Sorry for not posting for a few days... But now I wont be distracted by hl2 (finally managed to beat it on "hard", man I suck at FPS). Lets just hope I don't start playing episode1&2...
I have done some initial changes to the way rcx is compiled. I'm going to divide the files even more.
I've also been looking at how to get that extra level of rice-burning performance out of VBO:
* use "static vbo"s
* materials can
not be stored in vbo, instead store them in ram, and send each time. optimize: sort all parts of the model based on material, so each material is only sent once.
* don't store each model in a unique vbo, instead allocate a vbo around 8MB (or was it 4MB?), and fill it with models until no more space, then create one more (no unnecessary changing of vbos)
* interleave data (make the vbo contain an array of vertex data. each "block" of data contains one vertex, one lighting normal, one texture coordinate data, one parallax mapping data)
* each "block" in the vbo should be 64 bytes (add padding if needed)
* since interleaving, the system of indices from the obj file must be trashed: no indices, duplicate data where needed (might take up several more times of memory than with indices, but should give performance increases)
oh, well. the list of things to do never shrinks.
---
About loading several cars: rcx can already spawn several cars if they are loaded separately (different cars or two copies of one car). The new system will allow one car to be loaded once, and then spawned several times (= several Venom in one track, but different players).
yeah, could use the number keys.
Maybe you should use a rescale on the mass and the drag, then. Wink if it'll make the conf file make more sense.
Unfortunately, it will just prevent them from getting more confusing...
The thruster placement: I was hoping to make it possible to place them anywhere wanted (by specifying them in components.lst) so that they can match the car 3d model. And rcx would check (when loading car) that they are placed so that they can compensate for all rotations (if not, disable thrusters and warn). And the power of each thruster would be based on how far from the center of the car it would be placed (one far from center can add much torque with little force, so it doesn't need much power).
An alternative would to have 4 thrusters on each side, and specify their x and y positions much similar to how the wheel x and y position is specified in car.conf (in this case, the thruster_x+y should probably be placed in car.conf). But then all cars would be slightly similar. I know... all cars are limited to 4 wheels already, but, oh well. It would work for a start.
