STATUS REPORT
18 Dec 2006
Hello All!It has been over a year since I started development work on the
Immersion Core. I think it is about time that I kick off the development on this new board with a
decent status report.
Immersion Core v4++ (Formally Immersion Framework and WalkFX Immersion) is the culmination of 4 versions of design and code which aims to convert Bridge Commander from just another space simulator to a totally Immersive detailed universe in a ways which other commercial games and mods have previously ignored.
The flexibility provided for us in the Totally Games Bridge Commander engine in terms of Python scripting has allowed the game to evolve in ways most non-open source games cannot. It is this that I believe allows games like BC (released like 4 years ago) to compete with today?s DirectX9 games.
Some of the features I am most proud of at the moment are:
The Transporter
The Transporter will transport almost anything recognised by the Immersion Universe! You can literally transport a weapon someone has dropped on a plant surface or from any room in any ship in your solar system into any other. You can also transport people, cars, consoles, tricorders, Borg. Whatever you want, all from a nice interface!
Flexible Universe
The flexibility of the universe. Immersion core will quite happily sit on top of pretty much any combination of mods and will work in Single Player as well as Quick Battle mode.
Weapons and Inventory Items
Weapons ? you can blow holes in anything in the Immersion! Killing Saffi is actually really good fun! You will also notice that if you shoot a Bolian they will spurt blue blood and a Human will spurt green blood! All weapons have just the same handling as inventory items. You can give them to other players and drop them on the floor where you stand, and a 3D model will appear where they were dropped. A player can then walk over the item to pick it up again, provided nobody steals it with a transporter first!
Interfaces and Computer Cores
The interface system. All interfaces in Immersion are detailed and work. You can able to ?hack? into other ships with command codes, then gain access to their computer core and set off their self destruct, without even firing a torpedo! These are in my opinion the cool little things which allow real immersive game play, so some good flying, tactics and a shuttle craft can start to take out a Borg cube. Immersion also is designed with expandability in mind so hopefully there will be people that follow me and change Immersion to add even more features!
AI and Characters
This is a feature very much still under development. Once I get to finish off the Physics engine I will focus all my efforts on this. Then Immersion Core will be ready for a BETA!
TODO
- Bullet Manager Tweaks (95%)
- Interfaces (40%)
- Physics Engine (50%) Implimented but not working LOL
- Simple Character AI (20%)
- Profile / Debug Project (N/A)
I'd stick the figure 70% overall complete on it.
All the best
John
p.s. If you are a modeler (good or not) please feel free to start making weapon models, room models, objects which go inside rooms like Borg alcoves and stuff! The more content i can start to stick in the game the better it will be! ;D
Merry Christmas!
