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Game Development using Open Source


LostInSpace
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Not sure if this topic should go in the this thread or Rubbish pit but since it is about games I'll give it a shot here.

Okay, I'm going to get my feet wet again. Back in the ol' DOS days I use to be pretty good at programing in Borland's Turbo Pascal and Turbo C. Damn, I even bought every new release that came out. I even made an online game called Wheel of Bogus Bucks (okay okay contain your laughter) yes an offtake on Wheel Of FortuneĀ® for a local BBS here in NY. I think I still have a copy of it in my dusty disk archives. I had an idea for a game that I wrote down the plans for on paper (and still have) but then windows came out and I dropped programing altogether. Don't know why, I think it was the fact that I needed to buy windows then another version of Turbo C for windows (I had at the time migrated from Pascal to C by then) that put me off.

Enough of the historical tale, we'll lately, I've been getting the urge to go back and give a try and finaly get the game programed by using Open Source where I don't have to spend a dime. There's some fairly nifty programs out there too and all free!

Anyway, after spending a couple of days searching SourceForge.net and other sources, I came up with this and have installed.

ATI SDK (just in case I need it. I haven't downloaded Nvidia's SDK but since I don't own an Nvidia card I thought it would be kinda useless to even get it)

DirectX9.0 SDK

Open_AL SDK (I wanted EAX SDK but creative wants you to fill out a 2 page request form and mail it to them. Open_Al will suit just fine for now)

C++ compiler

OGRE 3d

(this is not a game engine but a Graphics Engine and is really sweet I ran the demos for it and wow click on the top menu WHAT IS OGRE to see why they just created a graphics engine.)

Blender (model creation)

From here the rest is up to me.

Anyway, the reason I'm posting this is to pick your guy's brains a bit. Not for ideas and coding help per say but more for install issues. Like this one:

I installed the complete DirectX9.0b SDK and there's a DirectX 9.0 SDK Update (Summer 2003) C++. I installed 9.0b into the default directory C:DXSDK. When I went to install the summer update, the default directory was set at C:DX90SDK so I did just that. The question is am I suppose to install this summer release on top of the original install or is it suppose to stand along side of the original install. There's no mention on where the summer install is suppose to go from the DirectX web site or in the readme's that came with it and I can't seem to find any info on any site. It could be that my eyes have failed me once again. I would appreciate any insight you guy's have on this.

[ 03-22-2004, 02:56 AM: Message edited by: LostInSpace ]

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quote:


Originally posted by LostInSpace:

The question is am I suppose to install this summer release on top of the original install


Yes

btw, have u checked the LINKS section of this website? You could spend the good part of an entire day going through game dev stuff.

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

quote:

Originally posted by LostInSpace:

[qb] The question is am I suppose to install this summer release on top of the original install

Yes


thanks for the response.

quote:

btw, have u checked the LINKS section of this website? You could spend the good part of an entire day going through game dev stuff.

I'll do just that. Ah, what's another day into what I've already spent digging up the best open source files I needed. I didn't expect this to be a simple process anyway. Actually, it will be quite cool and a great learning experience to see what I can come up with using the open source approach.

[ 03-22-2004, 11:29 PM: Message edited by: LostInSpace ]

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There are a couple of open source projects going on in space shooters now, here's a few of them:

http://openparsec.sourceforge.net/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xpilotgame/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/vegastrike/

Vegastrike in particular looks like it has a lot o potential, it's something of a Privateer knock off and they're currently working on a MP version.

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quote:

Originally posted by Darkling:

There are a couple of open source projects going on in space shooters now, here's a few of them:

Vegastrike in particular looks like it has a lot o potential, it's something of a Privateer knock off and they're currently working on a MP version.

Yeah I posted about that in Current or upcoming games. That's what kinda tweaked my interest into going back and programing.

Anyway, any of you interested in using OGRE make sure you go to their forums and read about setting up OGRE to compile correctly in C++ here's an example OGRE FAQ. I didn't at first. Thought ya just had to unzip ogre and use it's OGRE.H hah if only. I wound up getting can't open some other OGRE H file and a "hash" error. I just went line by line into setting up all the proper directories also had to download and unzip a file called STLport and then set up the directories to that also and needed to shift around some *.DLL's. Well in the end I just completed getting OGRE to work right tonight. Egads this is only the begining what have gotten myself into now .

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I use Milkshape 3D for modelling... it has plugins for all kinds of exports. And if you really want you can use GMAX which is free and a few plugins allow you to export to known formats for imports into other software.

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quote:

Originally posted by $iLk:

I use Milkshape 3D for modelling... it has plugins for all kinds of exports. And if you really want you can use GMAX which is free and a few plugins allow you to export to known formats for imports into other software.

Thanks for the info, I know about Gmax and have played around it some time ago. Milkshape haven't tried yet. I haven't gotten around yet to modeling (which I really want to get to) and my options are still open as to what I use that'll all depend on when I start modeling (and I don't mean the cat walk circuit either ) and see what program suits my tastes.

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Milkshape is cheap and easy to use. I haven't messed with C, C++ etc. much lately in terms of compiling because at work all I've been using is Delphi 7... i.e. souped up Pascal&Visual Basic technology.

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If you are serious about writing a complete game, I would suggest you leave the 3D graphics alone for awhile. First see if you can program a complete 2D game (something like a top-down shooter) before jumping into the 3D aspect.

No offense intended at your programming skills, it's just that the DirectX API was lovingly created and sculpted... in HELL!

The OpenGL API is supposedly easier to use.

Good luck!

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Nvidia's developer section downloads have some good things to develop for their Chipsets... haven't checked ATI.

I am thinking about learning GMAX as Milkshape has slowed down in functionality... not many updates forthcoming which sucks because it was so easy to use.

I can't afford 3DStudio max at the moment, but until I can I'll be learning Gmax.

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quote:

Originally posted by Convoolio:

1: If you are serious about writing a complete game, I would suggest you leave the 3D graphics alone for awhile. First see if you can program a complete 2D game (something like a top-down shooter) before jumping into the 3D aspect.

2: No offense intended at your programming skills, it's just that the DirectX API was lovingly created and sculpted... in HELL!

3:Good luck!

1: That's okay I only have one game in mind to make and it needs to be 3d.

2: None taken. But if you looked at OGRE they've handled all that stuff for ya since it is a graphics engine. The only thing I need to do is learn it's function calls and make the Models and Textures.

3: Thanks.

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quote:

Originally posted by $iLk:

The Torque engine is a predone SDK for the most part with a lot of bang for your buck in terms of features. C++ structure.

Yeah I've been to their site before and the graphics look dated. Too bad they didn't make it with graphics engine optional. That's what I could use next since I already have a great graphics engine for DX9 I could use the rest that Torque offers.

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quote:

Yeah I've been to their site before and the graphics look dated. Too bad they didn't make it with graphics engine optional. That's what I could use next since I already have a great graphics engine for DX9 I could use the rest that Torque offers.


The only thing I don't like about the graphics engine is the way the water looks - but understand also that it's a limitation of the textures they pre-included.

If you'll take a look at some screenshots on their website - you'll see that people used textures in their games to make it look a whole lot better. With everything that's included - $100 is a steal considering you don't have to pay royalties, you have 128 player netcode included, and you've got a whole lot of engine features that can be tweaked out to bring a top notch game.

I know there are better engines out there - but finding one this high-class for $100 with a no-royalty, no-forced publishing deal is impossible.

You have an unlimited license except it's $100 per development seat. Skeletal animation, interior/exterior environments seamlessly integrated. I've thought about getting this puppy several times just to make something neat.

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