Cinema 4D air combat simulation

[mikeb]

Last year i made a flight simulator in Cinema 4D. Recently i made a bunch of aircraft for a huge stills based project. Now i'm a bit in the mood for something more complicated, and animated.

When i was a kid i used to program games (back in the days of the ST & Amiga). Now I'm thinking of programming (the basics) of an air battle.

I'm well versed in aviation techniques & tactics, it's weather or not i can code it anymore, so i might be asking for some advice soon.

At first i'm going to put on paper the list of questions & criteria a fighter pilot would constantly be thinking. Then the list of his responses.

Only then will i know if it'll be worth the amount of time this would take to do..

In the mean time here is a picture of one of my planes, that needs no introduction..

[visualtricks]

Its a very nice model and a cool render, hope to see it in action soon ! :)

[flowbox]

very very good.. I like it

can't wait to see the video

[mikeb]

I'm gonna try my best..

Now for my first question. The collision operator in xpresso, it only sees collisions with its outer surfaces. Not internal existence.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to check if an object is inside a closed polygon mesh?

[mikeb]

So here is my very first test, just the basic flight model tested against itself. It's still a bit bumpy with certain variables like speed & rudder control still turned off.

Mainly done with c4d's xpresso (with a small touch of c.o.f.f.e.e). Head breaking stuff but the first hurdle is passed. Whats nice is that the simulation already puts both the planes in a flat scissors maneuver towards the end..

www.doghouseanimations.com/c4d%20dogfight%2001.mov

Next up smoothing things out and getting statistics on the aircraft taken into the equation, weight, rate of climb, top speed & even pilot skill.

Then will come the really difficult stuff like tactics, shooting, damage and target selection!

[mikeb]

So i've been busy with all kinds of things, working many aspects of this project at once. Not least being the rekindling of the way to make clouds thread thats been going on on cgtalk..

Back to my simulation. I have added a better proxy model & got the control surfaces working. I have also got everything to scale & got my (entire) flight model working with the auto pilot.

The speeds, turn circles, climb and roll rates are now based on the information i found here:-
http://www.spitfireperformance.com/spit1vrs109e.html

I used mograph as well to throw a load of static balls in the sky. Giving a better sense of movement..

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/c4d%2 ... t%2002.mov

[mikeb]

So in the shot i thought i'd test out my xpresso pilots prowess as a wingman.

I have also made the pilots aware of negative g stopping fuel to the engine in a spitfire (though not the fuel injected me109's). And made the pilots try and keep their target in view.



http://www.doghouseanimations.com/c4d%2 ... t%2003.mov

Next up gunnery, tracers, convergence and deflection..

[mikeb]

So, no bells or whistles here. Just basic pilot thinks he'll hit the target and shoots his guns. Everything is to scale, the tracers travel at the correct speed & i set the convergence of the guns at about 150 meters, to keep it looking interesting.

The tracers are black (and not presently much fun to look at) so you can see them better.

The hardest part (which isn't visible in this test). Is that the pilot recognizes the motion of travel, leading a target & an understanding of ballistic effects. Like trying to fire water from a hose and hit a running target.

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/gunnery%20test1.mov



Now i've got this up and running i have a new respect for any pilot that got rounds on target. It's like throwing a bullseye from a boat on a rainy day, whilst being slapped with a large fish.

[mikeb]

Though i did more than i have shown here, these tests have to be moth balled for a while as the project (i was putting this together for) fell through.

I do intend on coming back to this but need to go where the money is for a while..