you fly around, shoot some stuff, collect some other stuff OMG IT'S FULL OF STARS
June 23, 2009 2:19 AM Subscribe
Polynomial (yt) is a 3D space shooter with mathematically generated fractal scenery and models by Dmytry Lavrov with demos available for Linux, (Intel) OSX, & Windows. (via)
Downloading.
Here's to hoping this is one-eighth as good as the CDROM version of TIE Fighter.
posted by arcolz at 3:10 AM on June 23, 2009
Here's to hoping this is one-eighth as good as the CDROM version of TIE Fighter.
posted by arcolz at 3:10 AM on June 23, 2009
Wow, that music works incredibly well. Is that the in-game music? Who is it?
posted by vernondalhart at 3:18 AM on June 23, 2009
posted by vernondalhart at 3:18 AM on June 23, 2009
According to the person who uploaded the YouTube video, it's not the in-game music:
"I still didn't manage to get non-glitching sound capture, hence I replaced sound with Debussy."
posted by obiwanwasabi at 3:48 AM on June 23, 2009
"I still didn't manage to get non-glitching sound capture, hence I replaced sound with Debussy."
posted by obiwanwasabi at 3:48 AM on June 23, 2009
Oh. Damn.
posted by vernondalhart at 4:09 AM on June 23, 2009
posted by vernondalhart at 4:09 AM on June 23, 2009
Runs beautifully on my system using kernel 2.6.28-11.42 and nvidia driver 180. Looks like an awesome game. Thanks!
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:41 AM on June 23, 2009
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:41 AM on June 23, 2009
Wow, pretty. Easier to play on a trackpad than I expected, but would be much easier with a mouse. No in-game music as yet; some 1/f-based tunelets would be appropriate.
posted by 5MeoCMP at 5:28 AM on June 23, 2009
posted by 5MeoCMP at 5:28 AM on June 23, 2009
Segfaults on startup for me on Linux (kernel 2.6.29, nvidia driver 180.51), so I sent in a bug report. Maybe my graphics chip is too old/obscure (NVS Quadro 140M). That would be a shame because this game looks great. If it ever ends up working I might have to download some Debussy.
posted by benign at 6:59 AM on June 23, 2009
posted by benign at 6:59 AM on June 23, 2009
Ooh, saw this a few weeks ago when there was only the video - and yet again I wonder who I was trying to kid when I decided to buy a laptop with a crappy video card especially so I wouldn't play games... please tell me this gets really boring quickly.
posted by JustAsItSounds at 7:05 AM on June 23, 2009
posted by JustAsItSounds at 7:05 AM on June 23, 2009
It's gorgeous. I kind of wish it wasn't a game and just let you fly around thru the fractals.
posted by doctor_negative at 8:06 AM on June 23, 2009
posted by doctor_negative at 8:06 AM on June 23, 2009
No love for my Radeon X160 *cries*
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:16 AM on June 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:16 AM on June 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
"It's gorgeous. I kind of wish it wasn't a game and just let you fly around thru the fractals."
This is an option - see the readme.
posted by edd at 8:29 AM on June 23, 2009
This is an option - see the readme.
posted by edd at 8:29 AM on June 23, 2009
It's beautiful!
posted by brundlefly at 8:36 AM on June 23, 2009
posted by brundlefly at 8:36 AM on June 23, 2009
getting about 1 frame every 4 seconds on my laptop : (
posted by memebake at 8:53 AM on June 23, 2009
posted by memebake at 8:53 AM on June 23, 2009
Lucerne Festival Orchestra performing La Mer mvt 3 (which is what's used in the video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz5pCCX7Y_M
So you can run that while you're playing to get that effect.
(Though I suppose you could just run the demo video too...)
posted by Barking Frog at 9:24 AM on June 23, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz5pCCX7Y_M
So you can run that while you're playing to get that effect.
(Though I suppose you could just run the demo video too...)
posted by Barking Frog at 9:24 AM on June 23, 2009
It runs very fast on my system, but the display is corrupted to the point of unplayability (it looks like it's making assumptions about GL_EXT_framebuffer things that may only be true for nvidia or something, but I don't know enough about OGL to really judge). I like indie game developers, though, so I sent in the requisite bug report, log, and screenshot.
posted by majick at 9:25 AM on June 23, 2009
posted by majick at 9:25 AM on June 23, 2009
Thanks! It's beautiful on my 2 1/2 year old 24" iMac with nvidia 7600gt graphics
posted by limited slip at 9:31 AM on June 23, 2009
posted by limited slip at 9:31 AM on June 23, 2009
Stunning. No idea what I'm doing, but it's so beautiful I don't care.
