Infinity: Battlescape (with seamless planetary transitions)

The small developer I-Novae studios are doing a kickstarter for their space battle sim Infinity: Battlescape (used to be called Infinity:The Quest for Earth).
Their game uses very detailed procedural generation with full planets, moons and gas giants in one large solar system.
With totally seamless transitioning through planetary/gas giants atmosphere's. Land anywhere on a moon or planet's surface.
Fly low through Cynon and valleys whilst dog fighting or escaping. Dog fight as your fly through a planetary atmosphere or cloud layers of a massive gas giant.​

I just like this game idea, but don't take my word for it, go discover Infinity: Battlescape for yourself:


* Update: Game is funded and in development now.



Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art





Website:

[B]https://www.inovaestudios.com/Battlescape[/B]



Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/309114309/infinity-battlescape



What they have right now is a fully working prototype (for media and streamers to access), not even pre alpha.
And using a lot of prototype assets. In my opinion, So much more detail and polish will be added the dev's have said.
Two years of heads down development to go, the procedurally generated planets, moons and layered atmospheres will have a lot more 'math' and algorithm work done.

The cockpit will be greatly refined for the many various ships. The atmospheric entry effects (physics) of heating and types of different plasmas will be added.
I gather if your ship cockpit is damaged then a heavy atmospheric entry might run the risk of a hull breach.

The flight models will be quite different for space flight, atmospheric entry flight (the various types of upper atmospheres).
And the types of ship, for example the ship in the prototype we see in the videos is more like a flying wing, with other ships being more suited to in-atmosphere flight than others.
One can also dog fight with other ships as one enters or exits the atmosphere of a planets of moon or even a gas giant.
With the deeper layers of cloud in a gas giant posing serious pressure and other harmful storm and lightning damage on the the ships.

And potentially large battles in space just above planets surface, with larger ships and weapons fire could be seen from the planets surface.
Again all polish and further development that another two years or so will bring to the game.

It's certainly going to be a very interesting time for procedurally generated space games over the next 2-3 years, for all four games, ED, SC, No Man's Sky and Infinity: Battlescape.
Although I think it's a bit too early at this point to say one way or another what Star Citizen will deliver with regards to PG.
Elite with New Horizons and then onto season 3 with atmospheres looks to be very good indeed.
Each game with there own unique take on PG (Procedural generation).




Scott Manley has made a video reviewing the Infinity: Battlescape prototype.

He demonstrates the totally seamless way one can transition a planets atmosphere.

It is a very interesting time right now for seamless space to planet transitioning.
Certainly the next few years with ED's season 3 will be a good thing to look forward to.
And I think it's a little too early to say one way or another as regards to Star Citizen, and we know almost nothing about their PG plans.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DTFpKlH1LE








I-Novae Studios: the engine was in development many years ago. But only by one person in his spare time as a hobby project.
We only started as a company in 2010, and got to this point without funding. We're absolutely committed to this game and everybody seems to love the prototype so far.


There is already gravity based orbital mechanics in place.
That being said, every ship has enough thrust to make orbital mechanics completely unnecessary, although you could still use such methods to manoeuvre if you wanted.


Entering the gas giant. There a currently two layers of gas. One is moving very fast (a little noticeable from afar) the other one very slowly (almost noticeable from afar).
The closer you get the faster they are, this gas giant is really huge.

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Inside the deeper layer. There are already particle effects in place.

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Hutchings - Developer/Artist - "30km station, hovering above a new WIP planet.
Keep in mind, the asset was produced primarily for the campaign trailer, and is not an indication of final quality, but rather should be taken as an example of what's possible with the tech we've built."

"Additionally, it is situated just above the rings, with the central tower crossing through the rings below. A sort of transfer station for extracted or refined goods."


(images by INovaeAndre- Developer/Artist)

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I-Novae: Hutchings - Developer/Artist
"As some of you may have already guessed this, but we're still adding content to the Prototype. Many will recognize the station from the 2010 tech demo video."

"Now an abandoned Astralis outpost in a SFC controlled system... it lay quietly in a low orbit around the Gas Giant, just outside the massive planet's atmosphere. 4 Corvette class ships "Hellions" investigate."

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Big! space is really big in this game. One solar system @1:1 takes some time to get around.

You may get a good ballpark from the apparent respect of real planet sizes. So the gas giant is probably something like Jupiter @1:1 scale, or smaller. Dwarf gas giants are at most "just" 4 Earth radius, and the upper bound for gas giants is basically Jupiter size (gravity quickly limits larger volume). I reckon it's a safe bet that the current pink gas giant is somewhere in the range of our own gas giants @1:1. Somewhere between Jupiter and Neptune/Uranus.


