Astrophil

I'm all in for Converse Hightops with jump jets on the bottom.

Welcome to DU, Azrael! 
 
@Nora: Top Secret

I have a feeling Nyzaltar will reply to this with something along the lines of:
 
"It's not planned for alpha, but I will present this idea to the dev team. It's a very interesting idea that could be a great game mechanic, but it will be difficult to implement."
 
Or something like:
 
"We have been having discussions within the dev team about this concept, although it is not yet planned to be implemented in alpha."

Welcome to DU, Azrael! 
 
@Nora: Top Secret

I'm perfectly happy with you bringing a gun to a spaceship fight..

"Sir we've landed on the planet"
 
...."What?"
 
"Sir we landed"
 
"This is an oceanic planet fool!!"
 
-static-
 
Giant whale not hungry now.

Welcome to DU, Experia! Ditto to Nora up there.

The approach we have developed is based on the idea of subdividing zones according to their population density, in a recursive way. If only 5 people are roaming the surface of a remote lonely planet, it will most likely be handled by one single server. Come thousands of visitors spread on the surface and the initial area will automatically divide itself. Player clients are dynamically reallocated to the new servers in charge of their area. This process can repeat itself up to areas as small as 8 meters large. The interaction between different areas is handled with a complex cluster-wide synchronization mechanism, and an actor-based model that we might talk about in another post.
 
The other crucial part of this algorithm is that we have designed a method that is efficient to guarantee that the further a player is from another one, the less frequent the updates of position will be between them. When two players are close to each other, they will be updated very frequently and see each other with a great level of fluidity. However, when players are far away, there will be some delay in movement (because interpolation needs several updates to proceed), but they will still see each other in a visually convincing way.
 
 
At large gatherings with a high population density, more server computing power is going to be allocated to that region than say, an empty planet like Tattooine, so it should all balance out without much choppiness or slowdowns.

You've sent me on a rollercoaster of emotions in your first post....
 
You suddenly got my hopes up about a potential download link I had not seen and then vylqun slashed them in an instant... +1 for post effectiveness

Ooh I think you're our first Aussie! Welcome aboard!

I'm sure any number of us would be happy to be the target of your wallet-contents-throwing. I can't guarantee any return though

I feel like there is going to be some 'Wars in the Stars' between these two groups... ha.. 

Did you really? That is simply fascinating. Sadly, NQ is based in Paris, so no conventions in America (yet). Welcome to DU, Q! Glad you have you with us!

Republic and empire. That's going to be interesting.
Try not to burn everything in between your respective spheres of influence .
 
Regards,
Shadow

(Posted Friday 24th of May 2016 on the DevBlog) 
 

 
Today is an exciting day! We are proud to reveal the first images of Dual Universe, our futuristic MMORPG where players coexist in a single unbounded game universe (with no instances or loading zones), with the added ability to modify the game environment in ways never before seen on this scale and in such great detail.
 
The images below are all the first publicly available screenshots of the Dual Universe, all images were captured "in game" and represent the game engine and gameplay features in its current pre-alpha state. To put this into context, all the constructions can be built in game by players, all the terrains can be mined and terraformed by the players and all the distant planetary systems can be reached.
 
It all starts on a planet called Alioth, where, as the story goes, you step out of the arkship ready to embark on your adventure and rebuild civilization.
 
      
 
 
As you can see, there are several environments on the planet, like dense forest and arid desert. If you look to the sky you will see neighboring planets with their own unique biospheres awaiting to be explored. While we update the game, we will also add more and more diversity to the many different planet types, so explorers can be sure to encounter a rich and varied world full of surprises (we won?t say any more, because, you know, they are surprises!).
 
Dual Universe is, among many other things, a game where players can get creative and build things. Here is a typical situation where a group of players are collaborating and working together on the construction of an outpost.
 

 
As player?s ambitions grow and the materials required become more obtainable, cities and building will be built. The images below shows how the end result may look.
 
 
    
 
 
Then come the creation of ships and space stations! For example, you can build small personal spacecrafts...
 
