Firstly, worrying to hear about the hacking of the forums, im upgraidng mine as i speak due to it also being phpbb2 based.
Anyway, this is something a little different for you. I'm currently working on a game (usual opening line
) which of course will use the Irlicht engine in combination with audiere and ode (proven successful integration). It's in the early stages (planning, storyboarding, setting of geo-politcal climate, etc). But things are approaching the stage of implementing the initial tech demos (make sure the concept will work before taking it to the full). But before we can continue I have hit a slightly interesting design decision.A fundamental part of the game is trains and tracks. But the "how" is leaving me hanging. There are a number of different abstract methods for implementing trains and tracks but I don't know which may be the best, or maybe there are other proven methadologies that I should be looking into instead.
Knowing that the many users of irrlicht are generally quite intelligent people from all number of backgrounds I thought I'd put it to you
Two possible approaches I have been musing over include:
1. Use ODE and do it in realisitc physics with the joints, surfaces, all real. This would work properly but may be a huge drain on the CPU. But it would ensure that each carriage behaved correctly as it was pulled/pushed by the connected carriages. I could even go to the extreme of modelling the engine itself and having the whole system modelled physically. (I'm using steam engines so it may be possible)
2. Paths and path following. Splines and points. This is fine for a single point, but trains have so many points that must be kept on the path in a certain relationship that I don't really have the foggiest idea where to begin here.
Im possibly looking too narrowly at the problem and have missed the blindingly obvious
Any suggestions, however simple, are all really really appreciated. Once development reaches basic playable alphas I'll be sure to keep people here posted
(although it may take some time, this strikes me as a slow but steady kind of project)Many many thanks,
Ben
Oh, once anything reaches publication status it will be found on the site:
www.bensherlock.co.uk
Although there isn't anything but a vague allusion to a large project on there at the moment
[edit]
Changed the subject title, Railways alone means nothing to anyone :S
[/edit]