Stellar Assault: First Strike Operations

[Quanto]

Part 1: What is Stellar Assault?



Long ago, in the glorious year 1995, a game was created for a doomed video game console that no one bought. And the Game was Good.
That same year, that very console; the Sega 32x was finally put to rest. Toy stores around the world dropped its price dramatically to quickly clear the wretched stock. Then, a young teenager discovered that console in a local Toys 'R' Us, sold for only 30$, and each game for only 8$. The system and a total of 11 games were bought. One of which was the poor unfortunate soul of a game, Shadow Squadron, the US Localized version of the Japanese game "Stellar Assault".

Being a hardcore space combat fan, this game was the first to be played on this teen's brand new 32x. The game was great. Spectacular even. That teen was me, and to this day, not a single Space Sim has ever been released that matches Stellar Assault in pure fun. The game was actually really simple, and it could be beaten in less than 30 minutes if you knew all the weaknesses of the enemy ships. (I did). There really wasn't much of a story to it either, (just a blurb in the manual). But it had so many gameplay features that made it perfect. It was pure capital-ship busting, nothing but. Every mission got more and more challenging. The options menu was massive for a mid-90s console game, and provided the the player a load different ways to customize the game, you could change the colors of the ships, there was a 3D model view for every ship in the game (excluding the final level ), and even ways to adjust how the throttle to your fighters functioned. For a game released on the 32x just before it was canned, this sucker was awesome.

And Sega knew it was awesome. In 1998, they released a full remake on the Sega Saturn called "Stellar Assault: SS", which improved the game in every way possible, Texturemapped Spacecraft, atmospheric flight, massive particle effects and subterranian maps, this game was simply awesome (I have it on a Saturn Emulator, still haven't been able to beat it), the game even had fully voice acted characters, mission briefs and cut scenes, the only problem was, it was never translated or localized for the States and is ONLY available in Japan.

Since 1999, the Space Sim genre has effectively been dead. Not a single worthwhile space combat game has come out since that year. And if anyone mentions Freelancer, I hunt you down and scalp you. For a long time, I have wanted to remake Stellar Assault on PC. With all of it's simplicity intact, no complicated controls, no bizzare item hunting, no retarded "cargo scanning" missions, no crazy Full-Motion-Video between mission environments, and no long boring way-points to nowhere.

Part 2: What does this have to do with Vega-Strike?

For a while now, there have been more and more Open Source game engines popping up. But unfortunately there are only two Space Combat Sim Engines. Freespace Open, and this one; Vega Strike. Freespace Open is pure combat only. While Vega-Strike is built for the Space-Trader Sub-genre (a genre, I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of), I do think that Vega-Strike as an engine, has a lot more promise than Freespace. I've been reading the wiki's for both Engines for along time now, and I've downloaded and played both. While Graphically, Freespace is the better looking engine, I think Vega-Strike can look just as good, and Vega-Strike from my perspective, looks far more flexible. The problem with Freespace is that no matter how hard TC developers work on their mods, they always end up looking like a Freespace Expansion pack. In general I have become disillusioned with the FSO Engine, AND the community around it.

In terms of moving my ideas over to Vega-Strike I have a few things I would like to know, because the wiki is really jumbled and confusing, is it possible to:

1. remove the "Trading" part of the VS Engine completely
2. remove the open-ended "roam everywhere" portion of the game
3. add "Computer Assisted Targeting" (along with a lead reticle)
4. create a character driven game; styled almost like a Japanese Visual Novel between missions

Part 3: So what?

At this point, I'm still conceptualizing the main components of the game. I have the main gist of the plot figured out, and I'm currently modeling and UV Mapping the spacecraft along with designing the characters and the setting.

Links to Videos of the Original Game can be found below, there are a lot of good ones, for both the 32x and Saturn Versions. My own high opinion of the game is not Unique as many oldschool gamers agree that it was the only good game on the 32x. (Those who've heard of it at least, most people obsess about the 32x Doom, or Virtua Fighter, but Stellar Assault really makes both of those games look amateurish.)

