3D Graphics Engine Progress

[GroundUpEngine]

Hmm I've checked out the SFML website and I'm considering switching to it. Anyone that has used it and wants to spare some insight on it's functionality, ease of use, power, flexibility, etc. that would be awesome. I'm trying to get out of Allegro because it's not quite doing my games justice nowadays.

I started of with Allegro too and I can assure you that SFML is a far better alternative
To answer your question - it's functionality, ease of use, power and flexibility are freaking sweet!
1) Its event driven just like SDL a popular library amongst youtube developers
2) It has useful extensions for handling things like; images, windows, networking, opengl and other stuff
3) Allegro only uses Bitmaps, whereas SFML support most image types i.e. bmp, jpg, png etc..
4) Also it's very flexible and doesn't mess up on new OS's like Vista or Windows 7
5) If you take the time to read some of the tutorials on thier website you can learn things quite quickly

SFML ftw

[Bludklok]

Hmm I've checked out the SFML website and I'm considering switching to it. Anyone that has used it and wants to spare some insight on it's functionality, ease of use, power, flexibility, etc. that would be awesome. I'm trying to get out of Allegro because it's not quite doing my games justice nowadays.

I started of with Allegro too and I can assure you that SFML is a far better alternative
To answer your question - it's functionality, ease of use, power and flexibility are freaking sweet!
1) Its event driven just like SDL a popular library amongst youtube developers
2) It has useful extensions for handling things like; images, windows, networking, opengl and other stuff
3) Allegro only uses Bitmaps, whereas SFML support most image types i.e. bmp, jpg, png etc..
4) Also it's very flexible and doesn't mess up on new OS's like Vista or Windows 7
5) If you take the time to read some of the tutorials on thier website you can learn things quite quickly

SFML ftw

Sweet, thanks for the info. The only downside is that the game im currently working on is quite big and now I'm going to have to start over... But it's not big deal I'm just tired of Allegros mediocre performance and functionality.

[GroundUpEngine]

Made some great progress these past days in more than one aspect of game development, while managing to find time to study

Done ->

~ Tweaked and Rigged my test model
~ Succeeded to implement animation support in my OBJ model file loader
~ Implemented a menu class
~ And added game elements like New better looking objects, HP bars, Levers and Buttons etc..



Edit:

~ Another important element I forgot was to learn is UV Mapping, first attempt simple cube



Made the UV map a bit cleaner and hard coded some texture co-oridnate reading into the model loader



Next attempt will be to give a simple human body texture to the Test Model I just rigged and implement proper materials and shading normals into the model loader

[GroundUpEngine]

Some more stuff ->

~ New ingame console window! only has two commands atmo
~ Engine Debug and Error file writer





In the near future I will implement more commands and some light scripting

[dandymcgee]

Wow, this is pulling together nicely. Keep the updates coming.

[GroundUpEngine]

Wow, this is pulling together nicely. Keep the updates coming.

will do

[GroundUpEngine]

Small update:

~The engine has a bit cleaner code now for example:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To initialize a player -> GUE::Player[x, y, z, rotation, animation frame]
To update a player -> GUE::Player.update[new_x, new_y, new_z, new_rotation, new_animation frame]
To draw a static player -> GUE::Player.drawStatic[model, scale]
To draw an animated player -> GUE::Player.drawAnimated[model[], scale]
To draw a boundingbox using the players properties -> GUE::Player.BoundingBox[]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Player Bob(objCamera.mView.x, 0.0, objCamera.mView.z, 0, 0);
-> Draw player infront of the camera on first frame with no rotation

Bob.update(objCamera.mView.x, 0.0, objCamera.mView.z, angy, anim);
-> Update player in main loop

Bob.drawAnimated(Gunman_Walking_Rifle, 0.8);
-> Draw player in main OpenGL drawing loop

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Things are much easier now, and I have already started to add in some client-server stuff which will when finished update the clients player through the server by sending the players stats via packets, so multiple players can see each other; also I have been using more linear algebra and physics to get things done.


Good night


Edit:

lol of the week -> Coding the client's player to update its stats by sending a packet via the server [before] the packet was filled with data

[eatcomics]

Sounds awesome! Keep up the great work, and keep us posted!

[GroundUpEngine]

New content:

~ Small FPS test done, so the engine can support different game styles
~ 1st person view /w mouse control
~ simple color textured model
~ simple game logic working

The Client-Server stuff is still being made
but I have tested game data packets bewteen multiple IP addresses
which was a success on attempt #2

[Master Jake]

Looks awesome, man!!

[Milch]

What are you using for the network part?
Do you use WinAPI, a lib or do you code it by hand?

[GroundUpEngine]

Looks awesome, man!!

Glad you like it! :P
When a decent game is made from the engine, I'll see if I can make a completely different game using at least half the code
I had a look at your 'Dark Kingdoms v1.2.1' your Batch is nice!
You could make a 2D rpg out of it, in C++ maybe

What are you using for the network part?
Do you use WinAPI, a lib or do you code it by hand?

I started with basic study on network programming with Winsock2 and WinAPI, it was good for starting up, but now I'm using SFML_Network.
To answer your question, <SFML_Network> is the networking part of the library I'm using 'SFML' and is a bit easier than winsock2 to work with and it does all the same things e.g. Finding IP's, Sending Data, Using Packets etc.. I would definatley reccomend using it

General Network Programming -> http://beej.us/guide/bgnet/
Winsock2 for Games -> http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articl ... le1059.asp
SFML's Network Package Tutorials -> http://www.sfml-dev.org/tutorials/1.5/n ... ockets.php

[Master Jake]

Glad you like it! :P
When a decent game is made from the engine, I'll see if I can make a completely different game using at least half the code
I had a look at your 'Dark Kingdoms v1.2.1' your Batch is nice!
You could make a 2D rpg out of it, in C++ maybe

Thanks =)

I'm a lot better at batch now, but I don't fool around in it as much as I used too.

When you get the client working I want to try out this engine =D

[GroundUpEngine]

New Model:

~ Textured Soldier /w Camo Rifle



~ Back to 3rd person view

The models do not look polished in-game because they don't have fancy modifiers e.g. smoothing or high-level subdivisions, but the textures make them look more realistic at least

[K-Bal]

Seriously, you need some lighting But you are making great progress! Go ahead and kick some ass