Opening Ceremonies

Ok. For all two of you that may even look here, I decided to give a central location to check for updates, rather than having to look in email all the time.

So. To get started, you will need to install Panda3D. This is the game engine that everything runs against. It is pretty simple. Go to:

http://www.panda3d.org/download.php

I am not using 1.6.0 as it is not entirely stable yet. Instead, scroll down and find version 1.5.4 and download that. it is about 57 MB

Next, run the installer and leave everything as default.

Finally, create a dircetory off of your C: drive called SpaceFlight

This will result in a directory called C:\SpaceFlight

Because I have to create a shortcut to run the file, I need to make sure that everyone uses the same directory to run from. This is where any downloads that you get should go into.

I will have a link to something to download for you pretty soon. The first sample will be nothing more than testing out the flight controls. Currently, I have the following implemented.

Accelerate = a
Decelerate = z
full stop = q
reset position to starting point = x
quit the program = Esc
zoom in and out = mouse wheel

Steering the ship is done by moving the mouse around in the main window. I will probably have it modified to require that the mouse button is held down to steer before I release. The world consists of a planet and a row of 150 asteroids all nicely lined up to provide visual feedback for relative motion.

Once it is posted, test the flight controls and please leave feedback on what you think. This is when I want to work out problems in sensitivity, etc. This version only implements the smallest ship, so it is far more maneuverable than what any upcoming capital ships will end up being.

Thanks again for helping with the testing. I hope that you find something interesting to play with eventually.

--Joe