maybe my descendants will continue from where I leave off when I'm gone.

 

[Hellhawk666]

Well said, OP. Have some rep

 

[Kaputtnik]

Hear, hear!

Could not have worded it better (or even close to this, wish my english was better). But you expressed the exact same thing that is on my mind about this topic. Good antipole to the other thread. Thanks!

 

[Cotic]

The fact we the players will never explore more than the merest fraction of it does-not-matter. Its the fact that we're part of something so immense in scale, something that probably no game that will come after ED will ever match in scale, and something no game that has gone before could ever match is what's so appealing.

For the first time ever we, the players, will be tiny insignificant specks in an infinite, seamless, and boundless virtual environment.

I find that humbling and awe-inspiring. Those saying its pointless have sadly missed the point.

I honestly think Elite Dangerous will be considered as a work of art some time in the future when people realize just what Frontier Developments pulled off here.

Interesting topic. With the ability (albeit digitally) to explore distances that surpass us both mentally and physically I wonder if cosmicism will be a more common viewpoint amongst commanders?

 

[Anni Bonney]

question is...
Is there something to explore? What will be the meaning of exploring?
Just watching beautiful landscapes may be cool for a while but it doesnt have gameplay on its own.

 

[Erimus Kamzel]

Interesting topic. With the ability (albeit digitally) to explore distances that surpass us both mentally and physically I wonder if cosmicism will be a more common viewpoint amongst commanders?

I think those who played the original Elite and then Frontier have already been exposed to limitless scale virtual environments to some extent (in regards to Elite it was more imaginative, but with Frontier it was more 'physical' with hands-on experiences - the game had 1/2 billion star systems afterall).

But what I find baffling is that a game of this particular genre still attracts people that seem to want to play within limited boundaries with limited scope. I've seen the same mentality in the gameplay and features forum where ideas people have put thought into and fleshed out are often dismissed without any thought from the naysayer because they can't seem to envision its merits.

Maybe its because we've all been used to limited scope games for so long in the past and it'll take time and the injection of more and more content that we can directly experience before people realise ED isn't your typical game. Its ambition is off the scale so I guess its understandable that its hard for some of us to grasp its potential at the moment. Come game release when the whole thing is opened up and we see it for ourselves I think those naysaying posts will be a thing of the past on here.

 

[Rog]

Personally, the brain-boggling size of the galaxy is just such a compelling aspect of the whole game package.

It's not over the top or pointless at all.

No artificial boundaries, limitless expansion and exploration... just wow.

With lasers, stations, aliens, science, worlds, orbital mechanics, asteroids, pirates, space battles, epic scenery, missions, etc.

What's not to absolutely love about it?

Needs more Newtonian though.... <heads for the hills>

 

[Iskariot]

As I've said before FD is not just creating an open space sim, but is also creating the psychological feeling that goes with it. To achieve that a limited sector based sim (like the X games and Star citizen) is not enough.
I did play the x games, privateer 1 and 2 etc. and had fun with them, but these games never gave me the same feeling of endless space and possibilities as Frontier did. ED will do just that.

 

[Mazhurg]

For anyone who read Ready Player 1, or Bedlam (to a lesser extent) Elite: Dangerous = Multiverse.

Now FD needs to get all those other games to be their own planets

 

[Siggi]

Once part of a planet has been seen (and thus procedurally generated) is the bit that's been seen thereafter persistant? Will it remain the same the next time I see it?

And if I see a whole bunch of that planet, how much memory space will it all take. Then times hundreds of planets?

Or, to put it more simply, how much seen universe can fit in an average PC?

 

[Mazhurg]

Once part of a planet has been seen (and thus procedurally generated) is the bit that's been seen thereafter persistant? Will it remain the same the next time I see it?

And if I see a whole bunch of that planet, how much memory space will it all take. Then times hundreds of planets?

Or, to put it more simply, how much seen universe can fit in an average PC?

