Can someone point me in the right direction on how to start a level for a space game. I want this game to be in the first person with the player inside a ship (cockpit) but as in the tutorials, in space you won't be having walls.

I also want to show the ship is moving when the ship is accelerating.

I am not looking for specific answers but just a nuge in the right direction.

Thanks,

Kevin

I have seen that others are looking for the same information.

I am starting at: http://au.conitec.net/

On the Tutorials link, the is a tutorial called Vertex's Space Flight Workshop.

I am just starting the tutorial so I don't have an opinion on it yet.

I think people with the newest MED will have trouble following this tutorial as almost everything has changed. I know I have tried and cannot make it work as described.

If you are using the A7 engine you don't need to load a level (example: level.wmb).
Just use:
level_load(NULL);

and write a function that creates your assets (models e.g.) at specific locations.
Now you can "fly" to them, if you have an action for flying.

That sounds interesting Xarthor but what about when the ship needs to go to another galaxy through a space port?

I was thinking that I could have the game load another level for each space port or wormhole, if you will.

If you want to be inside a cockpit, then do one of two things:

A really good panel that looks like the interior of a cockpit of a ship or a view entity.

Personally, a view entity would be easier for me and would be more realistic, but I think a panel would be faster, your call.

And if you want to show the ship on the outside when it accelerates, what I'd do is have the interior view entity (or panel) turn off (ex: reset(cockpit,VISIBLE);) and move the camera behind the model to chase it, if I understand you right.

To set this up, I would have a ship model at the camera's position for interior views, with VISIBLE turned off. When the ship accelerates, switch to the chase camera and turn the ship's VISIBLE on.



Here I'd use vec_dist and if the ship flies within X units of the port, a new level loads.


And one last thing, space is really huge (infinite actually) so, either reduce the scale drastically or split it up into zones as Lite-C can't handle some of the enormous numbers found in space.

Here is a little example for a panel wich simulates a Cockpit, i made it long time ago for one of my projects its far away from beeing perfect but maybe it could help you getting started...so feel free to use it if you like it.

I did split the level (zones) in lite c for huge distances, and it works very well, im also doing space game lol.

Thank you all for your input and thanks Fastjack for the poanel to get me started. It will really help.

You are welcome
If you are a bit expirienced with painting programs like Gimp,Photoshop or Picturepublisher you could easily change the panel to make it fit to your needs.
Thats why i have given you the clean untextured version.

For a beginner its better to begin with panels,later you could use a view entity
because i guess panels are a bit outdated these days
For example with a view entity you can use shaders that make it influenced by the lights or you could easy realise side windows to look out

I have Paint Shop Pro which I am pretty familiar with but what exactly is a view entity? What is the difference between that an a panel?