Solar sytem trivia game

I’ve finished my first OpenGL application. Nothing earth shattering, but it’s a 3D solar system trivia game. If you would like to try the free trial download, it’s at the link below. Check the min system requirements (http://solarsystemgame.com/sysreq.htm) first, however.

Anyway, I’d love to hear your feedback. If you do try it, please let me know what your PC specs are (OS, processor, RAM, video RAM). Thanks!

http://solarsystemgame.com/download.htm

cool idea. i didn’t have a chance to grab it, but it looks nice. is that a spinning planet, or a picture in the screen shot? is it open source?that would be cool with animation, moons orbiting, clouds swirling, nice little hud. kinda reminds me of carl segan’s old show… what was it called? good luck with that. kinda refreshing to see a game without a gun in it. hmmm, that didn’t sound right.

this maybe considered by some to be off topic, so you may not get (m)any responses here.

The camera orbits around 3D planets, i.e. it’s not a still picture. It’s not open source either, I’m trying to make a buck out of it :slight_smile:

Not expensive, though - just $15 USD for the full version, and the trial is free forever with no nag screens (but only contains the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and the Moon). The full version has all the planets and a few more moons.

I’m marketing mainly to educational institutions, but also think it’s a nice, clean, cheap entertainment/educational option for the home.

Everyone should buy one!! :wink:

I don’t want to be harsh, but if you want to be paid for that, you still have some work to do :

  • find a texture of venus with its CLOUDS !!! not the radar data …
  • can’t you find a better texture of the earth ?
  • there is a thin black line on the moon, where the texture join its edges. ugly.
  • the camera paths are not varied enough, try some more challenging shots, with camera approching surface, etc. Why not a fast travelling between the objects ?
  • can’t you get a better refresh rate than 60Hz ? It hurts my eyes. Hopefully the background is not too brigth.

Good point though, the gui is effective, with dynamic mouse pointer.

Athlon 1Ghz, 512Mb, GeForce3ti200, Detonator 45.23

http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

Good feedback Zbuffer. No, you’re not too harsh. Honest feedback is exactly what I want. Thanks.

I actually expected more of that on a 3D graphics forum (I expect different kinds feedback on astronomy forums). My main target markets are educational institutions, which are concerned more with content and educational merit than graphics, but I still want it to look as good as it can, so I will work to implement the changes you suggested. Thanks again…

I just downloaded the solar system trial, (which I had to do 3 times, because it stopped downloading the first two for some unknown reason). My biggest comment was in reference to the moon. There is the line wich was mentioned earlier, and also, the texture could be more detailed when you zoom in, there isn’t a texture change, so the pixels from the texture just get smoothed, or at least thats what seems to happen. Maybe try a more detailed texture for the zoom-in (don’t really know though). Liked the program though:)

Ugh - Found the seam in the moon. Thanks for the feedback.

Hey Zbuffer - what did you not like about the Earth? The only other map I can find is this:

http://www.solarsystemgame.com/images/earth1.jpg

which looks fake to me because of the complete lack of clouds.

For solar system textures, check :
http://gw.marketingden.com/planets/earth.html
http://celestia.myftp.org/ssolaire/ssolaire.php?planete=terre&lang=en

Etc. Be sure to check the copyright and/or usage license if you want to sell you product with such textures…

By the way, I don’t think the GL forums are a good place for advertising your product.