kendo353

Hi Gr.Viper, no...I thought SF was just for people to give away their source code. cheers for the suggestions. will investigate..

Hi folks... the CA people have kindly given "Down in Flames" a whole forum to spread out in. i'll use this thread to keep you all posted on the project's progress, but feel free to start new topics, and polls of your own.

Thanks for the suggestion, Wodin. I like what Matrix games do, a lot. but the project is non-profit making, and i don't think any publisher would be interested in those circumstances?

Hi Mac, cheers... that's just a test hud for the external view, the cockpit views should have better dials with working pointers. Gnosienne No.4 plays behind the menu screens. I'd hunted around for period pieces, but the recordings are somewhat scratched and badly recorded (wax cylinders anybody? lol..). I toyed with the idea of using military brass bands, but that's been done to death too. Too brash, triumphant, and Imperialist. Satie seemed most appropriate. At 1898, it's not too far fetched to suppose that he was listened to on a wind up gramophone somewhere. my great-great-grandmother used to play music for silent films, and i've inherited a lot of period sheet music. unfortunately, i don't play the piano that well myself, but i do know a man who tunes and plays grand pianos for a living. i'm hoping the greater part of the game soundtrack will be solo piano pieces. either jaunty music hall numbers, or more reflective works, such as Satie.

i've just hassled them about it again. there is a new release due after GDC, and i'm hoping it will be in there. this method sounds achievable. so I'll continue using Aeromatic data for the planes. the engine is already reading that stuff in, it's just not being sent anywhere. thanks for your time and trouble, GabiLaser. much appreciated.

sure, i appreciate that. i thought it was better to try and port code that was known to work, than start to write my own bug-ridden mess. i knew it wouldn't be easy, or particularly quick. sure... the whole game is built from Angelscript files. these are the functions i can use to talk to the engine.. BV functions the Angelscript site... here the BV features page... here thanks, GabiLaser.

Hi GabiLaser.. unfortunately, BV doesn't support .DLLs yet (promised feature on the "forthcoming" list). ah... i see. Angelscript has no *pointer usage, so i will have to port the code or use the JSB.exeunless there is a more elegant solution than JSBsim that you know of? it does. thanks for explaining this. it's my first game, and theres a lot to learn.

Hi GabiLaser, i've tried to avoid having JSBsim running as an independent process, because i wanted to wrap everything up neatly in one executable with less system overhead. but you're right... a wrapper is a viable alternative, which could be up and running fairly quickly. BV doesnt support .XML natively, but the plane's historical/Aeromatic data can be read in from the models .cfg files. presumably, JSBsim will return its output back to the player's client... rather than the plane's .XML file ? if that is the case then it could work fairly easily. if JSB wants to mess with the .XML file, the updated data would have to be read in and converted, which might lead to some disc thrashing or slowdown? (im not sure because i haven't tried it yet). i figured porting it would be the best solution, because then i wouldn't have to mess with .XML files at all. but thats a big old job for anybody, even if they do have the programming skills. yes, it is. somebody recently wrote an FX wrapper class. and there is a simple template example that will send text strings to and from a server/port. coding a wrapper is beyond my skill level though, and if you could help in any way, it would be much appreciated. thanks for the suggestion. ken

hi folks... i'm not an expert, but it looks like the collision model for the bridge is a bounding box, or something. consequently you will not be able to fly under the bridge, no matter what model you use. the solution would be to use a collision model that more accurately follows the bridge geometry, allowing you to fly through it's holes. regards.

is it true that when MVR was an observer, he carried a shotgun? it would need balancing, because if you score a headshot every time it would be dull. similarly, if everything is whizzing by so fast that you can't even get a shot off, it would be frustrating. I've been using the JSBsim "Aeromatic" utiility to build up the plane data, but it hasn't yet been plumbed into the game yet. everything is "twist and go", "one size fits all" style. I'm hoping to meet or employ a programmer who can port JSBsim over to Angelscript, or write a homebrew system using the Aeromatic data. (the project is non profit making so we shouldn't fall foul of any licensing agreements). i've read up on, and understand the principles of flight, but experiments with the equations and maths are sucking up too much time from the other areas of the game. as you say, the flight model is very important, and it can make or break a game, but its also only one component out of the game as a whole. no panic.

