Hi, Im having trouble with a flight simulator. Im writing a physics engine and, to test what i have so far, im using it in a flight simulator. THe problem is that i can't rotate an object in its frame of reference. Ive read page after page on the topic and havent solved my problem yet. Im using opengl as my renderer. When the plane is facing forwards it rols, pitches and yaws correctly. However, when i roll the model 90 degrees clockwise, the y axis should be lying along where the x axis used to be, but it isnt. Im using euler rotation. I am already familiar with matrices and am using these to translate the camera in the correct direction, but the plane model does not rotate with the camera. here is the method from my physics object class which i am using to rotate the object and then draw it: void phys_object::draw() { #define radians 0.0174532925 float ya = yrot*radians; float xa =xrot*radians; float za =zrot*radians; float Ax= cos(ya)*cos(za), Bx= -cos(ya)*sin(za), Cx= sin(ya); float Ay= sin(xa)*sin(ya)*cos(za) + cos(xa) * sin(za), By= -sin(xa)*sin(ya)*sin(za) + cos(xa) * cos(za), Cy= -sin(xa)*cos(ya); float Az= -cos(xa)*sin(ya)*cos(za) + sin(xa) * sin(za), Bz= cos(xa)*sin(ya)*sin(za) + sin(xa) * cos(za), Cz= cos(xa)*cos(ya); glPushMatrix(); glTranslatef(xpos,ypos,zpos); glRotatef(yrot,Bx,By,Bz); glRotatef(zrot,Cx,Cy,Cz); glRotatef(xrot,Ax,Ay,Az); model->draw(); glPopMatrix(); return; } ////////////////////////////////////////////////////// model->draw calls a display list. should i do one of the following things: 1) Extend my euler rotation system to solve my problem 2) Learn to use a different system of rotation than euler, for example quaternions? Thanks p.s. im aware that this is not the most efficient code, since it repeatedly calls sin() and cos() for the same variables, but i will optomize it once i get it working. My game engine is running at around 90fps without these optomizations so no problem there as yet

I would suggest quaternions. They tend to result in code that is shorter and simpler.

is there simply some quick modification to the code in my original post which i could use instead? I know that it is possible to use euler rotation for the above problem.
Note that rotating objects efficiently is not the ONLY thing i want to do, since I am busy doing other things to bring my game engine into operation, and i dont want to spend a long time learning something new.

Thanks,
Ill look int 6dof (6 deg' of freedom?) rotation tonight. If you could post a link to that code i would greatly appreciate it, since it would be a big help in getting the test build running.

thanks again

Thanks for the code, just a few questions:
is editing the opengl view matrix directly equivelant to usign glRotatef() and glTranslatef()? Ive never seen it done that way before. is the view matrix 4x4 by any chance?
also, will each axis of the plane still point in the correct direction, e.g. y axis sticks out of the top of the plane, z axis points out of the nose cone and x axis goes along the wingspan. Supposing the plane is rolled onto its right side, i need the y axis to still point out of the top of the plane, even though it now behaves like the x axis.

thats great, sounds like just what ive been looking for over the last 5 days. Thanks for your help