[RaceCarRiv]

I saw a screenshot from the Star fox thing and i was wondering how would you do this???

[Lynx]

You'd model a gigantic landscape, convert it like a normal FS ship into a *pof format file and insert it with with FRED mission editor. Of course it's kind of a hack since there's no gravity and you'll have to do some scripting to avoid the FS AI behaving stupid8or even more stupid since it behaves moronic to begin with). Sky can be done with a textured skybox or just normal beckground nebulas.

[RaceCarRiv]

So if you make a huge map and then you convert it to a pof and put it in a mission it will work?!  Wow I got to try this!!!

EDIT: what will i need to convert it to a pof and how can i make it so you can't target it?

[Hippo]

er... its not that easy...

[karajorma]

Check the FAQ for links (in the modding section). As for not targetting it make it ship-stealthy in FRED should do it.

[NGTM-1R]

FS2 ship speeds are measured in what, exactly...?

Because I just realized, if it's meters per second, then all you need to do is drop ship speed by 2 or 3 and claim it's being vectored at the ground to keep the ship airborne. Escape velocity for Earth is only 2.3 meters a second...

[StratComm]

Escape velocity of earth is much higher than that.  In the range of several kilometers per second.  But the force needed to counter gravity (the thrust being directed downwards) needn't be a high percentage of your total thrust if you don't want it to.

[Hippo]

it is indeed Meters per second, but escape velocity isn't so simple... You have to maintain a constant acceleration of 11m/s/s (meters per second per second ) to achieve escape velocity on earth... The velocity itself is in the kilometers per second for earth, not meerly 2.3m/s...




EDIT: Damn, you beat me to it...

[Lynx]

Fs ships speeds are measured by metres a second...which makes the ship about as fast as a Spitfire MK.II WW2 fighter.

And for all things I don't know, at least I know that Earths escape velocity is a hell of a lot more than 2.3 m/s.

[NGTM-1R]

Okay, then I'm insane. Pay no attention whatsoever.

[Falcon]

If I recall Milkshape 3d has a random terrain generator. Would that work?

[Carl]

i don't think he's asking how you would make the model. he's asking how you would get it into the game.

[StratComm]

Convert to cob (or SCN, or Max), convert to POF,  create table entry for  ground "ship", plop said ground into level.  Seems pretty simple to me

That's not counting the skybox, of course, but that could be accounted for simply by making the "ground" include a sky.

[Kie99]

Escape Velocity = Approx. 11km/s

[Flaser]

Thoug all that means is an obejct possesing 11km/s inertail energy is so fast, that the Earth won't be able to ennact enough pull on it to nullfy all its inertail energy.

Ergo unless that object hits a tree or burns up its speed in atmosphere it can leave the Earth.

Addendum - most spaceship or anything that left the Earth hadn't reached escape velocity. Instead their engine constantly outperformed Earth's pull until they reached orbit.

[Hippo]

yeah, escape velocity is that if something is launched strait up at that speed, disregarding any strange atmospheric occurances, it will escape the earth's pull...

[Flipside]

Acceleration due to Gravity is 9.8m/s^2 until you reach 'Terminal Velocity' downwards, though this speed would probably never be reached in a standard FS2 game. That's the problem, not changing how far you move the ship on it's y axis, but how often

I suppose it is technically feasible to do it with sexp's and variables, using 'countdowns' but I'm certainly in no fit state to start guessing where to begin with something like that.

And a WWII fighter did have escape velocity, what it lacked, however, was an engine capable of working on the lower levels of oxygen in the higher atmosphere. Hypothetically, if it's engine had not been dependant on atmosphere, and it's frame could have withstood the pressure, a spitfire or many other planes could theoretically have carried on flying into space.

[Axem]

Of course you could get around it all by saying your ship has repulsors or hover engines that negate the gravity when the ship is stationary or moving very slow. I mean it's a couple hundred years in the future, hover engines probably would've been invented and made standard in stuff like cars for everyday use and in fighters for taxiing purposes.

But if you're making a mod based on present day, or with not too distant future technology, then I'd see gravity as a problem.

[Blitzerland]

Originally posted by Flipside

And a WWII fighter did have escape velocity, what it lacked, however, was an engine capable of working on the lower levels of oxygen in the higher atmosphere. Hypothetically, if it's engine had not been dependant on atmosphere, and it's frame could have withstood the pressure, a spitfire or many other planes could theoretically have carried on flying into space.

Although I seriously doubt this is true, it is an interesting thought...

[StratComm]

People are seriously misunderstanding what "escape velocity" means.  It is the speed at which an object, with no force applied, will escape the pull of gravity from whatever object it is leaving.  No man-made object, to the best of my knowledge, has actually achieved earth escape velocity in one go.  Things have left orbit, but they did so by applying a continual force from the surface of the earth all the way into space.  Technically, if I took a brick and applied a continual force greater than the force of gravity on the object for all time, then I could take that brick all the way into deep space and beyond.  But that doesn't mean it had escape velocity when it was being pushed out of the atmosphere.

EDIT: I guess what I'm saying is that it's the force that's important.  If something can apply the force necessary to counter gravity's pull, then it can climb out of a gravity well.  While the engine is on, it accelerates upwards, when it cuts out the object will accelerate downwards.  Having an engine isn't a precondition to attaining escape velocity, and having an engine doesn't mean it's possible.