Alien Dominion Technology Demo - Real Time Procedural Planets

Alien Dominion Techical/Technology Demo - real time procedural planets with hybrid multitexture input and custom mesh generation algorithm

http://www.blackfiregames.com/

Alien Dominion is a space shooter game for PC platform with a bunch of nice, rarely seen features, like real time descent to a planet, volumetric exposions, vast space to explore and come across some interesting missions/equipment, unique look of every planet in the game, etc.
Technology used here is DirectX 9.0c and C++.


The game itself if planned to be a real time space shooter, a bit of strategy, trading... Similar to Freelancer, Freespace, X3, Wing Commander by concept, but with a nice feature of real time procedural planets generation based on hybrid multifractal equations and and some tricks in directx. The mesh managing algo is custom, and uses the vertex shader to build the mesh. Currently is in DirectX 9.0c, but a more advanced version can be built using DirectX 10 and geometry shader, thus having much higher framerates.

The limits of the engine are 150 astronomical units of gamespace (in diameter) per star system, and starsystems are to be added manually, as the concept of the is not an entire galaxy to roam, but a local star cluster where the saga happens.

The first part of the video shows basic effects like normal-mapping, displacement maps, specular maps, shadows, etc.
The second is dedicated to effect features, showing the volumetric explosions, dynamic light effects, animation subsystem, in-game character animation(a bit cranky, sorry, I'm no expert there) ...
The third part is demonstrating the planet's look and feel. Mountins, valleys, sea, atmospheric effects...
And the final part is a bit of shooting in space. There is no AI currently, so I assigned contols via keybord for a group of ships, and chased them using joystick.

Music was composed by two of my friends, and are authentic unique track made for the project (emails available at the end of this text).

The project never got financed, but I was thinking what the hell, I'll upload it so at least someone will see how it looks, and how the real time planetary renderer works.
Have a full set of developers on standby, detailed design documents, gamplay plan, etc., so if anyone is interested please contact me on robertokoci@yahoo.com . Also if you have game programming/graphics/music related work the email is the same.

Live long and prosper,
Sincerely,
Roberto Koci

People that were actively on this project are:
Roberto Koci (robertokoci@yahoo.com, programming in C++, DirectX, HLSL, OggVorbis decoder, music/graphix/animation engine and related)
Maja Repic (liapiano@yahoo.com, music track one - main theme)
Budimir Mrkobrad (mikara1@nadlanu.com, music, track two and three)
Korponai Csaba (chaba_korp.9@nadlanu.com, game concept planing)

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• space
• shooter
• real
• time
• procedural
• planet
• planets
• rendering
• c++
• directx
• spaceship
• landing
• landscape
• astronomic
• sized
• universe
• fractal
• game
• pc
• Freelancer
• Freespace
• X3
• Wing
• Commander

[RobertoKoci]

Actually, I'm working now on a casual version of "Alien Dominion".

For the sake of diehard spaceism fans and because I want to play such a game too.

I'll post a link around October 2009 for the site (under construction) and a downloadable beta version of "Alien Dominion" level 1.

Stay tuned!

Sincerely,

Roberto

[KingHaggis]

@RobertoKoci Wow, so that means there's a downloadable beta version of Alien Dominion now??? I'd love to play the game :-)

[RobertoKoci]

@KingHaggis There is a "reduced" version, a rail shooter available at the site posted in the video description section. You can't land on planets, but you can have a hell of a fun and action. Free 30 minute evaluation included in the installer available on the site. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Roberto

[DorianGreyandhisMom]

Ever thought of licensing the engine? I might be interested, provided it's under $300.

[RobertoKoci]

It's not for sale... (at least not for that price. ;o) )

[RobertoKoci]

I'm glad you like it! ;o)

Unfortunately the publishers did not, and did not see the market starving for a good space shooter.

4 years of hard work... heh.

[evenios]

meh i can see why the publishers didnt find interest in it. its ok.. but seems dated.

[TheKarikatur]

So? Is this project dead? If so can we at least have the source code? This looks damn awesome! :D

[nabeelmerchant]

i dont think space ships rotate like that is real.

[AASlayden]

This is a fantastic mechanic! Amazing

[petrocket]

Very impressive! You did a really great job with the engine and I can't wait to see what you do with the planetary stuff in the future!

[SRStealth]

When this game comes out,i think it would be the best space game ever! It has lots of cool features, but i think it would be more cooler if you could somehow add more features like planetary exploring( first person, driving with vehicles), finding and detecting new lifeforms (analyse and help them) and destroying civilisations, cityes and so on. Something like the game Spore, but with bigger planets,cooler universe(battles in space) and cooler features .Cant wait to play this.

Greetings, Franz

[KuMoNKo]

Any news about the release?

I think the 2591 viewers want their pc to "create" planets!

thx a lot for your time!