Hi,
I am going to admit straight up front I have no idea what I am doing.
I have an idea in my head for an educational application but since I am not a
programmer, a cartographer, or an artist I am finding that my research has me
treading water in a murky fogged coated abyss.
There are so many options and so many paths to take those options, I have an on
going headache from the confusion
I hope there will be some willing guides here who will point me in the
direction I need to go.
A little history my 3 year old son loves the television shows Dinosaur Train,
Curious George, and Sid The Science Kid. He also enjoys helping me play my
on-line game OpenTTD(a transportation simulation game) So, I thought to create
a game where he could travel the globe and explore history, geography, science,
society et cetera.
Details...
1) first person so it feels one is walking amongst the pyramids et cetera
2) 3D globe
3) modes of transportation buses, trains, boats, planes, spaceships (for that
fantasy feel)
4) “cut scenes” 1st person youtube type videos for the interactive feel
5) KDE Marble Project GeoDataPlacemark type markers for information
What I believe I need.....
1) CPU Blitter running a node based 3D terrain engine using tiles (I believe
this will allow the application to run on older machines)
2) 3 Layers.. a) Basic heightmap for terrain
b) Textures for differing levels of zooming in and out
(LOD?)
c) Shapfiles for maintaining data on cities and places
3) SketchUp images (free 3D graphics creator accessible to any one)
4) cross platform so a to be truly open
What I can envision....
1) an on-line server where people can “play the game” and upload information
2) 42000 users(I have a shapefile from Natural Earth which has a dbf of cities
and there are 42000 cities listed with 50000+ population. I do believe at least
one person from each of those cities will get involved.
3) Users strapping web-cams onto bike helmets and baseball caps taking
scooter/walking tours of down town Tokyo, Pharaohs pyramids, the Eiffel Tower,
Roman Coliseum, and The Grand Canyon and posting to the site.
What I am doing...
1) teaching myself C++ using books, on-line forums and tutorials.
2) learning how to sort, classify, choose, and then organize all the various
GIS type data. And there is a lot to understand.
Am I crazy? Maybe my 2 programmer friends say I am. But I am an Aries so I will
tend to pound my head. So I hope some of you join in and offer advice and
guidance.
Oh and by the way at this point my ego is in the corner cowering and my sanity
is hiding in the closet so if you also want to mention I am crazy go ahead....;)
Thanks,
Bill
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Read this topic online here:
http://forum.openscenegraph.org/viewtopic.php?p=51321#51321
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