This Blog grants insights on things I like feat. lots of different topics. Historical, Sci-fi and nowadays real life stuff gets posted, simulated or reviewed. Basically it's all about close-up views of my favorite vehicles and some info on how to get the whole experience running on your PC, including things to point out, e.g. tech facts or design goodies. All rounded up by some random fun and interesting side notes. Bots like this place. Aimed to be a resource. Heres what I have to share!
Some would say that without any doubt, such image compositions should not be done by Art Directors, not in that unprofessional way having a idea for a composition and making fun like a jocke out of it. Yeah, of course they're right. Some would add that also counts for this blogs layout. ;)
So this is what comes out when you try to keep a Orbinauts community updated even with minor progress.
Work in progress – no time to play but wasting time is a must, sometimes
You know how it is, theres a thin line between what could be done by a artist to introduce his virtual for free product and what nerds do for fun. The balance between those aspects is for sure artistic. Anyway folks, heres another preview of the now so called 'Fruit fly a.k.a. DIGNITY CLASS. Oh and one more thing, the misspelled words in my trash interpretation of a data transfer are due to Cervezas. YaY, hope you enjoy + it's only a #WIP...let's call it a Trash-Up.
(I managed to grab some details while hidding crucial bugs of the mesh. Now that's artistic! ;)
Inspiring Submarine designs with a lot of Steampunk
We need more fancy rides, so I seeked for 3D Meshes for futher implementation into some Simulators and what I had to find was that most things don't even exist in the virtual world. While researching I found out my preferences are somehow unseen or let's say if you ask me, I would reflect a very specific nerd-faction.This means I'll take my opinion and I'm asking in the name of all vehicle related sim players that want to be early adopters, too. Here is some opinion leading for all of us. I hope you agree with me in particular. This list is aimed to bored Modders in search of something special. Thanks in advance! These are some of the 3D-Meshes or Mods me and others would love to see:
Marine
U-Boat Type XXI (kewl design, hot historical specs)
U-Boat Taifun Class (huge and modern)
Seabreacher X Shark, Dolphin or Orca (fun and innovative)
Sailing Boat Dehler Dehlya 25 (tiny and cute)
Deepflight Black Hawk or Deepflight I or Challenger or Super Falcon Mk II
...
Air
The Jet from the movie G.I. Joe 1 (the non AI two-seater variant)
Synergy Aircraft (a crowd funded futuristic plane)
Mi-24 (a russian helicopter)
He Triebflügel (epic WWII concept aircraft)
He 112 (good looking, good manuevering)
Some Horten Glider Planes (one-wing concepts, needs flight skills)
Wingsuits (YAY, needed)
...
Space
Mars Attacks Flying Saucer (kewl design, epic gadget)
The Flight of the Navigator (unique design, for fantasy purposes)
BSG Rising Star (one of the most beautiful ship designs ever)
A super movable Spacesuit (needed for some)
...
Terrain
Some more very freaky Concept Cars (from real manufacturers).
Some hotter Mech Warrios (more sleek, please).
More different Byclicles or how about some virtual Inline-Skating?
... Notes
All should have cockpits, except the two last ones. Thanks for developing! Ah and thanks for creating any awesome vehicle design that not got mentioned in here. Keep up the good work! :)
This topic is sheduled to be filled from time to time with whatever I end-up researching while looking for hot mobiles. Soon with pictures and more fancy entries.
Based on the wonderful Sailing Simulator and on Micro flight Simulator this is an all grounds Simulator with excellent dynamics.
Vehicles, vehicles ...and surroundings:
The weather conditions can be adjusted at a maximum of detail, e.g. wind speed, wind direction, wave height, wave length, water level, ground level, turbulences and so on. Even the water colour can be set or something like adding rain and thunder. Unlike other Sims the cockpit features straight click-at-it action which means you can steer the navigation wheel or control the sails. Some powerfull devices like GPS, Radar, Depth scanner or for planes a HUD can be monitored. All visualized by proper gadgets and overlay cockpit panels. Theres also a wind stroke view aimed to help sailors or pilots with navigation depending on the weather.
