Lucage
18-08-2005, 12:51
Originally posted by zoombapup
Hi People! just a quick update...
Ok, I'm now back in the UK and will be working full-time on Ace for the next month or so.
A few things have happened since I last posted.
I've been reviewing ways to get more art work for Ace. A new artist is starting on Ace next month (september) who is really very good. The other two artists who were trialling didnt work out (too many commitments).
I contracted a modeller to produce a BF109 while I was away, to see how that would work out. I'm still in the process of rigging it for the game, but considering the costs I'm not sure it represents the best way for us to aquire artwork.
So the next route I'm trying is to approach some 3d modellers who produce pay or freeware for CFS3/FS2004 and see if any of them will license thier models for use in the game.
Ok, so on the game code front, Kristen is working on updating the physics model, we discussed some alterations he needs to make. Thats things like using a different integrator (the calculation that integrates the motion of the plane), the model he was using was too CPU intensive, as it was designed for multi-body rigid body dynamics primarily. So he's in the process of adding Runge Kutta 4 integration (not a biggie, as he's got RK2 and RK5 support already).
I've been desining the interface so that when Christophe joins the team we'll have a clear design to go at for the interface.
Its going to be pretty damn simple, but have some more console-style touches, things like animations for everything etc.
On that note, we are likely to be taking this to console in the single-player version of the game (I cant tell you which ones, or about the potential deals, but its a relatively solid prospect if we can ship the game sometime soon).
Finally, during my travels I've been studying methods we can use to generate or otherwise create terrain to fly over.
My initial tests were to use several hand-made textures of british countryside (the typical patchwork quilt farmland) and then to use a noise map to blend those.. it works fine, but I wanted an alternative that used DEM data and satellite imagery so that the heightfield would match the texture data.
Well, it looks like I've found a method that allows me to access 0.25m satellite imagery AND 10m DEM data for selected areas of the united states.
So in addition to blended hand-made textures, we should have some actual satellite image based terrains to play on.
Now of course, the downside to satellite data is that the textures take an absolutely HUGE amount of space! even in compressed format.
So I'll have to have a look at methods of distribution for all this stuff. It might be that we have an optional data add-on which can be bittorrented or a pay-for DVD version that includes all the data for the game. Suffice to say these things will become clear in the months to come.
So anyway, next month will see the first alpha tests of the game. I'm aiming for the first two weeks of september as our target date. By then we should have a playable game with at least a selection of the various fighters to fly in and a semi-final flight model in place.
Oh yeah, we will be looking at implementing some of the gui using flash (we can embed simple flash based movies into the gui system), so if anyone knows flash can they let me know?
Until next time!
Zoom.
Hi People! just a quick update...
Ok, I'm now back in the UK and will be working full-time on Ace for the next month or so.
A few things have happened since I last posted.
I've been reviewing ways to get more art work for Ace. A new artist is starting on Ace next month (september) who is really very good. The other two artists who were trialling didnt work out (too many commitments).
I contracted a modeller to produce a BF109 while I was away, to see how that would work out. I'm still in the process of rigging it for the game, but considering the costs I'm not sure it represents the best way for us to aquire artwork.
So the next route I'm trying is to approach some 3d modellers who produce pay or freeware for CFS3/FS2004 and see if any of them will license thier models for use in the game.
Ok, so on the game code front, Kristen is working on updating the physics model, we discussed some alterations he needs to make. Thats things like using a different integrator (the calculation that integrates the motion of the plane), the model he was using was too CPU intensive, as it was designed for multi-body rigid body dynamics primarily. So he's in the process of adding Runge Kutta 4 integration (not a biggie, as he's got RK2 and RK5 support already).
I've been desining the interface so that when Christophe joins the team we'll have a clear design to go at for the interface.
Its going to be pretty damn simple, but have some more console-style touches, things like animations for everything etc.
On that note, we are likely to be taking this to console in the single-player version of the game (I cant tell you which ones, or about the potential deals, but its a relatively solid prospect if we can ship the game sometime soon).
Finally, during my travels I've been studying methods we can use to generate or otherwise create terrain to fly over.
My initial tests were to use several hand-made textures of british countryside (the typical patchwork quilt farmland) and then to use a noise map to blend those.. it works fine, but I wanted an alternative that used DEM data and satellite imagery so that the heightfield would match the texture data.
Well, it looks like I've found a method that allows me to access 0.25m satellite imagery AND 10m DEM data for selected areas of the united states.
So in addition to blended hand-made textures, we should have some actual satellite image based terrains to play on.
Now of course, the downside to satellite data is that the textures take an absolutely HUGE amount of space! even in compressed format.
So I'll have to have a look at methods of distribution for all this stuff. It might be that we have an optional data add-on which can be bittorrented or a pay-for DVD version that includes all the data for the game. Suffice to say these things will become clear in the months to come.
So anyway, next month will see the first alpha tests of the game. I'm aiming for the first two weeks of september as our target date. By then we should have a playable game with at least a selection of the various fighters to fly in and a semi-final flight model in place.
Oh yeah, we will be looking at implementing some of the gui using flash (we can embed simple flash based movies into the gui system), so if anyone knows flash can they let me know?
Until next time!
Zoom.