Heaven & Earth 2 Source Code

[shield]

Does the HE code allow generation / editing of planetary maps and does it run on Vista?

Cheers
Richard

 

[bryteone]

Any update on Universe2?

 

[Hemdian]

Any update on Universe2?

Sorry, not yet. I'm still working on it. There are a number of stability issues at the moment that I am chasing down ... the solution would seem to be to refactor it to be more modular (it already has multiple DLLs but they are too tightly coupled).

 

[Bad_Syntax]

Sorry if I'm late on this, but H&E was a pretty nifty product. I really liked the planet maps it created, as that has always been something that has eluded me.

I'm a pretty good VB.NET developer (beyond a hobby), with plenty of time. I've completely taken every single Traveller system generation algorithm from every version of the games (especially GURPS) and done a total computer conversion of them. The last I worked on I was even drawing the systems in orbit. Never released them as my interface skills are my achilles heel. I'm really familiar with GDI+ (and hexagons) and could even do 2D DirectX stuff.

If there is any assistance I could provide I'd be more than happy to, especially with T5 coming out soon (I did the kickstarter thing, can't wait!).

 

[Hemdian]

<snip>

Well, H&E was VB6 (not .NET), but a big stumbling block is the need for the design licence for a 3rd party component called TwistedPixel (which isn't available anywhere).

I'm working on merging the functionality into Traveller Universe (which is written in C#.NET) ... I just need to nail down the plugin framework.

 

[Bad_Syntax]

Well, H&E was VB6 (not .NET), but a big stumbling block is the need for the design licence for a 3rd party component called TwistedPixel (which isn't available anywhere).

I'm working on merging the functionality into Traveller Universe (which is written in C#.NET) ... I just need to nail down the plugin framework.

I used to do VB6 as well, and any conversion would be trivial.

There was no functionality at all within H&E that I couldn't duplicate pretty easily. The only hard part was determining what each planetary hex contained, even drawing those is pretty trivial once I know what they contain. I can also convert between C# or VB6 or VB.NET, or even stream the output to an asp.net page.

Just saying I have the expertise to help, or even start over from scratch and rewrite it completely within a month or two (the hard part is the interface, all the back in code is easy for me).

I even played with a system at http://btengineer.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html (my blog) that mapped an entire world down to 30m hexes, though procedural planet and 10km regional generation always stumped me.

I also wrote a cartographer app for Battletech that plotted over 110,000 systems, with as much detail as you can imagine, you can see a screenshot at http://btengineer.blogspot.com/2011/09/cartographer-update.html.

Let me know if you want some assistance, or if anybody wants to create a list of features that I could turn into a design document, I'm really hoping T5 has all the stuff needed to general the traveller galaxy from scratch, hopefully even some tables for generating the terrain on the world itself, which has always been an obstacle for me.

Good luck regardless.

 

[DangerousThing]

Well, H&E was VB6 (not .NET), but a big stumbling block is the need for the design licence for a 3rd party component called TwistedPixel (which isn't available anywhere).

I'm working on merging the functionality into Traveller Universe (which is written in C#.NET) ... I just need to nail down the plugin framework.

If you need help, I used to be a Sr. Programmer/Analyst for Penn State specializing in user-interface programming. I will admit that I would prefer Java or LiveCode for multiple platform capabilities.

 

[Hemdian]

Thanks for the offers. I'll bear them in mind.

Though if anyone knows of a simple, easy to follow tutorial on how to do a 3D representation of a star systems in a C# winform application, that would be very helpful.

 

[Bad_Syntax]

Thanks for the offers. I'll bear them in mind.

Though if anyone knows of a simple, easy to follow tutorial on how to do a 3D representation of a star systems in a C# winform application, that would be very helpful.

Well, you got DirectX, not only do you loose quite a bit of "simple", but you also add a DX requirement and make people with crappy 2D laptops hate you. But, its as simple as creating the DX engine, and drawing textured spheres in 3D space, so it is pretty simple.

Then, you have drawing 3D with GDI, which is *horribly* slow since you have all the refreshes each time the mouse moves around.

I'd really recommend 2D just showing a top view like the old H&E did. You can have dynamic zooming and its all pretty easy (I did it a while back and it was pretty neat). Drawing 2D in C# is super easy.

You can always add 3D later as an option, but its best to finish a project and update it, than get burned out trying to go through the really hard parts that aren't critical to its operation.

I went through H&E again a few minutes ago when reading 5th Frontier War. The way it drew the systems was just fine. However, finding a ruleset for system generation that is 100% complete, even with Traveller and GURPS, is *very* difficult. I think a lot of non-"canon" tweaks were done in order to fill out all the generation systems.

 

[Tarrien]

The DX problem you're going to run into is there is VERY LITTLE out there for C#, it's all done with C++. Also, Microsoft has cancelled development of managed directx, it has been replaced by XNA.

 

[Bad_Syntax]

The DX problem you're going to run into is there is VERY LITTLE out there for C#, it's all done with C++. Also, Microsoft has cancelled development of managed directx, it has been replaced by XNA.

XNA is just an easier (though some would argue that) way of interfacing with DX. Its very limited in what you can do though. It doesn't replace the directx libraries themselves, and is in fact just managed directx underneath.

