User blog:C3PO the Dragon Slayer/Avian Hunt: June 25, 2008

Jume 25, 2008
The collisions system is temporarily on hold because of lack of a single function, the one that lets me rotate on a custom axis. This is not a big deal; Hanson has said he'd look into adding such a function into his DLL, so I'm just doing different things that need to be addressed.

First off, I'm making a DLL of my own in C++, which is essentially a rewrite of the vector system that is used to calculate the direction of the ships and lasers in 3D. This will hopefully make the engine much faster, and therefore make it easier for me to add many ships capable of dogfighting.

In addition, I'm finally switching to mouse controls, which is actually quite a challenge. I've been piloting this ship with three axes (pitch, yaw, and roll) using six keys ever since I've made the flight engine, and now I have to be clever and manipulate vectors so that both yaw and roll are controlled by just one axis. And even then, the roll vector can't rotate the up and right axes, so I have to hold new vectors for drawing, and old vectors for moving. It's very complicated, and I've been playing a lot of flight simulator games to figure it out. Battlefront II seems to roll gently toward the down orientation constantly, Star Fox Command uses only vertical and horizontal vectors (but draws the roll), and the Rogue Squadron series seems to be arbitrary, with some levels using one method, others using a different method. Observing this makes me wonder how on Earth Rogue Squadron games ever seemed so intuitive!

Finally, I'm adding a HUD that keeps track of health and boost and all that instead of time and specks of dust. Voice your opinion in the poll below, or contact me on my talk page. Which HUD format would you prefer in the game? AVHUD1 AVHUD2

AVHUD1 uses motifs from Battlefront II, and AVHUD2 resembles Star Fox Command. The advantages with AVHUD1 are that there is more room for messages, but a greater likelihood that they may interfere with a user's view. AVHUD2 distinguishes health and boost, which is good since a player will have to be clear on each, but since boost is used to evade fire, less attention is needed on both at once.