Anticuus Eye Candy

Short post today, just some more screenshots for you. If the pictures aren't enough for you, check out the live alpha development preview app on Facebook.

Anticuus Update

With the 6.2 service pack being postponed for a month after the original release date, I've found a little surplus time which I've spent on LCARS Anticuus.

The first module is almost complete now. It's one of my favorites; the Subspace Scan Analysis. The inspiration for this one is taken from Star Trek: Generations, on the bridge of the USS Enterprise B. the actual subspace animation is a recolored reuse of the one in LCARS Vexillum.

The red alert visual has followed the alert color scheme from Generations as well, with a light blue accent. I won't include a blue alert visual, since it wasn't really needed (or used) on the older starships.

As always, any suggestions are more than welcome.

GameCommander 2 Update

As some of you know, GameCommander 2 is no longer available as the company that made it has ceased operations. I've been trying to track down the developers all day, to no avail. The USPS can't help me either without me submitting a Freedom of Information request.

If anyone has any information about the developers or a way to contact them, please let us know.


UPDATE: July 29 2015
We no longer use GameCommander as we now use (and distribute) our own in-house voice recognition software.

More New Modules

First up, Starfleet Academy. I've started drafting some interactive Starfleet Academy database modules. They're pretty basic at the minute, but the foundation is there for expansion. These are shots of the animations which will be inserted into Prolixus, and currently feature a few animations, texts and images.

I'm thinking of adding some tests as well. Obviously I'll be using a lot of artistic license, and it's not going to be ultra canon but I think it's worth doing, regardless.

Some of the texts are taken directly from real-world examples, such as naval terminology and navy inspired protocol seen throughout the years of Star Trek.

Other than that, work has now started on the medical systems. You know, the stuff you see in sickbays. So, plenty of DNA animations, microcellular scans (right), virus databases, and sinus rhythms. I'll do my utmost to make it all as medically accurate as possible. Besides, it's the perfect excuse to learn a bit more about cardiology.

As always I'm also taking suggestions as to what to include, so if you have any ideas, feel free to share them with us, either here in the comments below, by email, or on our Facebook page.

Prometheus Class MSD Cutaway

If you're with us on Facebook, you've likely already seen the Prometheus class MSD cutaway. If you're not, then here it is. It's almost there; about 50% complete.

This MSD turned out to be harder to work out and draw up than anticipated since we've incorporated the Multi Vector Assault Mode view configuration—this is LCARS 47, baby. The landing pads are also animated (as are the landing pads of all the starships with landing capabilities).

There's a little bit of artistic license involved to make it all work correctly and to make sure it's technically plausible. Although these are still basic draft images, they represent the final outline and layout of the ship. The shuttlebay has been altered slightly to accommodate a Starfleet Runabout and I've added a few extra torpedo launchers for good measure.

Project Anticuus

We're proud to announce the next application in the LCARS 47 series—LCARS Anticuus.

Originally intended as a small hidden animation in Prolixus, and referred to as 'Excelsior', it was misplaced and left out of Prolixus all together. Now, all the progect files have been rediscovered and instead of going in the original direction of a simple animation, we've decided to go the whole 8.2296 meters.

We figured that this app will not only bridge the gap between the LCARS 47 Project and fans of the older series and TOS era movies, but will prove useful for fans in the current era, who might come across an old Federation ship in whichever fan film they're working on.

"A profundis Historæ, inla volat iterum." — Project Anticuus motto 

It means "From the depths of history, she flies again." In the continuing traditions of LCARS 47, we went with a Latin name, Anticuus, which means 'classic'.

Intrepid Class MSD

Another half-completed MSD for you guys. This time, it's the Intrepid class. It's a small ship, so it shouldn't take too long to complete.

Nearly done:

Romulan Database module • Romulan Alphabet

Eleanor asked me to map out a Romulan alphabet for an upcoming database module in Prolixus.  So I started jotting down some notes based on screenshots from various Star trek productions.  After a few revisions I came up with a final design for a Romulan alphabet that followed the designs and layout of the script as seen in the show. 

