Irrlicht Engine

hi guys,
I am currently working on a space combat simulator to learn programming a little better. I am obsessed with the DCS series of flight simulators, so i thought "why not make a space simulator?"
I try to make it pretty realistic and believable but with the space setting i have to make compromises for it to be fun. It is planned to be a tactical game where the engagements take place over large distances of lets say 100km or so.
You will have to manage the ships systems like radar, defensive systems, and of course the cannon.

It is still in very early stage and the progress will be slow since i dont have much freetime right now. But i have to say i fell in love with irrlicht: its just so easy to get into!

so heres a video of the gunnery basics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGOaMWJq ... ature=plcp

aswell as some pics:





critics and comments welcome

Looks like a fun project!

Make it work like in movies - that looks realistic enough for gamers :-) Although if you google for realistic space combat there are actually a few people who tried to think it through - not sure if it would make a fun game, but it's some fun to read about (mostly that nothing used in movies works like that in reality).

Nice! I really like this video, shadows looks perfect on the ship.
Looking forward to see more!

Holy impressive what physic engine are you using?

That's one nice ship.

@CuteAlien: Actually my intent is to make it not like in movies those slow flying lasers, magical shields and general unbelievability have always bothered me. For example the distance over which the ships fight. todays ship can engage each other over several hundred kilometers and in many scifi movies they fight over a couple of hundred meters, although that technology should be more advanced than ours.
but again im not saying my game is super realistic. i try to find the optimum between fun and realism/believability .

@kazymjir: thanks, much aprreciated

@Granyte: I have coded the physics myself but its not a full physics engine. it has only realistic translations, not rotations. that means that every rotation isnt't really calculated physicly correct. is is just approximated (its kinda hard to explain).
like a pre-baked animation with parameters (like angles) calculated when you give the order to rotate. that is a bit limiting but i can do everything i need.

@hendu: thanks! i worked very hard on the ship and that work is not finished yet. i thought: "when the ship doenst look good i cant keep me motivated". thats why i did that first and started from scratch several times.

it's a preatty nice solution if you don't need give direct control of the ship to the player.