Hello,

This week update provides some fundamental features to the engine and a solid foundation for our art direction to build from. The team has been working well together to progress through check-list at great pace.

Here is our update list for 8/9

Programming

This week I moved a little further from artist again, working on the Station Creator code (we now have a workable selection and generation program for small space station rooms, which will be player-creatable using parts like walls and ceilings). I also worked on one of our Linux dev machines, getting the game engine dependencies working reliably. I will be exclusively working on a Linux box from now on, on an 'eat your own dog food' basis. Hopefully next week the Station Creator code will be merged with the main branch, meaning progress will be a lot faster. -- Jack

3D:

This week I worked on a railgun turret with cameras in it which will be part of the 'Starlight' release. This is the first weapon in the game and there is talk of creating an asteroid minigame with it. You can see a quickly rendered concept animation for the turret here. This turret has a huge range of motion provided by its pivots, with 130 degrees of elevation and 45 degrees of depression. The turret is part of our focus on gameplay and making sure that TC is not just a simulator, but a fully fledged game. We are testing out animation controls with it, which have an advantage over PhysX constraints in their flexibility and ease of creation for modders. There has also been more work on assets for the Station Creator, namely a staircase block. -- John

This week from the art side I've been working on finishing up the 'BUG V2', which we will be calling the DB. Both the Bug 1 and the DB will be made by the in-game company LeDorean, although please bear in mind that their scope is not finished yet and their final function in the game, beyond being fun to fly through asteroid fields, has not been decided. I also started work on a concept for a heavy transport. We have also been discussing adding data ports for the various vehicles, which means remote engine start and debugging/repair etc, which makes for a fun game mechanic when the players inevitably figure out how to hack one while it's being flown... -- Jack

Art Direction:

Whilst key functionality is being added to the game engine, I've been working on building up the back-story and art assets. Much of the games art is a tribute to 70s/80s era computing, retro-gaming and classic sci-fi. This week I've been working on concept art for the station interiors. I've also been busy producing in-game art assets for the fictional companies like Otari. In the lore of Tech Compliant the USSR and USA co-operated during the space race era, with fictional Soviet companies like MTN featuring in the games art. -- Nick

Engine Changelog

Animations

• keyframe-based from DAE file
• Skeletal-based from DAE file

DCPU:

• New Assembler. Fully compliant to DCPU1.7 spec
• LEM1802 implementation overhaul. Blink bit and border now supported.
• New client (single player) threading model for DCPU.
• KaiComm SPI device is now KaiComm Hardware Interface Card. This is for communication between DCPU<->entities and comes in 1,2,4,8 port versions.

Sound:

• FMOD Support added.
• 3D spatial sounds in relation to observer (player).
• 2D sound with pan/volume and frequency control.

Script:

• Interface to sound added
• Interface to entities added (Example: world.findEntity("name"))
• Interface to animations & interpolation movement added (Example: self.move(dir,time) )
• Interface to player inventory
• Player control script.

Game:

• Options menu and settings saving/loading.
• Planet generation with voxel based storage and marching cube extraction for destructive terrain/asteroids
• Vessel system overhauled.
• UI performance bug corrected by rewritting rendering pass. 15-20% gain in FPS!
• Oculus VR support - Untested.
• Additional interfaces to PhysX - Softbodies (cloth), motors, joints added.
• Particles emitters are present but rendering portion is still incomplete.
• New game loading code, Loading screen presents messages of current progress and makes use of texture name cache to improve load time by background loading previously used assets.

We are more than happy to answer any questions! We frequently check the reddit so don't be shy.