Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Reprobator on March 29, 2009, 10:05:51 am

Title: About glide
Post by: Reprobator on March 29, 2009, 10:05:51 am
Hi all , i had a question (maybe a feature request too ) about the glide mode.

Is it possible to have different turn rate (i mean different rotation time ) when your ships switch to glide mode?
i'm looking to speed it up to give a better advantage to players when they engage gliding.

i didn't saw any kind of option in the ships.tbl wiki page, would it be doable in the future to add such option?
Title: Re: About glide
Post by: Fury on March 30, 2009, 03:21:51 am
For some reason I thought this was about 3dfx Glide API until second paragraph. :p
Title: Re: About glide
Post by: Reprobator on March 30, 2009, 03:35:44 am
 ;7 however thanks for the up  :pimp:
Title: Re: About glide
Post by: Scooby_Doo on March 30, 2009, 04:06:32 am
For some reason I thought this was about 3dfx Glide API until second paragraph. :p

Hahaha I was going to post about it earlier, but I already did that quite a while ago on another thread  :lol:
Title: Re: About glide
Post by: Herra Tohtori on March 30, 2009, 04:19:48 am
Hi all , i had a question (maybe a feature request too ) about the glide mode.

Is it possible to have different turn rate (i mean different rotation time ) when your ships switch to glide mode?
i'm looking to speed it up to give a better advantage to players when they engage gliding.

i didn't saw any kind of option in the ships.tbl wiki page, would it be doable in the future to add such option?


Actually I would like a possibility to have the flight mode mechanical but so that you can turn vector-heading equalizer assist on at the cost of maneuverability at higher velocities.


Here's how it works: In space, maneuverability is not just the turn rate of the ship but also how fast you can change the vector of the ship, or direction you're flying at. When you yaw right for example you'll end up going in the same direction and you need to manually adjust the vector with your port and main thrusters so that the vector eventually equalizes with  your heading (at selected velocity).

Now, of course based onbasic physics I hope you know, the faster you go, the higher your turn radius will be. With the vector-heading equalizer fully engaged, it would keep the heading matching your vector at all times, and that would mean that the faster you go, the slower your (assisted) turn rate would be because the automated direction changes would take more time to complete.


This kind of system would result in flight model that would be very similar to FreeSpace's familiar "on tracks" model, but with a key difference - velocity would have adverse effect on maneuverability. The faster you go, the slower you could change your vector so your turn rate would end up slower because the assisted flight mode would try to keep your heading equal to the vector.

Of course, a seasoned pilot could turn the assisted mode off and manually control both the attitude and vector. This would be more difficult, but it would give the advantage of having full rate of attitude control (pitch, roll and yaw) at all velocities; however it would make it far more difficult to accurately control the vector of the ship if you're not really good at it.

Relative velocity limits enforced by flight safety computers could be used to prevent overthrusting (for gameplay reasons and preserving collision detection unlimited speed would be bad...)


Of course, this kind of setups would mainly be useful for total conversions like Babylon Project, BtRL and Diaspora, where a semi-newtonian flight model is already available.
Title: Re: About glide
Post by: Fury on March 30, 2009, 05:55:08 am
Of course, a seasoned pilot could turn the assisted mode off and manually control both the attitude
Assisted attitude control? Man, tech these days... :D
Title: Re: About glide
Post by: Herra Tohtori on March 30, 2009, 06:10:23 am
Well, more like a fly-by-wire system that is programmed to adjust the vector and attitude simultaneously, with vector being the deciding factor.

The fly-by-wire systems in airliners and fighter jets are a lot more sophisticated due to needs of atmospheric control. Reaction control systems are easier to handle because the moment of force that comes from them doesn't depend on the indicated airspeed... and you don't need to maintain lift in space.

Ironically X-Wing series kinda used this kind of method, although it was overly simplified... :p
Title: Re: About glide
Post by: Fury on March 30, 2009, 07:23:34 am
Now I'm not so sure whether Tohtori actually noticed the typo therein... :nervous:
Title: Re: About glide
Post by: Herra Tohtori on March 30, 2009, 08:45:40 am
Now I'm not so sure whether Tohtori actually noticed the typo therein... :nervous:

Nope, can't see it. :nervous:

You need to make the error of my ways more obvious. ;7
Title: Re: About glide
Post by: Fury on March 30, 2009, 09:23:44 am
attitude =! altitude ;)
...Oh wait, when it's about pilots, attitude equals altitude. :D
Title: Re: About glide
Post by: Herra Tohtori on March 30, 2009, 09:50:58 am
Well it's good then that I wasn't talking about altitude. :lol:

Altitude in space wouldn't really make much sense anyway.
Title: Re: About glide
Post by: redsniper on March 30, 2009, 11:35:12 am
:wtf: Attitude in this sense means orientation.
Title: Re: About glide
Post by: Reprobator on March 30, 2009, 02:35:05 pm
i like your ideas but it looks quite long and complicated to make it works in scp (well i guess you know that better than me already)
essiantialy because of the actual ai that already seems to dislike high dampering...
But i think there are few steps that can be improved before having your newtonian systems, for exemple i d love to have a full dampering on the roll axis (for exemple just turn your stick for let's say 5 secondes to the left roll axis and leave the joystick, as long as you won't touch your stick again the ship could continue to turn untill you apply the same force for the same 5 sec in the other side) that would be a good steps first (with a  $glideRotation time i insist :P )

And one thing really cool would be to enable dampering on the cap ships (for instance it doesn't seem to apply)

Title: Re: About glide
Post by: Fury on March 31, 2009, 03:28:42 am
:wtf: Attitude in this sense means orientation.
This topic is turning into an english lesson. But I'm curious anyhow; how come attitude equals orientation in any sense? The two mean completely different things, I even checked dictionary. :)
Title: Re: About glide
Post by: Wanderer on March 31, 2009, 03:38:00 am
Quote from: Google define:attitude
...
position of aircraft or spacecraft relative to a frame of reference (the horizon or direction of motion)
 ...

Quote from: Google define:orientation
...
The orientation (or angular position) in space of an axis (straight line), segment of axis, directed axis, or segment of directed axis (vector) is defined by the angles it forms with the axes of a reference frame, or other equivalent methods, such as direction cosines.
 ...
Title: Re: About glide
Post by: Fury on March 31, 2009, 05:21:22 am
Quote from: Google define:attitude
...
position of aircraft or spacecraft relative to a frame of reference (the horizon or direction of motion)
 ...
This was new to me, never knew attitude also meant that. Oh well, I stand corrected. :p