26/11/06
- Not a lot has been done to the sim for the time being, I'm working on a physics editor for the Aerodynamics. This allows editing of the flight characteristics of the stuff you can fly in DD, all with a prety 3D interface. You can manipulate stuff graphically or using numbers in dialogs. It makes creating planes for DD a doddle.
11/6/06
- Double Delta now supports the Z800 VR headset from eMagin. You can look around fully as the support is built into the sim, no mouse emulation used. The Headtracker does tend to drift though, so maybe some tests using the trackIR system with the headset are needed, this would mean you can move your head around to peer around the structure of the plane. As it stands it's pretty good, especially with the steriovision, you can tell just how high above the ground you are on landing. {8¬)
14/5/06
- Work slowly continues, some new screenshots here.
28/1/06
- Still things going on, shapes and stuff.
23/10/05
- Some serious work completed on the viewing system. The viewpoint has some physics properties now so when you're flying along, the turbulence really shows up as the delta moves around. Gives a surprisingly good feeling of flying!! Also a bit more texturing has been done.
21/08/05
- Slowly... ever so slowly work continues. Instant replay system now works with VCR style controls.
13/06/05
- New home for DXDD at http://doubledelta.org.uk setup with a feedback form and a Newsletter to get the latest on this sim. Meanwhile in the coding corner, the terrain engine is still undergoing it's revamp. It should look quite real when the raised objects are working.
30/05/05
- Some options added to the physics model to change the type of aircraft.
03/05/05
- The landscape engine continues to evolve... Ya can see for blimin' miles now.
The simulation is now pretty much to scale (speeds and altitudes) and is a lot smoother since I fiddled with the timestep size manager for ODE. The collision detection was in a shambles too, so with some optimizataion I can now comfortably run at 130FPS instead of 60. Profiling code works wonders {B¬)
19/02/05
- updated the demo video here.
13/02/05
- Some work on the Net code and a few tweeks on the user interface, steady progress...
14/01/05
- Still there...? Terrain engine still under development when spare time permits, lot's of optimisations are being implimented with good results. Update in the links area to a very usefull site for coders. In the meantime enjoy the Cassini - Huygens mission stuff http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm There, that gives me atleast 4 years to do the next release of Doubledelta. {B¬)
14/08/04
- Rest assured, those who have interest, that this project has not died, much is going on, but is not available for release.... The landscape is becoming more lifelike and will incorporate hills and stuff so the current effort is going into the terrain engine. I'll stick some more videos up if anyone bothers to post something.... hell anything, on THE FORUM......
28/06/04
- Few updates to the web site to make it a bit more friendly.
09/06/04
- At long last!!! You have guns!!!! Very basic at the moment, no scores being kept. You can bump the enemy around a bit if your aim is bad, reduce his fuel if your aim is a little better and snap the wings off if ya aim is good. Not sure how easy it is so don't be afraid to post your comments on the forum.
06/06/04
- Magically, web site updates are working again, shame there's not been a lot of updating of DD tho... Multi-player works nicely now, There are 2 more keys to use, "[" and "]" allow you to choose which of the other players you want to select. A target appears around them so you can aim, and their details will be shown on the instruments. You may have to press SHIFT when the game boots up, in order to define the above two keys. You'll only need to do this the once for this version. Another nice touch is that in the options screen, you can now set the colour you want your Delta to be. This makes it a little easier for working out who you want to shoot at, err... when the weapons are done that is. Simple guns on the way...... {B¬)
31/05/04
- There's plenty of work still going on with this, it's just that this site has been difficult to update recently for some reason.... Fixes have been started for multi-player, you can now have more than 2 people flying and when there's some work done to the code to tidy it up, weapons will be started.
19/04/04
- Sound problems are now sorted and a new replay format has been introduced. XP don't crash anymore, which is nice... Some timings have been sorted so the animation is a bit smoother, and a frames per second limiter has been added to the options screen, this gives a smoother simulation. More data is sent across the network for multi-player games so it's a bit more immersive You can move the Tower view about to watch how you managed that perfect landing :-)
14/04/04
- Grafix Engine is now working fast, however there are few things left to fix, XP systems crash sometimes when running DD due to timing issues. Replays have speed control and there are a few more Options available. The Delta has a texture now. Few more tweaks to the flight physics and lots more stuff going on behind the scenes. Weapons are on the cards in the near future when I can test more than 2 players.
04/04/04
- Re-coding of the grafix engine is almost complete. Options to choose Software or Hardware transform and lighting are working, the system defaults to hardware when first run, this can run really slow for some reason on some systems, so if the frame-rate is low, press F9 to go to the options screen and enable the software transforms. Frame-rates have doubled on the dev system :-) Specular highlights are now working so the Delta looks nice and shinny. The next feature will be reflections of the sky and ground.
25/03/04
- Major re-coding of the graphics engine is in progress, this should up the frame rate when complete, currently it's WIP and actually reduces it.... Work on the Options screen continues and is the biggest update for now...
29/02/04
- Apart from being that 1 in 4 years day, a little work has been done on the replay system, old replays won't work anymore, but the new replays work better across different systems.
22/02/04
- Some improvements to the shape of the Delta and Multi-player Text messages now work. Online Manual started.
21/02/04
- Some more work is going on to the code behind the scenes, nothing worth releasing yet, but there's some pikkys up from some of the Flying I've done. {B¬)
15/02/04
- The wings break when over stressed. {B¬) Work on game options started. Fuel load effects flight, landing off runway causes crash.
09/02/04
- Some final tweaks to the flight model, runs at a nice speed now, text fixed as it was showing up wrong on some systems.
08/02/04
- Proper implementation of the frame timer so the sim speed is consistent across all systems.
07/02/04
- A Forum has been setup and is available from this page.
04/02/04
- This web site setup.
Various/12/03
- Tweaking of the code and added some other DirectX features like sound, DirectInput and DirectPlay.
Whenever/11/03
- Some physics were added to simulate flight using a splendid library called ODE and some reference material from here and here.
10/09/03
- First development started with some tests of Direct3D and some simple models using reference from here, here, but mostly from here.