There are a LOT of resources on C# for DX, not so much VB.NET, and I was able to figure out quite a bit on that. Understanding DX is the hard part, once you get that, I really don't see much of a difference between C#, C++, or VB.NET.

What kinda features are going to need DX though? The old H&E had the little map of where the systems were, but those are essentially just GDI ellipses. This version going to be fully 3D or something?

Will planet terrain get generated like Fractal Terrains Pro? That'd be uber cool.

 

[Space Hamster]

There is SlimDX (http://slimdx.org/) to access DirectX from C#. I have not used SlimDX so don’t know much about it. You can build your own COM interface. DirectX is pretty low level access and is not covered by Garbage Collection.

I tend to agree with the 2D sprites mentioned earlier.

 

[Hemdian]

What kinda features are going to need DX though? The old H&E had the little map of where the systems were, but those are essentially just GDI ellipses. This version going to be fully 3D or something?

Nothing too complicated. I just wanted to show the system orbits on a plain that could be tilted and zoomed to make the relationships clearer (especially when a planet has a significant orbital inclination). At least a snapshot, at best something the user can manipulate in realtime.

Maybe (instead) I could code it as an export to Celestia, or something.

 

[Bad_Syntax]

Ahhh, those planets with wacky inclinations.

I'd draw like 4 little pictures.
Top Left = Orbits from galactic plain, to see any inclination, inner planets
Top Right = Same, but outer planets
Lower Left = Orbits from top of galactic plane, inner planets
Lower Right = ditto, but outer

Then on the bottom have little buttons for each star in those systems with multiple stars in a far orbit, or just allow dynamic zooming in/out and only have a single top/side view. All of that is *really* simple using the GDI, but the project creep of 3D or Celestia, well, I'd avoid until after you get a release going.

Every little thing you want to add increases the chances you'll get bored, or never complete it, get a new version out, then add features when you find the time/desire. Well thats my opinion on it anyway, seen soooooo many projects get started and die on the net.

 

[Bad_Syntax]

I found the code I worked on a while back. It uses GURPS Space 4E to generate the system. This wasn't done at all, just a test form, start it up, generate a world or system, and that is it, no bells -n- whistles.

You can download it from Here.

It is for windows, and requires the .NET Framework v4 client profile (the lighter version of the framework) to run.

Anyway, it had the little orbit rings. Dotted lines were asteroid belts. There was some bugs I think with multiple star systems.

Also, space is big, and some stars are freaking HUGE (1 to 2100+ in size). I tried to draw planets to scale with each other, usually 2 for a moonlet, 4 for tiny, 8 for standard, 6 for small, 10 for large. Gas giants again dwarfed stuff, so they are 6/9/12 pixel circles for small/medium/large. I also try to draw the star and inner limit (since I think that is part of the corona or something, again the stars are usually to scale with each other, but not the systems at all).

Anyway, the code to draw little circles and stuff is all really simple (using icons instead of circles is easy too). This whole app is 287 lines, and I have a LOT of excess code in it. The included GURPS*.dll is about 3000 lines to generate an entire system with all the detail.

Hope it inspires something...

 

[ArchCarrier]

Hello everyone.

Just having one of my occasional browses on the forums. Glad to see that Peter is still developing Universe 2. Hope the HE2 source code is proving useful?

Regards,

ArchCarrier

 

[AlHazred]

That is a snazzy little app, Bad_Syntax! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Bad_Syntax]

That is a snazzy little app, Bad_Syntax! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks! It has no polish at all though, and I didn't really finish it (I was gunna make it look a lot better, with better formatted system info). I think I got off track trying to map out planet terrain, and moved onto something else for a while (like this) and didn't go back to it. I also had quite a few technical questions on the formulas... oh well.

 

[savage]

I used to do VB6 as well, and any conversion would be trivial.

There was no functionality at all within H&E that I couldn't duplicate pretty easily. The only hard part was determining what each planetary hex contained, even drawing those is pretty trivial once I know what they contain. I can also convert between C# or VB6 or VB.NET, or even stream the output to an asp.net page.

Just saying I have the expertise to help, or even start over from scratch and rewrite it completely within a month or two (the hard part is the interface, all the back in code is easy for me).

I even played with a system at http://btengineer.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html (my blog) that mapped an entire world down to 30m hexes, though procedural planet and 10km regional generation always stumped me.

I also wrote a cartographer app for Battletech that plotted over 110,000 systems, with as much detail as you can imagine, you can see a screenshot at http://btengineer.blogspot.com/2011/09/cartographer-update.html.

Let me know if you want some assistance, or if anybody wants to create a list of features that I could turn into a design document, I'm really hoping T5 has all the stuff needed to general the traveller galaxy from scratch, hopefully even some tables for generating the terrain on the world itself, which has always been an obstacle for me.

Good luck regardless.

Fun stuff. I use to do some BT. Good work.

 

[david.wendelken]

Universe seems to have died off or disappeared some years back. Can't find it available anymore. Couldn't find any evidence the 2.0 release ever made it out the door.

Is the Heaven and Earth sourcecode still available?

It would be a great community resource. Lots of places it can be placed on the web and shared for free nowadays...