Zatikon is back and free to play! https://www.chroniclogic.com/zatikon.htm
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Show posts MenuIf you have a crappy video card, like my TNT 2, or a Voodoo 3, you're not going to be able to do as much physics if you have to do more eyecandy. This is a cunundrum indeed.
I do think, however, that with some massaging of the graphics code, you could free up some GPU/CPU power for stuff like rippling water and hilly ground and god knows what else... I'm not certain that textures affect the rendering speed at all. They certainly won't eat up any processor unless you have like, a S3 VIRGE.
Bottom line, I'm already gonna go buy a new video card for this game, because the physics and video calculations can't both live on an Athlon 800 and a TNT2 Ultra. So, as far as I'm concerned, it's okay to throw in some nice graphics features to give my hot new GeForce 3 something to play with.
Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the strength and rigidity of the I-beam has been universally recognized. Also, a big plus of the "I" shape, very little problems with bending in one direction.
So, a graphical representation of stresses could just show red or blue on either side of the beam to indicate bending to one side or the other. This would look very slick to have the one beam all kinds of different colors in various patterns based on the different forces acting on it.
As to the difficulty of this, since ChronicLogic know a thing or two about physics, I don't think they'd have much trouble implementing this sort of physics.
Trying to make the HAV go around is kind of hard. It has no friction with the ground when you want to turn or stop, and the controls make it function somewhat like a helicopter i.e. counterintuitively.
In my opinion, it needs to either be a blimp, i.e. maintains whatever altitude you have it at, or an aeroplane, i.e. flies in the direction you are pointing, not upwards.
If you want to drop the HAV suddenly, then you could press some button to drop your gondola, or use an ejector seat or whatever and just have the HAV plummet into the ground at maximum speed.
That said, are we going to forbid our children from playing "Bomberman?"