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Newcomers DBPro Corner / space flight - seamless planetary transitions

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Vandetta
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Posted: 16th May 2003 12:19
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Hi, Im working on a space flight game right now and I want the player to be able to travel seamlessly between space and the planets surface. If you have ever played battle cruiser 3000 ad, this is the kind of transition I would like to avoid. In BC3000AD when you come close enough to a planet it drops to a cut scene of your ship entering the planet and then you appear over a landscape. I am aiming for a seamless transition similar to Elite First Encounters if you've played it, but am not sure how to go about doing this. Any ideas? Is it possible to wrap a matrix around a sphere? Help please thanks.
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DarkSith
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Posted: 16th May 2003 12:21
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Hmm... Take a look at the mouselook tutorial it uses a matrix inside a sphere. Obviously you'll need to make sure that the matrix can't be seen outside the sphere, maybe hide it until the player enters the sphere?

"He will join us, or die my Master..." - Darth Vader
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Vandetta
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Posted: 16th May 2003 13:05
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where is the mouselook tutorial?

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sicjoshsic
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Posted: 16th May 2003 13:08
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go to help, commands, input, mousemovex(), example

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Vandetta
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Posted: 16th May 2003 13:28
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ummm just had a look at the usage and showcase examples and there was nothing about matrixes in there

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Dave J
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Posted: 16th May 2003 17:33
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How I did this was when the player entered the atmosphere, it got foggy as if flying through clouds, when the fog cleared it they saw a matrix and could fly along the planetry surface.

Behind the scenes, I had a sphere for the planet, when player got within certain distance, gradually turn fog on, when they get to another certain distance, transport to a different position in the game where there are matrix's and gradually turn fog off.

"Computers are useless they can only give you answers."
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Vandetta
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Posted: 16th May 2003 23:24
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Hmm...that idea sounds pretty feasible, but I wonder what to do for planets that dont have an atmosphere. Also, how do you make it so when they reach one end of the matrix the player wraps back around to the other end?

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Dave J
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Posted: 17th May 2003 01:49
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For something like that, you actually need 9 Matrixes, positioned like this:

123
456
789

The player will always be on the middle matrix. So they start on 5, and when they go on 2, 789 move up and in front like this:

789
123
456

If they then move onto matrix 9, then the tiles must move up and right.

564
897
231

You also need to make the matrix's seamless, this is done by changing the height of each point around the matrix to equal the one next to it. This may be confusing but with variables to hold each position of the matrix then it's quite easy. I.e. There's a variable for the POSITION of the 9 matrixes.

"Computers are useless they can only give you answers."
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Vandetta
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Posted: 17th May 2003 02:14
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Ah, that matrix idea is ingenious, thanks...now how about the seamless transitions into planets without atmospheres. Any thoughts? Ideas? Thanks.

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sicjoshsic
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Posted: 17th May 2003 19:04
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you do it how exeat said, but blur the screen instead of fog, and somehow (speedometer, flames?) make it look as though the ship is going very fast (ie crossing the 'o-zone' layer, or whatever its alled on othr planets

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haXor
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Posted: 18th May 2003 01:24
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ANouther Idea, you could,as sic said, make flames, and then dim or brighten the colors and or make a flash or somthing

Sup Kids
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Vandetta
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Posted: 18th May 2003 08:41
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No, reread my post. I said whats a good idea to make a transition without an atmosphere The above method would work for transitions to planets WITH atmosphere but not without.

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The Darthster
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Posted: 18th May 2003 22:27
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I put some Elite-style flying code together the other night, so you can fly around in space and see planets from absolutely miles away (about 5,000,000 units). I'll try and modify that to let you land on and fly around the planets. The thing is, it is impossible to map the surface of a planet using a matrix, for the simple fact that matrices are square and planets aren't.

Once I was but the learner,
now, I am the Master.
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Vandetta
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Posted: 19th May 2003 00:25
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Hmmm let me know what you come up with, thanks.

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haXor
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Posted: 19th May 2003 23:41
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no, your can matrix a plaent. You can either make a bunch of matrixes and wrap them around a shpere, or have the same one repeated over and over again, and make sure that it looks good when linked to itself

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The Darthster
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Posted: 20th May 2003 00:57
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You can't map a square grid to a sphere, it just isn't possible. The planet has to be in another user-made model format. Actually, does anyone know anything about Bezier surfaces? I heard that Frontier uses them...

Once I was but the learner,
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Dixan Anips old
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Posted: 20th May 2003 15:24
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How about...

When approaching the planet (textured sphere I assume) you start to force the craft to assume a leveling off attitude i.e. as if the player is approaching the outer edge of the sphere. Then when they are at a certain distance and before they suddenly go thru the planet you fade a transition between the planet and the matrix made for the terrain. Obviously no code here from me just an idea. Maybe someone could knock up something quick from this to help.
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