Graphics and music

Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager (SPM) Road to the Moon is the ultimate game of space exploration.

Moderators: Nacho84, N_Molson

Post Reply
STUCKER868
Private First Class - Wehrmacht Inf
Private First Class - Wehrmacht Inf
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2013 7:57 pm

Graphics and music

Post by STUCKER868 »

In my opinion (and we all them don't we? ;) the cartoony graphics and picnic like music really takes something away from this effort. Comparatively, Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space (BARIS) uses classic NASA clips from actual launches, real Mission Control voices (the voice overs in this game sound acted, and rather poorly at that). The music in BARIS is more exciting and adds some element of suspense. I have brought all this up before and I am in no way trying to insult the devs... But I HATE the cheesy, "have a happy day" music that plays when you click the end turn button. I want to poke an ice pick into my ears and leave it there.

As far as the graphics, I really dislike the "paper doll" cutouts (of the rockets) during the animations of the space craft launches. I work with Maya and I understand what it takes to make a model but I am telling you that BARIS did it better. The REAL, grainy TV like film clips really add to the immersion factor. I know you are going to say there are no available video clips to use of certain launches etc.... Seriously, there are plenty of clips out there of Mission Control in action during the 60's and 70's, craft launches etc. The Soviets? Load up BARIS (the disk version had much more in real animation cut scenes....) and see how it was done. BARIS has been fixed to work with WIN 7, is in the public domain, and is available FREE.

Just my view... I know it won't change a darn thing.

Peace!
redcoat22
Lance Corporal - SdKfz 222
Lance Corporal - SdKfz 222
Posts: 28
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 11:35 pm

Re: Graphics and music

Post by redcoat22 »

I actually came away with the opposite opinion. The graphics style here is consistent and allows all manner of coverage where in BARIS they used film footage of various quality and of totally different rockets and mission sequence segments than was actually being flown. I thought it looked great in this game. I would only suggest that since they can essentially create any shot they want, additional and more varied views would allow different launches of the same hardware to look distinctly different.

The sound to me was epic and BARIS but I also think it is dramatic here and well done. Hopefully they will add more mission control recordings for variation as we'll was some additional tracks to compliment the soviet and us themes.
Nacho84
SPM Moderator
SPM Moderator
Posts: 1382
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 6:32 pm
Location: Brighton, UK

Re: Graphics and music

Post by Nacho84 »

Hello stucker,

Thanks for the feedback.
stucker868 wrote:But I HATE the cheesy, "have a happy day" music that plays when you click the end turn button. I want to poke an ice pick into my ears and leave it there.
I'll pass the comment along to our audio composer.
stucker868 wrote: I know you are going to say there are no available video clips to use of certain launches etc.... Seriously, there are plenty of clips out there of Mission Control in action during the 60's and 70's, craft launches etc. The Soviets? Load up BARIS (the disk version had much more in real animation cut scenes....) and see how it was done. BARIS has been fixed to work with WIN 7, is in the public domain, and is available FREE.
Indeed, we know that there's plenty of footage available, and I have my share of DVDs from Spacecraft Films, but the problem of using footage is not about missing material for the launches. As you rightfully say, there's plenty of that already, especially for the American space program. The problem of footage material is that there's none for many of the events depicted in the game: two astronauts coming out from two Gemini spacecraft and performing an EVA at the same time, the landing sequence for the Mars Viking lander, a Venera probe plunging through Venus' atmosphere, two american astronauts coming out of their Gemini Direct Ascent spacecraft and walking on the Moon, a Gemini spacecraft performing a trans-lunar injection, etc.
stucker868 wrote: Just my view... I know it won't change a darn thing.
Well, that's not fair :) We listen to all the feedback left here at the forums and, as you can see from our changelog, we actually implement many of the suggestions that have been made since the EAP started.

Cheers,
Ignacio Liverotti
Lead Developer of Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager

Polar Motion
Twitter
Xiaomaoxin
Senior Corporal - Ju 87G
Senior Corporal - Ju 87G
Posts: 89
Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:24 pm

Re: Graphics and music

Post by Xiaomaoxin »

Huge changes even like the whole campaign makeover. But I hope you keep graphics as is :) I already rambled about how they are awesome and perfect in some other posts with the same topic. And please also pass on to your composer that not all people run around with ice picks in their ears :)
N_Molson
SPM Contributor
SPM Contributor
Posts: 233
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2013 2:55 pm
Location: Les Essarts, France

Re: Graphics and music

Post by N_Molson »

About the graphics, as said above, the option chosen allows to depict with some accuracy all the steps of a space mission, and I think there is an high educative value to that. Also, notice that we make them as realistic as possible, and I'm personnaly hunting glitches that "don't look right" or don't match specialized documentation. The 3D artist is making an awesome work with the models, and there are few softwares where you will see such a wide variety of space hardware inventory in action with that much level of detail :wink:

I agree that the soundtrack could benefit from a little bit more of variety, but let icepicks in the toolshed :wink:
Nicolas Escats
Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager Contributor
Post Reply

Return to “Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager”