Hi everyone,

My name is Sean and I have been developing a fun little game called Lunar Flight using Unity 3D for PC.

You can watch a video demonstration of the latest version here:

Please watch the 720p or 1080p HD version with youtube annotations on for the best experience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ied9X2IhYtE&hd=1




The game is not meant to be a full simulation based on reality but instead a fun immersive experience. Therefor there are somethings that are not accurate or realistic.

The main focus is flying the Lunar Module using a thrust based low gravity simulation.

To make things more interesting you can take missions to ship cargo between moon bases and this will add weight to the craft which will change things like inertia and fuel usage.

The game still has some amount of features to be developed and is still in a prototyping stage.

I am looking for people who are interested in testing the game and providing feedback on an ongoing basis.

You can email me at sean@shovsoft.com




The basic premise is that your are private contracted pilot operating on the moon.
When you start out you begin your career with some money, it ends when you are bankrupt.
Fuel and Repairs cost money as do replacement LM's and recovery of an LM that has run out of fuel out in the field.
As you do the missions you earn money and your pilot ranking increases. Which unlocks access to more advanced maps requiring greater skill.

I hope to include upgrades to increase fuel capacity, sensor range, engine power for example to spend the money on as well and provide long term goals for the player. The upgrades will increase your range allowing you to recover more valuable samples further away from the Bases.

In addition to Cargo missions there are 'Survey' missions which is what is demonstrated in that video. You fly to a location and 'acquire data' the main challenge for these missions is learning to maintain a stable hover. The further away the location is from the base increases its value but you then have to be carefull with your fuel consumption.

Another way to earn money is to recover valuable samples e.g. 'Ilmenite' from the field and sell them. The upgrades you can buy will increase your range allowing you to recover more valuable samples further away from the Bases.

I am also planning an online leaderboard system with time trial waypoint sequences for people to compete on.

The game also includes an Achievement system with many achievements to attempt to get, adding another level of gameplay objectives.

Ultimately the core experience of flying and the ever present danger of running out of fuel is what I hope motivates people to play and I have spent allot of time getting it to look and feel engaging.

I am deliberately trying to keep the level of complexity low as to make the game more accessible to more people, as a full realistic simulation has a very small niche appeal.

If you would like to see more videos here is my youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/MrSeanCE

That looks pretty damn good fun to me, would love to help you test it and all but not sure I'd be able to spend enough time to make it worth your while letting me help.

I like the look of this Sean.I'll be keeping an eye out for it.

You have my interest.

That's pretty cool. One of the best looking games I've seen using Unity.

Kerchinng! I like it

I've checked out a couple games using the UWP and they look really good I like the premise for this one, played a little of the Interstellar Marines and BSG Online.
I sent you an E-mail Sean I would love to try it if there is a Demo, I already have Unity 3.2 installed let me know if I can participate in any testing.

Cool thanks guys!

Check your Messages!

You are all welcome to try it out, the latest build is fully playable.

It does not require Unity to be able to play it, it is a stand alone executable.

I'm mainly interested in some feedback.

What system you have, what controller you used.
Any difficulties or questions you have.

The reason I ask for an email is that I want to keep track of who has the build.

Looks excellent Sean. Very nice work. I would certainly like to help with testing.

That looks very cool. I'm a fan of Orbiter (though over my head). I'm not familiar with the Unity engine. What other programs use it?

Battlestar Galactica Online (SyFy.com) and Interstellar Marines (interstellarmarines.com) are two that I know of and they look pretty good

I have been playing Lunar Flight today and I am really impressed! It is very challenging to fly, very fluid and the graphics are great.

Looks great. I'd love to try it but don't think I'd be able to offer any valuable input when it comes to techy or programming stuff.

It took me a while to get to grips with the controls but I'm getting there.Gave up with the joystick,I prefer just keyboard.

Runs great in full screen,all 4 windows,really smoothly at 'fantastic' settings.
I'll keep at it.It's quite addictive.

*Specs*
Win 7 64 bit.
6 gigs ram.
Intel i7 920.
Nvidia 280 GTX.

E-mail sent.

My poor abused 8800GTS can't handle it, started getting artefacts after a few minutes of play

I'm not sure what I am doing wrong,but a lot of times I just don't seem to have enough thrust to stop me crashing into the planet surface?
That scream I hear when I crash is haunting me,a lot.

