I created a model of a bi-plane for Matt over at Kardiak.co.uk for his game Bip... Anyway, I liked it so much I started playing with the model flying it over terrains... then added more to the terrain... wrote an editor... well... it's turning into a game now!
The editor allows you to add checkpoints and other decals to the terrain. The terrain was draw as a height map with terrain shader used to colour and shade it. Then when the checkpoints and decals get loaded onto the terrain they then add shadows and lighting to the shadow map making them part of the terrain. This is something I'm really proud of as I think they look great! Hopefully I will implement the x2 multiply blend for this so lights actually light, not sure quite how to do this yet but I'm sure I'll work it out! And obviously there's a flexy shadow under your plane that hugs the terrain.
I started with really realistic physics but they didn't feel right for an arcade game so I've dumbed them down a bit so it feels right. The controls now consist of up / down / left / right. Your altitude controls your speed, the lower you go the faster you go. This makes for a more entertaining gaming experience as it's harder to fly low, but you go faster.
There are also time of day smooth transitions, so the sky goes from blue clear, to dusk, to night, to dawn and back to clear blue very smoothly... so smooth infact that you don't really notice it until it's dark!
All in all this is shaping up quite well.
Anyway, only a couple of screenshots for the time being as this is nowhere near a tech demo yet... Hopefully soon I'll have a download for you.
    
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