The Planetary landing and planetside missions discussion Thread

[Tinman]

I don't think it's asset loading as such...it's probably has more to do with you leaving normal SC than everyone can connect to no matter if they have the expansion or not and then entering a mode of travel that only Horizons owners can connect to. That hand off must happen somewhere during descent after all.

The planets are already done in the same way as the examples you listed even if we so far haven't had the terrain displacement enabled/implemented.

 

[Neo-ST]

I see, yes, makes sense.
So, "seamless".

 

[Phyl]

Do we know the definitive answer?

No, but we should soon once in-game footage is released. Until then all speculation no how it will (or won't) work is a bit pointless really.

 

[Tinman]

I see, yes, makes sense.
So, "seamless".

All games are "seamless".

It's all a question of how smooth you can make transitions when streaming in new content and LOD systems.

Play around with SpaceEngine and you'll see the same thing if you go down to fast towards the surface so that your computer doesn't have time to render out the details in time. Things will be extremely low res until more details starts to "pop" into place.

 

[Neo-ST]

I just asked, no harm intended.
You never know, maybe someone from Gamescom knows something we don't, or maybe a dev could comment on this, etc.

 

[askavir]

Taken from here:




Now, this sounds like contradiction to me.
If there's "orbital cruise", then we'll have to drop in/out of it, in other words, it's a gimmick to allow for assets loading, meaning it's not really seamless.

Really seamless would be something like how Space Engine / Outerra / I-Novae Studios does it (just youtube/google it if you haven't seen).

Do we know the definitive answer?

I'm actually a little more concerned with the "> choose anywhere (surface allowing) to land on the planet/moon" part.... Does this mean than we can't just fly down to the surface and land? Do we have to previously "select a spot"?

 

[salad]

Well, Orbital Cruise to Planet means it will be as seamless as No Man's Sky, which I think its good enough, if you watch NMS videos its always Orbit to Planet, they never arrive from deep space like we do in Elite.

I think the drop from SC to Orbital Cruise will definitely help loading some assets but I'm ok with it.

 

[Wolvie]

Isn't orbital cruise there because a descent to the planet surface at normal cruise speed would take a lot longer than people would accept (gameplay wise), so orbital cruise is somewhere between super cruise and normal cruise speeds.

 

[Tinman]

I'm actually a little more concerned with the "> choose anywhere (surface allowing) to land on the planet/moon" part.... Does this mean than we can't just fly down to the surface and land? Do we have to previously "select a spot"?

You can fly anywhere you want totally free form.

 

[Saool]

There is going to be a new 'speed':

- Supercruse between systems
- Supercruse in systems
- 'Orbital speed' (or whatever it will be called)
- Normal speed

You will approach very close to a planet (I assume to the distance you would normally automatically drop) at which point you will transition to high orbit (in the same way as you drop at a station), at which point you can cruise around or you down to the planet.

This was all from an interview with the devs as Gamescon, But I can't find the link right now. I'll update when I find it.

 

[Neo-ST]

I'm actually a little more concerned with the "> choose anywhere (surface allowing) to land on the planet/moon" part.... Does this mean than we can't just fly down to the surface and land? Do we have to previously "select a spot"?

How do you mean? It says "choose anywhere", meaning you can land in the middle of nowhere, or at some points of interest, or wherever you want.

- - - Updated - - -

There is going to be a new 'speed':

- Supercruse between systems
- Supercruse in systems
- 'Orbital speed' (or whatever it will be called)
- Normal speed

You will approach very close to a planet (I assume to the distance you would normally automatically drop) at which point you will transition to high orbit (in the same way as you drop at a station), at which point you can cruise around or you down to the planet.

This was all from an interview with the devs as Gamescon, But I can't find the link right now. I'll update when I find it.

Thanks, so Orbital Cruise will be a minigame where you'll need to battle your ship ala interdiction-avoidance style?

 

[LetoAtreides2]

It's going to be another mini-game, like the one for interdictions.

 

[Evil]

Taken from here:

Now, this sounds like contradiction to me.
If there's "orbital cruise", then we'll have to drop in/out of it, in other words, it's a gimmick to allow for assets loading, meaning it's not really seamless.

Really seamless would be something like how Space Engine / Outerra / I-Novae Studios does it (just youtube/google it if you haven't seen).

Do we know the definitive answer?

Yeah, they will have asset changes, that's where it comes in, things such as changes from PG cloud texture restrained to a sphere to a volumetric cloud shader etc.... The only other option is to have a slow entry from space to atmosphere level, with background threads loading anything required.

 

[Rezri]

From what I gathered during the Ed Lewis & Eddie Symons discussions at Gamescom:

As it is now, when we approach too close to planet, we emergency drop out. Once Horizons goes live, those that have opted in to Horizons, upon getting close enough, will put those CMDRs into orbital cruise rather than emergency drop.

Being clear up front: I have no insider info on this. My own thoughts on possibilities: "Choosing your landing spot" sounds to be (but only the devs would know) a means to then calculate an entry angle. You pick the area on the surface you want to land upon, and then maybe a guiding line is generated to follow your way down similar to a glide slope while maintaining proper speed as your altitude drops? Again, only the devs know, and it is only a matter of time, I think, before we all do

 

[nexxo]

There is going to be a new 'speed':

- Supercruse between systems
- Supercruse in systems
- 'Orbital speed' (or whatever it will be called)
- Normal speed

Dude, you forgot: LUDICROUS SPEED!!!

 

[Ian Phillips]

Do we know the definitive answer?

Of course we don't. That's why it's being talked about!

 

[Barking_Mad]

I'm actually a little more concerned with the "> choose anywhere (surface allowing) to land on the planet/moon" part.... Does this mean than we can't just fly down to the surface and land? Do we have to previously "select a spot"?

Hi, no that's just down to how I have written it in the text. As far as I remember from the stream you can land anywhere you choose, with the condition being (as I understood it) that it's a reasonably flat spot to land.

edit: so trying to land on the side of a mountain wouldn't work.

 

[askavir]

How do you mean? It says "choose anywhere", meaning you can land in the middle of nowhere, or at some points of interest, or wherever you want.

Hope you're right, but there will be the need to drop from orbital cruise to normal speed, and let's hope its "seamless" and "free"...

 

[Neo-ST]

Dude, you forgot: LUDICROUS SPEED!!!

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view1/3989087/ludicrous-speed-o.gif

They've gone to plaid

What does this even matter?

Really sucks how people are psyching up to complain about horizons before they even know more than the bare bones about it. Tell you what, you tell yourself beforehand that it'll suck enough times, and it WILL suck for you when it's released. That's your call, and your loss.

I intend to find out all about it when it's released, and enjoy myself.

Hardly "psyching up", just politely asking if there's more info on the matter.

 

[Evil]

From what I gathered during the Ed Lewis & Eddie Symons discussions at Gamescom:

As it is now, when we approach too close to planet, we emergency drop out. Once Horizons goes live, those that have opted in to Horizons, upon getting close enough, will put those CMDRs into orbital cruise rather than emergency drop.

Being clear up front: I have no insider info on this. My own thoughts on possibilities: "Choosing your landing spot" sounds to be (but only the devs would know) a means to then calculate an entry angle. You pick the area on the surface you want to land upon, and then maybe a guiding line is generated to follow your way down similar to a glide slope while maintaining proper speed as your altitude drops? Again, only the devs know, and it is only a matter of time, I think, before we all do

Well I assume the drop out will be accurate, since you can just do a intersection test between a ray from the ship in space and the planet sphere mesh, that way you can drop the player out at exactly the location where the entry point was made. Well that's how I would do it....