HowTo:Contribute

HowTos

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So, you want to contribute to the project? You've come to the right place.

Welcome to the Vega Strike Contributor's Guide!

There are many ways to give back to the project. Artists, coders, musicians, scripters, testers, etc. are all quite welcome. This article is intended to be a jumping-off point that will help you find a way to contribute to the project with your individual skill set.

Not all possible avenues of contribution are covered here, but we hope that the ones that are will help point you in the right direction.

For Artists

There are many ways in which artists can contribute.

Modelling/Texturing

A lot of the in-game models and textures could use renovation. Development:3D Models contains a list of open tasks for modellers and texture artists.

Base Images

There are still some bases which don't have graphics that are up-to-par with current standards. Making new base images can be easier for artists not used to modelling in-game objects, particularly because levels of detail, polygon counts, etc. are not a concern. The only consideration to be made is that final renders should be at a square resolution.

Today, most computer screen are 4:3 screens. Therefore, the best working flow would be to render a 4:3-picture and squish it to a square. Most video cards work very well with 1024x1024 textures. Older ones have trouble with larger ones. But as technology advances higher resolutions are needed.

Preferred resolutions:

• render a 1365x1024 picture and then squish it to 1024x1024
• render a 2731x2048 picture and then squish it to 2048x2048

Planet Textures

There is a need to improve existing planetary textures with the ultimate goal to provide cinematographic quality planets. A wiki page is specifically dedicated to explaining this task. Head over to Development:Orbital_Planet_Surfaces for more information.

Space Backgrounds

We could always use more space backgrounds. Backgrounds in space are spheremapped textures arranged in a cube-shaped skybox, so you will need to give us a set of six images.

FIXME - need more info on spheremapping

Cargo images

We can always use more images of cargo. Original works and crops of existing works (under a free license or public domain) are acceptable. Although there are thoughts on restructuring and reclassifying all cargo items, every picture for currently existing cargo will be used up to then. There are still a lot of items, many of them being alien cargo, not having a picture assigned to it yet. Especially original works of those are needed.

See the cargo graphics development page for further details. The assignment table for new cargo graphics is on the Development:2D_Images page and the submission and vetting process is usually done in the forums.

For Musicians

A Vega Strike Music Committee is being established to set rules, standards and guidelines for composers and provide assistance with the task of creating music for the game. Click Here to visit the Wiki Page for More Information...

For Programmers

Coding tasks

Please contact the development team for information on coding tasks that need work. You may be able to find more information at Development#Status/task_list_pages and the Developer Focus forum.

Several current tasks are:

• The OGRE Port
• New simulation model

Scripting tasks

We could use help improving the AI system and scripting campaigns (in python). Contact the development team for more info.

Code documentation

Anybody willing to comment and document current code (or to help by removing incorrect documentation) is welcome. Please contact the development team for more information.

For Testers

If you would like to help test the game, please get the SVN (Development Version). You may also want to contact the development team to know if any specific features need testing.

Any bugs you find can be reported at the Bug Triage forum or the Sourceforge Bug Tracker.

For Others

There is still plenty to be done if you are not an artist, coder, etc. A lot of people "work in the trenches" to mantain and update the data set.

Stats work

Stats and playbalancing are a critical part of the game. There is currently a Rebalance effort underway. Please contact dandandaman if you would like to assist.

Screenshots

We can always use more screenshots! HowTo:Take Screenshots provides our reasons for this, along with many helpful tips and tricks.

Please upload your screenshots to the User Screenshot gallery and tell us about them in the "Call for Screenshots" forums thread.

Adding ships

Sometimes, an artist will submit a model, but will not add it to the game himself. Adding ships is pretty straightforward once you figure out how to do it, although it does take time and effort. HowTo:Add Ships explains the process in detail. Please contact the devlopment team or check Development:3D Models to see if there are any models pending insertion.