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<p>Well, after a long day of reading all about physics libraries and whatnot, I've not only settled on a physics API (<a href="http://ox.slug.louisville.edu/%7Eo0lozi01/opal_wiki/index.php/Main_Page">OPAL</a> - the Open Physics Abstraction Layer) but also started on integrating it with the game.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/38367409@N02/3537976581/" title="2007-01-04 by b.hymers, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2446/3537976581_f0a36911cb.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="2007-01-04" /></a></p> <p>I've got the basics done - that is, representing each house as a physical entity, linking this up to the graphical entity and replacing the old control scheme - but there's still a lot to do. The island doesn't exist in the physical world yet, so houses that aren't attached fall straight through it, as you can see in the screenshot! It looks like the this is going to be the hardest part, since it's not easy to represent physically - it's a completely arbitrary mesh, which OPAL won't like very much. Houses are currently represented as cubes, and won't be much more complex than that when they're done since OPAL generally likes only primitive shapes.</p> <p>There's also lots of other stuff - houses falling over, attaching them to the island, and so on - but it seems OPAL is actually fairly easy to use, so I expect I'll have something quite interesting to muck about with by the end of today. The balancing of the island may take a little longer though, since I'm not sure that a completely realistic approach will be very fun to play.</p> <p>Once I've got the physics done, and the Island tilting and whatnot, I'll package up what I've got and post a download somewhere. The first alpha version is on its way :)</p>
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cities-in-the-sky
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