So Modular Terrain Planets will be used for the official Block Trek RPs, and I also plan to release a planetary template (all default bricks) for public use, for fun, for everyone.
These modter planets are designed after the same spirit as the planets from Reactor Worker's old v20 Planets/Solar System map. Currently I only have one size completed (640-stud diameter planet), but I plan to do a larger size of planet later on (1024 [64x16]) to act as a gas giants, and a smaller size of planet (384 [64x6]) to act as moons and dwarfs.
I am well aware there is a StaticMap structure of Earth already available for use as a planet, and it is beautiful. However, it does not adequately meet my needs for the RP, as when that day comes, we will be exploring a large variety of different planets. As there is only one StaticShape planet design available, and it is stuck in a fixed location on the map and cannot be customized, I am not going to use it. Furthermore, static shapes have to be manually cleared and loaded in by admins, which would mean the ship could not properly experience warp travel when admins are AFK (the ship "warps out" but the planet stays, as it must be manually cleared).
I was hoping to have interior-see-out-only atmospheres for the planet, but that - though doable - is a bad option, as it requires making the outside of the planet have FX paint on it (with the inside using invisible paint), thus rendering most of the planet invisible to anyone viewing it from behind a window on an orbiting ship.
Instead, I have elected to simply have an atmosphere sky interior to the planet that is a blue color with glow FX paint added to it. It looks well with shaders off, however I am planning to reconfigure it to look best with shaders (minimum setting) on. Weather is created with emitters on large cubes suspended inside the "sky dome". The one advantage to having interior atmosphere effect is that making alien planet atmospheres is easy, and also conforms to the
TOS feel.
With the gracious intervention of Conan, we now are able to clear and load specific saves through events. This is the most vital component to the ships' simulated warp drive, which is one step closer to reality thanks to Conan's work. The only event remaining to help complete the simulated warp drive system is an environment loader event, which will allow the sky to change in-game whenever a warp jump takes place.
The largest problem at the moment however, in regard to the planets, is their performance when clearing bricks. In case anyone hasn't discovered already, ModTer lags like crap when being cleared, and I have observed that it can sometimes even crash people's games/cause them to time out. So far when the planet template is cleared, it causes the game to freeze for approximately 11 seconds. That is something that will have to be dealt with when the day comes for RPs to occur, because such 11-second freezes can cause players serious discomfort. I will try to pass this off in the RPs as simply like a "loading screen" when warping out of star systems, much akin to the game-freezing loads in Half Life 1.
I am hopeful Conan may find a way to reduce this lag when clearing modter, but we will see. For now, thank you for following the development of Block Trek.
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Topic: "Block Trek" Star Trek Megathread - Toy Enterprise Model (Read 65201 times)