I'm not sure what I am doing wrong,but a lot of times I just don't seem to have enough thrust to stop me crashing into the planet surface?
That scream I hear when I crash is haunting me......a lot.

If you are on a Transport Mission the weight of the cargo will affect the performance of the Lunar Module.

Always pay attention to your Vertical Rate which is the read out on the right hand side of the HUD above the KPH readout.

Ah,I wondered why some missions it wasn't an issue.

Is it possible to assign the mouse to control some of the lander's flight controls? Using the keyboard only I almost need an extra hand.
I imagined a sort of 'Virus' style control system if anyone is old enough to remember that game.

Sean,

I would be interested in what is modelled and what is not. It looks like you are following F=ma in the video. Do you substract the mass of the rocket fuel when it is burned off?

Looks good.

Unfortunately not mate, the input needs to be between -1 to 1 where as the mouse input is returned as a screen position.

I could write a function to convert the input but that isn't something I want to support at the moment as I have more higher priority features to implement.

Another reason is that the simulation is driven by a thrust forces on a Rigidbody, it's a proper physics simulation which is what makes it realistic.

The method I recommend is an XBox 360 controller as this puts all the thrust inputs in your hands, you still need to use the keyboard for some functions..

Unity uses PhysX for physics simulations, it is a Rigidbody which I apply thrust forces too its centre of mass in a very low gravity environment.
It is a fully simulated physics object as opposed to directly manipulating its transform.

With the Realistic physics setting there is no linear or rotational drag which simulates the behaviour of an object in space with no atmosphere.

When you accept a Transport mission I add the weight (in kilograms) to the mass of the Rigidbody. This then requires more power to lift and increases inertia.
I have considered simulating the weight of fuel but I am not sure I want to add another level of complexity yet.
I want the game to be accessible to allot of people and the more I add things like that the more it alienates allot of people who just want to fly it without worrying about it.
I still may add it as an option yet.

Ultimately I plan to give bonuses to people who play with the more difficult but realistic settings.

Ok Sean,thanks for the reply.

I don't do game controllers so I will have to grow another hand
Failing that I need to go back to my joystick and re-map the buttons to something I am comfortable with.

Yeah, that is a lot of button pushing on the keyboard.

Yeah a Joystick or Game pad Controller is the way to go.

In other news I redid the 'shovsoft' website tonight with Wordpress www.shovsoft.com

This will make it easier for me to update and it looks allot nicer than the old site.

The Lunar Flight website has had a pretty big make over.

Check it out at www.shovsoft.com

Sean

There's a new pre-Alpha version of Lunar Flight available, I've notified existing testers, check your PM's.
If anyone would like to try it and give me some feedback, email me at sean@shovsoft.com

-Changes

Input Configuration:

I’ve rewritten the interface for assigning controls so that it uses a list view with a scroll bar, this allowed me to add all the extra controls.
You can now bind almost everything to a button or key.
Check the Controls.txt file for the complete list or just look in game.

NOTE: you may need to press the ‘Reset To Defaults’ button the first time you run this build.

Custom Dead Zones:

I’ve added the ability to set separate dead zones for each main input (Thrust, Translate, Pitch&Roll, Yaw)
This will allow you guys to set them yourself or off altogether if you want your own joystick profiling software to manage it.
Unity doesn’t allow access to its Deadzone settings at runtime so in the end I had to write my own code to manage this but it was worth it.



Physics Changes:

I’ve rebalanced the numbers to try to get something a little more accurate. Overall the increased inertia makes it feel more stable.
- Gravity is slightly lower and closer to 1/6 instead of 1/5.
- Lunar Module Mass is now 14,696 kg up from 4000kg. This is the exact weight of the real thing.
- All thrust forces have been updated to account for the change in LM Mass. I tried the real Newton forces but they were too powerful.
- All Transport Weights have been adjusted and are now 1000kg, 2000kg, 4000kg, 8000kg (Delta to Bravo Transport Mission with 8000kg is a challenge)
- L.O.P.T.W graph has been updated to reflect the new performance parameters.
- Lost Cargo now weighs 5000kg up from 2500kg and are worth allot more.

Other Changes:
- Survey Nav is now in the Nav point cycle. Its the 5th point if a Survey Mission is active. Handy if you have the cycle button on your HOTAS.
- Thrust Plume FX changed, tried to get this to have a more correct shape, but cant quite get a Bell shape with just the particle system.
- Thrust Smoke FX changed, the smoke now expands until it disappears.
- Achievement Window no longer draws over the Mouse Pointer.
- Service Window has been improved.

