Starforge

[TheAnarchitect]

Saw this on reddit, just thought I'd drop it here. It seems like the kind of thing a few of us might be interested in.

Spoiler

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[Urian]

Looking good, I'll have to try it out later after I'm done playing with the new stuff in 3.70 :)

[BrushEnthusiast]

I'm pretty sure that's going to be the best game I will ever buy. That looks absolutely incredible.

[thekyz]

I'm pretty sure that's going to be the best game I will ever buy. That looks absolutely incredible.

It's free to play.

[Sarudak]

Looks too good to be true...

[PureZaros]

It's like a mix between Minecraft and Sanctum! Awesome!

[Gilberreke]

Downloaded game, ran it, black screen, nothing happens.

Meh.

[johnt]

There is no loading screen and it takes a few minutes to start. Be patient.

[Gilberreke]

There is no loading screen and it takes a few minutes to start. Be patient.

Fifteen minutes of black screen?

I used Task Manager to end its suffering after that.

[Itamarcu]

The trailer looked amazing. I was really impressed.
I downloaded it.
15 minutes of black screen afterwards, the game loaded. It lagged like hell, I had about 1 frame per minute, and I was using a pretty standard PC. I tried decreasing all graphic options, to "Fastest" and "600X800". Nothing changed.
Now I am just angry.

[Corzan]

From the description of the video:

IMPORTANT NOTICES:

- Go to http://www.forgeforums.com to view game fixes and talk with us. They will be reported in the Feedback/Bugs section: http://www.forgeforums.com/viewforum.php?f=12
- When the game launches you will be immediately greeted with a blank screen. This is normal behavior, as the level is building during this phase, including procedural texture generation. It may take a couple minutes on some computers. This is something we plan to fix in the near future.
- Some the features shown in the video are not yet included in this build but they will be playable soon.
- The game may not run on your computer, has performance issues and playability problems. We strongly apologize for this and we are set on fixing these issues over the next few weeks.

We hope that these temporary problems will not create a bad impression and we are unsure if we revealed our game too soon. Nonetheless we will work hard to make the game as it ought to be.

It looks like a cool game, but I'm going to wait until it's fleshed out more before trying it. I don't went to get my hopes up ;)

[DaveYanakov]

Minecraft with its default textures runs fine. I tried running 64x64 texture packs once upon a time and it began to lag a bit. I'm afraid that something like his would actually cause my video card to catch fire.

[FlowerChild]

Yeah, I'll believe it when I play it.

Pretty much all the MC-clones I see in development are going crazy on the graphics and trying to make them look like modern commercial games, except with a fully dynamic world. IMO, they're missing the point.

There's a reason why commercial games don't have fully dynamic worlds. There's also a reason why MC doesn't look like a commercial game.

The games that DO wind up being released in this genre are the ones that keep things realistic. Terraria comes to mind, as does that MC clone released on XBox Live last year.

Maybe these guys will prove me wrong, but I have sincere doubts.

[TheAnarchitect]

I agree completely. The one thing that has immediately turned me off to a dozen Minecraft clones is "paintbrush" style placement. That and the stupid Halo-suit the character wears. And yeah, it's graphics are too good to be enjoyable. A certain level of graphical sophistication actively interferes with my ability to play a game.

That said, words like "free" get me to overlook a lot of things.

[FlowerChild]

I agree completely. The one thing that has immediately turned me off to a dozen Minecraft clones is "paintbrush" style placement.

Yup, the paint-brush thing bothers me as well. There is another clone out there that does something similar, and every time I see it, the first thing that strikes me is how it seems plagued with collision-detection problems...of course.

Also, imagine trying to implement more complex systems like redstone logic within that. Yeesh. At best I think it likely that such games will need to sacrifice some of MC's coolest features to pull it off.

This one seems to have *some* advantage in that they seem to at least be constructing out of blocks, but still, the terrain deformation definitely sets off alarm bells for me.

