G’day all!

It’s been a while – a long while – since Fractalus’ last release, v0.6 back in 2012. Quite a few of you have contacted me asking about the next release, so I figured I should write up a blog post to tell everyone what’s been happening.

So, progress is still being made on Fractalus, and v0.7 is still in development. I have not abandoned the project, I’ve merely been preoccupied with other things – work and life have a habit of getting in the way. I have also been considering what to do with Fractalus’ implementation, in particular with the graphics and rendering the models for pilots and the cockpit.

As Fractalus is built on my own custom graphics engine, I am writing everything from scratch including the model rendering logic. As my time is quite stretched, I’ve been considering abandoning my own engine and rebuilding Fractalus using Unity3D or another engine, which would potentially allow me to work on the game more often and release new versions more frequently, as I could focus more on the game itself rather than spending as much time working on the game as I am working on the underlying engine code to support it. Anyone else think this is a good plan?

That aside, I have been working on Fractalus in bits and pieces in my spare time, and a few things that have been done include;

• Saucers now ignore player if ship systems are off.
• Saucers no longer occasionally appear completely unlit.
• Saucers do less damage upon collision and affect your direction less severely.
• Saucers now move slower, allowing the player to outrun them.
• Ship engine sound now pitches up and down as well as fading to reflect speed (Still some work to be done on the sound).
• Fixed texture repeat pattern in high detail terrain mode.
• Stars now rotate with the sun.
• Title screen starfield now rotates.
• Joystick support (control customisation still being worked on).
• Selected menu entry now pulses slightly.
• Engine now uses SDL 2.0 and is built with GCC 4.8.2 (under Windows).

I have also begun work on a model for the cockpit, complete with the instruments which will be moved from the HUD to the cockpit’s panels. Here’s an early screenshot of the cockpit’s model in development;

Fractalus 0.7 Cockpit Prototype

This is an early prototype modelled on the cockpit design from the original game. I’m still working on this design, so it is likely to change (and quite likely to become a bit more detailed) before it makes an appearance in a new version.

Hopefully it won’t be too long before I have 0.7 released. Any questions or comments? Comment below or visit the forums.

Follow me on Twitter or my Facebook page to keep informed as I work towards releasing 0.7.

Thanks for everyone’s support!

– Luke

Tags: fractalus, games, project, remake

This entry was posted on Monday, September 1st, 2014 at 06:51 and is filed under Fractalus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.