Hopefully some of you guys can give this a good test for me, especially the new input and deadzone stuff.

Sean (sh0v0r)

Right, now I've baked my GFX card again so it's fully functional I downloaded the new version and gave it another go. I'm still getting a constant Joystick-Left input from somewhere, I'm unable to adjust commands as as soon as I attempt to Joystick_left gets added, no other games show the issue.

Hi Dano,

Do you have rudder pedals with brakes? You may need to remap the axis from the input tab of the splash screen (Yes, the screen tells you not to do this, do it anyway.) Remap so any brake axis are not used. You can double map (say 8 and 9). You may need to center you brakes to keep them from being detected.

Note you have both + and - axis to map.

When you remap and start game, press ESC key and go into options. under controls tab setup your axis (you see the numbers you mapped under the splash screen.

Back out and contine. Check that no thrusters are firing. You may need to adjust deadzone controls.

Yeah, I had that problem too..good to know that I'll check it out.

Got Simped vario Pro's, no brakes.

Check that all other axis are centered. Throttles and sliders will have to be at mid point. What stick are you using?

X52Pro, have tried all that.

I have an x52 Pro at home. I can connect that stick up and see if I can duplicate the problem. Will have to wait until I get off work.

Sorry to hear you're having difficulties Dano.

I've not had anyone else report a similar issue, would be great if we can get some other X52 owners to see if they can reproduce that issue.

Did you try pressing the 'Reset To Defaults' button, before trying to bind your inputs?

Hi Dano,

I don't have Simped pedals so you may get something a little different. Here my input screen with corresponding axis mapping.

JoystickUp --> Joystick 0 axis 1 --> x52 Stick Y axis
Joystickdown(+) --> Joystick 0 axis 1 --> x52 Stick Y axis
Joystickdown(-) --> Joystick 0 axis 1
JoystickLeft --> Joystick 0 axis 0 --> x52 Stick X axis
JoystickRight --> Joystick 0 axis 0 --> x52 Stick X axis
Joystick_3a --> Joystick 0 axis 2 --> x52 Throttle axis
Joystick_3b --> Joystick 0 axis 2 --> x52 Throttle axis
Joystick_4a --> Joystick 0 axis 3 --> x52 Thumb rotary
Joystick_4b --> Joystick 0 axis 3 --> x52 Thumb rotary
Joystick_5a --> Joystick 0 axis 4 --> x52 Index Finger rotary
Joystick_5b --> Joystick 0 axis 4 --> x52 Index Finger rotary
Joystick_6a --> Joystick 0 axis 5 --> x52 Stick Twist axis
Joystick_6b --> Joystick 0 axis 5 --> x52 Stick Twist axis
Joystick_7a --> Joystick 0 axis 6 --> x52 Throttle Slider Axis
Joystick_7b --> Joystick 0 axis 6 --> x52 Throttle Slider Axis
Joystick_8a --> Joystick 0 axis 7 --> (no such x52 axis)
Joystick_8b --> Joystick 0 axis 7 --> (no such x52 axis)

Simped pedals should show up as Joystick 1 axis 0.

Looks like issue is with X axis of the X52 stick. My x52 stick would lose center all the time. (Why stick now lives in a box). Check the center point. I remember unplugging and replugging the USB helped recenter the stick.

I think I might know what the issue is Dano.

The code that checks for an input on a joystick axis when configuring controls has a very small dead zone.
I suspect that your controller might have a very small amount of wear which is telling the code that it is on.
One way to test this is to use the x52 profiler to over ride the Deadzone and set it to about 10%.
Then start Lunar Flight up and see if it still does it.

I'll see if I can adjust this and create a new build for you to try.
Ideally the code check should not need to be so small, infact it should be about 50%
I never wrote the original system so I will see what I can do to improve it.

Sorry, I just checked the code again and I was wrong, it does actually check if the input is greater than 0.8 or %80 before it accepts it for that input.

So for some reason Unitys lower level 'Default Input Manger' is receiving a value greater than that from your joysticks driver.

I tried setting the deadzone all the way to the right and it's still happening, I'll hopefully get the chance to do some proper bug hunting later in the week.