Magellanic
07-28-2008, 12:47 AM
If you haven't heard about this, it's an MMO Space/Flight Sim currently under development called Infinity: The Quest For Earth. Check out what's been accomplished so far (links to pics)...
Planetary terrain (http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/Media/Misc/terrain_34_med.jpg)
A Flamberge (http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/Media/Screenshots/flamberge12.jpg)
A nebula rendered in realtime (http://fl-tw.com/Infinity/Media/Screenshots/nebulae38_med.jpg)
A shadowing example (epic) (http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Media/Screenshots/csm_4.jpg)
And a video demonstration of the planetary / space engine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-4OeWL1sCw&feature=related
# Open ended gameplay: unlike many other games, Infinity does not force you to play in any specific way. The game is race-less, class-less and skill-less. You can play as a merchant, trade, mine asteroids or minerals on planets, explore the galaxy, do scientific research, create your own industrial corporation.. or, if you are more into action, play as a space pirate.. at your own risk.
# Real-time fighting: most MMORPGs today use a turn-based approach to combat. In Infinity, you are directly controling your spaceship movements and lasers. Your own skills and dexterity will make the difference, not a bunch of stats on your character!
# Persistent universe: infinity is a massively, multiplayer online game. The universe is persistent. When you are not playing online, the game does not stop. Other players continue to play, the universe evolves, and new things are always happening.
# Procedural universe: procedural programming is a technique to let the computer generate the game universe on-the-fly, in real-time on request, rather than manually building everything. Because of this, the generated universe can be absolutely huge. In Infinity, billions of worlds, most of them never explored by any player, are awaiting the adventurous soul.
# Seamless engine: Infinity's engine features a completely seamless experience. You can fly in space and land on planets.. without any loading times or unnatural transitions.
# Planet landing: you are not restricted as to where you can land. Explore every square centimeter of your home planet! On planets you can see the flora and fauna, find oceans, hills, mountains, cities, and a lot of other details.
# Unique quests: Infinity offers a wide range of missions available in space stations or cities. But sometimes you might want to try something more challenging. Discover the storyline's quests. Unlike missions, quests follow a real story, and can only be accomplished by one player (or a group of players). Once the quest is done, it disappears forever from the game and is no longer available to other players. Be the first to complete a quest, and you'll get fame, money... and much more.
# Newtonian physics: rigid body physics are used to simulate the game objects. However, the newtonian space flight will be controlled by a computer, which will simplify the navigation. The amount of inertia is automatically adjusted. It will be very easy to travel in space, land on a planet, or dock to a station in manual mode.
# Astrophysics: Unlike most other games, Infinity respects the relative scales and distances one could find in space. Realistic orbits are used, and planets move in real-time. Many systems have multiple suns, with a complete hierarchy of celestial bodies orbiting around each other. You will find moons and asteroids in orbit of larger planets, themselves orbiting the sun(s).
There's a YouTube album that has most of the tech demo videos. They're all extremely cool.
http://www.youtube.com/user/InfinitySupport
The main website is at http://www.infinity-universe.com
Personally, I'm just floored by everything that's been done with this. It's epic. There's also a Combat Prototype available. It's completely multiplayer-based, and it does not represent the final game in any way, shape or form. The CP is merely there to test a few early aspects such as the combat engine, the network coding, and other small items. There are only 10 ships available in the prototype, while there will be many hundreds in the final version.
Planetary terrain (http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/Media/Misc/terrain_34_med.jpg)
A Flamberge (http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/Media/Screenshots/flamberge12.jpg)
A nebula rendered in realtime (http://fl-tw.com/Infinity/Media/Screenshots/nebulae38_med.jpg)
A shadowing example (epic) (http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/Media/Screenshots/csm_4.jpg)
And a video demonstration of the planetary / space engine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-4OeWL1sCw&feature=related
# Open ended gameplay: unlike many other games, Infinity does not force you to play in any specific way. The game is race-less, class-less and skill-less. You can play as a merchant, trade, mine asteroids or minerals on planets, explore the galaxy, do scientific research, create your own industrial corporation.. or, if you are more into action, play as a space pirate.. at your own risk.
# Real-time fighting: most MMORPGs today use a turn-based approach to combat. In Infinity, you are directly controling your spaceship movements and lasers. Your own skills and dexterity will make the difference, not a bunch of stats on your character!
# Persistent universe: infinity is a massively, multiplayer online game. The universe is persistent. When you are not playing online, the game does not stop. Other players continue to play, the universe evolves, and new things are always happening.
# Procedural universe: procedural programming is a technique to let the computer generate the game universe on-the-fly, in real-time on request, rather than manually building everything. Because of this, the generated universe can be absolutely huge. In Infinity, billions of worlds, most of them never explored by any player, are awaiting the adventurous soul.
# Seamless engine: Infinity's engine features a completely seamless experience. You can fly in space and land on planets.. without any loading times or unnatural transitions.
# Planet landing: you are not restricted as to where you can land. Explore every square centimeter of your home planet! On planets you can see the flora and fauna, find oceans, hills, mountains, cities, and a lot of other details.
# Unique quests: Infinity offers a wide range of missions available in space stations or cities. But sometimes you might want to try something more challenging. Discover the storyline's quests. Unlike missions, quests follow a real story, and can only be accomplished by one player (or a group of players). Once the quest is done, it disappears forever from the game and is no longer available to other players. Be the first to complete a quest, and you'll get fame, money... and much more.
# Newtonian physics: rigid body physics are used to simulate the game objects. However, the newtonian space flight will be controlled by a computer, which will simplify the navigation. The amount of inertia is automatically adjusted. It will be very easy to travel in space, land on a planet, or dock to a station in manual mode.
# Astrophysics: Unlike most other games, Infinity respects the relative scales and distances one could find in space. Realistic orbits are used, and planets move in real-time. Many systems have multiple suns, with a complete hierarchy of celestial bodies orbiting around each other. You will find moons and asteroids in orbit of larger planets, themselves orbiting the sun(s).
There's a YouTube album that has most of the tech demo videos. They're all extremely cool.
http://www.youtube.com/user/InfinitySupport
The main website is at http://www.infinity-universe.com
Personally, I'm just floored by everything that's been done with this. It's epic. There's also a Combat Prototype available. It's completely multiplayer-based, and it does not represent the final game in any way, shape or form. The CP is merely there to test a few early aspects such as the combat engine, the network coding, and other small items. There are only 10 ships available in the prototype, while there will be many hundreds in the final version.