NEWS: Screenshots of the Week - [no new Screenshots]

[NLS]

(btw a render in a 3D program is still concept art until it actually goes in the game and we see it as the actual game engine renders it in the real-time game environment)

Sorry, but the public release of a screenshot is not what determines whether something is concept art or not. Concept art is something an artist produces as an outline of what they would like the outcome of the modelling process to look like. The model is then created with that in mind, after which it is exported for use in the game. I have already told you that these showcase images are produced at the end of that process.

OK we are talking technicalities now.

In a sense, a 3D model of something can still be considered concept art, just more "modern" than the hand-drawn concept art of yesteryear.
While not in the game is still a "concept". Also there is no question that it is "art".

I mean a 3D model of something, could in the end GO or NOT GO in the final game. Also it can go in but with reduced geometry. Also the render can be quite far from the real time render of the game engine (along with the rest of 3D environment). Aren't those things true?

So the "showcase" images here MAYBE cannot be like that in the end product. True? Good thing is that gfx cards of today (and current D3D and OGL) make this less and less true. (yet a game has to accomodate older configurations too - but indeed nobody expects a low-end hardware based screenshot)

We agree that models are "further" in the process than plain drawings. (on the other hand many designers nowadays, find it almost as easy to make a 3D design than to draw)

Ok most users here are excused (and they find it easier to just bash me), but if you are part of the development (or close to the team) you KNOW I am correct. You see (hint) maybe there are other people here that DO know the process of development of a 3D game. Just saying.

PS. If you can see a vegetation space module that close and in such detail, maybe some kind of surface landing on planets is not too far.

[EmperorJon]

Instant win from Freya there with the Soldier.

[CBJ]

In a sense, a 3D model of something can still be considered concept art, just more "modern" than the hand-drawn concept art of yesteryear.
While not in the game is still a "concept". Also there is no question that it is "art".

I have told you what the image represents. You continue to question whether or not it is what I have stated it to be. Now you are trying to redefine commonly-understood terms to fit your argument rather than what has been explained. Under the circumstances there is very little point in me responding further.

[NLS]

O-K (!)

[BigBANGtheory]

It looks great, love the style and detail but most of all the continued variety in objects and assets.

[dphantom]

(...)The model is then created with that in mind, after which it is exported for use in the game. I have already told you that these showcase images are produced at the end of that process.

This got me thinking: this might mean that this screenshot (and probably the ones to come after it) is about has old as the ones we got before this last SOTW break. So, if understand correctly, this should be made by the time that artists, asset creators, modelers, texturers create the models for the game, which from my limited understanding of game development is in the very early stages (so that programers know what has been done and can create gameplay/stats/functionality that can be incorporated in-game for those models; before all the and tuning, tweaking and adjustments).

So if one year ago at Gamescom 2011 we had a game that looked perfectly playable and fluid at least in the videos shown, that about puts this screenshot even older than that (say another year?).

I wonder in what state the game is now, if they were adding new content (which I find unlikely at this point) it will be a huge game, if they were tweaking and bug fixing since then, then this may be one of the most polished and complete games ever to come out by Egosoft

[jester6225]

Well looking at the latest screenshot,

1) i hope the wire frame will be used as part of a station design interface in game so we can see where were putting surface element like turrets and the area around said turret will be able to cover (if a laser type, not missile), also for adding new modules.
2) the image on the right the external view of the station we see as we approach it, obviously changing with distance.
3) middle left, a close up view as we have been told we can fly between station modules.
4) middle right, as stated by cbj a screen for possible advertisement board as in the the trading sticky its states we no longer have to land to be able to trade. using that information it would be logical to assume that we have to be within a certain distance for either goods to be transported after credit payment via a transporter or drones, so in an effort to save time big signs so we know which module to fly to.
5) very bottom, as we have now in TC when on the trading screen we have images of the product were buying, so this could that representation.

All speculation of course but fits in with what we have had previously just in a new format.

@nls you come across as being negative because even after a member of the egosoft team answers your initial question and then explains to the rest of us exactly what process has been used (in regards to the game he / she is working on and how they do things, maybe not the same for all), you continue to post comments that maybe true that do not apply to the processes used in this particular game, so basically arguing for the sake of it. If you just accept the images for what they are, what they could represent in game, appreciate the work done, maybe ask "i wonder how these can be used in game" etc, open it up for discussion things would be different.

[rusky]

So, gfx aside, I wonder if the comment implies that race patrols will now actually do something about your stations too not just your ships

[EmperorJon]

They do in TC/AP, although the method by which they do it is a little stupid.

[rusky]

I guess I should build more illegal stuff then, I never notoiced. I'm almost as boring as a boron when I play (legal trading empire -> huge fleet -> evil corporation -> TAKE OVER THE WORLD )

[BurnIt!]

Ok guys, relax!
To settle the screenshot vs concept art debate I can tell you this:

The wireframe part is taken from the modelling program.
Everything else is a screengrab from within the game engine.

This is what it looks like in the game. There are also no higher-polygon-count objects for rendering this is the actual model as it is currently in the game.