Video Review of 32x Stellar Assault:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_9D_3IgeRg
Video of Stellar Assault's 32x Intro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkNtFjx5gE8
Video of the Stellar Assault SS intro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_4YTICDeeY
Video of Mission 4 Stellar Assault SS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sug5jUR6f8I
Video of Mission 8 Stellar Assault SS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d6s1kMsxyI

Part 4: What I've done so far... (Pictures!)




None of these models have been textured yet (Don't worry, they will be ).
I'm currently practicing up my UV Unwrapping skills and its been a slow process, but I am getting faster. There is not a large number of ships to model anyways, if manage to produce at least a model a week, I should have the entirety of them finished in under 4 months.

I have also produced an amount of concept work to go along with the models. Not all of it shown here simply because I don't immediately feel like scanning every page of my sketchbook.






I know this is a lot to throw into a single post, but I got a lot to say, that and post counts don't matter much to me, so why not put it all in one place.
I'm not sure how active the community is over here, so please reply when you guys get the chance.

[Deus Siddis]

NIce meshes, though you could afford to make them much higher poly.

Do you know C++ and/or Python?

[Quanto]

I did a limited amount of C++ back in high school, but that was 10 years ago.

Instead of programming I went the route of PC Graphic design, that in combination with my fine-arts background, I got really into it, and I've been designing characters and other things on both paper and the PC for a long time now.

In short, I have no programming skills. I was hoping to put together a team to work on this. Myself doing a majority of the graphical and literary work, while those who LOVE programming (as much as I love to draw), would get down to making the art function in the game.

I am not a total retard with computers however, I can do limited scripting for a few games, I've dabbled in some proprietary scripts for games like Total Annihilation and the full gamut of Paradox Games. Putting code together isn't too hard, but my lack of mathematical skills has resulted in a very limited patience in the craft.

The response over in the Freespace community has been mild at best (the idea of computer aided targeting REALLY put them off).

In regard to poly counts, I personally don't think its necessary. Good texturing will do more for the models than a few thousand polygons EVER could. That and the number of enemies in space would require a low poly count. I plan on having a lot more enemies on screen than in your typical space shooter.

[Deus Siddis]

In short, I have no programming skills. I was hoping to put together a team to work on this. Myself doing a majority of the graphical and literary work, while those who LOVE programming (as much as I love to draw), would get down to making the art function in the game.

My guess is that, given the recent shortage of coders associated with vega strike and the seeming obscurity of the game you are remaking, you'll have to get your hands dirty on the code side of things, ultimately. Fortunately it sounds like your project is simpler than most, on this front.

The response over in the Freespace community has been mild at best (the idea of computer aided targeting REALLY put them off).

That isn't a problem here, VS has auto-trackers upgrades, that actually train your forward guns for you, as long as your target is within so many degrees.

In regard to poly counts, I personally don't think its necessary. Good texturing will do more for the models than a few thousand polygons EVER could.

That way of thinking is a bit outdated to be honest.

Basically, all your really important texture detail will be in the normal map. That normal map can be 1024x1024 or even 2048x2048 pixels or maybe 2048x1024, per ship. But then you've probably hit your reasonable maximum, depending on how many different ships you'll have with different textures at a time. And done right this should make your ships look really good, except:

1) The silhouette of your ships will look unnecessarily faceted and primitive, at least in certain places and orientations.

2) Details will have no perspective (VS doesn't support parallax, which also looks terrible anyway), which will be most obvious on those capital ships you'll be busting.

3) Details will not show on the silhouette (even with parallax).

So if you skimp on the geometry now, you limit your final effect in ways that textures cannot overcome.

That and the number of enemies in space would require a low poly count. I plan on having a lot more enemies on screen than in your typical space shooter.

But as you said yourself, the last real space shooter was from 10 years ago, so computers have advanced a lot since then. Plus space shooter don't have terrain or interior structure to render. And the meshes don't have to be deformed like in infantry shooters.

