bTraffic - multiple vehicle type selector...

I've finally got back to working on bTraffic, my traffic animation tool. The latest update includes the addition of vehicle types. What this means is that you can easily add multiple vehicles to the animation, such as models of trucks, cars, bikes etc just with a simple click of a button. Next up is to allow a weighting to the traffic so that you can have some simulations heavily laden with trucks whereas other simulations might be sparsely populated with traffic and only consist of cars.
Plenty more to do...

Here's an example of the generation of a road and the assignment of 3 different vehicles to the simulation:

virtually free virtual reality...

I've recently got back into some games I played a few years ago - Live for Speed 'LFS' for short (racing game) and IL2 Sturmovik (WW2 Flying). Each are great games and LFS even lets you play the demo online where there are hundreds of other demo players all wanting to race.
Anyways while getting back into IL2 I found that the hat view method of looking around the screen while flying was a bit restrictive and started searching for other methods. Two that I found were TrackIR and Freetrack. Both use the same idea of using infra-red or leds attached to your head (e.g, on a cap) and tracking the positions using standard webcam technology. From the captured information algorithms are run to determine whereabouts your head position is in 3D space and then this is transferred to the game that you are playing (if it supports it).
TrackIR is a commercial product including everything you need to start out of the box - an infra-red webcam, software and head markers but will set you back a fair amount of money. Seeing as I didnt want to fork out too much money I decided to have a go at Freetrack - the free one.
Freetrack is the actual software that takes your webcam information and figures out your current head position.
If going with Freetrack you will need the software, a webcam, a cap, some leds, some resistors, a bit of wire, a battery pack and some batteries and an old metal coathanger to make the framework that the leds sit on. It's probably advisable to get a switch as well so you dont have to keep taking the batteries out when you're not using it. So for the cost of a webcam (£20) and the other bits (a few pounds) I have a virtual reality type system :o)

Here's an in game example of someone using Freetrack in IL2:


and here's an example of using it in LFS