Now if you want to be really nitpicky, yes of course the picture as a whole is not a single screenshot, you won't see these angles and wireframe at the same time
But with the exception of the wireframe schematics and the border artwork it is made up of actual screenshots.

Happy now?

[danpaul88]

I hear vinegar is a great accompaniment for hats NLS I hope you're going to be posting the eating of the hat as a YouTube video?


Anyway, to veer back towards the topic at hand... the amount of detail in that station is amazing, I can't wait to see what some of the other stations look like if this is representative of the detail levels that will be used.

I'm curious whether the game engine will be designed to substitute lower poly versions of the model on lower graphical settings to maximize the range of hardware the game can run on at a decent framerate... I can see a few stations like that grouped together being a bit of a framerate killer on older hardware.... hopefully my GTX 560Ti can handle it though

[NLS]

Ok guys, relax!
To settle the screenshot vs concept art debate I can tell you this:

The wireframe part is taken from the modelling program.
Everything else is a screengrab from within the game engine.

This is what it looks like in the game. There are also no higher-polygon-count objects for rendering this is the actual model as it is currently in the game.


Now if you want to be really nitpicky, yes of course the picture as a whole is not a single screenshot, you won't see these angles and wireframe at the same time
But with the exception of the wireframe schematics and the border artwork it is made up of actual screenshots.

Happy now?

GREAT news.
So I stirred things enough, to get some meaningful analysis.
(still got bashed by your fan club - so be it)

Looking forward to see this live.

[Buzz2005]

this kind of LoD actually explanies the delay, there is probably a lot of stations, moduls and ship that need to be worked on in great detail

that takes time and makes me more happy because

this game is going to be EPIC!

[rrfarmer]

Wow I lol'd at this screenshot. I was looking at it on my tiny phone screen so I didn't see the space weed production description. I got to the bottom-right and was like "SPACE WEED!" (out loud) and my wife looked at me like "?!?"

[dphantom]

If you think about it this station modules are in fact very detailed, but if you compare it with other more common games on a planet surface, say an FPS you have a lot higher polygon counts.
For example games with settings in cities/houses/castles/constructions have a lot of polygons, no less then these stations. Additionally these usually have a landscape around it with terrains and vegetation, rocks/stones etc and vegetation and organic modeling generally "consume" a lot of polygons geometry wise.

So since this is in space and space is empty there are no "landscapes" to speak of (with the possible exception of asteroids/planets/moons) so that potentially leaves a lot of room to invest all those polygons in detailed stations/ships

On another note, I hope they do away with all the "space" in the name of game stuff like "space flies" "Space fuel" "space weed". Ok we get it, we are in space, isn't it common in this fiction to be in space? Calling stuff "space something" would have fallen out of use by then. I mean we don't call our stuff "earth weed" or "earth fuel" or "earth flies"

[Alan Phipps]

dphantom said ".. I hope they do away with all the "space" in the name of game stuff .. like "space flies"".

I take the point but in X-R there are known to be (lost) grounded colonies and rock-based mines, possibly even playable moon and planet bases (though I don't know that). Maybe you need to tell the things that might fly in atmospheres from such ones that (currently) sing in a vacuum and power spaceship boosters - just musing.

Also wouldn't every planet have its own local intoxicants and narcotics that will be different to the necessarily universal standard for stuff solely farmed/produced in, and distributed from, space?

[dphantom]

(...9Also wouldn't every planet have its own local intoxicants and narcotics that will be different to the necessarily universal standard for stuff solely farmed/produced in, and distributed from, space?

Also raises another interesting question which is (assuming we still have multiple races ingame) wouldn't different species evolved for millions of years apart be susceptible to different types of psychotropic chemicals depending on they're specific anatomies?

Or maybe this "space weed" is something actually engineered to affect all boron/split/paranid/watever...

[DiabloTigerSix]

RC game

<I have no idea what that means. Would you explain for us oldies please. Alan Phipps>

[bluenog143]

(...)The model is then created with that in mind, after which it is exported for use in the game. I have already told you that these showcase images are produced at the end of that process.

This got me thinking: this might mean that this screenshot (and probably the ones to come after it) is about has old as the ones we got before this last SOTW break. So, if understand correctly, this should be made by the time that artists, asset creators, modelers, texturers create the models for the game, which from my limited understanding of game development is in the very early stages (so that programers know what has been done and can create gameplay/stats/functionality that can be incorporated in-game for those models; before all the and tuning, tweaking and adjustments).

So if one year ago at Gamescom 2011 we had a game that looked perfectly playable and fluid at least in the videos shown, that about puts this screenshot even older than that (say another year?).

I wonder in what state the game is now, if they were adding new content (which I find unlikely at this point) it will be a huge game, if they were tweaking and bug fixing since then, then this may be one of the most polished and complete games ever to come out by Egosoft

I agree with this. This screen looks like (to me at least) one of the ones that we were getting during the last several months. I'd have to say that the newest screen of all (that have been released) was the one from the test video that we got before this one.
So I too am curious to know what stage the game is at. Gamescom 2012 will be next month so hopefully EGOSOFT will show something off for X:R (and I hope it won't be the same Gamescom 2011 video ).