what am I doing now?

[+Dante-JT 6]

Great Video. A small point. i notice the G meter datum is zero... It should be 1

 

 

LoL shame on me! we're in zero G now due to a not very well calibrated G meter - I can calibrate it easily hopefully.

 

We have a few other gauges giving slightly wrong readouts, which I have to 'calibrate' too, of course not as embarassing as this G-Meter.. I think it's the first flight sim with actual 'calibration' of the gauges... :) (actually adjusting the needles pivot triangles and texture position)

[scary_pigeon 0]

LoL shame on me!   we're in zero G now due to a not very well calibrated G meter - I can calibrate it easily hopefully.

 

We have a few other gauges giving slightly wrong readouts, which I have to 'calibrate' too, of course not as embarassing as this G-Meter.. I think it's the first flight sim with actual 'calibration' of the gauges... :) (actually adjusting the needles pivot triangles and texture position)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

sort this out later - its something I should have done actually as I dont think you've fully figured out the LUA scripting.

 

its just a bit of dial script code that needs changing, its nothing.

 

but yeah, thanks for pointing it out - i'd not have seen it for ages otherwise.

Edited January 4, 2005 by scary_pigeon

[scary_pigeon 0]

 

working on radar now.

[scary_pigeon 0]

today got the radar to plot more than one blip.

 

 

this is all very exciting, once we've modelled one advanced cockpit like the harrier without problems, then we can take this and apply to the others.

 

never got so excited over three virtual radar blips before.

Edited January 10, 2005 by scary_pigeon

[scary_pigeon 0]

yesterdays multiple blips were script coded

 

today I advanced things a little and got them to track 'real' (but stationary) objects

 

www.thunder-works.com/media/radar.avi

 

This is a good test because now we have confidence that our system will display any number of contacts.

 

 

in general with regards to the game as a whole - I realise that script programming is a wonderful thing.

[scary_pigeon 0]

now we try to model the bluefox STT mode.

 

still stuff to be done, the elevation level is missing and a bunch of other boring code things to make it work more properly but at least it looks right?

 

 

its amazing how much progress we've made this week, mainly because i've been off work sick with mumps.

[(504)Wolf 0]

this is all quite amazing you guys are doing fantastically !!

[scary_pigeon 0]

 

took some time this, hours and hours.

 

I'm looking forward to lobbing a sidewinder at it. I think we'll first complete more of the radar. its got some text stuff missing and a horizon cue - things like that.

[PG_Raptor 0]

Woot! Looks great guys, keep up the good work!

[scary_pigeon 0]

Done some interesting things to day. we worried about the terrain.

 

our terrain looks at the moment quite nice low level, but pants when up on high.

 

very short horizon, and bad things like that. This is moving up the agenda of things to sort out.

 

one possibility might be to redo the terrain system with lessons learnt and speed and horizon distance added. There are pluses and minuses with the approach i use. The system I would develop would be a sectored, load on demand LODed system - which is what we have now - but with lod deactivated. The principle weakness of this approach could be that it might be slightly slower than a more in vogue ROAM algorithm - but it might I think be faster in other ways. The way I did things, was very good with getheight functions which would tend to be demanded more often with a more intensive scene.

 

A strength of the system is that the sectors are loaded and compiled into display lists very rapidly and seems to suffer not too baddly from load stutter.

 

anyway, all thats still a bit on the back burner.

 

what I have been doing today is opening up the flight model. its now being moved to LUA script. This may enable others to step in and makes whats wrong write, and allow us to tweak more easily. It will be a form of prototyping that we may port back into C for speed after we're happy with the behaviour - in anycase - for AI aircraft - the physics will probably not be scripted or if they are, done with simpler calculations. I think we can afford to waste a bit of CPU time getting just one aircraft to fly accurately - the players aircraft.

 

Tommorow, will probably complete the experimental port into lua script, of the harrier FM. with it laid before him i am hoping dante will take an interest in the coding and with his access to all his prodidious data - out will pop a very convincing FM. i like the idea of programmer where somebody else does all the work :-)

 

it is possible I might give some further thought to terrain improvements.

