Technical information

[mAIOR]

Hi. I recently tried PWCG and it is a game changer. Really love what was done here. I wanted to know if this project is open (as in open source). The reason I ask is that I would love to take a look at the code and are if I can add ground forces to it. Since we have playable tanks, it would be awesome to have a campaign as a tanker.

[PatrickAWlson]

Apologies for the delayed response.  I was away on vacation for a bit.

 

I am pretty open to letting people have a look at the code.  it's about 50K lines of code across 500-600 objects.  All Java with absolutely no external dependencies, so it drops and runs with only a Java install.  Similarly you can unzip the code into Eclipse, import the project, and you have your IDE set up in 5 minutes.  No tracking down dependent JARS because there are none.

 

That's the easy part.  The hard part is the mission building and campaign maintenance logic.  I have to play within the rules set by BoS - i.e. missions have to conform to strict standards.  I have let people have a look in the past but the success rate has not been there.  Unfortunately I do not have the time to assist, so you would be on your own.    

[mAIOR]

Apologies for the delayed response. I was away on vacation for a bit.

 

I am pretty open to letting people have a look at the code. it's about 50K lines of code across 500-600 objects. All Java with absolutely no external dependencies, so it drops and runs with only a Java install. Similarly you can unzip the code into Eclipse, import the project, and you have your IDE set up in 5 minutes. No tracking down dependent JARS because there are none.

 

That's the easy part. The hard part is the mission building and campaign maintenance logic. I have to play within the rules set by BoS - i.e. missions have to conform to strict standards. I have let people have a look in the past but the success rate has not been there. Unfortunately I do not have the time to assist, so you would be on your own.

Thanks for tge reply. Hope you had a nice time on your hollidays.

 

I will take a look into it then as I really like your tool and if tanks were in... Damn... I am also curious to see how you managed the AI to only appear when in a player radius. I wonder if it could be used in mp servers.

I know little of Java but, I want to learn a new language so it might be an interesting project ^^

 

Btw, started a Russian campaign flying the I 16 and it is quite a different feeling than my German (bf110 - currebtly my favourite) and Italian campaign. While in the others I get annoyed due to lack of kills, here, surviving is enough.

 

One question, in the mission parameters, my waypoints were set to about 4K which is outside the plane's optimal engagement. When we faced 109s f2 at those heights in numerical inferiority we were blown to bits. If I set the waypoints lower in future missions, will that effect the spawn of enemy aircraft?

[PatrickAWlson]

I had some thoughts around tanks.  It should be possible but it is probably hundreds of hours of work to do it.

 

I invented the "virtual waypoint" that allows a plane to move without being on the map consuming CPU.  A virtual waypoint is a package of MCUs centered around check zones, timers, enable and disable.  A plane is represented by a virtual WP with a check zone that will trigger on proximity to player.  If it triggers then the plane spawns at the virtual WP location.  Each virtual WP is timed.  If it does not trigger before it times out then it is disabled, the next virtual WP is enabled, and so on until the end.  The time of life is calculated by the distance between virtual WPs and the speed of the plane.  The virtual WPs follow the exact path of the actual WPs, but are much more densely packed - i.e. there are many virtual WPs between each actual WP.  

 

The check zone is a cylinder, so changing altitude will not change enemy spawning.  Enemy planes will spawn above you if you lower your altitude, but they will still spawn as usual.  Not a problem for fighters because the AI is stupid and happy to come down to you.  Definitely an issue if the enemy is bombers because they will continue to fly on, and you will be below them in a slow plane.  Probably a situation that many a real I16 pilot found themselves.