https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/12grru/i_am_chris_roberts_creator_of_wing_commander/c6uxth9/, Chris Roberts Reddit AMA, Nov 1st, 2012
Word is they still can't do seamless anything.
What is this "seamless transition" nonsense anyway?
- start off in your wan...erm, space pod
- requisition your space chariot
- enter space chariot
- plot a course for the moon|planet you see in the map
- jump/fly to spherical object representing the moon|planet
- fly ahead as you enter the sphere, you breach the atmosphere and enter the moon|planet. no cut scene
- land space chariot, exit. do stuff
- to leave, enter space chariot, go vertical, reach escape velocity, breach atmosphere, end up in space
To see this in action:
- watch any movie from ED; though they only have some moons and planetoids which you can land on
- watch any movie from Battlespace Infinity (it took them forever to get it done right btw)
- watch any movie from Universal Combat. Though I cheat somewhat by using an external camera transition when the moon|planet gravity grabs the ship
To have a truly seamless transition, you need a scene manager that is capable of handling not just the objects (planets, moons, stations, players, asteroid fields etc) in the space but also stuff inside them. In the case of stations, those are the internal hand-crafted levels; which is how you can land your chariot at a station, then enter it in fps.
Even though they've been touting "procedural planets" since last year, and then changed it to moons for 3.0, they are only apparently able to add moon/asteroid objects in the scene like they do stations. This will allow you to land on them like you would a station.
Apparently what you saw at CitizenCon 2016, even though they've come out and said it was R&D anyway, isn't actually working for a production client/server build. That's why they switched to moons since they are smaller, mostly rock, don't need that much detail to look interesting etc. Basically, they're doing what ED, LoD, COD:IW, ME:A et al are doing. Except that ED doesn't yet have space legs. And even they are having problems ranging from collision detect (you can fall right through the world) issues, popping, bland assets - and nothing to do. Yet, they are saying all of this is coming in mid July. Why it's not surprising that they've starting cutting stuff from 3.0 and deferring it. Which is not an issue in itself, since that happens all the time. The issue is that, once again, it's mid-2017 by the time 3.0 comes out, and sources are saying it's not going to be much progress; and certainly not what backers are thinking is coming.
I wrote this missive back in Feb this year. ALL THE PROCEDURAL PLANETS PROMISES TO DATE
Line Of Defense does not have seamless space<->planetary transitions because 1) the bases on the planets are all handcrafted 2) they needed to be separate so that our networking tech can better handle "per scene" updates, and thus be able to handle a large number of players. Mass Effect: Adromeda also does it this way.
Remember this nonsense?
Chris Roberts on Star Citizen's Procedural Planets, Alpha 3.0, & CitizenCon, September 24, 2016
Chris Roberts on Character Tech, Weather System, & Engine Architecture, September 24, 2016
Roberts: Star Citizen Is Now ‘Best Damn Everything Simulation, Sep 27, 2016
- - - Updated - - -
Agreed. But the thing is that, like everything else, they've been hyping this up to such a point that backers are at fever pitch already. Like Star Marine; which nobody is playing.
Last edited:
The fun for the old timers is the repeated loop of when a certain opinionated poster posts and the next group of attack commandos parachute in to joust with them and try and bait folks into getting banned. It tends to happen every couple of months!
