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[razgriz 53992]

All this is in the realm of thoughts currently, so there's no precise idea on many aspects.
But Earth modeled to the level of detail in FSX would require a considerable budget - you don't really expect we could magic the same output as a big Microsoft team, even though procedural techniques ease it a lot.
Although, in theory, what you are saying .. after the virgin Earth is made using the procedural generation and global climate data, we hope to import OSM data for major road/rail networks, along with runways and other stuff.

We don't know what the prices could be yet, but usually it starts at the half of the full price. Of course, early adopters will get all further upgrades for free, that's the point of the model: attract enthusiastic people to participate on funding the development this way. They get a reduced price (as their gain from the investment, basically), but usually there are also other advantages given to them - for example an ability to steer the development (within bounds) or some in-game bonuses, here it varies.

I think a simulator could piggyback on a game designed for wider, general masses. After all, simmers are much more demanding and specialized crowd and I'm not sure if the interest from this side alone would be able to fund the development, given the output will not be so complete as they are used to. So we are also thinking of developing addons in parallel that would appeal more to simmers, bringing a different mode, while still greatly utilizing the environment and engine of the game.

Thank you so much- you've cleared up a lot of questions I had.

So, if you have basic roads and runways, the rest of the world will be completed by addons and developments from the community and the developer?

Sorry about being really naive about this

Very good idea targeting more markets than simmers- simming is quite a niche, and this engine has so much potential.

Can't wait for the demo even more now.

[aslonghui]

I thought Outerra was going to be open-source?

[cameni]

So, if you have basic roads and runways, the rest of the world will be completed by addons and developments from the community and the developer?

Yep, with the resulting app being an open sandbox, most of the content would come from community or specialized developers.
Nowadays there's a possibility to use a global storage on the web (such as Google apps) for scenery, so that the content can be accessed and replicated globally while not requiring us to build the infrastructure ourselves. This will require an advanced access control so that interests of different groups don't mix up and everyone could create their own world or mod the parts of it that could be then included within a group.
Ultimately, some of the addons could deal with gameplay, bringing entirely new games to be played within those worlds .. now that's quite distant yet

[cameni]

I thought Outerra was going to be open-source?

Where did you get that? As far as I can see we didn't say anything like that, except maybe that should the project be abandoned it will go open. There was a thread about this already, notice this post from June.

[razgriz 53992]

So, if you have basic roads and runways, the rest of the world will be completed by addons and developments from the community and the developer?

Yep, with the resulting app being an open sandbox, most of the content would come from community or specialized developers.
Nowadays there's a possibility to use a global storage on the web (such as Google apps) for scenery, so that the content can be accessed and replicated globally while not requiring us to build the infrastructure ourselves. This will require an advanced access control so that interests of different groups don't mix up and everyone could create their own world or mod the parts of it that could be then included within a group.
Ultimately, some of the addons could deal with gameplay, bringing entirely new games to be played within those worlds .. now that's quite distant yet

This is going to be insane.

And judging by some videos of creating roads, creation will be very easy, certainly more so than FSX. Will it be possible simply to adjust terrain, place buildings, make roads and spawn objects just on the fly in real time? That would be very snazzy- we can each create the bit of the world we want to see (our local airport, town) and just have that there.

However, are there going to be basic autogen sortof trees, landscapes and more importantly cities? Because the landscape would look fairly bland without anything

[C. Shawn Smith]

Nowadays there's a possibility to use a global storage on the web ...

In other words, a type of cloud storage?  I know you're using bittorrent for the land data, but I wanted to make sure I didn't misinterpret this bit of information .  I'm seeing some unique possibilities with this, if I understand it properly.  If so, yours would be the first engine to really take advantage of clouding.

I'm also seeing a kind of Tad William's "Otherland" novel series, come to life .  If anyone hasn't read it yet, it's about a virtual reality simulation where you can go between different worlds users have created, with very different results.  But it's all based on a more-or-less simulated Earth.  The main characters within Otherland have a hard time figuring out what is and isn't real.

[cameni]

However, are there going to be basic autogen sortof trees, landscapes and more importantly cities? Because the landscape would look fairly bland without anything

There is no autogen as you know it, the world is persistent.
Forests and terrain types will be set by global climate data with 500m resolution, basically you should see the world as it could have been looking ten thousand years ago. Not quite, because the climate data are recent. But it shouldn't be considered bland, of course it will not contain artificial human creations at this level. These will come in separate layer.

For cities/towns/villages there could be a generator, but it will use a database of cities together with roads to populate the resulting polygons with buildings of given type.

[cameni]

In other words, a type of cloud storage?  I know you're using bittorrent for the land data, but I wanted to make sure I didn't misinterpret this bit of information .  I'm seeing some unique possibilities with this, if I understand it properly.  If so, yours would be the first engine to really take advantage of clouding.

Yes. The bittorrent is used to exchange large chunks of base data, and the cloud storage would be used for smaller scenery edits, mainly a vector data.

[C. Shawn Smith]

Sweet!  When I first understood cloud storage for what it was, and the fact that it seems to be the wave of the future, I could see a few possibilities with it that would be incredible if utilized properly.  10 years from now, people are going to be saying that the Outerra team made real-life a thing of the past

[razgriz 53992]

I must be getting annoying by now... sorry...

Basically, one of the main gripes I have with FSX and why I don't use it as much is the loading time- it takes around 20 minutes to get from PC startup to flying, no joke.

OpenGL is usually a lot faster for me- how quick is the loading of the environment, how long does it take to get playing?

[Abc94]

10 years from now, people are going to be saying that the Outerra team made real-life a thing of the past

I really hope not.  

[cameni]

It has no relevance to either OpenGL or DirectX, and it cannot be really compared as FSX loads much more data and code, although I would not expect 20 minutes

Here it takes just a few seconds to get fully loaded, but it will take a bit longer when everything is implemented. And then you will need to count additional time for addons.

[razgriz 53992]

It has no relevance to either OpenGL or DirectX, and it cannot be really compared as FSX loads much more data and code, although I would not expect 20 minutes

Here it takes just a few seconds to get fully loaded, but it will take a bit longer when everything is implemented. And then you will need to count additional time for addons.

*thumbs up*

And that finishes my bouts of questioning, thank you very much!

[ZeosPantera]

Got it.. Get Outerra to this point of detail and lets get this party started..

[youtube]UwWLnaME0CI[/youtube]

[Jagerbomber]

Way to be realistic.