Good news. After I've kind of got stuck at creating a basic spaceship simulation last week, I made some significant progress in the last two days. I now can move objects in space according to their speed and rotation (seeing how I completely suck at maths and all that's related to it that's quite an accomplishment). It's far from done, but it's something I can work with.
I also set up basic programming for a feature that's involving spacecraft and spacecraft equipment. Perhaps you can tell what it's going to be?
On a side note, last week's progress also includes the completion of the XML handler and a working Item Editor:
As of now, the project and all its relevant classes (meaning classes in development not included) have a total length of 2750 lines of code.
Perhaps you noticed that I'm switching the initially planned order of the classes to be developed. I came to realize that I cannot program more profound game logic without game editors - so I decided to make them first instead. All in all, I'm quite happy with the progress.
What needs to be done:
High Priority:
- Optimizing game data managment: Change data feeding to the XMLHandler for easier extendability in case the content changes. [optional] Instead of using XML I could simply create my own file handler that makes use of its own variables. Either way, I could store and organize data using the .getFields() method. I'll look into that further.
- Create Editors for Planets and Stars.
- Improve visualization of Planets (rotation, rotation angle)
- Performance tests: how many planets can be displayed at the same time without fps drop?
Low Priority:
- Prepare for GUI development: find ways how to possibly program a GUI in jMonkey (also includes HUDs)
- Prepare for Generic Universe Generation (GUG). Arrange Planets in Star Systems.
- Introduce Star Visualization
- Fixing the ItemEditor. I may revise it in the future.
