Aircraft Kit v.1 Beta

Webplayer available here

Hello Unity developers,

In the past week or so I put together a small prototype. I needed a simple script for an airship. And because it works, I put my airship project on hold for a bit and went on with a full aircraft setup. One week (spare time) and I have an aircraft flying around, shooting rockets, landing and taking off, you name it. And since Unity just announced Asset Store, I decided to pack it up nicely and send it there. It's a bold move since I am an artist, not a programmer. But that should tell you about what you can do with Unity, shouldn't it? : )

I used JavaScript for this release but I plan on moving the code to C#. Support for iOS and Android devices is planned though I can't promise anything at this stage (I can't test the code since I have neither license);

These are the version 1.0 Beta features:



I have a few other projects started in Unity as well; depending on the time I have, the Crossbow project (demo player here) might come out earlier than the Aircraft Kit. I don't have the finished diffuse texture nor the animations yet; I am playing around with having the arrow hit the moving objects and its a bit tricky to achieve that.

Also, while working on the Aircraft Kit I figured a nice way to create destructive environments. It requires a bit more set-up work but the outcome is awesome. And since I have a bunch of shacks and barracks (District 9 style) I might put those in a package as well.

Thanks for reading,

Regards,
Apparatus

 

Sorry to spoil your day, but ... there is already a free aircraft with most of the features you are showing, from Tiles

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/43984-Unity-testproject-a-little-flightsim

good luck

 

Heya Lari - Man I'm excited! I can't wait to see what you've got here.

We really need a good Aircraft project. Just about all other Unity flight projects available for free or purchase don't use a realistic physics setup (yes you can even stop in midair without stalling or falling out of the sky) - and other projects like the link above just don't feel right with the plane suddenly snapping back to the centre position.

Ok - Just downloading the link above to see if the feel of the flight is not quite realistic enough for my needs ....Yes confirmed, the link above contains a project with some great Instruments but the flight feels wrong. For example when you bank left or right it only banks to a fixed angle, you can't actually roll or tilt the plane further. Also if you bank left then right then left then right there is a point in the middle where it just doesn't feel right. I genuinely don't mean to offend as there has certainly been a lot of work spent on that project but something better would be wonderful.

I am a huge X-Plane fan ( http://www.x-plane.com ) and I'd love to have a plane where we could take off, land and achieve a 'real' flight-sim feel.

So, Lari do you think your project is closer to an X-Plane potentially or more like the project at the link above? Any chance of a teaser web-player?

Cheers


Jeff

 

I am actually working on 2 approaches: a model plane like the one in the picture above, dev-looking with color tint on the controls you are using - ailerons, flaps, elevator, rudder, basic shapes for the guns and projectiles so that anyone can pick-up from there and apply it on their own models; also a realistic textured and modeled airplane on a terrain with small features. The latter feels a lot better though it's the same framework behind it - just different visuals.
However all this happens late at night when I have some spare time. I wish I had some more time for unity and I also wish I could afford the pro so I can complete my forest project (without occlussion culling I don't see how I can test that one);

At the moment my aircraft behaves realistic. With a few tweaks here and there. I too have a button for stopping in mid-flight - or full stop while rolling on the ground (an early brakes control) but I added a rough stall to it - without the visuals (it doesnt spin yet) but it falls on the ground. IN short, the controls need little tweaks.

I also added visuals to the controls mentioned before (aileron, rudder) so they behave like they should in flight - if I climb, the ailerons will rotate up, if I climb/turn left - the right aileron goes up whilst the left rotates down and so on. For the moment I don't have those rotations smooth - although I managed a small script that does what I need - it just take a bit of time to understand what's what when setting up the entire plane rig.

I also added wheels. When you taxi on the runway, the wheels spin accordingly and in mid air after a while they stop. It's rather funny to see the plane jumping a bit from terrain features before taking off (wheel springs);

Things like contrails at a certain speed, speedmeter, altimeter (gauges not numerical), audio fixes, audio on different impacts, these are small things and almost completed.

Early on I had implemented a cockpit camera as well with a 2D cockpit; A few things changed but I might add it back (though it requires either 2d or a full cockpit and i simply don't have that time); I have a rough propeller in place - meaning it changes from a model slowly spinning to a plane with a 'full speed' propeller and back - just need to tweak speeds there. Things like lights on the wing tips are really simple to do. You could say that the aircraft kit can be used for a project like x-plane; it just needs a lot of settings / plane because there simply are a lot of features.

The plane has also a basic health (without respawn because it would go beyond the scope of the kit) and weapons. The machine gun needs a better audio but the rockets and bombs are quite fun.

And finally the aircraft crashes in a realistic way. Controlled with a separate very simple script, you can have the aircraft smash into bits and pieces with smoke, fire, audio effects and whatever else.

