Aeroplane

Community Forums/Showcase/Aeroplane

Rob Farley(Posted 2004) [#1]
I created a model of a bi-plane for Matt over at Kardiak.co.uk for his game Bip... Anyway, I liked it so much I started playing with the model flying it over terrains... then added more to the terrain... wrote an editor... well... it's turning into a game now!

The editor allows you to add checkpoints and other decals to the terrain. The terrain was draw as a height map with terrain shader used to colour and shade it. Then when the checkpoints and decals get loaded onto the terrain they then add shadows and lighting to the shadow map making them part of the terrain. This is something I'm really proud of as I think they look great! Hopefully I will implement the x2 multiply blend for this so lights actually light, not sure quite how to do this yet but I'm sure I'll work it out! And obviously there's a flexy shadow under your plane that hugs the terrain.

I started with really realistic physics but they didn't feel right for an arcade game so I've dumbed them down a bit so it feels right. The controls now consist of up / down / left / right. Your altitude controls your speed, the lower you go the faster you go. This makes for a more entertaining gaming experience as it's harder to fly low, but you go faster.

There are also time of day smooth transitions, so the sky goes from blue clear, to dusk, to night, to dawn and back to clear blue very smoothly... so smooth infact that you don't really notice it until it's dark!

All in all this is shaping up quite well.

Anyway, only a couple of screenshots for the time being as this is nowhere near a tech demo yet... Hopefully soon I'll have a download for you.




Psionic(Posted 2004) [#2]
Looks cool so far and the Bip looks good from what I can see of it ;-) is it based on a Tigermoth?


IPete2(Posted 2004) [#3]
Hey rob,

Thats looking good!

IPete2.


Rob Farley(Posted 2004) [#4]
Psionic, It's a sopwith pup. It's rigged so the rudder and ailerons move when you turn, there's a bone for the prop too (although I've not modelled it yet!). There are also bones to the wing tips, nose and tail for collision.


IPete2: Thanks!


Psionic(Posted 2004) [#5]
Aaah can see it better now, great stuff!


Ricky Smith(Posted 2004) [#6]
The Biplane and terrain look great - but those trees don't look too convincing.


Rob Farley(Posted 2004) [#7]
It's the first time I've ever modelled a tree... I'm sure tree #2 will be better!


puki(Posted 2004) [#8]
Looks good "Rob Farley".


Ruz(Posted 2004) [#9]
nice planes rob


Kanati(Posted 2004) [#10]
looks good... the ground texture seems a bit "big"... makes the plane look like a model or something. But other than that. Looks great.


Rob Farley(Posted 2004) [#11]
Kanati, yeah I know, the trees and lights are too big as well, I need to sort out what my scale is!