Outerra - The Future of all Games?

[ZeosPantera]

What is Outerra? The official description of it is..

>> A 3D planetary engine for seamless planet rendering from space down to the surface. Can use arbitrary resolution of elevation data, refining it to centimeter resolution using fractal algorithms. Unlimited visibility, progressive download of data, procedural content generation. Integrated vehicle and aircraft physics engines. Embedded web browser for web service integration.

My description is less complicated... BAM! (Tiny Resized Images)

I think it is the future of ALL games. Imagine not having to worry about making a game look good. You want to make a game? Where do you start? I think you start by creating a new game engine or using an existing one to render the environment and code the lighting and the physics and the....... FORGET IT!!!

No current engine can do what this one can. Outerra is the whole world, no, the whole universe with no loading screens and detail never seen in a 3D engine before. With OT as a base you can just import a few models, some buildings, script some weapons or tools and write a story. Game done. The lighting and environment is all done for you. Is it a space based game? 2.2billion Km into space with 1cm accuracy good enough?

Here are some videos and more pictures. http://outerra.com/wgallery.html

The Full Technical blog http://outerra.blogspot.com/

I can't think of a single game that wouldn't benefit from being implemented on this engine.

Flight and Driving and SeaCraft and Military Simulators are obvious. But there is no reason all the current gen sandbox games wouldn't benefit. Hell, Counter Strike 1.6's CS_Italy could take place IN ITALY!! The engine has a built in torrent client to send and receive model and terrain data from everyone using it.

Now this engine is still a very WIP project. There plan is to make a test "game" to help them develop and test features, straiten out their code and keep the team (all two) from starving with a bit of Minecraft style alpha releasing.

I invite you all to join the forums there to discuss features and requests but try not to pass the link out to too many. If you do your ideas may never get heard.

And what would mike and dave have to say lost in those infinite mountain-tops? Machinima Heaven.

 

[xxxxxxxxx]

If it's a freeware, I'll be getting it.

If it's not, I'll be kyping it from one of my friends.

 

[BTGBullseye]

Damn...

Their ocean physics looks about as close to real as I've ever seen in a computer simulation, and the sunset looks very real.

If they finish it with all the base stuff for high-end GFX games, (fog, multiple shadows, ambient occlusion, weather effect, etc.) I'm sure they'll have no trouble selling it as a "true to the real world" game... (provided they make all the various weapons for the real world they way they are in the real world, and not based on some arbitrary system of "this one looks cooler, so lets make it more powerful" like most games)

 

[Axeldeath]

I want...

 

[Alyxx Thorne]

If my jaw could hit the floor, it would...

 

[Jek Jek Roo]

Holy Sh*t! 8(

that's huge!

 

[Kirkreng]

Daaaaaaayum that looks sexy.

 

[xxxxxxxxx]

Holy Sh*t! 8(that's huge!

That's what she said.

 

[ThePhunMaster]

Holy Sh*t! 8(that's huge!

That's what she said.

To your cat.

 

[Axeldeath]

This is what HL3 should be

 

[Kirkreng]

Agreed, that would be pretty cool.

 

[Bjossi]

Sounds and looks impressive. I look forward to see games powered by this engine in action.

 

[jumpyed]

I would like to order 2 tyvm.

 

[ajapam]

This is what the next Star Wars battlefront should be based on

 

[Arby]

In a word, Damn. Imagine what bethesda or rockstar would do with that?!

 

[BTGBullseye]

In a word, Damn. Imagine what bethesda or rockstar would do with that?!

Or id Software, or any of the other great innovative developers... I personally would like to see what Blizzard could do with it.

 

[ZeosPantera]

In a word, Damn. Imagine what bethesda or rockstar would do with that?!

Or id Software, or any of the other great innovative developers... I personally would like to see what Blizzard could do with it.

My only concern with one of the behemoth's using it is they would probably, easily be able to buy it outright and make it proprietary. Flash 10 mil cameni's way and I am sure the whole project would go underground for a year or two only to emerge as a mediocre game in an engine so stripped of its crazy innovative features to save size and min-spec's that it would be a waste.

What I am more looking forward too is if Outerra itself becomes like Steam.

Imagine opening up a steam like games list. Only instead of multiple games everything is in the world of Outerra. In there could be any number of developed game environments with different objectives, tweaks and modelpacks all auto-downloaded via the internal torrent protocols.

Want to race cars. Bam. Load the Race sim environment. Roads are laid, the menu for car selection is loaded and you go.

Want to kill aliens? Bam. Choose the invader or the human race and have miles and miles around a populated large city as the battlefront.

Want to play lord of the rings? Bam. The terrain is twisted to form a 1:1 scale of middle earth. Complete with magic and trolls and caves.

Want to Play Asteroids? ... BAM.. your in space and shooting asteroids.

Even if you don't use the immense size and instead play counterstrike in a large skyscraper. Just looking out the shot-up windows to this... would be worth the mod being created.

 

[that guy]

I'm sorry, but it just doesn't look "that" good. I mean it's a bit bulky and the look of the landscape could use a fix or two. One more thing, am I the only one to whom the trees look like 2D sprites?

Don't get me wrong though, I like the idea in general, but it looks as if it has (a lot of) development space. Outerra will probably have to wait another 10 years so the average Joe's pc could run it smoothly, if the development team wants to give it the ability to look seriously realistic, that is.

 

[ZeosPantera]

I'm sorry, but it just doesn't look "that" good. I mean it's a bit bulky and the look of the landscape could use a fix or two. One more thing, am I the only one to whom the trees look like 2D sprites?

Procedurally Generated Tree's WIP

SEE FIRST POST!!

Outerra will probably have to wait another 10 years so the average Joe's pc could run it smoothly, if the development team wants to give it the ability to look seriously realistic, that is.

Quote from Developer.

1. What are the system requirements to run this engine?

The engine is GPU-centric and requires a DX10-class graphics card with OpenGL3.3 drivers and 512MB of GPU memory.

As the minimum should be considered an Nvidia 8800GT. Although the engine can run on lesser cards, it can affect the overall smoothness. Alpha builds don't contain all optimizations yet so this recommendation will likely change for finished product.

The min-spec's aren't what I would call low because it does have a decent demand on GPU over CPU. Most of it is run completely GPU side to eliminate the lag of going from one to the other. This is not a game system for joe average. You need to be a gamer with a gamer's PC to run it well. The attention to detail the 2 programmers show in there tech-blog and on the forums leaves no doubt in my mind that they will continue to develop until realism is paramount.

Other than the 2D sprite tree's there are also only 4 ground textures, no environment shadows and no clouds. But it is still the most beautiful environment I have seen. Compared to the fully finished and "polished" ArmA 2 virtual reality engine.