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VegaStrike is an amazing free open-source game of space combat and
trading for PC, Mac, and Linux.
You can find it
here.
VegaStrike is a "space simulator". The player assumes the role a futuristic space pilot with a sparsely outfitted starship. There a massive universe consisting of hundreds of solar systems and countless different planets from which the pilot may carve his destiny. Pretty dramatic, eh? Each planet has a mini-economy with different goods which can be purchased sold. An agricultural planet will produce lots of cheap foodstuff that the pilot can then haul off and sell at enormous profit to an industrial world or mining base. In turn, the mining base will produce various ores and metals which can be sold to refineries which produce alloys which can be sold to factories which produce consumer goods which can be sold to industrial worlds which produce things like fertilizer which can be sold to agricultural worlds. Damn cool little microcosm for something put together by a couple guys in their spare time.
Here's where I come in. When the pilot lands on a given planet, there is a "background screen" which allows him access to things like the commodities broker, a bar where he can pick up local rumours, a store where he can upgrade or replace his ship, and a computer where he can accept various cargo and bounty missions. When I first began this little hobby of mine, I took a whack at doing up a few of these backgrounds.
If you get lost in any of the "rendering rhetoric" check out... Definitions.
Industrial Concourse
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This was my very first render ever. Not bad for a new guy, really. I was still working on a lot of the basics, including finding a program to model and render with. I tried out a program called G-Max, which is a free version of a professional, very expensive rendering program called 3D-Studio Max. Well, as it turns out the damn thing doesn't really do renders. So I was able to model this stuff but the output picture quality was, frankly, poodoo. All the edges were jagged and things like the signs were just smudges. I used a free photo-editing program called Serif PhotoPlus to anti-alias it and add in the signs and little details... all by hand. My love affair with G-Max was short and bitter. |
| Preview Download zip |
Desert Colony
| With G-Max firmly behind me, I
started poking around the net looking for other programs to vent my artistic
juices. I settled on giving Blender a go. It seemed pretty complete, had
some nice example pics on it's site, and seemed to have a large, solid
community behind it. That's important for things like good instructions,
good advice from forums, and for making sure that you won't sink a bunch of
time into learning a program that's going to cease to exist. I think it's
important to support open-source programs, too. People pour their hearts and
time into them for basically nothing more than their passion and personal
satisfaction. Because of the passion-factor, open-source is often as good or
better than commercial software. <steps off soapbox> So here's my first render with Blender. Again, not too bad for a new guy. Some of the corners are too sharp, some of the textures are weak and/or not so appropriate. The lighting is primitive. The square building on the landing platform is too plain. But it's not bad, like I say, for a new guy with a new program. I was sufficiently heartened that I thought I'd keep working at it. |
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| Desert Day | Desert Night | Desert Dusk |
Remote Outpost
| Here's my third render and second
shot at figuring out Blender. The interface is a bit awkward but it's
unavoidable in a program with so many functions. Eventually,
you just work out the shortcut keys for the functions you use alot and hit
the spacebar for everything else. This one was a bit of an exercise in greebling and self-illuminated objects. At this point, a fellow named Etheral Walker on the Vegastrike boards was most helpful, supportive, and encouraging. A lot of the progress and technique in this baby came, to a great degree, from his suggestions and links he provided. (Just had to throw in that thanks.) At this point, Silverain and Peteyg were hashing out a new, more sensible, more dynamic economy system for the VS universe. No one else seemed to want to have anything to do with finding or making a hundred or so different icons for new cargo items so I thought I'd grab the ball and run with it. You can see me grabbing my balls here... |
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| Inhospitable World Day | Inhospitable World Dusk | Inhospitable World Night |
You can reach the artist here: dirtymagic@sympatico.ca