Features Currently Developed 2 Thread - StarFire

Gah, I'm still not ready yet to fully implement ItemModels and EffectAttributes. Though I did make significant progress in that field, such as setting up the tools to efficiently create them (mostly Editors). These tools however still need to be improved here and there, for example I need some "directory scanner" to get the correct path and file name for textures. Once that is done, the editor needs to be changed to support different EffectModels like Engines or Weapons.

I've also been working on the simulation. In fact, I've implemented a physics frame here that enables me to do numerous things like collision detection or improved input handling. Stuff like walking inside of your ship and looking around in your cockpit while maintaining travel direction now becomes a possibility. I'm very happy about this progress as I got stuck making the sim for weeks or even months. The next thing to implement on the simulation is creating a sense of depth using a ScalingManager that scales down objects in the distance instead of letting them fade out in the abyss of the infamous render distance. *dramatic thunder sound*

Another thing I've been working on is the interface. I'm working towards giving interface components some interactivity. The components are going to be similarly handled to how java.swing handles its components, minus the complexity. Keep finding things I can improve on here so that's why it takes a bit more time than usual.

This example screenshot is fully functional. You can browse through the different sliders that exist here using the up and down arrow keys and change their values using left and right arrow keys. By pressing enter the program then saves the changes you've made in a custom settings file. These interface elements you see here will eventually come in handy for numerous things (such as character creation or trading) as well.

Here is the Changelog of the current development version:
StarFire v0.0.10
- added EffectAttributes Editor
- added Slider and KeyReader UI Elements
- added an Options Interface that will save custom settings on your disk
- added a new MainMenu
- improved Simulation with physic-based ShipControl (can be extended to support actual physics and other interesting features)
- improved InputHandling (is less of a mess now)
- fixed problems while loading ItemModels and their EffectAttributes
- fixed ShipEditor crashing upon displaying an Element that was constructed using an EffectAttribute
- the game now creates the setting files in a folder should they be missing
- the game now creates the required "ships"-folder automatically should it be missing
- the game now creates a user directory, prepared for user profiles (tested & functional but not implemented yet)
- cleaned up the code

StarFire v0.0.09a
- added a Loading Screen
- added an ItemModel Editor (not launchable from the normal client yet)
- added ItemModels
- added EffectAttributes
- improved modular targeting system
# celestials are sorted by distance
# celestials out of sensor range don't display as targets

- added improved star system generation based upon structure of real star systems:
# added RegionDisks (= collection of orbits which can be rotated)
# added RegionDiskType
# added StarSystemType
# changed PlanetProbabilityProfile to CelestialProfile
# changed PlanetType to CelestialType

- updated projectile types

- added MatCap materials for the editor
# added amorphous materials