The StarFlare Engine can handle a lot of abuse.
Introducing the StarFlare Engine
StarFlare is the flexible and powerful engine which drives Star Ruler 2. Combined with our also-custom (and Open Source, link at the bottom) AngelScript JIT compiler, the StarFlare engine allows Star Ruler 2 to deliver phenomenal performance on both the latest hardware and aging platforms. StarFlare also takes full advantage of multi-core setups unlike most modern games which offer only limited support.
The Purpose of this Stress Test
A few weeks ago artist Jon Micheelsen (who is also responsible for the planet, ship, and background art for Star Ruler 2) decided to take a stab at improving our particle effects. The above video is the result of weeks of collaboration and lots of tweaking to bring Jon's vision of space combat to life. This Stress Test was conducted to prove that the particle effects he was providing would not harm StarFlare's performance overmuch even during a huge battle with thousands of weapons being fired and tens of ships being destroyed simultaneously.
Fortunately, StarFlare is a tough little cookie and Jon is a graphical wizard so even with this much being thrown about in real-time the engine continues to deliver acceptable framerates.
Glittering C-Beams and Attack Ships on Fire
A quick word about what's going on in this demonstration other than the fireworks: What you're seeing is 16,000~ ships flying about in a newtonian environment, firing physically-simulated projectiles (that means the missiles and so forth are real objects, folks, not just an effect following a predetermined path where, at its end it spawns a 'blowing up' particle). This whole test was performed in-game at normal speeds with no graphics trickery or video editing involved. The missiles do actually turn and collide with whatever they strike. The railguns fire like a real gun would, within a cone of accuracy, and also collide with whatever they strike. The Torpedos actually hurl ships around.
When can we see it?
These graphics improvements should be hitting Star Ruler 2's Early Access sometime next week in our next big patch which should also contain thing such as the reintroduction of AI Settings, new subsystems, the first iterations of our subsystem art, new race customization options, and potentially much more.
Want to see what StarFlare can handle yourself?
Star Ruler 2's Early Access is available on Steam for $20. The state of the game and where it will be by launch (which we hope will be at the latest December this year) is gone over in detail on our Early Access store page. Thanks for your interest and attention.
Tools of the Trade
Want to use some of the same tools we're using to make Star Ruler 2?
Click here to navigate to our AS JIT Compiler's GitHub.
I have been following this game since I saw it's page on Steam, I already own the first, and played countless hours with it.
That said, as much as I want to help it's development, I'm afraid 20$ is not 20€, and paying more for the same game is something I don't feel it's fair, imho, so I will wait until it gets fair priced or for an steam sale, whichever comes first.
Thanks in advance and good luck with the project, if anyone is interested in know how fair priced are the games, I humbly use www.steamprices.com , not sure if there are other websites that do the same, if so use whichever you like :).