Minerer: Miner Wars 2081
The Miner Wars team send word that they've just released a major update for the game (which is in a pre-orders-pay-for-alpha-access-state) which includes a in-game editor. They explain: "Build your own space ship, space station or any sort of space-like edifice you can think of. These structures are be made from prefab modules, and in the future we’re looking to feature ’total destructibility’ for these objects. Prefab modules include tunnels, lattices, beams and panels as well as diverse chambers and special devices. You can also upload your hand-made sectors to the server and let your friends play them!" I had a mess about with the initial tech demo that was released last year, and it was genuinely impressive, if totally empty at that time. It now features all kinds of stuff, including AI bads and so on. Is anyone still playing around with it?
Full list of updates and latest (by latest I mean totally ancient) video below.
New game features, including:
- Completely new GUI including lots of cool HUD icons.
- New player weapons.
- Improved AI (added waypoints, guard mode, more realistic combat behavior).
- New physics engine with multi-core optimizations.New rendering engine, featuring:
- Image Space LOD (Level of Detail) – seamless LOD with no popping artifacts.
- Deferred rendering with unlimited light sources.
- Dynamic shadows / Cascade Shadow Maps (CSMs) with blended cascades
- Improved ship lighting from engine thrusts.
- Upgraded shaders, looking even more gorgeous.
- New render quality setting - EXTREME – designed to take advantage of newer hardware.
- New models, textures and audiovisual content.Upcoming game and editor features:
- Modular mothership weapons - large weapons and turrets that can aim and shoot at enemy!
- Special prefab types - lights, speakers, particle generators.
- Personality-Based AI Behavior and Group AI Behavior – simply set the AI behavior within the editor, choosing from several pre-scripted AI pilot and commander behaviors (coward, aggressive, sharpshooter, defensive and more).
- Event-driven music – many new music tracks programmed to fit within the context of the current gameplay situation (fight, chase, harvest, deep space...).
- Special prefab types - lights, speakers, particle generators. -
- Hundreds of new sounds by Dan Wentz and prefabs from our 3D artists were made (http://www.minerwars.com/ForumTopic.aspx?id=1943), they are just waiting to be brought to life and interlinked with other game content.
- Upcoming rendering engine features:
- Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO).
- Image-Based Anti-Aliasing (FXAA).
- HDR with tone mapping, environmental textures, bloom/blur.