Show HN: Moon simulator game, ray-casting (mooncraft2000.com)

by JKCalhoun 25 comments 114 points
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25 comments

[−] dTal 36d ago
I love this gorgeous and evocative little time waster and come back to it every now and then. Notes:

It starts out buttery smooth but over time its performance slows to a crawl. Changing window geometry seems to do some sort of garbage collection and it speeds back up. I just hit F11 twice real quick.

The optimal strategy is to try and make the trip parabolically with a single large burn at liftoff.

Gravity physics is of course symmetrical on ascent and descent, so the optimum time to start your deceleration burn is approximately when your downward velocity is equal to whatever your upward velocity was when you stopped burning.

[−] anotheryou 36d ago
Why can't accelerate to my hearts content?! We're trying to get in to orbit here!
[−] scrumper 36d ago
Hey I really liked this. Reminded me a tiny bit of Lander on the Archimedes, Hardwar (underrated!), Wing Commander-y visuals.

The extensions suggest themselves - some progression (financial) beyond merely guild hierarchy; some adversarial element (could be economical like bidding for routes.)

Only bit I struggled with was the car-like handling when you turn left and right; I would expect you to orient using yaw axis and then have to use thrust to change your velocity vector. But it certainly is simpler the way you have it.

[−] cammasmith 36d ago
Cool game. The sound keeps glitching on and off. Also, maybe I'm just dumb, but I couldn't figure out where to go or how to land.
[−] sjdv1982 36d ago
The README is phenomenal, it really tells the story of how the game was built.
[−] Sharlin 36d ago
Very slow on Firefox (both wrt frame rate and actual game speed) and gets down to single digits FPS after a while.

But the slow speed and weak acceleration (did you forget that v = v + a*dt and not just v = v + a? :)) feels actually nice and meditative, if only the FPS were smoother. Tried it on Chrome and it's a much more dynamic and fast-paced experience on it.

(Edit: took a look at the README, loved it!)

[−] vunderba 38d ago
Very neat. Reminded me a bit of Terminal Velocity from a purely visual perspective (even though they used a more standard texture mapped 3d engine).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_Velocity_(video_game)

[−] ProllyInfamous 36d ago
Copyediting:

Your instructions say that spacebar is "thrust," but the first pop-up says "press enter/thrust" to begin actually should say "spacebar" ..?

[−] hiddek 36d ago
love this game. Hardest part is figuring out how to get more fuel and where to navigate., Neat little time waster, but enjoyed every minute of it.
[−] yuppiepuppie 36d ago
Awesome to see this on the front page! Ever since you posted it on HN Arcade its been one of my top games :) and its also one of the most visited!
[−] archerx 36d ago
The controls are very awkward on iOS safari. The thrust plus 3 direction buttons are on the top row and one direction button is on the bottom row.
[−] japaco 35d ago
What a throw back to simple games that just feel good. Nice job! I had fun taking a little break form the mundane.
[−] rpasquay 36d ago
Nice game! Just having two thrusters fire at the same time sounds a bit distorted. Are you generating the engine noise procedurally?
[−] Kim_Bruning 36d ago
Oooh, very neat, it's a voxel map with real elevation data? Yes, yes it is. VERY neat.

Simplified physics though. Ever considered a Jebediah Kerman edition?

[−] ge96 36d ago
Game is broken with adblock btw (UBO)
[−] uniqid 36d ago
This is pretty cool! Almost reminds me of the modern No Man's Sky =D
[−] dooku0721 36d ago
Love this retro visual, reminds me of early windows days flash game
[−] aswegs8 36d ago
Why can I just go 30? Feelsslowman
[−] tantalor 36d ago
Need a VR version of this, please
[−] i_am_a_squirrel 35d ago
how can I land without crashing? :'(
[−] limsight 36d ago
Love this game
[−] MANAS94 36d ago
Hello