last page update dec 03
I would like to point out that, surely like most other programmers, each new project involves numbers of 'utility' programs. Just to give an idea, for my r/c sim the names of .dba programs includes:- copymesh, limbposition, OldRC, RC113trialconstant, shapeland, shapelandhi, testplainlook, testskybox ... etc often including some special one to correct data made earlier. It can be fun to do these programs , but it is certainly time consuming.
I spent hours on just one that laid a small second matrix exactly over one tile of the main matrix . It worked in the end, and the idea was it would enable local or spot areas of high detail or smoothness. Then it was decided it 'consumed' too much speed and texture memory anyway .. sigh .
This writer
had a long break from programming before doing the R/C flight sim ...
finishing a fantasy story which he doubts will ever be published
.... Just before that, in response to someone's inquiry he
found it fun to make a helicopter simulation. ( Thats'
my stylish missile firing helicopter above. )
It was going to be ultra simple, but suddenly it was
getting quite realistic. So much so that it was getting hard to land
where you wanted. I was going to make the source public
but realised it has large potential as a game with
more general interest than a flight sim. We shall see.
It would be an enormous amount of work to produce an object filled landscape/cityscape.
Also, some work has been done on intelligent aircraft
combat, the enemy now has modes . One to seek the pilot and shoot him down,
one to evade, and there will be other fixed ones.
It turns out to be very hard to get the enemy to shoot
exactly
at the pilot.
It seems simple enough -- if you don't want it to do
so with smooth and realistic turning , but that degree of
realism is essential . Got it fairly close now.
I had to cheat. Once 'near enough' on target, it fires,
aiming at the pilot regardless of the actual actual enemy line of flight.
And it aims just ahead of the pilot, while the bullet 'homes
in' a little.
And some more work has been done on car physics,
trying to make use of the projection style code used in the
flight sims. Somehow Dark Turismo seems further away
than ever. It would also take a large team for the graphics.
Or a year (?) making a designer and just one track of the necessary
standard.
Or there is the possibility of a non-game for cars
where you just drive endlessly through picturesque countryside which is
constantly reformed ahead from a large anmount of 3d and graphic data.
Some of us just like casual driving. ..okay? Could be
a fun program.
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Well that's it for now. Time to
turn attention to something else perhaps. I have the
unsettling feeling that things might be changing in this life.
Good wishes to all. Dec 2003
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