Enemy waves

[G43L]

Hi,

I'm developing my first shoot'em up in C++ with OpenGL for graphics and Newton Game Dynamics for physics (collisions).
I'm still creating the prototype and I'm now thinking to the way to program/script the behavior of the enemies. I'd like
to receive advises/tips about this subject. My goal is to keep the gfx simple (I've no artist) but to add a lot of action: the enemy waves
must be numerous and various.

Thanks in advance for your answer(s),
G43L

[Udderdude]

First off, this Newton Game Dynamics thing seems like extreme overkill for a shmup. Ditch that.

Second, LUA is a quick and dirty way to script enemy behaviors. http://www.lua.org/about.html

[G43L]

Hi,

I've chosen NGD because it can be used as a collision system only in a very simple way...
As my "sprites" are 3D shapes, I find it easier to use this lib. What do you advise for
collisions instead of using NGD?

Thanks for pointing to LUA. I'll look at it more closely later.

[Udderdude]

Simple bounding boxes are still the best, IMO.

[Sumez]

If you plan to have several hundred bullets on screen at once you should definitely cheap out on the collision detection if you don't want performance to drop insanely.
For shooters you can usually do with either comparing four coordinates or two coordinates and a radius, without giving up accuracy.

[G43L]

If you plan to have several hundred bullets on screen at once you should definitely cheap out on the collision detection if you don't want performance to drop insanely.
For shooters you can usually do with either comparing four coordinates or two coordinates and a radius, without giving up accuracy.

I don't know yet how many physical objects will be implied in collisions...
The method you describe is interesting - where can I find info about it?

Thanks.

[relminator]

If you want a fast non AABB collision detection use SAT.