Aircraft Simulation Project

This project simulates the behavior of aircraft in a 2D space, utilizing SDL for graphical rendering and Python for behavior scripting via pybind11. The simulation consists of aircraft that move across the screen in a linear pattern, with updates driven by Python-controlled behavior. The aircraft are rendered and controlled in real-time within an SDL window, and their positions are updated every frame.

Project Overview

Key Components:

• Aircraft Simulation: The core of the project, managing aircraft objects, rendering the graphical window, and updating the positions of the aircraft.
• Python Integration: The simulation interacts with Python to control the behavior of aircraft via an external Python script. This script defines behavior such as moving aircraft in a linear pattern or making decisions based on their current positions.
• SDL: SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) is used for rendering the simulation's graphics and handling window events (e.g., quitting the simulation).
• Multithreading: The simulation runs in a separate thread, allowing the application to update the simulation and handle rendering without blocking other tasks.

Features

• Aircraft Movement: Aircraft are moved in a linear pattern with small incremental steps. When reaching the edge of the window, they change direction.
• Python-Controlled Behavior: The aircraft's movement is managed by Python scripts via pybind11, allowing easy modification and extension of aircraft behavior.
• Boundary Detection and Direction Change: Aircraft detect window boundaries (left, right, top, bottom), and upon hitting these boundaries, they change direction and move in a different axis (horizontal to vertical, and vice versa).

Screenshot

Here is a screenshot of the simulation's render screen:

Screenshot SIM UI

Screenshot Fareezed

Screenshot Moving

Setup

Prerequisites:

• C++ Compiler: Ensure you have a C++ compiler that supports C++11 or later.
• SDL2: The project depends on SDL2 for rendering the graphics. You must have SDL2 installed on your system.
• Python: Python (preferably version 3.12) is required for running the behavior script.
• pybind11: Used for binding C++ and Python, allowing interaction between the simulation and the Python script.

Installing Dependencies

1. Install SDL2:

   • On Windows, you can download SDL2 SDL2-devel-2.30.10-VC.zip from the SDL github link

2. Install Python and pybind11:

   • Ensure Python 3.12 is installed.

   • Install pybind11 via pip:

     pip install pybind11

Using setup.py

• Setup.py file is present in project
• With setup.py, you can build and install the project using the following commands:

1. Install the project: Navigate to the project where setup.py is present and run:

   python setup.py build_ext --inplace

Run

• Application in VS2022 and set configuration to release 64x