Devlog 21: Trading Finished, but I’m Stuck

I’ve finished the trading system!

Trading System

The trading system is done. Orders are generated, you can accept them, and accepted trades show up in the UI. The only thing left is adding the planes, but that depends on finishing the base-building system first.

Base Building

I’ve started working on base building. It’s pretty simple and mostly uses systems that already exist, so it should only take around an hour to fully implement.

Stuck

Development has been going way slower than I hoped because my codebase is currently a bunch of bandaids stacked on top of each other. I also need to ship this week since Thirdspace starts next week, which means I probably won’t have time to add much polish.So I need your opinion: is it worth delaying the game for another week? 😭 Or should I just ship it?
Do you think I’ll still be able to afford the Framework 13 if I release it now?
My current plan is to focus on getting the core systems working, fix any major bugs, and leave extra polish and construction vehicles for a post-launch update.

Devlog 20: UI and Trading

Got the backend for the trading system done and overhauled the UI to go with it.

Trading System

I made a trading system. It generates contracts with the recipient’s name, the resource being traded, and the price. Basically the foundation for the aircraft system.

UI

Redesigned the time and date display because it looked kinda rough. Also switched the economy back to money instead of the resource, makes way more sense for trading. Oh, and vehicles now actually speed up when you speed up time, which is pretty cool.

What’s Shipping vs Later

I’m not including construction vehicles in the initial release because that’s like 40+ more hours of work and I want to actually finish this before Thirdspace starts (I’m gonna compete too). So yeah, that’s going to a post-launch update.

Still gotta do:

• Get the excavators working (mines) ~5h
• Finish the trading system ~3h
• Fix vehicle physics again 😭~5h
• Random bugs and polish ~5h

Hope I can get that done this week. Tryna hit at least 14sd/h so I can hopfuly buy that Framework 13 lol

Devlog - 6

Ok guys, I think this was the hardest part of the project till now. I was trying to get the day/night version so it replicates the real earth. I this whole time figuring it out. Firstly I start up with math to actually figure out like astronomical values for the shader and to figure out where the Sun will be at what point of time but it didn’t work out but then I went to online libraries which let’s say also didn’t work as I could understand how to use it properly. I made so many changes through out this almost three hours but at the end I made a version where it sees users local time and adjusts the earth whether it will be day time or night time. Thank you and stay tuned!

Devlog - 6

Ok guys, I think this was the hardest part of the project till now. I was trying to get the day/night version so it replicates the real earth. I this whole time figuring it out. Firstly I start up with math to actually figure out like astronomical values for the shader and to figure out where the Sun will be at what point of time but it didn’t work out but then I went to online libraries which let’s say also didn’t work as I could understand how to use it properly. I made so many changes through out this almost three hours but at the end I made a version where it sees users local time and adjusts the earth whether it will be day time or night time. Thank you and stay tuned!

Devlog - 5

Finally Finally. I have overcome the problem of syncing the latitude and longitude of the Earth and the satellites. So the main problem was, I used a tutorial to build the earth in 3D so what happened the Earth’s longitude at zero was -90 so because of that the calculations were being correct but the marker was being placed at a wrong latitude. Before I didn’t knew about that so I tried changing the math but that was correct and then when I figured out that is was at a wrong longitude, it was a simple fix as I just added +90. Then I encountered another problem which was after a search the zoom controls and the drag controls for the earth became sketchy. That was because I was using a normal zoom function before but for zooming in on a satellite after the search it switched to x, y, z coordinate system and after just for normal zoom it tried to switch back to normal but couldn’t and that is why it became sketchy but I fixed that as well. Then I started to add features in. I have added satellite’s porjected path and completed path in now. You can see that in the video below. This was just like debugging. Thank you and stay tuned!

