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Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: dennisdahl3 on August 23, 2007, 10:31:49 pm

Title: Newtonian flight
Post by: dennisdahl3 on August 23, 2007, 10:31:49 pm
How does one get to fly with Newtonian flight characteristics?

It seems like the Star Furys fly like airplanes.

I can't figure out how to take advantage of coasting on inertial while spinning to direct fire at a target.

It is always like I am flying through air, most annoying.

Please give me a tip if I am missing something.

Thanks.
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: jr2 on August 24, 2007, 03:18:25 am
Hmm.  The default key is "Q"... like in BtRL.  If that doesn't work, try using a BtRL engine on the Babylon Project files, that should work.
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: Nuke on August 24, 2007, 05:21:16 am
you can either use glide, or you can script it in. of course i havent found a way to script it in yet without breaking something important, like collision detection.
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: colecampbell666 on August 24, 2007, 08:00:52 am
I thought that glide was Shift+G.
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: karajorma on August 24, 2007, 01:34:10 pm
It is. Q rebalances shields.
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: jr2 on August 24, 2007, 03:37:27 pm
Eh?  Coulda swore BtRL had Q as the default... but you're right, normal FS builds wouldn't use that.  Does BtRL use Q, or did I imagine that?
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: Topgun on August 24, 2007, 05:31:15 pm
but you can't change velocity in glide. or can you?
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: Unknown Target on August 24, 2007, 05:53:57 pm
You can't atm, maybe in the future. and BtRL does not use Q as the default, it's what I recommend to new people to change it to.
At any rate, you also might want to adjust table files to get the ships have momentum and whatnot.
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: Nuke on August 24, 2007, 09:50:06 pm
the cool thing about the way updated glide (and it technically should be called drift, glide indicates that there is air preasent to glide in) works is you can still use all your thrusters (and technically it ceases to be drifting once you use your thrusters), even your main engine. most games like tachyon that had glide, but enabling it ment you were on a fixed vector and subject to a well led deflection shot.

the question should be what to call this flight mode. you cant call it gliding because your not, and you cant call it drifting because you can apply delta-v i propose we rename glide to "sort of flying normally" :D
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: dennisdahl3 on August 25, 2007, 10:27:48 am
How about calling it "Inertial"? because that is what it is, coasting along as an easy target but able to spin in all directions to put fire down where you need it while passing by.

By the way, you guys are all pretty technical and right into things like coding the game it seems. I just want to play and have been a bit spoiled by the Babylon 5 IFH (I found her!) guys that have a simpler game, easy controls but few scenarios.

And good heavens, can’t somebody get a good HUD!? Look to modern military for guidance. They spend a lot to figure out what works, we should be able to copy that with mods for space. Like what would we really do if invaded? Surly there would be better auto targeting etc.

OK that’s my rant.

Inertial is all that is important to me right now.
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: dennisdahl3 on August 25, 2007, 10:30:27 am
"try using a BtRL engine on the Babylon Project files"

How do I do that?
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: lostllama on August 25, 2007, 01:21:56 pm
Hi.

I recall Joshua made some sort of hybrid mod, using the inertial effects of BtRL and Sushi's velocity mod. It's called RealFlight and you can perform gliding (or drifting) and slide maneuvers. Whilst it's more semi-Newtonian than full-on Newtonian, it's interesting to try out, and should still be downloadable. This is for FSPort and FS2 only though.

Only thing I've noticed is that none of the current missions (AFAIK) were designed for the kinds of speed you can fly at using this hybrid mod. Also not sure if I can remember whether the AI is able to use the gliding/drifting or slide controls it provides you with though.
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: Mobius on August 25, 2007, 01:33:38 pm
I recall Joshua made some sort of hybrid mod, using the inertial effects of BtRL and Sushi's velocity mod.

The inertial effects didn't appear in BtRL for the first time. They're a FSO feature. Gliding has always been a FS feature. The Dragon and the Mara have it.
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: lostllama on August 25, 2007, 02:04:32 pm
Yeah, I knew the Dragon and Mara could use it. When playing FS2 retail I always thought that the Mara had some special flying characteristics. I just didn't know why Terran and Vasudan ships couldn't have that ability. Makes the game a bit harder I suppose.

Would be interesting to see something similar in TBP, if it can be done. I myself have tried B5: IFH and it's quite cool (not to mention complicated, for me anyway) to have realistic-ish flight dynamics in a space sim. Not to say that FS isn't cool because it doesn't have that sort of flight model.
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: Turey on August 25, 2007, 02:47:56 pm
The inertial effects didn't appear in BtRL for the first time. They're a FSO feature. Gliding has always been a FS feature. The Dragon and the Mara have it.

Glide != Slide.

Glide is an FSO-only feature.
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: Grizzly on August 25, 2007, 04:58:50 pm
I believe TopGun was working on something like this?
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: jr2 on August 26, 2007, 12:13:16 am
"try using a BtRL engine on the Babylon Project files"

How do I do that?

Rename the fs2_open_3_6_9.exe file in your Babylon Project to fs2_open_3_6_9-old.exe or something.

Copy the fs2_open_3_6_9.exe from your BtRL directory to your Babylon Project directory.
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: karajorma on August 26, 2007, 12:30:38 pm
You do know that replacing the exes wouldn't actually do anything right?

