Starfields suck...

You should be able to use a static star field if you have larger objects in the scene or in the background. Asteroid fields, capital ships, planets, moons, etc. should give the player an idea of their position. You could also add directional information to the hud (arrows, numbers, degrees, etc.)

There are a couple of things I can think of.

1. Have some kind of particles just flying around in space so the user could figure out where he''s going based on those particles.
2. If you have enough objects close to each other they could be good reference points to figure out where the user is going.
3. You could get the "onboard computer" to display a grid of points that will stand as reference points. The user can always turn the grid on and off.

Here''s a thought. What if you visually blur the ship the player is flying in? When you render the players'' ship, render it normally, but save the position in world coordinates for say, the last 10 frames or so, always dropping off the oldest one. After you render the ship, render a set of ghost images of the ship, displaced by the appropriate coordinate and facing. So, if I''m flying up on the screen, and I turn right, the ghost images behind the ship trail it and make an L shape. If I turn left, they form a backwards looking L.

Use alpha blending to make the ghost images less visible of course, but it should work. How it will look though, I''m not really sure. I don''t think I''ve ever seen it done intentionally before, nor have I seen a space sim where the starfield wasn''t used as a point of reference. Everyone knows it is unrealistic, but they don''t care because it doesn''t detract from the game.

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I think you should just stick to starfields. You don''t need to be completley realistic all the time, after all, they''re just games

Ordinary space objects such as asteroids, planets, nearby stars, etc... will of course be there, but there will also be lots of empty space. So...

* motion blur: well, it''s an interesting idea, but the problem is, the game is first person

* Paticles in space: So basically...a brownish starfield? That would be kind of...weird.

* The on-board computer shows a grid of points...this is interesting, and so far, the best idea I''ve heard. Do you guys think this is reasonable? (Personally, I think it will look cool )

-TheThief

Particles are a really nice way of doing it if there is nothing else around. Anyone remmeber good ol'' tie fighter =)

Heh, it looks....strange. Check it out:


(Ignore the white square)

-TheThief

I would suggest you make a very small grid in the corner (like part of the HUD if u add a cockpit view) that takes up maybe 50*50 pixels and is a semi-dense grid (point every 10 pixels or so) and only make it 50 pixels deep (z). Make the dots move the opposite direction the ship is moving so you can just glance at the cube and know which way you are going =-)

"The Requested Information Is Unknown Or Classified" -Anonymous

Going back to a fairly old game, Wing Commander Privateer used a static background with the occasional few bits of debris(small rocks I think) to convey the feel of a moving starfield without having any stars.

Making the world furry one post at a time

If the game is first person... you would see the stars move around if you rotate the cockpit. But as for foward and back, I like small random asteroides and the local map idea.

OK, my hybrid solution:

1) Background nebula type thing
2) Background stars
3) Small foreground asteroids
4) An arrow type thing in the HUD that will show the direction you're going relative to where you're facing. (this isn't implemented because I don't have a proper cockpit yet)

A shot (the white things are the [currently untextured] asteroids):



It obviously looks quite a bit better in motion, but there's too many bugs in my engine to provide a demo
-TheThief


[edited by - TheThief on July 19, 2002 5:27:33 AM]

Out of all the (excellent) ideas suggested, I''d be inclined to go with Extrarius''s idea of a small instrument on the HUD that shows a little model of your ship, with a 3D grid of points moving past it to indicate relative directions/velocity. You could always make it more multi-purpose if you want to maximise space - maybe have it also visualise damage, compass directions, show weapon impacts, etc.

Other than that, misc. floating debris and large fixed points such as capital ships, planets, etc are always useful. You could go for a grid of points projected onto the main view, but it might get distracting.

I say only 1 thing: I-War.
Ok, well,more then one thing.
I-War had these little ship trails, for starters...useful for dogfights, cos...it was impossible to tell which direction any ship was going in, since direction of the ship and actual movement was seperate (you could turn on quote ''computer assisted'' movement, where it was more like...TIE fighter or whatever)
also, it had a fake starfield, or rather a grid of lines...they stretched in your real movement, which was often different from what direction your ship was pointing OR which direction you were thrusting in...(that sounded bad )
it looked good in action, and it was ''realistic'' because they explained it all in terms of ''computer assisted piloting''...
Um, I can''t give a screenshot, cos I don''t have I-War installed, but I''m sure you can find the demo somewhere - and I hear they''re making a new version of I-War, updated for computers with REAL graphics cards, not fake software ones
I think...the company was...nope I forget
but I remember it looked really cool in action. Even in 640x480.Software.

Hoped that helped...you should really check out I-War, many good ideas for quote realistic unquote space sims...

Thanks for all the help guys! Here's the final result: Test (3.3 MBs)

There isn't much to do except fly around and see how the controls handle. Still, try it out and tell me what you think. Err...if you encounter any...issues ...there is a log file in the 'Logs' directory.

Controls:
A,W,S,D for rolling/pitching
T - Throttle up
G - Throttle at 0
B - Throttle down

-TheThief

[edited by - TheThief on July 19, 2002 8:21:04 PM]

Hey TheThief,

How did you create the blueish cloudy look in your engine? I''m a graphics noob, so any help is appreciated... I understand how you got the flying particles, but did you use a static texture for the other "distant" stars in the background?

Thanks.

The bluish nebula type thing is actually a skybox rendered from 3D Studio Max.(It''s just blue volumetric fog)

In my experience, textured stars tend to look like crap, so I just drew some GL_POINTS that move w/ the camera.

BTW, if you guys want to check on the progress of this thing, you can look at my site: here.

-TheThief

Nice work!

I wonder, would it be feasable to render the points with anti-aliasing enabled? This would prevent them from blinking, more of a smooth transition than pixelized movement.

Otherwise, it might be prudent to render an unscaled point-sprite, to prevent pixelization.



MatrixCubed
http://MatrixCubed.cjb.net

What do you mean blinking? They look fine on my comp.

-TheThief

Well if you are in space then you should have a navigation computer/display that should in all reality be the number one source for where you are and where you are going.

Otherwise just cause you don''t have a moving starfield, doesn''t mean that the stars should not move.

Explanation: you look out a window onto the stars. Even though they are not moving, YOU are, and therefore the stars should move, or your view of the starfield should move as you do. Just like looking out the window of the moving car, the far away mountain does not move but it changes as you do.