kendo353

I feel I owe you all an apology and an explanation. I honestly took 'Down in Flames' as far as i could go on my own. Lived and breathed it it for a year and a half, before life and big bills intervened. It was hugely dissapointing to be sidetracked by the mundane. And I'm sorry if i have dissapointed anybody who was supportive. It hurts to have let people down, which is why I haven't popped in to explain the situation before now. I've been cowardly. And for that, I apologise. It would be easy to blame the tools. The first engine turned out to be a complete non-runner after they shifted their business focus. And converting the codebase of Torque back to RB3D usefuless was way beyond my capabilities in time and expertise. I've met some lovely people through working on this project, and learnt a lot about modelling, coding and the physics of flight. But i've had to admit and concede that I couldn't pull the whole show off on my own. My grasp of matrix maths was poor, and the biggest hurdle was overcoming gimbal lock. I never did. So all I had was a single player 'arcade flyer'. Some people will sneer "vapourware". Like they sneered at my oldskool graphics. and that's fine. I understand. I've failed to deliver. But they didn't see the 40+ plane dogfights i had running. So I know my heart is in the right place. I'm going to keep going. I read, research, and still dabble. The project isn't officially dead. But i think it will be a long time coming. (i live on a boat and my power comes from batteries). I still have a tremendous respect for the early aviators. And anybody keeping their names alive. Sorry I couldn't do more. s! ken

thanks St.Vitus. kind offer.

to be fair... "spinning" is one of the hardest things we can attempt to simulate with computers (allegedly). i think my damage modelling will be similar in shape and form to R3BD, there will be invisible "hit boxes", locations on the plane that can be hit, and when damaged, will impact upon the plane's performance. there should definitely be one for the pilot and/or observer. the random chance of a "melon shot" on an exposed crew, was a major part/hazard of WW1 aerial combat, imho.

Hi Gr.Viper, landing and getting out won't be a problem. when you press the "E" key (eject), the engine spawns your pilot model next to the plane. being able to turn the plane around will be more tricky. because as soon as you bump into the invisible collision model, you will be back in the cockpit. if you land by trees, or where you can't take off... that's your fault. very nice! If i stumble across anything useful, i'll add it to the thread. thanks for starting it. great resource. :yes:

Hi theMightySrc. i've found that not to be the case. there have been many well-wishers, and i'm eternally grateful for them spurring me on. but when it comes to the crunch, time to roll the sleeves up, nobody's been interested. i've been able to pull off virtually everything needed... except.... the flight model. a year later, and things are still zooming about in "arcade mode". Though i've been able to calculate the lift/drag equations correctly... i've been unable to tie them into the plane models. which is "the make or break" of the game. I have to face the fact that my maths isn't up to scratch. I feel we need a computer graduate or maths boffin (comfortable with quaternions and matrices) on the team. that said... i'm going to push it as far as i can go, and if i can't wrap it up myself.. i'll donate all the bits to the community. it is a gargantuan task. but i personally, would be unhappy with myself, pumping out a 1/2 arsed game with only 3 planes. JG6_Oddball offered to take up the "project coordinator" role... I'll touch base with him again, and see what can be done. and where it's best to proceed. thanks everybody. s! ken

Hi Takedown47. yes, its possible. though as Gr.Viper says.... it may get boring after several dozen missions. default behaviour is to have the player start off in their plane with no engine running. If a crash landing is called for, it's easy enough to transfer the camera viewpoint onto a newly spawned pilot model.... and then you are on your feet, looking at the wreckage. Ridable vehicles are achieved, by just bumping into them. (i was going to make a full WW1 online game... but settled just for air combat, so that i would have a hope of completing it). Gr.Viper: The bike would take a bit of work... but people have done motorbikes... so i do know it's possible. :) cheers ken

Hi Everyone, Happy new year. I developed a nasty RSI in my right shoulder/mouse finger (due to 20 years of clicking, dragging, and hitting piano keys). I was advised to "lay off" using computers for a while. I've now switched to left side clicking, got a taller chair, and the ailment has cleared a lot from the resting up. i'm not fishing for sympathy, but at one point i couldn't even move my right trigger finger. which was alarming, considering my meagre career is maintained by dragging, clicking, and hitting keys. the time hasn't been wasted, as i've been reading, boffing up on AI, and learning other useful stuff. i'm just about getting back into the swing of things now, and ready to pick things up from where they were left off. apologies for the unanswered mails. and sorry if i have panicked anybody. lost a bit of momentum with the engine switch, and the necessity to become a "windows programmer". over the next few days, i'll get back up to speed with the threads, and reply to people in more depth. thankyou, everyone, for your messages of support. s!