Devlog - 5

Finally Finally. I have overcome the problem of syncing the latitude and longitude of the Earth and the satellites. So the main problem was, I used a tutorial to build the earth in 3D so what happened the Earth’s longitude at zero was -90 so because of that the calculations were being correct but the marker was being placed at a wrong latitude. Before I didn’t knew about that so I tried changing the math but that was correct and then when I figured out that is was at a wrong longitude, it was a simple fix as I just added +90. Then I encountered another problem which was after a search the zoom controls and the drag controls for the earth became sketchy. That was because I was using a normal zoom function before but for zooming in on a satellite after the search it switched to x, y, z coordinate system and after just for normal zoom it tried to switch back to normal but couldn’t and that is why it became sketchy but I fixed that as well. Then I started to add features in. I have added satellite’s porjected path and completed path in now. You can see that in the video below. This was just like debugging. Thank you and stay tuned!

Devlog - 4

Right now it is being a bit too much of a trial and error debugging for me. I did manage to get all the satellites being added on the earth textured globe. There are around 16,000 satellites. I have separate code which asks the API for the data and then that data gets parsed and then it converts it to TLE and which is then used in the main code to make those markers. Then I added search feature and while making that search feature I noticed that still the syncing of the latitude & longitude of the textured earth and the satellites is still a big problem. I can’t get it too sync with each other. I will be continuing to debug and lets see what happens. Thank you & stay tuned!

Devlog - 4

Right now it is being a bit too much of a trial and error debugging for me. I did manage to get all the satellites being added on the earth textured globe. There are around 16,000 satellites. I have separate code which asks the API for the data and then that data gets parsed and then it converts it to TLE and which is then used in the main code to make those markers. Then I added search feature and while making that search feature I noticed that still the syncing of the latitude & longitude of the textured earth and the satellites is still a big problem. I can’t get it too sync with each other. I will be continuing to debug and lets see what happens. Thank you & stay tuned!

Devlog - 3

In 2 hours I have worked on quite a few different things. Starting it off with a problem mentioned in the last devlog which was having the latitude and longitude of satellites matching that with the earth’s lat and lon. I have fixed that problem and it was quite a silly one because It the API which had me blocked for a temporary basis because I have requested a lot in a few amount of time. So, it was just no responding to the request and that is why the satellites where not appearing and stayed in the middle. Second I added a sliding panel for the satellite information in which I encountered a problem where I was using Raycaster and it detected every click rather than a specific satellite click so then I again did like trial and error process and got it to work at the end. Also created a new data folder so that the data for satellites stays separated from the main code. Next up I will be loading more of the satellites into the project. Thank you and stay tuned.

Devlog - 3

In 2 hours I have worked on quite a few different things. Starting it off with a problem mentioned in the last devlog which was having the latitude and longitude of satellites matching that with the earth’s lat and lon. I have fixed that problem and it was quite a silly one because It the API which had me blocked for a temporary basis because I have requested a lot in a few amount of time. So, it was just no responding to the request and that is why the satellites where not appearing and stayed in the middle. Second I added a sliding panel for the satellite information in which I encountered a problem where I was using Raycaster and it detected every click rather than a specific satellite click so then I again did like trial and error process and got it to work at the end. Also created a new data folder so that the data for satellites stays separated from the main code. Next up I will be loading more of the satellites into the project. Thank you and stay tuned.

Devlog - 2

Ok guys I have spent the time mostly getting the API working and gathering the TLE data which just means two line element data. I am currently getting data from CelesTrak and it is going quite good. I have also gotten the marker for the ISS on the globe. The part I am struggling with currently is the fact to sync the coordinates of the satellite with the earth and with the mouse movement. Currently I am trying many different things out like stopping the earth rotation and changing the camera location rather than the actual earth, just like trial and error. I have still not found a way to get this thing to work but I am continuing the trial and error process and will update about it in the next devlog. Thank you and stay tuned!

Plus sorry for late devlog as I can’t really focus on coding much as the school has started and all.