Considering how INovae Flavien (Game dev) said they were keen to add as many phenomena and variety as feasible:


"There's going to be a lot of variety in environments on planets even in the base goal."
"Wind is already in, but tornadoes, volcanoes that eject rocks, lightning in gas giants ( that could randomly hit your ship ), or even better: a periodic stellar flare that would damage any ship not in the night side of the planets closest to the star. Those are a few ideas that we're playing with. But yeah, as you can see there's potential."

"I've seen many people play for 20-30 hours in the prototype so far, simply flying around and exploring. Doing nothing at all."

"And that's with 2 planets ( err, moons ). The final solar system will have dozens."













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There will be additional effects for both warp speed and for atmospheric entry, and it IS dangerous to be going warp speeds in the atmosphere for too long, though it seems also as if auto-assist will automatically turn off your warp drive before you take damage from the atmosphere.

And the dev's have some ideas for gas giants such as putting 'Bespin style' floating factories in the cloud layers of gas giants. transition down and up from these places. With Gravity and pressure effecting the ships. The effects we expect to see and experience after two more years of development. "We'd like to spend a lot more time making gas giants awesome" -game devs.


As far as I know your be able to fly down through the various cloud layers to floating factories and outposts floating between the layers of gas giants. This is already implemented for the release. The more funding means more of these cool game features like Volumetric clouds in addition to what's already implemented in the final release. The prototype your seeing in the live streams is all mostly place holder assets. Another two years of heads down development will produce so much more detail to these features.

There is already gravity based orbital mechanics in place. The marks on the speed bar is the orbital velocity. That being said, every ship has enough thrust to make orbital mechanics completely unnecessary, although you could still use such methods to manoeuvre if you wanted.



Some more information on the semi-persistent stretch goal.

The $1.5 million stretch goal is to make Battlescape semi-persistent with the opportunity for players to build infrastructure. You will be able to place new space stations, planetary bases, and factories. Space stations will come in two different sizes: large and small. Both small space stations and planetary bases can spawn small to medium sized spacecraft. Large space stations will be the only entity in the game capable of spawning, rearming, and refuelling capital starships.

If the semi-persistent stretch goal is achieved, every time a team receives credits its members will have some additional choices to make:

• Buy powerful new ships and weapons for a better offence.[/*]
• Build more factories to increase the team's rate of resource acquisition.[/*]
• Build more space stations and planetary bases so that you can spawn closer to your objectives, be they offensive or defensive in nature.[/*]

A video of transitioning from space, out by the planetary rings, flying through the rings and pretty much belly flops right onto the planet's surface. Remember the prototype your seeing here has a lot of place holder assets and effects. It will become so much more.

Watch from 17m40s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsL8kes8_UE&t=17m40s






The current 2015 kickstarter prototype which is available to the media and streamers is a small snap shot of some planets, its rings and a derelict space station. @ 1:1 scale. So it takes time to reach places. Space is really big.


And another transitioning from a planetary surface dogfight over a mountain range right up through the atmosphere into space. And then into warp to escape the enemy fire.




Watch from 6m33s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp8RTHR0HWQ&t=6m33s





A smaller and more deliverable goal for the development team is something they are keen to put across. I was one of those wanting the original game idea but this new reduced scope is still something worth backing, even at the lowest pledge level.


The engine is digital art!




Features to look forward to:

• Seamless interplanetary warfare across a procedurally generated, true to scale solar system.[/*]
• Dozens of planets and moons to explore and fight over.[/*]
• Volumetric clouds and atmospheric effects are in the $600,000 stretch goal. Volumetric clouds are rather computationally expensive, especially when you're using ray scattering models like I believe the I-Novae engine uses for its atmospheres. Keep in mind that those sky colours you see in game are calculated using physical scattering models. It's not just setting a sky colour. There's actual physics being done.[/*]
• Gas giants - Already implemented.[/*]
• Gas Giants - floating factories and outposts floating in the cloud layers.[/*]
• Gravity - Implemented. You can already freely orbit planets in the prototype. The surface gravity of gas giants isn't that impressive, though.[/*]
• Even Jupiter's surface gravity is only a little more than 2x that of Earth's.[/*]
• Atmospheric drag is already implemented. Weather would compound that. Again, that's the $600,000 stretch goal.[/*]

From station fly-through, then onto crater scared desert planet surface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7tfQdwmQQU









You can always post a question on the comments section of the kickstarter page here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/309114309/infinity-battlescape/comments


And a summary of the recent Reddit AMA:
https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/comment/5853093/#Comment_5853093


Discover Infinity: Battlescape for yourself - The engine is pure digital art!

 

Looks great indeed but just battles in space or over a planet's surface won't hold my interest longer than an hour. Where's the gameplay information? What can i do when i'm not in combat?

