Introduction

I hope that you're reading this because you've run the simulator and are interested in the nitty-gritty details of how it's been implemented. Consequently, I also want to point out some of the areas that I can imagine being improved (before you do!) - encountering these issues has taught me a lot.

The history of this project is that it started out as a brief experimentation with OpenGL (with a laptop during a camping holiday in France!). I've always had an interest in numerical simulations, and I wanted to be able to visualise some of the things I'd been thinking about. I was also intrigued as to how well aircraft could be represented a collection of independent aerofoils. Subsequent development has been continuous and incremental, and on the way I have learned more than I ever though I would about rendering, aerodynamics, physics simulations, and general programming/game design. One of the things I've learnt is that this simulator does pretty well all of these things "wrong"! Even though it has been my sand-pit for experimenting, I think that the end result works well - it certainly does more than I ever thought it would.

Now I know what I have done wrong, I also have many ideas about how to do things better. What follows is a critical discussion of some of these issues.

Physics

Graphics

Robot glider AI

Networking

General structure

So, I have been learning all the time whilst working on this project. I know that whatever I do next, with this or a different project, I will build on what I have learnt, and there will be a whole host of new, exciting things to find out about!