Difference between revisions of "IAmA2"

Revision as of 18:02, 26 June 2015

General questions

Why do all of the objects in the source code have 'My' in front of it?

This is probably a derelict of my programming habit (I am Marek Rosa). I wanted to distinguish between my own classes and third-party libs and this way it seemed to be the most visual and intuitive. And then everyone kept following in this mode.

when roughly will we see an update to the multiplayer code/network?

It's a couple of months from now

What was a breakthrough you were most proud of when developing the game?

Deformable armor in SE; Structural integrity in ME; And then tens of other features :)

also why should i buy medieval engineers, what plans do you have for it that would excite me?

Medieval Engineers = at this moment we focus 70% of our ME programmers on survival elements

With the code-release today, do you expect to get high quality modifications, like shaders etc? I am no coder myself, so I have no idea how complicated it is. Do you think moders will create own features (like new typeIDs), or is this way to complex for normal people?

The idea is that when something is not in one of our top priorities, but it still would be interesting for someone, that person can code it themselves and them issue a pull request on github and if everything is OK with the code, we can actually add it to the game.

Do you plan to to have a similar business model to the Unreal Engine or the Unity engine and make it possible to everyone to use your engine for a fair price?

Yeah, definitely. That's one of the reasons why we opened the source code today. Except that we haven't thought much about the business model part of this initiative :)

In your last AMA I pointed out that incomplete blocks still have the same mass as complete blocks and I was told this was a bug that would be fixed. When will block mass become dynamic and dependent on completion?

Thank you for a reminder! We will look at it. Actually, my colleague is writing a ticket right now :-)

Are planets, multi threading DirectX 11 going to be implemented?

Planets in several weeks or few months, Directx 11 should be done sooneer.

Are there plans for a second bug fixing phase after the implementation of the new multiplayer and planets?

Definitely with new multiplayer!

Could you add more graphic options to lower the graphics in order to increase the performance on bad systems?

We prefer to optimize physics and game logic first, because it would positively affect all players. Once DirectX 11 render is done, there should be some time for render optimizations and more settings (there's also more settings in DirectX 11).

Why is the save always defined as sector 0_0_0?

For historical reasons (there were sectors in MinerWars)

Planets, AI, and DX11: which of these will we need to restart save games in order to see?

Planets will need new saves, because they use a new world generator. AI and DX11 should work with the older saves without problems.

Are you planning to make any different styles of games?

Yes. A campaign/story based game would be awesome!

did you have any idea how big SE would become, and where are you headed with both SE and ME in the future?

Of course we were hoping that both games would be a success from the start :-) As for the direction of the game, it's partly decided by us and partly by the ideas or requests of our great community

Okay guys, if I build a ship in SE, and export model, can I legally use it commercially? For example in my own game or so.

You can check here: http://www.spaceengineersgame.com/eula.html If you have more questions or if anything is not clear, you can ask us about it

how far ahead is the most recent 'dev' build compared to what is released? I figure it's gotta be at least a week or two for QA and such, or are you guys really on a week-by-week dev cycle?

For both games, a new DEV is created every week and then we test it in our closed testing group and we switch it to the public build in a few days. Some features take only few days to develop and test, but most of them take weeks and months. These longer features are being developed in parallel, somehow overlapping each other, and since there's many of them... we have always something to release.

What plans (if any) are in the pipeline for increasing the performance and stability of the game? Right now, some builds bring my somewhat-respectable rig down to a crawl. It gets worse in multiplayer as well, any plans to improve the netcode?

Regarding the stability of the game, we will concentrate on that once most of the features are finished. As Donald Knuth said - premature optimization is the root of all evil :-)

Is there some kind of chat place to hang out to ask your team questions about the source? Like an IRC channel?

There's forum, but I guess some kind of group chat would be nice.

One of the things I've always wanted to see from this game was a UI overhaul. The interface in place today has been around for as long as I can remember and makes the game like 50% navigating menus. Will we ever see a more intuitive menu system?

We're glad that you like the game! As for the UI, we'd like to improve it, but it's not currently at the top of the priority list.

I'm wondering about the timeline of the Xbox One release?

Well, it takes a lot of time, I must agree. But luckily some parts of the process are already done (plus we have now Xbox Controller and UI changes done). The sad part is that we need to finish the entire port to call this thing complete. There's no such thing as 95% finished port.

Does a "Total Conversion" mod have to reskin everything, or would substantially non-SE content and functionality built on top of existing SE content potentially qualify as "Total Conversion" (granting that you, as the developer, have final say in that determination)?

Hi! If your "Total conversion" would be made as a mod - which means that it would require the base game - it's not a problem at all. If you'd like to release it as a standalone game, you'd need to contact us anyway, so we could discuss the details.

