Space Engine Development Thread

[Neutronium]

Upcoming Space Engine 0.9.8.1 will be light years ahead vs the competition regarding rendering of Nebulae and Galactic sprites (and possibly will also introduce volumetric clouds in planet atmospheres at later stages as well as weather effects (tornadoes, etc..)). Here are some screenshots:

It will also be able to animate nebulae expansion over time and simulate supernova explosions: (at a later stage)

https://www.shadertoy.com/user/Duke

Hover over the images in the above site to see the animation effect.

Elite: Dangerous graphics are going to look pretty boring compared to these.. Frontier must seriously think of hiring these guys to work for them if they want to keep there game graphics looking attractive in the future..

 

[lysan]

The clouds are very Alpha stage, I hope FD will do better then that honestly, regarding the rest I think they are upgrading all the graphics by each patch released.

 

[Vasea Azure]

Space Engine is doing best job at rendering realistic space atm in my eyes, also those pics looks amazing.

 

[Jools]

excellent, looks very believable, and its actually high res unlike everything in elite

Elite looks garbage in comparison... compare those effects to the new stellar effect we get in 2.2 and cry

SE is also seamless and allows for viewing of those huge objects (nebulae) in 3d in real time

Space Engine is one of the reasons I laugh maniacally whenever anyone says FD are experts in PG... David used to be, FD have no clue and seem to be at an early research stage with their Pg tech

Now i`m only waiting till commander creator gets released with the in game quality resembling those of the current mission board avatars LOL. The meltdown will be nice to watch (I do hope my predictions are wrong and it will be at least of the quality shown at EGX but i somehow doubt that - i`ll happily eat my words if proved wrong)

(yes i`m at a stage when on one hand I hope the game succeeds and becomes a worthy instalment in Elite franchise, but on the other hand I`m tired, full of anger and I wish it falls and burns taking the company down for their incompetence... and yeah i needed to vent)

 

[Neutronium]

Frontier's rendering of neutron stars and pulsars is not bad. Actually it is looking quite descent and is one aspect I am really looking forward to in the upcoming 2.2 update.

Let's also not through ED into the garbage bin just yet - it still has some aces under its sleeves:
-The planetary 3D rings look really cool (SE has not implemented them yet) but SE rings cast shadows on the planet (and even in the atmosphere).
-Also ED supports complex shadows whereas SE does not. By complex shadows I mean spacecraft and spacecraft parts (windows, walls, etc..) cast shadows on surrounding objects and on each other and planetary structures (buildings, etc) and natural planetary features (mountains, craters, stones, rocks) also cast individual shadows and these shadows are affected by multiple light sources (ship/SRV lights and natural sun lighting).
-Finally ED is a full multiplayer game (with its current problems and limitations) where you can do some basic (and admittedly repetitive and tedious) things to accomplish goals whereas SE is just a planetarium with some limited but scientifically realistic space physics (Neutonian and Relativistic (less realistic but the warp effect looks really cool and is based on science for its appearance). SE has no network capability at the moment.

However Frontier must really push forward with the development of ED since they are a whole team of experts vs SE which is essentially a one man project (lately a few other talented people are helping Space Engineer which is good):
Some more complains:
-Why for example we only get pulsar/neutron star effects and no accretion disks on black holes?? SE has implemented them already (they are 2D but still better than nothing IMO).
-Also SE is still way ahead in atmospheric rendering and lighting on planetary surfaces from multiple sources (lighting is different from shadowing - to have both complex lighting and complex shadowing must be very difficult to code and very hardware resource demanding).

Anyway I enjoy the development of both programs and only the future will tell which one will look better.

 

[Insomnia]

Oh. My. Gawd!! Dem picturez look absolutely mind blowing!!!! And I agree that EDs graphics aren't precisely next gen... Hopefully Frontier will improve the boring nebulaes.

 

[Neutronium]

Some more development pics of the upcoming release. Still plenty of work to do:

Work on HDR (High Dynamic Range) and Auto Exposure:

Post effect Shaders (ala Re-Shade style) but implemented within the engine:

Also this thread belongs in the Space/SciFi Games sub-thread. If a moderator would be so kind to move it there I'd be very thankful.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Moved to Space/Sci-Fi as req.

 

[Neutronium]

Upcoming version update: There will be ability to edit planet features (surface, clouds, etc..) using color palettes and the new nebulae with the in-game editor:

Spoiler

and a bonus video by LifeLive42:

Spoiler

[video=youtube_share;Fuh8bTcW2EM]https://youtu.be/Fuh8bTcW2EM[/video]

 

[govny]

i gifted the autor of this engine some years ago.
It's a shame that this software attract so few interest.
I would like that some software house hired him.

 

[Neutronium]

Space Engine 0.99 Steam version upcoming update (work in progress) news:

SpaceEngine - Steam Launch Anniversary, Development Updates - Steam News

SpaceEngine released on Steam one year ago. Over the past year we focused mostly on bugfixes and stability improvements, but here we explore some awesome features in development.

store.steampowered.com

A handful of talented programmers (~4-5% of the workforce of Frontier and probably less than ~1% of CIG(Star Citizen devs) is developing awe-inspiring software that puts large studios to shame me thinks..

 

[Han Zulu]

Space Engine 0.99 Steam version upcoming update (work in progress) news:

SpaceEngine - Steam Launch Anniversary, Development Updates - Steam News

SpaceEngine released on Steam one year ago. Over the past year we focused mostly on bugfixes and stability improvements, but here we explore some awesome features in development.

store.steampowered.com

A handful of talented programmers (~4-5% of the workforce of Frontier and probably less than ~1% of CIG(Star Citizen devs) is developing awe-inspiring software that puts large studios to shame me thinks..

This caught my eyes: "We will eventually need fuel depot stations, harvesters, and infrastructure like that. The first beta releases may have fuel stations with infinite fuel orbiting some icy worlds - good enough for gameplay testing. Mining and processing will be added later. "

Basic game play in the works. Niiiiiice!

 

[Neutronium]

What caught my eyes was the 3d accretion disks of BHs:

I mean WOOWW! I can't wait to dive into this...

 

[Barking_Mad]

excellent, looks very believable, and its actually high res unlike everything in elite

Elite looks garbage in comparison... compare those effects to the new stellar effect we get in 2.2 and cry

SE is also seamless and allows for viewing of those huge objects (nebulae) in 3d in real time

Space Engine is one of the reasons I laugh maniacally whenever anyone says FD are experts in PG... David used to be, FD have no clue and seem to be at an early research stage with their Pg tech

Now i`m only waiting till commander creator gets released with the in game quality resembling those of the current mission board avatars LOL. The meltdown will be nice to watch (I do hope my predictions are wrong and it will be at least of the quality shown at EGX but i somehow doubt that - i`ll happily eat my words if proved wrong)

(yes i`m at a stage when on one hand I hope the game succeeds and becomes a worthy instalment in Elite franchise, but on the other hand I`m tired, full of anger and I wish it falls and burns taking the company down for their incompetence... and yeah i needed to vent)

I'd suggest it's really not worth getting upset over....

 

[Old Duck]

I'd suggest it's really not worth getting upset over....

Speaking of black holes, you have been sucked into the time dilation field! I mean, the dude was upset four YEARS ago.