The idea for how the script works was inspired by the Arabic and Hebrew alphabets; in particular the square shapes of Hebrew reminded me of Romulan glyphs.  It was for this reason, as well a need to keep texts from growing too cumbersome, that I decided to incorporate the rule about dropping vowels within words. 

The script is written both horizontally and vertically within the show, so it seemed only right that this was included in the reference image.  I chose to have the script go from right-to-left, in horizontal mode again, as a direct inspiration from Arabic and Hebrew, and also, because it seemed more alien.  The vertical script running in columns, from top-to-bottom, left-to-right, is a direct consequence of rotating the script in horizontal mode, 90° counter-clockwise.  Something similar is observed in the real world with the Mongolian alpahabet.

The alphabet as it appears here is based on canon (no official translation of the glyphs appears in canon, but we think this works).

Jolan Tru!

Galaxy class MSD WiP

Here's another progress update for you. This time it's the Galaxy class. Should be complete in a few hours or so.

Later that day:

 Nearly there:

 

Sovererign Class MSD Cutaway Finished

I finished the Sovereign class MSD this morning, so I'll get to work on the Galaxy class tonight. Although by 'finished', I mean I'll probably still be working on it... The LCARS layout behind it is just an example of how it might look in Prolixus.

New Cutaway MSDs (Drydock)

Nobody has really complained about the lack of cutaway MSDs in LCARS 47, but let's face it, it's a shame they're not included in Drydock. Well, when we release the next update, you'll have them. There will be a dedicated engineering section and a layout similar to the warp core monitor from yesterday's post. The image here isn't finished, but it's an example of what I'm talking about. I figure, if I can move my schedule around a bit, I can complete an MSD per day, and probably two small MSDs per day. Hopefully this won't impact the development time too much. The MSDs are animated, too.

Later that day...

Engineering Overhaul

You may remember the post about the new Warp Core control system module (right). Well, that's been scrapped now, and replaced with a new, more technical looking layout (below), similar to the Defiant's warp core situation monitor. I think that this gives us more variation in the LCARS UI, rather than having the same basic layout for everything. The bad news is that this will delay the 6.2 release, but I'd rather hold off and work on something better than spend a month on something that could be better.

The image is currently gray, but we'll add color to it when the layout is finalized. And yes, it will support custom warp core diagrams when you install your preferred Drydock plugin.

Anyways, that's about it for today. Have a great weekend guys.

Prolixus 6.2 Completed Modules

Hi guys. I thought I'd keep you updated with regards to the upcoming service packs for Prolixus and Vexillum. The Database module in Prolixus has been completely revamped and is nearing completion. After the release, successive data packs will be released and can be installed at your own leisure. These will simply install and be ready to go. For the sake of development continuity however, major updates will contain all released data packs, so you don't have to keep installing pack after pack.

On a related note, I've remastered the alert sirens from DS9, Generations and other shows. So this means that high quality alert sounds are all ready for the Drydock updates. This means that if you want a class specific alert siren to match your installed Drydock plugin, you'll need to download the updated plugin from the downloads page when it's released. Thankfully, the audio remastering didn't take as long as expected, so a big thanks to the makers of Audacity!

Prolixus 6.2 Database Modules

As you're probably aware, we're in the process of dumbing more info into the Federation Database. We've now added an option to select from one of several alien databases too. To the right, is a screenshot from the Klingon database (original Klingon language table design by our very own Greig (RunicCode)). On release, there will be only two databases available, Cardassian and Klingon but more will follow in the form of plugins. There's even a brand new Planetary Classification module (bottom left), because let's face it, it's easy to get your class H and class L mixed up.

If you want to see some more screenshots, have a look at the growing album here (broken link removed). A big thanks to the editors of Memory Alpha for the text used in the majority of the database and thanks to Bernd Schneider of Ex Astris Scienta for the reference material.

As always, if you guys have any suggestions for the database, email me, drop by our new Facebook page or leave a comment below.

The Connection to the Server has been Reset

Hi guys, just a quick post regarding links within the LCARS47.com domain. Sometimes you may get an error that reads "The connection was reset". This is a problem with the domain registrar. However, unofficially, it's probably my fault.

Until we fix it, hitting "try again" should work.