Why didn't you finish Space Engineers before starting a new game?

Because the development of ME and SE overlaps in a let's say 90% of the work. Most of the things we develop for ME gets to SE, and vice versa. IMHO, there wasn't any reason to postpone ME until SE is done. There wouldn't be any benefit in that.

DirectX

Why go with DX11 when DX12 will be released this summer?

We decided for DX11 mostly because Xbox One requires it. This doesn't mean we will ignore DX12, but there must really good reason for us to do DX12... in other words, if DX12 will be mort important than all other features, then we will do it. Otherwise some other priority wins the queue.

How big impact will the new DX11 renderer and multithreaded optimization have on SE? How big performance difference should we expect?

First tests suggest around 10-20%. The main reason for adding DX11 support is improved visual quality and better lighting model.

Are there plans for DX12 support? (not very soon of course)

No plans yet (we'll reevaluate when DirectX 11 is done)

gitHub

Is there/will there be an official submission process? From what I've seen of enterprise source open work, the issue you work on has to be submitted and accepted before your pull request will even be looked at.

For smaller things (extending ModAPI), you can simply create pull request and it will be accepted if it's meaningful. If you're not sure, feel free to create issue/feature request and our developer will comment.

Will development be in the open (i.e. on github) or will you just be using as a mirror of internal version control?

Currently we mirror our internal VCS, switch to GitHub may come in future

Gameplay

Do you have any plans for a graphical/logic-gate based front end for the programmable block?

Hi there! Some graphical-based programming was one of the directions that we considered for the programming block, but we decided for C# in the end, because it was easier to implement and also because we felt that it could help kids or people who are new to coding learn how to program in an actual programming language!

How far are you willing to go when it comes to advanced realism features like air resistance and orbital mechanics once planets are in the game? Do you plan to add other celestial objects like stars or moons?

With the current maximum speed, the air resistance is really negligible, so we probably won't consider it. As for the moons, we will add them from the beginning, but we're not so sure about stars.

what your plans are to allow us to actually do more with our spaceships? It seems like you can build them, but once you have them there isn't a whole lot you can really do with them. What are the plans for adding more meaningful PvE content? Can we get better enemies? Missions? Trading? More enjoyable environmental dangers? Survival mode just seems a bit too empty currently.

Hi! We are aware of the problems that you describe and one of the ways to address them is to add more interesting missions, so we are going to release several new missions in the coming updates.

Is it possible to make merge blocks that can connect to both big and small grids?

It's possible, but there are some technical challenges and quite large engine changes we have to do

How difficult is it to fix the issues with rotors and pistons and how long will it take approximately to fix them? (issues like sudden shaking or just breaking off without reason, things that make them unreliable in some cases)

Quite difficult, we've discussed this with Havok Physics support and there's no easy solution unless we limit players in some way.

Are there plans to make an airtight docking system for ships and stations?

No plans yet, but it's interesting idea

Will it be possible to make airtight piston doors?

Don't know

Will it be possible to make asteroids airtight?

It would be computationally intensive, but it's possible

Are there any plans to implement sth like cables, chains or strings? To have some sort of 'loose' connection to move grids, recharge them or transfer items.

We were discussing block which would connect two misaligned stations (on planet) with something like cable to transfer items and electricity.

What is your plan on food and hunger system?

We want to work on this a little... one of our next dev directions is to add more survival elements, focus more on the "body"

Do you plan on introducing vegetable gardens ? Grow crops, generate oxygen, use as food ? (there is no space movie without it)

We can't promise this yet, but it would be great!

Have you guys figured out any of what you want to do with NPCs/AI? Will I ever be able to populate stations with minions?

Yes

Are you planning to add Nebulae?

Not yet.

Are you going to add asteroid belts?

Not yet

Have you thought about a more hardcore-survival mode? With this I mean disabling the jetpack in the world options. Or do you prefer to use the jetpack and you never actually thought of restricting it? I am curious what you think about this.

The idea with the jetpack is that it allows you to get out of difficult situations, when you fall down into a hole or something like that. To be honest, we actually never thought about disabling the jetpack...

Do you still plan to bring the ladders back? I know you must habe been asked this very often, but lately I could not find any statements of yours to this, I would like to know if my hopes may come true in the future.

Ladders caused a very complicated code in characters. We could probably bring them back if we really wanted/needed, but it would need to be more thought through and we currently have different priorities.

Have you considered expanding the variety of procedural space? I can imagine something like sectors, where skyboxes would change and asteroid (and planet) dispersal would vary. Asteroids and planets could even look different dependent on the type of sector they're in. This would make the game world feel much larger and would encourage exploration more than it does currently. Do you have any thoughts/plans regarding this idea?