 

There's a FAQ here:
https://forums.inovaestudios.com/t/infinity-battlescape-faq/1112


And of course the KS comments section here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/309114309/infinity-battlescape



The one very large 1:1 scale solar system will have battles with hundreds of players that could potentially last many hours if not days. You would be able to hop in and out as you like with long games. And if they do reach the higher pledge goals then there will be some semi-persistence to the game.

The dev's are trying to make and deliver a smaller scope of game, one that their small team can deliver.

For Infinity: Battlescape they are talking about one or two hundred players on a server. That's highly multiplayer but not sure that it qualifies as massively multiplayer. Normally what you'd think of as an MMO would allow for thousands of players online at any one time. Battlescape is more of a typical arena game that happens to support a large amount of players.


There will be so much more added over the coming two years of heads down development.

Battles between the 3 game factions over control of resources, space stations, mining outposts etc. it is though an in your ship game, you don't leave your ship, of which there will be many ship types. All with functioning cockpit displays.




The dev's say that once there are hundreds playing a match that the length of the match can vary from hours to days potentially. But it is space and planetary combat in ships. Dog fighting as you enter or exit a planets atmosphere, or cloud layers of a gas giant.

And, if you want to you can just fly and enjoy the wonders of the soar system they will have created. And @1:1 scale, that's going to take plenty of time.

Infinity: Battlescape - incredible visuals set to some soothing piano music.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e4bY4g0taY



It's not Elite Dangerous or Star Citizen. Your have roles you can play as part of the faction your fighting for.






And a new video - The Moon's of Infinity: Battlescape


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2Teqt1Fz8A

 

Scott Manley tweeted this cool vid.

"Scott Manley is doing some perpetual motion!"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBd5Kf9WCoI

 

And here's the longer Scott Manley video with voice over on the Infinity: Battlescape prototype.

Scott Manley - Test Battle






The I-Novae: Engine - Pure digital art!

Discover Infinity: Battlescape for yourself here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/309114309/infinity-battlescape





Concept art for a damaged Hellion ship entering a planets atmosphere.

Once the game is finished and polished up, the dev's say the effects and physics the player will experience will really feel like your entering an atmosphere, with maybe different types of plasma based on what the upper atmosphere is made up of. Causing all sorts of heating and stress effects. And of course this would be far worse when diving into the cloud layers of a super gas giant.

 

Angry Joe joined the cause.

https://twitter.com/AngryJoeShow/status/661359567834447873





Plus some new screens

 

The dev's will appreciate any level of pledge you decide to give.



The Planets and Moons of Infinity: Battlescape

by Planet Explorer (TARS)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RPG8j6ksYI




A little purple haze, my favourite reflected atmospheric light colour from a planet.




And a Mars like cratered world with a thinner orangey red atmosphere.

 

Star Citizen is officially promoting Infinity Battlescape Kickstarter:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/15037-Note-From-The-Chairman-Infinity-Battlescape



To quote Chris Roberts:

 

Weekly Update #11

source link

Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

Last week's update mentioned that the patch with the interceptor was right around the corner. At the time we sincerely thought that was the case but supporting game pads and joysticks ended up being a deeper rabbit hole than we had initially anticipated and it took all week to get the new code stable. Fortunately it's now finished and we've begun doing the integration work for the new interceptor mockup which is quite exciting. Due to its maneuverability we expect there won't be nearly as many people accidentally liquefying themselves by flying into mountains at speeds of 2 km/s like there was when we introduced the corvette.

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(An interceptor with a prototype of external missile pods.)
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Speaking of the corvette our second iteration is coming along nicely. We've reduced its length from 115m to ~82m which will make it a bit easier to fly. We're also redesigning its cockpit to increase visibility. As the largest non-capital ship in the game the corvette will perform a role similar to a modern tank. With heavy armor and heavy weaponry including independently targeting turrets it will make its presence known in a battlescape.

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(The corvette is the only non-capital ship with turrets.)
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This week we've also put some significant work into updating the game launcher and web backend as we get ready to begin internal testing of our new installation/patching system. Our goal is to have it ready in time for the patch after next. At the moment updates to the game are coming once every few weeks. We'd like to significantly increase the frequency of our updates and this new patching system will be essential for reducing the size of your downloads as well as the amount of money we're paying for bandwidth. It's also part of the foundation for what we hope will one day become a Software Development Kit (SDK) for modders.

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(The completed prototype of the NPC hauler.)
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Last but not least we have a new render, shown above, of the completed prototype of our NPC hauler. To refresh everyone's memory haulers will be spawned at factories every couple of minutes to deliver raw materials to the nearest base/space station. If the hauler successfully makes it then those raw materials are turned into credits evenly distributed among the members of that team for purchasing better ships and weapons. Therefore each team will have supply lines that can be disrupted by enemy forces either temporarily by destroying individual haulers or more permanently by destroying factories.

