ja_koniga

I am currently trying to bash out a very simple prototype for LGP, and as I do so, I am running into a few problems. These generally spring from my ineptitude in the area of programming, but I do know what I want, and how to get there...it's just difficult :)

The hurdle I am now facing is the lovely task of finding the x and y position of the intersection point on two lines. Basically, I need the ray of light to be bouncing off faces, with the character controlling the position and rotation of the beam. I thought that it wouldn't be too hard at first, and it isn't in theory, but the line intersection code is, as I remember from similar attempts previously, kind of difficult to get your head around, especially after a rowdy night and one too many shots of brandy (side note - I am bad at guessing if the next card will be higher or lower). I have found suitable algorithms, and a doc or two on the formula needed, so hopefully the implementation won't be too long away. I am confident of handling the reflection, falloff, and other such things, as they will essentially be variables doing their thing. This is a simple screenie of what I have so far. It's very basic. Note the cube being the character, the line being the beam of light, and the sphere on the end is the width of the beam. It can be changed with the mouse wheel.

Also, I jumped into Blender 2.49 and, using the game engine for the first time, attempted to make a bit of a prototype for us to geeze at. It came out really nicely! I hadn't used the game engine for anything previously, and I am very impressed at the power and ease of use. I haven't got my head all the way around it yet, but enough to make a rather spiffy looking thing with movement and the such. The light on the end of the arm casts shadows, and is a rigid body joint, so it has full physics attached to it. Pretty fun to mess around with! The arm rotates too.

I am hoping to have a little more progress to report on this in the near future.

Stay tuned!

Zac