Ship Simulator Extremes Developer Diaries
In the final stretch towards the release of Ship Simulator Extremes in august 2010, we will be giving Ship Sim fans a unique behind-the-scenes look of the VSTEP development studio and learn what the Ship Simulator Extremes team is up to in a series of developer diaries.
For more information about the game visit:
- Paradoxplaza
- ShipSimulator.com Homepage
- ShipSimulator.com Community Forum
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Developer Diary #4: Tourist Tales...
Forgive us if this is stating the bloody obvious, but being a master craftsman working on a game that features locations all over the planet has its perks. And we’re not talking small perks either, as the guys and gals from the modelling department will undoubtedly confirm (or at least we’ve never heard any of them complain).
After all, we’re creating a simulator, right ? And these environments need to be modelled as accurate as can be, right? It does take some persuading of management and shareholders, but in the end, a « research » trip to Marseille, New York and Sydney - to name but a few - is a great asset to creating an environment that gets as close to the real thing as possible. And just in case we fail miserably, at least we’ve had one hell of a vacat… working experience. Keeping this in mind, it must come as no surprise that whenever we start talking about which new environment to add, the modellers are often throwing in the most exotic locations. More so, that if we’d let them have the final word, the new Ship Simulator Extremes might just as well have been called Ship Simulator Exotic Holiday locations I’d like to go with my wife/girlfriend (maybe a thought for an add-on ?)
On the other hand, when we decided together with Greenpeace on adding the Antarctic, there was a look of utter fear on some of their faces. « Surely they’re not gonna send me to… »
A modeller’s biggest friend when on one of these research trips is his camera. Enormous amounts of photographs are needed to give a good impression of the look and feel of an environment. As our game focusses on the player being on water, going on a boat ride through the environments gives the best results. Once the pictures are taken, it’s time to work some magic and show off some technical skills. You take your sea charts, elevation data & sattelite images of the area and align them meticulously. The result is something the best geometrician would be proud of. Once you have your terrain correct, it is time to fill in the details, paint the environment and add buildings and famous landmarks to the lot.
The best reality check is our community. A lot of our players are avid ship owners or professionals, who are familiar with one or more of the harbours in the game. The biggest compliment we can get is that they actually find their way through the harbour as they would in reality, using the environment as their point of reference. On the other hand, whenever we mess up or the terrain does not correspond to the real thing for some reason, our players are the first to let us know. So we can proceed and correct any mistakes that still exist. After all, it has to be correct. Sometimes we wonder if our modellers leave a small error in the map, just so they can go back for some « more pictures ». They wouldn’t…would they ?
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In the final stretch towards the release of Ship Simulator Extremes in august 2010, we will be giving Ship Sim fans a unique behind-the-scenes look of the VSTEP development studio and learn what the Ship Simulator Extremes team is up to in a series of developer diaries.
For more information about the game visit:
- Paradoxplaza
- ShipSimulator.com Homepage
- ShipSimulator.com Community Forum
-------------
Developer Diary #4: Tourist Tales...
Forgive us if this is stating the bloody obvious, but being a master craftsman working on a game that features locations all over the planet has its perks. And we’re not talking small perks either, as the guys and gals from the modelling department will undoubtedly confirm (or at least we’ve never heard any of them complain).
After all, we’re creating a simulator, right ? And these environments need to be modelled as accurate as can be, right? It does take some persuading of management and shareholders, but in the end, a « research » trip to Marseille, New York and Sydney - to name but a few - is a great asset to creating an environment that gets as close to the real thing as possible. And just in case we fail miserably, at least we’ve had one hell of a vacat… working experience. Keeping this in mind, it must come as no surprise that whenever we start talking about which new environment to add, the modellers are often throwing in the most exotic locations. More so, that if we’d let them have the final word, the new Ship Simulator Extremes might just as well have been called Ship Simulator Exotic Holiday locations I’d like to go with my wife/girlfriend (maybe a thought for an add-on ?)
On the other hand, when we decided together with Greenpeace on adding the Antarctic, there was a look of utter fear on some of their faces. « Surely they’re not gonna send me to… »
A modeller’s biggest friend when on one of these research trips is his camera. Enormous amounts of photographs are needed to give a good impression of the look and feel of an environment. As our game focusses on the player being on water, going on a boat ride through the environments gives the best results. Once the pictures are taken, it’s time to work some magic and show off some technical skills. You take your sea charts, elevation data & sattelite images of the area and align them meticulously. The result is something the best geometrician would be proud of. Once you have your terrain correct, it is time to fill in the details, paint the environment and add buildings and famous landmarks to the lot.
The best reality check is our community. A lot of our players are avid ship owners or professionals, who are familiar with one or more of the harbours in the game. The biggest compliment we can get is that they actually find their way through the harbour as they would in reality, using the environment as their point of reference. On the other hand, whenever we mess up or the terrain does not correspond to the real thing for some reason, our players are the first to let us know. So we can proceed and correct any mistakes that still exist. After all, it has to be correct. Sometimes we wonder if our modellers leave a small error in the map, just so they can go back for some « more pictures ». They wouldn’t…would they ?
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