rec.autos.simulators

the following to the still living "Do we want three new F-16 sims? No, we
want..." thread, in the comp.sys.BLABLABLA.flight-sim newsgroup

    Is anybody interested in a public domain 3D sim engine?  Applicable
to flight sims, racing sims and similar sims?  Only hitch I can think of
is that it would have to be written by the public.  

    Is there enough of a community within comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim
and/or rec.autos.simulators and other newsgroups to pull off a Linix like
effort?  

    I write programs for a living, and I know I'm not the only one.  Other
readers of this group have other talents.  Do "real" pilots and race
drivers, visit these newgroups.  If you know how to turn on a computer, and
if you do more with your life than fly and race sims all day and night, you
probably have something that you can contribute.  I hate eliminating ALL of
the EF2K pilots with that statement.  I didn't put "EF2000" in the title,
so they won't be reading this anyway.

    Let me confess my greedy motive.  I want to gain some experience in
some of the disciplines related to flight sims.  I'm hoping a few smart
people will be involved, so I can suck up some of their knowledge.  I sell
my skills on the open market and I want to make more money.  

    Last week someone posted in rec.auto.simulators about tractor pull
competition simulators.  I don't think I read it, but if someone is
interested, I would like to be able to point them at a set of tools to
build their own.  Didn't I hear that Andy Hollis/Origin/Jane's are working
on a truck and tractor pull sim?  

    3D processors can, or soon can, generate texture maps, in perspective,
add haze, anti-alias and do similar tricks, in hardware.  While these will
be expensive, think of the weeks of development time they can save.  These
are the "Six Guns" of our times.  they will make all men, and women, equal.  
Of course, there are people with the skills to duplicate these feats in
software.  

    Want a sim for OS/2 or Linix?  Take the 3D core source and build your
own.  

    DID, Papyrus, SH, MPS and Origin are smarter than us, but we have them
outnumbered.  

    Or maybe this is a dumb idea.  

    Good luck Suzanne.  Keep us posted.  

                                                                 Thanks
                                                                 Larry

We intend to be able to simulate 2-wheel and 4-wheel vehicles, eventually
with a full 6 degree-of-freedom physics model and 3D graphics. This is a
community effort with everyone volunteering their time, and the source code
will be freely available.

There are currently about a dozen volunteers who are participating in the
design. We could use someone with a strong physics background, but anyone
with an interest, C++ programming experience and some spare time is
welcome.

You can find out more about the project at http://www.io.org/~tfma/rars2/
or you can contact me by email if you want to volunteer. When the project
is complete, we will post an announcement here to invite participants in
both the programming and non-programming classes.

Dave