Orbiter Galaxy is taking a break
I have fought to put this moment off for as long as possible, but it finally happened. I have to take a break from orbiter galaxy developement. The project isn't by any means abbandoned, but it might be quite a while until I pick developement up again.
The reason is a little pecularity of mine: I have two major areas of interest, Science Fiction and Fantasy. They don't go parallel, instead the focus shifts in not too regular intervals. And whenever I'm into the one, I am pretty disinterested in the other. The beginning of Orbiter Galaxy developement was set at the beginning of the shift to SF, and I put some effort into keeping it going (for example, I denied myself playing dragon age since the day it came out, and refrained from reading discworld, because I knew that such things might be likely cause of a shift). However, I felt this moment come for the better part of half a year now, and last month it finally happened. I hoped I could avert it if I found someone to do the tedious math for me (see last blog-post), but looking back I'm kind of glad that noone called in. Like this, I am at least free to set my own priorities.
Of course, I could suffer through it by iron discipline and continue developement despite being somewhat demotivated to do so, but let's not forgett that this is just a hobby of mine. Indeed, I depend on it that what I do in my spare time gives me enough energy to tackle the challenges that come with my job, or I soon won't be doing it right (and when your job is majorly concerned with people, you just can't afford that). So having additional energy drained instead of replenished during my spare time really isn't an option.
I hope people can enjoy what I did so far (which seems to run pretty stable, with the exception of a few graphic card compatibility issues that I can't solve anyways, and that even Artlav couldn't track down so far), and are not too disapointed that they will have to wait a bit for the additional features (I don't deny that it could well be another two years until I'll pick it up again). After all, the current framework fully supports integration of custom systems, so people can actually do something to make the expierience more enjoyable.
You'll hear from me when I pick this up again. Thanks to everyone who contributed by pieces of code and lots of advice! Keep on orbiting until I get my feet out of muddy ground and blood stained dungeons into the skies again!
The reason is a little pecularity of mine: I have two major areas of interest, Science Fiction and Fantasy. They don't go parallel, instead the focus shifts in not too regular intervals. And whenever I'm into the one, I am pretty disinterested in the other. The beginning of Orbiter Galaxy developement was set at the beginning of the shift to SF, and I put some effort into keeping it going (for example, I denied myself playing dragon age since the day it came out, and refrained from reading discworld, because I knew that such things might be likely cause of a shift). However, I felt this moment come for the better part of half a year now, and last month it finally happened. I hoped I could avert it if I found someone to do the tedious math for me (see last blog-post), but looking back I'm kind of glad that noone called in. Like this, I am at least free to set my own priorities.
Of course, I could suffer through it by iron discipline and continue developement despite being somewhat demotivated to do so, but let's not forgett that this is just a hobby of mine. Indeed, I depend on it that what I do in my spare time gives me enough energy to tackle the challenges that come with my job, or I soon won't be doing it right (and when your job is majorly concerned with people, you just can't afford that). So having additional energy drained instead of replenished during my spare time really isn't an option.
I hope people can enjoy what I did so far (which seems to run pretty stable, with the exception of a few graphic card compatibility issues that I can't solve anyways, and that even Artlav couldn't track down so far), and are not too disapointed that they will have to wait a bit for the additional features (I don't deny that it could well be another two years until I'll pick it up again). After all, the current framework fully supports integration of custom systems, so people can actually do something to make the expierience more enjoyable.
You'll hear from me when I pick this up again. Thanks to everyone who contributed by pieces of code and lots of advice! Keep on orbiting until I get my feet out of muddy ground and blood stained dungeons into the skies again!
Total Comments 6
Comments
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Fair enough.
Take your time off and have fun! I do that often, too, whenever a pet project turns out to be hard work... enough of the later in real life
Posted 03-17-2011 at 04:18 PM by Face 
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Have fun with Dragon Age and other fantasy games. I enjoy them very much too! Currently I am completely captured by Oblivion and Morrowind. That doesn't prevent me to devote several tens of minutes each day to Orbiter though. Here my 2 years break and longing for Orbiter plays its role. Hopefully your break won't be that long.
See you. Have a good time!
Posted 03-17-2011 at 04:46 PM by vchamp 
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I've had enough projects that that happened to. Could we have the latest build you've made, though (or, at least, as close to the latest build as you feel is presentable to the outside world)?
Posted 03-17-2011 at 06:13 PM by Linguofreak
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The latest build is not consistent within itself (only the standalone .exe has been worked on, and since the generation routines have been re-arranged it's not even producing the same galaxy as the orbiter plug-in currently), and the only feature that has been added is the planning of FTL-jumproutes. I've got your p.m., I'll send you the file somewhen today, but I don't think it will be of much interest to anyone else, and it certainly isn't suited for public release.Posted 03-18-2011 at 08:19 AM by jedidia
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Hahah, I know exactly what you mean. I doubt I'll play Orbiter for a year once Skyrim is released.Posted 03-20-2011 at 12:31 AM by Izack
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I was wondering if Orbiter Galaxy can be used to simulate a complete trip to a nearby star system. Say in scenario 1 the ship is in system A. Then as the ship leaves the system, Orbiter Galaxy loads an empty scenario with no planets or asteroid. This is to simulate the trip through interstellar space. The force acting on the ship to make it drift from its path etc can be calculated by an external application or Orbiter Galaxy itself in this scenario. Then when the ship is about to enter system B then load a 3rd scenario with the proper planets etc.
Posted 05-08-2011 at 03:28 PM by dumbo2007
