Have you ever tought about that when mankind has advanced to the level where we have digfights in space, its highly unlikely that the ships computer is so extremely dumb that all it provides you with is means to accelerate and deaccelerate? And the pilot himself has to calculate when to start and stop etc in his head. Now there you have the unrealistic part :-)
More likely it would be like in startrek where you set a course, can issue a full stop etc. And the computer figures out itself what to do, how much to deaccelerate to stop etc..
physics in outer space
What is frontier? any links?
You could have your realistic physics, but just make use of "computers" to do most movement, like in iwar2
You could have your realistic physics, but just make use of "computers" to do most movement, like in iwar2
Quote:Original post by johnnyBravo
What is frontier? any links?
linky
(edit) Click on games, then Frontier...
wow, wish I played that back then.
written totally in assembly is extremely impressive!
I played the first elite , and i loved that game, I had mad weapons and all, then some people of this station asked me if I wanted some kind of honour, so i said yeah, and they infected me with bugs that covered me screen until i couldnt see anymore...really strange!
written totally in assembly is extremely impressive!
I played the first elite , and i loved that game, I had mad weapons and all, then some people of this station asked me if I wanted some kind of honour, so i said yeah, and they infected me with bugs that covered me screen until i couldnt see anymore...really strange!
I think using a more realistic model could be fun. Frontier had a few problems with it though. I don't think what markr described is a big problem in itself. You can just reduce thrust, and try to match your targets speed. That's just a question of skill. But a side effect of it was that fighting could happen very sporadically. You might get in a few shots and then he'd drift out of range for 20+ seconds, which usually gave him time to recharge his shields fully. That way, some battles literally took forever, because none of you ever managed to deplete the other's shields.
Another problem is obviously that if you start out a long way from each others, it'd either take forever to get close, or you had to speed up, which would cause the problem markr described, zooming past each others in a few milliseconds.
But I like the basic physics model, and I think it's much more fun than the usual (and fake) one nekoflux described. There's just a few problems to be aware of :P
Another problem is obviously that if you start out a long way from each others, it'd either take forever to get close, or you had to speed up, which would cause the problem markr described, zooming past each others in a few milliseconds.
But I like the basic physics model, and I think it's much more fun than the usual (and fake) one nekoflux described. There's just a few problems to be aware of :P
Quote:Original post by johnnyBravo
I played the first elite , and i loved that game, I had mad weapons and all, then some people of this station asked me if I wanted some kind of honour, so i said yeah, and they infected me with bugs that covered me screen until i couldnt see anymore...really strange!
Those bugs are called tribbles and originate from Star Trek:
http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/GuidePageServlet/showid-633/epid-24928/
and
http://www.ccdump.org/
just remember there are alot of things that are going to be hard to make realistic, eg
shooting at stuff miles and miles and miles away, as lasers would probably have a huge range.
But with the physics thing, the thing i love most about proper space physics is the challenge of landing a space craft in a station etc. Sorta like in the Jumpgate game, I crashed my shit countless times trying to land the dam thing,
but it was nice to have such challenges, otherwise all the game is just sitting there, try to get from one destination to another,
and like in elite, i always dredded getting back the station after stealing a whole lot of cargo.
I would sometimes clip the side of the rotating station, and that was a big oh no!
edit:
does anyone know if its possible to run the Frontier game on a pocket pc?
That would be cool!
shooting at stuff miles and miles and miles away, as lasers would probably have a huge range.
But with the physics thing, the thing i love most about proper space physics is the challenge of landing a space craft in a station etc. Sorta like in the Jumpgate game, I crashed my shit countless times trying to land the dam thing,
but it was nice to have such challenges, otherwise all the game is just sitting there, try to get from one destination to another,
and like in elite, i always dredded getting back the station after stealing a whole lot of cargo.
I would sometimes clip the side of the rotating station, and that was a big oh no!
edit:
does anyone know if its possible to run the Frontier game on a pocket pc?
That would be cool!
You can check out Orbiter for some ideas. It's not war based at all, but it has the most realistic physics of any space game.
http://www.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/~martins/orbit/orbit.html
http://www.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/~martins/orbit/orbit.html
Just remember, the faster you're going, the longer it takes to slow down, and when you're going that fast there is no real chance of any intense close-quarter combat. Realistic physics make space sims less fun, at least if they're 'too realistic'. Give each ship a maximum velocity if only to make the game more fun, you can justify it by saying its the maximum 'safe velocity' for a given ship.
Quote:Original post by nekoflux
Maybe Im mixing real with imaginary but in every space based game/movie Ive seen the engines are always on, and always thrusting but velocity seems to remain constant...how can the engines always be on without constantly increasing the velocity of the craft? Theres no atmosphere to produce drag and newtons 1st law would seem to indicate this isnt right...help please :(
Any help would be appreciated, I'm a bit confused.
--Nekoflux
Even though there is no drag in space, you still have to move a heavy object through the vaccuum, and that requires force. Everything attracts each other with gravity, and a current theory states that space itself is actually "curved" and that is the explanation for gravity on a grand scale (not on small scales like electrons and protons). X-wing vs. Tie Fighter did simplify it and make it so that when the engines turn off, the craft stops. This wouldn't happen. However, you can't just turn on the engines 25% and expect it to accelerate constantly forever. If that were the case, it'd be a lot easier to get to Mars. Don't take all of this to heart, but based on what I've learned, this sounds right to me.
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