No matter what you like to drive, fly or dive there are lots of Mods available as free downloads, be it luxury yachts, gigaliner ships, sailing boats, planes, gliders, hang gliders, helicopters, cars, trucks, a flying saucer and guess what – even more whatevers. By the way: It's the perfect submarine game plattform. Ever wanted to make your very own car? It has it's own vehicle design editor allowing you to create fancy "whatevers". Or you may just try one vehicle after another. In case you like to be a Captain, a Pilot or just a Driver, you have the tricky choice of variety. A combat simulator and AI scripts round the whole thing up.
The GFX and engine are state of the art (compared to other Simulators). Some would say the overall look is deprecated but once you see the real time shadow casting effects ingame you will forget about any bad screenshot + everything can be modded speaking of trees or bees, buildings and sceneries. There are animals around you, the base installation even includes a cat, same goes for dolphins (this blogs insider jocke number one) ;) And just in case, if theres a need for a real living asset you can start a Multiplayer session, do a boat race, fly modern jets togheter, yep, you name it! Practise makes a pro – it's educational!
This game has a price but it's worth every dimme and it's not expensive at all. I say: Strong community, quality Add-ons, accurate simulation. Let 'em all know!
A list of my favorite Add-ons to come soon. I only played the demo yet but soon I will be able to present my first Mod for this game. It will be a Sci-fi supersonic sub. I'm gonna talk about reality Vs. fantasy on another post. Vehicle Simulator allows both things.
This is worth another entry in the Hall of Fame of great Simulator like games even it was more a Sub-Opera: Aquanox 2 Revelation and The Angel's Tears. A epic liniar story line driven gameplay, personal submarines, Steampunk, the deep sea scenario of a nuked future and hunting forgotten treasures. What else does a Nerd want to play?
It was a Deepsea Simulator, no doubt! Casual mode could be turned off delivering adjustable and incredibly tricky handling. But lifes a #§%! and the game studio behind it imploded because of lack of interesting and because most people were playing mainstream stuff. It might also be because the selling chain wasn't organized well so non-european people didn't even heard of it.
Neopolis, I can't forget that city near Europe deep down below miles of water. It's like Georgia on my mind. And then there was the latin america deep sea, I met Angelina there, we survived and felt in love but unfornutaly, those others, it's without any words. That asian girl was funny, and that afro dude called Stoney, he is the best. I owned the Drake Industries Carpenter XXL Sub and drove the Salty Dog, what a ugly piece of sub (comparable to today's submarines). Later I managed to dive with an organic stealth batman's sub like ship, uuuhh wow. In the end I found something which created a longterm vision of a "Whatever Hall" without spoiling too much. I'm gonna feature the "Whatever Hall" in some future post related to something I call the "Backup". Meeting lots of Cyberpunk characters I had fun talking to them because beside the mission part there was time to "2D walk across your ship" and since the characters moved from here to there, you had to find 'em. Besides that you could do the basic things, upgrading your subs with some offensive and defensive hardpoints. Besides blowing stuff up with several types of weapons you could raise your cargo space, add turrent command software, power generators, armor plating, Buzzer flares, noise reduction, speed boosters, a fixer and so on. The level design was for it's time beyond imagination with lots of vegetation, deep sea vulcanos, thrilling ambients, ancient cities and epic places to park at. The game engine was made by massive development. The all over look and feel including the design was epic and well done like a movie. This game is still in stores but I don't know if the credits ever reach it's creators.
What is the message of this post?
Please let me make something clear. Nowadays theres no Submarine Sim with state of the art GFX and Engine available, none at all my friends! Besides Silent Hunter and only a few other examples Aquanox 2 or it's prequel "Schleichfahrt" were the ones taking care of unterwater fun. And remember, Silent Hunter is also a sunken project and no doubt, other games on topic didn't even appear well so Submarine games were and still are a niche.
