thank you for the memory 🙂

the game is still being developed but real life kicked in. literaly - my wife got pregnant so now the progress of the game will be much slower. especialy as she throws up 10 time per day.

regarding cockpit - good news and a bad news.

good news are that ive indeed managed to cover the model with nice textures and improve it a bit. so it looks like this:

bad news are that as the game max resolution is 640/480 the quality suffers badly.

but stil heres the video i just uploaded for you.

[vimeo]15624486[/vimeo]

the cockpit as for now is not interactive, and as you can see the monitors screens are white blank as i havent designed their gui yet.

i want to realse an alpha demo badly. just one solar system for beggining. just to let players get in touch with the game. but at the same time i am affraid to do so as the alpha demo will propably scare off more people then it lures.

you can propably call this post an "exclusive" for spacesimcentral as i havent posted this even at my dev blog

BTW: umm how this [vimeo] tak actualy works?

Congratulations Irbis. Now you will need to add trips to the store and dr into your development plan and once the baby is born then the development will slow down a bit until you get that routine down 🙂 Finally all our kids are in school, no more diapers.

But back the video... this is a good start in my opinion. The cockpit looks very functional and you have some blinking lights and a flickering monitors. And you even got the lights flickering from time to time this sets the atmosphere of a used ship. I take you have plans for the used to click on the monitors to bring up that screens output... maybe that amber green color like in Fallout PIP. As for the resolution are you designing in 640x480 or is this just temporary while in development? I know from the video you have that empty space below the cockpit, is that going to be utilized or are you going with a 'landscape' look for the experience and not full screen?

I would hold off personally, because your first thought is probably correct on opinions. But these days people have forgotten what 'alpha' actually means. But just the occasional post and screenshots during development shows progress and dedication.

I fixed it. But if you mouse-over the vimeo button it will give you a tooltip. It asks you only for the ID# not the full URL. I also have a KB article on how to use all the BBCodes and have examples.

thank you kindly friend 🙂

as for the cockpit animated stuff. its not just animation. all the things have their patterns based on code with % variables so yes, things happends from time to time depending on your luck (lights flikering, power bar going donw and up, some buzzes, random asteroid flying outside, ect).

and yes those metal bar on the top and bottom are designed for some sort of gui. i will propably place description window there. so when you pick diffrent monitors it actualy reminds its function. also i have in mind that any changes done via monitors should have some sort of effect on the screen. so when you chose e.g to launch the tunneler the two bars far in the cockpit will start charging until they will reach the optimal power ect.

as for the monitors it self i plan to make them as pop-ups. so when you select the monitor the view changes just as you would move you head looking at it (in order to enhance the ilussion of being the pilot, not the ship).

but be aware of the rather sad thing: this is not the view in which you fly around the space. its just the view from you spaceship bridge. the actual flying will be still top-down.

ofcourse behind the player there are doors which leads to the rest of your spaceship, which you can walk around, do things. as for the space undr the cockpit... well, ive imagined me siting in place like this, and i though i should see my legs, hands, parts fo the chair ect but well - this is a very risky design for me as making this cockpit as you see it now took me over 2 weeks to make from scratch (no 3D modeling, texturing knowledge).

as for the monitors ive decided to cut the ship functions into 5 of them. so the information about cargo hold, knowledge datebase, weapons and devices instaled are stored in diffrent monitor units.

some of them are crusial to know, some of them are just for the "feeling". like the radio.

any time you select the radio you can start scaning for transmisions and sometimes... remember the movie Contact? when the "aliens" show us the transmision of Hitler talk from 50 years ago? thats the thing. the radio, when not being requaired to advance in the game world, will sometimes provides strange transmisions that are flying in space from even centuries...

in core the game can be played and "finished" without discovering much. but if you wanna know "why the spaceship havent had any remains of crew", or who/what exactly is that flikering dark being from intro, or any other secrets you must dig deep into all such extra content. and you have my word on this - i am not giving away the mystery of the game on a silver plate. this should also add some some power to the replayblitie of the game. (did i mentioned many endings depending on what you have done/achieved in game?)

in pill - if the player thinks the main storyline will reveal all the sercets, he'll be damn disapointed 🙂

and yeah, you are propably right Darkone, realsing such a small and raw demo maybe isnt a good idea but... then again i recive such a small feedback. and its the feedback that makes my wheels spin. i though that if i maybe give people something to actualy PLAY they might get hocked and grow a fanbase.

EDIT:

oh almost forgoten about your resolution question.

640/480 is the engine lmitation. actualy it was even lower but ive managed to increase it. i know how bad the game may look when compared to all this next gen graphics - thats why i want to pack it up with solid content.

like with rouglikes. i dont belive anybody finds it cool to watch ASCII characters as the graphics but many of them have a very solid gameplay.

also the engine i am using is the only one, plain, if not -dumb- enough for such a amature like me to use.

basicly i am just a generic writer with head full of ideas, but without any other talents. thats why it takes me soo long.

this cockpit ive made in 2 weeks of work, when i am 100% sure a descent graphics artist would create the same if not better over night or two.