[scary_pigeon 0]

I'm dreading going back to work. I've been off sick the last couple of weeks with mumps - a worrying and unfortunate thing for an adult male to get - and using all time available to program. I think I'll book my remaining holidays off ASAP to keep the momentum going. Aim remains a demo for about march.

 

Yesterday, me and dante continued to worry about the terrain. as this self declared deadline approaches we realise that the place holder terrain system has become a bit too permanent and needs improvement.

 

We await an alternative to slot in to be provided by romano, or an enhancement to the current one I use - with the quickly programmed warts taken out.

 

In the mean time, I added a sort of adaptive clipping zone in the test flight version (we have several version we develop to test different features, one is the cockpit shell where the cockpit parts are being focused on - another is an example of landing and taking off from a carrier in the terrain - another is the mission scripting system (which will be the basis of our dynamic campaign)) - it was nice to see an end to z-fighting - the sytem makes the clipping as narrow as possible which enhances z-buffer resolution over any given area.

 

its good stuff. Also, dante continued to point out the short horizon and showed screenshots of how good wwii online looks in comparison to our rubbish short distance. I thought, well thats odd, because on the map in wwii online you can see that the terrain is never more than 15 km - it is just fogged and clipped. So it hought, I'll try that. and clipped the far plane to 30km added a bit of extra fogging and you're now flying at 20,000 ft and thinking, i can see the whole world - because if you dont clip off the corner of the 'table top' it looks like a table top - and when you do clip off the corners, you always get a nice flat horizon - and yet the skydome gives an impression of earthly roundness.

 

Then satisfied and amused by that, I carried on with the project to script the flight model. Now that is basically done and I await more information on exact flight characteristics.

 

I'm sure this isnt right. in our sea harrier the max turning rate is 22 degrees per second at 250 kts - that seems wrong to me! and so we must tweak it to get it right.

[Tuff 0]

Great work man, looks very promising

[MBot 0]

I am very excited by the progress that has been showed in the last weeks. Keep up the good work !

 

That project looks very promising, I keep checking the forum on a daly basis since months.

[scary_pigeon 0]

I am very excited by the progress that has been showed in the last weeks. Keep up the good work !

 

That project looks very promising, I keep checking the forum on a daly basis since months.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

i am excited too. such rapid progress is because I've been off work for two weeks. just have to get some holidays to carry on.

[scary_pigeon 0]

now its time to apply our fancy cockpit to the developing game itself.

 

There are several subprojects experimenting with different sides of the overall project - now we must bring it all together.

 

the specific things i've done in the last day are to relate to simple but until now ommited things like text output.

 

normally we put debug and other stuff out to the console window. now we dont need to. we can write it to the screen.

 

also, there are ways for the script to add text to screen now and so this is used to give feedback on use input.

 

simple things like, "Gear Up", "Gear Down", "flaps 54%" and all that. Also a way to chat online has been worked in.

 

our think our general cockpit system is now very complete and nice and programmable. Soon enough we'll have pucara cockpit.

 

but now, I am with pen and paper working out how to bring all the different bits we've shown you together.

[+Dante-JT 6]

now its time to apply our fancy cockpit to the developing game itself.

There are several subprojects experimenting with different sides of the overall project - now we must bring it all together.

 

Don't forget to add compound object functionality for warships too! I'd hate to keep seeing Hermes still missing its elevators, rotating radar dishes and the ski-jump, and people will be baffled if they are able to sink Hermes by hitting the tip of a mast with a bomb...(need several hit-points and damage model like that of aircraft models).

[scary_pigeon 0]

just boring stuff today.

 

no sound or graphics. just numbers.

 

In preparation for a more intensive environment I have been adding a new datastructure. A particle mesh. In my scheme, there is a grid of linked lists.

 

and the world is then populated. The idea is to let the engine focus on modelling the physics accurately only in the region the player is interested in - what is within the view range.

 

Beyond that, general methods must be applied. The aim is to create an environment of considerable and apparantly seamless complexity. I think it is essential for a dynamic campaign, if it is to feel as if it is progressing for it to be able to all be happening at the same time in many parts of the game world.

