Working on a game...

[Ancient]

Well if the game would be kind of realisitc I would like to help beta test

[The_Hard_Mission_Guy]

3 basic questions:
1)Are you using Directx or openGL?
2)Does your Engine support loading external 3d map files Like Vrml or Autocad files?
3)What about physics , how do you simulate it?

[mirv]

At the moment, it loads some terrain, and renders it! I was about to start integrating some crates bouncing around the place, as some of the physics codebase is in place, but decided to re-write the quadtree structure. So it's not really even alpha yet...
Uses OpenGL. I like things to run across multiple platforms, so I've been using SDL.
What I have right now:
Texture management (re-loading a texture package from file still needs to be done).
Terrain quadtree system (optimised for rendering, working on additional structure optimised for physics which will be used in conjuction).
Basic sphere-sphere, sphere-cone, object-aligned bounding box collision is in place.
Camera system is in place (multiple viewport support will be added eventually!)
Loading a font (that's about it - I'm also going to work on a 2d-gui outline one day).
-- Note: I'm doing the lot from scratch. May use things like ODE for some physics stuff, but anything like a 2d-gui system, I'll build myself.

I'm making an editor in parallel to the engine, and use my own file format. But I have written code a long time ago that should load most *.dxf meshes, and *.3ds, which would be simple enough to incorporate into the editor.

For more useless info, feature wise, I've been approaching it with the view of re-making some old games, and designing something that could be used in all of them (from Mechwarrior 2, to Space Hulk).

[The_Hard_Mission_Guy]

you have ambitious plans I See
I'm not the very expert in this Area , but wouldn't it be easier and more straight forward IF you create a 3d interface using direct3d ?
because then you wouldn't have to worry about lighting ,rendering , shading , camera stuff etc.....and all those great feature that come with Directx.
in other words your engine would basically function like a 3d graphic displayer , then you have to add collision detection and you are done for the beginning

you surely have more experience than I do because i never tried to program a game engine or anything similiar , maybe I'm totally wrong about this.
but hey! Life is always forth a gossip... LOL

P.s have fun , enjoy and Good luck

[mirv]

Ambitious maybe, but every single game engine (from Jazz Jackrabbit to Doom3) had to start somewhere!
Using d3d wouldn't make things more straight forward - d3d is just a rendering api, and it's specific to Windows. As a programmer, you need to specify the lighting, the shading, etc, camera setup, etc, and use the api to interface with the hardware. The api, be it d3d or OpenGL, will take care of things like mapping a given input (in 3d space) into the required 2d screen co-ordinates for rendering (remember, it may look 3d, but it's still just mapping a 3d scene to a 2d display). For example, the programmer sets up the view, and specifies where to draw a crate in the world, what textures to apply, uv co-ordinates, and maybe some shading. The rendering api will take the data of the crate, and transform it into an on-screen display. The on-screen display will appear different if the camera system you've set up tells the rendering api whether you're looking at the crate, or away from it.

Hope that makes some sense....
Anyway, major reason for stearing clear of d3d is that I want to run it across multiple platforms (even MacOSX, though I need to buy a Mac first) natively (no emulation). So OpenGL is the way to go.

[Brainz]

I'd like to be added to the list of testers, when it eventually gets drawn up. Have you considered talking to some of the bot coders for a built in AI system? (I know that'd be a long way in the future)...

[mirv]

A relatively long way, but I have started to think about parts of the design to allow for A.I. For example, the controller setup is such that any glob (Game Level OBject - just to sound cool) can be controlled via a controller. Whether that controller is human or computer doesn't matter, and it allows for a glob's controller to be easily swapped between human and computer. It also makes for easy scripting of globs. A glob is basically any object - light source, crate, player, bullet, etc. I did have interesting thoughts of a person looking at some crates, then one of them suddenly jumping up and bouncing around the place.
But I will be talking to the bot coders more once the physics is more concrete, as I want to know fairly early on what would make the task of A.I programming easier!

[The_Hard_Mission_Guy]

OK I'm understanding your point , Mirv

Originally Posted by mirv

I want to know fairly early on what would make the task of A.I programming easier!

Actually that gets us to another very important aspect ...You are making a game engine, correct?
So do have a play scenario , gaming concept , a story based adventure or something like that?
or is it more of the flavor of a simulation software?
If you ask my opinion about how you can make life easier for AI coders , then I would recommend that you orient yourself by Webots (It's a great software indeed)

[mirv]

Spent some time looking into physics libraries - I'm learning "bullet" at the moment, but I'll keep things modular enough to allow for PhysX when it has linux support. Hopefully soon I'll have a few boxes you can push around some terrain. And cloud shadows moving across the terrain if I delve into manipulating OpenGL's texture matrix.

[The_Hard_Mission_Guy]

Sounds really nice , mirv!
keep me updated.