Devlog - 2

Ok guys I have spent the time mostly getting the API working and gathering the TLE data which just means two line element data. I am currently getting data from CelesTrak and it is going quite good. I have also gotten the marker for the ISS on the globe. The part I am struggling with currently is the fact to sync the coordinates of the satellite with the earth and with the mouse movement. Currently I am trying many different things out like stopping the earth rotation and changing the camera location rather than the actual earth, just like trial and error. I have still not found a way to get this thing to work but I am continuing the trial and error process and will update about it in the next devlog. Thank you and stay tuned!

Plus sorry for late devlog as I can’t really focus on coding much as the school has started and all.

Devlog - 1

Thank you so for the support for SkyTrace. That project got great votes and helped me get closer to my goal for an A1 Mini 3D Printer. After seeing the success of SkyTrace, I have decided to make OrbitTrace. SkyTrace = Aviation enthusiast whereas OrbitTrace = Space enthusiast.

Progress

For the progress I worked on making a globe, make it rotate, follow the direction of the and I have added stars. This process for me was fairly quick because I have previously made a globe for 3d flight tracking but let just say it didn’t go well. But I am back to making globes. Currently, I have planned to make it a satellite tracker but as usual it is not going to be that simple. I am going to add more unique features to as I did to SkyTrace. It might take me longer to post devlogs because now I have to manage studies and coding which is getting a bit harder, but I will ship this project. Thank you & stay tuned!

Devlog - 1

Thank you so for the support for SkyTrace. That project got great votes and helped me get closer to my goal for an A1 Mini 3D Printer. After seeing the success of SkyTrace, I have decided to make OrbitTrace. SkyTrace = Aviation enthusiast whereas OrbitTrace = Space enthusiast.

Progress

For the progress I worked on making a globe, make it rotate, follow the direction of the and I have added stars. This process for me was fairly quick because I have previously made a globe for 3d flight tracking but let just say it didn’t go well. But I am back to making globes. Currently, I have planned to make it a satellite tracker but as usual it is not going to be that simple. I am going to add more unique features to as I did to SkyTrace. It might take me longer to post devlogs because now I have to manage studies and coding which is getting a bit harder, but I will ship this project. Thank you & stay tuned!

Devlog - 9

This is my last devlog before the shipment of this project. In this last hour I have added a curved path as seen in the picture which makes it look better than a straightline. Then I encountered an API issue which was that mu current route API was giving me an 502 error which was because it was down so instead of being too dependent on it, I modified the code to have two API links which the code tries the first and If it doesn’t work then it tries the second one and it works now. Thank you for being a part of this project!

Devlog - 9

This is my last devlog before the shipment of this project. In this last hour I have added a curved path as seen in the picture which makes it look better than a straightline. Then I encountered an API issue which was that mu current route API was giving me an 502 error which was because it was down so instead of being too dependent on it, I modified the code to have two API links which the code tries the first and If it doesn’t work then it tries the second one and it works now. Thank you for being a part of this project!

Devlog - 8

Okay so I wanted to make it apart from a regular flight tracker and I was brainstorming ideas and thought of an idea of making a flight replay. So what I did is now the app stores the latitude and longitude of flights on a temporary basis and then when the user clicks on the replay button the code goes to the starting point and will show you the whole flight journey. I have also made a smaller window seen in the picture which is on the bottom right which shows you the replay details like how the altitude changed or like how speed changed and all things like that. The user can also select at what speed they want to watch the replay and all. Thank you and stay tuned!

Devlog - 8

Okay so I wanted to make it apart from a regular flight tracker and I was brainstorming ideas and thought of an idea of making a flight replay. So what I did is now the app stores the latitude and longitude of flights on a temporary basis and then when the user clicks on the replay button the code goes to the starting point and will show you the whole flight journey. I have also made a smaller window seen in the picture which is on the bottom right which shows you the replay details like how the altitude changed or like how speed changed and all things like that. The user can also select at what speed they want to watch the replay and all. Thank you and stay tuned!

Devlog 19: Busy

School has started again and I have been geting busy and my motivation is also not that high right now because things take alot longer and dont work like i want to. I think I will delay release to septembere 12th.