Exploring the Development of Distant Worlds 2 with Stride: Questions for the Developers

[VaclavElias]

TL;DR: Do you have more questions? Feel free to write them at the bottom in your comment, and we will categorize them. Please note that we can't promise all questions will be answered.

The Stride community has had the pleasure of connecting with the developers behind Distant Worlds 2, and we are eager to learn more about how they utilized Stride to bring their game to life. To make the most of our discussion, we have compiled a list of questions from our community organized by categories that touch upon various aspects of the development process. We hope these questions will provide insight into the team's experience with Stride and their creative solutions.

Some images from Distant Worlds 2: Return of the Shakturi - Dev Log #2.

1. Engine and General Development

• Why did you choose Xenko/Stride over other alternatives for Distant Worlds 2?
• How much modification was needed to adapt the engine for your needs? How difficult was this process for the developers involved?
• We noticed references to both Xenko and Stride in the build. Are there specific reasons older files were retained during the transition?
• How frequently do you update the engine for your project?
• Did you create issues on the Stride GitHub repository?
• What were some notable technical hurdles in using Stride, and how did you overcome them?

2. User Interface

• Which library did you use for UI elements in Distant Worlds 2?
• What led you to choose the current UI solution over others?
• Were there any features you found lacking in Stride for UI, and how did you address these gaps?
• How is the research screen (e.g., item order, dependencies) created? Are these elements procedurally generated, or are they manually crafted?
• How did you create the research graph, including arrows and other visual elements?

3. Artists and Asset Creation

• How did the artists find the asset creation process when working with Stride?
• What are their thoughts on the physically-based rendering (PBR) pipeline in Stride?
• Did you encounter any challenges or limitations with shaders, and how did you address them?

4. Level Design and Prefabs

• How was the level creation process using Stride for your team?
• Was the Prefab system easy to use for level designers, and did it meet your expectations?
• Did the component system in Stride prove to be intuitive for designers?

5. DLC and Content Expansion

• Could you briefly outline the steps involved in creating a DLC for Distant Worlds 2?
• How do you detect whether a DLC is installed or not for a player?

6. Performance and Optimization

• The game achieves impressive performance, especially during large-scale fleet battles. How did you manage to optimize for several simultaneous battles, each with many ships and fighters?
• Are there any specific techniques or approaches you'd recommend for simulating large-scale scenarios like fleet battles?

7. AI and Game Systems

• Did you require any kind of editor extensions? How did you implement them?
• Which serialization method did you use for saving games? Was it a database, YAML, or a mix?
• What AI libraries did you use? What techniques were used for AI, such as for fleet formations, battle decisions, or engage/retreat behaviors? How was diplomacy handled?

8. Future Use and Recommendations

• What types of projects do you think the Stride engine is perfectly suited for?
• Are you planning to use Stride in the future, beyond maintaining Distant Worlds 2?

[diwydiwydiwy]

• Did you require any kind of editor extensions? How did you do them?

[IXLLEGACYIXL]

which serialization did you use for saving games? db yaml mix?

[mihai-ene-public]

What AI libraries were used? What techniques were used for AI? For example for fleets (formations, battle decisions, engage or retreat); how about the diplomacy?

[diwydiwydiwy]

• What types of projects do you think Stride engine is a perfect suit for? Are you willing to use Stride in future not only for maintaining Distant Worlds 2?

[bj-rn]

Have you ever considered "upstreaming" your changes / improvements (and why did you decide against it)?