Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Meatball on June 23, 2013, 11:01:13 am
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Just an idea.
The latest tablets and even phones like the S4 or Note II have exceptional hardware and can run huge games with very detailed graphics which is very impressive.
From what demanding games I've seen for android and tablets I think It could easily run Freespace though without the graphic improvements. It would probably need to be configured right.
Just a thought I had, I've only seen a few 3D Spaceshooters and they are not that exciting..
There was one game released Spring 2012 called Assembly of Worlds. Game mechanics very similar to freespace and that was his goal. But very amateurish. Bad graphics, bad sounds, bad feel of steering it and the interface blocks more than half the screen. Looks like it's in alpha but its released as a full game.
He should have made use of the Accelerometers.
What do you guys think?
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How many times have we had this thread ?
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see http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=78830.0
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What do you guys think?
It's been discussed extensively before. (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=78830.0) The general consensus is that FS2, being an actual space combat simulator, is much too sophisticated to run on a touchscreen - there are too many controls to fit on the screen comfortably.
(ninja'd by headdie)
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On the tablet side of things at least, if the technical side of getting the game running on the hardware were addressed (and that's a massive if as I understand things), one could utilize a keypad peripheral to overcome that limitation. Hell, we might be able to do that with the MS Surface Pro right now, since that's essentially running a full-fledged Windows 8 implementation.
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If the issue that is it would be hard to include all the controls, it's obvious that all controls cannot be included on an android/tablet.
The controls that are NEEDED are the first ones to be applied. Any other should just be ignored.
Once again, take a good look at Assembly of Worlds. As it seems to have already achieved much of the genre. Here is a picture of the HUD, which can be hugely improved.
(http://i43.tinypic.com/9amov9.jpg)
I think it should modeled for tablets. Or any android that serves as a tablet, as it would be impossible or effect the gameplay to much otherwise.
As you can see the buttons are way bigger than what they need to be. Make them smaller and a lot more controls can be fit in. And that's why it should be modeled after the screen size of tablets. Remember that the resolutions might be the same but the screen size are bigger in tablets, so it will fit more smaller buttons that work Well with our thumbs. And the accelerometer must be used, and epically so. Like driving a car in Need for Speed most wanted, same function can without a doubt be used for space flight. Especially since freespace uses non- Newtonian flight physics.
I think that Freespace can without a doubt run on today's tablets concerning the hardware and going req. Controls and the HUD would need to be modified and only after tablets. Should choose the tiniest tablet possibly that still can fit all the controls needed. And that is it.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jannis.spacesimdemo
Check out the game if you have an android. It has a free demo.
I would say it's basically a prototype that shows the mechanics works, and this guy made it by himself.
ADDED:
When I play Assembly of Worlds, it really feels like I'm playing Freespace. Obviously this guy had his inspiration from Freespace and he also mentioned it on a forum when he published the release.
He probably like myself feels like it would be awesome to have a 3D space shooter like Freespace on today's tablets since it is possible.
Here is his mention of the release, http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/2775-space-combat-sim-for-android/
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Well then, you can implement that interface and see if it works out. The SCP team, though, have their own priorities, and you're not going to convince them to change those, except maybe with a hefty amount of cash.
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You make it sound like you guys are doing this for money in the first place.
And I haven't asked anyone to do anything, it's just wishful thinking. And I'm just checking if It's possible.
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hmmmm, stored target/target stored would be an interesting feature
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hmmmm, stored target/target stored would be an interesting feature
You mean the escort list? :P You can put your own targets there, it's Alt-E or something.
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which is fair enough but what about times when you need to suddenly change what you are doing and then go back to it, if you have 4+ items already in your escort list you then have to cycle through them, ok not a huge deal, but if you combined it with a way to store other data such as the current subsystem at that time, perhaps bracketing that target to help with tracking while not concentrating on it.
ok not a revolutionary feature but like I said it would be an interesting one to have
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which is fair enough but what about times when you need to suddenly change what you are doing and then go back to it, if you have 4+ items already in your escort list you then have to cycle through them, ok not a huge deal, but if you combined it with a way to store other data such as the current subsystem at that time, perhaps bracketing that target to help with tracking while not concentrating on it.
ok not a revolutionary feature but like I said it would be an interesting one to have
Isn't that what the hotkey feature is for (minus the storing subsystem target--that would be a cool feature)?
(Press F3 in mission, then press one of the keys F5-F12, then double click on a ship to assign/unassign that key to that ship. Press that hotkey in mission, and it'll target that ship. Mission designers can set up default hotkeys for a mission in FRED, iirc.)