Sounds great..

Carl... I have thought this for a long while .... with all that experience.. and it has been done by others too. War Birds (flightsim).. I think was developed by enthusiasts over about 3 years.. now it is a great sim... I truly believe we can do this. Develop and GENERIC physics engine.. Modelling things like.. Tire Grip, Air Resistance, Downforce, Engine power, suspension movements.. etc... There are soooo many.. and it is a big task. but then look at some of the other tasks / projects going on . things like the Track Editor Project by Paul Hoad.. a great thing.. now a fanastic project... has taken a long time. and a lot of work... If we can channel these things into a single project. starting off very basic.. and making it generic to allow for ppl to develop their own Cars.. Tracks... and ultimately Leagues... Like I said.. this is a big task... MASSIVE.. but everyone can help.. from the coding.... graphics. sounds... physics values and modelling.. and even just plain game testing.... Myself.. I have VERY little experience with programing.. (basic VB and C++) and wouldn't really be able to help.. but I know a bit about sounds.. graphics. etc.. and I know HEAPS about race car physics.. and how a car physics work and should be modelled.... so do many others... Anyway, enough said. we need a web page to promote it.. and b4 we start.. we need to "sit down and think" about exactly how we are going to attack this.... Personally I believe that a Generic Physics Engine would be the best thing to attack. maybe modelling a (200bhp, 1,000 KG's, Average Grip) Saloon car.. From there.. most of us will be able to relate to it. and the development would be relatively easy (yeah right :-)...... We need lots of help from anyone.. lets hear from you.. what can YOU DO FOR IT????????? :-) James Pickard, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA

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> Are there anybody interested in developing a GNU-licensed RacimSim? > Or rather a ground to build several sim's. > I been thinking about this for a while, and I thought I might as well share > it. > Have you heard about Flight Gear? > It is a flightsim, developed by enthusiasts, for any platform. You have to > compile the source yourself.. (in Linux that is) > I thought this would be a great way of getting the 'perfect' auto-sim. > I know there are many skills out there; peoples with ideas, people with > opinions, people with graphic knowledge, system engineers, and hackers. > Of couse this isn't done easily. Of course some will steal the code. Of > course some will talk bad about it. > It doesn't matter. Because I think it can be so good. > This can be an ongoing project for a long time. I know I'm not in a > hurry(who knows if GP3 will ever see daylight). > What I do know is that it gives us an opportunity to make things the way we > want it. Think about it. > Today there are a lot of people writing programs to edit sim's, change the > cars, the physics and so on. If theese people (you, us), gather and make > something toghether, what could we achieve? > I think first, if there's any interest, the physics model would be modeled. > Next, it's iteraction with the surroundings. And later an interface to it. > I know I don't care that much about fancy menues, but what I do care about > is a good physics model, good AI and a fancy car. > The coolest part is, If we make a solid ground to this 'RacingEngine' we > could easily, by just changeing a few values, make either F1 sim's or Rally > sim's. > Think about it. > It won't pay you a penny, but we could have a lot of fun and also learn alot > along the road. > Am I all wrong? Has somebody already tried? Couldn't it be done? > Tell me! > Carl Ribbeg?rdh

I think the modelling is the single most important task. This is why I think this NG is the best place to start this. There are so many voices about the physics in sim's here. If we have a good knowledge about how the parts in a car's chassis(is it spelled that way?) works and cooperate, and work out a good thought through model of how the objects(parts) influence each other, I think we would definitely have something to work with. What we also would need to have is a general discussion about physics, and how the outer forces will work on our car. As you said, we would also need a site to work as a place to gather our thoughts and progress. What comes to coding, I'm not good at it either. I know some C and C++, but no graphics programming. Also I know a little about VB and DAO... I don't think that the coding is such a big problem. I think that often theese kind of projects do need to stay on the paper a little bit longer than they usually do. Coding doesn't solve all problems. Rather the contrary. I think, if a code guru would start this, maybe this would go very fast to perform, but we would eventually stick with canned effects, because there was to little preparatory work. If you run as fast as you ever have done before, but in the wrong direction... About the code, my personal opinion is that it should be coded in a ansi-standardized way, without platform specific gizmos. C or C++, the latter preferably. Using other graphics engines than Direct X. Not that Direct X is a bad driver in any way, but it isn't that useful in either Mac or Linux. In the Linux community there are a lot of skilled programmers who I think could and would join up if this would be done seriously. Carl Ribbeg?rdh.