Related Products: RotorLib CGF®, RotorLib FDM®
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Video recorded from the flightsim demo.

Using RotorLib as a flight model

A classic problem in computer games is adjusting the flight handling for the user. There are a wide range of user profiles: Some would like to fly with a realistic helicopter, whereas others might just like to have some fun with a more arcade style game. RotorLib FDM® and RotorLib CGF® can provide the required scalability in realism for game applications. RotorLib FDM provides a high fidelity helicopter dynamics model and can meet the expectations of the most experienced gamers. Its extensible control system architecture enables implementation of control systems which makes flying easier. One can create a bare bones helicopter without any control system (very hard to fly) or a helicopter with a very advanced control system (easy to fly). The library already contains several controllers that are ready to use. Using RotorLib CGF we can get even closer to arcade style. RotorLib CGF bases on a simplified flight dynamics model which captures basic helicopter behavior. Some highlights:

  • true physics based helicopter flight model ( i.e. can be integrated to physics engines )
  • allows control with joystick, gamepad or keyboard
  • provides control system which allows the helicopter to hover in the air
  • easy altitude control

How does this work? RotorLib CGF includes a number of controllers for the most fundamental parameters of the helicopter:

  • altitude
  • attitude (pitch, roll and heading angles)
  • speed

Basically using a combination of those controllers, you can easily design the interface you want the user to use when flying the helicopter.One of the examples in the RotorLib CGF SDK implements the following interaction model:

  • Player can adjust vertical speed with the input device. Helicopter model controls the collective automatically to keep the vertical speed constant during all maneuvers.
  • If no user input is provided (e.g. user puts the gamepad on the table) helicopter automatically comes to a hover.
  • All joystick inputs from the user are damped to some extent, even when the player performs a very agile maneuver, helicopter re-stabilizes itself.
  • Player can rotate the helicopter to left/right (e.g. to fire a missile to a tank) in hover.

This example is available as a C++ class which you can use in your games.

Using RotorLib for intelligent bots

RotorLib CGF helicopters are ideally designed as bots which perform the commands they are given. Among those high level commands are:

  • move to a xyz position
  • land at xyz position
  • hover

Using these basic commands as building blocks, you can easily perform complex AI and script based helicopter missions:

  • long rope troop insertions
  • friendly fire assistance (helicopters assisting player)
  • enemy target bots chasing player and firing on player

One of the most complex RotorLib demos is the Battlefield demo, which is a simple game. In the game, the mission is to destroy targets on the terrain by giving commands to the helicopter through a point-and-click interface. The whole demo uses simple python scripts to add intelligence to the RotorLib CGF helicopter.

Licensing for Games

Click here for license information for games.