I had a rough EIffel tower model placed in the scene and I must say its simply delicious to fly around or under it. Not to mention crashing into it and watching the wreck going down in flames.

I could put up a demo right now but people are picky; I also want to complete this on my own just to prove how good unity is

I'll have a demo in a day or two here.

Regards

 

Very exciting Lari. I'm on the edge of my seat Feel free to PM any rough webplayer demo if you would like any prelim feedback before you publish.

Cheers


Jeff

 

Very nice man! Congrats and let me know when you start to sale those kits.

 

A quick update - testing the guns and the new model; right now there's no direct connection between the model exported and the one in the setup - because the wheels need wheel collider thus the connection with it is lost; other than that, it's pretty much drag and drop.

I got stuck in a few areas but I think I am asking way too much from myself trying to cover every single aspect of a realistic aircraft behavior.
At this stage the flight is really enjoyable as well as challenging - you don't just steer towards the destination desired, you also have to keep the plane 'in the air'. In any case, anyone can just either strip down features or add more (for some flight sim);

 

I clicked on the link but it takes me to the crossbow page.. Is there a correct link for the airplane kit.. Also Are these "kits" for sale? if so where are the links for purchase and details?

Im interested

 

Sorry.. Wasnt paying attention and saw that its in the asset store.. Thanks

 

I added link in the top of the main post (here too); It's a preview of the beta version. I am currently working on a few issues:

1. Stop engine aircraft behavior; While on ground, stopping the engine should 'sit' the aircraft on its 'tail'.
2. Start the engine behavior. This should initially allow the plane to taxi until a certain speed is reached;
3. Taxi on the ground and wheels. Right now it's rather basic, the plane doesn't align with the terrain normals yet.
4. Fix all sounds for the above features.
5. Smooth rotations for controls ( I have the code almost done, having problems with local rotations);

Easier stuff :

1. Machine gun, rocket, bomb, torpedo. Rough versions tested, need to learn more about ignoring collisions and so forth

2. Health - basic system in place

3. Wreck model - the code is ready, I have to finish the wreck model and set it up.

4. Graphics - complete the 3 aircraft skins, finish the GUI for the cockpit;

There a lot of work to make this happen, in particular if you're absolutely new to any sort of code. But I think is coming along nice.
The aircraft is behaving rather realistic in my opinion, it doesn't have an autopilot feeling to it, neither is taking turns like a car (around Y only) and you have to apply rudder and elevator most of the time to stay in the air; however those are variables easy to tweak for your own game's requirements.

I am hoping to drop this in Asset store as soon as I finish it and (also) get the publisher ID from Unity.

edit: i removed the weapons for now since I was wasting too much time fooling around and shooting : )

 

looks great keep can't wait to try this

 

Lari where'd you go? Keep working on this, it's awesome

 

GrimWare: nowhere, just busy working on this as well

 

Really impressive work.

Looking forward to your asset!

 

any ETA yet

 

A quick update on the aircraft kit; Currently I have all the features implemented save for torpedo and bomb guns (not planned for initial release as it will increase the package size);
I currently have an Albatross and a Nieuport aircraft; If all goes well, I should have a world war 2 model ready soon. The kit can be used for anything from toy airplanes to jets, the hard work is in setting up the models with all the required effects (particle effects, damage, etc);



link o high res image here

 

Wow that looks really good! You've came a long ways Lari.

 

Thanks! Now in Asset Store!

 

Watch this thread for more aviation stuff! I mirrored the post here to lure you in with a nice shot : )



The next free update (version 1.0.9) will bring a second world war one fighter to the standard aircraft kit assets and a few ui/hud improvements. The second aircraft is a Pfalz DXII, coming by default with 3 skins. The second Nieuport in the current version skin will be updated as well.

Version 1.1 will introduce the addons with a world war two legend, the me-109 (Messerschmitt).

Stay tuned!

 

The only thing I dont like about your package is that you cant do a barrell roll, or a immelman.
So I rather download the Free package by Tiles and implement such things myself.

Are you going to implement thouse in future versions? Because I love how flying feels in your scripts.

 

Basically you have a barrel roll there mapped to "Q" - and it only work at a certain altitude for obvious reasons. It needs a few tweaks to feel smoother. Immelman loop is kind of beta and not public just yet. I need to dig a bit more into the follow camera script to make it work. But by version 1.0 for Android, you'll have barrel roll and immelman loop with horizontal and vertical swipes, so stay tuned : )

 

So I did purchase your asset , is there ever going to be an update with the immelman etc in it or is the package not going to get another version?

 

ready for jets/paceships...still tweaking..
http://www.playmerc.com/SpaceFighter/
p-

 

when is version 2 coming out?

 

hello andeee...

i am new in unity and i am creating a 3D game.
i want to float my flying object in forward direction in air same as in water but i can not find any way to do so..please tell me the way i can go with.

anyone there who had the way to do so or having code please give it me.

Thank you very much.