January 6th, 2004
It's been a long time since I've worked on this project. Don't worry though, I'm not giving up on it just yet. It's still a fun project to do---the problem is that it requires quite a lot of effort on my part.
Nevertheless, I'm fully dedicated to it. I've made up a schedule that should make it easier for me to actually do some work. To start with, a complete rewrite of the Physics engine is required, and I'll be getting started on that in the coming couple of weeks.
Stay tuned.
June 7th, 2002
The first working release is now a fact. It does not do much, but the idea is that people can download and try to compile it in order to see if things happen OK. I have a complicated make procedure, and I hope it is as generic as I intended it to be. You can download the first alpha release here indy500-alpha. Or better yet, go to the SourceForge page, by following the links on the left of this page.
Have fun with this one.
May 6th, 2002
I am still alive and working on the Indy500 project. It's just that I've been very busy with some other, less interesting, yet more important things, like graduating from University. But now that I am done, I expect to be able to release some sort of working demo soon. So if anyone out there has been wondering how long this stuff is gonna take, be patient, soon.
This is the homepage of the Indy500 Racing simulation project. The project's goals are to create a highly realistic Indianapolis 500 racing simulation. Since it's a simulation, the emphasis lies on the following couple of points:
This simulation is directly inspired by the game "Indianapolis Motor Speedway: The Simulation" by Papyrus. Even though it was made in 1989, the game makes for a very intense racing experience, that is, if you can bear to look at the graphics. Since I loved that game, I decided to make my own version, fit for the 21 century computer-simulation expectations of a racing fan.
Of course, since I'm an ambitious guy, and I do have a Physics degree, (Astronomy actually, but what's the difference?), I decided to make a simulation that is as physically accurate as possible. I am aware of the fact that you don't need to stick to real-life physics in order to create a good and believeable racing simulation, but most of the fun involved with this project comes from making it, not playing with it. I wanted to find out if it is possible to start from first principles, and use that to build a Physically sound model of a racing car. The step from there to full blown simulation was easy to make.
Well, partly because I loved the original game, and partly because the track is (seems?) easier to deal with, both in terms of the physical model and the ease of rendering. Also, racing is about speed, and excitement is proportional to speed, and where else can you race at tremendous speeds of over 220 MPH than at the Brickyard? In my experience, racing at tremendous speeds agains 33 other cars was a very intense thing. I want to recreate that feeling, and, with the addition of multiplayer, offer the excitement of racing against other humans at the Brickyard.
Well, we'll see how far we'll get.
I've just started work on the project, so don't expect anything substantial before April 2002, that is unless work on the project is progressing at better (or worse) pace than I expect it to.