Screenshot Discussion

[Adlantis]

This is the Screenshot Discussion Thread.

Feel free to post Questions or Comments on the Pandora Screenshots here.

[reheat]

So I have to ask, What is that colored display in the lower left quadrent of the pics?

[Chris Gi]

It's part of the HUD, replacing the original thing in the lower middle. The orange to green thing is shield strength, the green area in the middle hull integrety, the red bar is laser strength, and the colored bar to the right is the velocity indicator.

[Gravemind]

Originally Posted by reheat

So I have to ask, What is that colored display in the lower left quadrent of the pics?

we redone the Original X² The Return HUD for Pandora, too bad we couldnt use a better replacement for the status bars

original from egosoft


our replacement

we found the Old HUD pieces in tga format in the X³ Reunion Files

[Shadow dream]

hm, well all in all that's only a question of textures but somehow some are missing, as 65 it is used but I never found it...

Shadow

[Adlantis]

News: Because the Gallery is now back online (thanks to Gravemind) I deleted the Screenshot Thread.
You can find a Link to the Gallery in the Upper-Left Corner of the Forum or in the first post of this Thread.

Now, carry on posting

[reheat]

Thats a nice improvement. Makes you wonder why Egosoft cant do that in the first place. Did you guys code the lower right sphere too? I remember other games using that schema as well.

I hate to say it but I am still slogging my way through X3 Reunion. My gosh does that game drag slowly. Perhaps it's just me.

I can see why you guys like the X2. Another thing I noticed is that while most sims go for increased detail, as in flight sims, like the Ka-50 hitting the market, Egosoft seems to be shedding detail on one hand, by eliminating the cockpit, yet boosting the detail on exterior shots.

As one person here said in another thread, it feels like riding on top of the ship, instead of inside. Even M$ Flight sim X has been improving the inside experience.

I did notice some of the 3rd party stuff for X3. Some of the larger ships seem to have a bridge of sorts. How can that be done, without being able to generate cockpits for the smaller ships?

Which is the harder part? The art or the code?

[Chris Gi]

I don't know enough of X3 to answer. From what I've read, X2 stuff is still part of X3, so it shouldn't be too hard to get cockpits. The only issue I'm aware of is the light inside cockpits. It seems it doesn't work the same way than in X2. That leads to cockpits that don't look as good as in X2.

Thats a nice improvement. Makes you wonder why Egosoft cant do that in the first place. Did you guys code the lower right sphere too?

Well, this is a thing Egosoft made for X2 - The Return. I think they didn't do it from the beginning because they didn't came up with the idea then.
The design is from Egosoft as well as the original models. All we did was porting it back to X2 (which wasn't an easy task). The lower right sphere is a combination of X2/X3 models. There's no really "original" stuff... but we had to be a little imaginative to get this to work in X2....

Which is the harder part? The art or the code?

It depends what you see as "code" and as "art". Code is more or less logical. You need to analyze stuff until you know enough. Easy task, so to say.
Creating models is basically using some techniques - not very much art up to now.
There's the saying: "Art is 5% inspriation and 95% transpiration". It's true. If you know your techniques, it's not that difficult. But there are 5% left - and these 5 percent are the hardest part of all...
My answer is: the art is the hardest part...

[Lord Dakier]

Well being a noob at the modelling I have to say it is deffinately giving me a whirl of a time.

If anything I find it time consuming creating something only to then scrap it cause you don't like the way it looks.

[reheat]

Getting rejected is the hardest thing for an artist to get over. So many budding artists take everything so personal, even while they are still learning. Not everone can like everything as they say. Opinions are like circular body parts...Everyone has one...not all are the same.

I have heard the most dificult part of art is the textures. Getting them right makes a world of difference. From wjhat I see though, is most of the textures in the X series happens to be a metallic color effect. Seems someone(s) at Egososft likes bronze or copper as well. At least the higher paid ones. I would have thought that it would have simplified a lot of the art. (perhaps I am wrong)

The only thing I feel is missing from the art in the X series, is the discontinuty between form and function. In real life, there is a definate connection between factory form, and function. A technical person, at least, can look at a factory in general, and determine what sort of general functionality is involved. Even NASA has rendered generalized depictions of many of the stylized concepts for a variety of "factory types in space" over the years. Many are quite readilly recognizable from the adaptations used in movies and such, making them quite generically recognizable.

Things that convert solar energy to some sort of power objects, would logically utilize large pannels to collect the light or heat. Farms use terarium style domes. These have reasons for the designs. Chemical plants, at least terestrial ones have large cylindrical towers with taps of tubes along the length. Large storage globes and cylindrical storage tanks.

None of these and other visual mechanics seem to be used in any of the constructs for any of the sims on the market. This makes it impossible to do any visual ID of the various structures. I know there is a lot of frivolous make believe type objects in the "future universe", but that does not mean that there cant be logical elements. That after all is one of the key elements of art. Making the simple seem complex, and making the complex seem simple.

I think there could be a real opportunity to create a great deal of visual appeal, if the artists could bring in recognizable elements, to the designs. After all, virtually all guns have barrels, all engines have nozzles, all missles are long and skinney (even if they wouldn't need to be in space).