EDIT2:

oh and thank you for fixing the vimeo link 🙂 see? i am that dumb when it comes to technial stuff.

Congratulations Irbis and mrs Irbis.

Inless you have a self imposed deadline I would not worry about how long it take to do.

thank you very much 🙂

and well, my dealline is measured by my own lifespan heh. but something before one year would be nice.

What language are you using? if you're writing C++, I'd recommend Irrlicht. I'm an amateur myself and found it quite easy to use (especially when only using 2d), with easily managable GUI objects. And it has native support for all DirectX and OpenGL versions (i.e. you can select your prefered interface by a single line of code).

ummm i belive its a variation of pearl language.

the whole "engine" is more like a software designed to make games. thats why i am so ashamed even to call its name here.

its like saying i use windows calculator to find out and define "Pi" number.

Had a thought here and not sure if you have already have thought of this. But in your cockpit view you have different monitors for different output for the user. Do you plan on doing some of these:

- If you don't have certain hardware components installed on your ship than that monitor won't even be shown. Like if you don't have a inventory/cargo computer and your cargo is just placed in the hold then monitor is not needed. But if all cargo is scanned in and your running more updated systems you will always have a running count of what is in the holds. Or depending on the module you buy for your knowledgebase/library you get different types of data. So say you buy the cheap galaxy disc, which only includes faction control and location. But the higher end module lists all that plus, mining resources, lifeforms, civilizations, previous scans of the world from other explorers etc...

- Like to possibly see your monitors go down and stop working depending on the damage taken on your ship or because you are re-routing power to critical systems.

- And will one of the monitors be a comm monitor so you can see the npc your interacting with?

I don't see that as an issue at all Irbis. Personally I would like nothing more to test early stage games to give feedback. And I don't think it would be a huge issue here since most people on SSC are a great group of passionate gamers. It's when you open the flood gates and let everyone try it that you get the whacko feedback sometimes 🙂

Oh and Irbis when you get some time checkout Starfight VI: StarFight VI: Gatekeepers

I think you can really take something away from this when playing the first hour of this game.

Darkone! this is actualy a GREAT idea! unlockble/upgradble parts of the cockpit! ill write this down right now!

i have this planed but more drastic. at some point of the hull damage, the devices and systems stops working, then weapons (so you need to avoide getting in fights and flee away when this damage is done), then even the engines - untl you'll fix them.

yes and no. as its a cool feature but radio/voice transmision should be enough (especialy as just few NPC would be interested in reavling their actual look to strangers - if you catch my drift)

hohoho! i am a FANATIC of StarFlight serie games. my goal is to gather all the best features and ideas and throw them all into one basket - with a bit of my personal flavor.

i know, i aim very high. maybe even too high. but then again - i cant aim lower.

the ability to land and actualy be able to have a walk around would be nice

that is certain. just as space flying has layers (sector, solar systems, orbits) the planetary gameplay has them too.

basicly its a huge globe, with free roaming, and some "points of interest". whoever played Fallout 1 or 2 should know what i have in mind. its like a map on which you travel with many places marked or hidden on the map(so you need to discover them 😉 ), just like cities and random encounters were in F1&2. then when you hit the marked spot you enter it and the view changes to closer one. but you can always "check" the spot you are on the map even if theres no special mark below. (this way for example, you can check forest "tiles", "hills" tiles, rivers ect. and interact with them (go fishing, mining, foraging herbs or hunt lifeforms ect).

i hope you like this design. i would love to have it in a games i play so i though others would also.

coolios i liked knights of the old republics free roaming ability

i can understand that no ones ever gonna build spaces grand theft auto (totaly freeroaming galaxy)

but one day i will see this vision become a reality lol

hmm, wasnt Star Wars Galaxies like that? never played it but thats what ive heard.

and i dream about such a game too 🙂 with nice graphics, superb interaction.

hold on - that would be VR 😆

Ah but what about your ships sensors? Wouldn't they mean that you would know of all locations unless one was deliberately hidden?

I suppose you could just have radar for ships, which would still mean that you know where something is but just not what it is.

PS. I love Fallout1+2 so any similarities are a very good thing, I was just pointing out the sensor 'problem' 🙂

[vimeo]15624486[/vimeo]

That makes me think of Starbug from Red Dwarf. Would make a nice change from the clean perfect spaceships we usually see. Proper realism! When you think about what life would really be like in a spaceship. Imagine a submarine. You'd be in there for days or even weeks.

Just read through this and am hopeful the project is still ongoing.

Last time I talked with Irbis about Hidden Space it was getting put on the shelf for a while and he was going to work on another project or two. Think Grindspace is also in that category. I want to say that the engine that he was using to develop with (think it was Construct) was missing some features to continue with his vision of Hiddenspace. I do hope he does get back on track as well because I have seen some shots of that cockpit looking somewhat functional and that concept is a nice one to have.

Well this sure brings back some beautiful memories! Makes one remember where he once was. And what a bumpy and long journey it had been and is. Now I have 4 published games on my belt. About 20 unfinished prototypes. I've learned so many things and met so many people.