We are constantly thinking about ways of making the game more interesting and fun to play. Variety across different sectors in the game can be one of the means to achieve this goal, so we're seriously looking into that. As an example, we can give the exploration ships: their authors were asked to create them in several different styles, so that they could be used in different sectors.

planets

Will there be a massive performance impact with planets?

Hey! The planets will be loaded and unloaded on-the-fly as asteroids, so it shouldn't be much more different from the asteroids. Generating them is a bit tricky, but we're doing what we can :-)

With planets, will we be able to get into orbit?

Yeah. Landing and taking of a planets is seamless, there's no loading screen. It's still just one big, big world.

Are the surfaces of planets going to be smooth like in me or rough like roids in se?

Planetary surface should resemble real planets, this applies to terrain, flora, fauna, etc.

Will the amount or the density of planets in infinite worlds be configurable?

Yes, probably

how will you deal with asteroid distribution? Will you create a solar system, like ours? So you have asteroid in a belt/trojans, and planets in (although not moveing) orbits? Or will Planets be randomly placed with no relation to each other or the sun?

Planetary generator will have some random seed distribution, it will be configurable, so people with less-performance computer will be able to play too

Are there any plans to implement proper orbital mechanics? If so, will we have real sized solar systems?

There are no plans for real orbital mechanics yet.

Are you planning to add gas planet?

Sorry but no, just standard planets - with or without Earht-like atmosphere.

Those planet screens look AWESOME. Can you tell is how you guys are going to handle gravity?

Yes, you need really stronger thrusters and engines to take off a planetary gravity. Just like in a real world.

on se planets will be introduced structural integrity?

Yes... structural integrity should get to SE at some point.

Planets. Will they rotate?

Unfortunately no. We need to keep them as static geometry (but deformable). Otherwise the performance would just die.

any plans to add some life forms to the planets of any kind?

Yes, there will be deer :)

what vehicles can we use on the planned planets that we couldn't in space?

Vehicles = cars. We need to work on this a bit, make them more usable in gravity.

What is your stance towards volumetric water in SE?

Love to have it, very hard to do it in space. Planets with oceans would be possible, but only with 'fixed' spherical water level. No plans now (may change when planets are released)

To simulate planet-spin, have you considered making the planets revolve around the star, whilst not rotating themselves? (think of how the moon orbits earth!)

Yes

Are you planning to add atmospheric simulation at all? (Think KSP use of wings)

Not yet

When can is the planet update likely to arrive?

Several weeks or few months

Multiplayer

Do we have any hope of having client sync with landing gears, etc. on MP servers so that attaching a landing gear doesn't cause things to spontaneously explode?

Yes, we will 'merge' both objects into one rigid body, this will fix the issue. We plan to do it, but it's not a simple change, because it can influence large amount of other things.

How will the new network code work? Will there be a chunk like system or will it be connected to the render/view distance? And will there be a way to configure it?

Server will have complete authority, all data will go through server (now clients send some data to other clients). Server will know which data were received by which client and will be able to send to client only data necessary for him. This should improve network performance and reduce lags caused by big amount of data, because client will receive only what's necessary (only what's close to him).

Will there be differences in using the new multiplayer? (like UI)

Probably no changes in UI

Could you add a restart method to the dedicated sever? It just feels wrong to crash it order to restart the service. ;)

Yes, we can :)

Are there plans to integrate some new queries in the new multiplayer? I assume it will still have the Source Server Queries? I think it would be awesome to have some ways to get information (mods, players/player names, settings, etc.) about the server to make some smooth websites (the source queries are enough but more would be awesome!).

When new multiplayer is done we'll focus a little on server management, server queries will be part of it

Are there plans for a linux version for the dedicated server?

Not now, maybe later (around XBox release)

Can you say anything about the release date of the new multiplayer or planets yet?

Planets will be probably released before new multiplayer, it's still several weeks or few months away

Modding

Will entire feature submissions be accepted?

It's necessary to discuss that first. The other way is to extend ModAPI to support necessary things and then implement it as mod.

Will other mods be integrated into the main game? (e.g. gates, decorations)

Personally, I think it would be nice to add them in similar way like exploration ships, but we have to discuss in the team.

Are there any plans to add your own mods to the Vanilla game?

This is something we are awaiting for... we need to see how this whole full source code thing plays out. But yeah, there's a good chance we will merge community mods with the vanilla game. At least parts of it. We also don't want to change the "vision" of SE.

It seems like Sandbox.Common is something that is shared between SE and other games. Why are all of the object builders put there?

It's there for historical reasons (Sandbox.Common was never obfuscated)

There are some broken methods in the Mod API which are actually bugs in the game as well, will modders be able to submit fixes to these ?

ModAPI is actually one of the biggest motivation for us to release the game source codes, so the modders will be more than welcome to fix these issues, if they find any!