Making a Flying Vehicle
by Bryan Rayner · in Torque Game Engine · 05/28/2006 (3:10 pm) · 13 replies
What Animations are needed for a flying vehicle DTS? Looking over the wheeled vehicle, all that seems neccesary is the spring0 - springN animations. For a plane, what would be neccesary for animations?
I'm a little muddled. The documentation is not very specific. Can someone please help me?
I'm a little muddled. The documentation is not very specific. Can someone please help me?
#2
If so.. the answer is none.
I have created my own planes and added them to TGE without difficulty, none of which have animations yet since I am simply prototyping game play. I will later add prop, landing gear, and flap animations during the "polishing" phase if play turns out to be fun.
I will admitt.. even with no animations they are a blast to fly using the flyingvehicle code (which has serious limitations for air effected flyers).
The link Dave sent you to is a good start.. but all you have to have is a shape(your plane mesh), collision-1 mesh, and a bounds box which I linked the 8 corner vertexes to a "Bounds" joint somewhere in the inside of the plane. I also made a joint called "Mass" and positioned it near center (not sure if required though).
06/15/2006 (3:28 am)
Bryan.. when you say necessary.. do you mean to get a flying vehicle into the TGE?If so.. the answer is none.
I have created my own planes and added them to TGE without difficulty, none of which have animations yet since I am simply prototyping game play. I will later add prop, landing gear, and flap animations during the "polishing" phase if play turns out to be fun.
I will admitt.. even with no animations they are a blast to fly using the flyingvehicle code (which has serious limitations for air effected flyers).
The link Dave sent you to is a good start.. but all you have to have is a shape(your plane mesh), collision-1 mesh, and a bounds box which I linked the 8 corner vertexes to a "Bounds" joint somewhere in the inside of the plane. I also made a joint called "Mass" and positioned it near center (not sure if required though).
#3
08/14/2006 (11:07 pm)
@Tank I'd be interested in your progress, as I'll be looking at adding an more realistic aircraft and other craft requiring control surfaces to change direction. With the possiblity of adding extra feature/animations to characters based on direction changes and body movement.
#4
Like flaps in planes or like the Snowspeeder in Star Wars? You could throw - based on your demand - additional script code events from the C++ code on movement changes like you want and then act in the script accordingly, for instance playing the flaps animation.
Creating a simple flying vehicle is not very complicated. Here's the TDN link (the above from Dave didn't work):
DTS/3dsmax/Creating a Simple Flying Vehicle
08/14/2006 (11:27 pm)
Pierre: Like flaps in planes or like the Snowspeeder in Star Wars? You could throw - based on your demand - additional script code events from the C++ code on movement changes like you want and then act in the script accordingly, for instance playing the flaps animation.
Creating a simple flying vehicle is not very complicated. Here's the TDN link (the above from Dave didn't work):
DTS/3dsmax/Creating a Simple Flying Vehicle
#5
EDIT: added link
08/15/2006 (2:16 am)
The current flight class for TGE is not very realistic. It is very suitable for say space type flight, or even helicopter type vehicles.. the engine (without adding a seperate physics controller) just wasn't built for aeroplanes.. and I have no intentions of adding it.. I will be interested to see how the WWII air ace game that is alleged to come out soon pulls it off in torque..EDIT: added link
#6
It's like always in games: It does not have to be realistic, it only needs to look realistic... :-)
For me it's fine as I use some kind of space ships in my game Subsonic (see below) and where the user doesn't have any other examples to judge if the steering is realisitic or not except other space flying games.
Or does anyone own a spaceship that I could borrow for a day to find out if my steering is realistic? ;-)
(Subsonic TSE prototype)
08/15/2006 (2:46 am)
As far as I understood Phil, they rewrote the physics in Air Ace to suit their needs. But you're right, realistic in the meaning of simulation it is not today. But usually you could tweak the parameters in the flying datablocks to let it look good. It's like always in games: It does not have to be realistic, it only needs to look realistic... :-)
For me it's fine as I use some kind of space ships in my game Subsonic (see below) and where the user doesn't have any other examples to judge if the steering is realisitic or not except other space flying games.
Or does anyone own a spaceship that I could borrow for a day to find out if my steering is realistic? ;-)
(Subsonic TSE prototype)
#7
08/15/2006 (4:29 am)
Try looking on free models sites such as Turbosquid
#8
Yep looks as if the scripting rote is the way to go, been a few years since I did some for Operation Flashpoint Addon's, so might take me a month to get back upto speed. But cant see to much of an learning curve on this.
So hopefully I'll have a few test aircraft soon for testing.
I'm also hoping to have a look into the 8 viewable mount point limit, see if there is a way to increase closer to the 32 mounting point limit, as would like to do a few AH-1D and Hind D attack copters. ;)
Thanks Toby, yes Turbosquid has some nice models available some free other not, and in differrent lvl's of quality. Just payes to check them out, as some may not be extactly what you think they should be, just a warning (got caught out once).
