SpaceSimCentral

New ship on the sketchfab http://dominium.maksw.com/2015/08/29/balaena-trader-unveiled-on-sketchfab/[/url] and a update about the book. http://dominium.maksw.com/2015/08/25/book-update-insurmountable-odds-edit-complete/[/url] Insurmountable Odds, Book One of When Stars Fall.It is done.Long have I laboured, etc. et al. I can’t tell you how damned good it felt to hit the final ‘Save’ on the document, and Wendy suggested a tweak to the closing paragraph which hit the nail on the head. And I promise, it is definitely, finally, ultimately, no more changes, no more tweaks, adjustments or refinements, done. Complete. Ready.I have written quite a lot in the past – none of which has ever gotten to the point of being publishable (even self-publishable). I’m damned proud of Book One, I just hope it is judged ‘worthy’ by fellow sci-fi readers!Now, on to ePub world, and deciding how I can promote this whole affair…

New ship to ogle. http://dominium.maksw.com/2015/09/05/sulranian-heavy-frigate/[/url]

Hi Pinback! I've just epublished the first book set in my game universe, where would be best to announce it? I was thinking the Sci-fi movies/tv forum, but wasn't 100% sure. Any help appreciated, as ever! (I tried PM'ing you and DarkOne, but it kept saying messages couldn't be sent for some reason... )

Methinks their inboxes might need emptying :girlcrazy: As to where to post details of your book maksw, you bring up an interesting point. The SSC does not have a book section. How about it D1 or Pinback? A new forum section for books?

Hi Pinback! I've just epublished the first book set in my game universe, where would be best to announce it? I was thinking the Sci-fi movies/tv forum, but wasn't 100% sure. Any help appreciated, as ever!You might want to create a new thread here or see answer to Geraldine question. Methinks their inboxes might need emptying :girlcrazy: As to where to post details of your book maksw, you bring up an interesting point. The SSC does not have a book section. How about it D1 or Pinback? A new forum section for books?we already have one here http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/forum/43-scifi-books-and-fan-fiction/[/url]

Cheers Pinback, and thanks Geraldine as ever  I've raised this topic as per your hint Pinback, fingers crossed it sits well with everyone on SSC : http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/5196-announcing-insurmountable-odds-book-one-of-when-stars-fall/[/url]

You might want to create a new thread here or see answer to Geraldine question. we already have one here http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/forum/43-scifi-books-and-fan-fiction/[/url] You do!?! Goodness I must be getting scatty in my old age! :girlwacko: All is well then.

New video blog. 

Update about lights and light sources. 

More about the lighting. http://dominium.maksw.com/2015/11/09/polylux-part-dux/[/url] 

Nice lighting demonstration <looks complicated>, when you sit and think about what really goes into game development its no wonder you need a team of 50 people to get something out within a respectable time frame. Things we take for granted like lighting effects look like they take a ton of time to get right and master with the rest of the environment.

It's a challenge, for sure DarkOne That lighting is only one part of the solution as well. Illuminating the inside of the engine housings will be via lightmapping, which is next on the list. I don't want to soak up valuable light sources in the shader for the glow of an engine, or the ship lights mounted on the hull. When you think about it, these are always 'static' relative to the ship, so they can all be prebaked. The shader is just for dynamic lights. So, really, there will be a lot of 'lighting' going on even in a relatively calm/quiet scene, like parking outside a station. ED does this really well, it has the lushest visuals I've seen tbh. So is this kind of techy-oriented video a good thing? I want to make sure the stuff I do is at least semi-interesting... especially with my droney voice rambling on

Blog post on the state of Dom http://dominium.maksw.com/2015/11/21/state-of-dominium/[/url] suppose the two most likely answers to funding Dominium is another crack at crowd funding or Steams early access both of which have pros and con.

Couple of new updates http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/01/26/reorganised-the-depressing-truth-but-so-what/[/url] and http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/01/28/barely-viable-product-anyone/[/url] Despite the above, I am clearly unstable, and fully intend to plod on. I see the likes of Elite Dangerous and now Star Citizen finally (well, almost) delivering (some of) the vision I had in my head so many years ago, and I know full well that my chance to ‘get there first’ is long gone, and I can never deliver the Dominium before it becomes so old hat no one will care.So what will I do?Well, a rethink on the original rethink of ‘First Playable’ is first. Cut down the Minimum Viable Product feature set that I’d already striven to produce, and move to a ‘Barely Viable Product’ and see how much time is needed for that. Ditch some of the game mechanics for example – so throw out missions/jobs, exploration et al. Get combat and trading done, lock the player to a single vessel experience, go ‘old skool’ gameplay, perhaps more arcade like (start game, fight, die, new life, rinse repeat). Sound like a plan, get something put together and put it out in the wild internet if nothing else it may get the game some attention.

Maksw has been enjoying himself with a bit of bug hunting. http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/03/03/the-bug-bane/[/url]

But, that all said, it’s leaving me with an increasingly robust ‘fly about space n’ stuff’ system, which is giving me a much needed ‘warm and cosy’ feeling. It shouldn’t be long before it’s all locked down and solid, allowing me to return to putting the ‘stuff’ into space so you can fly around and reliably encounter it.Progress is progress, I know Maksw would probably much rather stick new stuff in the game but this process is probably the most important and time consuming. More bugs you squash now the less later and even more important the gamers on steam seem to love to kill games in early access because of bugs so you have better chances in their ranking system if bugs are minimum.

For sure sscadmin - bugs are truly the bane of a developers life. No one wants them. No one should code them. But, they happen nonetheless Interesting point on Steam Early Access - it's obvious when you think about it, but it's great you pointed it out. Probably as a developer I'd be more forgiving of a bug ridden Early Access if the game itself stood out. But, the first bite is with the eye... it would be totally understandable for someone to just go 'Yep, nah, next' if they were thwarted by bugs from the off. Mental note taken - Early Access - hammer it before submitting to Steam.

Maksw still on his bug hunt http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/03/29/busted-bugs/[/url] I tend to think Steams early access is very much a double edged sword for indie devs, although it will give a game greater exposure it also tends to bring a lot of demanding players and if updates are not forthcoming they will leave negative reviews which I have read has an impacted on sales.

Materials and faulty laptops in this blog update. http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/04/22/pbr-on-the-horizon/[/url] Due to having no laptop this past week, I decided to do some research on Physically Based Rendering.I’d been planning to tackle something along these lines since I first created 666’s material system back in 2003. Back then, I’d been inspired by id’s Quake material system, and created my own extensible one that could allow a material to be assigned ‘properties’ – like metal, wood, etc. The idea back then was to tailor sound effects to the material, so you would get the appropriate ‘walking on wood/metal’ effects, and so on without an artist/level designer having to pither about doing extra markup. They just apply a ‘metal class’ material to the level floor where they want it, and voila. Clank, clank, clank.

Update o the book. http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/06/08/insurmountable-odds-v1-1-published/[/url] A quick announcement that the (very long awaited) v1.1 edits have finally been uploaded to Google Play,Amazon and Kobo! v1.1 sees a lot (far too many!) of spelling and grammatical fixes, and a small bonus section for any fans of Horthaz near the end of the book But, more importantly, there are no plot or character changes.I promise, emphatically and passionately, that there will be no more edits to Book 1, provided I haven’t fluffed up the latest ePub that is!Now I can breathe a sigh of relief and start pulling Book Two together at long last.Enjoy!