Evolution of a game Download Java Web Start - Click here to start the demo

I had a long experience playing games before I started this project. I even have some game design never realized. However the code is still not ready for release It has some 3d graphics (Ogre/IrrLicht) some sounds (AL) and some scripting (like in HL/CS but more lame :)
(FYI: the sounds and the scripting temporarily taken out from the code due I restarted it from scratch.)

Dates are in Month/Day/Year format.

1/4/2007

I'm fine so is the code. The debug and the ServiceLocator almost perfect. The network is a bit problematic (I'm not a winsock expert) however basic communication works fine I experienced the code to stuck in some point. Also I just find out that the debug somehow not safely uses the memory (at least not in the old exe i just added to the JAR.) The exe is in better shape now and probably fixed in many ways due this is an old exe but the JNLP now quite correct. Use the link on the top of the page 'Click here to start ...' so you get the java webstart to install the application (not an install but an unzip but anyway... it works fine and webstart let you be up to date. I'm going to check if the JNLP is automatically updates itself (it does if I'm correct). BTW the code is plain openGL but some parts are windows dependent. I'm still hesitating to move to directX but I already gave up on linux/mac compatibility. As to the fact that openGL is easy to hack on windows platform I still have to move on but not now. FYI: there is no spinning crate included in this demo! Also the application will be updated so this old version may not be accessible when a new shiny version comes out.

11/30/2006

I pretty rock in CS:S :) Due I cant waste all my life on CS:S let's waste some eye-health on VC++ again. AS to I figured out that Ogre has terrible support for format conversion and Irrlich can't handle a real map from Q3 (however the developer stated that his only reason not to include 'huge' levels in irrlicht distros is that it makes the distro bigger but Irrlicht performs just as well as with the demo bsp...) I decided to implement something in openGL which I already tried some years back. Will see :-)

Next idea is to use an existing and excellent opengl engine: quake3. I had bad experience with making it compile because I couldn't manage it some time earlier. I decided to find a proper detailed how to but I found none for Visual C++ 2005 express. So I spent 7 hours to get it done. Some major glitches couldn't have been solved if i didn't found them on the net: (1) (2). Do not change install parameters (eg. install folders) and be sure that your first (C:) harddrive have some 1-2 gigabyte free space.

  • Install Quake3 from your CD
  • Install 1.32b point release or else you will get "User interface version is 3 expected 6" at the end of all this.
  • install Visual Studio Express 2005, preferably from VC.iso image file (by using daemon tools, alcohol 120% or nero image drive or any similar product. Of course you can install it the way you want.
  • install MS platform SDK and do all 5 steps. If you do not install it to the default location or do not set up Visual Studio to use the includes/binaries/libs then you will have problems with e.g. odbc32.lib and such.
  • Install DirectX sdk (personally I use June 2006 to my big surprise - I thought I was not having a quite fresh one) This one will properly update Visual C++ settings by adding itself to the default includes/libs.
  • Grab quake3-1.32b-source.zip from ID software or from here. Unzip iz to c:\ so it creates its C:\quake3-1.32b folder.
    You must setup the PATH of your environment (right click on my computer/propertes/special/environment variiables) and add C:\quake3-1.32b\lcc\bin to it. For testing you'd better install quake 3 as well. I'm willing to check if this step is really necessary...
  • Grab my patch from here and unzip to the very same c:\ folder. When it asks for overwriting files please answer 'Yes to all'. This will fix:
    • warnings as sets up all the project to have /D "_CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE" added to its compilers parameters.
    • ui project is changes so it builds LIB as needed instead of DLL
    • Sets the working directory for 'quake3' to C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena. The code will assume that you have the original CD in the drive! You might want to change it to q3 c:\q3demo. At time of writing I haven't tested if it works with Q3demo+1.32patch. Will do later.
    • SLN file was converted to VC++ 2005 Express format
    • Version control information already removed
    • 'q3ui' project now depends on the 'ui'. This still have to be modified by me later.
    • 'winquake.rc' from project quake3/Resource Files was changed as the #include "winres.h" was replaced by #include "winresrc.h".
  • Open C:\quake3-1.32b\code\quake3.sln in Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
  • Right click on 'ui' and build it. This project must compile without errors:

    ========== Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========
  • Right click on the solution and build it (after you separatey built the 'ui' project in the previous step. If you skip tat step assuming the full solution build will do the job... you are wrong). In the output window you will get something like:

    ========== Build: 7 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 up-to-date, 1 skipped ==========
  • right click on project 'quake3' select properties. Select 'All configuration' and set the Debugging/Working Directory to 'C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena' so the exe you produced by build will started as it was in the given directory.
  • By pressing F5 you can run the application.
  • Beware that you may hit breakpoints (user reakpoints or direcly coded inline assembly breakpoints which will not q3 to run, but you can't grab the screen easily back to VC++ if you running quake 3 in fullscreen mode (not recommended for developement). Now only the Debug configuration is tested to compile and run If you get error wit message "User interface version is 3 expected 6" then you installed quake3 (which is needed for th pak files but you haven't installed 1.32 over it which resulted that quake has its UI version with version number 3 but your compilation resulted version 6 which is not compatible. No fix on the code will fix this due some resources just exists in point release .

9/1/2006

Yes, almost 2 months passed and only my CS:S skills got better (let's pretend). Due next week I'll be on holiday I may have enough time and motivation so I can continue the project. BTW the project is not an Ogre project (because of lack of modelling support in Ogre) so I switched back to IrrLicht. I guess DM2 modells are detailed enough if I can join them. So there will be a DM2 modell for distant targets and 5++ DM2 models joined togeather for closer targets. It is just an idea due DM2 models are plenty but they not skeletal animated.

7/28/2006

Looks good. MD2, terrain, menu, can switch the resolution during the game...


7/14/2006

I found a quite ok tutorial about texture mapping (only one wrinkle but I added my comment to the forum). Due it seems that even that tutorial was a bit confusing for beginners and required some study so I decided to write my own tutorial. On the weekend I'll update it with a more complex one. Of course I'll create a house with enterior spaces and a destroyable one (only for those who will enter the area with RPG :-) By clicking the image this time not an animation but the tutorial will be downloaded. You will need to install Python, Blender (2.41), GTK+2 (for Gimp), Gimp and my zip file of the tutorial. If you installed everything in this order then unpack the zip file to a folder of your choice, and open the blend file (Blender will be associated with it) to see the final stage of tutorial. There is a html file in th zip which will describe every step.

7/12/2006

I'm rendering an animation of the model (just becuase the 'movie' yestarday was lame :-) Will put it on the site as soon as it is ready. I'd better ask Kovex to render for me. He has enormous amount of terraflops in hand. Talking about terraflops. If PS3 will run linux so blender will be available there AND blender will able to benefit of the PS3 architecture then I'll buy one. Anyway I still can't wait to lay my hands on such a great multicore crap :o) It will take years IMHO till the first games will really come close to the 80% of wise usage of the multicore. Everyone can write endless loops to take up 100% of the processor. Even me... ;-)))

7/11/2006

creating a low poly human model takes at least a day for a pro. This shameful model of mine took 4 hours to create and an hour to figure out how envelopes and armatures work.



7/10/2006 

shows how animation triggered by events like mouse click. 

 

 

 

7/5/2006

video shows the basic 1st and 3rd person view I implemented and also some character animation.

Because no game in the world fits to your needs but all of them pretends to be like that...