[TheAnarchitect]

Mostly it's the immersion problem: The only thing I've ever used in real life that works like a paintbrush tool is an airbrush. Where's the tool, damn it? What am I working with? At least in minecraft, I'm holding the goddamn block. (though this is one of the things I like most about Raust's tools, I use masonry tools to place masonry, shovels to place dirt, etc.) It's really important to make altering the terrain and building things look like my Avatar is doing it.

[jorgebonafe]

Well, it does seem like its just a test release... I mean, he doesn't appear to use tools or anything to shape the ground... Maybe they will change this later... (I hope... this game could do pretty nice IMO if done right). If they added proper tools or machines to construct or dig holes, terraform, etc... it would be nice...

Edit.... Nice ninja

[FlowerChild]

Yeah, it's not the lack of tool that I am concerned with, as pointed out that can be included later. It's what deformable terrain represents in terms of mechanics...or more precisely, the lack of feasible ways in which to implement them.

Again, imagine redstone working with fully deformable terrain that doesn't constrain itself to a fixed grid and you'll see what I mean.

[TheAnarchitect]

I don't know if there's a coding issue with such a thing, not being a programmer, but I see little problem on the interaction between deformable terrain and mechanical aspects that need a flat surface. Just make a flat surface, yes?

[Flesh_Engine]

I think what he means is that that flat surface is actually X amount of polygons that can be shaped relative to another with a 'brush' tool.
It could be deceptively tricky to get that flat surface consistent enough to allow the "wires" to connect properly.

[FlowerChild]

I don't know if there's a coding issue with such a thing, not being a programmer, but I see little problem on the interaction between deformable terrain and mechanical aspects that need a flat surface. Just make a flat surface, yes?

You also need the grid, which, if you have fully deformable terrain, becomes an issue onto itself.

Again though, may not be a problem with this particular game, as all their building DOES seem to be grid based. I was talking more about the general issues with absolutely free-form building.

Who knows? Maybe taking this middle-ground approach they may get somewhere. But seeing something this ambitious makes me nervous to begin with. Seeing it also being given away for free is a real "wtf?"

[jorgebonafe]

I don't see a problem with that... They could make something like that as a wire that stands on its own, or placeable on blocks maybe... might be a bit of a challenge, but nothing that can't be done...

[FlowerChild]

Ok, there is definitely something up with this one. I'm somehow intrigued by the mystery behind all this, so I started looking around on their forum (which is suspiciously low on trafic for something this impressive btw), and found this post by one of the creators:

Also, just to let everyone know. We are familar with the screen turning black after "x" amount of gameplay on certain rigs. Can anyone who gets this issue post your hardware stats? We experienced it on a computer back where we work for a living(we are general labourers) and will fully debug this as soon as we can. Luckily our boss said we can take a day off to try and fix some of the issues.

The game runs fine on our other computers.

General laborers? Seriously? Wtf? No way some random kid working in an office or factory pulls something like this off.

Something is very fishy about this whole thing guys. I personally would NOT run this thing just based on the sheer number of question marks involved. Who knows what the hell the thing is doing while it's sitting there behind a black screen for 15 minutes?

Again, I could be wrong, but this is rather out in left field.

I don't see a problem with that... They could make something like that as a wire that stands on its own, or placeable on blocks maybe... might be a bit of a challenge, but nothing that can't be done...

Those challenges add up man. MC's grid system makes it very easy to quickly implement these kinds of features instead of it devolving into a quagmire of technical challenges.

[jorgebonafe]

Sure, I get that... I just want to be... carefully optimistic :P

But for the time being I'll take your advice and not run this thing in my PC...

[FlowerChild]

Sure, I get that... I just want to be... carefully optimistic :P

But for the time being I'll take your advice and not run this thing in my PC...

Hehe...I think you've struck the right balance between caution, optimism, and practicality.

Seriously though, when someone says "look at this awesome thing I've made!", then says "please look the other way for 15 minutes while I prepare it", suspicion is probably wise ;)