It was UT's table changes that had the effect. The exe is mainly 3.6.9 with minor fixes to a few SEXPs, etc.
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: Shaamaan on August 27, 2007, 07:29:06 am
<newbie in training>
I was browsing the general FS forums, and this topic caught my eye. I always liked the ability to glide in other games. SO quickly scan through the thread and try the first button that should do something... Q. Of course, that's for shields. So I try the second one: Shift-G. Nothing. So I read the thread carefully, and come to the conclusion, that I have absolutely no idea what's going on here. Too many abbreviations...
</newbie in training>
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: Nuke on August 27, 2007, 09:06:08 am
The inertial effects didn't appear in BtRL for the first time. They're a FSO feature. Gliding has always been a FS feature. The Dragon and the Mara have it.

Glide != Slide.

Glide is an FSO-only feature.

and both terms are wrong!

we have main or prograde thrust, retro thrust, lateral thrust and vertical thrust. we also have vectored thrust and at least 3 axes worth of rotational thrust aka rcs. to slide requires ice or go figure, a slide and to glide requires one of theese (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glider) and an atmosphere. while it has nothing to do with this the word straif is also missused in games. it bugs me that games and ther designers, dispite having an actually in practice set of terminology for manuvering systems to use yet decided ro pull their own butchered terminology outta their ass, which reaks of bad vocabulary skills.  :hopping:  :lol:

I recall Joshua made some sort of hybrid mod, using the inertial effects of BtRL and Sushi's velocity mod.

The inertial effects didn't appear in BtRL for the first time. They're a FSO feature. Gliding has always been a FS feature. The Dragon and the Mara have it.

and iirc one of the ships in nukemod r2 (which has been around for some years and dates back to the retail days), used the same meathod of using high damping and high speed to simulate slightly more squishy, laggy yet nowhere near semi-newtonian flight that btrl and the guys who made the 'lets make freespace ships handle like they do in the btrl mod' mod. let me remind you who originally came up with the idea to change a few numbers to get ships to handle that way (hell i did that back in fs1). :pimp:
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: colecampbell666 on August 27, 2007, 07:26:05 pm
"try using a BtRL engine on the Babylon Project files"

How do I do that?
Put the BtRL launcher in the TPB root directory.
<newbie in training>
I was browsing the general FS forums, and this topic caught my eye. I always liked the ability to glide in other games. SO quickly scan through the thread and try the first button that should do something... Q. Of course, that's for shields. So I try the second one: Shift-G. Nothing. So I read the thread carefully, and come to the conclusion, that I have absolutely no idea what's going on here. Too many abbreviations...
</newbie in training>
Try ALT+G
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: Grizzly on August 28, 2007, 06:44:55 am
"try using a BtRL engine on the Babylon Project files"

How do I do that?
Put the BtRL launcher in the TPB root directory

Seriously... Its all the Freespace 2 Open_3_6_9 engine...
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: Nuke on August 28, 2007, 06:57:44 am
btrl and i think even tbp use custom exes. how custom seems to be something their really not open to divulge it seems :D
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: karajorma on August 28, 2007, 07:30:20 am
<newbie in training>
I was browsing the general FS forums, and this topic caught my eye. I always liked the ability to glide in other games. SO quickly scan through the thread and try the first button that should do something... Q. Of course, that's for shields. So I try the second one: Shift-G. Nothing. So I read the thread carefully, and come to the conclusion, that I have absolutely no idea what's going on here. Too many abbreviations...
</newbie in training>

Basically then FS2_Open engine supports the feature but the Freespace 2 campaign does not. It was written before the Glide code was added and it would severely change the gameplay to add it to the main campaign now.

There are ways to add the feature to the campaign yourself using a .tbm file. There may even be a suitable one lurking around. The easiest way to try it out though is to download a mod or total conversion that supports the feature. Wing Commander Saga (from here on HLP) and Beyond The Red Line (Follow the link on the tool bar to Game-Warden) both have ships which can glide for instance.

btrl and i think even tbp use custom exes. how custom seems to be something their really not open to divulge it seems :D

BtRL used a slightly altered version of 3.6.9 Official. The only reason for this was between January (when 3.6.9 was released) and April (When BtRL came out) there were several bugs fixed that needed to be fixed for BtRL to work correctly. All the fixes are in CVS now and we'll be going back to the 3.6.10 branch after it's released.

The only customisation in the launcher was a few different pieces of artwork and a change of where the URLs point to for the forum buttons.

TBP uses nothing more than the Inferno build of 3.6.9 Official as far as I know.
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: Nuke on August 28, 2007, 08:48:29 am
or maybe i should just learn to ask :D
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: akenbosch on August 28, 2007, 05:58:12 pm
sample of glide-shp.tbm

#SHIP CLASSES

;;repeat for each ship you want too have glide

$Name: GTF Loki
+nocreate
$GLIDE: YES

#END

slide-shp.tbm would be more complex too make, since you would need the original accelaration values.

but it would work like this:

#ship classes

$Name: ship
+nocreate
$Max Velocity:          80.0, 80.0, 110.0 ;;these are just demo values. shivan fighters slide by default, so only
                                                            ;;worry about this with terran ships. remeber the last value should match
                                                             ;;up with teh one in the original table.
$Rear Velocity:         27.5 ;;demo values again. these are set too 0 on all t/v ships
$Slide accel:           1.2
$Slide decel:           0.8

#END

NOTE slide values will let ships use the "diagnol acceleration" and perform some manuevers seen in babylon 5/bsg (the flip-around-and-still-be-moving-backwards-for-a-short-while trick for example)
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: colecampbell666 on August 28, 2007, 07:32:08 pm
Download Joshua's Inertia Mod and see how he did it.
Title: Re: Newtonian flight
Post by: akenbosch on August 29, 2007, 12:28:02 pm
i did. but thats one thats just adds slide and glide, not any other stuff.