Tracked vehicle update
by James Steele · 06/01/2006 (2:23 pm) · 6 comments
Okay, so implementing all of the tracked vehicle stuff is taking me a wee bit longer than I first thought. Not because I'm running into any difficulties, but because I'm feeling a little lazy right now. Work is a bit demanding at the moment, and it is sort of leaving me feeling drained when I get home in the evenings.
But there has be progress! I haven't been completely lazy., only a little bit. :)
Completed Tasks
* New Tracked Vehicle class derived from WheeledVehicle and working the same as original prototype.
* Setup inner-wheel imposters on data block
* Get inner-wheel imposters following the terrain.
Stuff still to do
* Work out which inner-wheel nodes are on the left and right sides
* Properly calculate the maximum extension length of the inner-wheel nodes (currenty a hacked constant)
* Work out the radius of the inner wheels
* Take into account for the thickness of the tracks when animating the inner nodes in code.
* Rotate inner-wheel nodes to follow motion of vehicle
* Track animation
* Network replication for the inner-wheel nodes
The most interesting part of this should be the track-animations. Everything else is pretty straight forward, and I should get most of this done over the weekend (especially as Monday is a holiday here in Austria).
But for now...here is a screen shot (clicking on the image will open a larger version). It shows the tracked vehicle with the inner-wheels following the world. I know it; a little hard to make out detail because of the lack of textures, but I'll probably do something about that this weekend too.
*** edit ***
It would seem that I can't wrap a url tag around an image tag, so you'll just have to click on the link :)
www.whereintheworldisrusty.com/pics/projects/tank001.jpg
But there has be progress! I haven't been completely lazy., only a little bit. :)
Completed Tasks
* New Tracked Vehicle class derived from WheeledVehicle and working the same as original prototype.
* Setup inner-wheel imposters on data block
* Get inner-wheel imposters following the terrain.
Stuff still to do
* Work out which inner-wheel nodes are on the left and right sides
* Properly calculate the maximum extension length of the inner-wheel nodes (currenty a hacked constant)
* Work out the radius of the inner wheels
* Take into account for the thickness of the tracks when animating the inner nodes in code.
* Rotate inner-wheel nodes to follow motion of vehicle
* Track animation
* Network replication for the inner-wheel nodes
The most interesting part of this should be the track-animations. Everything else is pretty straight forward, and I should get most of this done over the weekend (especially as Monday is a holiday here in Austria).
But for now...here is a screen shot (clicking on the image will open a larger version). It shows the tracked vehicle with the inner-wheels following the world. I know it; a little hard to make out detail because of the lack of textures, but I'll probably do something about that this weekend too.
*** edit ***
It would seem that I can't wrap a url tag around an image tag, so you'll just have to click on the link :)
www.whereintheworldisrusty.com/pics/projects/tank001.jpg
About the author
#2
Very interesting project you're doing, I am enjoying watching your progress.
06/01/2006 (6:26 pm)
To just show a screen, use ---{image}address{/image}, but change the {} to [].Very interesting project you're doing, I am enjoying watching your progress.
#3
06/01/2006 (10:14 pm)
hmm...the image workes for me. I've added changed it though, so give it a go again.
#4
06/01/2006 (11:00 pm)
Wasn't there a Bravetree tank pack which included sources IIRC?
#5
That's right, and as I mentioned earlier, I had bought the BTTP. The problem was that it didn't use rigid body dynamics for the tanks, it faked the movement of a tank (rather convincingly). Otherwise, I would have been happy to use the pack "as is".
The requirements of my small game design, need to use rigid body vehciles, so this is why I'm not implementing/faking them :)
06/01/2006 (11:04 pm)
@StefanThat's right, and as I mentioned earlier, I had bought the BTTP. The problem was that it didn't use rigid body dynamics for the tanks, it faked the movement of a tank (rather convincingly). Otherwise, I would have been happy to use the pack "as is".
The requirements of my small game design, need to use rigid body vehciles, so this is why I'm not implementing/faking them :)
#6
06/02/2006 (2:44 pm)
This is looking awesome, James! I can't wait to see it when you get the tracks on there.
Torque 3D Owner Maxwell Davis-Marsh