I'm currently watching this video which was uploaded yesterday.
I watched it earlier today, and it was pretty much jammed full of info.
Things are definitely shaping up, and this is going to be a fantastic game if they can pull it all off.
How about that Terra Tower? 3km tall!
I'd settle for half this and it would still be outstanding.
Agree with you there Smilo. It's very cool. I'm just struggling with the rig needed to play it. Even making the Hangar run smoothly required me to go down to 1920x108 LOW. It still looks nice but feel a bit lacking. I can run nearly all games at Ultra right now as well. So really a lot of optimization is needed especially if Helios is going to be playable.
Quote from: albert;394505I'm just struggling with the rig needed to play it. Even making the Hangar run smoothly required me to go down to 1920x108 LOW.
Keep in mind that nothing is even close to optimised yet.
Quote from: TeaLeaf;394511Keep in mind that nothing is even close to optimised yet.
Yup, you should also see new drivers which will help things.
Quote from: albert;394505Agree with you there Smilo. It's very cool. I'm just struggling with the rig needed to play it. Even making the Hangar run smoothly required me to go down to 1920x108 LOW. It still looks nice but feel a bit lacking. I can run nearly all games at Ultra right now as well. So really a lot of optimization is needed especially if Helios is going to be playable.
Quote from: TeaLeaf;394511Keep in mind that nothing is even close to optimised yet.
Same here, but the hangar is an unoptimised mess, which they will hopefully fix real soon. AC works fine though.
Even their patching process isn't decent yet, a lot of people (me included) constantly get errors after patching, resulting in the entire thing re-downloading every single time. Repairing also re-downloads everything.. Can't be bothered to do that every single patch, especially since the download rate on their end is really bad most of the time.
I think at this stage it is hardly surprising our experiences differ. For example, I can't recall ever having had any any patching errors, they just work seamlessly and the bandwidth I am getting is at a very good level. In the long run, as we progress through a beta stage, that's when I'd be looking to see things optimised. Until then, I'm not worried if one aspect or another isn't yet perfect.
It's this one (https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/138754/missing-unable-to-load-meta-file-or-source-file-corrupted-launcher-error/p1).
My SC dl rate hovers around 350 kb/s, out of 1.3Mb/s throughput, takes a whole day really so I just gave up until the problem is taken care of.
The way I see it, you can't build a city without infrastructure, and the launcher/patcher is essential even at this stage.
Video of Part II & Part III added to the OP above.
Part II talks about:
Intra-system navigation:
-primarily navigation to distant locations within a system via quantum travel which is about about 0.2c, takes time to ramp up to that speed (30-40 seconds)
-dexterity involved in aligning for the travel
-firing weapons or taking fire will mean nav computer will need to recalculate route, or accept inaccuracy at other end (so you will be able to engage your quantum engine during a dog fight, but with uncertain results), you'll need to be in a straight line and not have anything in your way
-8-10 minutes to travel a system plus spool up time for your engines.
-during quantum travel you are free to walk around your ship, but cannot interact with environment.
Jump Gates
-worm holes to go solar system to solar system
-follow a twisting turning path through wormholes
-certain wormholes will only fit certain size ships or manoeuverability (e.g. one route might suit one ship, a different ship might suit a different type of ship but be a quicker or slower route)
-Class I route might only suit a very manoeuvrable small ship, whereas a bigger ship might need take several Class III jumps to arrive t the same destination.
-the interior of worm holes move, expand and contract over time (kind of like trying to navigate the inside of a moving snake), therefore:
-navigation data will decay over time if other people do not fly it blind (without the jump nav data) to refresh the nav data.
-you will be able to FAIL a jump. Ideas still in progress, but they like the idea of %jump completed before failure, means you get kicked out % way to system, possibly with a nav deviation from route too.
-it will be fairly common for you to fail to complete your jump to destination successfully.
Star Map HUD
-proof of concept HUD demo @ 15mins
-commodity prices will eventually be available from the map
-but price & other data will take time to populate cross the map, it will not be instantaneous (just as a message form here to Mars will take a certain period of time to get there)
-jump routes discovered will not show up on the map until someone has sold the nav data to a jump point public broker
-distress calls will show up on this display too
Planets
Architectural styles to convey messages about the planet
Look will evolve over time and with changing conditions (eg lawlessness might increase graffiti an dirtiness of the environment, smog will increase with industry, etc)
....and LOADS more. Too much to write, but well worth a listen.
Does seem we're having different experiences.
For me the patching and launching of SC is problem free. However with Elite I had nightmares. Every patch seemed to fail with an unrecoverable error and a launcher crash. I found out that if I just ignored all the 'your game has crashed' error messages that were thrown up it still downloaded and patched the game.
But setting up my Hotas was a complete joy in Elite, everything worked and the controls made flying very simple and issue free. However in SC it was, and still is, a royal pain to sort out. In fact I still can't get the throttle to work without it accelerating me straight into the nearest asteroid with just a gentle touch. Yes it's an old bit of kit, but if Elite can work with it why not SC.
Quote from: TeaLeaf;394511Keep in mind that nothing is even close to optimised yet.
So people keep saying.
I'll bet you a pint that the current state of AC will be representative of the finished game. The only optimisations made will not be for speed, or lowering requirements, but for ensuring a bug free experience.
If you feel that the finished game is say 5% faster (or more!) than what we have now then I'll gladly fill your glass at the next LAN I attend :)
I'll call that a win win either way :yahoo:
I'm keen to find out if the FPS module will be optimised for lower end computers as well as having great visuals if you have the horsepower. If it is then I would hope the Hangar would also inherit this speed and to me job done AC and FP hangar and shooter both smooth. That's the point I really start learning the ropes.
I doubt the FPS will be optimised any better than either the hangar or AC. After all, underneath it's the same engine being used for all of them.
i do, however, suspect that they will make an optimising pass once the social module is released as they have a target of getting 50-60 players in a single instance planetside.
I quite like the idea of inviting everyone to the pilots lounge at the top of my R&Y hangar and sampling the fare of the drinks cabinet.
As I understand it Chris Roberts has always maintained that he will make a game that uses all the grunt of a medium to high end gaming rig, which is also why SC isn't going to be available on consoles. I'm assuming I'll be needing to upgrade a few components between now and launch.