Would you be okay with a game engine change for Starmade?

[RabidBat]

Not a suggestion, hence why not in suggestions thread. Just curious to see how the community would react if such an announcement was made.

Let us not argue or debate this hypothetical scenario. It's about your opinion on the subject and not about changing each others minds or telling people they're right or wrong.

Engine changes are a common thing in the gaming industry. Seen many a game go from Quake to Unreal, Unreal to idtech, Unity to Unreal, Unreal to Source and other combos.

The reasons for doing so are many. Performance. Outdated software. Support. Features. Ease of use. Provided tools. And much more.

So, say tomorrow Schine made an announcement they had decided to switch to Unity or Unreal and would be dropping Java because they beleived it would make their life easier and provide you the consumer a much better product and experience in the long run.

Say there would be some time before the Unity version was ready and while you could still play the current version of StarMade all updating and support would be dropped for it and you might not see the new game and new features for say 3 to 6 months but it meant you'd end up with a much better performing and optimised game.

What would your reaction be and why?

I personally would be yes and fine with it. Mostly for the simple reason I think Java sucks when it comes to making games and it wouldn't be the first time a game I was following or playing switched horses. That simple.
Haven't played a Java base game yet that has frame rates that are lower, and system requirements that are higher than they should be, especially for their graphical quality. (and when '3D'they always seem to be grid based, with pausing when you cross that grid.)

I'd be okay with the game not being updated in the mean time because honestly, gameplay wise this game has not really progressed in a very long time and I don't see gameplay massively changing any time soon. Yet I see games in a similar vain on other platforms that seem to progress not only in features but gameplay ata much quicker rate. Something I guess comes down to what appears to be Javas limitation vs other engines.
I can also see another engine easily doing everything StarMade requires and currently does.

Anyways that's my 2 cents what's yours?

(edit: Typos)

 

[Mariux]

Just saying. I like the idea that the game uses engine designed by Schema himself.

 

[Byamarro]

Current engine is fitted for SM. Schema created it from scratch so He can modify it depending on needs.

 

[Megacrafter127]

Java is not an engine, it is a programming language, like C/C++ or assembler.
StarMade does not use an engine, it is its own engine.(similar to Nitronic Rush, if anybody knows that game)

 

[Byamarro]

BTW
I think that Schema once answered about transfer from Java to C++, He said that It's harder to keep code cleaner (and cuz of that also optimized) so game would still have similiar optimization. And I personally agree with Him.

 

[Master_Artificer]

Doesn't switching an engine basically mean reprogramming the entire game?

Also, don't they announce 'engine' changes when they are planning a new game? So this would be like for 'Star Made 2, the quest for more players' and not the game we know of today?

 

[Byamarro]

Doesn't switching an engine basically mean reprogramming the entire game?

Also, don't they announce 'engine' changes when they are planning a new game? So this would be like for 'Star Made 2, the quest for more players' and not the game we know of today?

Not always, several Assassin's Creeds games were on the same engine, just a little bit modified.

 

[Master_Artificer]

Not always, several Assassin's Creeds games were on the same engine, just a little bit modified.

Did they change the engine after the game was already out?

What I mean is, once games choose a platform to build their game on, it seldom gets moved. Exception: Minecraft.

And when it does get moved, often you need to rewrite everything.

 

[Byamarro]

Did they change the engine after the game was already out?

What I mean is, once games choose a platform to build their game on, it seldom gets moved. Exception: Minecraft.

And when it does get moved, often you need to rewrite everything.

They only modified it a little bit. You don't need to change engine completly while doing new game.

 

[BDLS]

I'd be fine with with a 3 to 6 month break of no updates if an engine changed to something that really helped optimization, certainly.

Back when schema use to interact with the community, he commented on this type of subject a few times, since a lot of people said Java sucks.

I don't remember the details but he had a technical explanation why it's good for a game like starmade, perhaps he can once again chime in? In any case, I don't see him dropping his 10 or whatever year old baby. Interesting to talk about though.

 

[Bench]

I'd be fine with with a 3 to 6 month break of no updates if an engine changed to something that really helped optimization, certainly.