 

You must be able to deviate from the flight plan and find, lo and behold, targets of opportunity - that then respond in defence and through calling for help.

[+Dante-JT 6]

and the world is then populated. The idea is to let the engine focus on modelling the physics accurately only in the region the player is interested in - what is within the view range.

 

Good thing Steve. In Falcon 4 dynamic campaign engine, this is called "the player's bubble" and is considered technically a primary requisite for a fully dynamic campaign like that in F4. The campaign just goes on as normal when the player was on briefing / debriefing menu screens or brosing the mission map in pre-flight, but as you said, in statistically calculated way. But, for example, that Su27 flight 50 miles Northwest will only be displayed as game 3d objects and using gameworld physics if the player is within radar range of them.

 

In more recent F4 patches/updagrades, this player bubble was configurable by the player, enlarging or shrinking it according to your computer's processing power.

 

You can read here a discussion about dynamic flightsims capaigns in Gamedev.net :) using google's cache if you have problems logging in that forum ;)

[scary_pigeon 0]

that was intereting. I'd not thought of the technical problem of one object being at the edge of your bubble due to movement and engaged with an object outside of the bubble.

 

perhaps I'll just ignore the problem and nobody will notice? :)

 

players would just assume that they'd dissengaged or one party had backed out - and as you approach, the bubble expands towards the disengaging aircraft and the guy doing a 'runner' regains his courage.

 

its funny.

 

I've done combat demos of the simplest AI and had my friends playing them. They were forever attributing all sort of notions to very simple but emergent behaviour. Oh its angry now, oh look its running away. even though the routine was just a simple lock on to nearest object and follow.

[Berkut RnR 0]

I've done combat demos of the simplest AI and had my friends playing them. They were forever attributing all sort of notions to very simple but emergent behaviour. Oh its angry now, oh look its running away. even though the routine was just a simple lock on to nearest object and follow.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Can I test the AI?

 

Cheers!!

[MBot 0]

I can't wait to see the deck crew in action :) Great work, keep up the good progress.

[scary_pigeon 0]

just an update.

 

entering a murky boring graphicless time now.

 

I've decide to kill all birds with one stone now. the campaign system is going to be network based. In one player mode, the system will just link to the localhost address 127.0.0.1. I like this as it creates a uniformity.

 

its a bit complicated but when its done, its all done (Apart from content and FM tweaking)

 

The campaign server will know everything and talk to clients on a 'need to know' basis. Coupled with some pretty cutting edge cunning lifted from my MSc project hopefully the netcode will work quite well when talking across the net, not just to localhost.

 

Of course, there might be a catch. At the moment my network coding skills is limited to TCP/IP which is laggy and slow mostly - so there will be some fun getting the thing to work as fast as possible using precedence filtering and what not.

 

Though in tests last year with what is now inferior code between me in UK and dante in Brazil were were able to have some fun flying around. Lag wasnt completely aweful despite the distance.

[scary_pigeon 0]

just received from natural point, a track ir vector expansion.

 

this is interesting. I rather like the idea of leaning left and right and stretching up and down and stuff like that from our virtual cockpit.

 

So I think after the usual boring programming im doing now (no physics or graphics, just data handling) I'll take another look at this TrackIR thing.

 

Probably I will send some code to their programmer and hopefully he might be able to apply trackir to that.

 

but in the end, we'll get it working somehow.

[+Dante-JT 6]

scary_pigeon, it would be nice if you post the database tree you're setting so we can check if everything the game needs is inside and maybe forum readers could suggest some new entities to be added to the database.

 

I'm at the moment working in the Sea Harrier FRS.1 weapons: did yesterday the Matra 155 rocket pod 50,5 mm RN rockets. Today I will do the Hunting BL755 cluster bomb and its bomblets. Also in the queue are the 454kg GP bomb, the Lepus incendiary bomb and a few other like drop tanks and so on. AIM-9L is ready and delivered to scary_pigeon.

 

It's very important to have them all as these must go in the database definition for loadouts for each plane in the campaign system. It worries me a bit this part regarding warships weapons and sensors and also aircraft load in case of carriers or helicopter-carriers.

[ViperBR 0]

Hey guys!

 

 

Give us some updates