cheers, Catch.. even though it was used as a weapon of war, i think the Taube was one of the most stunningly beautiful designs that has ever graced a drawing board. I would love to see one in flight, if any still exist anywhere. Nieuport N4 how do you feel about arming pilots with only with their service revolvers ? or would that be one step too far? the chances of bringing down a plane with a pistol seem a bit remote... but i suppose you may get lucky and hit some vital part (like the pilots head or the propellor). reason i ask, is that, as you know.. many of these early planes were before the syncronising interruptor gear was invented, and i'd be interested in hearing your opinion. i could just "bung a gun on the front" for the sake of a good game, or i could arm the pilots with a pistol, and a couple of hand held bombs like their historical counterparts. what do you think? I suppose this is why they rarely appear in other games.

the engine supports character animation, lip-sync, conversation triggers, and all the stuff you would need. but games with the complexity of Silent Hunter III (for instance) require a large multi-person design team. character modelling & animation is an artform in itself, and building a dozen characters for six different nationalities is beyond my capabilities. the NPC pilots personalities will shape the gameplay in some fashion, and you'll get reports like "You joined Lt. Plummer in the bar, where he was drunk and playing the piano badly." (which will endear him to you, and improve morale). but no hollywood style machanima (yet)... sorry. I built a pilots office as a test... but mostly the camera is inside the plane you're flying, as opposed to the first person perspective. (which you'll only see if you crash, and have to leg it). Taube of the Day

Hi Fates. the RakNet networking library is being added to the BV engine. the engine developers have promised standalone server capability, hopefully by the end of summer. the intention is to set up one server, which will support 32 simultaneous players for testing purposes. see how that goes, and then build it up from there. a lot of it will be unfamiliar territory for me, and there is bound to be 10x tons more reading/tweaking to do. when the wrinkles have been ironed out, and the game's stable, i aim to include full standalone server capability for everybody. not a lobby system, which necessitates you playing on the same machine as your server.

sorry to hear this, jodandawg. positive wishes, from england.

ah, yes. it's TV advertised now too. big spend. the game looks fast paced and furious, and the visuals have come a long way in six months.

Hi Catch.. I hope so, yes. Your squadmates, too. Thats exactly it. So far, there are 45 different personality types. You know your type, but you don't know the type of your squadmates. (unless one hates you on sight). Here is the link, so you can peruse at your leisure... it's a nice system... based on dice rolls and tables (familiar territory). Pilot Personality Profile Sounds like Enigma:Rising Tide? I think it had subs, too. Some designers succumb to the temptation to put "a little bit of everything" into the game, so that they'll appeal to the broadest amount of people. but imho, that can water down the central theme if it's not done well. As discussed previously, if you're downed behind the lines, you should be able to steal a vehicle and drive home (if you're not maimed/injured/captured). or man an AA gun, and fend off hostiles attacking your drome, but i don't want to make the game completely like BF42. I'd rather stay focussed on the campaign/missions. no worries, Catch.... i'm an old punk with a hendrix/doors/beatles/who/floyd collection. you don't need to understand music to enjoy it. which i hope you do. all the best.

It's a nice thought, and i'd love to tackle it, but it's too ambitious for one person to accomplish. MVR is probably best left to the commercial design teams. I can definitely do canvas dromes, and have planes decamped on trains and lorries. but probably not "the whole of the flying circus". bigger. with ornamental gardens, and a maze.

cheers Flash. one person did offer to help, but he just helped himself to my models, and doesn't respond to emails. lol.. on the other hand, support from historians, and people who want to play it has been fantastic, and i'm very grateful. I love the style of the 'classic' games. despite their bugs & flaws, they had gameplay by the bucketload. over the last few days i've added a variant of the RB3D "Pilot Personality Profile" system (by Bluevoss & JG1Beck), so that your squadmates won't be cardboard cutouts, and will have a bit more life about them. squadrons also have varying types of accomodation (from leaky tents to a chateau) which impacts upon their morale.