SimTech2K must have played on all grounds:
After beeing a Sci-fi fan looking up at spaceships, playing dozens of space related games I once realized... "hey, deepsea is like space, too, I wanna hopp into a sub". But just like they say in spanish: ¿y duespues? "and then?". What happens now!? I ask this for real now that Star Citizen is leading the race into the new space age! Some time ago while researching the topic deepsea Sims I found an ambitious CryEngine3 project on the CryDev Forums. However I couldn't manage to re-find this project. Why is that? Was it bad re-research skills or did this project also sunk already? I also heard of a community project trying to recreate Aquanox but with slow like no progress. I really want to play a Submarine game with the look of Steampunk but as you might know, I'll get serious on shapes and engineering details + I want good visuals and a powerfull game engine. Now give me that dude, I'll appreciate, all my support! Count me in for a Kickstarter or Indigogo crowdfunding action – feel free to contact me on this topic, I might have lots of things to add!
Today I would like to introduce you to Rigs of Rods – a highly sophisticated vehicle Simulator featuring awesome Soft Body Physics and real time processing. It is the first Open Source attempt of this type and the results are breathtaking beeing very accurate. Buoyancy, the blade element theory, distribution, construction, and/or suspension. Those are the things making you believe that you actually sit in that virtual vehicle of choice. Also theres a Multiplayer mode, try to beat the top time of another player racing over a complicated surface. Or you might just like to share your crane handling skills with a dude. Rigs of Rods is made for that – Casual players wont understand.
Currently the development tends to be within the CryEngine3 which can handle Physics way more effective than the original Rigs of Rods Engine could. Of course the CryTek GFX will make it look better but even with some lowpoly Add-Ons it's fun to play now. I would make this game an official ESL (Electronic Sports League) candidate. Take my vote!
The community behind Rigs of Rods is creating something different. Neither the vehicles, the types of machines or the intend of this game are common to most people. Exclusive rides and professional heavy weight machines make this game a perfect education plattfom. Theres something comparable to the Orbiter Space Flight Simulator – Rigs of Rods is another extreme tricky to play game! This is truly a fun Simulator for different types of folks. It allows real handling of any type of vehicle, e.g. cars, trucks, lifts, boats, submarines, planes, trains, bikes, hotrods, misc objects – almost everything except spaceships (so far). Start your motor, shift the gear, drive over a stone a feel the deformation of your car. It's enough to just use a Monster Truck to jump over a set of parking cars and watch the show while things below get stomped down. The other experience is to drive a 4x4 over bumpy grounds. The scenarios couldn't be other to the exclusive Rods part – you can drive your "whatever's" at very exclusive locations. It's a tribute to flexibility! This game has so much style! It welcomes modding and right now offers over 2000 downloadable Mods.
I will list my favorite ones soon...!
Find out more at and take a look at it's repository to pick some Rods:
http://www.rigsofrods.com The latest release version is 0.38.67 downloadable at: http://download.rigsofrods.com/
Installation of Add-Ons is pretty simple but keep in mind, there are two folders – one game folder and one individualization folder (find the second one, usually under C:\Users\XY\Documents and Settings\Rigs of Rods. Place your Rods into that folder). On Windows 7 the game may only run with admistrational rights, right click admin open the RoR.exe to get things working. Note: Full HD resolution is not supported yet, those of you gonna have to play with two black strips just like me.
Coming soon: My screenshots of cool rides inside Rigs of Rods plus some fail compilation (me driving like craizy) and some good manuevers I managed to handle.
Speaking of Dolphins, how about this? It has incredible manuevering beeing the holy grail of fun vehicles:
And for the speed addicts - the shark is out there!
Actually no submarines, those Seabreachers can do some little diving. On the other side they can do amazings jumps and tricks. Invented in USA those jetski boats are available as customized productions. This means they add what you want, it's all modular on request (based on the limited space). They even do individual airbrush paint jobs. Not cheap at all but big fun for sure. I cannot afford one so I wanted to share this amazing piece of real world technology. At least I might see them cruise around somewhere someday and who knows - keyword: Seatsharing. :)
Another boat they invented: The Orca.
And now Ladies and Gentleman, a Cat! Yes cat's are the best:
