My dream for entering stations / cities

[Tichy]

In Oolite there's an expansion that implements some of your ideas. If you want to try: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Life_in_the_Frontier

[FluffyFreak]

I don't want this thread to die since we're talking more about stations and UI these days.

Also:





how to use print screen

[impaktor]

Looking very promising! Does terrain generation work for this most non-shperical object?

[bszlrd]

Let me add my experiments of similar topic then. :)




The shutter segments are animating nicely, on an about one day period.
That O'Neill's on LEO is quite nicely visible from the ground, especially when those shutter segments are open:

[FluffyFreak]

The O'Neill cylinder is interesting but I've never understood how the lighting would look inside of one of those.

Would it continuously shift because the cylinder would spin for a (minimal) feeling of gravity? If so then the sun will track across the sky very rapidly. It feels too fast even on an orbital with a diameter bigger than the Earths so that'll be interesting to see.

@Impaktor, yes it's using the terrain generation from planets :) Still very much a work-in-progress as the generation is wrong (and there's no collision) but the rendering is nearly there.

[bszlrd]

The O'Neill's supposed to work like this: Spins for gravity, even a 1G gravity is achievable with about 90 seconds for one rotation with 2km diameter.
The length axis always facing the sun and the segments opening and closing are huge ass mirrors, reflecting in sunlight:

So it's a bit like the sun is rising and setting, if you are viewing from a good point, and with straight mirrors:
From one end, mirrors at 45 degree:

From the other end, mirrors are almost closed:




With curved mirrors the reflections are a bit odder:



The images are gray, because I was unable to get cycles to properly light up the inside only from the reflected light, so there's some AO. (I think it could work, but would took quite a while to render)

Also, there should be actually two of them, O'Neill and co figured out a way to spin up the whole thing 360° a day by playing with differences in rotations, so it's always pointed at the sun, without RCS (I don't get it properly):


Edit: Hmm, it seems I had it wrong before, I realized re-reading the article: the mirrors aren't closing, but opening up to 90° to simulate Night, by letting in the stary sky, but not reflecting in the sunlight.

[bszlrd]

Also some additional reading to fuel the megalomania: McKendree cylinder. 460km radius, 4600km long. Made of carbon nanotubes instead of steel to allow the bigger size.
That's 6 642 400 km^2, about 2/3rd of Europe. O_o Now I want to see these in the game :D

[FluffyFreak]

Ah right now I understand :)
Also that site has info on the "Banks Orbital" that I'm aiming for http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4845ef5c4ca7c

Using terrain for the inner surface of various other kind should also be possible eventually. So you could use them for O'Neill and McKendree cylinders.

[FluffyFreak]

impaktor, back onto your topic :)

I've bene digging out interesting code/generation examples and ideas lately and these two struck me as related to what you're investigating.
Procedurally generating Zelda maps http://www.beckylavender.co.uk/the-zeld ... rator.html
Unity based wave function collapse levels/maps https://selfsame.itch.io/unitywfc

[impaktor]

We (me, nozmajner and sturnclaw) had a discussion on 3D vs 2D inner stations the other day. My position can be summarized as so:
- making our current 3D orbital stations, scaled for "ship sized player interaction", takes 1-2 years for a very skilled 3D artist.
- making interior for 2D station takes a unskilled hack like me ~1 hour (after I've compiled some tile sets, that I now have), and work process can easily generalize so anyone else can add more such environments with similar time scales.

My purpose for wanting to leave the ship is not for providing the player with amazing stunning graphics of swaying grass, but to give the player more cool *stuff* to do. Assassinate, abduct, stun, bargan, fist-fight, at individual level.

Main reason for this post: to share my mockup map, where I've assembled tile sets and learned tiled map editor:

Top left: the Bar, here the bartender will wisper rumours, and guests might offer you illegal missions, if you have the reputation for it.
Center bottom: lobby, where you enter/leave the station/your ship
Left bottom: market, walk to terminal and place order (for legal goods).
Right bottom shipmarket / repair-shop
center: Personal equpment shop, buy bulletproof vest, medi-kit, guns, stun-rod, smoke grenade,...
a bit to the right: Hospital, repair your fragile frame.

(in future, one can add the landing pads, with ship model rendered from suitable angle (above/isometric)).

So as far as I'm concerned, the 2D assets needed are already in place (as shown in picture), for all the game mechanics I'd like to see to be included. Tile sets can later very easily be updated, tile by tile, or/and shifted to isometric.