On top of that, you make levels of detail, which act like mipmapping for geometry. Basically the game displays the many far away ships with low detail but displays the few close in ships with high detail.

[Quanto]

Alright, you've made a strong argument, and I'll meet you more than half way on a lot of pointss.

1) The silhouette of your ships will look unnecessarily faceted and primitive, at least in certain places and orientations.

I can see what you mean, there are a lot of hard edges and rectangles. I'll do what I can to round them out.

2) Details will have no perspective (VS doesn't support parallax, which also looks terrible anyway), which will be most obvious on those capital ships you'll be busting.

To be honest, I wasn't planning on adding too many "details". At least, not in the sense of greebles and odds 'n ends. This game takes place FAAARRR in the future. In the Sega Saturn Version, the Planet Venus was fully terraformed and was pretty much a tropical paradise. It would take a LONG time to do that to Venus, so as far as I can tell, the ships in Stellar Assault are lightyears more advanced than any ships that exist in many other Sci-Fi universes. (Including the VS Universe.)

3) Details will not show on the silhouette (even with parallax).

On that Note, I still want these fighters to have something of a militaristic appearance. Many details however, even if fully 3D modeled, would be so close the to hull that you would not see them very well in the silhouette anyways. In that regard, its easier just to texture them on than to model them. As you may have noticed in the messes anyways, these fighters have very gentle sweeping curves punctuated by sharp corners and edges. Many of these fighters retain an aircraft-like appearance because many do in fact, have a dual space/atmosphere capability. If you watch the Stellar Assault SS "Mission 8" Video, you will see what I am talking about.


Lastly, I have a few technical questions on the modeling side of things;
1. When making LoDs, do I have to create each level of detail manually? Or can this be done by some outside software.
2. The Fighters/Capships, can they have a multiple object hierarchy? Or does every element of a ship have to be a single 3D object within the model file? For example, my Feather 2 has over 10 separate objects. Will I need to merge them together as one geometric piece for the game?

[Deus Siddis]

I can see what you mean, there are a lot of hard edges and rectangles. I'll do what I can to round them out.

Use enough polygons to make what should be smooth curves look like smooth curves.

For areas with hard edges, you can use a fine bevel so that they don't look infinitely sharp. Done right, in the right situations, this can actually help bring out the angled look of a surface that should look faceted, without looking unrealistic.

To be honest, I wasn't planning on adding too many "details". At least, not in the sense of greebles and odds 'n ends.

I know, greebles probably don't fit your canon very well.

But take for example the engine pods on the ship in the SS cover. Notice the beveled edges on the still very angular engine pod.

Also notice those thick plates with the thick gaps in between them could be actually modeled geometry in your highest LoD model. This could be dealt with using the normal map of course, but it would still probably look better if modeled in close ups shots, which you reference videos seem to have some examples of. And then you also have folks with screens above 1600x1200 resolution, which magnifies detail visibility.

On that Note, I still want these fighters to have something of a militaristic appearance. Many details however, even if fully 3D modeled, would be so close the to hull that you would not see them very well in the silhouette anyways. In that regard, its easier just to texture them on than to model them.

It is a judgment call that you have to make.

One thing you could try is to pick one ship that looks especially good and represents this game's art style well and try to go all the way with it- fully and accurately modeled, normal mapped, diffuse and specular textures, etc., and then see how it looks in realtime in VS. And when you are really happy with it, then start work on the other models, knowing what they will look like and exactly how to make them look like that, using current generation graphics technology and techniques.

Lastly, I have a few technical questions on the modeling side of things;
1. When making LoDs, do I have to create each level of detail manually? Or can this be done by some outside software.

There is software that you can have do it for you, but the results aren't always exactly amazing. They might look worse for non-organic modeling too.

Doing it manually isn't that hard though, basically you just take the highest level of detail that you modeled first and remove detail in ways that preserves your UV mapping, so that they texture is still applied correctly. Basically your UVs are you main concern when creating lower LoDs if you don't want to do too much work. Certain methods and modifiers can be used for geometry reduction whilst not harming the UV map too much. You can also pin UVs to preserve their position.

