Babylon 5 CD Game Update

Seasons Greetings and a Merry Christmas to you all! This is an update on the Babylon 5 Space Combat Simulator that will be released very shortly in the new year. Most of the game will be seen from the cockpit of a Starfury fighter. Babylon 5 is notable as one of the first sci-fi shows in which the spaceships don't fly like fighter jets. Fans knew they were in for a different kind of show when a Starfury pursued by an alien ship simply stopped thrusting, rotated on its axis, and fired head-on at the enemy, all without changing its flight path.

The same physics come into play here. We took a Starfury for a spin and found a flight model that will please Independence War and Wing Commander fans alike. In normal mode, your flight path is coupled to your control input, so giving the stick a hard left or right push will initiate a fighter-like turn. But a simple press of a joystick button uncouples the thrusters and allows you to spin your ship without altering its direction of flight. This is handy not only when a bad guy is on your tail, but also when attacking capital ships. Thanks to the polygon-accurate collision modelling, you can make inertial strafing runs, get right up against the surface of the ships, or even pass through gaps and openings. You'll have to be careful not to be distracted by the majesty of some of the craft you're attacking, however. The development crew is employing the actual Lightwave 3D models used by Netter Digital to create special effects sequences for the series, and the results are spectacular. Even though the number of polygons must be reduced for real-time rendering - the original Minbari Cruiser has 45,000 polygons, while in the game it has closer to 1,500 - the ships still look great. High-quality texture maps make up for much of the loss of detail.

You can expect battles on an epic scale. The team has so far tested the engine with up to 350 ships fighting it out. Scalable detail will allow gamers who own a P200 with an original Voodoo card to see such battles while maintaining a decent frame rate. The Babylon 5 universe is being modelled in full 3D, complete with a network of jump-gates to use to pass between systems. And, of course, the mysterious red, murky reaches of hyperspace will be modelled. You won't want to stray too far from jump-gate beacons when travelling through hyperspace or you could get lost - or, even worse, found.

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