Saturday, 13 April 2013

New sprint cycle - Data extraction

This week saw me starting on a new sprint cycle of development (I've been contaminated by Agile "terminology" at work). I fixed some outstanding shader bugs and will be updating how the game launches this week. After a bit of an absence from the main build, coming back to Combat-Helo's cockpit was "wow", someone should really finish this and ship it. What more inspiration do you need?

It also highlighted the problem in that I couldn't remember how to operate the sensors, accidentally stowing and powering off the FCR in an attempt to switch back to ground FCR mode :/

I've never been happy with the stand-in grunt to run around in first-person mode to get to game functions, jumping back to the original design of the 'gods eye' view of the base, this seems both faster, more intuitive and (lets face it) a lot less work.

xRTML Debugging

To speed up development I'm integrating some remote debugging features in the form of IBTs xRTML (Extensible Real-Time Multiplatform Language) technology courtesy of "Spac3Rat" and technology evangelist (also known as Sèrgio). I was finally persuaded by a combat-helo moving map demo he wrote and sent to me. Much impressed by this map in a web-browser (works on tablets too) I've added JSON functions to combat-helo which will push out pretty much anything we want from my instance of the game. So all flight model, AI and waypoint data will eventually be pushed, just to see how far it will go.

SpaceRat's browser based real-time data app
One of the problems I've had during development is getting at simulation data while the game is running. Mostly this is a display issue, real-time watching of HTR and sensor variables on screen tends to make everything hard to see. Putting it onto a kneepad real-time seems like a win-win as this can be used in the released game for all kinds of cool stuff I can leave end users to play with.

I hope to bring you a link so you can watch test flights around the map in real-time in Google Chrome real soon. Won't be thrilling but at least you'll know when I'm working, or not working :)


Enough chatter. Back to the sprint.
Posted by Numfundle at 13:52

15 comments:

  1. Pavel13 April 2013 at 20:54

    Hi Richard! Im happy to see next updates od CH development. Good luck with that! I had to delete my previous post. Some typos there. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Numfundle13 April 2013 at 21:29

    Thanks Pavel. See me on Google+ for the odd screen-shot and short video.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pavel16 April 2013 at 14:46

      Awesome, man! Cant wait. I like the shot of Apache above the trees. Looks very real. It would be great only to fly that thing, even without engaging stuff. ;-)

      Delete
  3. Unknown14 April 2013 at 15:34

    Given Elite: Dangerous success on Kickstarter, wouldn't that be a viable option for you? There is a chance that you could receive decent funding through that site.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Numfundle14 April 2013 at 21:22

      Very nearly went that route last year. Not discounting the possibility after the initial release to fund the full game or DCS mod.

      Delete
  4. Ken15 April 2013 at 12:56

    Holy crap! It has been 12 years since I last recall the name Richard Hawley.

    I have since gotten a head of grey hair, travelled the world, flown real helicopters (well I did one lesson). And got my pilots licence (paraglider heh)

    I found my old EECH CDROM as I was clearing out my house (I'm moving East in the next 6 months) and it sparked in my brain..... hmm I wonder what became of it..... and hope it did not get duke nuke'em forever'd.

    You may remember me as the guy who:

    Was trashing you about helicopters and about how variable fighters like the JSF which would evolve into Macross style Valkarie battle mechs would make the combat helicopter obsolete. Guess I was wrong eh? ;)

    Good to see the project is still on going.

    Regards

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Numfundle15 April 2013 at 15:00

      Golly. Technically it's a different project but what the heck. Tried to escape the old name and failed. I do vaguely remember something about a Macros discussion which is remarkable considering I forget peoples names today. My hair is going grey now.

      As I remember a few Kens over the years I'll need more clues (sorry).

      Delete
    2. Ken16 April 2013 at 08:44

      Jog your memory?

      "Its my fault the fuel isn't properly implemented in EECH, get a fuel leak, bird runs out of fuel and keeps flying."

      "When you get a fuel leak how about some fire trails like Die Hard?"

      "There will not be fire trails like the movies *roll eyes*"

      "I wrote a huge amount about how helicopters have advantages on the battlefield, then deleted it... you made me break my UN spacy mug."

      "I doubt we'll see a GERWALK JSF in our life times."

      "So let me get this straight? You'll need to be a certified apache pilot to be able to play this?"

      *Roll eyes*

      "I sure hope so!"

      "Can we shoot down ejected hokum pilots? We got to shoot down ejected pilots in EF2000, EAW and TAW, what about catching them in our rotors?"

      *rolls eyes*

      Delete
    3. Numfundle16 April 2013 at 09:51

      I can't tell, was I being a dick? In which case I apologize.

      As it happens, we have pretty good movie like fire trails.

      Delete
  5. Unknown16 April 2013 at 05:53

    You'd get a huge backing for a DCS mod! Would be great once they get seat sharing in multiplayer.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unknown16 April 2013 at 09:44

    It's great to see some progress again, Richard!

    I really hope that Combat Helo will be released one day as a standalone title. Keeping my fingers crossed.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ken20 April 2013 at 10:16

    Quite the opposite, it was me being the dick! Har har.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Numfundle20 April 2013 at 18:03

      I'm sure it was all tongue in cheek. There's a company in Japan planning on selling real mecha. So I guess it's actually going to happen.

      Check out http://suidobashijuko.jp/

      Delete
  8. Paolo20 April 2013 at 22:14

    Hey Richard! So good to read this! :D
    Keep the faith.

    ReplyDelete
  9. PatM23 April 2013 at 11:45

    Hi Richard, brilliant to see you are "back at it" hope you keep it stand alone, would be a pity for CH to become "assimilated" suddenly having visions of the borg

    Cheers

    Pat

    ReplyDelete

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