Back when schema use to interact with the community, he commented on this type of subject a few times, since a lot of people said Java sucks.

I don't remember the details but he had a technical explanation why it's good for a game like starmade, perhaps he can once again chime in? In any case, I don't see him dropping his 10 or whatever year old baby. Interesting to talk about though.

I think it was to do with the scalability of it

 

[Reilly Reese]

I think it was to do with the scalability of it

Yeah no doubt.

 

[Edymnion]

Minecraft seems to run faster and smoother after they got it off Java though.

 

[kupu]

I think Java sucks when it comes to making games

Better to make a game in what you know, as opposed to writing poor, un-optimised code in a language you don't know because somebody said C++ "can" be faster. :P

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

Minecraft seems to run faster and smoother after they got it off Java though.

Minecraft still uses Java, it just comes packaged with the game now. This, as far as I know, is also planned for starmade.

 

[NeonSturm]

Did they change the engine after the game was already out?
What I mean is, once games choose a platform to build their game on, it seldom gets moved. Exception: Minecraft.
And when it does get moved, often you need to rewrite everything.

You don't need to change the math behind it and you also have a list of what can be done and how - you have your knowledge on it. That saves a lot of time.

90% of programming is debugging. Sometimes even just adding semicolons to lines.​

––––––––
Personally, I think SM is wrong direction in quite a few important things.

• favouring combat far too much and wasting 8/24 bits to HP - it is a build game!
  
• not allowing character-sized password-inputs and not focusing role-play at all
• focusing on the big scale, rather than the personal experience with a character

It is the best game out there. But still a bit too far from what I want.

I think Schema could take any time up to a year if the VoxelFarm-Engine's possibilities were implemented.

Minecraft still uses Java, it just comes packaged with the game now. This, as far as I know, is also planned for starmade.

Another piece of redundant software on my PC?

 

[Winterhome]

• favouring combat far too much and wasting 8/24 bits to HP - it is a build game!

• not allowing character-sized password-inputs and not focusing role-play at all

• focusing on the big scale, rather than the personal experience with a character

sounds like you want a 3d Starbound instead of Starmade

 

[Byamarro]

You don't need to change the math behind it and you also have a list of what can be done and how - you have your knowledge on it. That saves a lot of time.

90% of programming is debugging. Sometimes even just adding semicolons to lines.​

––––––––
Personally, I think SM is wrong direction in quite a few important things.

• favouring combat far too much and wasting 8/24 bits to HP - it is a build game!
  
• not allowing character-sized password-inputs and not focusing role-play at all
• focusing on the big scale, rather than the personal experience with a character

It is the best game out there. But still a bit too far from what I want.

I think Schema could take any time up to a year if the VoxelFarm-Engine's possibilities were implemented.


Another piece of redundant software on my PC?

1. It is a build game and I hope it will finally case to be Shipbuilder 2000. Let SM to become something better than just lego game.
2. ?
3. Agree

I would like to see SM as Tekkit (technical modpack to Minecraft with nuclear reactors etc.) style game.

 

[BrotherLazarus]

You don't need to change the math behind it and you also have a list of what can be done and how - you have your knowledge on it. That saves a lot of time.

90% of programming is debugging. Sometimes even just adding semicolons to lines.​

This is completely and utterly incorrect.

You're saying that you want them to change over to object oriented programming in, say, C# (if Unity) from Java... the differences between the syntax alone are actually pretty damn substantial. They're completely and totally different languages, with fairly distinct structure...

I mean for a simpler case, look at Ruby vs C#--Ruby is a C# derivative language and is substantially different.

The commentary on most of your time being debugging and adding semicolons however... that's spot on.​

 

[jayman38]

Voted "Maybe".

If the re-write did not easily work natively in Linux, I'd drop the game immediately.

Otherwise, if it was going to work just fine in Linux, I'd wait patiently for it, patiently and sadistically waiting for the day that players try to create and mass-mine 10k-sized planets and still complaining that their favorite programming language fails to simulate a universe in real time on a toaster.