08/15/2006 (10:54 pm)
Thanks Martin, already printed a copy out of that document, basic stuff. Use hoping there might have been more detailed info.Yep looks as if the scripting rote is the way to go, been a few years since I did some for Operation Flashpoint Addon's, so might take me a month to get back upto speed. But cant see to much of an learning curve on this.
So hopefully I'll have a few test aircraft soon for testing.
I'm also hoping to have a look into the 8 viewable mount point limit, see if there is a way to increase closer to the 32 mounting point limit, as would like to do a few AH-1D and Hind D attack copters. ;)
Thanks Toby, yes Turbosquid has some nice models available some free other not, and in differrent lvl's of quality. Just payes to check them out, as some may not be extactly what you think they should be, just a warning (got caught out once).
#10
Here's an idea of the lvl of detail I'm looking at doing once I get me feet wet with Torque.
I still have most of these models on my HDD, but the planes I've lost the one pictured below, and only have the earlier versions. :(
here more on what was done
08/16/2006 (12:49 am)
Yep seen his stuff before, he's updated his website a lot since I last saw it 2 years ago.Here's an idea of the lvl of detail I'm looking at doing once I get me feet wet with Torque.
I still have most of these models on my HDD, but the planes I've lost the one pictured below, and only have the earlier versions. :(
here more on what was done
#11
Some of the things I'm looking for and not found yet are the basic names for Bounding Geometry items within the model, like rudder, flaps, elervators, etc.. (pardom spelling, 1/2 asleep). I know of the Contrail#, Hub#, JetNozzle#, Light#, Mount#, etc.... Now I have BraveTree WarSparrow but it does have these extra features, from my quick view of the model last week.
I know the car has pivot points for steering so I personal can't see why the basic's of an aircraft are so hard to find atm.
I've throught about using the car steering pivot points as a possible means of making a basic rubber setup, but Ill have to wait till home to look more into this and see how the car pivots work and if possible to move it to an aircraft for my propresses. I think Airbrakes could be scripted off the BraveTree Car packs brake light script with alittle playing around.
Think it might be possible to script up landing and takeoff flaps, once I get an better idea on the vehicle coding/scripting as it's just a matter of having a set of animations for each and scripts to change the performance of the aircraft at the time.
eg.
Takeoff flaps small inrease in lift and small drop in acceleration/speed.
Landing flaps large increase in lift and large drop in acceleration/speed.
But these are for later on. Main thing now is to figure out the basic control surfaces names, etc..., so an help welcomed.
08/16/2006 (3:53 pm)
Ok Martin will do once back home!Some of the things I'm looking for and not found yet are the basic names for Bounding Geometry items within the model, like rudder, flaps, elervators, etc.. (pardom spelling, 1/2 asleep). I know of the Contrail#, Hub#, JetNozzle#, Light#, Mount#, etc.... Now I have BraveTree WarSparrow but it does have these extra features, from my quick view of the model last week.
I know the car has pivot points for steering so I personal can't see why the basic's of an aircraft are so hard to find atm.
I've throught about using the car steering pivot points as a possible means of making a basic rubber setup, but Ill have to wait till home to look more into this and see how the car pivots work and if possible to move it to an aircraft for my propresses. I think Airbrakes could be scripted off the BraveTree Car packs brake light script with alittle playing around.
Think it might be possible to script up landing and takeoff flaps, once I get an better idea on the vehicle coding/scripting as it's just a matter of having a set of animations for each and scripts to change the performance of the aircraft at the time.
eg.
Takeoff flaps small inrease in lift and small drop in acceleration/speed.
Landing flaps large increase in lift and large drop in acceleration/speed.
But these are for later on. Main thing now is to figure out the basic control surfaces names, etc..., so an help welcomed.
#12
08/19/2006 (10:40 am)
Its more than likely that they were never coded into the flying class in tge.. you will have to code them into the C++ flying class and then control them by script.. or if you were only looking for effect, not functionality.. make animations of the movements and simply control those (and also their effect) through script.
#13
I'll look into the whole process and see what I can come up with.
Looking at adding control features that can be used across all class types and a few more specific ones for each class, ground(tracked, wheeled & hover/grav.), air (rotor & fixed wing), and weapons (rocket, missile, projectile and energy). This will be for models and scripts to refer to, some features will cross over types.
eg.
"drag" will effect all classes
"acceration" will effect all classes
"brake" will effect vehicles only
"lift" will effect air and weapons only
just an basic concepts atm!
(some of this features are already in TGE, I only plan to add to these to enhancethe engine).
08/20/2006 (1:37 am)
Thought that might have been the case, so I'll slowly work on it as I do my first test game.I'll look into the whole process and see what I can come up with.
Looking at adding control features that can be used across all class types and a few more specific ones for each class, ground(tracked, wheeled & hover/grav.), air (rotor & fixed wing), and weapons (rocket, missile, projectile and energy). This will be for models and scripts to refer to, some features will cross over types.
eg.
"drag" will effect all classes
"acceration" will effect all classes
"brake" will effect vehicles only
"lift" will effect air and weapons only
just an basic concepts atm!
(some of this features are already in TGE, I only plan to add to these to enhancethe engine).
Torque Owner Dave MacIsaac