The namesake of the method of the day, a reservoir; namely the Craig Goch reservoir in Wales, UK. Image source: Shropshire Star :: Intro to the Reservoir It was a good few years ago when I first discovered Reservoir Sampling. It’s one of those techniques that struck a kind of personal resonance that gave a “woah that’s cool”. Looking back, I think it was the combination of it being one of the first online algorithms (more on this in a bit) I really “got” and also one that’s elegant in its simplicity as well as applicability.

“Thrust reversers deployed on the CFM56 engine of an Airbus A321”. Image and caption from Wikipedia. This is a continuation of Part 1 of the Spaceship Racer series. If you haven’t checked that out and want to read about project setup, thrust, turning, and drag forces, feel free to read that first. I’ll be going into a bit of a discussion of air and thrust-based braking to kick things off, then get to the implementation.

The original WipEout cover art for Playstation. Image source: mobygames.com ::Intro I absolutely love Redout. Ever since playing the Wipeout series at friends’ houses when younger, I’ve really enjoyed the futuristic design and speedy handling of anti-gravity (AG) racers. When talking with a friend recently about bite-sized game ideas that could be prototyped quickly and result in something fun, I thought it’d be fun to try recreating the fluid but responsive handling of Redout (and similar contemporary love letters to the genre like BallisticNG) in the world of 2D where the vector math would be a bit easier to debug.