The Distant Worlds Saga Continues

[Erik Rutins]

I can confirm the game engine is 64-bit, multi-core capable, with full resolution and scaling support and fully 3D. Memory usage in equal circumstances should actually be less than Distant Worlds: Universe due to various technical reasons and optimizations, but obviously it will require a computer capable of playing 3D games. [8D]

[vorbarra2]

Well, that's snazzy indeed! Does 'fully 3d' mean 3d rendered only, or does that mean ships actually move in volume as opposed to a plane? Are there tactical reasons for this? Also, is collision implemented for ships?

[Erik Rutins]

Since it was mentioned above, here's the image that appeared on Iain's twitter feed a couple of years back. I don't think you can really see much but better to have it all in one place. This is obviously from a much, much, much older build.

[OnePercent]

ORIGINAL: BlueTemplar

Uh, these ships very much look like 3D models (which wouldn't necessarily mean that the game itself was going to be 3D - except we know that it will be)

how do you know it will be 3D, not based off the image?

[OnePercent]

"We are hard at work on DW2 every day. We are still recruiting more 3D modelers/artists" -Erik

So. 3D confirmed?

Often times, 3D and CGI renders are used on powerful systems to pre-render the geometry of 3D objects, which can then be "replayed" including any animations on that object as a 2D sprite, this is very common for isometric "2.5D" games, they aren't inherently 3D though after this process.

[OnePercent]

I delightfully stand corrected [:D]

[sinbuster]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

I can confirm the game engine is 64-bit, multi-core capable, with full resolution and scaling support and fully 3D. Memory usage in equal circumstances should actually be less than Distant Worlds: Universe due to various technical reasons and optimizations, but obviously it will require a computer capable of playing 3D games. [8D]

This is so great. Speaking of optimizations, please tell me the save file no longer inflates to a ridiculous size.

[BlueTemplar]

Nice to see that you have Jean-Luc Picard on your team !

ORIGINAL: Woodstove

So Sim City 4 style? 3d Engine, but 2d feel. If so I can get behind that. Most 4x games have 2d gameplay, even if presented in 3d. If I don't remember wrong is was... Homeworld(?) that had real 3d space combat. But i fear a full 4x galaxy in that style. Don't think my mind would handle that.

[...]

Yeah the 3 Homeworlds (and other RTS ?). However I don't remember any 4X with a completely free z-axis movement...
(Sword of the Stars have a limited one, with ships snapping back to 1 or 3 planes, and so does the abovementioned SE5 - which results in its case in an hilarious "tower of doom" bug.)

[AKicebear]

My guess is the game is still played on a flat plane, but objects (e.g. planets ships etc) are 3D which allows for more graphical effects.

[Erik Rutins]

All I can confirm for now is that what you see in the screenshot in the original post is indeed 3D. [8D]

[Cauldyth]

Tease!

[scotten_usa]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

I can confirm the game engine is 64-bit, multi-core capable, with full resolution and scaling support and fully 3D. Memory usage in equal circumstances should actually be less than Distant Worlds: Universe due to various technical reasons and optimizations, but obviously it will require a computer capable of playing 3D games. [8D]

I've got a Packard Bell 486/33 multimedia PC with CD-ROM, will this be sufficient? [:D]

[StarLab]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Since it was mentioned above, here's the image that appeared on Iain's twitter feed a couple of years back. I don't think you can really see much but better to have it all in one place. This is obviously from a much, much, much older build.

When I made my video about this DW2 teaser yesterday, I included this tweet. I could only see 3 progress status bars in the ship info box via twitter... but here there is clearly 4 (with an additional something else amongst them).

Not sure what else could be included... Ammo levels? Crew experience? Vodkol remaining in the ship's bar? [:D]

[Medway]

Thanks for confirming it's 3D. Was just looking at it again now and noticed all the ships had slightly different perspective. If it was 2D isometric don't think that would be the case.

[LordMM]

ORIGINAL: StarLab

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Since it was mentioned above, here's the image that appeared on Iain's twitter feed a couple of years back. I don't think you can really see much but better to have it all in one place. This is obviously from a much, much, much older build.

When I made my video about this DW2 teaser yesterday, I included this tweet. I could only see 3 progress status bars in the ship info box via twitter... but here there is clearly 4 (with an additional something else amongst them).

Not sure what else could be included... Ammo levels? Crew experience? Vodkol remaining in the ship's bar? [:D]

After analyzing that screenshot, I actually see 6 status bars...

Hull, Shield, energy, Fuel

1 Green status bar and another 1 at the bottom. Also judging from the old Photo looks like the ships are engaged in some sort of a battle. It looks like a complete 3D battlespace.

It will be interesting to see how they manage to put in the zoom out function with the planet and ship scale. I think the ships and the Starbases will be visually too small when viewing from a Solar system. Actual ships will be visible only during complete zoom in. Otherwise, from viewing from the Solar system and zooming upwards to the galaxy, we will be seeing ship icons. If this is complete 3D as Erik confirms. I believe it will be something similar to Stellaris, less fancy graphics but far more vast and up to scale.

I can't wait to see what the Strategic map mode looks like. It also makes me wonder if this will add to the Shakturi and the ancient galaxy storyline.

[Yskonyn]

SUPER EXCITED to see us thrown a bone after all this time!

3D looks great, but above all I hope the scope of the game won't be smaller due to this AND that the AI actually knows how to use 3D in combat. The big blobs of units bunching up on eachother in a fight is hopefully something of the past in DW 2.

Go Codeforce! [&o][&o]

[Dd_01]

Oh, WOW! Finally-finally-finally!..

[rjord2021]

Erik

Love the preview of DW2....... can you confirm that DW2 will have modding capaility as is the case with DW1?

[ncc1701e]

Very cool, just hope my PC will follow...

[xan2622]

Hi.

Erik, thank you for posting these news. We have been waiting for so long.. [&o]

1. I have the same question as rjord1. Will DW2 have modding capability as is the case with DW1?

2. How many polygons are these 3D models composed of?

3. What 3D modelling software have your 3D artists used? (blender, Maya, 3DSMAX..)?

4. Is this an in-house made 3D game engine? (or are you using unity3D?)

5. Does the game use an adaptive OpenSubDiv tessellation, based on the camera distance from objects? (the more the user zooms-in, the more detailed objects become, the more polygons they have)
https://youtu.be/hnFSVx7NhmM?t=520