So you want to go to space ? Now ? Yesterday ? Darn, you are not an pilot ?! And not even a physicist with a couple of PhDs ? You must have a lot of money then ? No ? Sorry, mate, stand in the queue, err, take a bus that will take you to the end of it, somewhere on the horizon ..
There is a lot of progress in the field of micro and nano launchers, but at least me, i'm a tad out of nano category, so how then ?
What about a virtual reality, would that do, at least to lessen impatience and tensions in the line ?
If anyone with a computer connected to Net, some idea about space and will to make something about it, could try it there ?
I think it would, at least to the extent, and i'm not the first or the only one thinking that way.
I'm after this:
- it should be based on physical reality, which means celestial bodies orbiting, not just hanging there, proper mechanic, with all Newtons and Einsteins trickery;
- realistic hardware, engines, tanks, habitats, all the works based on something realistically doable, no unproven tech (maybe more precise about this later) ;
- 1st person perspective mostly, more MMORPG than strategic;
- real landscape, based as much as possible on publicly available photos and other data, such as height maps and spectral analysis;
- collaboration and organizational tools for participants, chats, shared drawing, video, external connections, tools for groups and bigger organizations;
- production facilities for participants;
- internal market for fabricated goods;
- distributed server system, similar to WWW server networks, with clients capable to transparently change servers and context.
- based on open source, to allow independence from any company policy.
From a first glance, i would compare this to a cross between Second Life and Eve on-line.
They both have their pluses and minuses but i'm not happy with any of them. They are definitely worth checking, which i did, but as i said, this is not it, mainly because i can't run my own server to mess with. Besides, they are both too virtual.
What would pass, would be for example http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulatorx/ Flight Simulator FSX or http://www.flightgear.org/ Flight Gear but for space and with multiplayer environment.
http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/ Orbiter looks pretty neat, and i recommend you to watch Atlantis landing in the tutorial, it's really scary
Here is a list of software i'm currently checking, to see if it fits my purposes:
Mulitplayer server :
- Project DarkStar http://projectdarkstar.com/
- World Forge http://www.worldforge.org/
3D engine:
- Ogre3D http://www.ogre3d.org/
Programming tools:
- Eclipse http://www.eclipse.org/
- MinGW (gcc and binutils for Win) http://www.mingw.org/
- QT Tools http://qt.nokia.com/
- CodeBlocks http://www.codeblocks.org/
- MS Visual Studio 2008 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en
Graphic tools:
- GIMP http://www.gimp.org/
- QCAD http://www.qcad.org/
- Inkscape http://www.inkscape.org/
- Sketchup http://sketchup.google.com/
- Milkshape http://chumbalum.swissquake.ch/
- Blender http://www.blender.org/
database server
- mySQL http://www.mysql.com/
binding tech
- Collada https://collada.org/mediawiki/index.php ... nge_Schema
- XML http://www.w3.org/XML/
There's a couple of existing open source 3d games, that could be re-purposed, but i haven't checked them under the hood yet, to see how much complication would that involve.
Finding 3d models to use is not such a show stopper these days anymore and here's some links:
- http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ (Sketchup exports to Collada, no worries)
- http://archive3d.net/
- http://www.digitaldreamdesigns.com/3DModels.htm
i'm not putting more, 'cause these are not so good, i bet there are better.
There are also many modding communities where you can find models complete with mesh, texture and skeleton, basic animations and so on. Life is much easier with these resources, just check what authors expect from you.
Example, not totally in context:
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/
While i'm dreaming in technicolor(tm), others are getting ready to launch more of online games, like Star Trek On-Line and NASA Moonbase Alpha and perhaps more.
What else is out there ?
There is a lot of progress in the field of micro and nano launchers, but at least me, i'm a tad out of nano category, so how then ?
What about a virtual reality, would that do, at least to lessen impatience and tensions in the line ?
If anyone with a computer connected to Net, some idea about space and will to make something about it, could try it there ?
I think it would, at least to the extent, and i'm not the first or the only one thinking that way.
I'm after this:
- it should be based on physical reality, which means celestial bodies orbiting, not just hanging there, proper mechanic, with all Newtons and Einsteins trickery;
- realistic hardware, engines, tanks, habitats, all the works based on something realistically doable, no unproven tech (maybe more precise about this later) ;
- 1st person perspective mostly, more MMORPG than strategic;
- real landscape, based as much as possible on publicly available photos and other data, such as height maps and spectral analysis;
- collaboration and organizational tools for participants, chats, shared drawing, video, external connections, tools for groups and bigger organizations;
- production facilities for participants;
- internal market for fabricated goods;
- distributed server system, similar to WWW server networks, with clients capable to transparently change servers and context.
- based on open source, to allow independence from any company policy.
From a first glance, i would compare this to a cross between Second Life and Eve on-line.
They both have their pluses and minuses but i'm not happy with any of them. They are definitely worth checking, which i did, but as i said, this is not it, mainly because i can't run my own server to mess with. Besides, they are both too virtual.
What would pass, would be for example http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulatorx/ Flight Simulator FSX or http://www.flightgear.org/ Flight Gear but for space and with multiplayer environment.
http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/ Orbiter looks pretty neat, and i recommend you to watch Atlantis landing in the tutorial, it's really scary
Here is a list of software i'm currently checking, to see if it fits my purposes:
Mulitplayer server :
- Project DarkStar http://projectdarkstar.com/
- World Forge http://www.worldforge.org/
3D engine:
- Ogre3D http://www.ogre3d.org/
Programming tools:
- Eclipse http://www.eclipse.org/
- MinGW (gcc and binutils for Win) http://www.mingw.org/
- QT Tools http://qt.nokia.com/
- CodeBlocks http://www.codeblocks.org/
- MS Visual Studio 2008 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en
Graphic tools:
- GIMP http://www.gimp.org/
- QCAD http://www.qcad.org/
- Inkscape http://www.inkscape.org/
- Sketchup http://sketchup.google.com/
- Milkshape http://chumbalum.swissquake.ch/
- Blender http://www.blender.org/
database server
- mySQL http://www.mysql.com/
binding tech
- Collada https://collada.org/mediawiki/index.php ... nge_Schema
- XML http://www.w3.org/XML/
There's a couple of existing open source 3d games, that could be re-purposed, but i haven't checked them under the hood yet, to see how much complication would that involve.
Finding 3d models to use is not such a show stopper these days anymore and here's some links:
- http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ (Sketchup exports to Collada, no worries)
- http://archive3d.net/
- http://www.digitaldreamdesigns.com/3DModels.htm
i'm not putting more, 'cause these are not so good, i bet there are better.
There are also many modding communities where you can find models complete with mesh, texture and skeleton, basic animations and so on. Life is much easier with these resources, just check what authors expect from you.
Example, not totally in context:
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/
While i'm dreaming in technicolor(tm), others are getting ready to launch more of online games, like Star Trek On-Line and NASA Moonbase Alpha and perhaps more.
What else is out there ?
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