All of it. The code for systems and planets is recomputed from the seeds every time it is invoked, so it's only the seeds that (are already stored) use space. The only time additional storage would be required is if modifications to that system/planets are required in a persistent manner that were not part of the original seed algorithms.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Well considering what they were able to fit into a 512k 16 bit machine in Frontier, on a 32gb machine it wouldn't be unreasonable to get 65536 times as much in

 

[Bromley86]

Once part of a planet has been seen (and thus procedurally generated) is the bit that's been seen thereafter persistant? Will it remain the same the next time I see it?

I just want to check this PG thing works the way I think. I saw the DB vid on PG and I think that the procedural generation is all predetermined.

So say there's a planet in a system no one has ever been to. As I understand it, it doesn't matter who discovers it, when they discover it or what else has been discovered before it; in any possible discovery situation, it would always be precisely the same.

Is that right?

 

[Mazhurg]

Yes (/5chr).

 

[Phosphora]

Its ambition is off the scale so I guess its understandable that its hard for some of us to grasp its potential at the moment. Come game release when the whole thing is opened up and we see it for ourselves I think those naysaying posts will be a thing of the past on here.

Strongly agree with the OP. If people want to play in a limited area of the universe, they can. I'd prefer playing in a decent simulation of the galaxy, knowing that there's too much to see in a lifetime of playing. Elite could be one of the few awe-inspiring things in our lives.

Cheers, Phos.

 

[Jetcan]

Sometimes in the Future.......

An Alien Race land on Earth...

found a very old Computer with ED on it......running for years and years alone....forgotten....

they play a litte and found their Home System on the Map...


just dreaming

 

[StayFrosty]

I think the immensity of Elite: Dangerous is better understood when comparing a typical video game to your daily route to work: in a video game, when a path splits in two, forcing you to choose, you always end up exploring both as long as the game allows it, simply because you don't want to miss on content, thus removing the element of choice and exploration; when going to work, you don't do that, because you know that if you try to explore all the side paths on the way, you'll spend the whole day running in circles- how funny is it that despite this immense freedom you're given, you follow the same route every day?

Having a galaxy this huge helps to reproduce this feeling, by giving you so many branching paths that the direction you choose actually matters, making exploration something a whole lot more serious, so you're in fact not driven by a sense of wanting to see all content, but by a goal within the world.

That's why a video game world is only large enough when you're starting to be scared of exploring it because of how huge it is.

 

[natte hond]

But what I find baffling is that a game of this particular genre still attracts people that seem to want to play within limited boundaries with limited scope. I've seen the same mentality in the gameplay and features forum where ideas people have put thought into and fleshed out are often dismissed without any thought from the naysayer because they can't seem to envision its merits.

I don't think we need to worry about it.
their making Elite, and that means it big and almost endless.
as long David makes the game for them selves all should be fine.

 

[StarTux]

But what I find baffling is that a game of this particular genre still attracts people that seem to want to play within limited boundaries with limited scope. I've seen the same mentality in the gameplay and features forum where ideas people have put thought into and fleshed out are often dismissed without any thought from the naysayer because they can't seem to envision its merits.

Maybe its because we've all been used to limited scope games for so long in the past and it'll take time and the injection of more and more content that we can directly experience before people realise ED isn't your typical game. Its ambition is off the scale so I guess its understandable that its hard for some of us to grasp its potential at the moment. Come game release when the whole thing is opened up and we see it for ourselves I think those naysaying posts will be a thing of the past on here.

Spot on post, honestly I think you're onto something here, for the last 10 years we have had only C and at most B- grade space sims, nothing was close to being AAA.

I cannot really understand why anyone would ask for limits as I want to experience the fullness of the cosmos and you cannot if you put in artificial limits. That is something I liked about the opening scenes of the film Gravity, just the feeling of grandeur, which I also get when looking through the Milky way with a wide lens on dark nights at a dark site.