Column #143; By Ron Hiler

[RonHiler]

quote: Originally posted by VetLegion on 12-16-2000 07:46 AM Ahem, judging by Ron Hiller .plan files, it took some 8 months for you guys to glue some textures on a polygon, and that is not encouriging amount of time

Yeah, but most of that was trying various aspects of getting a spherical world to work. I spent a vast majority of that time working with DirectDraw, essentially attempting to write my own custom 3D API. In the end, it did work, but because we couldn't use hardware support, it was slow. When we finally decided to switch to D3D, the world was up and running in a very short time (three or four weeks, as I remember). Putting together polygons and attaching textures to them is really a pretty simple process.

As for our interface, we are probably going to, at some point, enhance our UI so it doesn't look quite so spreadsheet-like, but that's a nicety, and has a very low priority. I'm more interested in getting a working game finished than making it look good right now

Ron

[Jason Kozak]

quote: Ahem, judging by Ron Hiller .plan files, it took some 8 months for you guys to glue some textures on a polygon, and that is not encouriging amount of time

Ahem, Ron Hiler and I arn't even in the same country
I'm just the webmaster, though I also have my own programming project (Slick6, the one without a link), that happens to be hosted at rjcyberware.com as well.

quote: But seriously, we are working with DirectDraw, and as you may know, DirectDraw does not exist any more so I guess we will be forced to move to 3D API sooner or later.

Sure it does. DirectDraw will always exist, just like DirectX1 still exists, thanks to COM.

Not to mention, while DirectDraw isn't in Dx8, it will be in Dx9. The old architecture, 3D on top of Draw, was backwards... it had to go sometime, and since DirectX tries to stay on top of new features, the new Draw has to wait for the next version.

[VetLegion]

Ron

I agree completely about functionality before nicety. Too bad, since I was hoping for some tips'n'tricks, advice etc

Jason

you are MD webmaster, but no Slick6 website? why is that? Also ... is there a slick6 demo/proto?

[VetLegion]

3D

well, I think we will be using Direct3D API eventually, since there is no DirectDraw in DX8. They do keep the backwards compatibility, but I want to learn 3D anyway at some point, and no better chance then working on this. Plus I d like to have a 3D map (like Railroad Tycoon II) eventually.

3D in GGS is still far away though.

[Jason Kozak]

quote: Jason you are MD webmaster, but no Slick6 website? why is that? Also ... is there a slick6 demo/proto?

Well, if I ever get around to it, it'll be up at:
http://rjcyberware.com/.6/

Not yet... eventually, I swear!

Lately I've been working on the engine for it (I got bit by the must-build-3d-engine bug) which I've also been trying to use for an entry in next year's IGF Student Showcase... except we had under two months and there's no way we're going to get a complete game (despite it being a relatively simple one) ready by the January 10th deadline.

Anyways, I plan to work on the engine a bit more (maybe a month or so) before I get back to Slick6 and see about getting out a prototype. I won't guess how long it'll take, mostly cause I keep missing those dates, partly because I might want to finish the IGF entry along the way.