posted by rtha at 10:01 AM on June 23, 2009
posted by rtha at 10:01 AM on June 23, 2009
If there's anyone on windows hesitating from checking it out because it's a download and that's a hassle for something that might not even run: it's only a miniscule 3mb and doesn't install anywhere (just unzip and run).
posted by juv3nal at 10:19 AM on June 23, 2009
posted by juv3nal at 10:19 AM on June 23, 2009
It's pretty weird in that you can die and not really notice it because you don't have a fixed number of lives, it just sets your score back 50% and keeps trucking.
posted by juv3nal at 10:21 AM on June 23, 2009
posted by juv3nal at 10:21 AM on June 23, 2009
Great, except for the fact that it keeps crashing. If he fixes the stability issues, I might buy.
posted by Hactar at 12:40 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by Hactar at 12:40 PM on June 23, 2009
it's pretty picky about what kind of video card it will work with.
This of course means that it doesn't work with the Intel graphics in the 2007 Macbooks :(
posted by The Devil Tesla at 1:06 PM on June 23, 2009 [2 favorites]
This of course means that it doesn't work with the Intel graphics in the 2007 Macbooks :(
posted by The Devil Tesla at 1:06 PM on June 23, 2009 [2 favorites]
Ah, incidentally, I'm using an nvidia GeForce 8400M GS graphics card with that 180 driver, which has never failed to render 3D quite beautifully. I highly recommend it if you can spare the cash.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:50 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:50 PM on June 23, 2009
So I watched the video and... I don't understand what the gameplay is. What's the point? Is it just a run about shooting things collecting tokens?
posted by five fresh fish at 2:59 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by five fresh fish at 2:59 PM on June 23, 2009
Ok yeah, now that I've played it I ahve to say that is is pretty cool. Now it just need to be made into a real game.
posted by arcolz at 3:26 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by arcolz at 3:26 PM on June 23, 2009
I was impressed. I played for a few minutes. pretty.
posted by Hands of Manos at 4:28 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by Hands of Manos at 4:28 PM on June 23, 2009
OK, zooming and shooting I have no problem with, but I can't seem to find how you collect green things. What's the mouse gesture for that?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:28 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:28 PM on June 23, 2009
Dur, never mind. You fly through them, right?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:01 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:01 PM on June 23, 2009
You need to aim and fly directly through it (on a mac it's double touch for forward and reverse which is cool.)
posted by acro at 6:02 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by acro at 6:02 PM on June 23, 2009
That's what I thought. I can throttle up or pull back with the scroll wheel easily enough.
God damn this is a fun game.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:04 PM on June 23, 2009
God damn this is a fun game.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:04 PM on June 23, 2009
....and a driver update later, I am just as pretty as the video! Yay me!
posted by juv3nal at 9:18 PM on June 23, 2009
posted by juv3nal at 9:18 PM on June 23, 2009
So I watched the video and... I don't understand what the gameplay is. What's the point? Is it just a run about shooting things collecting tokens?
That's basically all there is to it although he mentions that one of the things he's working on is multiplayer. The things you're shooting at do shoot back.
The tokens are power ups. One is rapid fire and I believe there's another one for homing shots. It's basically just score attack with getting killed dropping your score by half. It does keep track of the highest score you've managed in a session, but it keeps going no matter how many times you die.
posted by juv3nal at 9:29 PM on June 23, 2009
That's basically all there is to it although he mentions that one of the things he's working on is multiplayer. The things you're shooting at do shoot back.
The tokens are power ups. One is rapid fire and I believe there's another one for homing shots. It's basically just score attack with getting killed dropping your score by half. It does keep track of the highest score you've managed in a session, but it keeps going no matter how many times you die.
posted by juv3nal at 9:29 PM on June 23, 2009
I exchanged some emails with the developer and he managed to work out the issue (turns out it was sound related) well enough that I could play game. It runs pretty well on my laptop and plays nicely with my window manager (xmonad) which is is more than I can say for most games.
The video also makes it look a bit boring. Once you up the difficulty to at least 'normal' mode there are (many) more enemies and power ups. It gets much more challenging and entertaining, in large part because the explosions of the enemies can set off chain reactions.
Very nice little game. Now I need to find some more time to play it and some nice music to go with it.
posted by benign at 8:20 AM on June 24, 2009
The video also makes it look a bit boring. Once you up the difficulty to at least 'normal' mode there are (many) more enemies and power ups. It gets much more challenging and entertaining, in large part because the explosions of the enemies can set off chain reactions.
Very nice little game. Now I need to find some more time to play it and some nice music to go with it.
posted by benign at 8:20 AM on June 24, 2009
« Older Life in a North Korean Concentration Camp | They don't make 'em like they used to. Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by juv3nal at 3:03 AM on June 23, 2009 [5 favorites]