And then you have the saving grace that if the texture is not applied totally accurately on lower LoDs, it might not show anyway since they are only displayed when an object is farther away from the view.

2. The Fighters/Capships, can they have a multiple object hierarchy? Or does every element of a ship have to be a single 3D object within the model file? For example, my Feather 2 has over 10 separate objects. Will I need to merge them together as one geometric piece for the game?

It depends on what you mean by 'merging' and 'one geometric piece'. If you mean do all of the vertexes have to be connected, then no, you don't have to do that. In fact wherever the mesh has edges that are close to or more than 90º, you don't want to have a single mesh or else you'll have shading artifacts that I find even normal mapping can't counter-act.

Anyway, if you don't have a problem with uploading a .obj version of your model, I can take a look at it more closely and see what you mean.

[Quanto]

Yeah, I can upload a few OBJs. Hold on. I'll send you the Feather 2, which has the most work done as far as UVs, just keep in mind, those current UVs are broken, and I'll have to make new ones. But meh.

[Deus Siddis]

Okay, got the model. To answer your original question precisely, I would join these different objects that make up this ship together into one object before export. Because even though it might not choke mesher or VS, it doesn't really help you in any way in-game to have all these separate objects.

At least not for fighters. For capships, going by your reference videos, it looks like they can be destroyed in pieces. In that case you probably you need to use VS' sub objects, which I believe can be independently destructible. But those have to be done a certain way from what I understand, perhaps from within mesher or unit converter or units.csv.

[Phlogios]

I actually discovered Shadow Squadron a few weeks ago and I liked it a lot. Best game for 32x by far.
Best of luck to you!

[esgaroth]

Hi Quanto !
I `ve had a bit of modding experience from our star trek mod, so I might give you a helping hand (if time allowes...).

1. remove the "Trading" part of the VS Engine completely
2. remove the open-ended "roam everywhere" portion of the game
3. add "Computer Assisted Targeting" (along with a lead reticle)
4. create a character driven game; styled almost like a Japanese Visual Novel between missions

Concerning your questions, 1 is very easy. I would just remove the trading screens from the bases, and la voila, no trading anymore. Alternatively, you can empty the trading goods part from the units.csv -> same result (you then could trade, but there is nothing to be bought or sold...).
Number 2 i dont know, but with a decent storyline/campaign, that should not be the problem.
3 as already told, is possible with the autotracking function,
and 4 is also possible with the campaigns (although you would need someone who knows python more than a bit).
So for setting up the basic stuff, I could help you if you want, for the candy you would need a python guy.

[Quanto]

Well, at the moment, the basic stuff is all i'm concerned with. Getting ships imported into the engine, making them work. Writing BASIC missions. That sort of thing, just to see the gameplay portion through.

[esgaroth]

Getting ships imported into the engine, making them work.

Well, thats something i have experience with. Not that much trouble to be expected with that portion of the work. Same with adding or removing factions. Adding the weapons you had in the original game needs a lot of infos and testing but i know how to do that. Should be the first thing to concentrate on - weapons and shields (cause importing ships is rather easy once they are modelled and textured).
Best would be to have a repo somewhere and then start to modify the basic surroundings, that is set up the universe (which factions, which ships for which factions etc.) Most difficult thing is to set up the campaign correctly cause that needs python knowledge.
So I would like to suggest that you register with sourceforge, start a new project and then lets think about which vegastrike version you would like to use as a starting point to mod. And then lets start to do it...

[Quanto]

Well shoot, if you really want to get hardcore into this, I'll start pushing myself to finish some UV Mapping. And I guess the weapons themselves would pose a bit of a challenge. As far as setting up the universe is concerned I already have a lot planned out, I haven't put it out in the open yet because I wasn't even sure if anyone was interested enough to get to know those parts.

I'll post a detailed overview of the Universe soon.