I heart OpenSCAD

Oh my. As you can see, I’ve built a new girder module, and it’s a million times more interesting than the last one. The trick, it turned out, was to stop trying to use software built for artists and instead find software built for engineers. OpenSCAD could be a game changer for me.

The cool thing about this tool is you build model files by writing code. There’s no clicking and dragging and getting lost in a maze of modes and menus, just line after line explaining how the model is built. Given that’s exactly how my original 2D graphics worked I find this far, far more intuitive. I’m excited.

What module should I do next?

<3
Farbs


29 Comments » for OMG OpenSCAD
  1. Chris K says:

    That looks sooo much better than the previous design. Can’t wait to see more

  2. ross z says:

    Make a really cool plank shield!

  3. Andres I says:

    This is really far out! I’d say do the normal, sniper, and spread laser modules next considering it’s very confusing the way they are now in The Dawn Star.

    But that’s just me!

  4. Captain (M.) Notdoppler says:

    Please remake the Photon Lances and Lasers! I would love if they got a aesthetic upgrade :)

  5. You should try openjscad.org then!

  6. Reece McNeill says:

    Hello Farbs, could you make tutorials on how to make a game like captain forever I desperately want to know how please do this for me your an awesome games designer!

    – CaptIdeas123

  7. Farbs says:

    Reece – I think the simplest tutorial is:
    (1) Find and follow a tutorial teaching you to make a game. Any game. It doesn’t really matter.
    (2) Keep making games until they’re good! This may take years.

    I’ve been working on Struts, largely because I thought they would be simple. They suffered a lot of terrible aliasing issues however, which I eventually tracked down to a problem with seams in the lighting textures at low mips. Have fixed that, so will polish up the struts and then move on to something else. I’m still a little short on ideas for weapons so not sure if they should go next or not. Perhaps I should just sketch a few out and see how I go…

  8. Reece McNeill says:

    Cool stuff, and Farbs, thanks for the advice love the Dawnstar build they’ve been coming a long way, and Farbs everyone on the captain forever forum is wondering, are you going to keep on updating TDS T Dawnstar builds at your best motivation times?

  9. Will Devine says:

    So happy you are back to working the Dawn Star!!!!

  10. Farbs says:

    Yep, there will be new builds! I’m currently working to port all of the visuals over to stage3d, which is a pretty long process, but I guess I could post builds along the way.

    Yesterday I rewrote the atmosphere effects for GPU, so they’re a lot smoother than they used to be. There are still a few effects that are important to gameplay and need to be ported over before the game is playable again, so I’ll work on those next week.

  11. Reece McNeill says:

    Thank you very much Farbs this is appreciated alot! I’ll be sure to create a news thread to tell everyone on the captain forever forum. Keep up the great work!!!

    :D :D :D

  12. Avior says:

    Now, make it so that people with incompatible graphics cards can see the parts. And add a “classic” visual version thing. And before you start any other module… make this thing more detailed.

  13. Lord Haydawg says:

    status report?

  14. Chris K says:

    Captain Forever is dead and Farbs is working on Elite: Dangerous now.

    Or something. Probably not that

  15. Edward says:

    Hey there guys!
    I bought an account for captain forever a long time ago with my mom’s email (I didn’t have one at the time).
    Is there any way to transfer the email for the account over to mine?
    Thanks,
    Edward

  16. Farbs says:

    Hey Edward! Just send me a message CCing your mom’s account asking for the transfer. I’m at farbs@farbs.org.

  17. Chris K says:

    Any chance of build 9 happening before the one year anniversary of build 8?

  18. Hayden Leete says:

    Level up! One year anniversary achieved! Bonus XP round! Double points! Rare loot drop! 365 Skill points acquired! Coin bomb! 8760 Coins received! uh, Level unlocked! um, New Weapons available in armory! Build 9- Unreleased!

  19. Hayden Leete says:

    By the way, while you were gone, this happened: http://store.steampowered.com/app/329130/

  20. Chris K says:

    Huh, that looks really interesting.

    Though I think there’s an elegance in the simplicity of Captain Forever that this other game lacks. It looks complex and really busy… But maybe I’ll give it a go anyway.

    As far as The Dawn Star is concerned… I guess I can’t be too upset to see so little progress over the last year when Card Hunter is undoubtedly making more money than the Captain games ever did, and after working on them for so long I can see why a change of pace would be nice.

    I’m still hoping to see more of The Dawn Star though.

  21. Farbs says:

    Here are some other things that have happened:
    http://store.steampowered.com/app/298560/
    http://store.steampowered.com/app/293260

    :)

    I’m currently looking at a radical new direction for the Captain Forever series, but still can’t quite announce it yet. Once I get past the technical risk part of the project and am confident it’ll work I’ll post something here. Probably in a couple of weeks?

  22. Chris K says:

    How radical are we talking?

    Anyway, glad to hear Captain Forever isn’t dead yet. I kinda was starting to wonder.

    How about The Dawn Star though?

  23. Farbs says:

    We’ll have to see. Not sure yet.

  24. Chris K says:

    Fair enough. I look forward to seeing what else you’ve got cooking anyway.

  25. Avior says:

    A couple of weeks have passed. Nothing is posted.

  26. Farbs says:

    Fair enough.

    Things are really on a knife edge at the moment. There are two very different directions I could move in, and I’m still working to properly evaluate each. Until that’s sorted out there’s not a lot I can usefully write about.

  27. ChrisK says:

    You should post a cryptic screenshot then with an equally cryptic caption. All the cool devs are doing it.

    But seriously I can’t really say that you owe anyone anything here. I got my money’s worth from supporting Captain Forever already and I’m just thankful you still have more ideas for the series

  28. Farbs says:

    Ha!

    I know it’s hard to believe it, but I do actually have a blog post planned on my todo list today.

    The possible massive departure from The Dawn Star ended up not happening, so progress is progressing again :D

  29. ChrisK says:

    Ah, so The Dawn Star isn’t dead afterall. I’m curious to see how it evolves from what Captain Jameson was.

    Hopefully there will be a new build to toy around with soon :)