No Man's Sky

[PZ]

 

[mmosu]

Wasn't Zen Solo killed by his son, Kylo Zen?

[PZ]

 

[Art Blade]

Ah, Kylo Zen! Yes, he killed his dad.

I think it was a zenseless act. One Zen less, actually. Well, Darth Zen got killed by his son, Zen Skywalker. As if a death zentence was threatening all Zen fathers.

[PZ]

 

[mmosu]

This was a long but fun discussion about where NMS has the potential to go down the road:

https://youtu.be/6oeubLgne7E

In the news drought following the delay announcement, there hasn't been much new footage to show of the game. However, here is a clip of a concert from 65 Days of Static at E3. They are the group that created the procedurally generated soundtrack to the game:

https://youtu.be/OvI8l4bBHq4

The clip is fairly poor quality, but we do get some glimpses of game footage on the screen behind them. As well as a shot of a previously unseen "dust planet". Hopefully some higher quality footage of this event will emerge  :-X

[PZ]

This game really has my interest piqued. I can't wait to see it released, thousands of people playing, and reading about the adventures.  :-X

[mmosu]

Me too PZ, me too  :-X

Some more grainy smartphone footage is starting to emerge of the concert, here is some that actually shows stuff:

https://youtu.be/rY8LZ4wHlpg

[mmosu]

A few more very short clips:

https://youtu.be/6KtkoZa_4eg

All of the new footage is in the first 2 minutes, the rest is talk of what's coming up on this guy's YouTube channel while already-seen NMS footage plays in the background.

I appreciate how they've managed to hype this release without actually showing much. There should still be lots left to surprise us once we've actually got our hands on it.

[fragger]

Maybe they're not showing much because there's some serious flaw with the game that they're having trouble getting around, and hence the release delay :-\\ I hope that's not the case - or if it is, I hope they can figure it out without doing a Duke Nukem on us.

[Art Blade]

patience is a virtue, I hear :-()

[fragger]

I'm patient. I just hate waiting for things to happen :-()

[Art Blade]

hehehe :-D

[mmosu]

I hope it's nothing serious too, but I did hear about a legal issue that could have at least had a hand in the delay. There's a company in Great Britain called Sky Broadcasting Group that apparently believes it owns the word "Sky" itself and likes to sue anyone and everyone that gets within a country mile of the word.

Well guess what happened  >:((
Supposedly the thing just recently settled and the title remains unchanged, but the timing of it all is interesting to say the least. I guess these guys took on Microsoft a couple years back over Skydrive, which is why that service is titled differently in some countries, and that's not even the most ridiculous legal battle these jerks have started. Sounds like Sony and Hello Games may have fared a little better then some, but it could explain the delay. It would have been hard to re-title after the first batch already shipped  :D

[fragger]

That's outrageous. So now they can claim to "own" common words? I can understand made-up brand names and such, but words in everyday usage? Where does that end?

That idiocy should be stamped out immediately.

[Art Blade]

 :-X

[mmosu]

That idiocy should be stamped out immediately.

Couldn't agree more. A classic case of a company that is operating from a scarcity mindset, ie "the only way to win is to make sure everyone else loses". Pathetic.

[Art Blade]

 :-X

[mmosu]

It's official! No Man's Sky has been certified gold (release-ready) by Hello Games, which means the August release date stands and we are just about exactly ONE MONTH away from release!!! :-X :-X

See below for a really cool pick of a very tiny but very happy and relieved design team:

https://youtu.be/gnKzBuA1dHA

[Art Blade]

 :-X :)

[fragger]

Cool 8)

My ISP recently upped my monthly data allocation to 50GB per month (up from 10, which was quite generous). So I'll have plenty on hand when it comes time to download NMS from Steam.

Apparently the program download size may only be about 5-10GB. This is because of the procedurally-generated nature of the game, since there won't be the usual humongous amount of artwork and graphic content which is responsible for the large sizes of most modern downloaded games. If you think of a game like GTA V where there are tons of image-based textures, like signs, billboards, logos, storefronts, clothing prints, and then all the architectural textures like bricks, patterned cement, woodgrains, "waffle-plate" metal, etc etc etc etc etc - all that image-based graphical data adds up to a lot of GBs. Most of NMS's graphical content is not so much images as it is algorithms. There are still textures of course, but certain texture types themselves can be procedurally generated (as long as they don't contain anything pixel- or shape-specific, like text or pictures). 3D modelling programs w@&k like this, you can have image-based and/or procedurally generated textures on objects. Some textures can even be of both types combined, such as a reflective metal surface with text on it, so that the text will be reflective as well as the surface it's "painted" on. But as soon as a texture has image data in it somewhere, the size shoots up. The reason is not only due to the image itself, but also because the program needs to be told how to apply the image to the object, which requires an "object-map", also known as a UV map (think of a cereal box unglued and flattened - the program need to know how to stick which image onto which face of the box and which way each image needs to be orientated). So the mapping data further adds to the storage size of the texture. Procedurally-generated textures don't need object mapping, just the numerical data of the object and scaling/orientation info. It's all just math.

Demo

[smg id=8885 align=center width=600]

I saved each cube as a separate file. The cube with the image-based texture was 278Kb in size, the one with the procedural texture was 46Kb. This shows how economical procedurally-generated textures are. But if you want something like a tee-shirt with a logo on it, you need an image-based texture. From what I've seen, there isn't a lot like that in NMS.

Sorry for the digression. I don't need much excuse to talk about and play with 3D-modelling stuff :-()

Anyway, I'm looking forward to checking out NMS :-X

[mmosu]

Cool  :-X
Had never thought about at least half of what you discussed there, but it makes complete sense. I have a physical copy pre-ordered, so I imagine any downloading I'll have to do on day one will be even more minimal.

[mmosu]

Thought this was a funny discussion of what the extremely rare event of encountering another player could go like:

https://youtu.be/-EkUf_-Ve7U

[Art Blade]

I think I'd be more like, "it's bloody moving?!" and kill it. Not so much as getting to know what it was -- as long as it moves, it poses a threat. If it's a player, then it poses a serious threat. You know my motto, "whatever it was, it's dead now." >:D

[fragger]

Dunno what happens if you die in NMS. I assume you just have to start all over again.

Personally, I like the idea of the game world - er, galaxy - being so big that I may never encounter any other players. I'd hate to have been playing for a while only to have some prepubescent little douche shoot me in the back and make me start all over again. Conversely, it would be fun to get together with a friend and explore and trade and so on together, but it appears that the game is not structured to support such play.

I guess if I'd invested a lot of time and effort in the game and then encountered another player I'd have to shoot first, just in case. I figure that the odds of the other player being a mug are probably high enough to warrant me being the mug who draws first >:D