Stargate & DHD

Community Showcase Game Development
1

After about two years of off-and-on working, mostly due to other, at the time, important obligations, I managed to spend the last few weeks of my holiday on creating a functional Stargate.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Vh2_hmPN77I

Most of the previous work was redone, so about 90% of this was done over the course of the holiday.

The gate itself has nine chevrons, each can light up independently. The top chevron looks slightly different, and moves when dialing manually (not implemented yet). The DHD has the thirty-eight glyphs. Of course, one of the glyphs is missing, and I intend to allow a designer to choose which one. Pressing a glyph will lock the chevron. Once a sequence of six glyphs is complete, and the seventh glyph, the Point of Origin, is entered, pressing the center button will allow it to check whether the sequence is correct. This is done using a DataTable that contains a list of possible addresses by using strings. A lookup DataTable is used to bind each glyph to an ID based on the order of the gate’s inner track, the button on the DHD, and a key for when using the dialing computer. Though seven- and eight-symbol addresses (Atlantis and Destiny respectively) can be dialed, they don’t work yet as intended.

All materials and effects are finished. The kawoosh (when the gate activates) is a slightly over-the-top particle effect. The event horizon or “puddle” uses a Render Target created in Blueprint to spawn and render the ripples as objects pass through. These objects use specific Sphere Collision components set to a specific collision channel to control how the ripples are created. The resulting Render Target is then turned into a normal map and used in the actual material to distort a set of textures, together with another set of normal maps that create the flowing ripples.

My wish to create a screen-accurate and functional Stargate has guided me since I started learning 3D art eleven years ago. Now with celebrating the 20th anniversary of Stargate: SG-1, I decided to take my time and finish it. And I am exceptionally happy with result. It has given me the motivation and dedication to find things out by myself and to learn tools and techniques I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Many elements, such as normal map baking, and the visual effects, were extremely difficult to create, and there weren’t any reference material or tutorials for the effects. I had to figure out pretty much everything for myself, and that gave me so much more satisfaction.

The plan is now to develop a prototype for a potential Stargate video game with a small indie team, and then pitch it to MGM for the opportunity to license it. In the very possible event that that won’t happen, this will still be a good addition to my portfolio, and we can strip out all Stargate-related content and continue with our own IP.

I will add more images and screenshots from the editor at a later time, when I have more time.

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Thats awesome man!

Love Stargate.

The wormhole opening looks a little funky though.

Keep it up!

3

Wormhole effects always look a bit funky. Noticed the ring doesn’t move but nice models. Should of included a quick secondary room with the player just getting teleported to another game, would of been much cooler.

You wont get a license from MGM, they are pretty strict on their IP. Stripping it down to is a nightmare, I.e you can’t use assets that resemble, a ring, a DHD, they can’t have specific symbols. Teleporting to different worlds using a Wormhole. If I remember you can’t use Egyptian as a historical reference.

I created a stargate, not as detailed as yours, but used 6 points and this would target a “gate” in that area. Rather than just have a “gate” set to 7 symbols. I researched making a free game that would allow you to manage a team against randomised worlds. Once I realised what I couldn’t use even in a free game I gave up.

By comparison I contacted CCP (the makers of Eve Online), they wrote back and said an FPS based on bounty hunting set in EVE stations, go ahead, do you need any assets?

By Free game I mean actually distributed on a platform like steam. A download link via your own website as an example is fine.

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The ring doesn’t move, because it uses a DHD. The ring only spins when dialing manually.

In regards to the license, they have licensed the new comic books, which were created by fans. Though the comic creators are professional writers and artists from various major companies like Marvel, but they created the comics by themselves and were licensed by MGM. Granted, they have an established track record, but still. In regards to stripping the content, I mean literally stripping all Stargate-related content, not making it look different. So no portal, wormhole, Egyptian culture, or aliens with glowing eyes whatsoever. On top of that, the concept of a stargate, and the name of it, is not copyrighted or trademarked because it is too generic. EVE has stargates, yet no cease-and-desist from MGM. The same can be said of the latest update to No Man’s Sky, which is almost exactly a stargate. And why can’t I use Egypt as reference? Assassin’s Creed Origins is doing it, and Night at the Museum, the Mummy, and countless other science-fiction/fantasy franchises. Aside from that, the intended game design didn’t involve Egypt anyway. It hasn’t been an important aspect of Stargate since the first half of SG-1. Most of what has been designed so far can easily be redesigned with an original IP instead of Stargate without too many changes. Only the worldbuilding aspect may cost more time.

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Egyptian culture is not the issue, it was something in relation to tying your stargate to Egyptian concepts of alien influence. The Stargate name isn’t copyright because its actually again mentioned as alien technology (hence the film/book was even written). But its how the wormholes and stargate are shown on screen which was the no go. Again stripping the 9 chevrons no moving ring no strange watery effect then its possibly ok. I just found that once you’d striped the content which makes it cool (Stargate) then its no longer particularly cool.

There is/was a team working on a Stargate game, experience. I’ve not seen many updates and I think they also had a tough time even getting a response from MGM.

Comic books have really started up because MGM tried to suck the last chunks of money out of the franchise before they rebooted it. A game is far more permanent and can disrupt or distract from the new cannon.

Again not trying to put a downer on your work, was just highlighting the issues I’ve had researching Stargate fan content.

6

There is no reboot. The actual reboot from Emmerich and Devlin had been canceled long ago, after the new ID failed miserably. Right now, they’re working on new content for the main franchise with Stargate: Origins. Hence why I became interested in trying to develop a licensed game. And the comics are also more permanent, as they are still ongoing, with even more series planned. The other game is also still being updated, just with fewer announcements. And it’s not a game per se, more a simulator, and it’s free because they don’t have permission at all. We want to develop a game we can sell, hence why we obviously need MGM’s permission. And again, we’re not just stripping the 9 chevrons, moving ring, water, wormhole, etc. we’re stripping everything, except the plot of the story. The only thing that remains similar is the military science fiction genre. If no-one knows it was originally based on Stargate, no-one will be able to draw the link. And why wouldn’t it be cool? We’re developing our own game then, with our own content and IP. It will obviously be cool in its own way.

Moreover, this isn’t a fan game. Sure, I’m a fan, quite obsessed really. But the idea came from developing a professional indie game that we can sell. Sure there’s risk involved, but no pain no gain. In fact, in the team, I’m the only one even remotely interested in Stargate as a franchise, yet everyone was willing to work on such a game. The decision to use Stargate instead of developing our own IP was because I had many more ideas for it, and because I think Stargate deserves a reasonable video game after all these years, also to pull in new fans. So this was from a professional point of view, not just as a fan.

7

Hi,

Beautiful work , the opening of the portal is convincing …:slight_smile:

best wishes .