During a recent livestream, the Egosoft team whose most recently title is X4: Foundations, talked a lot about their plans for the game and they had some fun bits to share on using the open source app Blender.
They were really very clear about it too, as an Egosoft developer plainly said "I use Blender, it's an open source 3D creation tool since 2008". It seems they were originally using 3ds Max and still use it but in a much smaller way. They've changed their pipeline to open it up more, so they can use Blender which they said "opens the door" for modding as they might be able to distribute an official way since anyone can download and use Blender which I'm sure will excite some X series fans.
Egosoft CEO, Bernd Lehahn, also mentioned how other products have been very expensive however Lehahn made it clear that it's less about the price, "the openness for modding is a good reason but it's also the openness for changing the software for us is also an important part". They've already made changes to it too and those changes (in co-operation with the Blender developers) went into the official Blender release for UV texturing.
Check out the video below with the chat about Blender, open source and more modding starting at about 01:25:30.
Direct Link
It's a very interesting, open and honest chat about game development and the X games that's worth a listen to if you enjoy more behind the scenes info. Really nice to see more developers understand how important FOSS software is too.
Want to pick up a copy of X4: Foundations? It's available from Humble Store, GOG or Steam.
Hat tip to Alm888.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
If you want to learn more about Egosoft and other space game devs, there is the documentary (narrated via interviews) space.games.film where not only people from Egosoft, but also from Rockfishgames (Everspace!), from Deadalic (Long Journey Home), from Robert Space Industries and more are interviewed.
But spending money on a great game like this and support cool devs like these is a good way to empty my wallet :-)
He keeps sending videos how awesome it will be.
He is also still awaiting a full release.....
With my X4 - Collector's Edition I'm playing for quite a time, got the awesome expansion and I'm not looking back :D
Some parts of the game still need some polish and work, but it is a hugely awesome and entertaining simulation with countless possibilities of what a small player in a huge universe can do and achieve.
I have a friend who "bought" Star Citizen some years ago.
He keeps sending videos how awesome it will be.
He is also still awaiting a full release.....
With my X4 - Collector's Edition I'm playing for quite a time, got the awesome expansion and I'm not looking back :D
Some parts of the game still need some polish and work, but it is a hugely awesome and entertaining simulation with countless possibilities of what a small player in a huge universe can do and achieve.
to be fair. SC looks fcking amazing. i can understand that ppl have fun just running around in this world
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiVUiKQOir0
I have a lot of time in No Man's Sky and enjoy the easy arcade style controls. I have Elite: Dangerous but don't play it much because I struggle with the sim-like flight controls. Does anyone care to give an opinion on where X4 flight controls fit in between those two examples?
Last edited by DMG on 12 May 2020 at 12:57 pm UTC
Thanks for the answer. It's very helpful. The sim-like put me off some, but I'm still very interested. At least X4 offer native support while Elite is a little fussy requiring manual config, winetricks or protontricks to get .net installed.X4 has been on my wishlist for a while but I've held off because the feedback has been so mixed. I'm glad to see some positive feedback here.Sim-like flight controls, no doubt about it. I spent hours configuring it for my Steam Controller and more hours configuring it for two different HOTAS kits. As I also spent hours configuring these for Elite: Dangerous, I must say that in my opinion the Elite controls are a bit more complex than X4, but only a bit.
I have a lot of time in No Man's Sky and enjoy the easy arcade style controls. I have Elite: Dangerous but don't play it much because I struggle with the sim-like flight controls. Does anyone care to give an opinion on where X4 flight controls fit in between those two examples?
I've been looking at HOTAS that work on Linux as an alternative to fussing with mouse config.
Spanner_Man May 17, 2020
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