my carrier command world?

[sammy junior]

Hi

Is irrlicht a good answer to this project:

You remember carrier command for amiga/atari in the late 80s? The world i need is in 3d, pretty huge, a vast sea with scattered islands. Some ships, aircrafts, land vehicles. I will add projectiles like missiles.

I need it to be pretty uncomplex. Add simple meshes, no animation, but need to rotate airplanes, turn turrets etc. Some kind of explosions. Crisp graphics and shaders and poop are not important.

Would some other engine be more suitable? Ideas? Irrlicht?

Thanks
Sammy J

[Guest]

In my opinion it should handle it with no problems. The only hurdle I can see for you would be the learning curve of this API and if you don't know the 3d math for the physics of it, the learning curve for that too.

[sammy junior]

But is there any alternatives with lesser learning curve? It really needs to be in 3d otherwise this idea wont fly. Other free 3d engines out there seems much more complicated (but has more features) to get started with. Couse is there any GAME engines i could use that includes more stuff then irrlicht? And if the stuff in such an engine is only added sound it wont help as soundsupport is not a problem for me.

Thanks

[Sammy junior]

Another q:

How would you do such a world? I mean i need no collosion detection with the water-surface, as its always at the same height (if z<0 = you hit water), but it needs to be drawn (all the way to the "horizon") and all the islands could probably be low-quality heightmaps, but is that easy to manage if i have 20-50 islands all over the map? I would prefer if the islands could have some kind of topography, like hills etc.

Maybe each unit/projectile could know only the closest island, so not forced to take them all in consideration when calculating collision etc?

How advanced physics would be necessary? For ship-propulsion, shells falling, missiles accelerating i have a system. But some nice aircraft moving with banking and stuff its much more complicated...

As you understand, im not a 3D pro...

Thanks for your support.
Erik

[Sammy J]

Any comments on my architecture plan? Several hightmapped island? Better plan to present the sea then having an enormous animatedwaternode (i know, very cpu heavy)?

[kickBack]

You can have wery low detailed water scene node an scale it very large...