  
 
 
...in which case you get a Cockpit UI when you enter one of these.
 
  
 
 
But you can also build far bigger, multiplayer ships...
 
  
 
 
...to the point where you can build really huge behemoths! This is something that has never been done in any builder game that we know of, especially not in a continuous single-shard MMO.  When we say ?behemoth?, we mean a space station that is 1.5km long, entirely made with voxels, as in the images below.
 

 
Perhaps even more importantly than size, which of course matters, is the fact that multiplayer ships and orbital stations are inhabitable: you can walk in it, meet some friends in it, discuss, play and coordinate your actions with them.
 
You can see below a screenshot showing an interior command room of a space station.
 

 
Then, there is space. The big vast blackness of space interrupted by the enigmatic flickers of light from distant stars, each one representing a possible new world to explore and conquer. This exploration will most likely arrive in a later stage in the game, when players will have mastered the technologies for warp drives and even later, stargates. But we give you a taste of it, because we find it awe-inspiringly beautiful.
 

 
That?s it for now! We hope you like what you see. Again, remember that everything you see here is in-game, all constructions can be built and edited by players. Add the fact that everything takes place in the same continuous universe and we believe that we have a game that is really new and exciting. But the only thing that matters for us now is what you think! So feel free to give us feedback and suggestions. We won?t be able to integrate all ideas in the short time that separates us from the alpha, but we will keep in mind and care about everything you say.
 
By the way, we have a new official website.
If you haven't seen it already, you will find useful additional on it!
 
JC Baillie,
Project Lead.

Be careful...
Did some prophecy not predict that furyan people attract necromonger raiders?   

<grin>    How about a quick rendering of basic PvP.   They can call the YouTube video.....wait for it.......Dual, the Duel.

@SpaceMonkeyCongh:
 
You will be able to create as detailed of an object as the voxels allow. In DU, I believe a voxel is around 25 cubic cm so you could make a pretty good amount of detail with just the base blocks. Of course there's always voxel tools that allow for further manipulation and detailing, so in essence, yes, fine detail is achievable. Certainly detail would be better than that of Minecraft. How you would go about "voxelmorphing" these objects is still in development to my knowledge. As you have noted, 360-degree modeling and manipulation is a potential method of building, but I think Nyzaltar would be better suited to answering in that respect.
 
~Astrophil

@SpaceMonkeyCongh:
 
You will be able to create as detailed of an object as the voxels allow. In DU, I believe a voxel is around 25 cubic cm so you could make a pretty good amount of detail with just the base blocks. Of course there's always voxel tools that allow for further manipulation and detailing, so in essence, yes, fine detail is achievable. Certainly detail would be better than that of Minecraft. How you would go about "voxelmorphing" these objects is still in development to my knowledge. As you have noted, 360-degree modeling and manipulation is a potential method of building, but I think Nyzaltar would be better suited to answering in that respect.
 
~Astrophil

I'd be in favor of an art museum thread for anyone who wants to add their own designs for anything from buildings to ships to clothes. 

I'd be in favor of an art museum thread for anyone who wants to add their own designs for anything from buildings to ships to clothes. 

I wouldn't be kidding.
 
Blast a hole in an enemy ship's hull then jet pack a squad of players over to kill the crew and steal the ship. Oh yes.

I'd be in favor of an art museum thread for anyone who wants to add their own designs for anything from buildings to ships to clothes. 

@Markus:
 
I hope I don't sound pretentious saying this but naturally, this is an opinion shared by most, if not all, of us forum members. We certainly would not ask anything in return, but if Novaquark did decide to do a little something for backers and testers, I'm sure most would not blatantly refuse to accept it either. I for one always live for the cosmetics and such in-game, and purty outfits are always great. 
 
But the point remains, yes, most of us are perfectly happy to help make DU the best it can be.
 
Cheers,
~Astrophil

Ayyy another Elite player, and quite an accomplished one at that. Welcome to our humble forums, Markus!