cheers people... I'm very interested in the "little man", the petty officers, corporals and sergeants, who for the most part remain undocumented. it fascinates me to read that the pilot was once "other ranks", and considered a virtual bus driver to the observer, who sat there and did nothing, but was an officer. I guess if you have something to "sell", you have to make it as shiny and glamourous as possible (ie: flyboys). it's a world of short attention spans, and i was reading that even topnotch AAA games only get 27 days shelf life. If "Knight games" get more people interested in WW1 aviation i'd say it was a good thing. The genre is so small it's never going to appeal to the HALO3 instant action posse. so developers aren't in it for the bigbucks money. S! to them all. :yes: ....which means players can fly under bridges, and through hangars. It was dissapointing that Torque didn't support this natively..... but now this feature is "in", and i'm well happy about it. Caudron G.3 link --> early italian air force markings cigar for Justin.

Hi people.. applied a similar detailing technique to the Italian front. the water flickers because the view distance is far away. a lot of people have faced this very same problem. TrackIR integration is going OK, with full 6DoF hopefully. still a ton of stuff to learn and do, but it's all going well. and no dead ends yet. regards to all.

what does their website say? maybe the news is in Russian? GR.Viper would be the person to ask, i think. I hope that it isn't true.

discovered that i can use coloured detail maps for a more familiar look. mapsize 250kmx250km, visibility 40,000m gonna try and slap some rivers and lakes in next. TGEA does water very well, but i'm not sure how large i can get the water table. the village and forest replicators are progressing OK, but i'm not sure how much impact they're going to have on FPS. i can turn the objects to billboards at a certain distance, so i'm hoping "not much". edit--> wehey...the water is in.. looks good, and doesn't kill the speed very much. (has realtime reflections, waves, and bump mapping). downside is... because the terrain is so gently sloping, i'm getting a lot of flickering along the shoreline. (z-fighting). will read up on that. cheers for your interest. still having fun. ken

Hi VonOben, there is so much to learn, it never gets boring. so i don't see it as "work" (a dull repetitive job). many kind people (such as yourself) are cheering me on, and the online gamedev communities i visit have all been very friendly and helpful. regards to you.

Hi Briny_Norman, Hi GR_Viper. thanks guys. it's embarrassing that i didn't think of it myself. it seems so obvious when it's pointed out. i needed a taller chair. *doh* the left handed mouse is helping too. --> Amara's RSI page <-- regards to you. ken

thanks for the kind words guys. anyone have any cures for RSI ? (repetitive strain injury). i've been clicking a mouse for 20 years, and my right shoulder is really painful. tried heat, massage, and hot water soaks. which works for a while, but after an hour or two of clicking it seizes up again. I bought a lefthanded mouse, but that isn't going to help my other arm (obviously). any ideas? wrist brace? sling? cheers, ken

lol... thanks for the reminder. I was there late in 1984 to 86, and now you relate their story, i do remember the banner. (a painted CND symbol with some Danish writing). but there was no sign of their camp. I guess it was back in the woods, and not visible from the main road. nobody ever talked about 'the invasion', and now i know why our drivers always used to go via an alternate route to get to the hole. Thanks for the update. I am glad that it was all peaceful. respect to the women. regards. ken

wow...yeah, thats the place. I hadn't seen it in 20+ years, but it's instantly recognisable. i'm guessing it was built with slave labour? which may account for the uneasy feeling inside of it. Trawling the net, i also found an article about the Ravnstrup peace camp. It says they infiltrated the war room of the bunker (but the article was in Danish, so i couldnt read it). There wasn't a peace camp when i was there... and i'm curious if they made it all the way in? the war room was right at the bottom, and it must have taken quite an effort, if they did. Is the Ravnstrup bunker still running? or have they closed it down, now that we live in less paranoid times ? I understand that it's probably still classified.. but i'm also relieved that it isn't such a big secret anymore, and that people know that it's there. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Fail-safe. stay warm.

