(SSGX Origins) Let's make a Wipeout game! This time for real!

[Dusk118]

Try this:
amphithere.png
Amphithere WipEout Logo.png

Amphithere Engineering - Grace Within Turmoil
Model: Draco AM14
Origin: New German Empire
Formed: 2182

After the fall of the F9000 Racing League, German entrepreneur and former FEISAR pilot Leopold von Strauss formed Amphithere Engineering in 2182 with the sole purpose of keeping remnants of the AG sport alive. However, he did not want to completely abandon the team he held so dear, so with the help of FEISAR's commercial development branch, he created one beast of a machine that proved he loved the sport.

Appropriately named The Dragon, this ship soars with unmatched grace and ferocity. Despite meager shields and the lack of an outright top speed, the incredible handling allows the ship to navigate tight, twisting sections with ease, and the increase in thrust capacity makes it quick out the corners as well. Needless to say, this is one ship to keep an eye on.

Speed: ***
Handling: *****
Shield: ***
Thrust: ****

Xpand's modeling, my concept.

[docfo4r]

Description sounds good and the ship looks great aswell. You guys are doing a great job at detailling.

[Killercrusher232]

Cool!!!

ATM, I'm looking for some good, free animation software.. You know any?

Use Gimp, it's good for everything and it's free. Animation is done using a layer for each frame, just duplicate your layer and edit etc.

[Dusk118]

He's not looking for a picture animation software. He's looking for a 3D model animation software, like for video games and such.

[Xpand]

Here's a video of the water and WIP airbrake animation script.
http://youtu.be/fORPjxEHwoI
No one is questioning your experience with Unity zero! I'm just saying that, if I have one that works, why won't we use that one?
The airbrakes movement is scripted. I didn't use the unity animator...

Also I need you to export your models so I can remake them and texture them. So we are consistent with the ship's modeling and mapping.

[feisar rocket]

Hey, if simulation is in, aren't some values missing? Like battery life, or cooling level?

Also, I remember Zero or Xpand talking about armor

P.S. Thanks KillCrush.

[Xpand]

There are a lot of variables missing. It's not just the failures. We also need wind field effect, airbrake surface area, engine thrust-to-weight, etc. It's not hard to make. it's just a maths issue of finding and arithmetic function to combine all those into the game engine's default values.

[feisar rocket]

Hmm... maybe I can make a formula...

[Rotational_aspect]

If your physics model is realistic then most of the things you want are possible. Although I'm on a programming break (Mass Effect 3 coming and all) I managed to get my enhanced physics to work, which means I can connect objects to my ships so they react properly using 6dof constraints (similar to joints in Unity). For example, where I hang the payload will make the ship tilt backward or forward, both ship and payload now have a combined mass (so heavier payloads slow the ship automatically). Once the mass is set then I can tweak the top speed and acceleration values, along with general handling. So in essence the physics engine does most of the hard work.

[Killercrusher232]

Does your physics engine simulate air resistance? When you hit a boost pad, what's going to slow you down?

[Xpand]

that can be arranged with vi=-F/m*t (being vi the velocity increment above the maximum normal speed, F the resistance force we set for air drag (because calculating real air resistance for each of our ships needs a wind tunnel), m the mass of the ship and t the time used by the force to slow down the ship to the maximum normal speed, when vi=0m/s) At least that's how it works because, according to the 2nd newton's law: F=m.a (=) F=m.(v/t) (=) v=F/m*t and because we want our force to slow the ship down: v=-F/m*t

The turning force of the airbrakes can be calculated through the traveling velocity of the ship and the airbrakes' surface area when fully deployed. It's all about torque forces with that.

We basically only need newton's second law for the whole movement simulation deal. Even the anti gravity thing can be done with that with |F|=|Fg| being |F| the absolute value of the anti gravity force and Fg the gravity force that goes as |F|=G.(m.M)/(r^2) being M the earth's mass and r the distance from the ship to the center of the Earth. That would affect the ship's height depending on where the track was located in the Earth and if the levitating device had a constant output.

For failures you just need a time based random number generator and assign a variable to each number to simulate unexpected failures. You can use the rand() command to achieve that.

[Rotational_aspect]

Do not forget that the position of the airbrakes would be important too: the closer they are to the axis of rotation the less they are able to turn a craft. So widely spaced brakes would be best.

In Unity, is there a feature that allows an offset linear force to be applied? I know in Blender this is possible and would be help in doing the above (or at least one way of doing it).

[Xpand]

In unity as far as I know only rotation transform can be applied. No torque forces. But that can be fixed with the angular motion equation (theta)=(theta0)+(w*t)+((1/2)*alpha*(t^2)) being the theta the angle of rotation, theta0 the initial angle, w the angular velocity, alpha the angular acceleration that we can get through the tangential acceleration with alpha=(at)/r. being r the radius of the circle, that is, the lateral distance of the airbrakes relative to the longitudinal axis of the ship.

EDIT:
Unity does indeed use torque. That makes things much easier. I just need to apply a tangential force to the ship.

[Vorpal-Knife]

Unity is pretty awesome - I would still apreciate if if you cold PM me the Hover algorithm your using - mine's pretty much:
Force Applied = ((targetHover - hoverHeight) * HoverCons)-(Damping / (HoverHeight - PrevHoverHeight))

This is applied at for points of the AG-Craft. It's good - but the Craft hops around like a Bunny Rabit at easter , fixxed on acid! - this is only after a jump mind. You have to stop, to get it to flatten out.

And you don't need to simulate Air-resitence - thats what drag is

[zero3growlithe]

I have to emulate air resistance becouse ship was sliding very much so it made turning harder. I can post this code if you want.

[Killercrusher232]

the Craft hops around like a Bunny Rabit at easter , fixxed on acid! - this is only after a jump mind. You have to stop, to get it to flatten out.

Yeah, I think the hover height needs to be more leanient or at least the closer the ship is to the ground the more force it uses to get it back up?

[Rotational_aspect]

Why do you need to have the force calculated at four points? Would it be better to have a single height calculation via a -Z raycast (for the hover) and then check the normal orientation of the polygon returned using the ray?

[Xpand]

Lol, what kind of fluid viscosity did you use? Olive oil? Just kidding. But yeah, it's kinda hard to have controllable AG-ships without cheating a bit on physics. The best we can do to make air drag affect through the ship's shape is look at the ship like it is standing on a spherical tire so it has some grip while turning.

EDIT:
Attachment 5957
Attachment 5958
Attachment 5959

[Oryx Crake]

looking real good so far ric

[TypeProton]

Everyday more progress, looking good!
So here's my new design :
[ENDer's Racing Initiative - BE-1] A balanced craft (more like Harimau) of a straight up racing team.
[Takul - M2-Tidal] Finalized version of AG craft I posted before.
[Myron Anti-Grav Research - Myron Blade] Auricom-ish, both being a corporate team and in terms of stats.
[Red Orb - J20] Let a chinese business man buy what's leftover of Piranha before they moved to Brasil, combine it with top-secret aerodynamic technology meant for stealth fighter that nobody is quite sure where did he got it from and you get this. (Logo already designed, I just forgot to add it in)

I will post complete backstory, logo, AG craft's color for each team later.