Tarvis: It could, but if the user has soundfonts set up as a MIDI device already, why not just use that instead? It would save having to locate them and configure it all over again

Azrapse: Hi. I developed a little prototype several months ago with flyable ships. They were not star wars ships, but models created by my own team for an unrelated indie project.
However, creating an entire game is way more work than focusing on remaking the flight engine of an existing game. We made some bad (at the moment) decisions, like using the Unity physics engine to model a more realistical space combat than the one in X-Wing.

The problem is that more realistic doesn't equal more fun, and also figuring doing something as simple as a homing concussion missile, or two ships docking while one is still moving, as seen in X-Wing, it's way more complex with a realistic physics engine where you need to account for linear and angular momentum and continuously correct the thrust applied in all directions. A headache.

That project is now on hold for other reasons (art assets responsible chickened out). So instead, for this one, I am moving to a simplified physics approach, just like the X-Wing series use and needs.

If you feel curious about what we had back then, this is one of the later builds of the flight engine. There is no story or anything. Just a few flightgroups, fighting in a team deathmatch.
The controls, during the development, were a mix of X-Wing's and Quake, so that someone could test the game by using their hands as they play a FPS.
W: Speed up throttle by 33%.
A: Rotate counterclockwise.
S: Slow down throttle by 33%.
D: Rotate clockwise.
ENTER: Attempt to match speed with target. It tries to keep it matched, unlike in XW series.
T: Select next target.
Y: Select previous target.
You move the ship with the mouse like in X-Wing and TIE Fighter DOS versions.

The game has several navigation aids that will not be used in this remake. You will identify them easily.
You will also identify some placeholder sounds taken from XvT.

In any case, I'm writing the flight engine for this XW project from scratch. It can already read the .XWI mission files so that I can test the engine with real life missions from the X-Wing installation folder or its CD. It has basic definitions for the different craft types, and programs all ships with their objectives, orders and other data.

Azrapse: It is not that I have been just planning. However I am approaching the development of the flight engine from a different direction than what I did with Ships On Fire. Instead of having something flyable as soon as possible, I am going for writing the code that takes care of simulating the mission and the AI of the different flight groups.

The reasons are two:
- Flying a ship requires the cockpit art and instrument panel definition work done. I don't want to program something to later scrap it with another thing, so I will program the player craft last.
- X-Wing missions are more than deathmatches. They have many events and triggers that rely on everyone following their choreography to the letter. I need to have the AI fly around in the same way as it does in X-Wing, otherwise the missions' balance will be broken.

So what I am doing currently is a mission flight engine where the player can only look around with a free camera and see how the different flightgroups carry out their designated orders.
It's basically the same as what you could see if you pressed Shift+M in XvT. You would go to the Map screen and your ship would be taken over by the AI. And you could see the battle going on without you.

I am using the XWAU models as placeholders. I repeat, they are placeholders until we find something else (or we get their permission to use them).
These are some screenshots:

Laserschwert: Well, for those users there should be a "Use system MIDI" option, wheras including a soundfont option in-game makes it a lot easier for less tech savvy people (and more self-contained, since there's no need for an external tool).

BTW, I've finished arranging all the inflight music with my EWQL samples, and I will output all of them tomorrow.

Laserschwert: Well, for those users there should be a "Use system MIDI" option, wheras including a soundfont option in-game makes it a lot easier for less tech savvy people (and more self-contained, since there's no need for an external tool).

Altureus: Wow! Great work Azrapse. I downloaded and messed with your Ships on Fire game and I was actually having a lot of fun blasting those weird ships to pieces. Their AI is much harder than the AI in X-Wing and TIE Fighter I like how they do the rolly loop thing to get away. Anyway, I'm super excited for your completed work on this X-Wing project. :) Also, I don't think the XWAU guys will mind if you borrow their work, just as long as you give them credit. Also, I'm sure you'll be able to find some 3D artists who could whip you up some even better models and textures.

Laserschwert: Here's a random selection (of most, but not all) pieces:

EWQL MIX2

I've only noticed a few places where I need to fix things, but apart from those I think this is done.

Tarvis: Take your time. I think AI will be one of the hardest things to get "right." There's not really any sort of empirical data you can base it on, unlike everything else there is to reimplement

Tarvis: The "vibration" I'm pretty sure It's got to be due to imprecision. Otherwise they'd actually smoothly change vectors instead of literally teleport a few feet to the left or right every second while flying. If you are handy with creating missions, you could try comparing ships flying a cardinal flight pattern VS one in a diagonal path.

A good mission to study this is the Rescue Sullustan Tech Staff mission. It's really noticeable on the TRNs. I've died several times because a TRN jumped about a foot to the left or right while I was following too close and crashed.

It could simply be that TIE Fighter and on improved the code for this. If you want to compare it with TIE Fighter, try the floppy version. I think the renderer had a lot of optimization done for the DOS CD version, even in the 320x200 mode, as the framerate is across the board much better. So, if you see the phenomenon in TIE'S Floppy version I think it's safe to classify it as a bug.

Another inconsistency I noticed: In TIE Fighter's DOS CD version only, the Assault Gunboat pitches down about twice as fast as it turns in any other direction. This does not occur in any other version of TIE Fighter, or XvT and XWA.

Laserschwert: Alright, here are the final files:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9wjc1zprsr28z8c/xw_flight_music.zip?dl=0

Since we can't have the audio-files be triggered by the MIDI timing (as MIDI speed changes would mess with sync) timing-wise I settled on this: 1 beat of lead-in (keeping timpani rolls), 3 beats of reverb trail.

I don't think it's necessary to have the digital music be in sync with the MIDI anyway, as only either one will be active at once. So it should be enough for them to act accordingly by the same "playlist" routine. What I'm not sure about is, if there are chances for the digital audio to go out of sync, miss its marks or something like that. Can any CPU hickups cause that?

Anyway, as you can see in the attached image, timing works as a 4 beat overlap. The shortest cues (like DG11) are 8 beats long, so both overlaps will fit end to end and we'll only need two stereo "tracks" for the music. Right now, all clips have a speed of 137.8 bpm ... we'd need to figure out what has to be added if we change some of the cues to 133 bpm (IF it should be necessary to have different speeds).

But I hope these will be enough for a first version.