Hi everyone.. if you're interested, here are some in-progress screenies, showing where i'm at. ---------------- 64 snipes go at it sopwith cockpit prototype more snipe frenzy lohner cockpit prototype ---------------- needs more graphical love, obviously. but you get the general idea. some form of damage modelling, and terrain decoration are next on the priority list. things just blow up when they reach 0 at the moment. plenty of room for improvement there. been fiddling with AI recently... pathfinding, hunting, guarding, and patrolling are in. all seem to work fine. I don't know how large the RB3D campaign regions were? but the test terrain for missions is 500km square here. draped with a 50m resolution ETOPO5 heightmap of the correct geographical area (which will allow for correct placement of landmarks, hopefully). maybe i could use smaller regions, and improve the framerate, but i wanted to stress test with something large first, and scale it down from there. the models are environment mapped, with shadows. things still need optimising, but tests across a LAN with 64 AI controlled planes didn't bring the game to it's knees, or crash it. things did get a bit jerky, but i haven't implemented LOD or billboarding on any of the models yet. would also like to thank JG6_Oddball for joining the team, and providing inspiration. you too, Justin. cheers... ken edit->fixed pic links

ahhh.. lovely. it's beautiful up there. even though the temperature drops to -20 and the snow comes up over your waist. lol.... that's where i was stationed. and "the big hole in the ground" nearby. there was a very strange atmosphere in there. like the nazi's had only just gone away. what did they use it for? i don't recall.. I do remember that it was too big to blow up, without taking out the next village, and thats allegedly why it was left standing (and subsequently re-used). amazing! what a small world. rightly so! it's nice to hope that one day, all of humanity will be as tolerant towards each other. regards to you, fail-safe. all the best. ken

You're from Denmark? I used to live in Viborg, and visited Christiania quite regularly. I heard it got closed down recently, but i still wish that more human societies could be as open minded and tolerant as the Danes. I used to love it when people said "anarchy will never work"... because you could point them to Christiania, and prove them wrong. right in the middle of a busy city... you had an anarchist enclave. truly amazing.

cheers fail-safe. there's not very much to smile about in Britain. there wasn't a summer. rhetoric and anti-scientific mumbo jumbo straight out of 1930's Germany was foisted upon us, when smoking was banned in public and privately owned interior spaces. our cattle are infected with god knows what. our troops are involved in two bloody, pointless, internicine wars which anybody with 1/2 a brain cell (or a history book) could have seen the outcome of. it makes me sick to my stomach that nobody gives a damn enough to do anything about it. but you made me laugh. so thankyou very much.

yeah... apart from the gargantuan size of it, that was my concern too. it has no combat at all?! and everything seems geared towards jets, flaps, airbrakes, and modern day airliners? JSBsim is a definite contender though, because it's generally acknowledged to be good. and it's not massive. but to be honest, GR.Viper... tinkering around with flight models is not where i'm at. the arcade FM i have at the moment will allow navigation, missions, AI, and game logic to be set up. i figure it will be several months before i get sucked into that hole. if it turns out that it *can't* be done... and Torque is indeed stuck with "Tribes2 hovercraft vehicles"... then at least i will have a complete game, which is FUN. If i tackled the FM first... i don't know where that would lead. probably into more months of 'just tinkering'. I hate having to juggle, but there only so many hours in the day. you know? thankyou, though. appreciated.

yeah... and i got scared witless by the size and complexity of it. i'd be hopelessly out of my depth there. it's also *massive*, and my feelings are that it would be overkill, unless somebody who knows it inside out could assist with the plumbing. i'm learning a lot of what's needed from other games, whose source code is also freely available. (for instance Rowan's BoB & Razorworks Apache vs Hokum). I can take it step by step with those and not get stuck in the deep end. thanks for the suggestion though. looks like a great package. :yes:

essential! there's a fair bit of stuff to do before this... but carrier landing code is included in the 'vertigo' flight sim. i'll have a look at it. thanks for the pic & info.

Thanks for the info, fail-safe. Gr.Viper sent me the plans, but this stuff is useful too. HMS Argus had a snazzy zebra style dazzle paintscheme ? when i get around to more ships, it's definitely "in". cheers.. :yes: