Flying Vehicles... Are helicopters possible?
by Mike "wowo" Miller · in Torque Game Engine · 12/06/2002 (8:46 pm) · 4 replies
Hey all,
I just have one quick (I think) question: Would it be possible to implement helicopters without modifying the internal TGE code?
I ask this because in tribes 2, all of the air vehicles hover when they are not moving. hmm... now that I think about it, I'm sure there would have to be some code modification needed, as the air vehicles in tribes 2 don't allow you to directly control movement on the up/down axis as would be needed in a helicopter.
In that case, does anyone know how difficult this would be to implement? I only need arcade style physics. I have fairly advanced c++ skills, and I took physics in highschool, but I'm not very skilled with 3D math.
When I purchase Torque, this is definitely a feature I would like, and need, to add to the engine.
Thanks for your help,
Mike
I just have one quick (I think) question: Would it be possible to implement helicopters without modifying the internal TGE code?
I ask this because in tribes 2, all of the air vehicles hover when they are not moving. hmm... now that I think about it, I'm sure there would have to be some code modification needed, as the air vehicles in tribes 2 don't allow you to directly control movement on the up/down axis as would be needed in a helicopter.
In that case, does anyone know how difficult this would be to implement? I only need arcade style physics. I have fairly advanced c++ skills, and I took physics in highschool, but I'm not very skilled with 3D math.
When I purchase Torque, this is definitely a feature I would like, and need, to add to the engine.
Thanks for your help,
Mike
#2
You're right! Heh, it's been so long since I've actually played tribes 2 but lo and behold I fired it up and the shrike does have thrusters!
Now I just need to figure out how to get the vehicles to land on the ground instead of hovering. Once that's done, I'll be set! Can this be done simply by setting their hover height to 0?
Thanks,
Mike
12/06/2002 (9:28 pm)
Hi,You're right! Heh, it's been so long since I've actually played tribes 2 but lo and behold I fired it up and the shrike does have thrusters!
Now I just need to figure out how to get the vehicles to land on the ground instead of hovering. Once that's done, I'll be set! Can this be done simply by setting their hover height to 0?
Thanks,
Mike
#3
The only other thing to do is bind your controller so it handles roll.
12/06/2002 (9:43 pm)
It's actually not hard to get control on all three axes. I changed my vehicles so they all have triple control. What you have to do is locate the mSteering member in the Vehicle class and change it from Point2F to Point3F. You'll have to change some constructors and other miscellaneous code so it has information for the extra dimension. Then add this to the updateMove function:F32 r = move->roll;
mSteering.z = mClampF(mSteering.z +r,
-mDataBlock->maxSteeringAngle,
mDataBlock->maxSteeringAngle);The only other thing to do is bind your controller so it handles roll.
#4
Thanks for the replies. I can't wait until I can get myself a license for Torque. Unfortunately I have to wait until January as I'll be away from my computer for all of Christmas break.
...But I guess that's a good thing, right? This way I get to do all the planning without being tempted to jump into the code right away! hehe
Mike
12/06/2002 (10:41 pm)
Hi,Thanks for the replies. I can't wait until I can get myself a license for Torque. Unfortunately I have to wait until January as I'll be away from my computer for all of Christmas break.
...But I guess that's a good thing, right? This way I get to do all the planning without being tempted to jump into the code right away! hehe
Mike
Ryan Armstrong