rec.autos.simulators

Hi Folks:

    A project I'm working on is ready for some animated 3D
graphics.  I'm kind of e***d about that.

    This is an instructional application, and the graphics
will be simple, so I believe this will be a good
introduction the topic.

    I need pointers to books and resources on the net,
I believe there is a newsgroup dedicated to this 3d
developers.

    People are always ***ing about something in their
favorite sim.  I wonder if there isn't talent enough in
RAS and the flight sim group to roll our own.  With a
nice client/server multiplayer architecture, physics
just the way we want, multiple monitors, even
abstracting the APIs for deployment to non-Windows
platforms.  I have no interest in flying against AI,
but those who care can tailor it to suit their needs.

    I'm guessing there would be some code common to both
a flight and racing sim.  People have built many plane
and race car models and terrains for existing sims.

    Just a thought.

                                                  Larry

http://www.racesimcentral.net/

    I like what has been done to the old Falcon 4.0 simulator by various
teams over the years. Once Micropose announced no more releases and released
the source code, real F-16 pilots got together with developers and have kept
it the most realistic combat flight simulator to date. Very little of the
original is still there. Granted, the learning curve of the sim is very
steep and will turn off people who expect a point and shoot ***
experience. You need to read the 400+ page F-16 training manual just to get
off the ground. This kind of thing could be done with N2003, but the current
holders of the code are somehow against it at this point in time. (Wasn't
the source code of N2003 released at some point? I really don't remember.
Maybe it was, but not legally). N2003 and GPL are, IMO, the most robust
simulators for modifications out there right now. Between the two, the
physics can be modified for almost any type of racing. I think it would
actually help with sales of a new release of either if the restrictions on
modification of codes were relaxed. I know that if some company wanted to
re-release a new version of Falcon it would go like hotcakes (as long as the
company kept the realism of the original). I always liked the way Papy
encouraged mods and even linked to them on their site. That flexibility of
having add-ons always kept us on the edge waiting for the next release for
the entire course of the sim. It certainly did not hurt the sales of
subsequent releases all the way to N2003 and GPL. We definitely have the
talent in the modding community to do almost anything with them, but the
current atmosphere seems to point to a gradual end of future improvements.
The GTP mod is a good example of what to expect when developers work hard to
give us a better racing experience. I know that the major problem with
racing vs. flight simulators is apples and oranges because of the extreme
cost of product licenses and labeling in racing today. With licenses for
tracks, automakers, sponsors and even drivers, it makes it very hard to
"roll your own" racing simulator.

Ed