Holidays - Finalisation

Today I finalised the documentation for my project, and in doing so I also finalised the entire major project. Today's main work included the external manual including the the FAQs, Help and Tutorial sections. I have also finalised the programming section in requirement with the documentation criteria, and as such have now finished the assignment.

Having finalised the assignment, this also concludes the log book, and as such this will be my final post on this blog. :-)

Holidays - Finished Compilation

Today I finished compiling my major project. This included finalising my project file including camera, editing the introduction taken from Birdfly Demo, inputing a start file, programming the plane rotations and allowing the user to reset the angles.

I wanted to also add in a multiplayer feature however this is no longer feasible because of memory space and time. If i were to install a multiplayer option, I feel that the files would crash rather than load the multiplayer option. I have tried a few demo versions of this, and the resulted crashes have come from minimal issues such as programming just the plane rather than its animations or controls.

I still have to finish the external documentation, especially the manual. If it is possible I would like to do this in the form of a brochure (i.e like an actual game module).

Holidays - Continual Progress

Over the last day and half I have continued compiling the final code. I have finished the music files, added acceleration and gravity to the plane as well as a reset button so that it is possible to level the plane. I have also worked out why the collisions were not working. For some reason it is a glitch only with one section of the terrain map and the collision actually does work apart from the mountain I was testing it on.

My next step is to put in a rotatentity to allow for wheel movement when on the ground. I have also started programming a start introduction file based on a program called 'birds demo'. I am also going to attempt to put in a multiplayer version at some stage.

Holidays - Continued Compilation

Today I continued to compile parts of the program for my major project and it is starting to look and feel like a flight simulator.

I was able to fix the texture of the plane (what had happened was an error is exporting from 3ds Max to a 3ds file), I have programmed the pitch and roll of the airplane (up, down, left, right) and I found a music file on the internet which has allowed me to have sound which moves with the planes animations (start, stop, running - against the propeller I programmed today).

I have also received an email from Mr. Harris stating that if I have time I am able to import other environments direct from other programs - as long as I note it in my documentation.

Continued Compilation

Today I continued compiling the program. I have fixed the sky by placing a colour modifier on the camera and I have re-animated a plane and imported it into Blitz. I am however having trouble with the texture on the mesh. No idea why.

I'm also exploring the idea of changing environment - I have asked Mr. Harris if I am allowed to use pre-existing sceneries to do this.

I have also researched camera manipulation and rotations in order to manipulate the plane.

Holidays - Initial Compilation

Today I began compiling the various bits of code into a major project programming file.

So far I have included the camera movements, lighting, terrain and texture, as well as the sky files (part of this code was copied [and acknowledged as being] from Mark Silby's castle demo.

I am currently having trouble blending the sky - the straight cut-off is not very attractive. Whilst unfortunate unless I perform a complete complicated skybox this is unlikely to change. It is also worth noting that professional games such as Flight Simulator overcome this problem by using a multitude of textures and sky layers (in essence a multi-layered skybox). This is not feasible for this program.

I was also having trouble with the collision entities but I think is because i was using a camera rather than an aeroplane.

Despite the difficulties I am still on track to finish the project in time.

Holidays - Download Bird Demo

Tonight I downloaded the bird demo we were shown in class. Im hoping that time permitting I can edit this in order to create an intriguing opening for my program.

First week of Holidays - Update of Log

Whilst I have not updated my log book I have been working on my project.

This has mainly been in the form of the different parts of animation and code which are necessary for the final project.

I have finished the plane and terrains and have also imported the terrain and plane into a preliminary program in order to ensure that they are working.

The next step is to incorporate these together into a major project. This should not be a problem as I have demo modules from earlier in the project whereby I incorporated the different parts.