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art


​

 

1 to 1 universe with a couple 100 players per map?

Dunno that sounds like a ton of empty space going on.

Looks very cool otherwise. True neutonian with atmo flight sounds amazing, hope star citizen ends up there but looking doubtful.

Though is a small team of 10 can pull this off maybe it will light a fire under cigs ass to work on their flight model some more.

 

A few new screen shots from the current development build.

kindly Shared by - SpaceJay - on the I-Novae forums (link)

Like the first light of dawn over the Alps (top right screen shot)



Link to larger images:
https://inovaestudios.blob.core.win.../5fa151f85604ef8fa70e696ecda7ce7d33c36579.jpg
https://inovaestudios.blob.core.win.../2e06a26baf7211ffc37436b92828143faba21044.jpg

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The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)​

 

Weekly Update #12

source link

Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

We're happy to announce that today we released patch v0.1.4.0 to all of our Developer Access backers. It contains numerous improvements and tweaks to the game. Most notably it has our new input mapper with support for gamepads and joysticks, a more realistic atmospheric flight model, the second iteration of the corvette, and most importantly the new interceptor! We've been getting some questions from Alpha backers about when the game will be available to play. The Alpha release is currently scheduled for October 29th, 2016.

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(Mockup of the interceptor cockpit)
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Over the next few weeks our engineering focus is going to shift from integrating ships and gameplay tweaks to taking care of some low level plumbing before we dive into weapons. Specifically we need to make some improvements to our core networking layer such as removing the last remnants of our trusted client code, which prevents hacking, and improving latency compensation. On top of that we still need to get our pledge upgrade system built for those of you who are looking to get in on the action sooner rather than later.

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(Revision 2 of the corvette cockpit)
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The art team's primary focus will be on space stations, land bases, and factories. These are large, complicated assets that will take a lot of time to complete. They will also continue work on revising the bomber, interceptor, and corvette as needed based on playtesting feedback. Looking back, full development began on February 1st and in the 3 months since then we're pretty happy with our progress. There's a lot that still needs to be done for the Alpha but we've worked through the initial ramp-up and reached a good cadence.

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(Revision 3 of the bomber)
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Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art


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A few new screen shots from the current development build. The improvement continue.

kindly Shared by - Spacejay - on the I-Novae forums (link)


Some frames from last Friday nights "Interceptor Dogfighting Test"

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The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)​

 

Some new screen shots from the latest development build.

kindly Shared by - SpaceJay - on the I-Novae forums (link)

Just cruising.

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The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)


Infinity: Battlescape forums: https://forums.inovaestudios.com
​

 

Some new screen shots from the latest development build.

kindly Shared by - SpaceJay - on the I-Novae forums (link)

Just crater cruising.

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The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)


Infinity: Battlescape forums: https://forums.inovaestudios.com
​

 

I:B Road to Alpha updated to version 0.4

Kindly Shared by - SpaceJay on Vimeo


https://vimeo.com/177711501

 

Some new screen shots from the latest development build.

kindly Shared by - SpaceJay - on the I-Novae forums (link)

Just crater cruising.

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The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)


Infinity: Battlescape forums: https://forums.inovaestudios.com
​

 

Some new screen shots from the latest development build.

kindly Shared by - SpaceJay - on the I-Novae forums (link)


Sunset on the volcanic ash covered Cinder. (4K)




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The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)


Infinity: Battlescape forums: https://forums.inovaestudios.com
​

 

Weekly Update #26

source link

Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

Hey everybody it's time for another weekly update. Over the last week we've primarily been fixing bugs that have popped up since the release of the last patch. There is an ongoing issue with our game server regularly crashing, which seems to be caused by our overhaul of physics, as well as some issues with the new patching system and launcher. We expect most of these to be sorted out soon. Aside from that Flavien has started working on the improvements we need to make to our networking code and I have started building our pledge upgrade platform along with some additional website improvements. Those of you who are regulars on our forums have probably noticed that we also upgraded our forums software to the latest version.

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WIP texturing the bomber cockpit

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On the art side we're happy to announce that texturing the interceptor cockpit has been more or less completed. There's some polish that will need to be added later on once we have time to address some graphics improvements. We also need to spend more time defining the functionality of the cockpits such as what gets rendered on the multi-function displays. In the meantime work has moved onto the bomber cockpit which as you can see is coming along nicely.

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Another shot of the WIP bomber cockpit

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There's also a lot of work going on with station geometry and the NPC hauler. We hope to have some new screen shots within a couple of weeks. Along with numerous bug fixes our next patch, which is probably at least another week away from release, should include the land base placeholders and the new cockpits.

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art


Infinity: Battlescape forums: https://forums.inovaestudios.com
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