oh, any one man show, Catch. making a flight sim is a phonomenal amount of work for just one person, and i can understand people's wariness & scepticism. i was reading up on a game called "Jet Thunder". he's been at it for 2.5 years, and faced many of the same issues. i also know of 2 other WW1 projects that looked promising, but folded. cheers Catch... it's appreciated. people have been very friendly, supportive, and helpful with historical data. i appreciate WW1 aviation is "a niche within a niche" (as TK put it), and programmers within that niche, are going to be few and far between. discography ('im the bloke in the middle). fwiw, i envy people that can hold down a steady job, and pay their bills. regards to all.

i've been reading on the other boards here, that people are suspicious of one person attempting to put out a game all on their own. there is also the suggestion (made above), that people are staying away because they don't like the name of the game. i have to balance this project with a career in music to pay my bills, but every spare moment of the day goes into improving gameplay, modelling, or coding. it would be very nice to have some help, but if it's not forthcoming, i'm quite resigned to completing everything that needs doing myself. people saying "it can't be done", is the spur and impetus.... to get it done. Jay Balakrishnan (Sierra/Dynamix...the man who released RB3D) likes the look of the sim. he said the lack of help is the universe testing my persistence, resolve, and strength of will. most days, i am up til 5-6am working on some part of the game. so nobody can say "he's not serious". regards to all.

cheers guys... not too much to report on the eye candy front, been busy with other areas of the game. should have some more nice stuff to show you at the end of the month, but here's a couple of things i had knocking about.. GUI has been tweaked a bit. here's the Italian 'new pilot' screen of the campaign section. Brandenburg D1, with dummy/fake rear gunner. oh yes. Camel flight @ Belgian drome (& toolset interface) For any programmers in the house The BV engine supports Angelscript scripting, and it's handling of matrices (interpolated, transformation, & rotation) is robust. there is a complete list of functions that BV supports here. RakNet networking library will be added "late spring". if you're interested, and could spare some time or knowledge for this non profit making project it would be much appreciated. I'm a musician by profession, not a coder. and maths isn't my forte. sadly, a large portion of my development time *is* getting sucked up with learning algebra and maths. (but yeah...i know... such is life at the sharp end). no complaints. edit--> spelling

Cecil Lewis is alleged to have said "The Sopwith Dolphin was the best fighter design of the war". I take it from that, he quite liked it. :) From what i can gather on the net, the guns were mounted at 45 degrees, so that they'd be able to shoot over the propellor. (as somebody posted above). regards. edit --> ps.... some Fokker EIV's also had 4 guns ? or was that just the prototypes.

hi folks.. descending on randomly placed enemy positions enemy troops scatter homeward bound

Hi Gr.Viper, as many as can be squeezed in? there's LOD for the models, and tracking a few variables for planes outside of your visual distance isn't a problem. started out with the view to having 32 simultaneous online players, so texture size has deliberately been kept down to allow for the maximum number of planes and objects to be on screen at once. it's a matter of balancing what you want in the scene, with the frames per second you want to achieve. (as im sure you're aware). sure, agreed. i'm hoping that the maps will have a life of their own. other squadrons will be going about their business, trains willrun to stations, convoys will move to their waypoints, etc... much of that activity will be random, so that missions will, ostensibly, never play the same way twice. naturally. :) it's possible.. each ground object has a wrecked version, so it's just another variable to store when it blows up. i'd need to re-read that datawhen the level is loaded again. it would take a bit of work, but i agree that if you fly over a bombed village once, you don't really want to see it all restored and pristine again the next day. so, thanks for this suggestion. the flight model is "pants" at the moment, and i'd be embarrassed to release it in it's present form. but i'm confident that the game *can* be completed with this engine, and will endeavour to get you something viewable soonest. regards.

cheers HighAce, but it's not a mod, it's a full on game. if you're operating in the same sectors, hopefully, yes. if you're not, their activities will come in as news reports, via the squadron briefing screens. I wasn't going to put famous aces into the player squadrons, but it was always the intention for players to be able to randomly bump into aces when out flying patrols. the "you never know" factor is an important part of keeping a game interesting to play, i feel. regards, ken